Every time I begin to get in a reading slump a write here and suddenly I am finishing one book after another. At this point, it is my superstition.

So, it's been a bad year when it comes to reading for me. I am not reading as much as I wish I was, regardless of the fact I had a lot of time last month. Not even a really anticipated reread of my favorite book has been able to actually keep me hooked. I have been dealing with that feeling of wanting to read but failing, you know? This whole reading slump also made me a bit apprehensive of reading some books I know I might like because I have a feeling that my terrible mood won't allow me to actually enjoy them. Plus, I have been DNFing so many books in a row, that I might end up going into these reads with an unfair mindset. I might taint my experience with my terrible mood lol.

As someone does, I ran into the arms of that one series that always saves me, in my case, "The Murderbot Diaries" (I hope it works). And that brought me to the question: Are there any equivalents to The MBD in other genres? Like something with adventures and fun characters, short but not a stand-alone. I want something that will capture me in the first book but not make me feel like I am abandoning a story in the middle of the climax because I might not immediately pick up the next volume.I am already in the middle of a bunch of series that I can't bring myself to continue because there is a huge chance I might drop the book in the middle of it.

I am sure you guys know what I mean. If you know of anything like that, please feel free to drop them here. I have a vague memory of someone comparing "Someone You can build a nest in" to "The Murderbot diaries", saying it gives similar vibes. Let's see, probably, at some point. I FEEL IN THE PURGATORY waiting for something to click so I can go back to devouring books.

Also, tell me your slump saver book/series. I would love to know.

The earlier post about page limits (I can’t remember who posted it!) made me realize something very funny about myself: I would rather read one 1000 page book than a 3 book series that adds up to 1000 pages.

If the subject matter was within the realm of what I find interesting, there is a 10% (maybe) chance I would read the whole trilogy but like a 100% chance I would read the whole book.

And I wonder if this means we can map everyone onto two axes: long and short (vis-à-vis book length) and series vs one-off.

Tag yourself, I’m long one-off (calling this quadrant The Tolstoys). First person to claim each quadrant gets to name it 😏

Lucy and I were going through the Roadmap today (for those that don't know, we have a public roadmap to show what we're working on - you can find it in the "more" menu on the app in the top left of the navbar, or linked in the footer on web) and realized we've had a few requests for quarter star ratings. We said we'd let the community weigh in and make a decision, but the feedback thus far has been split. So, we're opening up the convo now!

Should Pagebound have .25 star ratings?

Pros: You can get granular with your ratings, you decide if you want to use the quarter star system or not (if you don't like them, you can continue to use half stars), many folks have personal rating systems that involve quarter stars

Cons: Since we have sub-ratings on PB, there is additional cognitive load to rating things like plot and quality with quarter stars (we think only having quarter stars for overall rating would be confusing and look like a bug). It could potentially discourage people from adding sub ratings if they feel paralyzed by the granularity

Very curious to hear what you all think!

I'm at my desk for the rest of the afternoon, so let's play an association game!

Step 1 Start a thread by posting a book title (preferably after checking the comments to see if that book has been posted by someone else yet). Step 2 Comment with a one word association on other people's books that they've posted. It can be a noun, an emotion, even an emoji. Even if you haven't read the book, post whatever comes to you and we can see how we all react just to a title. Step 3 Profit/discuss.

I will try and keep up with linking book titles that are listed here in alphabetical order, but I may end up falling behind.

Assassin's Apprentice Dracula Dungeon Crawler Carl Everything is Tuberculosis First Love: Essays on Friendship Frankenstein Gideon the Ninth Girl Who Drank the Moon, The Handmaid's Tale, The Hazelthorn I Who Have Never Known Men Lamb, The Legends & Lattes Lord of the Rings Loveless Monstrilio Nettle & Bone Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Piranesi Raven Cycle, The Shining, The Stranger, The Study in Scarlett, A Tomie West Passage, The

The infamous "JUST ONE MORE CHAPTER", as we tell ourselves...😂

For me it's pretty much any book that I started late in the evening and got absorbed into. Worse if it's a series because then I try to binge the whole series.

Most recently, it was Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives, either Words of Radiance or Oathbringer (I read these over the weekend and completely lost track of time lol).