Sometimes reading a ton of reviews about a book you were initially interested in (by reading the synopsis) can ruin the experience of reading it and discovering for ourselves what part of it we like or don't like. Reviewers point out what part was their least favourite and what left an impact while reading, which creates an already set narrative about that book in our head, it's like reading a book through somebody else's glasses. I realised that sometimes while reading, we are not actually reading ( subconsciously), we are nitpicking good moments or bad moments that we read about that book in those reviews. Reviews are not a bad thing, they are great for when you have limited time and want to get the best out of it. For someone like me they create a little hindrance on the path of actually discovering what I like and what I don't. That's probably when readalongs and clubs come to rescue. Read the books and judge for yourself, although I have never participated in any. I love reviews though, some are very funny. I sometimes read them more than the actual book and it's a problem.

I'm a public librarian and soooo much of my life outside of libraries is being surprised and disappointed with how bad libraries are at promoting themselves to both non-users and even regular patrons! I thought it could be fun to have a little post where I could try to answer any questions you've had about public libraries or librarianship (other librarians please pipe in! I don't know everything!)

Ask away! No stupid questions!

How is everyone organizing their physical books? I am having such crisis over this haha. I currently have it mostly organized by genre, but there is sooo much overlap in genre for each book that it's starting not to make sense.

I have genre & author grouped together, but it still feels chaotic because of all the overlap in genre. As someone who has a lot of lit fic books and a tinge of the perfectionism around organization, I am struggling. 😬😬

Well my friends at this time next week I will be in London enjoying my first retirement trip. I will then be heading to Edinburgh, Dublin, and Galway. I would love to hear a shout out to the bookstores I should visit. I am also interested in any book or reading adjacent things you think my wife and I should check out. I will be putting g together a list and mapping it out so that I don’t drive my wife to crazy.

Never in my life have I wanted a child to be killed off in a book. How naive can a child be??

It's funny to think that when I first started tracking my reading (2023) I was totally obsessed about specifying when and how much I read, I was trying to track it all in such detail that it felt more like a hastle.. Now I just update my progress on pagebound whenever I remember, not worrying if I even read those pages the current day or earlier that week. Anyway, these are just some thoughts, anyone else have similar experiences?

Good evening, Boundlings! This is really a spur-of-the-moment question, as most of my questions tend to be I find. I just started wondering about hobbies and weighing mine against how I’ve changed through the seasons of my life up until now. For me, reading while listening to Stevie Nicks’ solo catalogue is my example of how hobbies coaxed, and continues to coax, parts of me out from my reticent interior recesses. What are y’all’s hobbies, and how have they restored you?