I thought it would be kind of fun to see where in the world people are, and then folks can make friends with people from the same countries/ares (if they way, not pressure obviously). I'll go first. I'm Canadian, and more specifically I am in British Columbia (Vancouver Island if you want to get fancy). Try to find your country and join that thread! Everyone else?

I discovered about Pagebound yesterday but managed to set up all the shenanigans for my account today. I really like the UI. I'm still figuring out about the knick-knack. I has one question or request: Can we create quest? I have hyperfixation on Hiromu Arakawa and being unable to have badge relating to that is frustrating, haha 😅 Anyway, I'm from Indonesia. Teman-teman setanah air boleh lah saling follow, soalnya situs ini kayaknya masih baru dan sedikit yang dari Indo :)

Are you someone like me who forgets what you read after a few days/weeks/months? No recall of the book title, character names, setting, but you know the vibe and you know you had fun reading? I found this article that explains this and would like to share it with you. Here's my favorite part: ...sometimes, reading does not need to reorganize anything. Sometimes it is just fun and meaningful in a “spiritual” sense. A good novel might not change your models or update your priors, it might just offer immersion, rhythm, a brief escape from your own interior monologue. The enjoyment of language, the satisfaction of narrative structure, the comfort of sitting with someone else's imagination for a while, none of that needs to be justified through output. Not everything has to leave a mark to be worth the time. Some books are simply there to be lived in for a few hours or days, and that, too, is enough.

Would you rather only read series or only read standalones?

People always ask, if you could read a book for the first time again what would it be? But what they don't ask is which book do you wish you never read? As in, it was so bad you could only hope to forget it ever existed.

I want to talk about popular/well-liked books that YOU personally hate (and why if you want)! I'm also curious to hear what books you refuse to pick up, no matter how popular/well-liked they are! Popular books I hate are: The Secret History by Donna Tartt (literally the most boring book I've read that I truly believe people only like because it makes them feel smart) Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo (I can't even begin to explain how much I hated every moment reading this book -- everything from racism being a plot point despite it being about white people??? to the way grief is handled pisses me off) My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix (cishet white men need to stop writing stories about young girls and especially should not use a weird school-slave-roleplay plot point) The Troop by Nick Cutter (I refuse to believe that all young boys are perverted little creeps) House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (This book made me realize anyone could write and get published 700+ pages of trash) Some popular books I will never pick up: ACOTAR/Any SJM book (I have not forgotten about using Breonna Taylor's death in a promo post) Fourth Wing/Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow 🍉 Anything by Nick Cutter but especially The Deep because I hated The Troop THAT much Anything Colleen Hoover because it has not and will never appeal to me personally The Love Hypothesis because I don't like Reylo nor romance Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo because it sounds overly edgy (lmao) No hate to anyone whose favorite book is listed above! Just because I don't like the book doesn't mean I don't like you!

When you rate a book, do you rate it based on how you liked it, or how good you think the book actually is by literary standards? One of the things I love most about Pagebound is the ability to break down the rating into separate categories. I particularly like the 'quality' and 'enjoyment' ratings. A lot of times, I dislike a book, but can also acknowledge that the book is very well written, I just didn't click with it. I tend to give books I dislike a bog standard 3 star, as to say i didn't like it but it wasn't a bad book. tbh I feel bad rating any book low because of how much work goes into writing a book and how creative authors are. Do you do the same? Or are y'all more brutal?

Do you ever read a BookTok rec just to be part of the convo, even if it’s not your vibe?

I want to talk about popular/well-liked books that YOU personally hate (and why if you want)! I'm also curious to hear what books you refuse to pick up, no matter how popular/well-liked they are! Popular books I hate are: The Secret History by Donna Tartt (literally the most boring book I've read that I truly believe people only like because it makes them feel smart) Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo (I can't even begin to explain how much I hated every moment reading this book -- everything from racism being a plot point despite it being about white people??? to the way grief is handled pisses me off) My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix (cishet white men need to stop writing stories about young girls and especially should not use a weird school-slave-roleplay plot point) The Troop by Nick Cutter (I refuse to believe that all young boys are perverted little creeps) House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (This book made me realize anyone could write and get published 700+ pages of trash) Some popular books I will never pick up: ACOTAR/Any SJM book (I have not forgotten about using Breonna Taylor's death in a promo post) Fourth Wing/Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow 🍉 Anything by Nick Cutter but especially The Deep because I hated The Troop THAT much Anything Colleen Hoover because it has not and will never appeal to me personally The Love Hypothesis because I don't like Reylo nor romance Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo because it sounds overly edgy (lmao) No hate to anyone whose favorite book is listed above! Just because I don't like the book doesn't mean I don't like you!

Are any of y'all fellow writers? I'm struggling to write my manuscript and even though I'm doing better than before (I've implemented a realistic goal forum to track milestones) I still find myself absolutely dragging sometimes when I'm faced with a blank page. Is there any advice you can give about how to get more comfortable with the intimidation of a blank page? And how to write without feeling like you're just rambling on? Its a first draft so I know its going to be messy but I just feel like Im not happy with any of the progress I've made.

I've been looking to follow more people, so curious about how everyone else does it! Do you have friends irl that you've invited here? Do you use the "% overlap"? Do you find folks you vibe with in the discussions and just add them? I've tried the "readers with similar taste" list in the Discover page, but because it suggests people based on them having at least one book similar to mine in the "My Taste" section, I think it works better for people who have fairly uniform taste in books (e.g. typically reading from one or two genres, which I don't) and also leans towards matching based on books that have been widely read by the Pagebound community.

Once I go on Pagebound, I spend SO MUCH time in here, that I have no time to doomscroll anymore LOL. It's great, but it also makes me think that I don't have enough lifetime to read all of the books T-T I love how much it motivates me to read tho and I started listening to audiobooks thanks to people's recommendations!