I’m new to Pagebound and wondering how people are using the “Interested” shelf. For me, books I’m interested in go on my TBR so I’m curious how others are using that feature. Right now I’m just using it for books that I’ve heard about but haven’t officially added to my TBR yet. I’m wondering if there are other uses for it that I haven’t thought of yet.

Hello! I'm trying to help a friend find something new to read. She is a big fantasy nerd but she's not at all interested in romantasy (a little romantic side plot is fine) and she finds it hard to know what books could be of interest.

Her absolute favorite books are the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Deptford Mice. She's been listening to these books over and over bc she can't get into any new books. I think she'd appreciate something that's easy to get into, maybe not very lore-heavy from the start (aka probably not the right one for her if it's 500 pages of world building before you can connect with the characters).

Got any recommendations?🥰

EDIT: redwall is the mice books she likes, not Deptford💀

Has anyone read Emily Wilson's review of The Odyssey? I highly suggest you read it. It's called An Uncomplicated Man, and she really goes after him in it. I would suggest you only read the review If you've read The Odyssey and watched the film.

She lays out the exact reasons I disliked the film: it falls short as an adaptation. When you're adapting something like The Odyssey, what you choose to keep and what you choose to cut matters enormously, because you need to preserve the essence of the story. Nolan doesn't do that. Epic: The Musical does. People who've read the review think she's being mean spirited, that she's a translator, not a filmmaker or screenwriter, so she doesn't know what she's talking about. I think that's pure bullshit. I think it's sexism, plain and simple, because male critics have been tearing down female artists for generations, often without even being constructive. Sometimes they can't articulate what's actually wrong. Emily Wilson can, and does, point out exactly what's wrong with the film. And she has every right to, because her translation is constantly cited as the basis for the film. As the person who produced that translation, she has every right to distance her work from it. She does note that this movie will make people go back to the source material and that's a good thing.

She also says Nolan isn't a great screenwriter, and honestly, she's right.

Spoiler alert: there's a line in the film that goes "our age of bronze is coming to an end." What the fuck? People in ancient Greece didn't refer to it as "the Bronze Age," that's a term modern anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians use. So, what the fuck, Nolan?

Beyond that, she rightly points out the flattening of the female characters. I won't give spoilers, but I'd really recommend reading the review. She does an excellent job of showing exactly where the film goes wrong. I get that The Odyssey has been retold hundreds of times. But you're adapting a text that Emily Wilson herself translated, and you're citing her work as the basis for your adaptation, so she has every right to be critical if she doesn't want to be associated with the result.

Please read it and tell me what you think, whether she's being harsh or whether she's just right, and this is misogyny dressed up as "well, she's just a translator, not a filmmaker or screenwriter." Honestly, I think it's the latter. She may be a translator, but she has a PhD in classical literature from Yale University. She knows exactly what she's talking about. One criticism her work has gotten: she said the film has no sex scenes and that the food looks unappetizing. Have you ever read any ancient Greek literature? The food critique is a bit nitpicky, sure. But the sex scenes, Greeks were notoriously horny. Every god, goddess, and mortal in these stories is constantly sleeping with someone. So I think she's right that the absence of sex scenes is worth noting. People are pushing back on this criticism of Emily Wilson because no one realizes this film isn't an adaptation of Greek literature. It's a remaking of Greek literature into something palatable for a modern American Christian male audience. It's no different from any other war film, because it strips away all the nuance and morality, or immorality rather, of a Greek hero's journey.

Anyway, just read it and let me know your thoughts.

Edit: I also want to point out that Daniel Mendelson also criticised the film and yet Emily Wilson is the only receiving backlash. The whole point was that her criticisms are valid. It's her opinion but calling her mean is a stretch when we don't extend that label to a man for the same opinion.

Idk what happened but after i finished my latest book I haven’t read in over a week. I borrowed almost 10 books from the library and haven’t read most of them and I have to return them now 😭 What do you do to help with reading slumps, or to help you feel motivated to read again?

Hello~ One of those subgenres I really enjoy (but certainly don't read enough of) is retellings - which made me wonder: what are some of the most unique retellings you've read? Those that got you because the premise was so interesting or unexpected? (and, of course, bonus points if the execution was equally 10/10)

I recently am finally able to go back to my library in-person, and I checked out seven books to start with. I should have gone for more because it’s only been a week and a half and I’m probably going to finish the last one today! (okay granted 4/7 were really short books but still lol) Hopefully I’ll be able to go back soon and pick up some more.

Anyway, I was curious: how often do you go to the library, and how many books do you usually check out at once? Do you pick an amount you know you’ll be able to get through, do you pick a whole bunch and then wonder how you’ll get through them in time, do you have some other method?

Maybe it also depends on the popularity of the books you pick, like if you know you’ll be able to renew them, it would be more tempting to pick out more books, but if you know they’ll have holds on them, you’d want to only get a few to be sure you can read them in time?

Obviously there’s no right or wrong answers, I’m just curious about what you all like to do!

I’m new to Pagebound and wondering how people are using the “Interested” shelf. For me, books I’m interested in go on my TBR so I’m curious how others are using that feature. Right now I’m just using it for books that I’ve heard about but haven’t officially added to my TBR yet. I’m wondering if there are other uses for it that I haven’t thought of yet.