Pages Unbound

I saw someone tweeting a couple weeks ago about picture books that rhyme but had no meter, and I encountered one again this week. It was an author reading, and unfortunately the author couldn't read own work fabulously because it just didn't scan.

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes pagesunbound.wordpress.com/2026/03/27/the…

@theoceanblooms I definitely don't see the two as having much in common.

a wizard of earthsea and harry potter are really not at all similar honestly lol. harry potter probably draws more heavily from other british children’s fantasy literature. roald dahl influence is very clear to me. the worst witch too.

A Curse of Beasts and Magic by Jeaniene Frost (ARC Review) pagesunbound.wordpress.com/2026/03/26/a-c…

Happy Tolkien Reading Day! This is the first of a series of pieces recording my thoughts as I’m going through a slow re-read of The Lord of the Rings. dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/the-slow-lot…

I would really like to stop receiving emails talking about "gentle reminders." Please, just send "reminders"!

Books and Bookish Things We've Discussed the Past Week (#2) open.substack.com/pub/pagesunbou…

8 Changes I've Noticed in Book Blogging in the Past Few Years pagesunbound.wordpress.com/2026/03/25/8-c…

The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer pagesunbound.wordpress.com/2026/03/24/the…

The blogoftheday comes from @hcnewton and he’s written a fantastic post about the portrayals of religions in fantasy. irresponsiblereader.com/2026/03/23/fan…

@0Beanie05923291 As far as I can tell, at least half of elementary school doesn't teach history at all. It's more like "What IS the past?" and "What is my community?" I'm not sure what grade you even get to the Civil War in.

My husband just showed me one of those videos where they ask college spring breakers history/civics questions. I know they choose the most outlandish answers to post, but there were dozens who couldn’t answer who won (or fought in) the Civil War! There shouldn’t be a single college student (or 5th grader) who doesn’t know the answer to this. Good grief!

Portrayals of Religion in Fantasy (Fantasy with Friends) pagesunbound.wordpress.com/2026/03/23/por…

Eureka by Victoria Chang pagesunbound.wordpress.com/2026/03/22/eur…

@My_ComicRelief Ooh, that's a good question! I'll have to think about that!

@PagesUnbound Blah, that sucks. I’m sorry. Are there any old favorites you’ve never reviewed?

I have a backlog of reviews to write, and I think it's because I haven't enjoyed a lot of the books I've read recently. I want to write a postive review!

I am reading a book published in 2017 that discusses the decline in sales of mass market paperbacks, so I suppose the choice to stop printing them had been coming for a while. From Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve by Benn Blatt.

Reading Through the Hardy Boys Mysteries (Books 11-15) pagesunbound.wordpress.com/2026/03/21/rea…

Bots replying to blog posts:

@ZTFairfax Often it's obvious they picked something up bc they assumed people would buy it, not because anyone particularly thought it was good. Which is fine, but they always give out opposing messaging about this stuff. Are you experts who publish quality, or do you publish random stuff?

What's most concerning about this whole Shy Girl thing is that the book was so obviously written by AI when it was self-published, yet it was still picked up by Hachette. The use of AI was egregious, yet a professional editor bought it and released it in the UK

Reading Through American Girl: Kirsten (1854) pagesunbound.wordpress.com/2026/03/20/rea…