Alright. Is anyone else possessive over their favorite authors? I’m not talking possessive in a Zade Meadows kind of way. I’m talking you’ve read so many of their books that you feel like you know them and find yourself discussing their books like they’re your close personal friend. Like you go into a store and find yourself putting their books on the end caps to “help them get more exposure.” You’ll read anything they write because you want to support them and even if it’s garbage (which it would never be) you’ll still be positive in your reviews.

It almost feels like a parasocial relationship, but in my mind it’s less “cringy” and more wholesome than that because my intentions are pure.

Do other people feel this way? If so, who are your authors/close and personal friends who write amazing books 😂🙈

Please someone comment and stop me from rambling and embarrassing myself…

so i’ve realized as of late that a character type i find incredibly compelling is that of a character who has a pure obsession with an achievement/goal, to the point where they will do almost anything to achieve it. couple examples are the book To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage (main character is obsessed with the goal of becoming an astronaut) and the documentary Free Solo (about free-solo climber Alex Honnold and his quest to climb El Capitan). would love to know what books you guys can recommend that have characters/plotlines like this!! thank you!! (both fiction and non-fiction is fine with me)

I am bad with names and was just updating my book reviews from last month when I realized A spindle Splintered and The everlasting are both by Alix E. Harrow?!?! The writing is so different I would have never guessed. Even now I am staring at the two books with her name on both and I am legitimately taken back. I thought A spindle splintered was fine, but The Everlasting I think will be the best book I read all year.

It just proves how much writing is a craft and the growth authors can achieve in their craft within just a few years.

Even after writing this I am still looking back and forth at both covers double checking that my dyslexia isn't betraying me.

Does anyone else have books like that?

so one of my absolute favourite lore is the great tomato war, where one user posted in a forum that they read a book where one character ate a tomato like an apple, and they felt disgusted by that. it set off a massive “war” and it was hilarious to read. jennifer from pagebound even did a list based on that.

one lore i have just discovered today is there is an “user” called deleted. i was so confused. i saw that they got a level up badge today. i swore i saw one like 5 days ago. how the hell are they leveling up when i don’t see any activities or any books in their library? is it a user called deleted? or it was deleted but a glitch meant it kept gathering points? turns out that that is where all the points from deleted posts/comments goes to, into this one user called “deleted”. (unless i am mistaken???)

is there anything i missed? i only know those two!

eta: oh my god i was working and came back to so many comments! i will go through them and reply but oh my god so many entertaining lores! thank you ☺️

Hey friends! Spring is approaching yay!! I was wondering if anyone here has some recs for books about gardening, getting into it, first steps, maybe tips for "not real" gardens like balconys, how to grow some vegetables or herbs, idk, anything! Can also be more nonfiction type books that talk about gardens and nature and the lifestyle, that are less practical telling you what and how to do stuff.

I love this season of new beginnings and since its my first spring living with my husband in a bigger flat we finally have some space to grow stuff on our roof terrace. I'm curious to see if we'll be able to grow some plants and vegetables. :)

I recently read The Serviceberry book and liked it. Its not real practical or anything about gardening, but to me its inspiring in a way. Just tell me your fav books that talk about gardens, nature or the act of planting and harvesting your own vegetables.

Imagine you see someone coming out of a bookstore or a library carrying a stack of books. You don't even get a chance to look at the person, your eyes are drawn straight to the titles, and suddenly you think: Oh no... I might be in love

What books would be in their haul?

Mine would probably be a combination of a: Speculative Literary (an Ursula K. Le Guin, Piranesi, an N.K. Jemisin) Gothic (The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Haunting of Hill House, Rebecca, Wuthering Heights) Philosophical Classic (Dealer's choice here really, Kafka, Dostoevsky, Camus) Political (Chain-Gang All-Stars, any Octavia Butler, or a political non-fiction (that aligns with my values, obviously)) And most importantly something weird and to be honest, I don't care what the weird is, but the weirder the more infatuated I probably am haha

This is a question that may cause some debate...

What was the last book you read that you were disappointed with? (DNF or Complete)

Mine was Darkest at Dusk by Eve Silver. It'd been a while since I read Gothic romance. And while I am glad I read it, it proved something I've been thinking about in relation to het romance, it was just so meh. Tropes galore and a frustrating ending.

Please read the tone of this rant as genuinely exasperated but ultimately good-natured. Just wondered if any other readers else feel the same way. I am ill and mildly grumpy.

My question is how useful you find advertised plot synopses to be in collecting new titles for your TBR. Specifically, is anyone else just...finding plot synopses increasingly useless as you try to determine what you're interested in reading? I don't know if they've gotten worse or if I'm just reaching a personal breaking point, but omg.

I know litfic is already notorious for this. But with literary fiction in particular, it feels like the advertised synopsis for every book is just so freaking vague? I got the B&N email promoting the Women's Prize in Fiction longlist today, and by the end of reading the list, I was sobbing on the floor of my kitchen screaming "BUT WHAT IS IT ABOUT!!! WHY SHOULD I READ IT!!!"

I'm glad Random Litfic Book is a moving tribute to life and love. It's great for you that this book is about a family searching for hope after tragedy. It's awesome that the book deftly examines the question of what connects us all. But WHAT. IS IT. ABOUT. I beg of you, don't just tell me this is about X character(s) trying to find a way forward. Don't just tell me it's about a war. Don't just tell me it's about complicated relationships and how we make sense of them. That is not a real plot synopsis. Just give me something. Something that distinguishes the book you are advertising from every other book on every awards list. Please. I promise you don't have to pre-spoonfeed me the main themes you want me to take away.

Listen, I adore good fiction that isn't plot-heavy and is instead focused on thematic threads. Don't get me wrong. I get why it's tough to find good words to advertise those books. But like. You gotta give me something. Some specific reason to choose this to read.

Sorry if this is too much of a rant to fit here. But I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Do you notice this as a problem the more you read? Or differences across genres or publishers or bookstores? Or have you gotten good enough at making sense of the vagueness to get a good idea of what you'll like? Has it actually gotten worse over time or has it always been this bad and I'm just becoming sentient now?

EDIT: The actual full blurbs are often much better, it's just the bite-sized stuff that makes advertising lists/is most visible that most often drives me nuts

Additional edit: your responses are healing me

Anyone else planning to read the longlist that was announced yesterday? I’d love to discuss and follow people so I can see their progress on their page!

I only read The Correspondent so far and I must say it loved me underwhelmed. Hated the main character and thought the story was bla. Going for Wild Dark Shore next!!

Hey, fellow book lovers! I’ve recently been hearing a lot of people mention being in a “book slump.” I was wondering what this means? My two theories so far are that, 1; they read such a good book that they can’t get into/enjoy another one, or 2; they read such a slow and boring book, it’s hard to get motivated to read again. I was wondering which of the two it was? Or maybe a 3rd option that didn’t even cross my mind? 😅. Thanks everyone!

hey guys! what authors are you all trying to prioritize this year? i’m hoping to read more jane austen, rf kuang, and begin my toni morrison journey.

Hello, friends. The world is burning and many of us are still meant to keep on going to work like nothing’s wrong… But, we still have our books, thank the fucking gods. So, let’s look at some cards together and see if they can inspire some of our reads in the month of March 2026.

How this works

I pulled some cards for us and wrote a little bit about what I’m seeing when it comes to reading inspiration for the month ahead. You are welcome to simply take what resonates from the reading and move on with your day, or, if you think of any specific books that align with what I’m describing, comment those titles down below for people to check out. These readings don’t aim to be particularly predictive, and they aren’t meant to be taken as gospel. This is simply a bit of fun, something to bring you some reading inspiration if you need it, and an opportunity for us to further connect as a community. _

I’m using the Lilifer tarot deck, created by Marion Costentin, published by Little Darkness. The spread is designed by me. Here are the questions we will be looking at, and the cards we got. For a better experience, I recommend viewing the pictures below on the Pagebound website!

To start the reading we have those two cards on the left as a bit of general advice for the month ahead. The King of Swords represents our general potential for the month, and they are our most tactical and rational king that doesn’t shy away from doing the hard things. They’re followed by the Nine of Cups representing potential issues on our reading journey and offering advice on how to avoid them. There’s a bit of contrast between these two cards, with the King leaning heavily on the rational end of the spectrum and the Nine of Cups on the emotional end.

I’m thinking we are being encouraged to look at our priorities in life right now and make a bit of a strategy for ourselves that aligns with those priorities. It’s normal to want to escape into books when things are tough, but we should be cognizant that it can sometimes lean into avoidance, which ultimately leads to more stress in the long term. These two cards are teaming up to say that reading can be a wonderful way to decompress or learn new things on our own terms, but this should be intentional and it shouldn’t come at the expense of other important parts of our lives. This is a reminder to take a few minutes to assess your life and be honest with yourself about whether there are things you’re avoiding. This is tough, especially if you don’t feel supported or don’t know where to start, but it can also be a gentle process if you approach it that way. Sometimes all it takes is small changes, like planning to do just one of the tasks you may have been avoiding and then rewarding yourself with reading or going to the library to pick up new books. Alternatively, if you find you are most receptive to reading and you struggle to break out of that comfort bubble, maybe you can start by finding some books or resources to read that will help you better understand yourself and help you learn how to deal with stress in a healthier way. Pagebound is full of wonderful readers who could give you book suggestions based on where you’re at and how you like to learn, so if this is you, I suggest you make a post asking for book recommendations and see what happens. Forums are a really good help also, because if you’re struggling to understand something, there will be other people who are either in the same boat or who will have some tips for you. _

That’s it for our general advice. I feel like the cards so far have been very blunt… so I don’t know what the fuck that’s about, buuut, let’s dive into specific prompts for inspiration for both fiction and nonfiction books for March and hopefully look at something a little less personal, haha.

Starting with nonfiction, we have the lovely Queen of Cups as our main topic. For anybody that was following this blog series in January, we had this card in the exact same position in that reading as well, so I guess the cards feel like we still have something to learn here. This Queen is a symbol of emotions, intuition, connection and creativity. They’re deeply in touch with non-material things that they believe truly give life its meaning. They are followed by two eights, the Eight of Pentacles, a card that focuses on process over end goal and effort over momentary recognition, and the Eight of Cups which talks about leaving something behind, not because it’s bad or broken, but because it’s not right for us anymore, or it may have never been right for us.

In my mind, these three cards really lend themselves to memoirs, especially those of people who decided to go against the grain and follow their heart. Something about focusing on the messy, imperfect process and leaving behind one life to look for something deeper really reminds me of the structure of a memoir.

If you’re not much for reading memoirs, another thing that these cards could be suggesting is looking into what things you deeply care about that are of the creative, spiritual or emotional nature, and finding some texts that dive deeper into that. The Eight of Pentacles with this beautiful illustration of hands reminds us that developing a skill often cannot be rushed. The journey to this goal will require you to make imperfect things and show up in imperfect ways, and it asks you to accept this at the very start. This leads me to think we are looking at books that don’t undermine the importance of active engagement as opposed to remaining in the observational role. Because the approach is illustrated with the Eight of Cups, I think we are talking about books that take us out of our comfort zone in some way, to see what we can learn by looking at this topic from a bit of a different perspective, or through somebody else's eyes. _

For some inspiration when it comes to fiction books, we are starting with The Fool! It’s the very first card in the deck and thus symbolizes the beginning of a journey into the unknown. The Knight of Pentacles here talks about the issues our character(s) are dealing with in the story, and what I’m getting from that is possibly that our main character’s journey is one of coming out of their shell and breaking free of their past. The Knight of Pentacles is very routine oriented: they like order, predictability and aim for stability over adventure. When this becomes an issue, it can lead to becoming stagnant and suppressing your ambitions. It can also manifest in the form of poor mental health due to excessive isolation, or a scarcity mindset due to negative experiences with money and material stability in the past. That’s a lot of baggage for our sweet main character. The story structure is illustrated by the Seven of Pentacles. This card talks about the hard work that it takes us to get to somewhere meaningful and the time that this usually requires. I’m thinking that means the cards are suggesting books that have a bit of a slower pace, and that give us an opportunity to really put ourselves into the shoes of the main character. Their journey isn’t straightforward, and there will certainly be growing pains, but the rewards are worth the wait and the effort. _

That is our March reading all wrapped up, friends. We got some interesting reading suggestions, and got rudely called out in the process… Fun! If you thought of any specific books while reading this, I’d love to hear about them in the comments. _

Did you have a good time reading in February? I’d really love to know. My reading for February was odd. I was really busy and actually really low on energy in the second half. However, one book that I did read and that really stands out is this wonderful collection of letters from activists called “Read this when things fall apart” by Kelly Hayes. Oh, how I loved that book... It actually lined up nicely with the community-focused non-fiction suggestions we got in our February reading, so that was really neat.

I appreciate you for taking the time to read this, and I hope to see you next month 👋 _

Previous readings: February 2026 January 2026 . .

Considering how damn near everyone reacts when they hear my main comfort movie is The Social Network, what is a weird film or song or book that you read when you seek comfort?

Some of my other ones are -Challengers -Trainspotting -Pitch Perfect -Daria -Yellowjackets -SAS: Rogue Heroes