It's the time again when all the reading apps start to ask you about your book goal for next year. While normaly it makes me excited for next year, this year the message kinda stressed me out. It's not that I think I won't read much next year, just I don't want to plan it? I think it's connected to the world and life feeling so stressful right now and like everything that's kind predictable is that it's getting worse... I don't know if that makes any sense... Does anyone else feel similar? Do you (still) like setting reading goals?

When I look at my points on my profile it says things like "you left a comment +1" and the date is from 2 days ago, even if I just commented on a club post. Does comments there not count? I generally interact more with the club posts than book forums, but do we not earn points from that?

There might be a FAQ or something somewhere, but I haven't found it yet:,(

I've seen a few different star rating charts and am working on mine and I'm curious how y'all go about deciding on your ratings?

This is my current system: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Loved, highly recommend ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Liked, recommend ⭐⭐⭐ - Mid, might recommend ⭐⭐ - Disliked, won't recommend ⭐ - Hated, will actively go out of my way to tell people about how bad this book was because I can't get over the fact that it was published and that people like it and recommend it. There is hope for the rest of us wannabe authors.

He was "nearly 7 feet high" had "long arms that almost reached his knees and large fists like hams" checks that I'm reading the right book and not the latest booktok romantasy

Hi all! My boyfriend isn’t really a reader, but I’d love for him to read a bit more, mostly so I don’t feel quite so guilty disappearing into a book while he scrolls on his phone 😅 But of course, I don’t want to force it if he’s not into it. So far he’s only read self-development books (finances, mindset, that kind of thing), but after a long day he’s usually too tired to focus on those and ends up on social media instead. That got me thinking about gifting him one or two lighter books for Christmas, something more relaxing and fun. I’m leaning toward fiction, but I mostly read romance and romantasy, which I’m pretty sure won’t be his thing 😄 Do you have any recommendations for books that are easy to read, engaging, and not too long (ideally under ~400 pages) that might work for a non-reader? I know this is kind of a broad question, but I’m open to anything. And if anyone has successfully gotten their boyfriend into reading, what books did it for you?

ETA: Some movies and shows he enjoyed recently are The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, House of Cards, Queen of the South, Knives Out, Lupin, Money Heist, and Avatar. Thanks The_BookishBug for pointing out that this could help give better suggestions 💛

I'm reading an edition with illustrations by Bernie Wrightson and they look so beautiful 😍 very excited to get into this!

Okay, real talk: do you guys listen to music when reading or do you prefer not to? I lowkey sometimes can’t read some books without listening to a playlist. It sets the vibe, makes the world feel alive, and sometimes even makes me ugly cry. 🧍🏼‍♀️

But I usually only listen to music for some genres, for example:

🖤 Horror = I search for “atmospheric horror playlists”. 💜 Fantasy = If it’s famous enough, I search for book-specific playlists. The Poppy War playlist absolutely broke me on The Burning God last chapter 👌🏻

I usually do instrumental only. Lyrics = instant brain chaos.

So… what about you? Instrumental, lyrics, white noise, or silence? Got a playlist you swear by? Drop your links! I’m looking at (stealing) them all. ✨

ETA: Formatting.

I am sooo relieved that Daphne du Maurier has a very accessible writing style. I'm not in the mood for anything dense right now so I went in thinking if her style is anything like Jane Austen's then I would simply have to buckle in and hunker down but luckily for me her writing is very breezy, it's so easy to get swept into the rhythm of it