Episode 10: Crush Your Reading Goals with a Killer Holds List

Hello, hi, and welcome to Medium Lady Reads this is episode 10, “Crush Your Reading Goals with a Killer Holds List”

In this episode the ladies are so excited to bring you another Library-themed episode! This episode is all about one of Erin’s favorite library hacks, making the most of the library holds.

In this Episode:

• Erin and Jillian share how their reading is going - Jillian shares a tidbit that might normalize falling asleep while reading for you & Erin does a diagnostic check-in with Jillian.
• Our previous library themed episode - Episode 4 - Why We Love Libraries
• They talk about the power of holds.
• Jillian goes into when holds were a critical part of her life.
• And, Erin dives into how convenient holds being delivered to your local library branch can be.
• Have you ever wondered how to strategically place holds on books? Jillian shares strategic tips.
• If you’ve been wanting to manage your holds using websites and library apps, Erin has the tips for you.
• Long waitlists can be super frustrating but there is a way to maneuver through them, Jillian has the tips you need.
• Erin’s a pro at the “Holds Juggling Act” and she’s sharing her tips with you.
• While using holds is definitely one of Jillian and Erin’s favorite things, there is always some serendipity in browsing the shelves. 
• Jillian shares a story all about the pink covers of books!
• Up next is the hot takes segment - be sure to listen to hear what the ladies are talking about this time around.
• Jelly Pops Book Club with Jillian O’Keefe
• Finally, Erin and Jillian share what’s on their holds lists.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

• The Year of Witching by Alexis Henderson
• Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale
• The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes
• Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker
• Outlive by Peter Attia MD
• Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
• Funny Story by Emily Henry
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
• Goodbye Earl: A Revenge Novel
• The Whispers by Ashley Audrain
• Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

If you enjoyed this episode we would love it if you recommended us to a friend or loved one!  Be sure to take a screenshot and share on Instagram stories, and tag both Jillian (@jillianfindinghappy) and Erin (@medium.lady), or the podcast @mediumladyreads, so that they can reshare the love! 

Thanks for listening and if you enjoyed what you heard, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts!

Tune in on November 13th for the next episode of the Medium Lady Reads Podcast.

**Some of the links used in the shownotes are affiliate links. This does not change the cost of the item for you, we just get a small percentage of the cost, that helps us to offset the cost of putting out the podcast.**

Transcript

I would only pick books with pink covers off the shelves to take home and read and

I don't know how it's possible but they were some of the best books I read.

Now granted I don't remember any of them because that was a long time ago but I remember

I'd have a huge pile and I would get through good majority of them and enjoy them all

because they had pink covers so they're serendipity for you.

Hello, hi and welcome to Medium Lady Reads.

This is episode 10.

Why the Holds List is key to living your best reading life.

I'm Erin, a mom of three, a hospital administrator in Ontario, Canada, host and founder of the

Medium Lady Community and the Medium Lady Talks podcast.

And I'm Jillian, an Instagram content strategist for bookish people, a mom to two based in

Buffalo, New York.

Together we're thrilled to bring you another episode of Medium Lady Reads, a podcast

about reading as self-care, a passionate love for the public library and all of our thoughts

and opinions on book culture having its moments.

Hello everyone, we are so excited to bring you another library themed episode today.

And Jillian, as I heard you read our intro and our sort of like the three core tenets of

why we started Medium Lady Reads, reading as self-care, a passionate love for the public

library and all of our thoughts and opinions on book culture, I got like the feels because

this is episode 10.

It feels like a milestone.

Right?

We've been doing this for a long time.

Yeah.

Yeah, we should celebrate.

We need like confetti horns and everything.

So I'm just really super excited to do another library themed episode today.

If you are new to the show, our first library themed episode, I think is number five.

No, that might be wrong.

It'll be linked in the show notes.

It's about why we love libraries in general.

And today we're going to really unlock your holds list.

But before we get into the meat of the episode, let's do a little check in.

So I'll ask you Jillian, how's your reading going?

Oh, it's going.

I have not.

Big sigh.

I haven't felt great about it.

I just, I'm been so slow.

And I know we talked about this in the last episode, but I have been so slow and it doesn't

feel right.

Like I feel like I should be reading a lot more.

So for instance, yesterday I read probably about 150 pages in a book that I'm reading.

And that's great.

That's that's about normal for me.

But most days it's not the case.

And I, I don't know, I don't know what's going on.

If I just need to adapt to this new normal and then maybe that'll make me feel better, expect

this to be the new normal, I don't know.

But it's going and I'm reading and I'm enjoying all of the witchy spooky books that I'm reading.

So that's that's always a plus.

It's just a matter of not reading quite as much as I was before.

Do you want help with this problem?

For sure, I'm always looking to read more quickly and I have Googled like how to speed read.

But I don't want to fully speed read because I, for me, I think that would take the joy out

of the reading.

I just want to read quicker like I was a year ago.

Okay.

So I'm going to do a little diagnostic with you and friends of the show.

I would love it if you would DM us in Instagram at medium lady reads or you can DM Jillian

directly at Jillian finding happy.

And what is your advice when you have this?

Because we wouldn't say you're in a slump.

No.

You are reading.

I am.

But you're feeling maybe that your pace has gone from like a gallop to a trot to a walk.

And that change of pace because you can see where you want to go with all the books you

want to read.

The best way to get where you want to go with all those books is to read at a steady gallop

and the change in pace is dissatisfying to you.

Yes.

So here's my three questions for diagnostic.

The first is do you like what you're reading?

Yes.

And you sort of said yes.

Yes.

To that.

That is the book that I'm currently reading I do.

I am enjoying it very much.

So the quickest way, if you're listeners, the quickest way to diagnosis to ask yourself if

you truly like what you're reading because if the answer is no, it's a very low hanging

fruit to solve the problem, which is to just close the book you don't like and open a

book that you go for an immediate yes.

Like your favorite author, your favorite genre, your favorite, your favorite delivery mode.

If you love audio and you're trying to struggle through print, you just go for your, just

drop it and go for your favorite.

That's not Jillian's problem here.

Okay.

The second is you've said you've slowed down.

Are you sure that that's objectively true or is this a perception not reality?

You've said compared to last year.

So I'm curious what is the like data marker that you're using to judge again?

My good reads dates.

So I know last year when I would start a book and track a book most of the time, if it was

about an average of let's say 330 to 350 pages, it would take me about three days to read.

And now this book that I've been reading, I've been reading for almost six days, I think,

and it's a 350 page book.

So there is a considerable slowdown there for whatever reason.

Okay.

Objectively, Jillian's pretty confident that she is actually slowing down.

So my third question is, have you noticed a change in genre between what you were reading

last year when you were making your way through 350 pages and a change in your genres that

you're reaching for this year?

Like you and I both made a really concentrated effort to do seasonal reading.

But I would say this time last year, I wasn't doing that mindfully.

I definitely find the content of like spooky season or cozy season books to be at a pace

that is generally different than a beach read.

And so that generally just slows me down.

I reach for more nonfiction, I reach for more literary fiction, all of that really slows

me down.

So that's another possibility.

That could be in some instances, but I don't think that that's the case here.

Because yes, if I'm reading a book like Cloud Cuckoo Land or...

Yeah, exactly.

A book along those lines.

Yes, that definitely slows me down.

And I expected to.

Not only is that a huge book, but it is more literary fiction.

But I tend to read seasonally anyway.

My romance novel, normally even now would probably still take me three or four days.

That would make me speed through.

But a book like I'm reading now, again, it's the year of witching is what I'm reading.

And it's a young adult.

And I would normally speed through that in three days.

And it's taken me six.

So I don't think it's the genre, at least in this case.

Sometimes it is, but this one I don't think that is the case.

So those are my three like diagnostics.

And I don't think we've gotten you maybe any closer, but as we talk it through, do you have

any like other thoughts on that?

I honestly think it's just the dosing off so much on the couch where I wasn't doing that

as much last year.

And I know we talked about it again last episode, but I think the fact that before I used

to be able to sit down on the couch and read for a good hour, hour and a half before I would

fall asleep on the couch.

And now it's kind of like I read for 15 minutes and fall asleep.

And it's just sucks because I really want to get through the books.

So I try to use my weekends when the kids are on screens to read more and spend more time

reading.

But I'm fine.

Okay.

I have one more question.

Have you changed your caffeine intake?

No.

Same.

Okay.

All right.

That's my last.

I've had about a cup of day, occasionally I'll have one or two teas through the day too,

but it's the same since forever.

So no.

Okay.

That was my last inspector reader because I thought, oh, maybe you're just like you've changed

your caffeine intake and you're sleepy or in the evenings because you don't have that.

Okay.

But you know what, Jillian, above all, you're still doing a really good job.

I am.

And I realize this is we're talking.

I have read 84 books this year.

That is wonderful.

Yeah.

But it's less than in the past, which I think is what is part of it.

And just knowing all the books that there are to read is the other part of it and wanting

to get through them.

It kills me.

But.

Yes.

Yeah.

And starting the podcast has amplified that for me.

I feel like I'm looking for thinking about cataloging more and more books because there's

an exciting opportunity on this podcast to hop on mic with you and chat about all kinds

of different topics to offer value to our listeners.

Exactly.

Thank you so much for going through that.

Well, I want you to feel better.

I want you to feel better.

I will, I need to just, I think I need to accept the new normal for what it is now and then

worry about, would it be down the road then and not like worry about the future at this

point.

But anyway, I want to hear about how your reading is going.

My reading is going like pretty tickety-boo.

I find myself circulating between one print copy, one digital copy, one audio copy.

That's got me good and satisfied.

The problem I'm having lately, Jillian, is my books are not getting very high ratings

for me.

I'm reading three and a half at best.

I just finished a two star book last night and these are books that I'm not compelled

to DNF, but I'm just kind of like, okay, that was a book.

What was the two?

So the first one was Cassandra In Reverse.

I just gave it a three.

And then the one I just finished was an audio book called The House in the Pines by, oh,

I don't remember the, it was an audio and it was just like a two.

By the end, I was like, can't wait for this to be over.

And I have like really valid in my opinion critiques about what could have made both of those

books better.

And so that's when I feel like I didn't DNF because I saw the book all the way through.

I never wanted to like throw them across the room or anything, but I just kind of like

wrapped it up and I was like, oh, all right.

So that's like a different side.

Like I'm making my way through books, but they're not getting a high rating.

And then the other thing is, I don't know if you remember I read Enlightenment now by

Stephen Pinker.

It was my like 20 hour audio book.

I do remember.

My latest slog, my slow and steady, I guess, if I want to put a positive spin on that is outlive

by Peter Atia, which is this like huge huge book right now.

It's all about the science of preventative medicine and aging.

It's actually very good.

It is due in eight days.

And I'm probably 30% through it.

So I will be putting myself on a strict prescription of reading that book so that it does not slip

through my fingers and get returned to the library via Libby before I'm done with it.

Because I'll never get it back if I put it on holding.

Have you seen the physical book?

No.

Is it a chonker?

Yeah.

When I went to Barnes & Noble, I was because it's huge.

The book right now is huge.

Like all over, I don't mean in size so much, but it is also huge in size.

Yeah.

I gave myself a calculation between now and eight days from now.

I have to read I think 70 e-reader pages, which is pretty small, anyway, pretty small

font.

But then I did another calculation because I realized there's like an index.

And I was like, well, I don't have to read that.

So I could like, now I think I have to read about 53 pages a day, which is totally consumable.

Absolutely.

That is very doable.

It's a good book.

It's a really, it's a good book.

I would recommend it.

If you like health-related content, it can be dense and academic at times.

But it's also very motivating and the writing is very conversational.

That's good.

I like that.

So it's a very educational book.

Yeah.

I can see why it's been at the top of the charts for so long.

All right, Jillian.

Thanks for checking in.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay, everyone.

We're going to pivot to the theme for today's episode, which is our tips for holds at the

library.

Today's episode we're diving deep into one of our favorite library hacks, which is making

the most of holds.

That's right, Erin.

Holds can be a game changer for any reader.

And we've got some secrets to share.

So the first thing we're going to dive into is talking about why, if you're an active library

user, why holds are super important?

And I would also say that if you're not an active library user, I hope that holds will

entice you to come to the library side of things.

Because holds are really important in the context of a couple of different things.

And I'm going to talk about the importance of them at the individual level.

So the holds list is important because you use your library card.

You hop onto your library's digital catalog.

You find the book that you want.

You place a hold and that book will arrive to your local library branch whenever it does

at any destination in the future.

It might be tomorrow.

It might be six months from now.

But it will really depend on the book that you're choosing.

But the beauty of that is that you can sort of set it and forget it.

And this is the way that I primarily manage my TBR.

My TBR is almost essentially my holds list.

They're almost one and the same.

And I would say that the beauty of this is that you're also telling your library at the

system level.

So at the individual level, you're benefiting because it's basically shopping for free

books.

And you see a book on Instagram, book talk, hop into your library catalog.

I have my library card memorized so I can log on there super quick.

And I place a hold and then I move on with my life.

And that's how I get a really consistent rotation of books in my life.

So you're listening.

You might be listening to the podcast today.

You might hear us talk about books like Outlive by Peter Atia.

You might say, oh, yeah, I've been hearing a lot about that book.

I should put it on hold.

You should put it on hold.

And you can go ahead and do that while you continue to listen to the rest of the episode.

And then when that hold shows up, you can say, thank you, past self for putting that on hold.

And essentially, it will arrive in your life for free.

At the systems level, you're telling the library what you're interested in reading as

a reader.

And the holds information create a database of usable information for the library on popular

books, popular authors, popular titles.

It also gives the library a sense of what people aren't looking for.

And it also gives the sense of the sort of more obscure or perhaps the titles that are

harder to access.

You cannot walk into a Barnes & Noble and buy every book.

They're going to have what they think most of their clients want to purchase.

A library, however, has a much deeper catalog and more deeper resources.

So you may walk into your local library branch and not be able to find the book that you want.

But I'm pretty sure you can find that book on hold and tell your library that you're interested

in having it.

It tells the library what people are looking for and where geographically they want those

books to be held and delivered.

These can also provide a sense of high traffic areas where your library, perhaps you have a

small branch.

My library is a super small branch.

That's why I use the holds so much because it's really unlikely for me to be able to walk

into the library and find everything that I want.

It can also provide libraries with information about users and traffic that are coming to the

library, even if that library is a small branch or maybe that library is too small to serve

the community or I would never say a library is too big for a community, there's no such

thing.

This all generates usable data for libraries which are public systems.

This is probably the only place you can go for free or you don't have to spend money.

Our ability is library users to use the holds list, helps us be engaged members, engaged

like it's like doing a civic duty in my opinion.

So, Jillian, that's what I think the power of holds are and why they're important.

Tell us about why you use the holds list and how did that kind of become critical in your

life.

So, I have to admit that prior to the pandemic, I was reading but I wasn't reading a lot

and I was reading mostly personal development books and maybe I was reading 12 a year if

that.

So, the holds and the library weren't very important to me because I like to buy either my personal

development books, I prefer to buy them so I can mark in them and highlight in whatever

or I will do an audio version of them or an ebook because you can mark in there too.

So, I wasn't using the library a whole heck of a lot but then the pandemic hit and I got

it back into reading and reading fiction and realizing how much I love fiction and that

is about when the holds list became critical because during the pandemic, our libraries were

closed, however, you could, they had holds which you could come and pick up and they would

have you come to the door and you could, I mean sometimes they would even like deliver

them to you but I never did that because I'm, you know, we were able to get out of the

house and everything so we would go to the door and they would, you would give them your name

and they would hand you your books and you would walk away with your stack of books.

Yeah.

My embarrassingly large stack of books that was when it became critical for me because there

was no other way, I mean yes, I could have bought books of course through Amazon or whatever

but there was no other way to get the book.

I couldn't go browse the shelves.

So during the pandemic is when it became so important to me.

The other time that I absolutely love having the holds list is when things are busier in

my life.

So during the school year when we all have something going on, we have activities, we have

school, we have family stuff going on, it is nice to know that if I am in need of a book,

I can go pop onto the library's website and request it and it'll be there for me in

whatever amount of days.

There's no set amount of days but usually that's okay because I have a huge amount of backlog

anyway that I need to get through before we get there but it's nice to not have to worry

that I have to go browse the shelf or I have to go to three or four different libraries

to find this because like you said, if it's a smaller library branch which ours is, then

you may not find what you're looking for.

The third reason that I love and I think that a holds list are critical are because when

there's a book that is super popular or it's, you know what's going to be popular maybe,

it's a new book like Hello Beautiful when Hello Beautiful first came out.

That was insanely popular because of how much, you know, Oprah was talking about it, everybody

was talking about it.

So what you can do is you can go on and you can request that book and you know you

might be number 230 on the list but you know that eventually it'll come up for you and

you don't have to sit there worrying about going and finding it and checking into the library

every other day or every other week or whatever to look for it because you know you can expect

that it's going to show up eventually for you.

Yeah, for sure.

I love doing that.

If anybody loved reading Fourth Wing, you should be putting a hold in now for Iron Flame

because that will come out in a couple of weeks time and.

Yeah, you're right.

There's already I think many holds on that book at the library even though it's pre-publication.

So really love your story about the pandemic because I totally remember the little like pop-up

table that they had outside the doors and we would walk up.

Nope.

They could see us coming and they're like, hi, it was the sort of like really lovely distance

welcome and you'd give them your name or you're the last digits of your library card and

they'd actually they wouldn't hand them to us.

They'd usually point.

They'd be like, oh, this is your stack, no contact, no touch.

You know, the books were usually wrapped in a bag but it was the sort of lovely like masked

interaction with the librarian and funny story.

I actually somebody took my book.

So I went all the way to library.

I walked up and I was like, oh my gosh, like my book isn't here and they were like, what

do you mean?

And I'm like, well, I just I got an email to come pick up my book and my book isn't here

and they're like, somebody was just here.

Maybe they took your book by accident.

And then it was just this like funny like who done it, who would possibly and they felt

they were like, oh, we're getting used to the system.

We're so sorry.

We'll put you first in line for that book again.

And I was like, oh, it's really, really okay.

But I thought, oh, I hope somebody loves that book because you know, I've been waiting

for it on hold and it was the pandemic.

But I don't know.

Maybe I can't even remember.

I wish I could remember what the book was.

That's surprising to me that the person could take it out because with our library, when

you have a book on hold, if it's on held, it's if it's tied to your name and you try

to like scan it.

You get a red.

Yeah.

That's true.

Except in the pandemic, they pre-checked out.

Oh, okay.

They would check you out in advance.

At least they would basically just hand us the books and be like, they're already checked

out.

Like, because we also, oh, the reason I know that is we had to send a pick up time.

Okay.

That makes sense.

We had to say what time we'd come, we'd come at like one thirty or whatever time and

they'd check them out for one thirty.

And then you'd get a call if you missed your pick up time or text or something.

It's all kind of hazy now.

Yeah.

Yeah, I know.

Unbelievable.

That was four years ago.

I know.

Right.

That's a good tip actually is that the beauty of putting something on hold and having your

local library selected, your branch selected is that those books will show up at your library

and you'll generally get a text, a phone call or an email.

I get emails.

I actually have my library as set as a VIP on my phone so I get a special little jiggle

when or my whole, whenever my, oh gosh, we're going real deep on library nerd, nerd dumb

here.

Oh my god.

I love it.

I have my library card memorized and my library set as a favorite VIP on my phone email.

So I get that little buzz and I get that dopamine hit that I've got a hold coming in.

Anyway, the convenience of having books delivered like the closest bookstore to me is probably

10, 12 minute drive away.

Even if I wanted to go and buy books, the library is 700 meters from my house.

I still am so jealous of that.

Yes.

I can understand that jealousy.

It's one of the best things of where I live is I can walk to the library without even crossing

a major street.

Using your hold's list is really going to minimize the barrier to entry to getting the

books that you want in your life or at least to trying a lot of different kinds of books.

That's the other thing you can do with your hold's list is type in a subject like, let's

say you want to learn more about self-care.

Type in the subject self-care.

Your library catalog will give you what it has on offer when it comes to that title or

that subject.

And then you could just put three books on hold, take them all out and evaluate them for

what you like and what you don't like.

Versus sometimes when you're browsing the stacks, again, what you see is what you get

versus the depth of the actual catalog is not necessarily going to be visible on the

shelves depending on the size of your city and how many branches there are within your

library.

I just cannot get over how convenient it is that those books will show up at my library

and wait for me to come and pick them up.

And I really like that as well, Jillian, because it's gotten me engaged in my community in

a way that's a little bit unanticipated benefit because I'm going to the library at least

once a week.

I have to walk through the community center.

I get to see members of my community at the pool, at the gym, going to classes.

There's a hockey arena attached to our library and I get to be a part of that community.

Sometimes our city councilors, they're just kind of holding office hours, walk into the

library.

I know most of the librarians on site.

I know a couple of them by name.

And it's this like in and out presence because I'm doing that regularly thanks to my

holds list that really makes me feel embedded in the community.

And I wouldn't have that if the books were delivered to my home and I probably wouldn't

have that if I was browsing the stacks every three weeks or so.

Yeah.

And the thing that I want to point out is this isn't so much with the community aspect.

This is more going back to you talking about it could just showing up at your library.

You can request any book and it just showing up there.

This is all for free.

This isn't something that we have to pay for at all.

And that is the part that boggles my mind is that this service, I mean granted, it's

not free.

Our tax is paid for it.

So you can request any book, any number of books and they show up there for free.

And you just pick them up and take them on home and read them and return them all for free.

I know.

I think we're going to probably say like don't forget it's free for many other times in

this episode.

Jillian, we're going to talk about the art of the strategic hold, which I think you are

particularly good at.

And I've been learning, I've been watching and learning from you through our friendship.

So why don't you tell us a little bit about how to strategically place the holds on high

demand books?

Okay, so this is my favorite one and this I actually found out by chance a couple of years

ago when there's a new book.

So Aaron just mentioned Iron Flame, great example.

When you go in there into the libraries catalog and you go in there, it's likely going to say

book on order at least a dozen mine.

You can request that book now before it is released.

And that is the case for any number of books at least in my library and I think that that's

the case across the board.

If it is a popular book and you know like happiness falls, I knew it was going to be a pretty

popular book.

I went in months ahead of time, probably about two months is when my library will put new

books available to request books on order and I will go in and I will put a hold on that

book.

So that way in a case like happiness falls, I'm one of the first few people in a case like

Iron Flame, I'm likely not going to be you know one of the top people.

I'll probably still be like 30 or something like that.

But it is a wonderful way to get the new books that you are dying to read without having

to wait forever plus.

I don't know if anyone is like me, but my favorite part of getting being the one of the

first few people to get a book from the library is that it doesn't have everybody else's

handsense on them.

And so it smells like a brand new freaking book and not like everybody's hand lotion and

hands and all that stuff.

I try not to think too much about everybody's hands on it because that can get kind of gross.

But the brand new books always smells so wonderful.

I'm obsessed with the smell of books.

Oh my gosh, you've got me laughing because that's honestly something I never, never think

about.

But I wanted to kind of play this out in real time.

I wanted to kind of like find like what is a book that we think will be really highly anticipated.

And I want to see if it's in our library right now.

And the book I'm going to look for is actually funny story, which is supposedly the new title

of Emily Henry's new book.

Good one.

Because sometimes it's really far in advance and you just have to think about checking it

out.

So please just hold a moment through the magic of editing this will appear very seamless.

Yeah, mine does not have it yet.

ours is it is literally two months ahead of time.

They I've asked before.

Oh, is it actually two months?

Oh, because Iron Flame was in our library when fourth wing was like super hot.

And I don't know if that's because the publication date was already announced.

Yeah, funny story isn't in there.

But I really want to kind of find one that is.

I feel like book season is going to slow down for the holidays.

There's usually not too many new books announced for release in December and January.

Well, sometimes January actually can be full of new releases.

But that would be a fun little experiment.

And maybe we can think of a good book to bring that to our community.

We can do that in stories on Instagram.

So make sure you're following us at Medium Lady Reads.

And we'll try to follow up on that.

Give you a good idea for some advanced titles that are already in our catalogs that we think

you should put a hold on now.

That would be a great episode for us to do too.

To talk about all the books that although.

So it's time it airs that could be it could be dated.

Anyway, it doesn't matter.

That's all right.

Another really great strategic hold idea I have is that when you put books on hold and

I learned this from experience, for whatever reason, they tend to come in all at the same

time.

And you'll have like 20 books come in at the same time and you'll not know what to read

or what order to read them in except for if you have brand new releases that are returned

sooner, then maybe you'll read those first.

What I like to recommend now and I try to do it more for myself though I still struggle

is to only put like, you know, maybe every once every week put one or two on the list.

So that way I'm not getting a huge influx of them at the same time.

Now it's different.

If it's a brand new release or it's a book that isn't released yet, I will put those on

there till the cow come home.

I'll just keep adding them.

Yeah, just just set it and forget it.

But if it's a back list book, I will put those on sporadically one or two a week just because

I don't want them all to come in at the same time and back list books do tend to come in

very quickly because there's not a hold on them.

So that's another one of my favorite tips.

Another thing strategically is that you can put any piece of reading material on hold.

It doesn't just have to be books.

Oftentimes you can do magazines, books on, I don't even know if they do books on tape,

but they do.

Every single one of these books on CDs, you can do music, video games, video games, e-books,

all of these can go on hold.

And the e-books may be through Libby or Overdrive, but they are available for you to do that

with.

So you can put books on hold through the Libby app, but you can also put e-books on hold

through just your library catalog.

It will just tell you that what you're putting hold on is the e-book version of the copy

that you're looking at.

Yes.

I learned that actually very recently because I have to admit another secret is that I just

began using the Libby app last week.

It was my first word.

Yes.

You just squeaked.

You had me fooled this whole time.

I've never used a Libby app.

I never had a reason to because I prefer physical books.

Fair.

And the books that I read on my e-reader are typically ones that I've gotten for free from

Kindle or not Kindle Amazon for suites.

So I've never had to use it.

And now I found this.

I'm like, well, I may never need a physical book again, but I will because I love physical

books.

My last strategic tip is that if you've had a book out for multiple checkout periods and

you haven't read it and you're not pulled to read it, maybe it's time to return it and

admit to yourself that it's just not something that you're going to read right now.

It doesn't mean that you're never going to read it.

It just might not be the right time frame right now.

And if it's a popular book and there are other people waiting for it, don't hold on to it.

If you're not reading, if you're reading it, that's a different story.

But if you're not reading it, return it.

Let somebody else read it and get on with it because you may come time in your life where

you're like, yeah, that book that I never read in 2023 would be perfect right now.

So you can always go back and read it then.

Those are my tips.

I love those tips.

I have a few tips about using the library app when it comes to hold and the website.

So here are a few of the tips that I have.

So if you have an e-reader, you will need to sync your account to overdrive in order to

sort of like consistently get books from the library.

So both Kindle and Kobo are the ones that I know of have ability to connect your overdrive

account.

And what you will probably need is the email and the password associated with that overdrive

account.

And if you don't have one, then you can go online and set up an account and use that to

sync to your library catalog.

The other way you can do it is to on your device, usually your phone, make sure you have the

Libby app downloaded.

And what I do is I make sure that I have both the Libby app and the library catalog on the

main website, just sort of like flagged.

So I think to myself, usually, is this a book I want physical copy or is this a book I would

prefer to read digital?

And I've just realized maybe in the last month or so that I do have a preference.

So when I'm looking at a book that is not new, not a new release, I prefer to actually

just go for a print copy.

When I'm looking at those super hot books, I actually prefer digital in part because

I feel like the likelihood of me getting a copy sooner is more likely because a physical

book has to go places and travel to make its way to me or to make its way to another library

patron, whereas a digital copy.

And sit on that shelf for whatever amount of days.

That's right.

Until I pick it up, until they pick it up, yeah, exactly.

It has to be in transit.

It has to go to the shelf.

It has to go back in circulation.

The librarian has to touch it and scan it and put it where it needs to go.

Whereas with a digital copy, let's say Jillian's reading a book, she decides she's done with

it.

She returns it on her app and I'm the next in line.

I get it pretty much instantaneously.

So I really like to do that for really hot, high traffic books.

I like to have them on the Libby app and I like to have them on my co-bo.

I will say the frustrating thing is not all books on the Libby app are readable on my co-bo

and I haven't quite figured that out yet.

I think it has to do with the digital ISBN number being something that co-bo doesn't read.

And I've heard that can be a problem with Kindle as well because Kindle is an Amazon product.

And if it's not the Amazon ISBN, then it won't.

But your library is not bound by those terms.

So your library might purchase the unique copy of that book.

They might purchase that that might be or might not be compatible with your co-bo.

That's an issue that I've been having every now and then.

And whenever that happens, that just means that I have to read it on my phone or my iPad.

But I don't suffer.

I've got lots of ways to read books.

But this is about holds.

So if you go back to that Libby app, I think holds via the Libby app are really clear, really

straightforward.

And the other thing I would recommend is that you find out if your library allows what are

called interlibrary loans by Libby.

So my library card is a Mississauga City library card.

And that library card will open up the library catalog at five other libraries for me.

And so I not only have a Mississauga library card on Libby, but I also have five other library

cards on Libby.

And that means I can catalog surf, which means that my holds list is a lot tighter because

I'm not bound by one catalog.

It almost feels like infinite opportunities to get books.

And you might think I'm under a constant avalanche of books because I've hacked this so

well.

Instead of waiting six weeks, I might wait three weeks, which is fine because usually I'm

just looking for the dopamine hit to know that like I've got that book.

It's going to come to me when it comes.

And it's very satisfying.

I sometimes find like placing a bunch of holds at the library, just to satisfying as like

placing an order at Sephora or doing some online shopping.

Oh, yes.

It's just as good.

And it costs no money.

Nothing.

So don't underestimate that holds list because you can really kind of like, oh, it'll just

make you so happy.

I guarantee you'll feel that flood of dopamine.

And honestly, like there's nothing quite like it.

So those are my tips for using library apps and the websites to manage your holds.

I think that you want to first think about do you want this as a print copy or a digital

copy?

You want a digital copy hop into your Libby app?

Make sure you can find out if you can get more than one library card on your Libby app

that will allow you access to bigger catalogs.

Then pay attention as well to format.

So sometimes it's easier to get a digital print format than it is to get a digital audio

book.

And sometimes the audio book is more accessible.

So I might really want to read a book on audio, but it's not available, but it is available

on print.

And you can see all of that on the Libby app.

So that's my recommendation or holds and using those sort of digital catalog opportunities.

Jillian, you were going to say something.

I was just going to say back in August, I was part of this group program where we had to

write this speech and I wrote mine about the library, which I'll give the whole speech

sometime on Instagram live.

But one of the things that I mentioned in this speech is about the dopamine hits we get

from putting things on hold at the library because of how it feels like you're shopping.

You mentioned Sephora.

It absolutely feels like you are picking out going to the whatever website is your favorite

website.

For me, it tends to be Barnes and Noble.

And you're going there.

So it's really no different.

And I'm just putting it instead of putting a book in my shopping cart, I'm putting it on

hold at the library and I eventually will get to go pick it up.

Amazing.

It's amazing.

I like that the book, the website that you go to to shop is also a book website.

I mean, I do certainly shop for clothes and stuff like that.

But honestly, I visit book websites more than I visit clothes websites.

That's why you're the perfect, you're the perfect person to have a book podcast.

Jillian, do you have any stories of how patients paid off when you were waiting for a highly anticipated

book?

I do.

I do have some great advice there.

So let's say you have a book on hold and it's one of those popular books, Iron Flame.

Any book that is going to have 200 plus people on it waiting for it and your number 199, let's

say, or I mean, any number doesn't have to be 200.

If you're in there and you're overwhelmed by that weight and you're just not sure what

to read, one of the best things that you could do is look at either, you could look at that

author in particular's back list.

Or if there is a back list of books that you've been meaning to read that you have been

avoiding because you've read so many new releases like myself or you're just not wanting to sit

there and not reading anything, go and find a back list, find an author that you love, catch

up on their back list.

Maybe they have a series that, a different series that you're into that you can read.

But that I feel like is one of the best ways to pass the time and not lose your patience

because you're able to keep reading and wait.

Well, it feels like you're not even waiting for that next book to come.

So true.

Such a good advice.

Another piece that I want to suggest is that if you have a bunch of books on your own shelves

at home, instead of avoiding them, what was it that you said the other day in our chat

Aaron about books that you have on your shelves?

I always feel like a book I can own is a book I can read anytime and a book I can read anytime

is a book that I will probably read at no time.

So if you are somebody like that, which I completely can understand and relate to and you're

waiting for this long super long wait, grab that book that you bought and has been sitting

on your shelf for ages and read that instead of sitting there reading nothing, it'll be again

help you pass the time and feel like you're not even missing out while that new release

is talked about everywhere and you still haven't read it yet.

That will be no jealousy.

I love that.

I love that.

I have a sad story of when the holds list actually did me dirty.

Oh no.

Yeah.

So earlier this summer, I had been waiting weeks for Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sitonfeld to

come in on hold.

And when I got that email, I was so excited.

And then I got line-sided by my life.

Basically, every single day it was like busy, busy, busy, busy library closed, busy,

busy, busy library closed, working late, working late, got home, library closed, weekend,

too busy to get to the library.

And I thought I was paying attention because the one thing we haven't mentioned is once

that book lands in your library, you usually have about seven library days.

So seven of the days that the library's open, Jillian, your library might be a little different

to go and pick it up.

And if you don't go and pick it up, they will say, I guess you're not interested in this

book anymore.

We're going to put it back in circulation, which I think is totally fair.

Absolutely.

I actually think seven days is super generous.

I thought I had one more day.

I went to the library. I looked for my library card on the whole shelf.

There was nothing with my library card number.

And Romantic comedy had gone back into circulation.

And I had to put myself back at the bottom of the 200 list.

And I still have not read Romantic comedy to this day.

Oh, no.

You have to get it.

Are you in the list waiting?

My cautionary tale.

I should be, but I still feel like it's very much at the bottom of my wait list.

Oh, it's so good.

It's definitely one of my favorite books over the summer.

Yeah, I know.

And I can't wait to check it out.

That's a cautionary tale about how you can be patient, but don't be slow on some book.

Yeah.

What's your library?

Be mindful of those dates.

You got to check in every once in a while because otherwise you'll lose it.

Yeah.

We're going to pivot to chat a little bit about the unexpected library treasures that

can be waiting for us at the library, especially when you are on a long, long wait for a book.

You're reading other things as Jillian recommended, you're pulling stuff off your shelves, you're

having a great rich reading life.

We're going to talk about the serendipity of these library holds, you know, discovering

books that you forgot you wanted.

You know, for me, I think sometimes I will impulsively put things on hold and I will just

throw things on hold, throw them on hold.

Oh, that sounds great.

Oh, that got great reviews.

Oh, that's a book coming.

Oh, that book is going to be published soon.

And then not realize that they're coming up in my queue.

I think actually that's changed a little bit because now that we have the holds list at the

end of the episode, I'm looking at my holds list every couple of weeks Jillian.

So I'm not quite as unconscious to my holds as I used to be, but it is sort of these like

really sweet little presence of books that might arrive in your lap past you thought you

should read this.

And there have been books that I've pulled off the shelf and I've been like, what is this?

Like right now recently, I pulled off spells for forgetting by, I think it's Adrian Young

Yep.

Arrived on my holds and you had just talked about it.

And I thought, huh, where did this book come from?

Who recommended it to me?

Why did I think I should read it?

And it's just kind of these like fun little gems from the past that you can say, well, I

thought it must have been good.

I'm the only one who has access to my holds list.

So obviously maybe Jillian and I were consuming the same content and we're both got spells

for forgetting, I think, arrived to us at the same time.

Just about, yeah.

And I just thought, you know, like these are the ways that you can sort of have like a treasure

hunt when you get that email from the library.

And it usually tells you what book is waiting, but I do sometimes be like, oh, there's a little

treat.

I'm not going to read the email, but I got to go check it out.

I got to go pick it up and see what, see what it is.

It's just like that added layer of reading joy and library joy in my life.

Jillian, do you have any stories about like unexpected library treasures?

Or do you want to talk about the joy of library serendipity and the magic of browsing the shelves?

Because there's the difference between the two.

I feel like I browse the shelves a lot less.

I definitely don't browse the shelves as much as I used to.

And when I was in college though, before I even, I don't even think I realized the holds

list existed, I would go to the library a lot because I was within walkable distance of,

I think I might have been out of college at this point, but it was within walkable distance

of my apartment.

So I would walk to the library and I would only pick books with pink covers off the shelves

to take home and read.

And I don't know how it's possible, but they were some of the best books I read.

Now granted, I don't remember any of them because that was a long time ago, but I remember,

I'd have a huge pile and I would get through good majority of them and enjoy them all.

Because they had pink covers, so they're serendipity for you.

Oh my gosh, I love that.

That's amazing.

That would actually make a really fun Instagram challenge to just go in the library and take

five minutes and pull as many books of a specific point of view or specific descriptor off the

shelves, like books with illustrations on the cover or books with nature on the cover

and then see what you land on and what you're actually going to check out.

That is fun.

That's like a bit of a pivot from the, what do you even call that?

The book shopping challenge?

Yeah, that's a really, really fun idea.

I like that.

We can challenge each other.

I would say, because Aaron and I are meeting with some of our friends next weekend to go

to Hobart, New York, and I would say it would be so fun to challenge each other to do that

while we were there, but I don't know that there are any libraries or even if there were,

would we be able to take them out?

I might be the only one able to take anything out because I have a New York.

My library card is New York, but probably not.

Maybe with the bookstores we could.

Maybe in a bookstore, we need to do that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's great.

That would be a lot of fun.

The other Sarah and Dippadist thing that used to occur when I was younger and I finally

got my adult library card because in the town that I'm from and the city that I'm from,

you would have your kitty library card and then at certain age you could get your adult

one.

I would literally just walk the aisles and kind of look around, see what would pop out.

And then for some reason and somehow I would always see like one book would just call to

me and I would grab it off the shelves and I would read it and it would always be really

good.

I remember one was Daniel Steele, which I feel like at I was so young to be reading Daniel

Steele, but I did.

And it was just so cool that it would always happen like this and it always, this was

not mainly in the summer because during the school year I didn't have a whole lot of time

to get to the library, but during the summer I would spend so much time just browsing the

shelves and looking for that perfect book to fill the void until school started again.

Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

I want to try and do that too.

I think that the one thing about the holds list is it's super efficient and it has definitely

shortened the amount of time that I languidly spend in the library.

But that's an easy fix.

That's something that's easy to fix is to just, you know, when I've got the holds is to actually

enter all the way into the library and just actually spend time in the library in the

stacks.

That's why I like taking my kids with me because they insist.

I do sometimes put books on hold for them, but for the most part I don't and they'll just

want to browse, you know, they want to look at everything.

So of course, if I am taking them with me, I'm going to let them look and then I'm just

sitting there.

So why don't I browse too?

So yeah, definitely do some browsing.

They want that book to jump out at them too.

Yeah.

All right.

We're going to both share some stories of some favorite unexpected treasures at the library.

And I think that for me, these unexpected treasures usually come in the form of nonfiction

books.

I can think of a few nonfiction books that I took out again and again because I needed them

sort of seasonally in my life.

Some of the unexpected treasure books in my life are a book about like Babyled Weaning

that I took out multiple times from the library, the happiest baby on the block, which is a

like sleeping guru book.

And these like fond memories of sort of these books that were familiar to me, but hadn't

been purchased.

But I sort of knew I could rely on the library for them to be available to me.

And I know that when I was a young mom, especially with William being my first son, I would hear

about these books.

And I would sort of feel like I was on maternity leave and on a bit of a budget.

And I was like, I don't really think what if the book doesn't really help me.

And that I think probably those early years of early motherhood with William 10 years ago

are what really started getting me on the holds list because I would find the book in the

catalog.

I live in a pretty big city.

So we do have a really big public library system.

And I would find these books and then they would come on hold and I would go with my baby

in the stroller and I would go to pick up my holds.

And I would just kind of feel like the library had my back as a young mom.

And there were some of those books that really just kind of became these sort of unexpected treasures

that I knew when I had another baby, I could go back to the library and get those books again.

Jillian, what about you?

Do you have any other sort of unexpected treasures that you found at the library?

Other than the ones that I shared when I was a kid, I don't have to be honest.

I don't have a lot of unexpected library treasures.

However, the one place I do seem to find them a lot of the time is in the children's

section.

When I'm looking for books for Esther so that if the kids aren't with me and I just go

myself, I'll find books for Esther or graphic novels for Emmett.

I think I just found maybe five or six graphic novels for Emmett that I brought home for him

the other day.

One of the biggest finds that I found, Esther actually, Esther and I both write it.

It's a graphic novel, The Princess and the Girlcheese Sandwich by Dayam Yunes.

So cute.

It is.

But it's so fun.

It is LGBTQIA plus friendly.

So it was great to teach her that sort of lesson and then everything is cheese themed.

It was great.

It was a really fun book.

And that was kind of a happenstance book that I came across.

But otherwise, I don't, because I don't browse the shelves enough anymore, I don't have

a lot of unexpected finds, unfortunately.

Well, maybe that's a challenge we both should give ourselves as to like spend a little

bit of time because I consume so much book content, including other book podcasts.

And that's where it's feeding a lot of my recommendations.

I'm not stumbling on books in the same way anymore.

So because I really do rely on the hold list to make sure that I can get what I want to

read.

Same.

And I can sort of pre-screen books without actually having them in my hands.

So it has sort of maybe there is a little bit of that trade off is becoming super reliant

on the hold list is meant that like the tactile joy of books and the stacks is something

that we don't dabble in that much.

The other thing I've been thinking about that would be kind of fun is because my library is

within walking distance, I don't visit a lot of other libraries, but I live in a city

that probably probably have I think maybe eight or nine different branches.

And some of them are in different areas of the city that I don't often go to.

So it might be fun to set up some of my holds for pickup at a different library so that

I can sort of like experience a different library vibe.

And libraries are amazing and beautiful.

And why wouldn't I just take a few minutes of an extra drive off the beaten path to pick

up my holds?

That's very fun.

You have a lot of, when we listen back to this, you're going to pull out three or four challenges

that you've given that are brilliant ideas for people.

I must just be in the mood today.

I don't know what it is.

All right, Jillian, we're going to wrap up with one final segment which is our tips

for library etiquette, especially how to be a considerate library holds patron.

The biggest one, and this is a hard one to share because I am not the best at this, but

trying to return popular books within the given time frame.

I know it's hard and I am very, very guilty of if I'm in the middle of a book continuing

to read it and not returning it right away.

And I fully support that because it stinks to have to return a book before you're like

done with it.

And it's a little different when you're doing ebooks because they can just take those

from you.

But when you are reading a book, a physical book, and it's, or rather, you're just, you have

a physical book and you're not reading it and it's just sitting there and it's been on

your shelf for 22 days, 21 days, whatever your cycle is.

Return it.

Let the next person have it because maybe it's going to bring them a ton of joy instead

of letting it sit there for three cycles, although if there's holds usually most libraries

don't let you do.

No, they make you return it after 21, yeah.

Just stick to the time frames and then utilize your library system to check when your holds

are in.

So, like Aaron said, if your library book comes in and you don't get it in time, it is returned

to the to circulation and are the shelves or whatever.

Our library used to charge for that.

They don't anymore because we're fine free.

Yeah, ours did too.

It was like $2 or something.

Yeah.

So, keep in mind that if you request a book, do your best to get there and pick it up

and as quick as time as you can because that time factors into everybody else getting that

book.

So, if you're waiting for something like Iron Flame, for instance, and your books that's

there for seven business days or seven library days, whatever it is, and then you read it,

you have your 21, 22 days depending on how long the book is.

Some of our books only have seven days, but if you have that time frame and you then are

not getting it in time and you're not picking it up or you're not reading it and you're

not returning it, that just prolongs how long everybody else has to get to read it.

And that's just kind of stinky.

So, pick it up, read it, return it.

I thought of something else to challenge while you were talking.

I love it.

Give it to me.

I'm on a roll today.

Okay.

So, I was thinking that when your book is ready and you want to go and make sure that you're

picking it up, something that could be really good.

And Jillian, I wonder if you do this because you've alluded to it in the chat in their friendly

WhatsApp group.

Let's say you don't live, you're not like me and you don't live within walking distance

of your library.

I could walk to the library easily every day, spend five minutes, grab my books and pop

out.

It's easier than the corner store, to be honest.

But that's an unusual scenario for most people.

I would recommend that you pair your holds pickups with something that you routinely do

that is near the library.

When you may want to adjust your pickup spot, not to be the one that is geographically

closest to your home, but the one that is geographically closest to your routine.

So maybe you always, maybe there's a library near your kids school.

Maybe there's a library near your kids extracurriculars.

Maybe for me, it would be like the basketball court and the ballpark where the library is

close to those spots so that when I'm already doing the things that I know I have to do on

a routine basis, your kids daycare.

Going to the library and you're almost like habit stacking that with other trips outside

of your house, that will be part of sort of your general, your general map of your life.

So that's a one way to sort of make better use of the holds list is to sort of put things

on hold and anticipate them picking them up at a location that's convenient to you.

You don't have to default to the location that is geographically closest to your house

because that may be, although it's close to your house, it might not be close to your routine

and that will make it feel like you're going out of your way to pick up these books and

that's annoying, but that's just like a barrier in your life.

Anyway, maybe that's not the challenge.

It was just like another hack.

No, it's a great idea.

It can save gas too.

Save on gas.

Exactly.

This is the green option for maximizing the holds list.

And that's really to make sure that you're not putting books on hold and then letting that

hold expire and that book sort of sitting, gathering dust.

If you put it on hold, you really should make the commitment to go ahead and pick it up

as Jillian said.

My other thing that is sort of about holds etiquette is also about regularly looking at your

holds list.

We look at it every couple weeks because we want to tell you what we have on hold.

And maybe when you listen to this episode, whenever we get to our holds list, we would

encourage you to also hop into your holds list and take a look at what you're reading

right now and what's coming available soon and make good use of the suspend hold feature.

Anything on your holds list will come available when you are next in line.

However, you have control over that as the user and you are able to go into the system and

say, listen, even if this book comes available next week, I've already got five books on

the docket.

I don't want to read this book next week.

I want to read this book in a month.

And I'm going to suspend my hold for five weeks so that I hold my place in queue, but other

people go ahead of me.

Imagine if you're in a grocery store and someone comes up to you and you've got a full grocery

cart and they're like, hey, I've got two items.

Do you mind if I go ahead of you?

And you're like, yeah, of course, you've only got two items.

Please go ahead.

I've got all this stuff.

Imaginate in that context is like you're sort of letting people jump the queue ahead of

you, but you're place in line.

You're not going to the back of the line.

You're staying in the same place, but you're allowing people to move ahead of you.

So that is a really nice way to sort of have good library etiquette when it comes to holds,

especially if you're a person who maybe puts a lot on hold at once and then they all come

available at the same time.

And then you're sort of like, well, I guess I'll take out 12 books, but there's no way I can

read 12 books in 21 days.

So I guess I'll take what I've got.

You can be really strategic about using the suspend feature.

Yeah.

And that was the new one to me.

I didn't, I knew it existed.

I didn't know how to use it or what it meant.

So I absolutely agree with you.

And I think that's a great way to keep those big giant piles from affecting you too much

at home.

That other people take the books out before they get to you.

Yeah.

And that feature also exists on Libby.

It's called Deliver Later.

And you can tell Libby up to 180 days to delay the delivery of your ebooks.

Very cool.

That's a new one for me to learn too.

Mm-hmm.

It is time for our hot takes.

Hot takes is our current thoughts on book culture.

It's an opinion usually formed off the cuff and with little research, sometimes provocative.

Today's topic is reading the book before watching the movie.

Where do you stand and what are your thoughts, Erin?

Let's hear it.

My immediate thought is just read the book, man.

Just read the book because the odds are the movie will never be better than the book.

I can think of one movie that was better than the book.

And it was Julian Julia by, I can't remember what her name is.

That movie is hands down way better than the book.

But that is the single time in my entire life of reading where the movie was better than

the book.

So, you know, if you are thinking about watching a movie that's upcoming and you know it's

based on a book, try and get a copy of the book.

Although that also, that's another holds problem is that usually when the movie comes out, more

people engage in the book because they've either watched the movie and they're like, wow,

that was a great movie I want to read the book.

Or they read the book and they want to reread the book before they watch the movie.

So that can sometimes also make, bring things back to the top of the list or back to even

like best sellers because the movie or the TV adaptation is bringing it back in circulation.

Lessons in chemistry by Bonnie Garmus recently released on Apple TV.

I've seen the first two episodes.

I love them.

But that book is basically published.

Was it last just last year?

No.

I think, I think, I think Lessons in chemistry, we'll look it up while we chat.

I think Lessons in chemistry was 2022, but it's definitely hopping back up on the best

seller list because this series on Apple TV with ReLarson is out and everyone's enjoying

the series.

I find it's quite good.

I was very pleased by the first two episodes, but everyone's engaging in the book because

it's, you know, kind of had this resurgence in popularity again.

I even saw an interview with Bonnie Garmus in our or National Newspaper, the Globe and

Mail today, which was, it was a great interview.

So, you know, these things, they kind of like get their resurgence again.

But my hot take, that is not a very like, that's not a very short hot take.

My hot take.

My hot take is just read the book.

Read the book before you watch the movie.

I agree.

Then you can be one of those people would be like, the book was better.

I 100% agree.

Considering I barely watch TV and I don't often catch you.

I would say read the book and then if you want to read, watch the movie, that's fine.

But I will say when, with Lessons and Chemistry, when I went to Barnes and Noble on, we really

should get sponsored by Barnes and Noble with how many times I've mentioned them this

episode.

When we went there on Friday, they had a huge section dedicated to Lessons and Chemistry

because of the show just coming out.

So, absolutely.

Yeah.

Everyone's coming in the store saying, I'm looking for Lessons and Chemistry.

And there it is with its beautiful orange cover.

If you are a person who likes the movie or the book or you would prefer to watch the movie

rather than read the book, we'll give a gentle plug to our friend, Julia Washington, who

has a podcast called the Jelly Pops Book Club.

I will in particular plug, Jillian's episode, which talks all about one of our favorite romance

novels every summer after by Carly Fortune.

Jillian, you were so great on that podcast episode.

Listeners, I hope you will go check out Julia's podcast.

She has two.

One of which is book related, Jelly Pops Book Club, and the second of which is called Pop

Culture, makes me jealous.

And they're both great, great podcasts.

And Julia's a good interviewer.

She was fun to be on her podcast.

Definitely, definitely listen.

And hopefully we'll be hearing Erin on there soon too.

All right.

Now, let's talk about what's on our holds list from the library, Erin.

What's on yours?

Okay.

So, because we're on the evenings, I'm going to talk about my Libby Digital Holds.

I have, oh my god, really?

That seems wrong.

I have 20 books on hold.

Online.

One of which is ready to borrow now.

I think I've talked about this before, but I use the Deliver Later feature.

It's called Good By Earl.

It's by Lisa Crossmith.

It has this beautiful yellow cover with this like splattered pie across the front.

And I placed that hold August 3rd.

And I think I've used the Deliver Later feature a couple of times because I haven't been

ready to borrow it.

Second book I have, I think I'd also mentioned is The Whispers by Ashley Audreine.

She wrote The Push, which I haven't read.

And I think I've mentioned these on my holds list before on the show.

So, just so you know, I'm sometimes I'm actively using that Deliver Later feature.

But those are the two that are both coming up really soon.

And then I have a few audio books and a couple of those like really interesting books that

popped up in the summer on those summer reads.

And book I'm actually like really looking forward to is called Assistent to the Villain.

It's published by Red Tower Books, which is the same publishing company that published

Fourth Wing.

Oh, okay.

I think this is the second title in their publishing house.

And everyone's been giving it really, really reviews.

So that's what's on my holds list.

Jillian, what is on your holds list?

I have four books on hold, but I have zero waiting for me, which is crazy and okay.

Because I have many, many that I'm still working through with my spooky books season that I

took out, not all spooky, but mysteries and witchy and I have a bunch of those.

So I'm fine with that.

You have like a thematic bookshelf right now.

I do.

I really read seasonally.

I will read if a book came out in the summer that was a witchy book and it was well reviewed.

I would certainly read it.

I am not beholden to the seasonal reads, but I do enjoy seasonal reading.

So I will, after I finish up this batch of spooky season, probably mid-November.

So I'll start getting out my Christmas holiday reading, which always feels so good because

you have that warm, cozy feeling almost in every single book, which I love.

All right.

That wraps up episode 10 of Medium Lady Reads.

Medium Lady Reads is a spin-off of the Medium Lady Talks podcast and Instagram community.

You can find me, Jillian on IG, at Jillian Finding Happy, and you can find Aaron at Medium.Lady

for more of our current reads and our other shenanigans.

And of course, you can follow the podcast itself on IG at Medium Lady Reads.

If you like this episode, please share it with another bookish friend or post on Instagram

and be sure to tag us.

We would be tickled, pinned to here for you.

Thanks for listening.

I'm your host, Aaron.

And I'm your other host, Jillian.

Until next time, we hope that you're a whole to arrive quickly.

And your next look lines you right where you need it most.

We'll talk to you soon.

Bye.

Hello.

Yes.

Um, um, um, um, um, oh dear.

What is it?

Oh, good.

Okay.

Can you please go get a granola bar or something?

I have to finish recording.

No.

Then you're going to have to ask Daddy.

Okay.

then you're gonna have to ask Daddy.