Specifically, what book has made you feel like this lately? 😂

(The link goes to a short video featuring woman crying. In between sniffles and tears, she says, "Hey everyone, I'd really recommend reading for pleasure. I love reading, it's so magical. Pick up a book, you never know what awaits between the pages.")

For me, I've been feeling this way about Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins and The Book of M by Peng Shepherd 🤧🤧 I recommend these books to everyone, saying that they're the best books ever but warning my friends about the irreparable emotional pain 😭

what’s a book you almost gave up on that won you over in the end?

or, asked differently,

a book you liked much more in retrospect than while you were actually reading it?

or

a book where the ending changed your opinion of everything that came before?

this just happened to me with Switzy by Emma Cline and it continues to grow on me the more i reflect on it…which i kind of love

Hi guys! I’m feeling nostalgic today and am curious what everyone’s first experience with queer books was! What was the first queer book you read? How did it make you feel? Scared? Seen?

I personally don’t remember the first queer book I read but i would love to hear everyone’s answers!

On that note, does anyone have queer middle grade recommendations? Books that make you wish you had them when you were younger ☺️

What is a book that you read at one point in your life, for example as a teenager, and then reread later on and your perspective on it changed? For better or worse.

Examples: I reread The Great Gatsby this year, which I hated in highschool, but really liked it the second time around. On the opposite end, I also reread The Winter People, which I read in my early twenties and really liked, but now I found it lazy and underwhelming. I'm currently rereading another book from my teen years and trying to figure out how I feel about it 🤔

I've always really liked the idea that you never read the same book twice, the book stays the same but you change. (Not sure where I first heard this, if it is a quote from some sort of media please let me know)

Inspired by the "Books with No Romance" request in the club earlier and the tumblr post that says something like "yeah yeah 'I'd kill or die for you' is overdone in a romance story. what about 'I'd kill or die for you' when it's a boss to their employee? exquisite dynamic." What books do you have where there is an unshakable, mountain-moving bond between management and their subordinates (extremely extremely platonic yet so compelling)???

The two I have right now are Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots (supervillain saves woman's life, she becomes a devoted henchwoman, moves heaven and earth for him and then he does the same and that goes back and forth a couple times) and The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard (your divinely-ordained emperor-turned-king, like, really needs a week off. this WILL cause problems. you WILL take care of them). Any favorites from y'all?

I love reading romantasy and epic fantasy with romance. However, I do not wish to read or watch or hear anything related to romance for a while, as I am currently convinced love is purely fictional and I won't be able to experience it ever. (Today I got dumped via an AI-generated text. AI-GENERATED TEXT. Now I know that when someone is not ashamed of telling you the last time they willingly picked up a book was in middle school, that is a huge red flag. Such people lack not only the empathy to try to understand what the other person is feeling, but also the reading comprehension skills required to come up with a proper answer on their own. I dont feel even a little sad, it just feels like I just parted ways with ChatGPT. Good riddance I guess... I hope I am the first and last person to experience this, but I also know I wont be. I hate AI a bit more each day.)

It feels good to put my anger into words, but back to the purpose of this post: It is kind of hard to find books with absolutely no romance, especially in fantasy. If it won't be too specific to find, I would also very much like books that would make me laugh. I feel a reading slump approaching, so I would appreciate any help 😊

EDIT: I want to thank each and every one of you for all your recs and especially for your support! Your comments mean the world to me :) I realised once more just how much I like being a part of this community. Love you all 💙

I think it would be cool if, like the literature quests, we could have different poetry quests. There could be a British one, and American one, one for Asian poets, Black poets, poets from the Middle East, one for political poetry, poetry that is contemporary, the 'classics', queer poetry. It would be so awesome to have a space to introduce people to new/more stuff once they've gotten a lot of this quest done (not that I have lol) 🙆‍♂️

Happy Wednesday everyone! It's time for my three "W" questions again:

1. What are you currently reading?
2. What have you recently finished reading?
3. What are you planning to read next?

Feel free to answer in as much or as little detail as you'd like, and don't forget to check out what other people have said, you may find some new friends to go "book same!" with!