I saw this challenge going around social media, and thought it would be fun to bring it to Pagebound 😃

Take a book title, and slightly diminish it. For instance

The Steward of the Rings

The Kinda Bummed Ones

Small Talk With Acquaintances

Have at it, let's make each other laugh! 😊😉

Hello everyone! I ordered a copy of a collection of Oscar Wilde's plays and it arrived damaged. The store I ordered it from is sending me a new copy and they don't want my old copy back. I know Pagebound is full of creative people so I thought of coming to the Club to ask for ideas: do you guys know or any creative things I could do with the damaged copy? Quite a few of the pages are intact but it's damaged enough where I can't donate it to the library or anything. I'll be looking for ideas online as well but I'd love to hear from those of you who may have done art projects with books before!

ETA a bit more detail about the type of damage: some of the pages are torn but most of them are ok. It's a paperback and the cover is ok, the back cover has a few small tears.

Hi everyone, we're excited to share the 4 selections for the Summer Readalong, running June through August AND 5 selections for the Pride Special Event in June! We announce Readalong titles a month in advance to give everyone time to place library holds. Head to the Seasonal Readalong page & Special Events page to see 2 badges, the full list of selections, and add the books to your TBR (on the app via the More/hamburger menu on the Home tab, on desktop via the Discuss page).

SUMMER READALONG:

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross: A romantasy based on Scottish mythology, it has limited sexual content with a heightened focus on world-building that leans cozy, making it a great entry point for those who don't typically read romantasy. The protagonists defy the typical archetypes, which makes it fresh for veteran romantasy readers too!

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali: Set in 1950s Tehran, this historical fiction book follows two girls, Ellie and Homa, whose fierce childhood friendship is tested by class divides, betrayal, and the upheaval of the Iranian Revolution.

The Empress of Salt & Fortune by Nghi Vo: A feminist high fantasy set in an empire reminiscent of imperial China, this Hugo Award-winning novella is short but powerful.

The Stranger by Albert Camus: A classic of twentieth-century literature originally published in French, this is the story of an ordinary man drawn into a senseless murder in Algeria. It explores the philosophy of Absurdism.

PRIDE:

Last Pride was our very first Special Event, and this Pride marks 1 full year of quarterly Special Events! The goal of these is to encourage diverse reading, and while we have loved how the PB community has embraced these events, we also recognize their quarterly cadence makes it impossible for us to recognize all the voices we would like to each year.

Choosing the Special Event for summer was quite difficult for us; PB is a thriving queer & allied space that absolutely should celebrate Pride, but also as an American company, we very much wanted to celebrate Juneteenth as well (for our international friends, Juneteenth is the official celebration of the emancipation of enslaved people in the US). We ultimately decided to make this a Pride event, since we have such a large international community and Juneteenth is a US holiday. However, we feel strongly about recognizing and celebrating Juneteenth, which leads to the following:

1. Next year in 2027 we will have a year-long limited time Main Quest hosted by Pagebound with the express purpose of promoting diverse reading. With this Quest, we can promote all the voices that are not highlighted in a quarterly Special Event.

2. For this Pride, we recognize Juneteenth and the intersectional nature of justice with Harriet Tubman Live in Concert. If you are looking to recognize both holidays this Readalong, we highly recommend this pick! Authored by Bob the Drag Queen, this is an alternate history where Harriet Tubman pairs with a gay hip-hop producer to create a Hamilton-esque Broadway musical about her life.

BONUS: We have a new Limited Time Quest launching today: Sourcebooks Summer of Swoon featuring 6 romcoms running May through August. Check back later this afternoon to see the book list! Hint: 2 of the books have giveaways that just dropped 👀

Excited to read with everyone in the coming months!

Happy reading, Jennifer & Lucy

I am curious how others are taking on the Quests.

I love the idea of quests. The variety of themes and the really cool badges but I am not what I would call a committed quester.

It seems my modus operandi so far has been to peruse quests occasionally or notice them in my feed when someone else gets a badge, go to said interesting quest to see if I have read any of the books or if any are on my current TBR and join if it is remotely likely I could obtain a badge. Then if I am really motivated I will do a big Libby mass request and see what is possibly available to me there. Now this is where I go a bit astray in that I do not actively try to get the badge. I just see if by my normal reading habits and moods lead me to read enough to get a badge kinda by surprise.

As you can imagine this has not lead me to earning many badges but I do like the sort of lackadaisical surprise element to it for me.

How do you go about Quests? Are you a dedicated to the quest till the end questor or more an eyeball in many quests? Or maybe you use the quests to navigate your TBR by seeing what you feel in the mood for on the TBR and cross referencing it to the quests it might be in!

I'm looking for fiction books that have beautiful writing. It doesn't have to be deep, just well written (you can tell I've had my share of disappointments recently 🥲). Examples: Eragon, the vegetarian, flights, most of the classics. I would also like something that's not set in the USA (I've had a lot of that recently and I'm European so I'm looking for another perspective). Also looking for something that's compatible with feminist values, in terms of how women are depicted (looking at you, male authors who've never talked with a woman). I'm open to weird stuff, the genre doesn't matter that much. So hit me up with your favourites please! 💓

Okay so we all know weird girl lit right? At least glancingly you’ve experienced the ever expanding genre that this seems to be. Don’t get me wrong, I like it. I think it’s interesting and introspective and allows us to see a different side of women then are often explored in media. With that being said, is there weird boy lit? Can the defining characteristics of weird girl books be translated like that? If there is, what books define weird boy lit, and are there differences besides gender that separate the two hypothetical genres.

Bonus Question: Weird enby lit?

How do you all organize use your home library? Alphabetical by title, by author, by genre, or another method? I’m really curious to know what everyone does. TIA!

Does anyone else sometimes feel weird about the demigods, half demons, half fey, half w.e. in fantasy?

This is not a judgement zone, I'm not asking for moral purity or an ethics debate. I'm not one for censorship, so I'm not trying to argue the eradication of your favorite trope. This is just a curiosity on how people FEEL and whether or not I'm in the minority.

And if you fall into some sort of bi-/multi- identity (biracial, bisexual especially if you grew up in an envirnment where you were expected to choose, etc.), I would be curious about how that has influenced your perspective while engaging with this trope (if at all).

I started reading this two weeks ago and I stopped. Now I don't know if I'll pick this up again. I like the writing style, but I think the story itself is slow. I also think their journey was a bit easy? I don't know (I'm still halfway). I mean they are in hell, and I expect a gruesome, unforgiving kind of hell. But maybe it's just me. I really like the writing and the main character, Alice Law. Should I DNF this or should I hold on?