So, if you check this book as it standard hardback edition from the library or buy it in story, it should across the board be 368 pages* (according to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and more online retail listings). This total page number does not change when selecting hardback or paperback. However, there are no page numbers in these physical copies to keep track of your progress (despite often having margin space for them, but I digress).

I have gone ahead and kept track of what the book deems as chapters/sections while counting pages. Below is a way to keep track of your page number progress based on these chapter title cards:

• 03 BIOLOGY 101
• 11 PLANET XENO
• 25 SSSSSSSSSS
• 37 RACING TOWARDS SOMETHING
• 63 who's chris?
• 75 CLIT
• 91 BAG ACTION (weird font but confirmed by @moski with this )
• 119 COOK OUT
• 127 SEEING DOUBLE
• 147 SYMBOLS (i am having major trouble deciphering if this is a font or just symbols)
• 175 UNDER OPEN SKIES
• 187 THE WOODS
• 203 LIZARD QUEEN
• 223 i'm sorry
• 231 SUMMER VACATION
• 259 A DREAM GIRL
• 287 RICK THE DICK
• 299 driving south
• 317 THE END

*technically speaking, if you count every single page in this book, there are 368 pages. However, I began counting from the first page with an illustration that is beyond the title and crediting pages. This made my count for pages at 361. Idk, track how you see fit. I just get obsessive about numbers sometimes.

Enjoy this weird book!!

Beautiful illustrations done by John Burgoyne. _

"John Burgoyne is a member of the New York Society of Illustrators and an alumni of Massachusetts College of Art. John has won over 100 awards in the United States and Europe including Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, Hatch Awards, Graphis, Print, One Show, New York Art Directors Club and Clio." (information taken from the artist's website)

You can support him and find the rest of his work through his website: John Burgoyne Illustration _

Hello friends :) Happy spring ☀️

The weather is kind of all over the place for everybody, but this morning I woke up with the sun shining into my room for the first time in weeks, and birds chirping outside. It made me think about how, for me, there is something so comforting in knowing that nature always goes on, with or without us. Every morning the sun will rise, whether I see it or not. There will always be birds…somewhere.

Aside from contemplating my mortality in the face of spring, as one does, I’ve been travelling a bit and have finally settled home for a little while. I’m excited to get back into my books, and to see what this month’s tarot reading suggests when it comes to reading inspiration for all of us. If you’re also curious, read on, and let’s look at some pretty cards together.

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!

Big potential for April! Judgement suggests that we may read a book this April which opens up our minds in some way. There is a suggestion of some kind of realization about our reading practice this April, and we might learn something important about ourselves or about our current taste in books. The Magician representing our potential issues when it comes to reading, tells me we may not yet be able to sense this big potential that Judgement is talking about. In the Judgement card, you can see the two figures facing the other way, not revealing their faces. This is to say that this potential may be yet unknown to us but will become clear in time. However, The Magician in this position is struggling to trust something good may be coming without any evidence to support that, and because of this, we might be lacking motivation to read. Perhaps we haven’t had many of those “life-changing” reads so far this year or anytime recently, and we’re a bit in need of a change. Well, if we trust the Judgement card, this month might be the one to bring us some special books.

Remember that sometimes the most unexpected books may bring us joy and deeper insight into ourselves. This month might be a good time to let go of expectations and trust that this special read may come to you when you least expect it. _

Moving onto the second half of the reading, looking at the top row first. Here we are welcomed with the Knight of Swords, a determined and courageous individual. They are not scared to go against the grain: notice how the wind in the card is blowing against the direction of where the Knight is going.

Is there something you’ve been wanting to learn about for the longest time but never felt truly ready? Is there a non-fiction book sitting on your shelf that you know you want to get into “some day”, or a book on your TBR pile that you keep pushing back because you feel somewhat intimidated? If something specific comes to mind here, this Knight is here to encourage you to stop worrying about being “prepared” and just dive in head first. Details have a tendency of sorting themselves out as you go.

The Three of Pentacles card is talking about the side of this energy which is concerned with the work that we do in the material world, how our passions manifest physically. It also talks about recognition for that work, and how our own community reacts to it. I think what I’m getting from that is that there may be a worry of not being accepted by others if you allow yourself to dive into this topic suggested by the Knight of Swords. You may in some ways worry that your current community wouldn’t be very supportive, or you may have imposter syndrome when it comes to joining a new community of people who know more about this topic than you do. It bears reminding yourself that everybody started somewhere, with one book, one article, one conversation, one experiment… Also, even though all communities have bad apples, for the most part the view from the outside looking in is usually more intimidating than the actual reality of the situation.

Suggesting potential format for our non-fiction books in this category, we have The Hermit. Because of the potential intimidating nature of this topic we want to learn about, it might be good to look for resources written by people who are open to share their beginnings in this field and talk about the mistakes they made on their journey, as opposed to going into instructional guides that are very information heavy, without many real-life experiences and stories being included. _

For fiction books we’re looking at a very high powered run of cards here. Our first two cards are the Eight of Wands and the Nine of Wands. Both of them are overflowing with energy which at times can be overwhelming and chaotic. This energy can manifest in many ways for our main character(s), from personal transformation and rapid self development of some kind, to something outside of themselves, such as an exciting adventure in pursuit of a specific goal.

Nine of wands suggest we may be encountering a main character which is trying to deal with all this mostly on their own, rejecting help when it is offered and suffering for it. It may be hard for them to accept help because negative experiences in the past made them develop trust issues, or they may be a bit of a closed off individual in general and are now learning how to open up to others for the first time.

The third card, The High Priestess, talks about the more spiritual side of us, the side that listens to our intuition, looks for answers in the immaterial, and believes in magic like most of us did when we were kids. We are being encouraged to look at stories which have an element of magic in them. Perhaps our main characters have magical powers or are discovering the magic within themselves as the story goes on. A fantasy book with a solid focus on character development might be a fun one to dive into this month. _

That’s our April reading all wrapped up, and only a little bit late! I’m a bit excited about this Judgement energy, so I will report back in the next monthly reading, to let you know if and how that showed up in my book reading practice this month.

Because of travel and many deadlines I had in March, I didn’t end up reading too much. I remember we had King of Swords and Nine of Cups as our general advice for the month of March, encouraging us to assess our priorities and make sure we aren’t running from our responsibilities by escaping into books, so I tried to follow that advice. I mostly focused on work in March, and on managing some emotional stuff, and it was really good for me. I met all of my deadlines and feel much lighter heading into spring. I’m excited to do some spring cleaning too, but let’s not get too off topic here, haha.

Thanks for spending some time with me, and if you saw last month’s post, I’m happy to see you here again. If you feel like chatting, meet me in the comments! I’m always happy to hear what everybody’s been reading and studying recently.

Hope this month goes well for you.

(The sun’s coming back, folks! Woo!) . .

Previous readings: March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 . .

I noticed you can only add a percentage to a post if the book is marked as “reading”.

Because of the five-posts-per-day limit, sometimes I want to make another post about a book I have already finished, or even older books that I still have annotations/quotes for. Right now, to add a percentage, I have to temporarily mark it as “reading”, post, finish it again, and then delete the reading dates from my history.

It is not a huge deal, but I am curious if anyone else finds this annoying. If you have found a workaround, please let me know in the comments!!

Edit: I just learned we are not supposed to ask others to submit requests, which I did. That is my mistake and I apologize. I am still curious about other people’s experiences with this!

What is like a monumental, amazing episode of TV that really wedged itself into your brain permanently?

Mine would be Buffy The Vampire Slayer S5 E15 "The Body"

"Her friend group is so supportive that all of them have even bought her book, "Joy, to the World", a semi-autobiographical illustrated novel in which Kai writes for herself the happy ending that Texas denied her." _

For easy access, here's the info on the book:

Joy, to the World (2023) by Kai Shappley and Lisa Bunker, illustrated by Noah Grigni _

"Few things send me off into a fit of giggles like a woman wearing white trousers over dark underwear, unintentionally (let’s hope) showing the entire world the outline of her unmentionables. When said undergarment has a pattern of hearts or polka dots on it, the giggles become uncontrollable. Juvenile behaviour for sure, but who can blame me?"

(John Foster on "Thou shall be aware of paper show-through")

Men are not ashamed enough.