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Reading Glasses
Ep 390 - 2024 Challenge Wrap Up + Next Year’s Challenge!
00:46:45
Brea and Mallory do their 2024 reading wrap up! Plus, they announce the 2025 Reading Glasses Challenge!
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- [00:06]
Mallory O'Meara
You're listening to Reading Glasses, a show about book culture and literary life designed to help you read better. I'm author and book devourer Mallory O'Meara.
- [00:14]
Bria Grant
And I'm Bria Grant, filmmaker and e reader. This episode, we're doing our 2024 reading glasses wrap up. Our reading wrap up. Plus we announced the 2025 reading glasses challenge.
- [00:25]
Mallory O'Meara
Dun, dun, dun, dun. But first, Bria, what are you reading?
- [00:27]
Bria Grant
So much going on today. I am listening to a book that I talked about. Ooh, I don't know. It's one of our anticipated books episodes. It's a Nightmare Before Christmas.
- [00:37]
Mallory O'Meara
Oh, yeah.
- [00:37]
Bria Grant
A rails and romance novel by Sarah Ratch, and it's narrated by Ellis Evans. Do you remember what this was about? Do you remember the plot of this? Yes, it is about a. So in this world, Christmas, all the major holidays are, like, run by these royal families, basically. So it's very like Nightmare Before Christmas. Y. Like you live in this world. Like you live in Christmas. You live in Halloween or whatever.
- [01:05]
Mallory O'Meara
And what a dream.
- [01:06]
Bria Grant
There's this one kid named Cole who is.
- [01:09]
Mallory O'Meara
Is he in the Christmas world?
- [01:10]
Bria Grant
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nicholas, but he goes by Cole. He. He's kind of the black sheep of the family. And then his father, who's the reigning Santa. This is very cute, by the way. I'm laughing because it's pretty. It's just so adorable. Basically, he. He's kind of the guy who gets drunk and causes a scene, and he. At one point, he causes this big scene, and then he ends up making out with this guy. He's. He's bisexual. He makes out with this guy who he doesn't know, but it just, like, makes him feel better. And then cut to, like a year or six months later, his father says, hey, you have to marry this woman who is the Easter princess. So we. Cause Christmas and Easter need to have an alliance. I love this already because his brother's crush and he feels bad about it, but he's the. He's the firstborn son, so he feels like he has to do it.
- [01:56]
Mallory O'Meara
He has to take on the Christmas mantle.
- [01:58]
Bria Grant
But then he runs into the guy that he made out with, and turns out he's the Halloween prince. So it's very red, white, and white.
- [02:08]
Mallory O'Meara
Who will monster has not been tempted.
- [02:10]
Bria Grant
By the Halloween prince, whose name is, of course, Hex. So the name. And then there's this sort of, like, fake competition that the royals have all set up between them to marry that Easter princess. So it's a little bit of a love Triangle. But neither one. It's sort of also like a faux love triangle.
- [02:29]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah. Because Easter and Christmas are not. They don't like each other.
- [02:32]
Bria Grant
Well, like, this is his long term best friend. And so. But there's all this press around it that like, these two people are sort of courting.
- [02:39]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah. They're not in love with each other.
- [02:41]
Bria Grant
Right. That Hex and Cole are both courting the Easter princess. But really they'd like to be making out with each other.
- [02:46]
Mallory O'Meara
Ah, I love it.
- [02:48]
Bria Grant
And it's very. The world is very big. Like, there's a lot going on with, like Christmas and Santa and like, it's bigger than I thought it was going to be. And if you like Nightmare Before Christmas, this is definitely a book for you.
- [03:00]
Mallory O'Meara
This is fucking incredible.
- [03:02]
Bria Grant
It's very adorable. I think you'd really like it.
- [03:04]
Mallory O'Meara
Oh my God.
- [03:04]
Bria Grant
I think the Glassers would like it too. What about you?
- [03:06]
Mallory O'Meara
So I'm reading a book, or I just finished a book rather that I texted you while I was midway through and I was like, br, you gotta read this book. It's the village library. Demon Hunting Society by CM Wagoner. Folks, I think this is gonna be in my top of the year. This blew my face off.
- [03:20]
Bria Grant
Wow.
- [03:21]
Mallory O'Meara
It is. I think I pitched it to you is it's like Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Murder, she Wrote.
- [03:26]
Bria Grant
Oh, I'm on hold for it at the library. I probably won't get it for end of year.
- [03:30]
Mallory O'Meara
And so it's the. The main character is this librarian in the small upstate New York town. Her name is Sherry Pink Whistle. And as soon as, literally the first page, I was like, oh, brother, I am in. And she's. She's like the local librarian, but she's also kind of like Murder She Wrote. She has a knack for solving murders. So when someone gets murdered in town, the police kind of come to her for, like, to see what. What she thinks happens. And eventually Sherry starts to get to the point where she's like, there's a lot of murders in this town. It's like what people say when they watch Murder, She Wrote. They're like, damn, there's a lot of murders in cabin. But it's Sherry saying it. She's like, why? There's a lot of murders in this town. But every time she tries to have these thoughts, she gets distracted until somebody very close to her ends up dead. And her cat, who she calls Lord Cromwell, becomes possessed by what seems to be an ancient demon. And so all of a sudden she realizes that all of the murders in this town might have a supernatural bent to them and she needs to team up with a very with a, with a green behind the wet behind the ears priest that just got into town to try to both solve what's going on with these murders and figure out the supernatural cause behind them. It like, it's a fun, cozy mystery that takes like a hard left turn into a horror book. And I loved it.
- [04:41]
Bria Grant
Oh great.
- [04:42]
Mallory O'Meara
Just loved it top to bottom. Oh yeah. It's a mix of Bobby the Vampire Slayer and Murder she Wrote. Oh that's literally the best.
- [04:48]
Bria Grant
There we go.
- [04:49]
Mallory O'Meara
It's so much fun. And there of course it's the main character and I should also say she is in, I want to say she's in her 60s and I feel like you don't get a lot of books with a main character who's like in her 60s. She lives alone, she's got a boyfriend. Like she like living her life. Living her life. And I was like damn this, this rules. It's just so great. I loved it. I hope this is the start of a series the Village Library Demon Hunting Society by CM Wagoner and I'm listening.
- [05:15]
Bria Grant
To the Nightmare Before Christmas by by Sarah Rash, narrated by Ellis Evans.
- [05:24]
Mallory O'Meara
So we want to take a moment to share some listener feedback. Aaron wrote in to say hey Bri and Mallory. I was listening to episode 381 about book hangovers and a few solutions I've found helpful are 1. Listening to a podcast between audiobooks to cleanse my story focused brain when you just don't want to leave the book world you just inhabited for hours. Changing my listening focus to a non story podcast like reading glasses is a great way to refocus and clear my brain of the narrator and story and reset myself before diving into my next audiobook listen.
- [05:52]
Bria Grant
I think that's good. Or music.
- [05:55]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah, just a, just, just a cleanse in general I think is a great tip. 2. I write my book review before starting my next read. However, you debrief a book for yourself. Whether it's written review, star review, good read, story graph, personal book journal, etc, I try to make sure I get my thoughts out before I move on to my next read because once I engross myself in the next story, I'm extremely likely to not go back and write about the previous read. 3. Revisiting old favorites in a new way A lot of indie published authors will share post book shorts or bonus epilogues if you subscribe to their newsletters that are usually 50 pages or less. I will often download or bookmark them to revisit later between other books as a palette cleanser or when I'm struggling to decide what to read next because my unread list in my Kindle is overwhelmingly long. I already know I like the writer and the characters and it's never so much story that I feel like I'm committing to a whole new book, but enough to scratch the reading Itch for some pre bed reading or when you know you don't have time to get settled into a new story like right before bed. Hope this can help other glassers manage their book hangovers without finding themselves slipping into a book slump. These are great.
- [06:56]
Bria Grant
Yeah.
- [06:56]
Mallory O'Meara
Great tips.
- [06:57]
Bria Grant
Love that.
- [06:57]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah. Thank you Erin.
- [06:58]
Bria Grant
Alex wrote in and said hey Bria, Mallory. Been listening for several years now and you guys are one of the reasons I'm able to enjoy reading while working on a writing bfa. Here is my hot Book Hangover tip. Switch Formats I recently finished episode 13 by Craig Dillouy and found myself in a bit of a book hangover. I found myself wanting to read the same thing and rediscover all the twists. I switched from ebook to audio and was able to really enjoy so thirsty. That's the new Rachel Harrison. The narrative styles are so different that it was just the cure I was looking for. Here's my current wheelhouse. You want to read it?
- [07:30]
Mallory O'Meara
Mallory Current Wheelhouse is MLM romances that feature an FTM character horror that makes me uncomfortable in the best way Graphic audio productions of Romantasy Smut Auto nonfiction on specific things I E Mallory's books. Thank you so much and anything T Kingfisher thank you so much for all you ladies do and everything you create. Wow. This is so lovely. Yeah, hot tips baby tips. So you can email us at reading glasses podcast gmail.com if you want a list of all the books we talk about on the show delivered to your inbox every month, you can sign up for our newsletter link in the show notes Quick bookmark that we just found out about today. Our book is getting bumped. We wanted it to come out in January and is now coming out. Am I allowed to say we're both saying but it's manufacturing delays. There's nothing we could have done about it. But the book is now coming out February 4th. But the good news is it gives you more time to pre order your copy and that way when you're done with your January reading, you can put it in your reading glasses. Book Tracking Journal There you go. So we're really excited about it. We're so proud. And you can pre order it now. There's a link in the show notes. We will be still doing a book launch at Skylight. We're just waiting for. They're trying to confirm a new a new date for us. But we are going to do the book launch in February and we would really appreciate it if you pre ordered this book. So before we wrap up our year of reading, we're going to take a quick break. Reading Glasses is brought to you in part this week by Pear Eyewear. Folks, the holiday season has its own special style. Everyone knows there's special holiday colors, there's special holiday prints. Everyone's decorating their houses, their offices, whatever. You got to decorate. I got all kinds of stuff in my living room right now. I got a little tiny tree. I got tinsel. It's so fun. It's fun to accessorize and decorate for the holidays, but why not do it to your own face? You can light up your look with Pear Eyewear's merriest collection. Yet the festive possibilities start at just $60, which includes your prescription. If you've ever bought glasses, if you are a glasses wearer, you know, this is a great deal. What happens with pair eyewear is you pick out a base frame, they have a bunch of different widths, they have a bunch of different shapes. I like the cat eye one because I want to be Shirley Jackson. But you can take a look at all of them. And what you do is you get these top frames that click onto the glasses with magnets. So that means that you can change the pattern, the color, the, the holiday of your glasses 100 times a day if you want to, 200 if you're being really ambitious. But it means that you can change out your glasses, folks. That's the dream, right? If you have to wear glasses, you know, it's really hard to pick out a pair that goes with every outfit, everything that you're going to wear them for. It's really hard to choose glasses. But with pair Eyewear, you can change them out all the time. And you can have day glasses. You can have festive, fun, holiday party glasses. It's so awesome. I'm looking right now. They have holiday top frames. They have New Year's top frames. So many cute Christmas frames. Oh, my God, these are amazing. Plaid, reindeer, mistletoe. I don't know if mistletoe counts if you have it on your glasses, but maybe you can make whoever you want kiss you then. Snowmen, winter lights, folks. They're so cute. You should at least go to the website and check out the top frames. They're fantastic. I love being able to switch them out. I've talked before about how I I love my Washington Capitals hockey frames, but I also have skull ones and plain ones and sunglasses ones. They're so easy. They really are made for people who wear glasses every day. In mind, they have new hybrid metal and acetate frames. They also have wide frames. I like a wide frame. I got a big wide face. It's so cool, folks. And there's free standard shipping and a flexible 30 day return policy. Get matching pairs for the family. Stuff a stocking or gift a pair to yourself. You can save 15 with code glasses@pair eyewear.com and support the show by mentioning reading glasses and your post checkout survey. That's 15% off at P A I R. I wear.com with code glasses. Glasses. Oh my gosh. Hi, it's me, Dave Holmes, host of Troubled Waters, the pop culture battle to the ego death.
- [11:39]
Bria Grant
Okay, everybody.
- [11:40]
Mallory O'Meara
Word association with Troubled Waters. First one to fumble loses.
- [11:44]
Bria Grant
Go.
- [11:45]
Mallory O'Meara
Comedy panel show, guests, celebrities, games. Oh, sound rounds, improvised speeches, puns disguised as trivia. Um, a very niche Flash Gordon clip. Chapel Rowan. Ah, no, Riley. I'm sorry, she will not return our phone calls. I am afraid you're out. A girl can dream. Oh, but dreaming will not earn a girl any points. Troubled Waters. Listen, on maximum fun or wherever you get your podcasts, this week, it's our yearly reading wrap up episode. How did we like doing this year's challenge and what did we get out of it? And what did we think of this year in books? First off, very important for everyone entering the challenge, you've got to email your completed challenge forms, which is a list of the challenges and the book slash ways you completed it by January 8th. I will not accept them afterwards because that's January 9th is the day that I'm going to be picking winners. After the first week of January, we they won't be accepted. And the prize, we haven't decided how many. Depends on how many people enter. But it's going to be a copy of the no pressure reading journal and a personalized book recommendation from me and Bria. Yes, so hot. Hot commodity here. So before we get into the challenge, what was our overall impression of reading this year? Trends, buzzy books, buzzy genres. What did you think of this year in reading, Bria?
- [13:16]
Bria Grant
Good year for reading, I think. Romance, fantasy, particularly fantasy, that's still reigning supreme when it comes to what's selling, what people are reading. It's inspired so many tiktoks. I feel like there aren't enough books to fill the tiktoks. Oh, there are more tiktoks than books.
- [13:31]
Mallory O'Meara
There's a deluge. I guarantee you we are getting a deluge of Romantasy next year. I bet. Bet my bottom dollar on it.
- [13:38]
Bria Grant
I think there's a lot of people who were not big readers who have found certain genres, especially these kind of. Especially, like a romantic genre, and they aren't afraid to, like, scream it from every corner of the Internet. And I like that. I think it's great. I think as people are finding these genres that really inspire them or that they're interested in who were maybe not so interested in literary fiction. And it's not the people you necessarily think. It's like, you know, it's people that you think would be reading the literary fiction. Maybe they were, and now they're like, you know what? I'm tired.
- [14:07]
Mallory O'Meara
I'm tired.
- [14:07]
Bria Grant
I'm reading books.
- [14:08]
Mallory O'Meara
I want a fairy dick.
- [14:09]
Bria Grant
Yeah, exactly. So I've been seeing a lot about that. What have you been seeing? What do you think about this year?
- [14:14]
Mallory O'Meara
Well, one, I agree. It's been really fun to watch Romantasy explode. See, you're the pervert, baby. And it makes me extra happy because there's been such a conservative pushback on sex in media. Sex in books. I mean, I did my Authors against book band meeting today. They were gonna have a special meeting for authors about sex on the page. Because a lot of YA books that feature any kind of sexuality are getting pushb. There's been a big pushback against sex on the screen. Like, there's been a real. Just a lot of conservative pushback on it. And so it makes me really happy that the book world is like, baby, yeah, we're smutting it up in here, and there's nothing you can do about it. It makes me really happy. I think I am super supportive of pervy horny art.
- [14:56]
Bria Grant
Yeah.
- [14:56]
Mallory O'Meara
And I think that clearly there's a big chunk of the population that's very hungry for that, and that makes me happy. I also have been happy to see cozy books really explode this year. I think people want comfort and formulaic books in times of turmo. And as this world continues on the road to hell, it doesn't surprise me to see readers want coziness and romance, and we're seeing that slip into other genres. I think the big trend this year for me that I've seen is the sub genre or the sub Sub genre.
- [15:23]
Bria Grant
Oh, okay.
- [15:23]
Mallory O'Meara
People want niche. They want romanticity. They want horror romance. They want cozy size or even, like, the, the combo.
- [15:29]
Bria Grant
Yeah, the con. The, like, combinations we haven't seen as much of in the past.
- [15:33]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah, people want niche stuff. And I wonder, you know, what this is. I'd love Glassers to write in if they feel the same way or if any. Editor, editors, agents. I wonder if it's a reaction we've seen to the past few years of, like, really vague jacket copy. It's like, this is an epic journey that's ambitious, and you're like, okay, so I, I, I've seen a lot of book marketing pivot to, like, a graphic of the book, and then it's all the wheelhouse items.
- [15:58]
Bria Grant
Oh, yeah, great.
- [15:58]
Mallory O'Meara
You know, it's like, here's. Here's the enemies to lovers in space. Like, I think readers want niche. They want specific, and readers want to know what they're getting into. And I think that's great. I think it's a trend that I really, really like. All right, let's go through our completed 2024 reading glasses challenges. How did we complete them? What did we think? All right, first one in the book section was debut novel. What did you read? Did you like this part of the challenge?
- [16:21]
Bria Grant
I read Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawhi Strong Washbourne. I read it right at the beginning of the year because I was in Hawaii.
- [16:27]
Mallory O'Meara
I remember this, and I.
- [16:29]
Bria Grant
And I liked this because it made me pay a little bit more attention to what was a debut and what wasn't. I picked this book up not knowing it was a deb and then I was reading about it. It made me do research, and I. It made me like, I went back through, and I was like, which, what book have I read a book that said by a debut author? Saw that this was one, and so that was good for me, I think. What about you? What did you do?
- [16:47]
Mallory O'Meara
I did a Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvia Cathron, which ended up. I didn't know there was some reason.
- [16:51]
Bria Grant
That was a debut.
- [16:51]
Mallory O'Meara
Oh, God, it's so funny.
- [16:52]
Bria Grant
Which is what we always say, like, oh, that's a debut.
- [16:54]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah.
- [16:55]
Bria Grant
Which is interesting.
- [16:56]
Mallory O'Meara
It blew me away. There's a good chance this is gonna be on my best of the year. And besides the fact that I fucking loved it, it was, again, nice way to pay attention to debut authors. Give them some love. This is why we put it on the challenge. Definitely something I want to continue, especially as a book podcaster. You know, we Want to make sure we're boosting debut authors. I like this part. What was the next one?
- [17:13]
Bria Grant
The next one was a book from a non binary author. What did you do for that one?
- [17:19]
Mallory O'Meara
I did Lakelore by Anna Marie McLemore. This one wasn't much of a stretch. Mostly because I feel like you and I at this point read a lot of queer books and get queer recs from the Glassers so much that we're organically reading a lot about non binary authors. So this one kind of felt like a gimme. But you know, it's never a bad thing to support non binary and trans authors, especially in the coming years. So this was fun. What did you do?
- [17:40]
Bria Grant
I did Homesick Stories by Nino Cipri. I love Nino Cipri's work. I love their work and this made me go seek out another book that they've written and that was exciting and I wish I had discovered this book earlier. I just thought it was so great. So, yes, while it's maybe not a stretch because I already knew about this author, it did make me go find one of their books that I hadn't read yet that didn't come out this year. So it was not a brand new excuse, it was a backlist book. Love and excuse. Yeah. Fantastic. What's the next.
- [18:06]
Mallory O'Meara
What's the next item on the agenda in our book? Agenda? Book set in a country you've never been to, but you ended up going to this country?
- [18:14]
Bria Grant
Yes. So it's a little confusing, but yes, I did once there were wolves, but then I went to Scotland.
- [18:18]
Mallory O'Meara
I didn't know that was the first time you'd ever been to scotland.
- [18:20]
Bria Grant
First time I've been to Scotland.
- [18:21]
Mallory O'Meara
Wow. And you got the wettest garlic bread ever in the whole world.
- [18:24]
Bria Grant
We ate the wettest. We said, oh, give us the most wet garlic bread you can find in Scotland and make sure it makes us both sick. I ended up counting this book in two categories, by the way, But I have one more book from a country I've never been to. But this one was a fun read and what I really did like about it, even though I read it and then went to Scotland, I did think about the book while I was in Scotland. So it was sort of a nice way to think about this country before I got there. And then I got there and I thought more about the country and about the book. So I feel like it was like kind of immersive in a nice way.
- [18:51]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah.
- [18:52]
Bria Grant
What did you read?
- [18:52]
Mallory O'Meara
Well, what's funny is, so I ended up doing Two for this. Because the first book I read was brought Upsea, which is set in Jamaica, and it, you know, it's about a lot of the homophobia in Jamaican culture. So I was like, I'll read another one, because I'll read a. I want to read a book about a. Like, that makes me want to go to a place I've never been to. And I read Whale Fall, which is set in Wales, which also shows the negative parts of. Of. Of this small island off of Wales. And I was like, fuck it. I'm not doing it. But I mean, I liked both books so broad. Upsea and Whalefall. I felt like this was the biggest challenge for me in the book section, meaning that, like, it's the one I thought about the most.
- [19:26]
Bria Grant
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [19:26]
Mallory O'Meara
And I was like, I really had to be like, oh, okay, where is this set? Because that's not normal. I'm not a setting reader. So, like, I'll be like, oh, it's set somewhere else. But I don't think about it as much. This made me really think about where a book was set. Like, look it up. And I liked it. I honestly might keep. Keep doing this. What was the next one?
- [19:45]
Bria Grant
Buzzy book from this year? What did you do?
- [19:48]
Mallory O'Meara
I did Exhibit by Ro Kwan. This was another fun one. It was fun to do this. It felt really. The thing was, it felt fancy reading a really critically acclaimed book the year it came out. Like, I'm offline right now, so I didn't get the experience of seeing people talk about it online and then be like, I've read that book. I know what. I know what everyone's talking about. But I did talk about it with people in person, and it was nice to have some people be like, ooh, I saw that in the New York Times. And be like, oh, yes, it is. I'm a fancy reader. It was really fun. What did you do?
- [20:17]
Bria Grant
I did House of Shadow and Flame. But you know what I'm gonna say, probably the buzzy book that I feel like I had the most conversations about was James, the one I talked about last week.
- [20:25]
Mallory O'Meara
Oh, yeah. Well, because. Yeah, it's. This is book of the year.
- [20:28]
Bria Grant
Yeah. And I listened to a few book podcasts, and they would talk about it, and I'm like, I've read that. So that was kind of a nice. That one made me feel look, because I'm not on TikTok and I'm not following bookish. A lot of bookish tiktoks where I feel like a lot of Sarah J Maas stuff is being discussed that James felt like. More the one where like, oh, these podcasts that I listen to are discussing this book.
- [20:47]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah.
- [20:47]
Bria Grant
Gosh, I feel like I read a lot of buzzy books. I feel like All Fours was discussed on so many.
- [20:51]
Mallory O'Meara
Oh, yeah.
- [20:52]
Bria Grant
So I listened to one podcast that was talking about All Fours and they said they were scared to read it because they felt like when women read it, they wanted to le their husbands. But I feel like that was another buzzy book. So I feel like I read. I. I do tend to reach for a buzzy book if I've heard a lot about it.
- [21:09]
Mallory O'Meara
Interesting.
- [21:10]
Bria Grant
What's the next one?
- [21:11]
Mallory O'Meara
What's the last one? The last in the book section is cozy book. It could be any genre. Genre does not matter, as long as it's cozy. And what did you do for this?
- [21:18]
Bria Grant
I did. Welcome to the Hyeonum Dong Bookstore. Which is. It's like starting my own book. Starting my own bookstore. We talked about it. For some reason, a lot of these cozy books they're starting. If it's not a mystery or sometimes it is, they're starting a business. And this was great. It was very cozy. Every chapter was just about a different way. That this woman who left her job and decided to start a bookstore in a small neighborhood, she lives in Korea was like, this is what I'm gonna do, and here's the problems I'm having and I need to get more people to come. And here's. I'm gonna have some readings. And it was just some very, like. It's kind of like running a business, but a very calm business. And I thought it was great. I thought it was really cozy, really nice. It was one of my favorite books I read this year. What about you?
- [21:59]
Mallory O'Meara
So we initially did. The funny part about this part of the challenge is it was something that we did at the start of the year because we were like, oh, cozy books are getting buzzy and we're both starting to get into them. And I read so many cozy books this year that it felt like silly that it would. That I was doing it for the challenge. That's why I did Space Hotel by Grace Curtis. We talked about it on a recent episode. Because I read so many cozy books this year, I pushed myself to do a cozy sci fi, which I had never read before, because it wasn't really a challenge for me otherwise. But this was really fun. I mean, I'm on the cozy train. I am in a sweater.
- [22:29]
Bria Grant
I'm not really, but I have a.
- [22:30]
Mallory O'Meara
Blanket over my knees. I'm with the mods from the Facebook group.
- [22:34]
Bria Grant
Someone's handing you a cup of tea when you walk in the room.
- [22:36]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah. Oh, yeah. The. The humidifier's on, the heat is up, my cat is in my lap. I am. I'm on the cozy train. So this was, this was really fun. And honestly, even though this part of the challenge wasn't a challenge for me, it did motivate me to be like, what other cozy sub genres are there? So I'm gonna keep my eye out for those. All right, folks, before we go over the activity portion, we're gonna take a quick break. You can send your thoughts to Reading Glasses podcastmail.com Reading Glasses is brought to you in part this week by Miracle Made. Folks, it's not hot outside, it's hot inside. Your nighttime bedroom temperature has such a huge impact on your sleep quality. Folks, we've all got the heat on. It's really difficult to find a nice equilibrium between having the heat on and having the heat off. At least in my house, if I have it on, it gets real warm. In my bedroom, my feet get hot, but I don't want to have it the heat off because then my feet will be cold. You know what helps me in this everlong battle against the temperature in my house? Miracle made sheets. Their silver infused fabrics are temperature regulating so you can sleep at the perfect temperature all night long. Fellow hot legs people and cold feet folks, rejoice. These NASA inspired sheets are infused with silver, which means sorry, no werewolves. That can help Prevent up to 99.7% of bacterial growth, leaving them to stay cleaner and fresher longer than other sheets. Folks, these are sheets that I have to like set a calendar reminder to wash because they don't get stinky for me. I mean, maybe after a while. Normally I wash my sheets every week, but with miracle made sheets, I can go even longer even with my cat sleeping in them every day. And they come without the high price tag of other luxury brands and feel just as nice, if not nicer than sheets used by some 5 star hotels. Go to trymiracle.com glasses to try miracle made sheets today. And whether you're buying them for yourself or as a gift for a loved one, if you order today, you can save over 40%. And if you use our promo glasses at checkout, you'll get three free towels and save an extra 20. And it's backed with a 30 day money back guarantee. So if you aren't 100 satisfied, you'll get a full refund again. That's. Try miracle.com glasses to treat yourself. Thank you, Miracle Made for sponsoring this episode. Glasses, foreign. I'm Yucky Jessica. I'm Chuck Crudsworth and this is Terrible, A podcast where we talk about things we hate that are awful. Today we're discussing Wonderful, a podcast on the Maximum Fun Network. Hosts Rachel and Griffin McElroy, a real life married coup, discuss a wide range of topics. Topics, Music, video games, poetry, snacks. But I hate all that stuff. I know you do. Yucky Dressing up. It comes out every Wednesday, the worst day of the week, wherever you download your podcasts. For our next topic, we're talking Fiona, the baby hippo from the Cincinnati Zoo. I hate this little hippo. All right, now let's go over the activity portion. The first one was choose 10 books that represent the reader. You are now, Bria, what did you do for this?
- [25:54]
Bria Grant
I guess you did it together.
- [25:56]
Mallory O'Meara
Choose 10 books that represent you.
- [25:57]
Bria Grant
That's exactly what I did. I did the thing. Yes, we. We did that. We did it together. We talked around the show. It was really fun. And I think it's something I want to continue to do because I could really see how my tastes.
- [26:07]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah.
- [26:08]
Bria Grant
To see how my tastes change.
- [26:09]
Mallory O'Meara
You know, I've seen some glassers who did it at the start of the year are doing it again at the end of the year. I saw people talking about this in the slack and they were different lists.
- [26:16]
Bria Grant
Yeah.
- [26:17]
Mallory O'Meara
I think this is awesome.
- [26:18]
Bria Grant
I could see that. That's interesting. I like that.
- [26:20]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah, that's.
- [26:20]
Bria Grant
That's fun. Did you. What? How did you feel about doing this?
- [26:23]
Mallory O'Meara
I loved it and I totally agree. I think this would be really fun to do every. Like every year. You do it at the start of the year, you do it at the end of the year. It's just good to regularly, even if it's every few years. But I think I want to start doing it every year.
- [26:34]
Bria Grant
If you do the start of the year and you do it at the end of the year, and when you do the start of the year, you're only doing it like a month apart. So maybe you just do it once a year.
- [26:42]
Mallory O'Meara
Once a year? Yeah. Yeah. You know what I'm thinking is because the first time people did it at.
- [26:46]
Bria Grant
The start of the year and then.
- [26:47]
Mallory O'Meara
They'Re doing it again here.
- [26:48]
Bria Grant
Yeah. But like, maybe you're doing it every December or January or something.
- [26:51]
Mallory O'Meara
Yes. I think this would be a fun little New Year's ritual. It's just good to regularly assess your own reading taste. It can be really Surprising. And help you stop picking up books that you only think that you'll like because you have this idea of what you liked five years ago and now you don't actually read that many. Like, what I did is I, I looked over the all my five star reads for the past few years and there was a few things I had to be like, wow, five years ago I would have put this book on there. But I'm not really reading a lot of books like it. And folks can go back and listen to our episode on it. I still, I did look at my list. I still stand by it.
- [27:24]
Bria Grant
Okay.
- [27:24]
Mallory O'Meara
But I think maybe in next month I'm gonna. I'll reassess.
- [27:28]
Bria Grant
Reassess.
- [27:28]
Mallory O'Meara
All right, what was the next one?
- [27:29]
Bria Grant
Go Book browsing at the library. Online or in person. Did you do this?
- [27:33]
Mallory O'Meara
Yes. This was awesome. I mean, we just talked about in our last episode. Newsflash. Fun to browse at the library. But for me, it's fun to see what librarians are recommending and which books are popular at your library. It's just, it's nice to get that browsing experience without spending any money.
- [27:46]
Bria Grant
Yeah.
- [27:47]
Mallory O'Meara
What about you?
- [27:47]
Bria Grant
Yeah, it was fun. I did it online. Online. I saw a lot of good books. Books I hadn't thought of. And it's fun to just see. I mean, look, there are librarians out there curating book lists for everybody. And there's something really. They're good at that. They're good at that job. So let them do it and go check it out. Because they're gonna do ones for themes for months. They're gonna do like, these are the books everyone's reading. There's all sorts of great stuff at your library. And we definitely like to encourage people to support their libraries.
- [28:11]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah, we sure do.
- [28:12]
Bria Grant
What's the next one?
- [28:13]
Mallory O'Meara
Next one is pick a book based on its cover. Did you like doing this?
- [28:16]
Bria Grant
I like doing it. I also did Once There Were Wolves because I didn't know what it was about going in. So somehow I didn't know it was about Scotland. Found out and then went to Scotland. Cause I thought it was a horror book the whole time. But then it does.
- [28:27]
Mallory O'Meara
It has a horror title.
- [28:27]
Bria Grant
But can. Can I just tell you? I'm very cover motivated, which is so.
- [28:30]
Mallory O'Meara
Funny because you're an e reader.
- [28:32]
Bria Grant
I know, I know. But I look at the book, I see the covers.
- [28:35]
Mallory O'Meara
I wonder if it's because you don't see the COVID as much that you're excited about.
- [28:39]
Bria Grant
Yeah, because when I'm on the library website, or on Libby. I'm looking at those covers, and then I'm looking at the covers when I'm picking them out, like on my Kindle. So I think I do this way more than I would like to admit. I think I'm using my cover quite, quite a bit. This one is a total blind one, but sometimes I'm doing almost blind ones. Ah. Yeah. I know probably more about the COVID than I do about the book when I start.
- [29:00]
Mallory O'Meara
Interesting.
- [29:00]
Bria Grant
And when I. I mean, when I find. Look, if it's got. If it's on my TBR list, I obviously put it on there for a reason. But then when it comes down to picking what I'm gonna read, I'm like, this is a good cover. I'm gonna try this one. Cause it's already on the list. It's been vetted by me. Even though if I don't remember what it is, which is 90% of the time, I don't remember what it is.
- [29:15]
Mallory O'Meara
It'S been vetted by the number one expert on Bria Grant on my TBR list.
- [29:19]
Bria Grant
What about you? Did you like doing this? Yeah.
- [29:22]
Mallory O'Meara
I am not a person with a lot of spontaneity in my life. I'm maybe the least. I am the least spontaneous person.
- [29:29]
Bria Grant
When was the last time you did something spontaneous?
- [29:32]
Mallory O'Meara
You know what it was?
- [29:33]
Bria Grant
A bagel in the park.
- [29:34]
Mallory O'Meara
Yes.
- [29:35]
Bria Grant
How did you know?
- [29:36]
Mallory O'Meara
How did you know?
- [29:37]
Bria Grant
Because that's really out of your character.
- [29:41]
Mallory O'Meara
We've been doing a podcast together for too long. We know each other too well. But it felt okay to be spontaneous because it was taking off something on my goals.
- [29:48]
Bria Grant
That's not spontaneous. That's not spontaneous. I have to tell you, that's not spontaneous.
- [29:55]
Mallory O'Meara
Oh, my God. We're like an old married couple. Oh, my God. That is so funny. Well, then you can attest I am not a spontaneous person. So picking a book based on the COVID is about as spontaneous as I get. So it gives me a little thrill. And, like, I like it. I'm gonna keep doing this.
- [30:11]
Bria Grant
Do you want to tell people about the person who wrote you the thing about dating?
- [30:14]
Mallory O'Meara
Okay, yeah, Wicked side tangent. I delete.
- [30:18]
Bria Grant
This person had your. They had your number.
- [30:20]
Mallory O'Meara
They clocked dead to rights. Read to filth. So, folks, I will. I will preface this by saying I did get. I did delete all of my dating apps, but before I did, I matched with somebody, and this person sent me a really weird message that was. That said, are you really bad, or do you just like tattoos? And I responded, what? And this person Said like a bad girl. You said bad vibes only. But you seem like a librarian. And I was like, that is me. If you could. Any sentence in the world distills my personality down to seem like a bad girl. But you're. But you seem like a library.
- [30:57]
Bria Grant
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. That's. That's you. That person.
- [30:59]
Mallory O'Meara
Me and you. People look at me and they're like, oh, she's got.
- [31:02]
Bria Grant
I feel like you should give that person your number because at least they.
- [31:04]
Mallory O'Meara
Know who you are. They were very weird.
- [31:06]
Bria Grant
Okay, after that, then.
- [31:07]
Mallory O'Meara
No, they asked me some inappropriate things after that.
- [31:09]
Bria Grant
Well, that's. Asking if are you bad? Is probably the.
- [31:12]
Mallory O'Meara
I was like, oh, you have a librarian fetish.
- [31:14]
Bria Grant
Oh, I see. Wow.
- [31:16]
Mallory O'Meara
Okay.
- [31:16]
Bria Grant
Wow. Librarians. Reticent, right?
- [31:18]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah. I could Tell us about the librarians. Librarians. Let me. I'll hook you up with this person. But, yeah, I'm just. That's me. People are like, oh, neck tattoo, facial piercing. Must be a wild gal. And then I'm like, ooh, I'm gonna make a to do list. So. Yeah, but this. This part of the challenge felt like if you, too, look like a bad girl but are a librarian, and you don't get a lot of spontaneity and especially your reading life. Especially for me, because my reading life is so organized, scheduled that. But it's so attached to my work life. That felt like just. Just a little thrill. Just doing a little. Being a little bad. All right, what's the next one?
- [31:57]
Bria Grant
Figure out your reading appeal factors. Did you like doing this?
- [32:00]
Mallory O'Meara
This was great.
- [32:01]
Bria Grant
What was yours?
- [32:01]
Mallory O'Meara
Mine was pace.
- [32:02]
Bria Grant
And tone.
- [32:03]
Mallory O'Meara
And tone.
- [32:03]
Bria Grant
Yeah.
- [32:04]
Mallory O'Meara
And yours was learning something. Learning experience. Honestly, I've already started to see this. Really help the classrooms, and it definitely helped me. Like, sometimes subjects and tropes aren't what's keeping you in the book. And. And now it's on my mind when I pick books. What's the pacing of this? Is this a slow book? The thing that's interesting that that helped me parse it out is that doesn't necessarily mean it's the length of the book or the genre. It's like, there's some books. There's a book I read this year that was really long, but it kicked right off, and the pace was great. I really think this helped me pick out more Goodreads. Do you think you had the same experience?
- [32:40]
Bria Grant
Oh, yeah. I mean, it's funny because I've kind of been trying to keep up with this based on what I read. This year and learn something. I can apply it to a lot of books that I read because it's not necessarily like I have to learn how to like, you know, knit in every book that I read or something. But it's like, oh, it's set in a place I've never been to. Or it's set in. It's like about a job I don't know anything about. Or it's like science fiction. So it's like a world that I don't have a reference for. So it feels like I'm kind of escaping my own reality. I think it's why I don't read a lot of books about. I like old Hollywood books, but like new Hollywood books. Although I've read a few of those this year. But yeah, I think there's like a lot of stuff. Like if you have a. If it's a woman who does a podcast who lives in Echo Park, I'm probably not gonna read it.
- [33:17]
Mallory O'Meara
Yep. You're like, I got that.
- [33:19]
Bria Grant
I got that one.
- [33:19]
Mallory O'Meara
All right. The next one was read a holiday book during that holiday and doing it right now. Are you enjoying?
- [33:25]
Bria Grant
This is so hard for me.
- [33:26]
Mallory O'Meara
You're not a holiday book person. No.
- [33:28]
Bria Grant
But the Nightmare Before Christmas, I'm doing it right now. I'm making my way through. It's a 12 hour audiobook. It's quite long, but I will get there before the Before Christmas.
- [33:35]
Mallory O'Meara
That's long for a romance novel.
- [33:37]
Bria Grant
It is. But I'm telling you, there's a lot of world building. There's a lot you gotta know about Santa. Like there's quite a bit happening. And I'm about halfway through. So I am doing it. I'm getting it done. I will say this was not my favorite spoiler. Not the book. Just the organizing of it was because I am spontaneous is the problem.
- [33:52]
Mallory O'Meara
You are a spontaneous person for sure.
- [33:54]
Bria Grant
What about you?
- [33:55]
Mallory O'Meara
I thought it was fun. I did my Oktoberfest book during Oktoberfest. I'm probably gonna keep doing this. I mean, not for every holiday, but especially. Cause I'm reading a lot of cozy and romance. I'm definitely. I mean, 100%. I will be reading a Christmas book this Christmas. Romance this Christmas.
- [34:08]
Bria Grant
Oh, that's nice.
- [34:09]
Mallory O'Meara
Easily.
- [34:09]
Bria Grant
I can suggest one to you. Nightmare Before Christmas.
- [34:12]
Mallory O'Meara
Honestly, I think I'm gonna get it.
- [34:13]
Bria Grant
It's fun. I think you'll like it. It's very cute. If you liked red, white and royal blue like that, it's very that. Because it's two princes.
- [34:21]
Mallory O'Meara
All right, what was Your favorite part of the reading glasses challenge this year?
- [34:23]
Bria Grant
I mean, I'm gonna say picking a book based on the COVID because it gave me permission to do something I already want to do all the time. It's not something I'm supposed to do. You know, you're supposed to know about the book and about the author and like why you're reading it and why it's important. But I like picking a book based on the COVID I'm a person inspired by visuals. Look at my fucking job. I mean like, so this is something. It's going to always be something that I want to do. So I liked that part a lot.
- [34:45]
Mallory O'Meara
You probably choosing the 10 books that represent me as a reader. I love an activity that teaches me something about myself. Even though apparently people on dating apps can clock me from a mile away. So I don't know what I'm. What, what more I need to learn. It really pushed it. It showed when I was very surprised when I did it at the start of the year and it pushed me to up my nonfiction reading this year and admit that I love romance, especially weird and horror related romance. And that helped my book buying habits like this really it's something I want to keep doing and I think it was really, really helpful for me and I loved it. What was your least favorite part? I can probably guess.
- [35:20]
Bria Grant
Fucking holiday. So hard for me. I think it's just. It made me plan more than I wanted to because a lot of times I finish a book and I'm like, then I want to decide what I'm reading next. It's not, there's not a list waiting. I finish a book and then I go, what do I want to read next? Oh, it's probably whatever's due back at the library. But sometimes I switch it up, you know, and I just don't. And that was hard cause I had to really think about it and I had to think far ahead of time. And I also would. I think it's also cause I get my books from the library and often I'm waiting a long time. And so at one point I think I did get. Well, Halloween was gonna be easy. And then I. There was like a Christmas book that I was gonna wait for and then I realized I had this one. It was just like there's like a lot of planning that I didn't love and trying to get ones from the library. I actually purchased this audiobook so I would have it.
- [36:03]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah.
- [36:03]
Bria Grant
What about you least favorite?
- [36:04]
Mallory O'Meara
I think probably the buzzy book part. Not because I Didn't like reading a buzzy book. But I'm sure other glasses will commiserate that it took a really long time for me to get it from the library. Luckily, it was still like buzzy when exhibit came out. When I finally. It took me months to get it from the library. But when you're a library user, buzzy books can be a hard thing to read because everybody else wants to read them.
- [36:23]
Bria Grant
The one nice thing I'll say is that James, that book, the library. Oh, no, I guess they're not. I thought there was a lot. No, there's a wait list. Just kidding. It's 15 weeks, but. And on 320 copies. But I think that there's some physical books at the library. They ordered a lot of them or something I just saw anyway. Yeah, it's tough.
- [36:40]
Mallory O'Meara
All right, folks, before we announce next year's challenge, we're gonna take a quick break now, folks. Start the drums, cue the trumpets. Get out your slide whistles. Time to announce 2025's Reading GL this challenge. Bria, you want to read the book portion?
- [37:04]
Bria Grant
Yes.
- [37:05]
Mallory O'Meara
We're excited about this one.
- [37:06]
Bria Grant
We are, we are. Listen, some of these are going to be a push for some of you. Some of you are not going to like this. Maybe you like it, but some of these are going to be a push. It's going to be a little bit out of your wheelhouse, but that's important. That's why we're here. We're here to push you. We're. We're your personal book coaches.
- [37:21]
Mallory O'Meara
Pretend you're reading. You're in your reading chair, but you're actually in the ring. And Bria and I are have towels around your neck and wear rubbing your shoulders and punching you in the. In the delts and like getting you going.
- [37:32]
Bria Grant
All right, books, we want you to read a honker. That's 500 plus pages.
- [37:36]
Mallory O'Meara
One. Read a honker, read a honker.
- [37:39]
Bria Grant
That's one, two, the oldest book on your TBR. Hey, you can combine these. Maybe it is a 500 plus book and that's why it's the oldest one. But the oldest book on your tbr, the one that's been on there the longest. Three, an epistolary novel. I don't think that's gonna be hard for a lot of people, but maybe it will be for me.
- [37:54]
Mallory O'Meara
I don't read a lot of. I like epistolary novels, but I don't think I read a lot of them.
- [37:58]
Bria Grant
Okay. All right, so you have to look for 14 a science book.
- [38:02]
Mallory O'Meara
This is a nonfiction book about science.
- [38:04]
Bria Grant
Yeah. And it can be like kind of a pop science. It's like whatever.
- [38:07]
Mallory O'Meara
Be a textbook.
- [38:08]
Bria Grant
Yeah, not a textbook, but some sort of like popular science book.
- [38:10]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah, you can read some Mary Roach. You can read. What was that book that you really liked about slime?
- [38:16]
Bria Grant
I did read a book about slime.
- [38:17]
Mallory O'Meara
I don't remember the name.
- [38:18]
Bria Grant
I think it's called slime, but I can't remember the name.
- [38:19]
Mallory O'Meara
Maybe that's why I can't remember the name. I think it might just be called slime.
- [38:21]
Bria Grant
I think it's called slime.
- [38:22]
Mallory O'Meara
But yeah, we were. Bria, I really like. This was Bria's idea. And she was like, I feel like science is going to be under attack next year.
- [38:28]
Bria Grant
So let's read science.
- [38:28]
Mallory O'Meara
Let's read some science books. I think that's great.
- [38:30]
Bria Grant
And then five, an award winning book by a person of color. And it can be from any year. It can be. As long as it won.
- [38:37]
Mallory O'Meara
It has to be a real award though. It can't be like someone's mom giving you a ribbon to stick on your fridge. Like it doesn't have to be the Pulitzer, but like an actual award. You know, we'll, we'll, we'll do a whole episode about it, but National Book Award, Man Booker, Women's Fiction prize, you know. Yeah, as anything as long as written by a person of color.
- [38:54]
Bria Grant
Hugo.
- [38:55]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah, Hugo. Shirley Jackson Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, Edgar Awards.
- [38:59]
Bria Grant
Yeah, what about. And then if you. This is your first time, which by the way, we got our Spotify wrapped and like we have like 50% of our listeners are new. I don't know if that's. Cause they're new to Spotify or if it's like. It was very surprising to me how many.
- [39:10]
Mallory O'Meara
I think we're, I think we're both growing, but I think a lot of people are going to Spotify.
- [39:14]
Bria Grant
I think that's right. But if you haven't listened before, we do books and then we do activities. So five book challenges and five activity challenges. Do you want to tell people the activity?
- [39:24]
Mallory O'Meara
Yes. And again, if you are new to the show, it is, you know, people are getting gearing up. They want to jump on the reading glasses challenge train. We're happy to welcome you. We will be doing an episode of the show for each one of these things. So for activities, the first one is pick a book based on the title. We had so much fun with the COVID that we decided this year to pick a book based on the title. What was that one that you read? I'm starting to worry about this. Black Box of Doom.
- [39:47]
Bria Grant
What a good title.
- [39:48]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah, there you go.
- [39:48]
Bria Grant
Loved the book too.
- [39:49]
Mallory O'Meara
That's all you need to know. So that's one, two is read a book slowly over the course of a.
- [39:55]
Bria Grant
Month or two or whatever slowly means to you maybe. Because if you're a person who's like, I normally take two months to read a book. Take a little bit longer, take four.
- [40:02]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah, yeah. And it could be any kind of book, short stories, novel, nonfiction. But really we've had a lot of people write in this year about how much fun they had slowly reading a book. And we're like, all right, fuck it, let's see if it's fun. 3. Subscribe to a library newsletter.
- [40:17]
Bria Grant
I like that.
- [40:17]
Mallory O'Meara
That could be your library.
- [40:19]
Bria Grant
Put that on there. And I like it.
- [40:20]
Mallory O'Meara
Yeah.
- [40:20]
Bria Grant
This is a new surprise. This is like a surprise to me and I like it.
- [40:23]
Mallory O'Meara
I think it's great that something that is a constant on this show is people are always surprised at the cool libraries do, whether it's activities or services they offer. And you know, it's a great way to know that stuff. Subscribing to their newsletter and you know what's great for their library is having big newsletter numbers. So it doesn't have to be yours again, it could be any library, but you have to subscribe to a Library newsletter. Year four, you have to make a list of your top 10 books of the year.
- [40:47]
Bria Grant
Yes.
- [40:47]
Mallory O'Meara
It doesn't have to be books that were published in 2025, just books. It can be backlist. And if, if you only read 10 books that year, have it and do like, use your best judgment here.
- [40:58]
Bria Grant
Yeah. And Mallory and I obviously do this every year. We're releasing that episode next week. Yeah, we wait a long time because we like to read a lot of 2024 books. So I know a lot of people like to release theirs on December 1st. And we wait till the end of the month. You can, we want you to wait. This will be something you do in later in the year. You can keep up with it as you go. But we want to know your top 10 books of the year.
- [41:19]
Mallory O'Meara
Yes. And then final one is you have to do a two person book club with a friend.
- [41:24]
Bria Grant
Can it be more than two or do you want it? Should it be just 2, 2 and.
- [41:27]
Mallory O'Meara
2 and I mean I. 3, 4. But if it's like a big book club, then that's not the kind of.
- [41:32]
Bria Grant
Not, not a full, like 10 person book club. No, But a couple people.
- [41:36]
Mallory O'Meara
A couple people people. Even several if you want. I would cap it at like 4.
- [41:39]
Bria Grant
Okay.
- [41:40]
Mallory O'Meara
But we put this on there because a lot of people wrote in about how much fun they had with two people Book clubs.
- [41:45]
Bria Grant
Yeah.
- [41:46]
Mallory O'Meara
And it's hard to get a group of people to do something.
- [41:49]
Bria Grant
Yeah.
- [41:49]
Mallory O'Meara
So. But it's a lot easier to find one person in your life. Whether it's a person you see in person a lot or it's a person you know only on the Internet or a family member or like going on.
- [41:58]
Bria Grant
Something like Fable and finding people on there. Finding people online, that's also totally counts. Finding people in the reading glass of Slack. There's all sorts of places where you.
- [42:06]
Mallory O'Meara
Can find someone and you just gotta read a book together and then talk about it. That's it. Just do a two person book club with a friend. I've already picked the friend. I have not informed this friend. But no, I did think about it though. I would be lying if I was like, that would be kind of fun if me and Bria did it. But I was like, me and Bria read books together all the time.
- [42:22]
Bria Grant
That's true, that's true, that's true.
- [42:23]
Mallory O'Meara
But I did think about you. All right, Bria, which one are you most excited about on this list?
- [42:27]
Bria Grant
Probably epistolary novel. Because I like epistolary novels. Also. I love oldest book on my tbr. I actually already have like looked it up. I kind of forgot what it was. We talked about it the other day, but then I looked again and kind of like went through.
- [42:38]
Mallory O'Meara
Mine might be Cloud Atlas. I love that.
- [42:39]
Bria Grant
Mine's not that old of a book, but it's been on my TBR a long time. I can't. It's like from 2019 or something. But I'm excited to start it, maybe finish it. At the very least, check it the fuck off. Like that's. It's definitely been on my list for six years. Cause it came out in 2019. I don't know. It's the oldest one, so that's exciting. But epistolary, obviously I love because I like epistolary novels. You.
- [43:03]
Mallory O'Meara
I feel the same way. I'm really excited about the oldest book on my tbr. Yeah, that's nice because it feels good to have an excuse to clean off your TBR shelf. So nice because again, like Cloud, I've been. I want to read. It's not like I don't want to read it, but it. It feels nice to have an excuse to do it. It is tough though. I. I'm really pumped about this challenge. It's good every. I mean, I know we're pumped every year, but this one feels super fun. I'm also kind of excited about the Honker because this year, especially because I was in such a book slump and I was struggling at the end of the year to read 2024 books for our best of the year episode that it feels good to have an excuse to read a long book because there were books that I left by the wayside. I was like, well, a book you were telling me about before we started recording. And you were like, it is really long. I was like, not gonna make it this year.
- [43:46]
Bria Grant
And also, look, you can combine this if you have a honker that you read over the course of a month or two. Hey, there you go. You did it. So feel free to combine these in any way that makes sense to you.
- [43:54]
Mallory O'Meara
Of course. This is. Yeah. The reading glasses challenge is meant to challenge you. It's not meant to make you miserable.
- [43:58]
Bria Grant
Or if you wanna read that book, slime. It's a science book. It based on the title. We haven't told you anything about it. So.
- [44:04]
Mallory O'Meara
Hey, there you go. Boom, boom, boom. You read it with a friend. You're all set. Wow.
- [44:09]
Bria Grant
You've jacked off three. Checked three.
- [44:11]
Mallory O'Meara
Oh, is okay question. Is there a book that is a extremely long epistolary novel that won an award and written by a person of color?
- [44:19]
Bria Grant
I'm sure it's gotta be screaming long is what I don't know because I don't read that many long books. That's gonna be the hard one for me, but.
- [44:25]
Mallory O'Meara
All right, folks, we're real pumped about this. We hope you like it. We will. Of course they'll be making a graphic. There will be a list in the show notes. I'll put a list in the Slack channel as well. Thank you for. For going along on the 2024 challenge with us. We loved having you write in over. Over the course of this year. I loved seeing the conversations happen in the Slack channel again. We will be doing episodes for all of these, in case you are wondering about the rules of any of them. But we love doing this. We have so much fun. It feels like a fun community thing with all of you and it's a blast. And we appreciate you all so, so much. Next episode is our big best of the year episodes. Our last episode of the year. We are not taking a. A week off, even though we kind of wanted to. And then we realized that. That we couldn't because we were already putting stuff together. So there will be no week off. No rest for the readers, no rest for the wicked.
- [45:10]
Bria Grant
Just so you know, cloud atlas is 509 pages.
- [45:13]
Mallory O'Meara
Oh hell yeah, baby. Beautiful. Beautiful. But yeah. So folks, next. Next episode's our last episode of the year. You really kept us going this year. You're such a wonderful community. We appreciate you all so, so much. And let us know what you think of this year's challenge. You can send it to reading glasses podcastmail.com as always, want to thank the wonderful mods who Facebook group. Folks, another year of you moderating our Facebook group. We appreciate you so much. You're all wonderful. We have met some of you in person. We've known some of you online for a while. We really, truly appreciate you. And remember, you want to get yourself something for Christmas. Get yourself something for the new year. That'll help me feed Sailor and Lula and Bria's stable of brachycephalic cats. Animals.
- [45:57]
Bria Grant
That's right.
- [45:58]
Mallory O'Meara
You can go to our Void merch store. Check it out. There's all kinds of fun stuff in there, from tote bags to sweatshirts and stickers. There's a link in the show notes for that. And if you like the show, please rate and review us on the podcast listening app of your choice. A whole other year of reading glasses. You know how you can thank us? Reviewing our show?
- [46:14]
Bria Grant
That's right.
- [46:15]
Mallory O'Meara
Doing it on whatever you do, it's Apple podcasts, Spotify give us a five star rating, write a nice little review. It really, really makes a difference for the show and we really appreciate it. You can email us@reading glassespodcastmail.com find us on Instagram at Reading Glasses Podcast. Thanks for listening and thanks for reading. Maximum Fun. A worker owned network of artist owned shows supported directly by.