“Do your people believe in an afterlife?” They pluck tufts of straw from beneath them, grimacing. I shake my head. What need is there for such platitudes when you are born to yourself time and again? Like a story, we are the summation of our incarnations, a spirit refracted through a billion lives.

“Even though no one has ever discovered any proof that we are more than meat and bone, humans continue to hold on to the belief that some part of us will persist after our deaths. The unscrupulous have built an entire industry on this.”

i was not expecting an exploration of religion/religious beliefs in this. but also, this is such an interesting conversation to have! people tend to believe in an afterlife, so deeply that we allow it to impact the way we live our lives in the present. "what if i go to hell because of this" or "i pray and do good things so i can gain entry into heaven" are such common phrases that i hear from people who hold certain religious beliefs, and it is so interesting to me, because like... what if that doesn't happen?? i was raised in a culture where we believe in reincarnation and the idea that the way you live your life will impact the way your next life goes, and i find that to be a little absurd too. why can't we all just live life normally without this fear that our future lives or afterlives will be miserable

We have some product updates to share - please make sure you're on the latest app version to see them! Quick summary here, with more info below:

• Set your 2026 reading goal! See past/future goals in the app.
• Save on Pagebound Royalty with an annual subscription
• New way to support PB: Gift Royalty to any PB user for 3, 6, or 12 months (link in footer or visit https://support.pagebound.co/gift)
• New OP tag on comments when the Original Poster comments
• New ways to filter forum posts (see both posts + comments from people you follow)
• See badge names when editing the badges displayed on your profile

2026 Reading Challenge You can now set your goals for next year, and continue to edit and add to your 2025 yearly goal as normal. You can now view your past and future goals in the app by visiting the Reading Challenge screen and clicking the blue "All Challenges" link on the right below the progress bar.

PB Royalty Gifting + Annual Subscription In the Serviceberry spirit, we're offering a new way to support Pagebound and spread community love through gifting a Royalty subscription to a fellow Pagebound user. You can specify which user you'd like to gift a subscription to for 3, 6, or 12 months (or, send this link to loved ones asking what you want for the holidays!). 6 months includes 1 month free and 12 months includes 2 months free. For those considering joining Pagebound Royalty, we're excited to share an option to become a yearly supporter (at a discounted price of $100 for 12 months, so 2 months free)! This option is available through our payment provider Stripe to everyone on the web, and to iOS app users in the US. If you’re an iOS app user outside of the US, visit us on the web instead of signing up in-app to see this option (Apple requires us to use Apple in-app payments outside the US).

A huge thank you to all our Royalty members who make Pagebound possible; it's not cheap running the servers + software required to keep Pagebound going and our Royalty members ensure PB continues to exist for everyone.

Another huge thank you to all our readers here on Pagebound; 2025 was an incredible year, from public launching the Website in January after 4 months of beta testing, to releasing the app in October, to growing to 70k readers and seeing this community flourish and thrive - it has been SUCH a great year, and we couldn't be more grateful and proud of the Pagebound community. You all do so much to ensure PB stays the welcoming, diverse, discussion-centered, interesting place that it is. Cheers to you all!

Happy reading, Jennifer + Lucy