Hello Boundlings! Hope you're having an amazing week! I have a question for you: does your IRL bestie read, and if so, what is their reading taste is like?

For me, my bestie does read! Although we are basically the same in everything—habits, clothing style, family relationships, school, literally everything—our reading tastes are COMPLETELY different. Polar opposites, really. I read in English, she reads in our native language (Arabic). I'm trying to get into reading Arabic, meanwhile she's trying to get into reading in English. I primarily read fantasy, thrillers, and romance (at least as a subplot), whereas she prefers horror, psychological thrillers, on occasion dark romance, and just anything really dark and bloody and has murder in it. I am quite the scaredy cat when it comes to horror, meanwhile she can read it with a straight face. I easily cry during emotional scenes, she doesn't even budge. I'm usually a fast reader, while she's a slow reader.

It's quite funny to me how such similar people can be attracted to such different books. I was wondering if anyone has the same experience!

Seriously debating taking off work just so I can devour this book🫣

And he’s already simping

Context: I work at a climbing gym as a routesetter, so I and my coworkers put the holds on the walls that people climb. My gym recently adopted the use of this one app where we upload our routes and boulders that we set so people can log their sends in the gym and rate the climbs. A week ago, my coworkers and I were lamenting the app because one customer consistently rates everything 3 stars, and it’s bringing our gym’s rating down. Like, to the point of the higher-ups scratching their heads at it.

It got us on the topic of ratings about books. My boss said 3 stars isn’t a bad rating, it’s average, although most people likely wouldn’t think the same way when looking for a route to climb in the gym. I said when I rate book, 3 stars is generally a decent rating. It may not be a book that I loved or that I would say was for me, but I would still likely recommend a 3-star book to a friend. Another coworker agreed with that sentiment.

This whole conversation got me thinking: at what point do you start to consider a book “bad”? As in, when would you stop recommending a book to someone? Everyone has different metrics they use, and I’m curious to know everyone’s thoughts. For me, I start thinking a book is bad around 2-2.5 stars.