Wondering how folks distinguish between their “interested” and “tbr” lists! Is a tbr a higher level of commitment? If something is tbr, does it mean you’ll read it within a certain timeframe? I was on G**d****s forever so I’m not used to such an abundance of categories 😂

Let’s play an easy and quick game - Review Chain!

1️⃣ Post a book in the comments - just the title and author is enough. 2️⃣ Scroll through the books posted and leave a ONE WORD review (keep it spoiler free please) 🤫

Let’s see how many words can be used to describe each book, and how much they’re alike - or different! Feel free to kindly debate one another’s words!

Hope everyone is having a good week! 💛

HI omg!!! Welcome to our much-anticipated dystopian quest!!

In these wild unprecedented times we live in, but even since being a very disillusioned child, I loved to read dystopian literature. Sure, I do enjoy a good cozy read, too, but these books really make me think and feel seen. So this quest is really for everyone who has been told that they're overreacting to the news, because these authors clearly took a look at what was going on in the time they wrote their books and thought, "I'm going to take this ideology to the furthest logical conclusion, and I bet you it's not going to look so different from what we actually have going on around here."

Like many of you, I really hungered for a dystopian literature quest, and so when I became a TC, I started working on it right away. This was a labor of love for me, I considered 173 different books to get us down to this core initial set of 40 books. I have a long list of books that I am hoping to eventually add, but I also would love to get your recommendations, please feel free to add those to this thread.

In working on the quest, I learned a lot about the different types of dystopias we see represented in literature, and I will be making a post explaining those soon as well as which types each book presents (some are combos, which is fun!), once everyone gets to take a look around! I did make the conscious choice to avoid books that were purely post-apocalyptic, though those are often grouped with dystopian works. Instead, this quest will focus on books that present societies - some are crumbling, some are thriving, some are insular mini societies set against the outside world - but avoid those books that are comprised of a natural disaster, and the protagonists not knowing if they are the only people left alive and wandering around, if that makes sense!

Welcome, welcome, and if you'd like, go ahead and share what brings you to dystopian literature, if you have any favorites or recommendations, and anything else you'd like to share with the group! I'm excited to quest here by your side!!

I’ve been re-reading a lot lately (Fangirl, Graceling, I’ll Give You The Sun, The Raven Cycle, The Scorpio Races) and something about these books makes me feel so much more intensely. I feel consumed by them, and find myself re-reading the same paragraphs/pages over and over even after I’ve finished the book again. Do you think it is the books specifically? Maybe these authors are gifted at writing prose that speaks to me? Or their characters mean more to me, being familiar friends from childhood? Or do you think all of the feelings I’m experiencing are underscored by deep nostalgia, and that is what is intensifying everything?

I’m curious, do you experience the same thing when re-reading? And why do you think that is?

Hello my lovelies 🌸🥰 I learned something very interesting today, and that is the language of flowers, also called floriography, which has been used for centuries to send hidden messages through the choice of flowers in a bouquet. Especially the Victorian period is known for this, but this has existed for way longer and in different parts of the world. And even today we can come across flowers symbolizing something, often in literature, but also some meanings that seem to be almost universal (like roses).

This gave me the idea to propose a small bookish game:

🌸 Think of your favorite flower (without thinking about what it symbolizes, just a flower you love). 🌸 Then look up its symbolism / meaning (if you don’t already know). It can be either a general symbol this flower has, something specific to your country, or from any country or culture or historical time period (in case the meaning changed over time). You can go as broad or specific as you like. The more diverse this game gets, the better ☺️ 🌸 And now compare it to your usual book taste, if there is any parallel whatsoever (this can be something as « obvious » as liking red roses and romance books, or also your favorite flower hinting at smaller tropes or themes you might like to read about. Or maybe there is no parallel at all. Many flowers have multiple associations so you can pick any that fits.)

I hope you find this fun; I just personally love these little getting to know each other games 🫶 Plus, maybe we can learn something new about what different flowers symbolize in different parts of the world.

Straight up not for me 😭