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The Currently Reading Podcast
Season 8, Episode 38: A Revisit to Episode 8 - Getting Through A Reading Slump
00:49:59
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Foreign.
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Hey readers. Welcome back to another episode of the currently Reading podcast. We're two bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the books that we've read recently. And you should know we're going to have big opinions, so get ready. I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz, a mom of four and full time CEO living in the San Francisco Bay Area. And even in a reading slump, books are still my jam.
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And I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mom of four, aged eight and under, living in New Mexico. And I read because it's my ultimate form of self care. This is episode number eight and we are so glad you're here.
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B
All right, Katie, I am so glad to be here. As everyone knows who listened to last week's episode. I was on vacation and you were so kind to do a fantastic interview with Jessica Turner. That episode was really, really good.
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A
I had a great time talking to Jessica, but I definitely missed you. You're my reading buddy, so I have to. I'm glad you're back.
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B
Thank you. I. I tamped down a little bit of jealousy that you guys were doing such having so much fun together, but she's really fantastic. And not only a great author, which of course we know from her new book, Stretch Too Thin, but she's a real reader and she doesn't shy away from having big opinions about her books. So I loved that episode.
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A
She totally does. It was so fun to chat with her.
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B
All right, so let's start off the way that we love to do and let's talk a little bit about our bookish moments of the week. What have you got this week?
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All right, so this week I am going to talk about my neighbor Marilyn. I actually sent you a couple messages about her earlier as we were first getting our podcast off the ground. She lives down the street from me. She is old enough to be my somewhere between my mom and grandma's age. She has grandkids that are as old as my kids or older. And she is just the sweetest thing. She does not do any social media, so she can't follow us. She doesn't have itunes, so she can't subscribe and rate. But we mention that at the end of every episode of our podcast. So what she does instead. Hi Marilyn, I hope you're listening is she sends me a text when she listens to an episode. She sends me texts throughout the week and she lets me know what she's been reading lately. She has great recommendations for me and it has just been so much fun to develop A relationship with Marilyn based almost entirely on books and the fact that we live down the street from each other. It's been such a great time. So I just want to, like, shout out to her. And she makes my week bookish on a regular basis, so I love getting to have that relationship with her.
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B
That is so sweet. Hi, Marilyn. We are. I just. Everything you've mentioned about her, Katie, she just seems like she's adorable. She's a really great reader. And yeah, she's kind of our podcast grandma. Right. Like, can we.
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Totally. Is.
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Can we make her that? I love the idea.
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I hope that's a good title for you, Marilyn, because that's totally how we think of you. You're the best. That's very, very sweet.
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When I meet you, I'm definitely going to want to meet Marilyn.
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Oh, my gosh. I'm going to have to get you out here this time next year for balloon fiesta, because we're starting to have balloons go up and it's so fun. And Marilyn will just down the street to meet.
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B
I heard that that's a great time of year in New Mexico. All right. So my bookish moment of the week has to do with the traveling that I just got home from. So I actually went on a trip. I was gone for eight days away from my husband and son, and that's by far the longest that I've ever been gone from them. But I did a two part trip. So the first part was work related. I'm the CEO of Here Comes the Guide, and we get together two times a year, all of us, or this time it was about 2/3 of us. We got together in Austin, Texas, and we had such a great time and that we had a great time together. We always do. We had a great time exploring the city. I love Austin. And so that was super fun. And then the second half, right as we finished that, four of my good friends who are part of that group and I went on to Vermont. And we'd mentioned a couple times that I was going to Vermont. This was a bucket list trip for me. I'm from California. In my adult life, I haven't done a lot of traveling. I went through 20 years of being absolutely petrified to fly on a plane. After September 11th, I just really, really got into a spin about airline travel and didn't fly for 20 years until my daughter's graduation last May in Tennessee. And that really got me flying again. And so it opened up this whole world. So my first bucket list trip that I wanted to make was To Vermont. And it was gorgeous. I feel like Vermont. Have you ever been to Vermont?
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A
I don't think I've been to Vermont. I've been up to, like, New England, Boston, Maine, that area in the fall even, but not to Vermont, I don't think.
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B
Right. So we flew into Boston, and then we drove three hours into Vermont. We stayed at this adorable red farmhouse, and it was absolutely. It was an Airbnb. It's called moonlight in Vermont in Stowe, Vermont, if you're interested. I highly recommend it because it's got a great host and a perfect place to go on a Vermont trip and just kind of home base out of it and then be able to visit so many great things nearby. We. There's a ton of fall foliage. It is breathtakingly beautiful. We just could not believe that it was real. I mean, it really looks as beautiful as it is on Instagram, which I had a hard time believing that it was going to be, but it was right. Here's my bookish moment of the week. Several times during the trip, I got a chance in the. Especially in the early morning, I got a chance to go out into the back patio of the farmhouse that we were staying in with my book and a hot cup of coffee. And it was suitably cool. It was. It was probably 50 degrees, which, of course, is not cold by Vermont standards, but for a California girl, 50 degrees is cold. And just drink a hot cup of coffee and read in the morning, and I feel like Vermont is made for readers. It just has that cozy, kind of wonderful fall feeling. And I just sat there thinking, this is the life. I absolutely loved it. And I'm not going to forget. I'm not going to forget the book that I was reading at that moment. That will always be, you know, really very much together with my memories of my trip. So that was super fun. That was my bookish moment of the week.
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I like that. I think Vermont might want to adopt that as their state motto. I know we have, like, Virginia is for lovers, right? So Vermont should just be for readers. They should just start putting that on their license plate.
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B
Oh, my gosh. They definitely should. And I went to the cutest bookstore in Vermont, and I actually posted a photo of this. We'll put it in the show notes, too. It's called Bear Pond Books, and it's a great independent bookstore in Waterbury, I believe, is the city. All the cities are really small, so you kind of don't know when you're in one city and when you're in the next. 1. But we will put the correct city in the show notes in case I've gotten that wrong. But it's called Bear Pond Books, and it's fantastic.
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Little. Yeah, definitely click over to the show notes this week, guys, because there'll be lots of great images in there from Meredith's trip.
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Yes. Oh, I will. Yes. I took a picture of the place where I was doing my reading in the morning, too, so. Okay, let's get into the heart of the matter. What books have you been currently reading this week?
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A
All right. My current reads. I actually did a little bit of a nonfiction flight this week on my audiobooks, and the first one I want to talk about is one that's been on my shelves for forever, and I'm so excited that I finally got to it. So it's the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Have you read that one, Meredith?
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I have not read this one, but I have heard a lot about.
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Seems like something totally right in your wheelhouse, especially because of our mutual love for Gretchen Rubin and better than before and the. You pushed her book just a couple weeks ago. I feel like this is probably where her love of habit formation came from, is probably from this book. Charles Duhigg, the author, just researched everything so well. He gives us copious examples from advertising and the way that advertisers make it so a product is successful, like the backstory behind Febreze, which, go figure, was too successful to be useful for a while, so they had to figure out a way to make us have it of our lives. He talks about the way that toothpaste became a part of almost every American's morning and evening routine. He talks about addiction and gambling and the way that those habits can become so ingrained that they are actually like a defense in court cases. And then just the science in this book is so amazing. And then he does do a little bit of practical application as to how habits are made, how habits are broken, how new habits are formed. But. But this is where I would recommend that the reader reads this book and then goes and picks up Gretchen Rubin's book, because then they're going to be able to harness their four tendencies or, you know, go from the science behind habits to the application of how do you actually make the habits that you want in your life? So it would make a great book flight. I thought it was phenomenal.
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Okay, Katie, I'm a doofus. I have absolutely read this book.
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Good. Cause I totally think you would love it.
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As soon as you said Febreze and toothpaste I all of a sudden madly was checking my Instagram feed and of course I have read this book. I read it a couple of months ago and when you said the name, it didn't cue the COVID in my
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head, but the yellow one.
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It's a really, really great book and it is a great companion to Better than Before because, yes, if you can understand the science behind habits and then really curate, you know, your particular personality type to how to best form the habits you want, that's a really great one two punch.
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Absolutely. Yeah. I definitely recommend it and I love that it plays on the book that you already recommended for all of our readers. I'm glad you read it.
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That's a good one. That's definitely a good one. Well, my first book that I wanted to talk about is a book that my Vermont trip definitely had me thinking of and had me dipping in for a quick reread because it is A Walk in the woods by Bill Bryson. Have you read anything by Bill Bryson?
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Yes, I have. I think he's hysterical sometimes. He's like a hit or miss for me. But Notes from a Small island and A Walk in the woods are both just. I love them.
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Exactly. And he is another one of those. So first of all, he's a humorist memoirist, and he is second only in my mind to David Sedaris. And Bill Bryson cracks me up. He's sort of dry and acerbic dad type of guy, but he's absolutely hilarious. Spot on with his writing. I really enjoy him on audio quite a bit. I think his voice just really adds a ton to the experience. And A Walk in the woods is probably his most famous. I think it's his bestseller. And they. It basically chronicles his walk on the Appalachian Trail with a man who he didn't know super well when they started. And that's kind of what's funny about the book and just their trip together. And it's hilarious. It's a quick read. It's a great. I actually found it by happenstance on vacation many, many, many years ago at a cabin where we were staying. It's a great book for a cabin vacation. It's a great book for fall. It's. It's very evocative of location and. But then also it's just so freaking funny. So highly, highly recommend A Walk in the Wood woods by Bill Bryson.
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A
So that was turned into a movie a couple years ago with Robert Redford. Did you ever watch that?
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I did not. And this goes back to my whole if I really, really love something, I don't read other books in the series and I often don't watch the movie because I don't want it to be tainted. So I did not.
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Well, I've heard the movie is terrible, so I haven't watched it either because I've heard it's terrible. But now I picture Robert Redford when I hear about Bill Bryson, even though I'm sure they look nothing alike, but in my head, he looks a little bit like Robert Redford.
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They do not look anything alike.
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Well, just like you don't want to ruin your experience later on, I am not going to go Google Bill Bryson and look at what he actually looks like because I'm happy with him being Robert Redford esque in my head.
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Right. And also I will say I think he's absolutely adorable just the way that he is. So. So. Yeah. So what is your next book?
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All right, my next book is perfect for any mom of four or any mom in general. I listened to again another audiobook this week. It's Siblings Without Rivalry by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. And this book has been on my TBR list for a while, but I did wait for a copy from the library and then I immediately went and put it in my Amazon wish list because I need a copy on my shelves when my no buy year is over. I'm totally buying a copy of this book. So Siblings Without Rival is written by the same authors that wrote how to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk. And I've read that one. I've read how to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen and Listen so Little Kids Will Talk or whatever the little kid version of it is. But this book, they talked about it a little bit in those two previous titles, but then they decided that it was just so much information that they couldn't not do a whole book about siblings. So I think anybody with two kids or more basically needs a copy of this on their shelves. I actually wrote in my Goodreads review this week that I'm gonna start buying it as a new baby gift for anybody that's having their second child and beyond, because it's so informative and it's so great the way that she pulls apart sibling relationships and the way that parents develop those relationships and help them to grow or destroy them in some cases. You can see the way that your own childhood influenced your relationship with your siblings, if you are one of a few and or maybe your husband and his relationships with his siblings and the way that, like, parents play into Those relationships. And then it just gave me so many wonderful tools for the way that I want to support my kids in their relationship with each other and their ability to resolve conflict together and their ability to love each other well. And it talks about everything from like dividing chores and fighting and assigning roles to kids. It's just great. And so any. Any parent out there that has more than one kid, I want to encourage you to put this in your Amazon cart right now and. And read it because it is going to change your home for sure.
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I think this is a great recommendation. I can't even tell you how many people I know for whom this is an issue that is a daily struggle. The just the issue of how much conflict is too much. When do I step in? How much do I need to let them work it out on their own? I want. Want. I want my children to get along and to love each other. But then sometimes personality types can make it difficult and will it always be that way? So I love this recommendation and I love the recommendation of including it as a part of a gift for someone who's having a second child. I think that's brilliant.
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Yeah, well, sometimes. Sometimes I get brilliant ideas.
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You do. That was really, really smart. Do you know what my go to book is that I give to. For new moms?
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Do tell us.
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Well, now, because I. This is on the fly, so I didn't look up the author's name, but have you heard of the book Bringing up Bebe?
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Yes, the one about the French parenting the Way.
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Yes, that is such a great book. And I highly encourage people to read it when they're still pregnant, like with their first. So they still have a little bit more time to kind of take things in. I love that book. It really changed a lot about the way that we raised Jackson and the way that we introduced different foods and the way that we, you know, we thought about different kinds of behavior and you know, how we. What we wanted to accept and what we didn't and those kinds of things. So that's one of my favorite books to give too.
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Yeah, I feel like that one influenced me the most with regard to snack time at our house because snacks are just out of control.
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Yes, exactly. Exactly. And for. For me, it really affected the way that I introduced foods and. And the thought that it's repeated exposures to foods that really make the difference instead of, well, he just doesn't like it was. Well, he might not like it yet, but repeated exposure so that. Yes, I. Bringing up baby. I love that book. So Good recommendations. I love, I love this.
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Nice. What's your second book?
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My second book. We're gonna go, we're gonna go for some fiction. This is a book that when I was in Vermont at Bear Pond Books, I saw it on the shelf and read it very recently and handed it to two of my friends who were there with me saying, you each have asked me recently for a book that is a total page turner. A book that I'm not going to be able to put down. This is the book. The book is Fierce Kingdom by Jen Phillips. Did you read it?
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I did. Okay.
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This is a book that I think people have big opinions about. It is a page turner. The scoop is. Here's the, here's the setup. A mom and her 4 year old son are ending a day at the zoo. They've had a wonderful day. They're getting ready to wrap up and they're headed for the exit of the zoo. As they're getting ready to exit, something occurs that sends the mom and the son running for their lives back into the zoo. And then you follow the 3 hours ish from that point. This book is intense. What I always though after people read the setup, I always really want to encourage people to know, you can handle this book.
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Right?
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It's going to be okay. You can handle this book. And I say that very seriously because there are certain outcomes that I could not read because I have a young son, because I've been at the zoo alone with him. So I just want to. I'm not spoiling anything at all. But I think it's important to say that with the setup you might think you can't handle it and I think that you can. Now if you are highly sensitive person. This is a thriller, it's an intent. This book is intense. It takes place over a very short period of time. So I read it in one sitting, darn near in real time. I read it in about three hours. And so it's intense. It is not gentle as far as how you're going to feel. So this is a book to pick up on a plane. This is a book to pick up in a situation where you're like, I need something that is going to take all of my attention and I don't want to be worried that maybe I'm going to lose attention. So this would be a book for that situation. Would you agree with my assessment?
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Absolutely. I also tore through it super fast for that same reason. Like you just get completely sucked into this story. And I also like, like you, I have young Sons, three of them. And. And I was okay reading this book. I'm not hsp, but I think especially once you get into the story, it carries you along enough that it's not going to be something that terrifies you for the rest of your life, I guess.
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Exactly. Lots of great characters, not just the mom and son there. It's actually a. A small group of characters that you really get to know. And I just thought it was really well done. So that's a book that I consistently recommend to people who are just looking for that intense page turner.
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Definitely.
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B
Okay, so what's another book that you read this week?
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All right, the last one I have is fiction, and it is brand new, just off the presses. It's Jodi Picoult's A Spark of Light, which just came out Tuesday of this week.
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It did, but, boy, it's getting a lot of buzz already.
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And it has a lot of mixed reviews. I feel like a lot of times she just totally hits it out of the park because people who like Jodi Pico like Jodi Pico, and they are going to read it no matter what. This one, at the time that I rated, it only had, like, just under four stars on Goodreads, which for her is kind of low. So let me give you this setup. So A Spark of Light starts with a gunman at an abortion clinic and a hostage negotiator trying to negotiate the release of the people that are still in the clinic with the gunman. That is the very first chapter. There is no spoiler there at all. So we go from that moment. We go through about an hour worth of time, and then it's a reverse timeline, so it jumps backwards in time. So we get a little further away from the moment and then a little further away and a little further away, all the way up until roughly, I think that morning is where it ends. It may have been the night before, but it's only. I mean, it's less than 24 hours total that this book takes up, but it starts from the late afternoon and goes backwards. And like Jodi Picoult, I mean, she's really good at this. She takes hot button issues. She has us look at both sides. And I think this one might be her most divisive yet because, like, if you think of small, great things which came out last year.
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Yeah.
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You know, she does have us look at both sides of the racism issue, but most of us feel like racism is bad. Right, Right. I mean, that's. That's where the majority of America is going to fall on that statement, even though she does kind of get us to get a little bit of sympathy for the white supremacist in that book. In Spark of Light, abortion is the central issue. Pro life versus pro choice. And she really has us take a look at both sides of this argument. There are pro choice, pro life protesters outside of the clinic. There's one inside the clinic. And then there's obviously there's like nurses and doctors that work in the clinic. There's young girls involved. There's dads of these young girls. So you've got every single viewpoint possible around this one issue. And even if you are staunchly on one side or the other, which most of us are, you know, somebody who is on the other side of that issue. So it's not that kind of removed feeling like, like small great things where it's like, well, I don't, I don't personally know any people that are in the modern day KKK movement or are currently practicing Nazis or anything like that. You know, like that it feels a little more distant and this one feels very close to home. And I think that's part of why it's getting these mixed reviews is that it feels like, oh man, she's really giving the side that I don't agree with. Plenty of airtime here, you know.
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Sure.
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And people want to read the side that they do agree with a lot of times, I think. And so it almost like a lot of the, A lot of the not great reviews I read said that it sound. It felt preachy to them because she does give both sides of the issue such equal treatment. She does make it very clear at the very end of the book which side of the issue she's on. And it doesn't feel clear up until that point. So I think she just does a really great job guiding you through the entire issue using this one day's worth of events. My one complaint is that I did not like the reverse timeline. I get why she did it, but I wasn't a fan, so.
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B
Right. I always have trouble with reverse timelines that. That can get confusing to me or even a little bit tedious. But this is really interesting. As I said, it's getting a lot of buzz and I am seeing those mixed reviews. She's hit or miss for me in general. I loved small great things. I think I mentioned when we talk about that, that I, Jodi Pico, it seems in a lot of her books to want to make you cry or they're highly emotionally charged. And just when I do A lot of my reading, I tend to shy away from that just because I. My reading serves really as an escape. So historically I have, I have gone away from her books. But small great things I think was really great. And this one sounds really interesting. I love the idea of it really kind of getting in the heads of people who come from two very different places on an issue.
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A
Right. And I will say that this one, I mean, I've read plenty of her books. I've read plenty of them for the cathartic crying aspect. This one does not feel like that to me. I never had that like breakdown, sobbing on the floor moment, even a little bit. Even like getting, you know, a little misty while I was listening. It was, it was an emotional book in that it provokes a lot of emotions, but it's not a sad, weepy book at all.
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B
Right. It seems like she's going away from that structure. It seems like she's. She's moving away from kind of being in that place and she's right. Doing a new thing. And I like that.
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A
Me too. What's your third book?
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B
My third book is a left turn from that. And it's kid lit children's nature, which you know, I absolutely love. And it is Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Burtman. And this book is just a lot of fun. So it's got a 12 year old female lead character. She moves from another city to San Francisco. She's a big reader. She reminded me a lot of me when I was that age. She's a really big reader and books are definitely as she makes this move. Books are where she finds her comfort and they're her coping mechanism. And she finds herself through a series of circumstances. Circumstances drawn into. Well, she goes. She goes to San Francisco and she plays this game that is called Book Scavenger. So in the book there's this online game called Book Scavenger which by the way should exist in real life.
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A
Yeah, let's make that happen. That sounds awesome.
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B
It's really awesome. And the book does a really fun job of explaining how it works and what you do and how you get points and how you move up the different levels. And I would have been all over this like white on rice when I was a kid. Well, and I would also as an adult be into it.
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A
Right. So let's just do it now. That's what I'm saying.
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B
Exactly. So she gets involved in it and then there's this other mystery that she becomes involved in. And it's just a lot of fun. It's got a lot of good adventure. It's very bookish. It's got a great couple of lead characters, a boy and a girl. They're not a couple, they're just really good friends. And it's a great story as you watch her kind of become more familiar with San Francisco and to really see it as, as her home over time. And also a lot of people love the book the Westing Game, obviously a classic in children's literature. I read that when I was younger, much younger. And then I reread it just a couple of years ago and I just don't love the Westing Game. There's something about that book that rubs me a little bit the wrong way. And this book, Book Scavenger is, is like to me a much more fun Westing game. So you can play along with the mystery, but it's, it's just kind of got. It's. It's sweeter. So I really, really enjoyed it. This would be Perfect for a 9 to 13 year old and even a read aloud for, for one a little bit younger than that. And it's just a lot of fun. I really highly recommend this one.
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A
Now as you're talking about it makes me think a little bit of Ready Player One. Did you read that one? Because that feels very like, like nostalgic game searching for clues. To me if, like, if those are the things that you're pulling out of it. Do you feel like A Ready Player One fan would like the book Scavenger 2?
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B
They're very different books. Ready Player One is, is definitely. I'm sure there are a lot of teenagers who really liked it, but, but this one is definitely more kid lit, more that 9, 10, 11 year old age. And it's just got a real sweetness to it. I. I like it. I like it a lot. It reminded me. So the same person who's gonna love Book Scavenger is going to be. Is going to also love the Vanderbeekers of 141st Street. Again, I'm pulling that out on the fly. I believe that that's the right title, but that those are. Are going to be really good fits one for the other.
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A
Absolutely. Cool. Right?
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B
So. Okay, so those are some good and varied books that we wanted to talk about this week. Okay. So we're gonna do a little bit of a deep dive that is actually more of a. Meredith needs a therapy session. Help. I need help because Katie, it is super ironic that we just started a book podcast a couple of weeks ago and I am in a reading slump.
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A
This makes me so sad and it
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B
happens periodically for me and I, I. So what's happened is. So in September I've, I've had this read my shelves thing. I think that, that, that plus what my husband went through, which I talked about a couple episodes ago, where we found ourselves at the er right around that period of time was when I started to really get into a slump.
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A
Right.
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B
And for some reason I just have lost my mojo. Reading wise. I have started no fewer than five books from my shelves. Books that I have been waiting to read for a long time. And I will get 20 or 30 pages into, into them and I will, I will say, I know I'm going to like this book. There's nothing about any of those five books and I'm not even going to name them because I'm so sure I'm going to end up reading all or most of them at a time that they are the right book for me and love them. So I didn't dnf any of them. I just couldn't get grabbed and I kept going, this is not right. And so I didn't do a ton. I didn't do my normal amount of reading as I was traveling because there were a lot of other things going on and a lot of, you know, I wanted to spend time with the people that I was with. And then of course I get back and I, you know, I need to get my feet under me again. So I've just been in a reading slump. Does this ever happen to you?
- [30:45]
A
Well, you might be surprised, but yes, I think this happens to every reader and, and it's hard, it sucks when that feels like, like reading is your joy and you can't find it when you're in a reading slump. And it, it's like heart hurting, you
- [31:02]
B
know, it is, it makes me really sad.
- [31:06]
A
Do you have any idea how you're gonna try and get out of it or do you feel like.
- [31:11]
B
Well, yeah, so I think part of it is I have to just realize that we go through slumps and we go through seasons as readers. One of the things that a lot of people will say to me is I used to love to read and then I had my baby and I haven't been able to find my reading legs again. So I think there are seasons as readers and I'm very accepting of that. And then I also think that we need to accept that there are ebbs and flows to our reading life. And instead of my, my, my, you know, enneagram type One has a lot of should involved in it, right? And so I feel like I should be reading or I should want to read these particular books. And so I need, first and foremost, I think, is to stop castigating myself about it and then just kind of let it be what it is. And so what I've done in the last couple days actually finished a book this morning, and that felt really good. And so I'll be talking about that the next time that we record. So I finished a book that I really liked and that felt good and that kind of felt like it began to get me past the slump. And then I also have just been. Been. Been being very intentional about. Even if reading isn't necessarily calling to me, I've been sitting down and saying, I'm just going to read for five minutes. And if I don't feel like reading at the end of five minutes, I'm going to let myself get up, but at least I'm going to give myself this chance. And then the couple times I've done that over the last couple of days since I've been back from my trip, I've ended up having, you know, really getting into it and getting some good reading done. So I feel like I might be kind of coming on the other side of it. But do you have any. What do you do when you're in a slump?
- [32:51]
A
So I. When we talked about you hitting a slump and me and me being sad for you, I started thinking about the ways that I have mostly over the last couple years avoided slumps. And I think one of the biggest things comes back to what we talked about last time you and I got to. To talk on episode six, which is that I read in multiple formats at a time. So if I feel like I'm slumping down in something and I just cannot get grabbed by a title and it's taking me forever and I'm not making any progress, I will let one of my other two titles carry me away and get me wrapped up into reading again. Like, for whatever reason, I love To Kill a Mockingbird, but it took me a long time to get past chapter three the last time I was reading it. And so I just went back to my audiobook and I went back to my Kindle book and I waited for some time to really get into To Kill a Mockingbird in order to be able to finish it. So I like the idea of just letting, like reading a few things at a time and just letting one of them carry you away and giving it time to do that. So the other recommendation I have for that is to. If you have a book that you're interested in reading, but for whatever reason you can't get started on it, is to start it on audio. So find the audio version of let's pretend that one of your reading slump books is homegoing, because I know you've been meaning to read that for a while. That is so good. But it takes time to build up and it takes time to get into the format of the story. So if you pick up homegoing on audio and you get through at least maybe the first chapter or the first two chapters, and you start to get a feel for the characters or you start to get a feel for the people that you're going to be spending your time with in this book or the family that you're going to be spending time with in this book, then maybe starting on audio while you're doing other things will be enough to get you interested in picking that paper book up again, if that makes sense.
- [34:44]
B
That's a good idea. I think that's a. I think that's a really good idea. And that's one of those things that I need to. Especially since we talked about the different ways that you're. You always read in multiple formats at the same time. I've been thinking, I don't do as much audio unless I'm going on a long drive. I don't do as much audio because whenever I have my earbuds in, I'm almost always saying, oh, well, this is the time I listen to podcasts, because I love podcasts. I love book podcasts. And so I think one of the things I need to get more facile with doing is saying, you know what? When I have earbuds in, when I go on a run, it doesn't just need to be a podcast. This can be audio book consumption time too. So just kind of mixing it up in that way. The other thing that I did last night that I honestly feel made me feel a lot better is I said to myself, you know what the reality is? I love going to the library and reading books from the library for whatever reason. It just makes me very happy. And so I said to myself, self, we're not doing two months of reading your shelves. We're gonna call September enough and we're gonna move on. And so I started putting a bunch of books that I had, you know, been had my eye on through Bookstagram and I started putting them on my holds list. And so today those started coming in. So this weekend I'm gonna have a bunch of books to pick up. And that really helped me feel excited about reading again. So that's strange that, that routine of going to the library on Saturdays and getting the big. The big pile of books and deciding which of those I was going to read, that somehow that was really, really the reason that I was doing as much reading as I was doing. And I'm realizing now that my reading really picked up a couple years ago when I started doing that. So I think I might have learned a little bit about myself through this reading slump.
- [36:38]
A
Right. That's actually one of the pieces of advice that I give to people that are trying to pick up their readings speed or pace is to start using the library more because you've got due dates, you've got other people waiting for the book, you've got other people that are excited about it, or you have to put it on hold and you wait for a long time for it. And so when it comes in, too bad self, it's time to read this book. You know, like, it's easier to get excited about a book if the library is the one saying, are you ready? Because right now it's your turn to read whatever this talked about title is. And then for those of us that are obligers like me or upholders like you, you've got the, the people waiting on you to read that book after you. So I think that using the library is a great way to not only pick up your reading speed, but to bust yourself out of a slump. Because then you've got that like, kind of out external pressure. Maybe not if you're a rebel or maybe not if you're a questioner. But for obligers and upholders, they're definitely going to have some of that external pressure to get through a book too.
- [37:38]
B
Absolutely. And also because it's from the library, I don't have this feeling of, well, I bought it. So I really, I like, I'm totally okay with just reading 20 pages. Yeah. And so. Or. Or to say, like, I'm gonna put a pin in this one and I know I'm gonna want to come back to that in a different season or when it's cold, when it's warm, you know, that kind of thing. Whereas the books that are on my shelves, I'm realizing, like, I have a bunch of book of the month books that I really wanted to read at the time. And now I'm worried if I picked them up, I'm gonna be like. Because I've maybe heard some mixed stuff about them in the month since they came out. And so then they just started to feel. It's just a weird vibe. So thank you for that. Thank you for letting me talk through this, listeners. I'm going to be really interested. What do you do when you're in a slump? Do you go through slumps? I. I think it's something that, that happens to all of us. And are you going through one now? What book broke you out of it? Those are things we're going to be really interested to hear. To hear from our listeners about, most definitely. Okay. So now speaking of our listeners, their favorite section of the podcast is the books that we want to press into readers hands. So what do you have for us this week?
- [38:51]
A
All right, mine's a two for this week again, which is again, kind of cheating, but I'm doing it anyway because we've already mentioned his name this episode and it wasn't me, but I'm doing it anyway. So David Sedaris. David Sedaris, who I have told you over and over again is like my podcast bucket list interview. Like if we could ever. Mr. Sedaris, if you would ever come on our podcast. Oh my God, Meredith and I would pee ourselves. That's all I'm gonna say.
- [39:18]
B
We would just be puddles.
- [39:20]
A
Yes, absolutely. So I have gotten to see him speak multiple times live. He is hysterically funny. He just had a new book come out this year, which I'm always just on the edge of my seat waiting for his brand new books. And this one is right back into his old wheelhouse of just making you laugh so hard you have tears squirting out of your eyes. And it's Calypso and it's fantastic. And I.
- [39:44]
B
So good. It is so good. I am so glad he went back to this format.
- [39:49]
A
Every story, every story is fantastic. When I had this last baby, my mom was visiting. I pulled up the audiobook and I made her listen to one of the stories that I actually heard him read aloud. It was recorded at the theater where we last went to go see him speak. So I tell her, if you listen really hard, you can hear me laughing, which is not true. We are way up in the balcony. But I like to pretend I'm audiobook famous because you can hear me laughing, hypothetically on a David Sedaris audiobook track from Calypso. And it is so funny, it will just slay you across the board. The snapping turtle eating the tumor. I mean, I could, I could go on and on about this book. I love it so Much. And so my bonus pick is, if you've already read Calypso and you know that David Sedaris is hilarious, but you haven't dipped into his back catalog, I'm going to encourage you to go all the way back to the beginning and pick up Me Talk Pretty One Day, which is his classic. His, like, classic first really big hit. And it has been a favorite of mine for probably 20 years. I don't even know when it was published. But it is worth picking up because it is just like Calypso in those, like, really hysterical, really poignant stories that get right to the little nugget of hilarity in the middle of a situation. He is so funny.
- [41:06]
B
Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I've read. I've read everything that he's. That he's written. Except I did DNF Theft by Finding because I just. I got halfway through and I just. It just wasn't holding my attention because it's. It's just not the same.
- [41:21]
A
Yeah, it's totally different.
- [41:22]
B
But his entire canon, I have read multiple times to the point where I had them on a loop in my car, as I would. You know, I had this commute from Berkeley to where I live back and forth. So it was like an hour and a half each way, and which is 15 miles as the crow flies, just so you know. So it's absolutely horrible. But the upside is lots of time for David Sedaris. And I just. I listened. I've listened to every single one of his at least four times. Every single one of his books at least four times. And yes, I was so excited that Calypso is a return to his inimitable style.
- [42:00]
A
Oh, my God, yes, absolutely. I will say about Theft by Finding. So he did read some of those little entries during the last time that I saw him live. And in his voice, with his pauses and his inflection, they are way funnier than in the book. I had to really push myself to get through Theft By Finding. I would read a decade at a time, basically, or a year at a time is what I would do. And then I'd go read something else because I couldn't just slog through 17 years of Sedaris diary entries. But it does not feel like a slog when he's reading them because he just has, like, the little lift in his voice that makes you realize what he was really going for in those diary entries when he was picking up those little situations. So it's worth listening to. But I agree that man picking that book up it's like a tome of not worth it.
- [42:46]
B
Right. But Calypso is definitely read that one. Right? I read that in actually in hardcover when it came out and then I planned to listen to it. But that's one of those ones that I actually have to be careful that I don't read it while I'm meeting because I actually think I could die choking on food reading David Sedaris.
- [43:05]
A
So, okay, what's your book?
- [43:07]
B
The book I want to press. So first of all, breaking news. I got an urgent call yesterday from one of my favorite readers in the world, a trusted source of recommendations saying, aunt Mare, this is your nephew Colin. You need to talk about these two books on your next podcast because they are so good. Now Colin is absolutely fantastic. He is 10, he is a real reader, but also very much a man's man, boys boy, rough and tumble kind of guy. And he has book, it's a, it's, it's two books. The first one is called Max, Best Friend, Hero, Marine. And the second book is called Hero, both by Jennifer Lee Schatz. These are fiction. They are right in that fourth to fifth grade reading level. They are great books about. Max is a marine dog. And it's about him, it's about his handler, owner. And there's lots of action. There is, you know, there are lots of heroics. There are, you know, human characters that are very much ones that you can root for and that you want your sons and daughters to emulate. There's revenge, there's all sorts of fantastic, really. Boy, especially accessible plot lines in these two books. He says that both books are equally good. He says that anytime one of his friends says that he needs a, a book to read this, these are the books that he wants to press into their hands. And so I just, I, it was, it was such an urgent call from Colin that I absolutely wanted to make sure that we tell our listeners, if you have a 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 year old boy who's maybe a little bit reluctant to read, check out this, these two books by Jennifer Lee Schatz. I think they might be, they might be good ones.
- [45:07]
A
I like that. Wow. So just to be clear, it's not everybody that gets Aunt Merr Mare on the phone and, and she's gonna push their books for them. But I'm really glad that Colin was able to give you that urgent message and that you were able to pass it along to our listeners. I think that's really sweet.
- [45:22]
B
That's true. In fact, all my nieces and nephews, they Have a, like a bat signal that's book related to Aunt Mary Mare because they know that if they have a book book that you know that they think I should read that I will read it. They also know that if they have a book that they really want that maybe they don't quite have the funds for, I will probably send it to them. So my nieces and nephews, they know I am their go to book book person. So I just love that about them. And Colin is just absolutely fantastic and smart and wonderful in every way. So shout out there. The book I would want to press into people's hands is a classic. And I was thinking about it this week because I did little reread of it. And just every single time I think I've read it three times now, I just think this book is so good and it's one a lot of us have heard about, but maybe you haven't actually read it. So it is Agatha Christie's and Then There Were none, which is also known as. I read it a copy that was called Ten Little Indians. And I love this book because it falls into the category of being a classic. But it's not a really big book and it is incredibly readable and it's creepy and it's, it's accessible. In fact, I read this out loud on a rainy Saturday to my, my then 10 year old daughter Devin and she was as into it as I was. And so the setup, as we all know, we've probably, you know, you know, you've heard it. A bunch of strangers all get invitations to attend an event at an English manor house. And slowly on an island, on an island and slowly they begin to get picked off one by one in all sorts of strange ways. And so who is doing this? Why are they doing it? Why are those particular people there? I just think this is one of those books that there are a lot of people who've heard of it and they've said maybe someday and if they actually gave themselves 30 pages of it, they will be sucked right in. So that, and then I think it's a really good gateway to some classics because once you read that you can read more Agatha Christie, you can maybe pick up some other things that you've thought, oh, I don't know if that's for me. But then you realize a lot of these things that we label as classics were just novels back in the day, right? That very much is, is this one. So I love this book.
- [47:51]
A
I listened to that one on audio and it is narrated by Dan Stevens, who is Matthew in Downton Abbey and the. And the Beast and the new Beauty, the Beast and his voice. Oh man, it's perfect for this book. It's so fantastic. I loved it too. It was great.
- [48:07]
B
Yeah, it's good and it's scary. Like there's definitely. It's not horror in any way, shape or form. Obviously it's Agatha Christie, but it is not just all manners. It's really scary and creepy and you really want to know what happened. And again, it's not a very. I think it's right at 300 pages in paperback form. So it's, it's not a big time investment. And for me, it really, really got me into reading a lot more Agatha Christie. So definitely, that is definitely one that I would say if you love a mystery or you love mysteries now and you really want to, to read some of the, the, the canon from back in the day, this is a really good one to start. Okay, so that's it for this week. As a reminder, here's where you can connect with us. You can find me, I'm meredithredithreads on
- [48:57]
A
Instagram and you can find me Katie Oates on bookmarks on Instagram.
- [49:02]
B
Full show notes with the title of every book we mentioned in the episode can be found@currentlyreading podcast.com and you can
- [49:10]
A
find the podcast at currentlyreading podcast on Instagram. Or we just started a Facebook page too, so you can find us over there. You can also email us@currentlyreading podcastmail.com and
- [49:21]
B
if you really want to help us rate and review us on itunes and tell your friends, that's probably the number one thing that you can actually do for us, is share us out on social media and tell your bookish friends about us because that's how we're going to find the exact right audience for this podcast.
- [49:38]
A
Yes, we love your 5 star reviews. We love your posts about how we're making your Mondays better and we love you guys. So thank you so much for that.
- [49:46]
B
Until next week. Happy reading, Katie.
- [49:49]
A
Happy reading, Meredith.