To be brutally honest, I am not a classics girl. In fact, I don't even like reading books that were published before I was born (90's), but I do want to, sort of, "culture" or "educate" myself by attempting to read some.

I'm really interested in dark stories, fantasy stories, or gothic stories. I know there's the obvious ones like Dracula and Frankenstein (which I WILL be adding to my list), but what other classics do you think might be up my alley?? Any recs would be helpful 🙏🙏

I’m flying to the other coast of the US today and spent a good amount of the morning planning out my reading. I only brought one paperback, managed to only buy one book- a record for me- once in the airport (Running for the Hills by Kevin Wilson) and have a ton of books from Libby and cheaply from bookshop.org cued up on my Boox (a type of ereader. I tried to include some fiction that takes place where I’m headed, Hawaii after a stop in California, and otherwise prioritized books I’ve been reading or have been on my tbr.

This got me thinking- how do you all plan out (or not plan!) your vacation reads?

I also like to try to visit an independent bookstore while I’m in a new location. Any recs for bookstores in Hawaii and LA are appreciated :)

So I'm off work today and in bed sick 🤒 so of course that means reading and adding a crap ton more books to my tbr. But! I got to thinking about the much talked about topic/question of "how many books do you read at a time?"

I have always serially been in the middle of at least 3 books at a time. It used to be one audio, one physical, and one ebook. But now, things are out of control. If I have a Libby hold come up, I now start those too. So it could get up to 4 or 5 at a time 🤦🏻‍♀️

I find myself thinking of dnf'ing faster to get to a different book or just because I'm taking awhile to get through it. It may be spoiling my attention span and/or making me bored with reads that I normally wouldn't be?

So what's your guys' experience and opinions with reading multiple books at a time? Has anyone done this religiously and then gone back to focusing on 1 book at a time? I will at least always have an audiobook and regular book because I listen to audios at work but... I'm just experiencing some reading fatigue I think 😮‍💨

hello friends,

Sooooo what’s the most recent book you dnf and why? Do you give the author another chance or is that it?

This weekend I’m trying to finish a couple books and hopefully go to a bookstore, I am rewarding myself with two books 🤭

Recently I haven’t dnf a single book… which shocking!!!

I've just been reading about how in the ancient Greek and Roman world, well read papyrus scrolls had a lifespan of less than 100–125 years, much less if you factor in the losses from 🪲, 🔥, and 🌊. So, the works we still read today (e.g. Homer, Plato) survived only because someone, somewhere, decided a text was worth the painstaking labor of copying it out by hand, letter by letter. Some of those copying projects took nearly a FULL YEAR of work. And yet, people did it! Because someone felt the text was just too important, or loved it too much, to let it die. It's romantic in a way, I think.

So here's my question for you boundlings: If YOU had to spend months...maybe even a year, hand-copying a single book, word for word, to ensure it survived for future generations...which book would you choose?

It doesn't have to be your all-time favorite. Maybe it's a book you think humanity genuinely cannot afford to lose. A story that says something irreplaceable about what it means for us to be human. Because who knows, maybe AI will replace us in the not so distant future 😅

What book would be worth the horrendous hand cramping and eye strain induced migraines of rewriting page after page.

I'd love to know your picks and hear why. 👇

(I personally I have been thinking about my choice, and I am not quite sure of my answer yet, but I'll post mine in the comments when I think of it)

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