seema
head in the clouds, nose in a book ✨🌈 she/her
51046 points
seema commented on a feature request
3
Slightly diff nonfic stars
This might require a lot more legwork than I realize on first blush since I’m not sure the UI recognizes a big difference between fic / nonfic, but I would really like if the 5-category star breakdown were different on nonfic.
Specifically, since “plot” and “characters” don’t really apply, I think it would be maybe useful to have something like “structure” and “topic.” Or maybe “research,” but that wouldn’t really apply to something like memoir and it’s hard to gauge that sort of thing if you don’t know much about the subject.
I kind of hate leaving the plot and characters stars blank and I think it would be useful to know how well the flow of information (like structure) is organized.
seema submitted a feature request
1Show "on this day" throwback content
This might take a significant amount of processing power and just not be feasible, so I completely understand that, but it would be really fun if you could see what you were doing on pagebound on that day a year ago. I imagine it a little bit like the journey feed with a button that would show you all activity on pagebound from that day? Would be cool to see what you were reading, what you were chatting about. Alternatively maybe just highlighting your most liked item from that day previous years right on your profile? I imagine this would definitely require a toggle in settings though as to if you want it public or private.
seema commented on minsuni's update
seema commented on a post
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33Post from the Cozy Fantasy forum
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33seema commented on jenniferPagebound's update
seema commented on a post
It's really fascinating to posit that "active hope" doesn't require optimism, and you can (and should) be actively hopeful in scenarios that make you feel hopeless. That seemed really counterintuitive to me, but I'm understanding that what they're suggesting here is that you can keep a practice of hope that doesn't rely on waiting to feel hopeful, only on having the intention to express hope. That it's less a passive experience of hope and more an active commitment to it. And because of that, because it doesn't require positivity but really just a faith in what is within your own agency, you can practice hope while also practicing grief, and they do not have to be mutually exclusive. I think that framing is really interesting.
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seema commented on jae-jae's update
jae-jae started reading...
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
T. Kingfisher
2seema commented on lucyPagebound's update
seema commented on a post from the Founder Announcements forum
Many new updates, big and small, coming at you - Please update your apps to see them!
Summary of changes:
- On the app, a new "Feed" tab has been added to book pages. You can see status and progress updates from everyone on the site, along with stats for TBR, Finished etc across the site
- Giveaways will be available next week, planned launch is Jan 19th! Once giveaways are live, you can find them on the Discover page under Books
- The Mardi Gras/Carnival Special Event readalong starts today! Check Discuss to see the selections, badge, and how to participate
- Our very first Limited Time Quest launched today, in partnership with Simon Books. Check out Discover Quests, we're very excited about this one!
- Lists have been converted from the upvote/downvote system to a pure "Like" system
- On your custom shelves, you now have a "breakdown by status" section to see how many books in that shelf are in each reading status (bonus: cool way to do personal challenges)
- You can see how many books you finished in Quests you have not yet joined
- On the "currently reading" section of the homefeed, your books are now sorted by most recently updated
Why are we moving from upvotes/downvotes to likes for Lists? The upvote/downvote system was meant for community moderation, however now that we have PageboundGuides as moderators, we're asking the community to leave list moderation to the Guides. We want to make sure folks feel welcome to make lists - if someone makes a personal list, please do not corrective comment. The Guides will take care of it :)
How do Giveaways work? We've partnered with Publishers and Authors to giveaway books to the community. Once live, the Giveaway link will be on the Discover Books page. You can browse all the giveaways there, and enter by filling out a form with contact info (so we can send you the book if you win!). We know many folks are often disappointed when giveaways are only in the US and Canada - want to share with y'all that we do not have control over where giveaways are active. That is up to the publisher and author! As we grow, we hope more international publishers and authors know about Pagebound and want to partner with us.
How does the new Feed tab work on book pages? Since forum posts are meant for evergreen discussion, and folks comment on their status cards and progress update cards to share personal updates, we wanted to give everyone a way to share those personal updates beyond their immediate followers. We also wanted to give folks a way to see who is reading or wants to read a certain book, even if they are not following them yet. The Feed tab shows all status update and progress update cards, so you can more easily discover personal convos and reading buddies.
We'll be back soon with more updates!
Thanks everyone and happy reading, Jennifer & Lucy
125seema commented on seema's update
seema joined a quest
Best of @SimonBooks Debut Women's Lit (Winter/Spring 2026) 💕📖✨
💎 // 341 joined
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Limited Time Quest (Jan-June 2026): seven stunning debuts from Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint* to start the year. Read along with us as we tackle one each month with the chance to win early Giveaway copies through the duration of the Quest! Check the pinned post in the forum to learn more about the selections.*in partnership with SimonBooks
3seema joined a quest
Best of @SimonBooks Debut Women's Lit (Winter/Spring 2026) 💕📖✨
💎 // 341 joined
Not Joined
Limited Time Quest (Jan-June 2026): seven stunning debuts from Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint* to start the year. Read along with us as we tackle one each month with the chance to win early Giveaway copies through the duration of the Quest! Check the pinned post in the forum to learn more about the selections.*in partnership with SimonBooks
3seema commented on a post
One of the things I think about when it comes to memoirs is that a good memoir often lingers long after I've finished reading, not because of the events themselves but because of the perspective it offers me. So I'm wondering, what’s a memoir that changed the way you see the world, or yourself, and why did it resonate so strongly with you?
I haven't read very many from this quest yet, but still, Know My Name by Chanel Miller is definitely my answer. I read it in 2022 and I still think about it all the time. When I was reading it, I was feeling (and learning!) just how much courage it takes to reclaim your own voice after something so horrific. It really made me think about how often society silences survivors and how important it is to listen and believe people’s experiences. I still find myself reflecting on my own assumptions and how I can be more empathetic in everyday life. It was so valuable to me.
I'm still looking for more recommendations from this quest so I'm hoping this question helps me find some gems ☺️
31seema commented on gracie's update
gracie started reading...
Into the Wild (Warriors, #1)
Erin Hunter
25seema commented on crybabybea's review of Half His Age
An acerbic, unflinching commentary on the messy, cavernous laceration of girlhood.
Half His Age is a story about feminine rage, but not the screaming, crying, throwing dishes kind. It's the quiet aftermath. Sitting on the edge of the bathtub, staring at your mascara-streaked tear stains in the mirror as the last scrap of imagined power drains out of you, feeling hollow and slightly humiliated as you settle into the realization that you're trapped in a cycle that you can't quite name.
It's a story about agency, and lack thereof. How systems and cycles outside of our control force us into survival, force us into clawing for anything that brings relief, anything that we can latch onto for control, anything to satiate the empty feeling we don't want to address. Even when we know it's not good for us, we cling to it anyway.
It's a brutally realistic portrayal of a girl parentified, who learned early on that being chosen and being loved meant self-abandonment, meant playing a role, meant picking up the pieces of everyone around her even if it meant falling apart.
Each chapter is told like a snapshot memory, focusing in on a single detail as it zooms out to capture the scene in its entirety. McCurdy's writing is raw and full of a clarity that demands rapt attention. The short chapters mean that every word matters, every symbol is packed with meaning, every moment is layered with threads begging to be unraveled.
The narrative centers entirely on Waldo's inner monologue to a claustrophobic degree. Her inner state seesaws between numb cynicism and frantic, all-consuming anxiety. Many of her thoughts are twisted reflections of the harsh lessons learned through parentification, through cultural conditioning and societal expectation. In every moment, Waldo's emotional state is almost unbearably palpable. She's unreliable but legible, impulsive but empathetic.
Your eyes want to look away, to spare her from having witnesses to her dysfunction, but behind it is a low-grade hum of resignation as you feel the inevitability coming toward you in every choice she makes. Yet your heart wants to keep watching, propelled forward by clinging to the tiniest shred of hope that she might hit a wall, wake up, and escape the cycle. Because if Waldo can escape the cycle, it might mean that you can, too.
Threaded through Waldo's experience are McCurdy's ruminations on systems that tear away the agency of women and girls. Capitalism that forces us into competition, consumerism that sells us products to fix issues invented by the market, patriarchy that teaches us that being chosen by a man is the ultimate form of salvation. That if we look and act just so, and buy the right products to get us there, and consume the right content that makes us one nudge better than the girls around us, we might get lucky enough to be chosen, to mean something, to matter.
It examines the idea of desire from a feminine perspective, its imposed limitations and expectations. The false sense of agency that women are given by performing sexuality, because it's the only place their needs and desires can be contained without being minimized, ridiculed, or dismissed.
Deeply uncomfortable, intentional, and wrapped in rough edges and messy choices that don't ask for forgiveness, just a witness.
I received an ALC of this title in exchange for an honest review.
66seema commented on seema's update
seema made progress on...
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
Robin Wall Kimmerer
2seema made progress on...
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
Robin Wall Kimmerer
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