Ep 393 - Why 3 Star Reads Are Important

Summary

Episode Summary: Reading Glasses – Ep 393 "Why 3 Star Reads Are Important"

In Episode 393 of Reading Glasses, hosts Brea Grant and Mallory O’Meara delve into the nuanced role of "three-star reads" in a reader’s literary journey. Released on January 9, 2025, this episode explores whether mediocre books hold value, how they fit into diverse reading habits, and addresses listener questions on book selection and library content.

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Current Reads

Bria’s Pick: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix (00:34) Bria shares her excitement about Grady Hendrix’s latest work, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. Set in 1970s Florida, the novel follows girls sent to a home for wayward girls after becoming pregnant out of wedlock. The story takes a supernatural turn when a mysterious book from a bookmobile introduces occult elements, sparking Bria’s enthusiasm for Hendrix’s consistently top-tier releases.

Mallory’s Choice: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (02:03) Mallory embarks on a deliberate reading pace with Woolf’s seminal essay. She appreciates its exploration of women's need for financial independence and personal space to foster creativity. Despite being a fast reader, Mallory plans to savor the book over a month, reflecting her commitment to absorbing its profound feminist insights.

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Listener Feedback on Reading Goals

Kira’s Resolution: Reading Fewer Audiobooks (04:18) Listener Kira shares her goal to reduce audiobook consumption after realizing that the rapid pace left her with fragmented memories of the books. Mallory relates, noting her own shift from audiobooks to physical and eBooks to enhance retention and enjoyment.

Alice’s Quarterly Check-in Questions (05:54) Alice contributes a structured approach to maintaining a healthy reading life with quarterly check-in questions:

1. Do my yearly goals still align with what I want my reading life to look like?
2. How close am I to reaching my goals?
3. Have I found joy in reading recently?
4. Has reading felt like a chore?
5. Have I been learning new things in my reading life and felt more in touch with my imagination?

This framework encourages readers to periodically assess their engagement and satisfaction with their reading habits.

Chariot’s Additional Insights (06:50) Chariot echoes the trend of desiring to "do less," emphasizing quality over quantity. Both hosts affirm that focusing on enjoyment and meaningful engagement can enhance the reading experience.

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Main Discussion: The Importance of Three-Star Reads (12:05)

Brea and Mallory engage in a thoughtful debate about the role of mediocre books—referred to as "three-star reads"—in a reader’s library. They explore whether such books are worthy of time or should be discarded.

Defining Three-Star Reads

• Bria’s Perspective: Defines three-star reads as books that aren’t captivating but serve a purpose, such as background reading during mundane tasks (14:01).
• Mallory’s Take: Considers a three-star read as sufficiently interesting to warrant skimming rather than complete engagement (20:10).

When to Keep or Dump

• Bria: Suggests keeping three-star reads if they fulfill specific current needs, like aiding in productivity without being overly consuming (16:39).
• Mallory: Advises that frequent readers might benefit from three-star reads to prevent burnout, whereas occasional readers should prioritize more engaging books (18:20).

Balancing Reading Habits The hosts discuss the importance of aligning book choices with personal circumstances and mental bandwidth. They agree that three-star reads have their place when they complement a reader’s current lifestyle without overwhelming them.

Notable Quotes:

• Bria: “Sometimes it’s nice to breeze through a book you don't care about that much.” (12:14)
• Mallory: “As long as you want to get through it and it doesn’t get you into a slump, it’s fine.” (20:50)

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Solving a Listener’s Bookish Problem: Harmful Content in Library Books (23:01)

Listener Sarah’s Concern: Sarah, a new mom with a master’s in public health, raises an issue about a library book on infant nutrition that includes a potentially harmful DIY infant formula recipe using raw milk. She contemplates whether to address this with her librarian and seeks advice on handling the situation responsibly.

Hosts’ Advice:

• Bria: Encourages Sarah to discuss her concerns directly with the librarian, suggesting that armed with credible research, she can advocate for either the removal of the harmful content or the addition of warning notes.
• Mallory: Emphasizes the importance of presenting evidence from authoritative sources to support her concerns, recommending actionable steps like suggesting the library place informative stickers near the problematic recipe.

Key Insights:

• Balancing censorship with the preservation of historical and factual accuracy.
• The role of librarians in curating and maintaining safe, reliable library collections.

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Book Recommendations

For Typography Enthusiasts:

• Bria recommends Remember, You Will Die by Eden Robbins (29:24) A novel told entirely through obituaries and letters, intertwining mystery elements with unique narrative structures. Despite its graphic content, Bria finds it a fitting recommendation for readers interested in innovative storytelling techniques.

• Mallory recommends Lmnop by Mark Dunn (31:04) A literary fiction piece that creatively circumvents the Pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Through epistolary storytelling, the novel explores language and communication in a fictitious setting, aligning with readers who appreciate wordplay and structural experimentation.

Notable Quotes:

• Mallory: “I am an expert book skimmer.” (13:57)
• Bria: “Sometimes the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich is the one you made at home.” (17:37)

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Conclusion

In this episode, Reading Glasses thoughtfully examines the place of three-star reads within a balanced and fulfilling reading life. By integrating listener experiences, the hosts advocate for a personalized approach to book selection—embracing both highly engaging and moderately enjoyable reads to enrich one’s literary palette. Additionally, they responsibly address concerns about library content, underscoring the significance of community engagement in maintaining trustworthy resources.

For more insights and book discussions, listeners are encouraged to connect via email or social media, continuing the conversation beyond the episode.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Bria Grant: “Sometimes it's nice to breeze through a book you don't care about that much.” (12:14)
• Mallory O'Meara: “As long as you want to get through it and it doesn’t get you into a slump, it’s fine.” (20:50)
• Bria Grant: “Sometimes the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich is the one you made at home.” (17:37)
• Mallory O'Meara: “If a book sends you into a book slump, it's a two-star book.” (20:10)

Transcript

[Mallory O'Meara]

You are 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.

[Bria Grant]

And I'm Bria Grant, filmmaker and e reader. This episode, we're making the case for reading three star books. Are we making that case? Someone's making a case.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Maybe.

[Bria Grant]

We're talking about it. We're talking about the case.

[Mallory O'Meara]

We can't debate about it.

[Bria Grant]

All right, we're debating the case for three star reads. Plus, we solve a problem about a harmful book in your library. And we recommend books who are typograph as part of the plot.

[Mallory O'Meara]

But first, Bria, what are you reading?

[Bria Grant]

I'm gonna talk about a 2025 book. Ooh, I read one during the holiday break that was. It was an arc. I rarely talk about arcs, but it's coming out by the time this comes out. It comes out in, like, two weeks, and people are gonna want to play.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's a craze book, isn't it?

[Bria Grant]

No, it's not. It's actually Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, yes. I've got this pre ordered. I'm so excited.

[Bria Grant]

It's great. It takes place in Florida, Mallory. So it's already designed for you, Grady. It is about girls who got pregnant. It's set in the 70s, and it's about girls who get pregnant out of wedlock and they get sent to this sort of, like, home for wayward girls. Everything is, like, very girly and pink, and they're on these strict diets, and they're basically hidden away in secret until they have these babies and then shipped back to their normal lives. But while they're one of them, the bookmobile comes. This is the greatest bookmobile I've ever heard of in my life. And one of them gets ahold of a book, which is kind of a strange book, and it starts to teach her how to possibly maybe do a little bit of occult stuff. And things start to change. And look, I can't act like I am unbiased about Grady Hendrix. Like, I'm like, who knew this wonderful author? Like, there hasn't been a book that he's written that was not on our top of the year. Is that right?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm pretty sure, yeah.

[Bria Grant]

I love Grady Hendrix. He's very good. This book. It was amazing.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Another Grady Hendrix banger.

[Bria Grant]

You'll really enjoy it. And I really enjoyed it. What are you reading?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I have started my book that I'm gonna take a long time to read and, like, Read over a long period of time.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. From the reading glasses challenge.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, Kicking it off. I am reading A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, great. I love that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

As a single woman living alone in my tiny little house and who's about to start writing my first novel, I thought it would be perfect, actually.

[Bria Grant]

Sounds wonderful.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes, it's wonderful. So it's basically a novella length essay that she wrote in the 1920s that's basically about what women need to be able to express themselves. It's mostly about writing, but it's. It can apply to anything. And how she argues that women need their own source of income, they need a room of their own, they need their own space, they need basically the mental bandwidth in order to be creative. And that's why historically you haven't had as many like legendary female authors. Especially in her time, most women just didn't have those things. They didn't weren't allowed to have their own income, they weren't allowed to have their own space. So it's, it's about creativity and writing, but also like women's place in society and social injustices and the things that hold women back that are like external factors that hold women back from being able to be creative. And it's wonderful. I mean, I've only read three pages so far. I'm definitely. It's funny cause I'm gonna struggle with this one. Cause I'm such a fast reader. I read three pages last night and I was like, wait, I gotta stop.

[Bria Grant]

How long are you going to take to read? So our reading glasses challenge, we said take a long time to read a book and it's all dependent on you as a reader. How long are you going to take to read it?

[Mallory O'Meara]

A month or two.

[Bria Grant]

A month or two? Okay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, I'm going to see, I'm going to do like two or three pages a night and it's. But it's only. It's like 120 pages. So it's not going to take me, I don't know. Yeah, be what, 40 days?

[Bria Grant]

Are you making me do math first.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Thing in the morning?

[Bria Grant]

Let's see if you read three pages a night and it's 120 pages. Yeah. Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Okay, so that's month and a half. But it's wonderful so far and it's really fun to read such a important piece of feminist literature that still holds true like a hundred years later. I've never read any Virginia Woolf. I'm not a big classics reader, but I'm really enjoying it. So far, the version I have has, like, a really huge introduction that I'm going to read afterwards and, like, a lot of notes and. And it's a fun little addition. So I am reading A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, and I.

[Bria Grant]

Just read Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrick.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So we want to take a moment to share some listener feedback. Kira writes in to say hi, Mallory and Bria. I've actually set a sort of numerical goal in the sense that I want to read less in 2025.

[Bria Grant]

Okay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Specifically, less audiobooks.

[Bria Grant]

Wow.

[Mallory O'Meara]

In 2023, I read almost 60 books, which is huge for me, but many were audiobooks while I worked at my desk job. I listen at 1.5 speed because any slower and I simply can't focus. But because of that, I could blow through multiple audiobooks a week, sometimes one a day, and I just felt like I wasn't getting everything I wanted out of them. There were even books I look back and remembered loving, but could not tell you why in the slightest.

[Bria Grant]

Well, that happens to all of us. Don't feel bad.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I decided in 2024 I was going to read less audiobooks, and only for the first half of the workday. And it's great. I've only read half the books, but the majority are physical and ebooks, which I have an easier time remembering. And the audiobooks I do read, I enjoy and remember much better. Plus, it let me stop feeling bad about taking time to listen to other things and keep up with my podcasts. I would love to eventually ramp back up to reading a ton of books, but right now, let's. Less in general is doing wonders for me. Definitely continuing this in 2025. Thank you and love the show.

[Bria Grant]

I feel like this is a trend I'm seeing is that people are wanting to do less.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

The goal is to do less.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes. Me and my friend Frank talk about this all the time. Is like, slow living.

[Bria Grant]

Like, slow living.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Like, do less shit. But I can see that if you're pounding through a book a day, you're not going to remember all of them. You're not. You're not going to be savoring them as much.

[Bria Grant]

That's right. No, you're really not. But I love this.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is great. This is fantastic.

[Bria Grant]

You get to. Does it. I also. I do find it definitely is using different parts of my brain for audiobooks versus physical books. And so I think this will probably be helpful to use other parts of your brain as well.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

Alice writes in and says, hi, Bri. And Mallory, I've been listening for a long time and I just loved your episode on non numerical reading goals. I live next to a park with a great dog park and this inspired me to make it my goal to bring my dogs there once a week and bring a book to read. Last year I went, oh, it's a good goal.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, that's fun.

[Bria Grant]

Last year I wanted to diversify my reading and avoid the trap of a big number goal by setting a few different small goals. Things like read 10 books that make me think deeply, read five essay collections, read three friends favorite books, et cetera. I love all those, by the way. In between, I read lots of other fun books, but I didn't worry about how many. Thank you for the amazing podcast. Great. I love those kind of goals. Wonderful goals.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I was really happy because our non numerical book goals ended up being. We got more fan mail than almost any other episode recently from that.

[Bria Grant]

Wow.

[Mallory O'Meara]

People loved it, I think. But it's a theme. People want to do less. They want to focus less on being productive and hitting numbers and focus more on enjoying life and getting more out of the things you do do. So I love this. I love that the glasses are loving it too. Chariot writes in to say hi, Brianne Mallory. I love the show so much. It's helped me get back into reading and move past my guilt of dumping books that I'm not into. I wanted to write in because I just listened to your episode about setting non numerical goals and I'm getting ready to set my goals for 2025. I've decided I want to do a check in every three months to see how my reading life is going. And I thought I'd share the check questions with you because they might be helpful. All right, here's Chariot's list of questions. Do my yearly goals still align with what I want my reading life to look like? How close am I to reaching my goals? Have I found joy in reading recently? Has reading felt like a chore? Have I been learning new things in my reading life and have I felt more in touch with my imagination? Thank you so much for everything you do. I love these. I'm gonna save these for our mid year check in. That we're gonna do.

[Bria Grant]

Okay, good idea.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. This is really fun.

[Bria Grant]

Great.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So, folks, you can email us@reading glassespodcastmail.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. There's a link in the show. Notes Folks, quick bookmark. Buy our book, baby. It's coming out next month.

[Bria Grant]

The book is coming out.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Coming out.

[Bria Grant]

A lot of people have bought it, and we really appreciate that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes, we know a lot about [e-mail] bestseller, which we would love to continue.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, yeah. But thank you for buying our book. But definitely buy our book. It's called the no Pressure Book Journal. It's by Mallory and I. We share the wisdom we've learned through this show, doing this show, and we will help you to find your next great read.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, it's perfect for the start of the year. It's part essay collection, full of advice, part workbook that helps you get in touch with what kind of reader you are, and part tracking journal, so you can take all those lessons and go forth and read and keep a list of everything you're reading. And it's. It's meant for the glassers. This tracking journal is not just title and author, but it's also got doorway and wheelhouse and doghouse and, like, content warnings, like the stuff we talk about on the show. If the way that Bria and I talk about books resonates with you, this. This tracking journal is going to be perfect. So there's a link in the show notes for that. So before we talk about three star reads, we're going to take a quick break. Reading glasses is brought to you in part this week by Pear Eyewear, folks. New year, new you. But what about your glasses, folks? If you're a glasses wearer like I am, you know the stress of picking out one pair of glasses to rule them all. Yeah, it's one pair of glasses that will match all of your moods and all of your outfits. It's very stress. You know who solved this problem? Bria?

[Bria Grant]

Pear Eyewear.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Mm.

[Bria Grant]

They sure have eyewear. They offer top frames with all sorts of collabs, all sorts of collections. You can go Disney princesses, you can go premium collection. You can do sun tops. You could do, like, little sunglasses. You can do classic colors. You can do NHL, the NBA, Star Wars. There's all sorts of choices. You can do just plain, plain colors. I looked through them the other day. I ordered me some reading glasses because I do need reading glasses these days. And I was very excited to be able to have some that are sparkly, to have some. Some that are just plain, like a plain black. I like that I'm gonna get to choose what I look like that day.

[Mallory O'Meara]

If you have listened to this show before, you know that I love wearing my NHL official Washington Capitals ones. Man, you feel so fancy going into a hockey game. Be like, I'm the only one here with glasses of my hockey team. That is so true, folks. We talk a lot about the top frames that are really fun, but the base frames are fantastic as well. They have different widths, which I love. I have a wide face. I used to look not so great in glasses until one day I figured out that I need wide glasses. And Pear Eyewear has those. So they've got all different shapes, different widths. So there's stuff for kids. For no matter what gender you are, no matter how big or small your face is, Pear Eyewear has got you covered. The base frames start at $60 and the top frames start at just $25. Just 25 bucks for a whole new look for your glasses. There's free shipping on US orders and free returns and exchanges within 30 days, no questions asked. And you can also save with pre tax, FSA and HSA dollars.

[Bria Grant]

Show off new sides of yourself this year. Go to Pair Eyewear.com and use code GLASSES for 15% off your first pair. And support the show by mentioning that reading glasses sent you in your post checkout survey. That's P A I R I wear.com code glasses glasses.

[Mallory O'Meara]

One thing we all have in common, we all have a mind. It makes me so scared because I'm like, is the bad thing going to happen? And minds can be kind of unpredictable and eccentric. Everybody wants to hear that they're not alone. Everybody wants to hear that someone else has those same thoughts. Depress Mode with John Moe is about how interesting minds intersect with the lives and work of the people who have them. Comedians, authors, experts, all sorts of folks trying to make sense of their world. It's not admitting something bad if you say this is scary Depression Mode with John Moe. Every [e-mail] or wherever you get podcasts this week, we're making the case or not for three Star Reads. Are these books unworthy of your time? Should you dump them? Or do they have an important place in all of our reading lives? We are diving into it.

[Bria Grant]

Dive in.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Diving right in, baby. So today's episode was inspired by a bunch of glassers who wrote in about it and there was a thread in the slack, I believe.

[Bria Grant]

Yes.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So it's definitely in the air. Few listeners made their case for the importance of three Star reads in their literary diets, essentially saying that sometimes it's nice to breeze through a book you don't care about that much. So first off, Bria, what Do you do when you're in the middle of a three star read a book that's like. And when we say three star reads, we mean a book that's fine. It's not wicked good. It's not grabbing you, but it's good enough for you to be like curious about what happens. Are you dumping a three middle.

[Bria Grant]

Middle. Like, like I'm 50%.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I mean, you know, any, any, any anywhere past the first chapter. Like, are you, you're not into it, but it's, it's not amazing, but it's not terrible. Are you dumping immediately? Are you powering through?

[Bria Grant]

Well, okay, I, I might dump if it's truly three stars. Truly three stars, which I'll get into. But if it's a little better. But if it's three stars and I'm just like, I just am not that interested in this book. I'm not powering through. Okay, I'll dump it pretty far in. I have dumped books at like 70 because I'm just like, I just, I don't have the energy to finish a book that I don't want to read. What about you?

[Mallory O'Meara]

When this happens to me, which is probably about a third of the books I pick up, I want to say it's usually skim time for me. Okay. It depends on how far in. If a book seems like it's going to be a three star read from Jump. I'm probably going to dump it after the first chapter.

[Bria Grant]

Oh yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

But you know that what happens when a book seems like it's going to be pretty good and then it kind of fizzles out midway through. If that happens to me and I'm like, I still kind of want to know how it ends, I'm going to start skimming. It's like a very specific feeling of like, I do ultimately want to know what happens, but not enough to spend a couple hours getting there.

[Bria Grant]

You know what I mean?

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's. I am an expert book skimmer. I will, I go into like speed mode and I absorb only the most important plot points and until I get to the end. So that's what, that's normally what I do.

[Bria Grant]

Got it. Got it. Sometimes also I will switch to an audiobook.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, okay.

[Bria Grant]

Just to see if like there's certain books and I can get into this as we keep talking. But there's certain books that like, I just consume better via audio and those are usually books that they're just like slower paced or for whatever reason. There's just some, some reason my brain can consume them. A little bit better that way.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Well, I wonder if it's like maybe someone bringing their, like the narrator bringing an element of performance to it. It makes it a little more engaging, a little more compelling, Interesting.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So do we agree or disagree that sometimes it's good for your reading to get through a book that's just okay?

[Bria Grant]

I think it depends on what you're trying to get out of your reading life. Right? So if you're reading this book for a purpose, like fulfilling a goal, exploring like a new kind of author, a new thing you've never read before, you're like, I never read mysteries. And you're reading a mystery. If you're doing it for a book club, I think there's a reason to power through. I've powered through a few of my book club books, honestly, that I probably would not have finished otherwise. But for just you're reading for fun and it's not fun or fulfilling, then I don't, I don't know. Well, as we get into this later. But what I'll say is that I think there are times though that a book is not what you would typically read. It's not super exciting, but maybe it's fulfilling something for you. Maybe there is a book that's okay to read. Maybe it's okay to read a book that's not that interesting because you don't want something that's so time consuming, so brain consuming. And then for me, weirdly, that's not a three star read, that's a five star read because it's coming at the right time.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Okay?

[Bria Grant]

It's a time, it's based on the time that I need it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Okay. It's a three star read that has been activated into active service.

[Bria Grant]

That's right.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It becomes a five star read.

[Bria Grant]

So I have shows and I won't say what they are, but I put them on when I'm doing laundry. I put them on in the background. They're not great shows, but they are great for the purpose that I use them for, which is they are on while I'm doing laundry. When I'm. I do a lot of like spreadsheeting of like my finances and stuff like that. So like while I'm doing all that, I can put a show on in the background and I can look up and be like, okay, I get it. But it's a slow show. It's a second screen show. They call it. Do you know about second screens? Where it's like people assume you're on your phone during the show?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, yeah, they do. I was talking, I have an editor friend, we have an editor friend and he was telling me about how they, that's how they edit things now is for certain shows.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, look, I'm not, I don't think they edited Nosferatu that way. You know, like, I think there's like a definitely show, but there are shows that feel like that. And I'm not dissing those shows because they're pressing for me as a creative. It is something that I use. I use it for like almost like background but also I know how it's going to end. So all that being said, those aren't three star reads to me. Those aren't three star shows. Those are five star shows for laundry. Five star laundry shows, you know, and then these are so five star.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So this is like a minor leagues of entertainment.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. And so when I'm working on a movie, I cannot read an all consuming book. I need a book that is quick. Maybe something that has a little bit of something that like gets my brain going. But if it's too complicated, like I can't read a world building book while I'm building a world. That's impossible. So there are books that at times I would not reach for them. Like when I'm not doing something big. But when I'm doing something big like directing a fucking movie, I don't have time to build a whole world in my brain. So the three star reads become five star reads.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So it's the equivalent of like. Yeah, it's not a Michelin starred restaurant, but it's the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich you're ever gonna have.

[Bria Grant]

Right. Because it's fast and it's what I need at that moment.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes.

[Bria Grant]

Sometimes the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich is the one you made at home because you gotta eat something and that's the best thing you can have at that moment. That's a five stars for me.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Wow.

[Bria Grant]

That's a five star life you're living. If you're making the best peanut butter sandwich because you made it with the shit you have at your house already, you didn't have to go to the store. That's a five star sandwich.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That's a beautiful way to live.

[Bria Grant]

Brave.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's a beautiful philosophy.

[Bria Grant]

Okay, all right. What about you? What do you feel? Do you agree or disagree? Sometimes it's good to just get through a book that's just. Okay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I think there's a few factors at play here. I think the first that's really important for A lot of readers is reading speed and frequency. Like if you're reading a lot of books, like some of the people where we got feedback from today, like and you're banging through a couple of books a month, I think there is a case for it. But if you're only reading, if you're a reader who's only reading three, four books a year and you're powering through a three star read, maybe not. You know what I mean? If it takes you a month or two to get through a book, I would say dump a book. That isn't great.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You know, I also think the circumstances are important. Like are you on vacation? You know, you're probably a pool, you're like half drunk off of a margarita and you're just like looking for something to keep your brain occupied.

[Bria Grant]

See this is the same kind of thing. Yeah, yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Like you're, you're in line at the post office. Sure. Then yeah, I see a fine book being, you know, fine. Like those are, I think they have their time in place. But what about the argument that it's not always convenient for your life, like you were saying earlier, to be sucked into a book all the time? Are three star reads sometimes better because they're not derailing your life, you're not canceling plans for them, you're just kind of like picking up them whenever you want.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. And I will say like that's what I was saying is that like I don't necessarily need an all consuming book all the time. In fact, like there are times where I really don't want an all consuming book. Like I don't want to read my favorite book of the year while I'm doing something that's really consuming me work wise.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's like you're really busy and you see a really hot person and you're like, no, I don't have time for that.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, yeah, please come affair right now. Come back in six weeks. You know, I mean like if I'm very busy with work, I am not going to start a book that I really want to read. I like, which sounds counterintuitive but it's just like, I just know it's not going to stick with me as much. I know. And I want a book that like is something totally different or something very like just very easy. Which is not necessarily what I want to read all the time.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

So yeah, I think it's, it's, it's the season, whatever season.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

You're in. Yeah, yeah. What about you?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I mean I think I do think this is a really strong argument, especially has someone who has definitely canceled many plans in her life to finish a book. Like sometimes a book sucks you in so much that like you're like, I just can't do anything until I finish this book.

[Bria Grant]

Like, sorry, but that doesn't need to be every book.

[Mallory O'Meara]

No, it probably shouldn't because I would never get anything done. You know, you're losing sleep, you're canceling plans, you're missing out on work, you know, but I do think there has to be a balance. Like a book has to be good enough for you to, to want to know how it ends.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And it like, I think a book that you don't care about how it ends is a two star book. But what bumps it up to a three star book for me personally is I at least care enough to want to know how we get there.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You know, what's going to happen to the characters and you know, as long as this, the most important thing is that it's not sending you into a book slump. But if it's not, I do think that, yeah, just fine book might be great. When you're slammed at work, you're stressed out. We always recommend finding a really compelling book when you're stressed, but maybe it's not some. If you're really stressed out, sometimes you just read a book, that's fine. Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

And also, I mean, I think what you said is really right, is that as long as you're like, you're not avoiding reading the book.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes.

[Bria Grant]

Because if you are like reading this three star book or whatever, some book that you're not that interested in and you're like, oh my God, I've been reading this book now for, you know, a much longer time than it normally takes me to read a book. Whatever that is for you, if it takes, if you've been reading it for six months, maybe you shouldn't be reading that three star book. You know, Like, I think it's like knowing whether or not it's actually working for you.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I think this is the kind of, this is like advanced level reading where like your reading life is already really healthy and you, your pace of books is really great. I think you can't do this when you're just getting back into reading. You know what I mean?

[Bria Grant]

I agree.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Like, if I am in a book slump, like I'm not gonna get a three star read is never gonna get me out of a book slump. I need something to me like that really hooks me in. But if I'M already, my, my reading habits are clipping along really well and I like, I'm reading a lot. I think. Yeah. Like a three star read. I think the glasses have made their case here. I think they're. You don't have to dump three star reads all the time. I think I, we ultimately agree with you that like, like they have a time and a place that, and it can be an important part of your literary diet. I think, I think the glasses are correct.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, I think they're correct. But like, I feel like I have like a different way of looking at it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Like, I think for you and I, a three star rating is a lot lower than most people think it is.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Because remember, I mean, there are people who are like, oh, I really like that book, three stars. And we're like, what?

[Bria Grant]

I know for me that's a fail.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. And that's a lot of people who think that that's, that's, that's fine.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes.

[Bria Grant]

That means it's a pretty good book.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. I think, I do think that's an important thing to point out is that you and I, like, if someone said one of my books was a three star read, I would be sad about it.

[Bria Grant]

Oh yeah, for sure.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Because to me a three star book is like, yeah, that's fine.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And I would be devastated and cry. But for a lot of people a three star read is very good.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So for considering that, that a three star, like looking at a three star read from our perspective, even, I think, yeah, I think it's, it's. You don't have to dump them all the time. And I. If you are enjoying just kind of like halfway paying attention to this book, it, hell yeah, don't dump it. As long as you want to get through it and doesn't get you into a slump.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So you can send Your thoughts on Three Star Reads to Reading Glasses podcast gmail.com. before we solve a reader problem about harmful books in the library, we're going to take a quick break.

[Bria Grant]

Have you been looking for a new.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Podcast all about nerdy pop culture?

[Bria Grant]

Well, I have just the thing for you. Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries is a weekly pop culture history podcast hosted by.

[Bria Grant]

Me host Austin and me host Brenda. We've already tackled mysteries such as what.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Happened to the puppets from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer?

[Bria Grant]

Is Snoopy Mexican?

[Mallory O'Meara]

And why do people hate Barney so much? From theme parks to cartoons to 80s, 90s and 2000s nostalgia, we tackle it.

[Bria Grant]

All Check us out Every Tuesday on.

[Mallory O'Meara]

MaximumFun.org and wherever you get podcasts. Now let's solve a bookish problem from one of our listeners. Sarah wrote in. Hello. Huge fan of the show. I discovered it about a month ago and have been making my way through the backlog. I have a reader dilemma. I am generally against library book bans, but I have a concern about some of the content in a book I recently checked out of my local library. I am a new mom and I checked out a book about infant nutrition. The concern I have is that the book in question includes a recipe for DIY infant formula using raw milk. Very buzzy thing right now. This is really not a good idea and could in fact lead to babies being harmed. I have a master's degree in public health, so I know better, but I'm concerned that someone else might not. Is this a concern worth bringing up to the librarian? I also thought putting a post it note by the recipe in question, encouraging people not to do it. Thank you for the advice and feel free to use it on the show. P.S. everything you say about Sarah's is absolutely true. Yours, bookly.

[Bria Grant]

Bookly. Love that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Love it. All right, Bria, what do you think?

[Bria Grant]

Sarah, I have to tell you that I think they're gonna pull out that post it note. So I don't know if that's gonna help.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I don't know.

[Bria Grant]

I mean, people.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Are they combing through? Oh, yeah, I guess so.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, you do a comb through. I mean, if you do it real flat and no one sees it, like, think it's gonna be tough, but you could try. I think they're gonna find it. This. I feel like we gotta go to the Glasser librarians on this because I'm actually not sure this is tough because I will fight for the right for people to print things that I don't agree with. Like, I think that that is important. But I also, like, you're right, I don't. I think this is also dangerous. So this is. I wish we lived in a black and white culture and things were like, no book bans ever. You know, I feel like it would be easy to say that. And we don't live in a black and white world. We live in a world with a lot of gray area. So I say, one, I want to hear from the Glasser librarians about this. Two, I think Sarah should go talk to her librarian.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes, I agree.

[Bria Grant]

And express your concerns.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

I mean, coming from you, a public health master, that's the person to talk to. You're the person. Like, if I went up and I was like, this is bad, they'd be like, ma'am, you are a book podcaster and a horror filmmaker.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You are not a scientist.

[Bria Grant]

But I think, like, you are the person. And I hate to put this on you, but you are a person who would be very good at being able to say why this is a danger. What do you think?

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is tough, especially. I understand the hesitation because there are so many trash babies out in the world trying to ban books, but I do think there's a giant chasm between trying to ban LGBTQIA books for kids and getting rid of, like, harmful health tips that could lead to digestive harm. So if this was me, I would find some ironclad research from ironclad official sources, print it out, and bring it to the library with a book and talk to the librarian about it.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Maybe they can put a sticker on the page with, like, a link to some information about the dangers of raw milk. But ultimately, like, that's all you can do here.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because, like, I think it's important to have books with historical information in them, and you're gonna have books that have false historical. Like, you're gonna have maps that are wrong. You're gonna have science books that have wrong information. But I think it's important for us to have records of those. Right. So I guess the question is, I don't know how new this book is.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. That's another thing. Is this a. Like, is this a book from 50 years ago? Is this a book from five years ago?

[Bria Grant]

I bet it's from five years ago.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

Ron Mill, you're right. It's, like, kind of in the. In the Zeitgeist right now. But I remember it was in the Zeitgeist also in the 90s, so it could be from the 90s. So. Yeah, I mean, I. It's a tough thing because these books that have outdated information are just at the library.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

They're available, and you just hope that someone is doing enough research to understand that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I think the thing that makes this a little. That adds a layer of complication is it's for babies.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, I know. That's.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, That's. That's what makes it even more concerning. But again, I think the best thing to do is talk to the librarians.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, I agree.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You know, you are, like Bria said, you are the person that has the special skilled knowledge about.

[Bria Grant]

You are the ultimate Sarah for this.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And if you want to print out some research and bring it to the librarians. You can. I mean, I'm sure that the library. You're literally at the place where people do that, so you might not have to. But I would talk to the librarians, express your concerns. And again, even if they don't take the book out of circulation, maybe they can put some kind of warning. But Priya's right. There's a lot of books in the library that have outdated information. There's a lot of books in the library written by trash babies. That's kind of the beauty of the library is it's a repository of all the knowledge, you know?

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Even if some of it is not. Not knowledge. I think you were right to be concerned. Talk to the librarian. See what they can do. We'd love to hear from the Glasser librarians, but there's never. It's never going to be a bad. It's never a bad idea to. To express your concerns and to talk to the librarians.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So if you want us to solve your reader problem, you can send it to reading glasses podcast gmail.com. time to answer a recommendation request from Sarah. Wow. I didn't mean this to be a double Sarah episode or a triple Sarah episode, but I guess it's reading glasses, so it's. Every episode's a Sarah episode. Hi, Brianne. Mallory. Thank you for your podcast each week. Thursdays are the only day of the week where I walk my dog by myself, so it is perfect that my favorite podcast comes out the same day. I do love that people incorporate reading glasses into their dog lives so much.

[Bria Grant]

I like that too, because we. I. I talk about my dog a lot, so.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Good dog.

[Bria Grant]

I'm there with you.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I love books where the words on the page look interesting, where typography and spacing are as much a part of the story as the story itself. The best example I've read was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Saffron Foer. A more recent example was Trust by Hernan Diaz. Do you know of any more? My wheelhouse includes people falling in love, LGBTQ characters, equitable relationships, characters with ADHD in autism, and coziness. Bria, what do you think Sarah should read?

[Bria Grant]

Sarah also includes her doghouse, which has marriage in crisis, unhappy women, shitty parents, and graphic violence. And everything I thought of had graphic violence.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, boy.

[Bria Grant]

So I was like, but if you can handle it. Long Way down by Jason Reynolds. Caught that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I was actually thinking that you were gonna recommend this one.

[Bria Grant]

Well, but it is very. It is a graphic. It Is about a. Yeah, it has gun violence in it, but it's designed to look like an elevator, which is so cool. But, man, I had a lot of trouble with this. Cause I was like, oh, Lincoln and the Bardot. Nope, that's about death. So it's just like. There's a lot going on. Anyway, I just read this book. I think it would fit. The title is dark, but the book itself is not that dark, although it is. Okay. It's a book told entirely in obituaries. And it's called. Okay, it has a dark title. The title is remember, you will die by Eden Robbins.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I want to read this.

[Bria Grant]

There are check the content warnings, because, again, because of your doghouse. I do worry about it because there is some violence and obviously death, because it's told in obituaries and also suicide. But it is about. It is a kind of a mystery told about this AI who ends up becoming a mother, which I think is not giving anything away, and how she came to be. So it's told all through obituaries with the occasional dictionary definition in there. And it's interesting because the dictionary definitions sort of change and apply to the story itself. It's a very fascinating.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, this sounds wicked. Good book.

[Bria Grant]

I think this could be cool for you if you like a interesting, strange blueprint, which is what you're asking for. I think a little bit. I mean, typography was tough because I'm an E reader, and I think the typography, they format it differently. They don't use the formatting, unfortunately. So I don't know, maybe I've read some interesting typography books that I don't know about, but I think this one could work. Again, obituaries and dictionary definitions telling an entire story that is a mystery about what happened to this AI and the AI's child.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, that sounds fucking awesome.

[Bria Grant]

Again, a lot of death. This is to be expected because we do all die and there will be obituaries.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, but it's not. You're not seeing the death. You're just reading about it.

[Bria Grant]

You're not. But some of the people's lives are quite sad because it talks about them. Some of the obituaries are very, like, formal. And some of them, like, are. Some of them are like a letter someone wrote and they're like, this person died. And here's what I feel about the. Whatever. So it's like obituaries and letters. It's all sorts of things. It's really interesting the way they put it together.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, I'm Putting this on my tbr.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, it's pretty fascinating. What do you have for Sarah?

[Mallory O'Meara]

First off, I want to say this is such a fun request. We don't get stuff like this often. I really like it. My recommendation is lmnop by Mark Dunn. It's a literary fiction book, and it's about this, like, island off of South Carolina. The island is fictitious. It doesn't exist in real life. But in the book, this island is the home of the creator of the panagram. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. So there's a memorial statue to this. This creator. Like, the island is, like, very proud that they're the hometown of this person who created this thing. And there's a big statue. And underneath the statue is the sentence, the quick brown fox jumps over the lady's lazy dog. And it's made out of tiles. And over the years, as the tile age and fall off the statue, those letters are no longer legal to use on the island.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, wow. Yeah, I have read this, but it's been a really long time.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, it came out a while ago. So the whole book is told in letters and notes, which can tick off epistolary novel on the reading glasses. Glasses, Glasses challenge. But as more and more letters are illegal to use, the characters must come up with, like, creative ways to communicate. It's like, very sweet and fun literary fiction, but I think this fits because, like, as the book goes on, you. The certain letters you can't use. So it's kind of. It's not necessarily formatting, but it's the way that, like, literally the words and the in the type type are used. And it's just fun. It's cool. And I. And. And not graphic. There's no violence in this one. Yeah, I think. I think Sarah will like it. So my. My recommendation is Element Op by Mark Dunn.

[Bria Grant]

And I'm saying remember that you will die by Eden Robbins.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So you can send your recommendation request to reading glasses podcastmail.com as always, want to thank the wonderful mods who run our Facebook group. Happy 2025 mods. We got some emails from the mods recently and we just want to know. We appreciate you even though we're not on Facebook anymore. And remember, folks, new year, new you, you want to buy some new stuff. We have reading glasses, tote bags and shirts and stickers, sweatshirts, tank tops, journals, pillows, all kinds of fun stuff over at the Void Merch store. There's a link in the show notes for that. And if you like the show, folks, It's a new year. Want to do something nice for us? Please rate and review us on the podcast listening app of your choice. It's so great for the show and helps us reach more readers. You can email us at reading glasses podcastmail.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.