hey everyone, not sure how to broach this as a topic, but I've noticed recently for the first time that I've been blocked by several users (idk what I did!), but some of these people are quest creators...

This means that I can't see the posts asking for recommendations in the quest forums or the main conversations in those quests.

I'm wondering if there are any guidelines for quest creators in terms of blocking (especially since I've never actually interacted with either of these users, aside from leaving a couple of congrats messages)? Has anyone run into a similar issue? I don't want to put people on blast, but I'm really confused right now!

I was scrolling through my TBR today and noticed some books that i couldn't remember adding. And reading the blurb on the books pages made me wonder why I had even add it to my TBR. Does that happen to any of you as well? I’ve resolved once again to keep track of why I add a book to my TBR. But what’s the best way to do that? I’ve just added a comment to the card for my latest TBR addition. But actually, that’s not something you can easily find again. I don’t think you can filter by your own activity in a book’s feed. Does anyone have a better system for this?

Okay so I'm about 30% and I just wanted to come back to the beginning and give a PSA to people who may have been scared away from starting this book because they've been told (like I was) that it's "hard to understand", "dense", "you're gonna need all your brain power", "it's a slow read". Folks, no it's not. Not anymore than any other epic fantasy book. It has also been a surprisingly fast-paced read IMO.

I delayed starting this series for so long because I was a little intimidated based on everything I heard and I'm annoyed that I waited this long. If you are an epic fantasy or sci-fi connoisseur then you won't have any trouble with this world. If this is your first ever epic fantasy then yes, you'll probably be a little lost. But ya know what? Good, be a little lost. I think people need to start being okay with not having a complete understanding of what's going on right away, learn to let the story unfold! You'll be fine, you'll enrich your mind and imagination. And I can already tell this book will lend itself to many rereads so you can always go back for a deeper understanding. And this forum is full of people theorizing and summarizing chapters so you'll have support as you read.

So if like me you've been on the fence for a while, go ahead and plant your feet firmly on the Start ASAP side.

As the title says! There are so many incredible tales with folklore, mythologies, and all sorts of lores coming out of East-Asia but as of now all are packed in one single quest.

WANT MORE!

At this point, more is less! Hehe! 🍒

This quest was created as part of the community quest voting of Q1 2026. Quests created by this approach are not actively maintained because they do not have a user assigned to maintain them. They cannot be expanded or altered by user recommendations. You may share recommendations for books and authors not included in this quest in this forum if you wish, but they cannot be added to the quest at this time.

I will be actively maintaining the original list, Black Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Speculative Fiction. I would invite you to consult this list if you're looking for additional books from the genre or have recommendations to share. I'm always adding new books to it, so be sure to check back often to see what else we've found together as a community.

I appreciate so much that you all believed in this list enough to make this quest a reality. I hope the list and quest both continue to be valuable resources for readers exploring black authorship in fantasy, sci-fi, and spec fic for years to come.

Best wishes, heathersdesk

[reposted due to messing up the hyperlink first time i posted]

hey everybody, i was glancing through past founder announcements recently and saw one that caused some worry in me, link here

i’ll copy here the specific section of the post that concerned me, so you don’t have to click through and read the full announcement if you don’t want to: “We will start a new program, community-voted Member of the Month (exact language TBD). Each month starting in the Fall, the entire PB community can nominate a user they believe embodies PB values. The user with the most nominations will be awarded a badge and the ability to create a Quest.”

i’d love to hear what other people here think about this feature. personally, i’m concerned that it could turn into a popularity contest/a value system based on who is the most active on PB and which usernames are recognized by the most people. i really hope that there will be something in place to prevent that sort of result, because a popularity contest doesn’t feel like the PB spirit i know. i just don’t believe that voting for a member-of-the-month will be the community-building exercise that it is intended to be.

Hi, I'm posting to ask if there are any books here that has the main focus on Dark Academia? There are a couple I read like A Dark and Drowning Tide and Ace of Spades where dark academia is in the background, sometimes barely noticeable, whereas other topics or genres are strong in the forefront like sapphic romantasy or YA Gossip Girl/Pretty Little Liars. These types of books with no a strong focus on dark academia are completely fine, I have nothing against them, the main reason I'm drawn to dark academia is because of the exploration into an elite university with the humanities studies and how it's twisted into something dark. The less focus on different genres, the better. Even The DaVinci Code is borderline to me, the thriller and detective vibes are stronger than dark academia vibes (and also it's fun to read how lowkey inaccurate the observations are 🫣).

It's why I've joined this quest to read more books like it. I'm thinking along the lines of:

• The Historian
• Babel
• Katabasis

The Secret History and Piranesi are good examples of what I'm looking for and I've placed a hold on The Secret History one. Are there any examples of that in this quest list? Thank you! 🥰

Hi, I'm posting to ask if there are any books here that has the main focus on Dark Academia? There are a couple I read like A Dark and Drowning Tide and Ace of Spades where dark academia is in the background, sometimes barely noticeable, whereas other topics or genres are strong in the forefront like sapphic romantasy or YA Gossip Girl/Pretty Little Liars. These types of books with no a strong focus on dark academia are completely fine, I have nothing against them, the main reason I'm drawn to dark academia is because of the exploration into an elite university with the humanities studies and how it's twisted into something dark. The less focus on different genres, the better. Even The DaVinci Code is borderline to me, the thriller and detective vibes are stronger than dark academia vibes (and also it's fun to read how lowkey inaccurate the observations are 🫣).

It's why I've joined this quest to read more books like it. I'm thinking along the lines of:

• The Historian
• Babel
• Katabasis

The Secret History and Piranesi are good examples of what I'm looking for and I've placed a hold on The Secret History one. Are there any examples of that in this quest list? Thank you! 🥰

Have you reread any of your childhood favorites and if so, how did they hold up?

I’m thinking of rereading some of my middle school favorite books mainly the The Hunger Games and Divergent, possibly Warrior Cats. I’m wondering if you’ve done the same and if so which books? I’d love to hear how you opinions changed or stayed the same from childhood you!

If you can remember whats your first ever book you read or just something you remember impacted you into reading or just you in general?

Let me go first. I think the first book I picked up was The Vampire Academy. I mean, obviously we read books in school, but this was the first book I actually chose to read on my own, and I legit think it changed my life. More in the way of like, “wow… books are actually GOOD and damn I want to consume more" I'd legit go to the library like weekly lmao ”

But also in a way is that I used to have a really bad learning disability as a child I ( still have it but is like low maintenance now ) and would act out a lot growing up, and I genuinely think picking up books and reading helped shape me into who I am today. I like to say it was almost like a switch went off in my brain. Like suddenly I wanted to try in school and the disability that held me back felt like it didnt impact me as much.

So yeah, Vampire Academy legit paved the way for my love of reading 🥹 Sorry, I rambled a lot lmao.

I just wanna know people orgin stories on discovering books lmao.