The Readirect Podcast
Shifting the conversation back to books. Hosted by Abigail Freshley and Emily Rojas.
The Readirect Podcast
What’s in and What’s Out in 2024
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We're back from holiday break with a fresh episode where we recap our recent reads and look forward to 2024.
Books Mentioned
- I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
- Two Dead Wives by Adele Parks
- Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
- Heartstopper (series) by Alice Oseman
- Joseph Smith and the Mormans by Noah Van Sciver
- Manacled (fanfiction) by senlinyu
Plus, a Sam Claflin Count of Monte Cristo mini-series in 2024? Count us in (wink).
Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at @readirectpodcast.
Welcome to the redirect podcast . My name is Abigail Hewans and I'm Emily Rohas .
Speaker 2The redirect podcast is a show where we shift the conversation back to books . We discuss themes from some of our favorite fictional books and how those themes show up in real lived experiences .
Speaker 1On today's episode we catch each other up on our holiday reading and discuss what's in and what's out for our 2024 reading goals .
Speaker 2But first , if you've been enjoying the podcast , we would like you to make your New Year's resolution to leave us a review , a five star review , on Apple Podcasts and let us know how much you love the show .
Speaker 1And we'd love for you to follow us on Instagram at redirect podcast . Finally , if you really , really really love the show in this new year , we would love for you to share it with a friend . Maybe you have a friend whose New Year's resolution is to read more .
Speaker 2We would love to help with that , or hear from her , or him or them , yeah or them .
Speaker 1Sharing our show with a friend , as you said many times , is the best way to help us grow our community of book-loving nerds , and we're so excited to do that in 2024 .
Speaker 2We really are and thank you and welcome back , welcome back .
Speaker 1We skipped a week because we were enjoying the holidays with our people .
Speaker 2You have an ice cream man driving by .
Speaker 1Yeah . I can hear that that's awesome and you guys around you know this time every day . Everyone in like the east side of LA everybody's got an ice cream man that drives to their neighborhood at some point .
Speaker 2That's because you have this nice weather , 24 , seven , but , yeah , 365 . Yeah , it's ice cream weather , yeah , and we're just going to go to the movies . Yeah , we took a week off , but we did . I did push out our are you there ? God , it's me , margaret episode . So if you guys didn't catch that the first time , maybe you listened to it this time , this second time around . But I thought that's a great , such a good like to me . If you're home with family and you wanted to watch a movie , that would be a great one to watch with your family because it's very like it gets appropriate for all ages . It could be great if you have younger cousins or something , but you can also have some great conversations with your mom or your emotionally repressed grandma or anyone in your life .
Speaker 1You know what ? Have you been watching ? The curse on with Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone . I have not yet Okay , well , benny Safdie is in that show and he's the one who plays Margaret's dad . Yeah , and I just put that together because the character that he plays in the curse is so different . And now I'm like I kind of need to go back and watch that movie again to see him in a different light , because he's so lovable and sweet and charming in that one and in the curse he's like a total douchebag .
Speaker 1Yeah , Recommending everyone watch the curse . It's not based on a book , but it's great .
Speaker 2Well , here we are . It's a new year , a new me .
Speaker 1Here we are . Did you have time or ambition or will or desire to do any reading over the holiday ?
Speaker 2break Complicated ? Yes , because , as you know , eric's family is here visiting from Mexico , and they've been here since like the 15th or something of December . Oh wow , so pretty much it's New Year's Eve .
Speaker 1Yes .
Speaker 2And they're still going to be here for another week , but anyways that's been great . Obviously they have this is , for most of them , their first time visiting the US , and so that just we've been doing a lot of stuff with them . And we just got back , actually two days ago , from Universal Studios where we were all last week so pretty tired . So anyways , it's been a very I was telling Eric like I have had I had a great time in Universal . It was actually a lot more fun than I expected , because I thought the crowds would be like horrific , but they really weren't that bad . But it's like so different because normally the week of Christmas or between Christmas and New Year's I would be like doing nothing , reading all day , you know be watching some movies or something . So it's just a different vibe . But I did listen to some audio books on the drive Nice drove the whole way , and so I have two audio books I can talk about . And then I also did read a book in one sitting yesterday and it's actually something you recommended .
Speaker 2So I've had some okay , we'll just dive in . So the first thing I read over the holidays , and the only thing I actually physically read , was I'm thinking of ending things . Oh , who's ?
Speaker 1that by Ian .
Speaker 2So not a holiday , that is not a holiday read Um no , and actually I've been putting it off because I got it . I don't know how long they let you have a Libby hold , but I've had it for a while and when I got it first I was just feeling like really anxious about life and I'm like .
Speaker 1This is not the time .
Speaker 2Abigail has warned me . But then yesterday I was like I slept in a lot . I laid around all day because we just got back from our trip and I was feeling like I want to read something and it's about to run the whole doctor run out . So I read it and it was crazy .
Speaker 1It is so creepy right so .
Speaker 2I was .
Speaker 1I was recommending this to somebody the other day who was like I love really creepy , Like I want the most creepy messed up thing . I love reading like weird messed up books and I was like , Okay , do I have the book for you ?
Speaker 2And it's short .
Speaker 1But there's nothing about the book . That okay . Everything about the book is made to unsettle you , including the punctuation , the way that the sentences are put together . Yes , they're like , purposefully incorrect sometimes in a way that , like that , doesn't even provide you any comfort .
Speaker 2It's extremely unsettling , that's the best way to put it .
Speaker 1Like you do it , you don't really know what's going on . It's just weird .
Speaker 2Yes , I really liked it . I feel like you always feel like you're about to get some answers and then something even weirder happens .
Speaker 1And the books . Only I mean the book . It can't even be longer than 200 pages , like it's not long .
Speaker 2No , it's like an hour and a half or something , Like it really wasn't long and , like I said , I just sat down and read the whole thing , so it's pretty short . But at the end I kind of had to go back and read some , like read the last couple of pages again , Because I was like wait , what is it what ? What happened ? You know what's going on , but it is . Yeah , it's very unsettling , I will say , but I did enjoy it . But again , like you guys said , like Abigail said when she was recommended , you have to be in the right frame of mind for sure you need to be in the frame of mind where you're like you kind of want to be like unsettled like , yeah , like it's like if you're like in a true crime mood you know ?
Speaker 2yes , I don't know , it's just like kind of worse .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's just kind of like did you ever watch ?
Speaker 2probably not , and for good reason . But did you ever watch the movie mother with Jennifer Lawrence ? Oh no , okay , you know why ? Because I've seen all those interviews . Yeah , don't do it .
Speaker 1I have PTSD from doing this movie .
Speaker 2No , okay , I'm here for watching it . I have enough trauma in my life Like I'm good . This book made me feel the same way as watching that movie , though , where it's just like one thing after another and it's just so unsettling and you don't really know what's going on . But also reminded me of a little bit of the author who wrote cackle Rachel Harrison Harrison I wanted to say Hawkins , I know that . Anyways , in like the descriptions , because it was so visually descriptive at some times with these weird scenes that you could really picture it in your mind of like oh , it's just unsettling in a really creepy way .
Speaker 1Okay , mini spoilers . Skip ahead 30 seconds if you don't want to hear it . But what did you think about the part like the first part , when he's like I think I were the narrator is like I think I see myself in that photo .
Speaker 2That was horrifying . Yeah , I was like Hello . And you're just like , okay , that's where . Okay , this is major spoilers , so again , just skip ahead . Skip ahead If you want to read , or we can cut this out , whatever .
Speaker 2No , I'm not cutting it out . I want people , the people , to hear this . But if you want to read it , then skip ahead If you don't read it . So at the end you find out that basically the narrator and this girlfriend are the one person he's imagining all these scenarios . But the whole time I was like , okay , girl , like you need to get out of this situation . Obviously , by the end you find out , you know that they're , she's not a real person , so that makes it a little better . But this whole you know she thinks she sees a picture of herself as a child in this house and the parents because she sees a picture of themself .
Speaker 2Yes .
Speaker 1But the opening is like I'm thinking of ending things and it's like you're made to believe that it's a girlfriend thinking about breaking up . But it's really about the man , the main character , thinking about killing himself .
Speaker 2Yeah , and ending this whole illusion of this girlfriend who's not real and the parents who aren't real , and it was just very unsettling . But yeah , there's certain moments where I was like , Okay , if this started happening I would be like I'm leap , I'm getting out of this situation by any means necessary . Like so , yeah , in the basement . Yeah , it was just , it will definitely stick with me , but it was good . Yeah , it was a good creepy read , If you want to be creepy .
Speaker 1We're not making it sound great , but for that , for that , it hooked you .
Speaker 2Yes , yeah sometimes I want more than anything to open a book and just be instantly hooked into it and yeah and proved out . But really , just , you know , like that's why I like thriller sometimes , because , like from the first page you're like what's gonna happen .
Speaker 1So if you're in that mode , yeah , psychological .
Speaker 2It's not super violent , so it's not like gory really , but it's just . Yeah , it is a little , it's just unsettling . If you've watched Mother , you know what I'm talking about . It's that same feeling , which may not be an endorsement . I would never watch that movie again , but yeah , it's the same vibes . Anyways , did you read anything over ? Break Anything you want to share .
Speaker 1I did so , okay . So if you listen to our last episode with our friend Hannah , she recommended or she was talking about it , at least she was looking forward to was Heartstopper , volume six in 2024 . And so I was like , oh , let me try one . So I got from the library like the first three volumes there's like five out right now and they're so fast to read but oh my God , they were so cute and sweet and heartwarming that I honestly cried of joy a few times . They were so sweet . And then I the fifth one was released like on December 19th went and picked that up at the bookstore and so I read all the available volumes of Heartstopper .
Speaker 1I mean that wasn't a huge lift because their graphic novels , like you , finished them pretty quickly . The show is out on Netflix that covers the first like four volumes or the first three volumes , but anyways , I loved it , it was really great . And then I was like I kind of like this whole graphic novel thing like this is cool . And so I hit well , emily . So I was at my local coffee shop the other day because I have two weeks off of work , yes , and I text Emily and I was like , oh my God , I just saw Michael from Jane the Virgin . He's sitting directly across from me at the coffee shop .
Speaker 1And his name is Brett Deere or Brett Dyer . How would you say it Brett Deere or Brett Dyer ? I think it's Brett Dyer , but Brett Dyer okay , he could be wrong . I was like , yeah , this is 100% him . He's literally sitting right across from me . I'm having a really hard time like not looking at him .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1I was reading a brown leather hardback book with like a ribbon bookmark called Joseph Smith and the Mormons . So I was like hold on , Is this like a book of Mormon Right ? Is he like hyper religious ?
Speaker 2Is he a Mormon ? Yeah ?
Speaker 1And so I'm like so nosy .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1So , of course , I start Googling Sure and I find out that no , this is not a book of Mormon . This is not whatever . This is a book , a graphic novel called Joseph Smith and the Mormons by Jonathan Van Schiver Cyver Probably not how you pronounce his last name but I was like interesting . So I picked it up and I was like I'm really interested in this . I'm interested in Mormonism , not like from my , I want to practice it ?
Speaker 2No , but like it's fascinating to me , it's fascinating to me .
Speaker 1Yeah , it was excellent . It's much longer , but what I've started to so like through that , I was like , oh man , it's so cool when people do like nonfiction books as graphic novels . I learned so much about Joseph Smith . It was so interesting . The art was amazing . Honestly , I'm going to send it to you because I think he would really like it .
Speaker 1I made Zach read it and there was like there was a bunch of stuff I didn't know and I would just . And so the cool thing about this author he grew up Mormon , actually , like he is like a direct descendant of Brigham Young .
Speaker 2Oh , wow .
Speaker 1So he grew up super Mormon and his parents divorced when he was a kid and when they did , his mom kind of left the church and so he started kind of like unraveling his Mormonism and but he wrote this book , this graphic novel about his life and the life of the other leaders at the Mormon church in a really like I guess like kind of compassionate way where , like you see them as full human beings , like they really believed all this stuff was happening , but also it's kind of sanitized a little bit . It was just really really good .
Speaker 2Yeah , that sounds really interesting . So it is a nonfiction , but graphic novelized version .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean again . I'm really new to graphic novels . It is nonfiction , it's like a , it's a biography of the start of the Mormon church . Yeah , but it's kind of cool because I mean , the whole thing is dialogue , but the photo , like the drawings and the art that he does fill in the just you know what would be rather otherwise be the descriptors or like you know the direction of the book and he uses the art to tell the story .
Speaker 1So when things start falling apart in Joseph Smith's life , the art changes , the colors change . That's really interesting Throughout the book . When there are like these moments in his life , the art changes Interesting . And you learned about his wife and it was like I couldn't stop reading it . Wow , Okay , yeah , Send it to me . Like I really wanted to keep reading it and I was like , man , this is a great way to read more like biographies and nonfiction type stuff . Like I love this way of doing it . Yeah .
Speaker 2No , that is really interesting . Sometimes those can be so , like you know , yeah .
Speaker 1Totally , but this was really cool . So thank you , brett Dyer .
Speaker 2Thank you , Brett .
Speaker 1Even though I am always team Raph like the day I die Sadly . We love you .
Speaker 2He's a great character though Michael is a great character , he's just not . Yeah , I mean he's a cop .
Speaker 1Well , that's true . Okay , team Raph , I'll . I have one more thing that I have to talk about . Okay , I was influenced to read Manicold . Okay , by Senlin you . Are you being influenced to read Manicold on your TikTok ?
Speaker 2Honestly , not really . I think I've seen that once . But not too much , Not too much Okay .
Speaker 1Okay , okay , all right .
Speaker 2I want to .
Speaker 1Manicold All right . Manicold is a fan fiction About Draco and Hermione .
Speaker 2Okay , I have been influenced to read this .
Speaker 1Sorry , I didn't remember the name of it , but I have .
Speaker 2I have it bookmarked . I was ready , I'm ready to read it .
Speaker 1Here's the thing . Yeah , it is very long .
Speaker 1Okay so okay , manicold is . Let me just give some context If you are not on like this , if you're not here with me on the internet . Manicold is by a fan fiction author called Senlin U , obviously based on Harry Potter , and this is a universe . It's kind of like , if you you know in like Marvel , how there's like split universes . So this is like the same world as Harry Potter , except after the ending of the fifth book , basically after like the war at the department or the battle at the department of mysteries , things have changed . Okay , so like what you know from like book six and seven .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's not that doesn't happen .
Speaker 1This is a world in which Harry Potter is dead oh they , the Lord Voldemort did not die at the battle of Hogwarts and Hermione is a prisoner and she has been assigned Basically , this is like a mashup of , like Harry Potter and the Handmaid's Tale , and she has been assigned to a deaf eater as basically his Handmaid . Oh my God . So let me just say this is obviously every possible trigger warning . Yeah , it's extremely dark , but this is a book about war , about love , I mean . Obviously it's trigger warnings for sexual assault and rape and all sorts of things . So like , please Be cautious , please be . I mean , and she does a really good , the author does a really good job of giving content warnings at the beginning of each chapter . Yeah , but , like I said , this is a Drumini fan fiction , and so you ask yourself how could I possibly ever ship that relationship in this world ? Yeah , according to these terms , right ?
Speaker 2This is not possible .
Speaker 1Right , but it is Just believe . You just have to believe and push through . This book is so freaking long because obviously it's a fan fiction , so she was releasing it like chapter by chapter over a long time . Yeah , so I mean it is . I mean it's like thousands of pages .
Speaker 2Yeah , but worth it , I think , so it was really good , I mean like I said , I do have it bookmarked , so I knew that I will be . Maybe that's what I need to do now , cause I tried to start , I don't know . I've been really reading a lot of bad romance and I'm DNFing lately Cause I just want to read a nice like a good , not even nice , I just want something good and I started one last night and I was like I already like , no , I'm not going to finish this . It's not good , there's a lot of crap out there . So maybe we need the fan fiction writers of the world to bring us it's unbelievable .
Speaker 1I mean , okay Is the . I mean sure I've had read better writing , of course , but I would say , like the story keeps you engaged throughout .
Speaker 1That's what I want . And the complexity of , like the things that you have to sacrifice in a war yeah , what you give up of what you give of yourself to another person I mean it is honestly like it's unbelievable and everyone I mean I'll buy . Like I have a friend who read it and she texted me when she was done and she was like I'm so unwell and so I was so scared it was going to be a horribly sad ending and a lot of people are emotional at the ending . But it's not . It actually is a satisfying ending , wow .
Speaker 2Okay , consider me influenced as well by you . I got it on my Kindle .
Speaker 1It was super . It was formatted really well to read on your Kindle . And there's also she . The author worked with a bunch of artists to create original art for the book .
Speaker 2That are linked to all the chapters .
Speaker 1That add a lot . The original art is beautiful and I just really want you to read it out . Okay , I'm on it . That's what I was reading today when I was like I can't start recording until one . Okay , Cause I was . I had to finish cause I knew I had to talk about this . Amen .
Speaker 2Okay , I have two audio books I read as well .
Speaker 1Oh , I'm sorry , no , you're good , You're good .
Speaker 2I just totally forgot that you're I'm so sorry .
Speaker 2We're chatting , we're chatting , we're chatting , okay . So one I read was it was leave the world behind by I'm so sorry about this Ruman Alam . I was trying to Google how to pronounce that name while we were talking , but that's the best I can do . Anyways , this was a . This is made into a movie for Netflix , so that's why I picked it up , cause I was like , well , if I like the book , maybe I can watch the movie after . The book was a solid right . I'm looking at the reviews it has like 3.5 stars . I feel like that's pretty on , accurate , on point .
Speaker 2But also I listened to it on Spotify , cause you turned me on to these Spotify audio books . Did you have time ? No , but for some reason it it like skipped a couple of chapters . Oh no , so for a second I was so confused . It only skipped like one and then it would go like it would go to the next , next chapter , but it did it twice . So then I kept getting confused , but then I right back . Anyways , it was , it was good .
Speaker 2So basically , the premise is , if you don't know anything about this , this family goes away to a vacation home that advertises they can like leave the world behind and it's like a very solitary house in the middle of the woods in Georgia , I think it's in Georgia and a couple nights are there and then the family that owns the home is this older black couple , knocks on their door and basically is like hey , this is our house and there was a major blackout . We don't know what's going on . We were driving , you know from the city or whatever , and can we just stay here till we figure out what's going on ? And so these like two families are kind of forced together . The other family is white , they have young kids or a lot younger , and essentially they don't really know what's going on . And you don't really know what's going on .
Speaker 2It's like kind of slowly revealed that it's some kind of global catastrophic , you know event , I don't know . Some parts were a little weird to me , like I don't know just some of the writing I didn't love , but I did like the concept and I guess I thought from the from . The trailer on Netflix to me does not convey what this book's about , because that seemed way more like supernatural or like . I don't know if you've seen the trailer , but it's really , it's happened . It made it seem more because the trailer just shows the couple knocking on the door and being like this is our house and it makes it seem like I don't know , like maybe there's like different realities or I don't know . It just made it . It didn't seem like there's some kind of disaster that happened .
Speaker 1So that's kind of what I was expecting . It really wasn't their house .
Speaker 2Yeah , exactly so , but no , it really is . So it was just a little more , I don't know it was , I don't know just different than I expected . But I did like the idea of like , okay , if you don't have TV , you don't have your phones , you don't like have Twitter , and something horrific happens , how would you know what was going on ? And what would that be like if you had no idea ? You know what was going on in the world and what would you do if you were , you know , trapped in this ? You know , in their house , at their end , they still have electricity , for the time being running water , but you don't know how long it's going to last , because they really don't know what's happening . They just have like a couple clues that they can put together from like what they've experienced . But I just thought that was kind of fascinating .
Speaker 2I would have liked , I liked that concept of like what would you do if , if you had no way to get information ? You know , and that's honestly probably the reality for a lot of people , and you know , like I was thinking of the war going on right now in like Gaza and like so many people there probably don't have access to like information and stuff , and so that probably is a reality if you're in kind of a war zone . But I don't know some parts I didn't love , but I did like the concept of , like you know , kind of being stranded and not knowing what to do and weird things are happening , and so that was I don't know 3.5 stars .
Speaker 1Okay , cool .
Speaker 2And then my last one I read was called Two Dead Wives , another audiobook by Adele Parks , and actually I'm fully finished this yet , because I was listening on the way back and it actually looks like I have a good bit of this book left , so I won't comment too hard on it . But basically this book is this woman goes missing and she's reported missing by her husband . But once she is reported missing they find out that she was living another life as another man's wife . So she had two people who thought they were her husband and , oh my gosh , yes , and so that's kind of like an added layer . So basically , like two dead wives , there's two women who were missing , but they were actually just one person , and they've arrested it's pretty good .
Speaker 2So far , so good . Obviously , I haven't finished yet , but one of the husbands is about to be arrested for her murder . They find like a crime scene with blood and where she was tied up they have her DNA , but they don't have a body . And then it's like there's multiple perspectives . This is like a mini spoiler . It's revealed pretty early on . Should I not say it ?
Speaker 1No , you're going to read it , okay .
Speaker 2I'll just say there's a lot of different perspectives . There is a many-spoiler twist . I think you'll figure out pretty quickly . I did . But , as I said , there's a lot of the book left . So I think it's like it kind of reminds me so far of Jillian McAllister , where it feels like she reveals a big twist kind of early on , but then there's always another twist coming . I kind of feel that way because I thought it was further along because , honestly , a lot has been revealed , but I'm only about halfway through and two major kind of twists have already been revealed . So I feel like there's probably more to come .
Speaker 2But there's also two young boys . One of the husbands has had two children from a previous marriage and so their perspectives are involved . It's really interesting and I will say the audiobook narrator for this is really good because she does there's male perspectives , female perspectives , the kids there's some chapters from their perspectives and she does the voices really really well . So if you're looking for a good audiobook , I think this is also a great audiobook because the narrator just does a really good job . She talks like she doesn't change her voice to sound like teenage boys , but the way she talks you're like this sounds kind of like a teenage boy .
Speaker 1You know who the different characters are yes , so she does a really good job .
Speaker 2I really recommend it and I have to finish it so I can . Honestly , I started talking about it . I thought it was a lot further because , again , like a lot has been revealed and has happened , but there's still a good bit left . So I'm excited to see how it ends . But that's what I read over break .
Speaker 1I love that . That's a good lineup . Yeah , not bad . When you were talking about Spotify audiobooks , it reminded me to mention one more thing about Manicold , which is that some very amazing people on the internet made an audiobook for Manicold .
Speaker 2Wow .
Speaker 1But they have it set up like a podcast so , like , each chapter is the episode If you are looking to listen to it , or like do ?
Speaker 2a little bit of both .
Speaker 1I will say the first , like half of the book is a half way through the narrator's change . When I got to the second narrator I was like it's an American doing a British accent . I was like oh , the first half is just a British person doing a British accent . So yeah , Anyways , just throwing that up .
Speaker 2Yeah , that was good to know .
Speaker 1Yeah , thank you All right . Well , it's obviously New Year's Eve , yeah , so New Year , new goals , maybe . Yes , what are you ?
Speaker 2feeling I'm doing another goal . I don't care if I didn't meet my goal this year , I'm just going to try , try again . Yeah , try . Actually , I did meet my goal once . I changed my goal to be 50 . I did a lot of books two weeks ago .
Speaker 1Yeah , well , here's the thing . I think also , like you've had a really crazy year . Yeah , there's just been like a lot of changes . You moved , you got a new job , yeah , like it's just been a lot . So , yeah , fair enough , fair enough . So you're going going with number goals again . So this is something we talked about last year . You're more of a number goal person . I'm not so much of a number goal person .
Speaker 2Yeah , I feel like I'm , I'm , I'm not . This year I was not as much motivated by it , like I just kind of felt , and I think that's a good way to approach it , obviously . So I felt like I was in a good mindset . I was like if I read enough , that's fine , but it doesn't like haunt me . I feel like if your numbers are haunting you or your stress , then don't do it . But to me I'm just like okay , I just want to try .
Speaker 2I really want to try to read 100 books in a year , but maybe I need to work my way back up to that , because you know , this year I got to 55 . Um , but I know I could do it . But you're , five is still really good . No , it's so great . My goal , really honestly though , in the serious mode , I don't know what my number goal is going to be . Maybe I'll just start with 50 and see . You know how we go . But my goal for next year would to do be to do a little more reading . That's not for the pod , cause they feel like I did a lot for the podcast this year . Obviously , I read a lot of other stuff too , but I would like to increase the other stuff , you know , a little more .
Speaker 1So I wonder if maybe something good for you would be , like , I mean , I guess you could just do , you know , 50 divided by 12 or whatever , but like you could also do , like you could start the year with monthly goals and if you're easily meeting or exceeding those monthly goals , then you can tick up your annual goal . That's so true , you know , instead of thinking about it , like you could just kind of see , like what you are , what you have the appetite for , yeah , and I think that's best . Maybe , like you know , every three months , okay , am I on . If I keep at this pace , which has felt pretty good , here's how many I could probably reach , or I could challenge myself a little bit more . That's a great idea . I think I'll do that but .
Speaker 1I do hope to have more time .
Speaker 2I feel like this year was crazy , like you said , so I think next year I would like to have more time and also like the mental energy , because I just watched a lot of TV this year when I had free time , like 90 day fiance so I would like the mental energy to read more .
Speaker 1Yeah , I honestly think having a work from home , job which down we will have really helps with that . It does .
Speaker 2And I've been doing a lot of audiobooks . That's why I've been I've been reading more towards the end of the year . I've been reading a lot of audiobooks while working , sometimes because I feel like a chill audiobook . Yeah , sometimes it's better than a podcast to me for like background noise , yeah , so anyways , I would like to continue to do that a little more in the Spotify thing . That's really blown Totally .
Speaker 1Exactly , I think , another way to approach number goals , like you know , for listeners . If you're thinking about , you know , I think you could think of number goals as like . I want to read this many minutes a day or this many times a week yeah . This means this I want to pick up a book this many times per week .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1It doesn't necessarily have to be like I'm trying to reach all these goals because , like , then you get in the comparison game and then you're like , you know , people have in there , like their Instagram bios , like this is how many books I've read , and so on and so forth , like you know , then it gets kind of exhausting . But , like , if you're , let's say , you're like starting from zero yeah , and you didn't , like , you didn't finish a single book last year If you pick up a book 20 , like for half an hour a day , like you're going to dramatically pick up what you're reading and maybe that seems easier . Or like more not easier , but I guess more accessible than just saying , like this is how many books I'm going to read in this entire year .
Speaker 1Like , yeah maybe just start with . You know , I'm going to try this many , this many different authors , right ? This many different genres , this many minutes a day . Like yeah is a small step you can challenge yourself with .
Speaker 2The other thing is number of books is so like to me . I like to count my number of books , obviously , but it's also like , you know , when you read like the Count of Money , chris , so that's like . Or if you read like I'm thinking , yeah , our manicold , those are vastly different Lengths of books , and so it could be like maybe you want to count pages or word counts or something like I don't know just have to be number of books .
Speaker 2It could be whatever you want , but if you want to do a number , there's like you said , there's so many different ways to do a number goal without just sheer number of books , or do a number of books but be chill about it Don't don't worry .
Speaker 1Yeah , like this year , I read the Count of Money , christo , but I also read Little House on the Prairie , exactly .
Speaker 2But I counted that as a little too yeah .
Speaker 1And that was that . Took me not much time at all . So , yeah , maybe it's pages , maybe it's words . If a number goal is your thing and that's the way it works for you , For me that doesn't motivate me .
Speaker 2Yeah , and I had no problem reading a ton of books this year without having a number goal so yeah , maybe you don't want it like you track your books but you don't have a goal , so maybe you know it still feels good to know how many books you read . You know like there's so many different ways to approach it of like , hey , I'm not going to have a strict goal , but I'm excited to see what my stats look like at the end of the year or what my you know how much I read this year . That's so fun , so you can do it some different ways .
Speaker 1There's really fun ways also to track your books . I mean , obviously there's like good reads and story graph that you know most people are aware of . This year I did a little spreadsheet for myself that I color coded . So I did . I did categories like date completed , title , author , genre , subgenre , format , the format I read it in . So , did I read it on Kindle paperback card cover audiobook . Did I borrow it or buy it ? And then what my rating was .
Speaker 2Yeah , so you can kind of compare like okay .
Speaker 1So I say I really like historical fiction , but I only actually read a handful of historical fiction books this year , like , actually , what I'm seeing here is like a lot of romance , a lot of mystery and thriller , you know . So it just it's also helpful Also . I mean , the listeners won't see this , but I'll show you . So I'm in . I became a bullet journal .
Speaker 2Girly Christmas break because I had two weeks off work .
Speaker 1I was like what am I going to do ? So , inside of my book journal , I made a reading log . I'm still going to log my books online . But look what I did I cut the pages so that it's like a mini book inside . That's cute .
Speaker 2That's really cute . I know right , that is extremely cute .
Speaker 1And I was talking to a friend who's also kind of into like reading , journaling . Uh huh , she was like , yeah , I started it to like track my books and to track my reading . But she's like , then I got more creative with it and I would create spreads in my journal of like arts or doodles or my favorite quotes from certain books , so that I could remember .
Speaker 2That's cute . Yeah , it's a great idea .
Speaker 1And it's not just about , like , the science of tracking your books , but it's also about , like , when I was reading it , what did I feel ? What kind of colors did I want to use ?
Speaker 2That's really nice .
Speaker 1My favorite quotes , things like that , so I might try and find ways to incorporate that into my journaling this year too . That are not like performance based . Yeah , I really like that Because you know that feeling like when you read a book and you're like this feeling is so great . I love this freaking book .
Speaker 2Yes , so I started it with Jazzy or gov arc .
Speaker 1You always remember like man . I wish I could read that for the first time .
Speaker 2Yes .
Speaker 1Having like a visual description of what that felt like for you in the moment .
Speaker 2Yes .
Speaker 1And I'm not even a very , I'm not an artistic person , I'm not good at drawing , but you know , it's just something to remember . Yeah , I like to do that .
Speaker 2Well , I've only done this twice , but I would like to do this more and if I'm inspired to in 2024 , I've made twice . I've made a playlist for a book oh fun , and that's a really good way , like sometimes it's so nice to listen to it . You can remember , like the things in the book that inspired you . So I have one for the Count of Mine , christo , and for Happy Place by Emily Henry .
Speaker 2Oh , I love that those are the two that really struck me . But I would like to do that some more because I just really enjoyed that and like I like listening to those playlists and kind of like reminiscing or I don't know just puts you in that same place . You like , whatever those feelings were that the book made you feel it can kind of bring those back you know I was also talking to a friend recently about creating more of a mood when you read .
Speaker 1Yeah , because she was like I have a harder . She's like I love listening to audiobooks , but I want to increase the amount of time that I can sit , my intention span for sitting down and actually , yeah , and she was like I think I need to create a better mood . And so several times in this last year I have searched like public playlists on Spotify , like instrumental playlist , for you know , I did this with Heartstopper . I found some really good playlist for like POV . You're listening to Heartstopper or you're ?
Speaker 2reading .
Speaker 1Heartstopper and it created the best . Like I was like that's really nice , yeah , people on the internet , yeah , so that's really fun . So , you know , maybe it's pairing it with that or , like you know , having a special reading chair yeah , create like a moment for yourself with reading . Yeah , I think that that helps . I definitely agree so .
Speaker 2I love that . Also this year I would like to continue a goal I started last year , which was the Storygraph Read Around the World Challenge . I did not finish a single book on that challenge . I have been reading one literally the entire year , but it is . I've talked about this now like four times . I've made progress in it , but it is a real downer and it's a book where you have to like be fully engaged because it's so well written and so it's . I'm like halfway through now , but I've been reading only like one chapter at a time because it's just like one of those books where I don't know like normally I don't read every single word . You're just kind of like you knew , you knew , you know . But this is one of those books where it's it's almost like poetry . It's like reading a book of poetry to me , where you can sit down and read one chapter and then it's like , okay , I need to think about that for a while , so I need to marinate it .
Speaker 1Anyways , I do still have several books I bought for this challenge .
Speaker 2So I would like to continue to read those and just continue to . I think , yeah , like diversify what you're reading , but also read from other countries . So that would be my . I'm going to continue that on until next year .
Speaker 1Yeah , similar goal for me and maybe I'll join you in the reader on the world is I'm trying to read in 2024 , more translated works . I read a translated book . This year and it was a really interesting reading , a book that's translated from another language into English , I feel like it really honestly felt a lot different , even though it was still in English , like there were a lot of footnotes like explaining why .
Speaker 1What was so important to me was that I was explaining why what was said makes sense in that culture , yeah , like why it's a joke in another culture .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1And so I feel like I learned a lot , even though I didn't love the book . The book was three body problem , which I know everyone , like a lot of people love and yeah , whatever . But I thought that that was really cool and so I'd like to I mean the story read one . So I guess the minimum would be like two more .
Speaker 2You would double it , double my goal , yeah , my , I want to say my senior year of high school , like our entire year in my English class , was books and translation , and so I think I read like five or six different works of translated books and , yeah , it was a really like those books . Really I still think about them a lot and they really impacted me . You know , like they were just like it's . I don't know like you said they were . I mean , they were obviously well chosen books as well , but just reading about other cultures . Actually , one of them was a graphic novel I could send you . I still have it . It was it's called Persepolis and it's about like , oh , I have that you have that .
Speaker 1Oh , it's so good . Okay , I haven't read it yet , but I bought it . I was like I went to the . I was like I'm reading graphic novels because that's another one of my goals , yeah .
Speaker 2I know .
Speaker 1I was going to say double up and I was like let me just pick up a few , and Persepolis is one of the ones . I picked up because it's like on the top of every list of things to just read . And then I also picked up blankets which is also like a memoir about , like religious traumas . Oh nice , but yeah okay .
Speaker 2Okay , it's really good . Yeah , so that was one of the ones , but I just I still think about those books a lot because I think it's I don't know it's just interesting reading something , like you said , from a completely different culture or just about different things . You know , like that's more of that's a real true story as someone's like autobiography , but yeah , even just like set in a different culture is so interesting and written by different perspectives .
Speaker 1So , yeah , I mean , I think we talk about this a lot of like oh . I loved this romance book because I also learned about this medical yeah , yeah . Also learned about the world of science , or I also learned about X and , or , like I read this historical book and I learned a lot about this time period , right Same idea . It's the same idea , but I think because I read so much , yeah , I really want to be more , even more intentional about making sure the stories that I'm reading are from , like , diverse perspectives .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1And besides , like making sure that the authors that you read are from a bunch of different identities , right , I think a great , I mean definitely an easy way to do that is by reading translated stuff , yeah , or things that are set in other cultures that are different from your own . You're guaranteed to learn something new and work that empathy muscle , absolutely Build your emotional intelligence .
Speaker 2So yeah , and I think that's a great part . Like you said , you can read like you can read romance novels or a circle fiction or thrillers that are just written from other perspectives and you can read what you're enjoying . You don't have to go read some kind of textbook , you can just read what you like , but it could be from these other perspectives and you can learn a little and also really enjoy it .
Speaker 1So I learned about hockey this year . From hockey , like , whatever you know , it's all good I learned . I literally okay . I got on this bullet journaling thing because I read a book that Hannah recommended on the podcast the holiday trap .
Speaker 1Yes , and the male main character the male main characters in the bullet journaling and I was like he talked about it so much in the book . I was like I'm gonna freaking problem , I'm gonna bullet journal , yeah . So yeah , the magic of reading . Okay , my third goal is actually reading more classics . I just want to challenge myself to do that more . I over the over Christmas , zach and I watched Little Women , nice , and he was .
Speaker 2Zach's a big version .
Speaker 1Oh , the credit girl version , oh yeah .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's the best . I don't know Like . That to me is like the ultimate Christmas version . I don't know why .
Speaker 1Yeah , there's two Christmas scenes .
Speaker 2Yeah , anyways , I love that one , but they're all little women's great .
Speaker 1So we were talking about it and Zach this is like one of his fun facts about that movie that he always brings up is that in the scene where Joe is in the attic with her mom , with Marmee , she's like I wish love isn't all , that . Women are good for Whatever . Blah , blah , blah , but I'm so lonely . Um , that is actually not from little women . He always pulls out this , it's from um another one of Louisiana Alcott's books , rose and Bloom . Uh-huh .
Speaker 2I want to say that he said that on the episode .
Speaker 1Yeah , he says it all the freaking time and it's like he says it and I'm like , yeah , we get it . Yeah , you're smart . I heard that you were home schooled . We get it .
Speaker 1You read a bunch of freaking classic novels because you didn't have access to the elementary school media center or fanfictionnet . We get it and you know he also like all the things he's looking at the other side of this wall , so he probably hears you saying this . I hope he does , but all of his like favorite movies are like black and white or sepia tone I'm like because you know that's the way they could get from the church library .
Speaker 2Can we watch Finding Nemo ?
Speaker 1I'm like if you don't just watch SpongeBob , squaremans , like Jesus Christ Anyways . So I'm like oh , you think you're better than me ? I mean whatever you kind of are sometimes , but anyway , I started reading Rose and Bloom and I'm like I think I'm just trying to honestly increase my knowledge of culture by this goal .
Speaker 2I want to relate to people more when they're like oh , you know , in Moby Dick I have started . No , don't read Moby Dick . Okay , it can't be worth it . You know , I'm not going to read .
Speaker 1Moby Dick . But but I did as we've said like 500,000 times and everyone's like bleeding out of their eyeballs every time we talk about it Obviously read Count of Money Crystal this year and it was fire as oh , but oh my God , wait , we didn't talk about the same class . Don't even throw up . I'm going to throw up , look , all right , can we ? Let's just finish this sentence , really quick .
Speaker 2Yes , look , I love the .
Speaker 1Count of Money , Crystal . It's not something I would have read if Emily didn't recommend it to me . So yeah , my plan is just to try more and still read what I like . You know I'm not going to make myself read Moby Dick , but , like you , know , whatever . Okay , period Enter . Yeah , enter indent new paragraph . There has been announced a Count of Money Crystal mini series . That's all I've ever wanted , first of all starring Sam Claflin , aka Fnico Dare , aka the .
Speaker 2God of book adaptation .
Speaker 1Aka Billy , done , billy , done . Mike , do you think he's too hot ?
Speaker 2No , because of my mind , Dante's is hot , but can also be disguised . You know what I mean . I think he's perfect .
Speaker 1I think that he is also at the appropriate age yes , where they can de-age him and age him , because obviously he has old man look to him I mean , yeah , he has definitive frown lines .
Speaker 2Yeah , but really the part of him being 18 is really such a small part of it . The majority of the plot is , you know , decades later , when he's broken out of prison and , you know , made his fortune . Yeah , so they're going to have to age him , but they can .
Speaker 1It's a really fun . I think he'll do a great job .
Speaker 2I know not everyone likes Sam Claflin .
Speaker 1I love him . Well , when I told Zach , because obviously he's a kind- of my sister stand . Now too . I told him he was like oh , no , not him . But he thought I was talking about Sam Hewan from Outlander and I was like no , no , no , no no , no , no Sam . Claflin this is good , yes , and like he has also the physique to look like he spent all this time in prison , like getting strong and like you can like swim and Absolutely . You know I'm 100% .
Speaker 1Dig through caves and like and honestly Captain a ship and all this stuff .
Speaker 2Has Sam Claflin ever been in a bad book adaptation ? No , the Hunger Games top tier Before you . I don't think that was a bad adaptation of a book . I think that was a fair adaptation of a not good book . Okay , you know what ? Fair ?
Speaker 1That book , that movie gives me the ick so hard .
Speaker 2I don't know why , Because it's weird you know that whole book is weird and the movie's weird .
Speaker 1He is the king of book adaptations .
Speaker 2Like the ones he's in are good .
Speaker 1Daisy Jones in the six . I'm with this beard right now . Yeah , Beard , I'm like . I'm like he does look like Dante's . He does I . It's almost as if I brought him to life . He does . You know , he has some four headlines . He has perfect some 11s . I'm fine with it .
Speaker 2All I ever wanted was a mini series . It doesn't need to be a movie . It's too long .
Speaker 1I'm trying to copy and send this to copy image . Okay , I'm very excited about this . I'm 100% . What is that ?
Speaker 2100% , probably 2025 or something , I don't know . Nothing comes out quickly anymore .
Speaker 1Um , okay , also in book news , while we're here , Are we going to be recapping the ?
Speaker 2book . I didn't know you had to ask me such ridiculous questions . Of course we will . Um , it's currently filming in Europe . Is this an actual picture from ? This is 2024? .
Speaker 1Oh , my God .
Speaker 2It says 20, . Are you looking at ?
Speaker 1the Wikipedia .
Speaker 2Wikipediacom . Okay , is this , is this a real picture ? Oh my God , no .
Speaker 1I can see it .
Speaker 2I see the vision and I'm here for it and I love it .
Speaker 1I need the whole , I need to know who the whole cast is .
Speaker 2Okay , I can tell you , anna Girardot .
Speaker 1Girardot Girardot , are you looking at the Wikipedia entry ?
Speaker 2Yes , she's Mercedes , oh pretty . Okay , I don't not know . Oh , she is pretty , she's French .
Speaker 1That's perfect , oh wow .
Speaker 2It seems like a lot of European guys yeah .
Speaker 1I they .
Speaker 2Oh , absolutely oh , I'm all in , I'm all in . I know you guys can't see what I'm seeing , but go to Wikipedia , look up . You know what . This is the Count of . Money Christo .
Speaker 1This is getting pasting to the level of Les Miserables .
Speaker 2Yes , and I said it will have a contemporary feel . It will be a period piece with a contemporary feel , faithful to the legacy of the original work .
Speaker 1I so believe in you guys .
Speaker 2I believe in you . They were filming in Paris . They were also in Turin , milan , in Malta . Oh yeah , the castle used in Malta in the production is the same age as the one written about in Dumas's original text . I'm in .
Speaker 1I'm in so much to look forward to in 2024 .
Speaker 2Yes , thank you for bringing us to this year , god , and for bringing us Sam Glafflin .
Speaker 1Thank you , and may we reach our goals . And the Count of Money , christo adaptation , and if we know who , cares , at least we still have the Count of Money , Christo adaptation starring Sam Glafflin .
Speaker 2I'm all in . Honestly , this is your time , you guys . It's time to make that your New Year's Resolution . If we haven't convinced you by now , go read it . Go read it so you can enjoy this to the fullest with us .
Speaker 1Do you know what One of my like I don't know not resolutions , but goals for the podcast I was like oh , what are some cool ideas we could do . I want to do some sort of like listen to our participation event , like maybe it's like like a reading journey thing or like a buddy read or something like that , and maybe there can be incentives if you read .
Speaker 2Early Access and you can prove you've read it . Yeah , who knows ? No , just kidding , but we are advantageous for it and read it and join us and watch the series when it comes out . It seems like they've already done a lot of filming , so I believe in this . I believe in this . Okay , all right .
Speaker 1That's all . Happy New Year . Happy New Year everybody . In a few hours for us , but yeah .