I almost never listen to audiobooks at 1x speed. I don't know what it is but it seems like almost every narrator speaks so slowly. I typically listen at 1.24-1.75x depending on the narrator. But I've also noticed that my interest in a book impacts my listening speeds. For books I'm really enjoying I tend to listen at slower speeds so I can really soak it all in. But I find with books I don't like as much my listening speed tends to creep up and up. I don't think there's been any book I listened to at 2x speed that I really enjoyed. What speed does everyone else typically listen at? Has anyone else ever noticed a correlation between listening speed and enjoyment?

So I plan on fully commited to HRCYED (hardest reading challenge you‘ll ever do) 3.0.

One of the prompts ask for a mashup of two previous prompts and I decided to mash up Books from non us/uk/canadian countries and books by bipoc authors

I have to read at least five to complete the prompt but honestly this is such a blind spot for me that I want to read more, and also so far I could only think of three books that meet the criteria (as far as I know)

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (technically I could read more of their books but I want to really expand my reading with this)

Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh

Love in the big city by Sang Young Park

So hit me with your recommendations.

as you may have noticed all of those books are queer, so queer recs would be especially welcome

Well my bookstore tour of London has been swathed in heat but I have seen a few that I have really enjoyed. I am saving Goldsboro for my last day because I have been buying books from them for over a decade and can’t wait to go into the physical store. However, I have discovered something interesting about my book buying preferences when I go to a store. Today I went into Daunt Books. I found the store super cool and liked how individual countries were labeled and then would have book set in that country. I liked it in a fun discovery way but disliked it in a completely different way. Many stores I have gone in have sorted all of their fiction together. Not sorting out the genres. I do not like this. I didn’t know I didn’t like it until running into several times. I really want my mysteries, science fiction, and fantasy books off in their own section. I have been looking for new mystery authors on this trip and it is so much more difficult when they are not sorted.

Do you have anything about bookstores that you really want them to have or any book buying habits that your personality strays towards?

For the past week, Pagebound Royalty members have submitted nominations for Lists to inspire Quests. Jennifer and I have gone through and ensured all the Lists you'll be voting on meet our Quest guidelines. There are 95 Lists eligible for you to vote on, and you can find them in this spreadsheet.

There will be 3 winning Lists selected. You can vote for up to 3 unique lists (across any genre). Submit your votes via this form through end of day June 30th. Take note of the Quest type when voting (Column C in the spreadsheet)! Many nominated Lists share a theme but vary in length. Preference for a Side vs Main Quest could help you decide which to vote for. Most Lists will be Side Quests, but Lists with many books (~60+) will be Main Quests.

The creators of the winning Lists will be able to accept/reject. If they accept, we will create a Quest inspired by their List, adapting the title & book list as necessary to fit Quest constraints. If they decline, we'll ask the runner-up!

Thanks for voting! Jennifer & Lucy

Hello everyone!! Since taking over this quest a few weeks ago, I've made a number of new additions. Moving forward, I want to be more intentional about how I space out these additions so as not to overwhelm you all with notifications and more books to read. Given the nature of this quest, compared to other main quests, there aren't really "new releases" that I'm gathering to add over time (other main quests are intentionally created with a lower number of books so as to be added to over time and remain relevant and interesting! This doesn't quite apply in the same way to Classics quests since...well...they're focused on classics😅).

Main quests are capped at 100 books and I already have a list of classics to add that will get the quest to this number (special thanks to @mariangello, @CarnuSaga, and other users who made recommendations for helping me curate this---in my opinion---well-rounded list!).

So, what I want to know from you is, how would you like to see new additions to this quest spaced out? From my understanding, other main quests owners typically add a couple new books every couple months or so (but, of course, everyone goes about this slightly differently!). If I were to add 3 or 4 books every other month, I would be making new additions to this quest through August 2028. Alternatively, if I added 3 or 4 books every other week, this quest would be full by the end of the year (that is a lot of books in a relatively short timeframe, but given that I already have a pretty set list of books to add, I wanted to see what y'all would think about this). Another alternative would be to space it out even more, such as ~2 books every other month.

Personally, in the specific context of a Classics quest, I'd rather have a full and set quest than just be waiting years for additions that have been published for 100 years, ya know? That might just be me, though! I don't want to overwhelm you all with additions and notifications, so please let me know what your opinions are on this, if you have any!

[Posted 23 June 2026]

I feel like these books scratch a particular spot in my brain. I want to find more to compare how they’re portrayed in books vs their actual selves. I feel like they’re probably a list somewhere…but recs please?

-I read the first book of the Shadow Histories duology by H.G. Parry and loved it. It’s such a wide scope, and the narrator for the audiobook has a great voice. I wished the Haitian revolution was a more central plot point, but alas. -“But One Life” by Samantha Wilsoncox was certainly interesting. The author certainly loves foreshadowing. (There’s a scene where a preacher talks about the story of Esther. Making parallels to the story of Hale to her…? Also that it was basically divine duty for him to serve his country). Relatively accurate.
-For the Pride read along, I loved Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert. The conversations in that book were amazing. -There is currently “Hope Never Dies” by Andrew Shaffer sitting on my shelf. I guess Obama and Biden count as historical figures? Famous figures? I guess they count too.

I also found a couple of others. Like this one author writing about Nathaniel Greene (and an upcoming one about Joseph Warren). Also Dwight D Eisenhower?

(I dont know why it’s so US centric today…maybe some less us centric ones?)