Okay so I know this topic might have the most engagement potential and maybe is kinda dumb but it's something I think about, so...

I'm just saying, I love a deckle(d) edge.

I think they're underrated and unfairly maligned in today's world. First of all, there are a lot of people who don't even know what a deckled edge is and think that they've purchased a damaged or poorly manufactured book when they receive one, and then there's people who know what it is but hate them because they think it looks shabby. I'm always seeing deckle haters out there 😱

But I love it and I think it looks great! 🥰 More than that, I love what it represents, which is ode to original book making/papermaking process when it was done by hand with a deckle and that was how all books were made and thus how all books looked (pre 19th century). I just think it's cool that publishers (namely Penguin) still pay tribute to that heritage.

Anyway, If there's a book I want to read and I find out an edition with a deckle edge is available, I'll probably buy that edition. So that's it, basically. Deckled edges are underrated, and I like them. So there 💅

Bye 🐙

All of these books cross my mind so frequently and when I reread them I remember how much they impacted me on my first read-through. ✨

Mine would be:

• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
• Pet Sematary by Stephen King
• A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
• A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Have you read a translated book you liked so much that you will read—maybe even buy—every other available translation of it? Are you on a mission to compare/contrast different translations, to suss out which one speaks to you, or helps you see the book in a new way? Please tell me which books those are for you (and maybe even which translation you like best, for extra credit 😁), because I’d love to hear about them!

For example, I’ve started to get very interested in comparing/contrasting English translations of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. I read Dorothy Sayers’ translation first—which I still adore, because Sayers’ introduction to Inferno is a masterclass in literary introductions—and then at some point realized that my experience with the text is probably wildly different from people who read older/newer translations. Then one day I picked up Robin Kirkpatrick’s 2014 translation, and it was such a different experience! Obviously the crux of the story is the same, but it felt kind of like walking into your bedroom after someone rearranged the furniture: the same room, but also not. Now I am on a mission to read a wider sampling of the English translations of Divine Comedy (I don’t think I could ever read all of them in this lifetime lol).

Please tell me about your translation hyperfixations! 🙏👀

I'm currently reading 'Death of the Author' by Nnedi Okorafor, which is amazing so far. One of the things I love about the book is that you get the main story, but also chapters from the book the FMC is writing. I think you have to be insanely talented to make this concept work, because you basically have to write two books.

I have read one other book where this happens, 'Eliza and her Monsters' by Francesca Zappia, which was also amazing. So that made me wonder, are there more out there?

So if you know about books where you also get to read the book the MC is writing, please let me know! If I get enough responses I'll make a list out of it.

Update: Wow, this post got a lot more replies than I expected. RIP to my TBR. I have made the list and you can find it here.

I was very curious when I discovered that Hallow is proposing a reading challenge/reflection of The Brothers Karamazov for Lent this year. The "prodigal son" parable is very close to my heart, so I'm interest in diving into if, especially because I have never read Russian literature before.

+800 pages, 40 days. Anyone joing this challenge?

Edit: here's the link for the Hallow reading plan for anyone interested: https://hallow.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Pray40-Reading-Plan-2026.pdf

They have a 40 days reading plan (won't read the full book, but parts that connect with the proposed reflections) and a 100 days reading plan (full book)

hype up a hidden gem of a book (a book you’ve loved that you never see people discussing on your feed, a book with very few forum posts, etc.) that you’d love to see more people read/discuss!

I’ll go first:

If you have ever listened to Wouldn’t It Be Nice by The Beach Boys through the lens of closeted transness (or even queerness), I think you’d love Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton ☀️

Hi everyone! I read some pirate books last summer and it was really fun. I wanted to do it again this year and was wondering if anyone knew of any good books set in or around the sea? I'm talking about pirates, mermaids, sailors, characters who live on islands or beaches, etc. It can be any genre.

Hello PB beauties!

I want to know your literary “hear me out”!

This is anything book related that may be an unpopular opinion or even controversial 😏 just remember to keep the comments kind!

Some examples are (but are not limited to):

• character traits
• tropes
• kinks
• author prose
• narrator POV
• where and when you read

The sky is the limit and I want to hear them all 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

What's one thing you learned this week from your reading? It can be a fact, a random curiosity, a beautiful line, or even something you realized about yourself! My Tidbit: Intentional slow reading is changing how I approach other books too. I started a fantasy novel I hated and wanted to DNF, but I slowed down to the point that I actually reread the opening chapters and found little flakes of gold under the mess. Still up in the air if I'll actually like the book, but I'm glad I looked again.

As for some Pagebound related trivia: I'm reading Algospeak by Adam Aleksic and I learned about Sociolect, a form of language used by a particular social group (pg 31/247), so for us Boundlings it would be like our use of the word 'Yoink'! For those of you who have been on Pagebound longer than I have, I would love to hear some of the other popular sociolects that have been used!

If you could pack one suitcase and move into any fictional home immediately - where are you going?

Drafty castles absolutely count. So do crooked cottages, dramatic cliffside mansions, hobbit holes, chaotic city apartments, enchanted libraries, and suspiciously affordable small-town farmhouses.

Are you:

🌧️ Living your best moody life in a crumbling estate?

🌿 Baking bread in a cozy woodland cottage?

📚 Secretly hoping your house comes with hidden passageways and a mildly concerning attic?

🕯️ Choosing vibes over structural integrity?

Drop the book + the home + one reason you’d survive (or absolutely wouldn’t).

Bonus: what’s the first thing you’re decorating or rearranging when you move in?

Let’s see where PageBound is relocating.

hello friends! i’ve really loved whenever we do little getting to know each other games on pb club, so i wanted to start another little one! if you want to, i’d love to hear about some of your favorite things, and what makes them so special!! everyone here is just so passionate and excited about the things they love and it always makes my heart so happy to see :) you can answer multiple for one, you can just do one of the following or do them all, whatever you’d like!

• favorite book (for me: station eleven)
• favorite movie (for me: the martian among many others)
• favorite character (for me: ellie williams my beloved)
• favorite tv show (for me: station eleven or the haunting of hill house)
• favorite video game (for me: the last of us i and ii, i also love bg3 and stardew)
• favorite non-reading hobby (for me: video games)
• favorite random interest (this is really just an excuse to yap about something nobody ever directly asks about but maybe you know a lot about - for me: alien abduction stories 😭 and also the now-gone great movie ride at disney’s hollywood studios not in a disney adult way but in a media studies way)
• favorite color (for me: yellow)
• favorite animal (for me: cats and manatees)
• favorite meal (for me: all things pasta)
• favorite musical artist / album/ song (for me: samia anything by her) and if you have any other favorites of any other category you want to share, please do!!!!

Hi friends! I’m a founder of a fairly popular online literary magazine that publishes mostly poetry but also art and flash prose. I was wondering if anyone else from that world is using PB: any other editors, readers, or writers? I also have my degree in creative writing & send my own poetry out to occasionally get published :)

I lost most of my IRL friends that I would bond over this with when college ended because everyone moved back home or went to grad school. I would love more friends that enjoy this kind of world, especially friends that are also poets/writers!

If this applies to you even in the slightest, introduce yourself below 🫶👀👇