The Sunday Prescription

One reading topic, one week of plans, and plenty of books administered weekly for chronic readers.

Happy Sunday everyone, and welcome to the first installment of The Sunday Prescription, where each week I plan on discussing a bookish topic, my reading plans for the week, and call out some books you all should be checking out! And as always, none of my stuff is written with any kind of generative AI - it's just me rambling!

My Symptoms: DNFing

I've talked a bunch before both here and other platforms about DNFing books, and my general thoughts around that. And, truth be told, I think I have a pretty solid feel for how I handle individual books. But I've had a few experiences this week that have really got me thinking about my approach to a series and whether I DNF that or not.

First, I saw some really interesting reels from C.J.Dennyreads and Sarahdoesbookishstuff
where they discussed the price of admission for reading a series, or the idea that for some series, you need to make it through a book or two before the series "gets good." This is pretty common (Suneater, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Throne of Glass all come to mind). Now generally speaking, I usually give a series one book. One. That's it. My thought is that, if I get to the end of book one, and I absolutely hate the characters, the story, and am severely bored or angry, I should just DNF the series. Stop. Do not pass go. Do not collect any money because I don't get paid to read things I hate. And as I thought about my favorite series, I realized I loved all the book 1's.

Now of course, if I can find some redeeming qualities, or see some light at the end of the tunnel, I'll keep going. However, Both Sarah and CJ made some great points and really got me thinking about this. Then I started listening to The Dragon Republlic, book 2 in The Poppy War Trilogy, and that got me thinking even more. Mild spoilers ahead for The Poppy War in the next paragraph.

I've posted my review of The Poppy War on socials before, and I really struggled with Rin. I think throughout the book, she wreaked havoc on everyone around her, made frustrating decisions (even for someone her age), and showed a tendency to be a sociopath (remember in tactics when she suggested to ruin the ecology of an area of the country for decades and lose tons of civilians in the process just to win one battle? THAT'S A SOCIOPATH!). And by the end, I was like wow, this book is really just about a sociopath who gets too much power and how bad war is - I know how that works as an avid reader of history.

Over the last few months I have been strongly considering DNFing the whole series, because I just thought this was a one note, one theme series, and I didn't find any of the characters interesting or compelling. Just kind of different shades of miserable. However, CJ and Sarah got me thinking about if I'm being too harsh. So I got my Libro audiobook credits, and promptly picked up the Dragon Republic. And wishing the first few chapters, this book is already showing more humanity and nuance for our characters than the entire first book, and has even made Rin redeemable for me. I was floored by how good the first six or so chapters have been. And it's made me think: should I revisit a few series I put down after book one, or start a series I have said I never would?

Now this is not to say I expect every single reading experience going forward to be game changing, and I will still probably DNF some series and avoid others. But it got me thinking about how I might tweak this approach this year. It's even got me thinking about whether or not I should read book 2 of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Let me know what you think in the poll below!

The Rx: What I'm Reading and Doing

Now as you all know, I am a feral mood reader, so my plans always reserve the right to change. However, this is what I'm reading this week:

• Our Sister's Keeper by Jasmine Holmes - this is a Bindery book, and I got an ARC on NetGalley. I'm going to finish the sone up as soon as I hit send on this newsletter. I have LOVED this so far. It is a souther gothic horror that focuses on a black town in Mississippi in the 1920's where the women are forced to bear the men's burdens through a mystical act, leaving the town eerily patriarchal and off.

• You Weren't Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White - Buddy reading this with a few of you all (Aiko in particular!), and have loved it so far. Body horror about a trans man in a dystopian world where cults, body horror, and the horror of existence for marginalized communities are explored.

• The Dragon Republic by RF Kuang - Will it turn out I love The Poppy War Trilogy?

• Songs of the Dead by Brandon Sanderson and Peter Ourllian - I was offered this as an ARC last week, and thought it would be cool to check out!

I am also excited because I'm approaching 25k on Instagram, 10k on TikTok, 1500 on YouTube, and 250+ here on bindery. The support everyone has shown me in the last year has been tremendous, and I'm working on a cool giveaway to celebrate all of these milestones. So stay Tuned!

Like More In-Depth Access?

If you enjoy getting into the details with me about reading, then consider upgrading to The Dark Travelers tier. My Dark Travelers get an exclusive Discord role and channels, a weekly deep dive reading update video, early access to YouTube videos, and each month they get to pick a book for me to read. This can be a book they want to read with me, or something they want me to try for them. I'm running over to my bookstore today to grab this month's pick, Stoner by John Williams, and we're doing Headlights by CJ Leede in July! It's super fun and a great tight knit group that I really enjoy talking books with, and I'd love to have you part of it!

Thank you as always for being here, and I hope you all have a great week of reading!

Big thank you to everyone who participated in our reading challenge for May! The winner of the may challenge and a $25 bookshop.org (or equivalent) gift certificate is jossansten (this was the name from the StoryGrapgh challenge). I could not find that name on the Discord server, and you cannot message through StoryGrapgh, so if this is you reach out to me by Discord DM or email and we will figure out your gift card.

And of course, it is now time for our June reading challenge. As always, participants are eligible for a $25 bookshop.org gift card (or equivalent if outside of the US). To be eligible, you have to either complete the challenge on StoryGraph (link below), or share what you read on our Discord chat channel for the challenge or as a comment on this post. Please choose only one method of participation, as I know some names are different between StoryGraph and Discord, and no double entries are allowed.

The theme for June is to "Read with Pride," which means reading something in the realm of the LGBTQ+ community. This can be a book written by an author who is LGBTQ+, a story about LGBTQ+ characters, etc. As usual, I'm not going to police this too much! Let us know what you're thinking about reading!

June Reading Challenge on StoryGraph

Something to call myself out on/explain: You may notice I did not originally have themed months for black history month, women's history month, and AAPI month. This was not to intentionally exclude those communities, and I figured there would be questions as we hit June. My original idea for the first few months of the year was to help people get back into reading and so those months had some specific themes. I left some months later on in the year as a bit more vague so I could have flexibility, so we will be revisiting those groups in later months!

I am looking at two books that I hope to get to:

• You Weren't Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White

• A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab

Let me know what you're planning on reading this month, and thanks as always for being here!

Thank you to everyone who voted for our Q3 book club books! If you are not a member, and are interested in how my book club works, check out the pinned post where I explain it all! The winners and months are going to be:

July: Jade city by Fonda Lee

AugustL The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem

September: Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

If you are a member here on Bindery and want to participate in the Discord server/Discord portion of the book club, but have not gotten into Discord, you can either check your emails from when you Joined as a Bindery member for the Discord invite, or click here to join the channel (there are a few application questions to ensure no bots are getting in!).

Also, for those interested, we will be having our in-person discussion on Sunday, June 7 at 8 PM EST. That runs through th video chat channel on Discord, and would love to have you all there to discuss this really interesting book! If you are seeing this and are not a member, you do need to be a member (free or paid tier) to join in our book club, so join on up!

Finally, remember you can buy books through the links here on Bindery, buy through my Bookshop.org affiliate store, or buy through Pango for used books and get $5 off your first order of $10 or more and it all helps me out! Looking forward to some great reads in the next quarter!

Hi everyone! Hard to believe, but it is time to vote for our Q3 Book Club picks! For those of you who are new around here, we pick our books out quarterly to give people time to find the books and prepare their reading plans. We are now selecting our books for July -September 2026.

If you are just here on Bindery and not on our Discord server, we take proposals on Discord. Everyone has a week to post suggestions, react, and comment. I then whittle them down based on the following:

• Popularity: How many emojis/comments did a book get.

• Content of comments - does it seem like the group is interested, have a large number read or not, etc.

• Ensuring a diversity of reads, authors, book/story types, and sizes.

• Last but not least, my interest is the tiebreaker when things are close.

We had 31 submissions for this quarter, and so many amazing books to choose from! We had 5 clear top choices, 3 that were pretty clearly next in line, and then one that I picked amongst a few that were all pretty close.

This poll will close in one week, and the final choices will be announced June 1. You may select up to 3 choices! And don't forget, if you are looking for more beyond the book club, consider upgrading to the paid tier where paid member's get to choose a book to read with me each month, or check out our many buddy reads we have going at all times over on Discord!

Happy voting!