Alright, Boundling fam, am I a fake reader if I've never cried while reading a book?

For legal reasons, this post is a joke.

“I cowered, as men were made to do”

I KNOW THATS RIGHT

Hey everyone, my library has a fairly decent manga collection, so I was looking for some recs, I’m really open to anything, and I love trying new things!

So what’s everyone’s favourite manga and why?

Thank you!!!

Hello, all!

I just finished watching "Book reviews are gaslighting us" by Below the Fray on youtube. The central thesis of the video essay revolves around the soulless platitudes in most modern litcrit columns in newspapers and magazines. He brings up a lot of great points, and it made me think about non-monetized book reviews like those here on Pagebound.

My biggest question for you all is do you read (and/or write) negative reviews? I recently started writing negative reviews but have a bad habit of kneecapping my sentences and coddling the author more than I probably should. I am a firm believer that reviews are for readers and criticism is for the authors, though where exactly else are these authors to get criticism from if most modern litcrit is monetized and a bad review could get you fired or blacklisted?

As readers, do you enjoy reading a bad review? Do you seek out alternative, often negative opinions of books you enjoy? Do you feel vindicated by a bad review on a book you hated? What kind of review gets you to read a book most: a raving 5 star or a critical 1 star review that piques your interest?

TL;DR Do you read negative reviews of books (whether you've read them or not), and what do you feel the purpose of a review on a platform like PB is, exactly?

Signed, a ranty reader lol

Y’ALL. I just came across this buzzfeed article where I learned there are whole ass people out there picking up books and skipping everything but the dialogue?? And apparently, those of us who don’t consider this to count as reading are engaging in “literary gatekeeping” 🙃🫠

I mean, WTF?? I need to hear y’all’s thoughts on this because I’m losing my mind over the comments elsewhere that act like this is the superior way to read.