Ep 419 - Mid-Year Goal Check in and G from Book Roast Talks CAWPILE!

Summary

Episode Summary: Reading Glasses - Ep 419: Mid-Year Goal Check-In and G from Book Roast Talks CAWPILE!

In this engaging episode of Reading Glasses, hosts Brea Grant and Mallory O’Meara conduct their first mid-year reading goals check-in. The episode also features a special interview with G from Book Roast, the creator of the popular Cawpile spreadsheet, which Brea and Mallory frequently use to track and rate their books.

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Welcome and Episode Overview [00:00 - 00:54]

Brea and Mallory kick off the episode with excitement about their guest, G from Book Roast, highlighting the significance of the Cawpile system in their reading routines.

Brea Grant [00:30]: "We have G from Book Roast on the podcast today who is the creator of our beloved Cawpile spreadsheet."

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Current Reads [00:57 - 04:14]

The hosts share the books they are currently immersed in:

• Brea Grant is delving into Audition by Katie Kitamura, describing it as a mind-bending novel with an unreliable narrator that keeps her guessing.

  Brea Grant [01:11]: "If you like an unreliable narrator, if you like when a story takes a sharp left turn... it's very weird fiction, very surreal."

• Mallory O’Meara is captivated by Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel, a YA horror novel that she read in one sitting.

  Mallory O'Meara [02:22]: "This is a YA horror. And it is about this teenage boy... I can't stop talking about this book. I'm so obsessed with it."

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Listener Feedback [04:14 - 07:22]

Brea and Mallory share heartfelt feedback from listeners:

• Jody expresses gratitude for the podcast's advice on engaging with authors, sharing her positive experience attending a library event.

  Mallory O'Meara [04:22]: "This is bulletproof advice for talking to most people."

• Cat discusses challenges with audiobooks on Spotify, highlighting the 15-hour monthly listening limit and the frustration of being cut off mid-climax.

  Cat [05:21]: "I never remember to switch the speed back to normal before listening to a new episode of Reading Glasses."

Bria thanks Cat for her long-time support and shares her own appreciation for the podcast's role in her personal and professional life.

Bria Grant [07:14]: "I've been listening since 2019 and YouTube got me through Covid... It's the highlight of my week."

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Mid-Year Reading Goals Check-In [12:36 - 25:12]

The hosts delve into their personal reading goals, assessing progress and sharing insights:

• Brea Grant aims to read three books related to her profession. She has completed one and is progressing through the second, which aids her screenwriting efforts.

  Brea Grant [18:12]: "It's helpful because sometimes I am too tired to do actual work at the end of the day... It makes me feel better about my reading life."

• Mallory O’Meara set a numerical goal per month instead of per year to maintain consistency. She expresses satisfaction with surpassing her goals and incorporating audiobooks into her routine.

  Mallory O'Meara [14:26]: "I feel like a Viagra commercial... I just feel great."

Both hosts discuss the positive impact of decluttering their reading lists by dropping books that don't resonate, enhancing their overall reading experience.

Bria Grant [17:26]: "It feels like I'm free from that feeling of like, well, I think I was really gonna like this book... Nope, Dumping it."

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Interview with G from Book Roast [25:12 - 50:40]

The highlight of the episode is an in-depth conversation with G from Book Roast, the mastermind behind the Cawpile spreadsheet. G shares the origins, features, and evolution of Cawpile, emphasizing its role in gamifying and tracking reading habits.

Origins and Purpose of Cawpile [31:11 - 33:10]

G explains that Cawpile was born out of her need to make reading tracking enjoyable and organized.

G from Book Roast [31:36]: "It's either that or some sort of withdrawals from my study times. I studied psychology and I was in the spreadsheets a lot."

Features and Community Influence [34:38 - 35:09]

The spreadsheet includes various categories like genre, format, and pages read, tailored to the community's feedback.

G from Book Roast [35:09]: "All of the additions throughout the years were genuinely someone else's idea."

Setting and Achieving Reading Goals [40:17 - 41:44]

G discusses her approach to setting flexible reading goals, focusing on quantity and genre preferences without overwhelming herself.

G from Book Roast [40:25]: "I really like a list that I can tick off."

Impact on Reading Habits [42:50 - 43:42]

Cawpile not only tracks books but also influences reading choices, encouraging readers to explore diverse genres and avoid getting stuck in slumps.

G from Book Roast [43:22]: "A lot of the other things are not as informative to me, I guess until the end."

Favorite Genres and Recommendations [45:31 - 48:42]

G shares her wheelhouse preferences, gravitating towards time travel, speculative fiction, and unreliable narrators. She recommends titles like Bunny and Rouge by Mona Awad.

G from Book Roast [45:49]: "Time travel is almost an immediate buy for me whenever I see that."

Mallory and Brea commend G’s taste in books, noting their similar preferences and enthusiasm for her recommendations.

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Conclusion and Community Engagement [50:39 - End]

The episode wraps up with acknowledgments:

• Brea and Mallory encourage listeners to support their community through Discord, Facebook, and by purchasing merchandise.

  Mallory O'Meara [50:39]: "A worker owned network of artist owned shows supported directly by you."

• They express gratitude to G for her insights and participation, highlighting the collaborative spirit of the reading community.

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Notable Quotes

• Brea on Decluttering Books:

  "It feels like I'm free from that feeling of like... I was literally looking at my cawpile sheet this morning and I was like, wow, I've been reading a lot of really good books." [17:26]

• Mallory on Overcoming Grief Through Reading:

  "One day I woke up and I was like, am I happy?... I just feel like I'm back to myself. And it's great." [14:26]

• G on the Evolution of Cawpile:

  "It was either that or some sort of withdrawals from my study times." [31:36]

• G on Her Reading Wheelhouse:

  "Time travel is almost an immediate buy for me whenever I see that." [45:49]

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This episode provides valuable insights into maintaining and adjusting reading goals, the benefits of organized tracking through tools like Cawpile, and fosters a supportive community for avid readers. Whether you're aiming to declutter your TBR pile or seeking new reading strategies, Brea, Mallory, and their guest offer inspiration and practical advice to enhance your literary journey.

Transcript

[Bria Grant]

Foreign.

[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.

[Bria Grant]

And I'm Bria Grant, filmmaker and e reader. This episode, we're doing our very first mid year reading goals. Check in plus wow.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Wow.

[Bria Grant]

A true celebrity. On our podcast. It sounds. That's unsarcastic.

[Mallory O'Meara]

We're not being facetious at all. We are so pumped for this.

[Bria Grant]

We have G from Book Roast on the podcast podcast today who is the creator of our beloved Cawpile spreadsheet.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It.

[Bria Grant]

If you listen to the show, you know, Mallory and I both use the same spreadsheet to average the rating of our book using the Cawpile system. And we have G on who created it.

[G from Book Roast]

Wow.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Who is that would be like if you got to talk to the person who invented chocolate.

[Bria Grant]

It's wild. We are so excited. We have a great interview, so stick around for that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

But first, Bria, what are you reading?

[Bria Grant]

I am reading. All right. I just finished a book that was recommended by a friend that kind of blew my mind. It broke my brain. Is called Audition by Katie Kitamura.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, yeah.

[Bria Grant]

Have you read this?

[Mallory O'Meara]

No, but everybody's talking about it.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Wow.

[Bria Grant]

This book, how to explain this book. So it is about an actress who lives in Manhattan, and it. It starts on her in a restaurant with this man who's much younger than her. And you're like, are they having an affair? Who is this person? He's young enough to be your son. And then gradually things sort of unfold. And I don't want to say much more, but if you like an unreliable narrator, if you like when a story takes a sharp left turn. There were points in this book where I was like, am I losing my mind? Because I thought this thing was happening, but now this thing is happening. So it is very weird fiction, very surreal. And Mallory, you love this book.

[G from Book Roast]

Okay.

[Bria Grant]

It is on hold. Yeah. Yeah, it is one of. It's very strange. If you like Mona Awad, Helen Oyeyemi. It's like in that category of. Of books. I don't want to say much more because I think it gives away too much. But just know going into it, you have to go in with an open mind and be ready to be very surprised by where things go.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Okay, I'm ready.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, it is. It is a wild book. What are you reading?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm reading a book that I already texted you about this. It is very easily going to be one of my Best books of the year. It's by an author I love. It's Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel. Oh, my God, this book, I read it in one sitting, like Kenneth Apple.

[Bria Grant]

Kimothel wrote another.

[Mallory O'Meara]

He wrote the Nest.

[Bria Grant]

The Nest, okay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Another middle grade. That one's a middle grade horror. This is a YA horror. And it is about this teenage boy, he's 13 years old. He is going with his dad and his new pregnant wife, like, away to their cabin for a weekend. And he doesn't want to go. He, like, wants to play D with his friends and he's like, really grumpy about it. And they wake up the next morning, that Saturday morning, and their cabin, their whole cabin has been moved somewhere else.

[Bria Grant]

My God, I have got to read this.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You have to read this book. And they start walking around. They realize it's been moved to like this beautiful, like little grassy area. There's a pond, there's a barn full of barn animals. And start walking around and they realize that they're in some kind of a dome.

[Bria Grant]

And I love a dome.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, you're big. Dome, dome, dome head.

[Bria Grant]

I.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is a book for you.

[Bria Grant]

Wow.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So they. And then the book cuts to three years later, they're still in the dome. They have. They don't know who put. They still don't know how they got there. They don't know who put them in this dome. And then another family appears in the same dome. And I truly, I'm telling you, I read this book in one sitting. This was a book. This was a book where I was like, I guess I just don't have to work for the rest of the day. Like, I guess I'm just staying home. It is truly going to be one of my best. And this is not even a Mallory book. Like, it's a sci fi YA thriller. Not really what I. If it wasn't Kenneth Oppel, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. And now I cannot stop talking about this book. I'm so obsessed with it. So that is the Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel.

[Bria Grant]

And mine is audition by Katie Kitamura.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So we want to take a moment to share some listener feedback. Jody wrote in to say big thanks to both of you. Tonight I went to a great lecture with authors Damon Young and Brian Broom at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library lecture hall. They were both funny and charming, and during the Q and A, I took a chance and asked, what are you reading right now? And they both lit up and shared the multiple books they're Reading and made a point of saying writers should keep reading while they're writing. And now I've added kitchens of the Great Midwest to my TBR far. Thanks for the podcast and the great advice. This is truly bulletproof advice for talking to an author. You just. Yeah, you just want to be. Honestly, it's bulletproof advice for talking to most people. I feel like.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, yeah, this is.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is like one of my favorite. I don't know people well. Like, I'm at a party, I'll just throw it out into the group, be like, hey, is anyone reading anything good? And somebody's gonna be wicked pumped and want to talk about something.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. Cat wrote in and said, hi, Bri and Mallory. I wanted to write in about listening to audiobooks on Spotify, which was mentioned a few episodes back, though I can't remember which one it was. That's okay. Audiobooks on Spotify. That. Yeah, we just randomly mentioned that. I don't think we actually.

[Mallory O'Meara]

We mentioned it a couple of times.

[Bria Grant]

Okay. I use this feature pretty frequently if I can't get access to an audiobook on Libby for whatever reason. But the downside of it is the listening limit of 15 hours a month with the option to pay extra to top up, which I refuse to do. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten to the climax of the book just to get cut off by the time limit. And it truly makes me want to throw my phone out the window.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Vibrator dies. It's the worst thing.

[Bria Grant]

What is extra frustrating is that it doesn't reset at the start of the month. If you run out of hours at the end of the month, rather than resetting the next day, it makes you wait a number of days before it resets. So you can't plan ahead to cheat the system.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Whoa.

[Bria Grant]

So you can't, like, start listening on the 30th, listen to 15 hours, and then. Okay. All this to say you can add it to the list of reasons to be cautious about Spotify.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This was. We were talking. You weren't talking about audiobooks on Spotify. We were talking about that book that you read about Spotify.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, but. No, but someone else said they were listening to audiobooks.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And I will tell you right now, somebody wrote in to ask about the, like, the ethics of getting a audiobook on Spotify versus, like, a Libra FM or just getting it from the library or whatever. And I did ask my agent, my wonderful beloved agent, and she asked around and told me that publishers are not telling authors how much money they're getting from Spotify.

[Bria Grant]

What?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, they don't. They. She doesn't know. We don't know what percentage. It's unknown.

[Bria Grant]

Unknown.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Which means it's probably not good.

[Bria Grant]

So also, it's probably just a matter of time before they start using AI to do those on Spotify.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh yeah, like the fake. I mean, if they're making fake bands, why wouldn't they make fake audiobooks? We live in hell.

[Bria Grant]

Cat continued by saying, also, I listen to audiobooks at 1.5 speed and I never remember to switch the speed back to normal before listening to a new episode of Reading Glasses. Truly, there is a little. There's little in this world more alarming than listening to Mallory's intro even faster than her regularly already speaking very fast speaking voice, which is perfect for my ADHD years. Thank you so much. You can't listen to this podcast.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I would sound like like the end of a medical commercial. Like reading out the symptoms. Upset stomach, insomnia.

[Bria Grant]

Thank you so much for all the work you do on this podcast I've been listening to. No, it'd be like book side effects. It'd be like straining eyes, straightening book slumps. I've been listening since 2019 and YouTube got me through Covid, A move across the country, grad school, and so much more while we've been with you a long time.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Wow.

[Bria Grant]

It's the highlight of my week and such a wonderful resource to have as a bookseller. Do you want to read Cats? Wheelhouse?

[Mallory O'Meara]

All right, Cat's Wheelhouse, Unreliable Narrators, Dark Academia, Love Labyrinths and Weird Houses.

[Bria Grant]

Hell yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is a great wheelhouse. Fever Dreams, Lesbian Cannibals, which is weirdly a pretty robust sub genre.

[Bria Grant]

Give me one. What is one?

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's kind of a spoiler for some of the books, but book set in Buenos Aires and Found Document Fiction, AKA anything where the text exists within the fiction itself.

[Bria Grant]

Oh yeah, that's fun.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, so much fun. 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. Deliver to your inbox every month. You can sign up for our newsletter. There's a link in the show notes, a couple of important bookmarks. First off folks, we are doing our Glasser voted book club very soon. So I'm gonna do a poll in both the Discord and the Slack. If you want to sign up for that, go to maximumfun.org join to sign up to support Reading Glasses or email in your pick. But this will be a members only event. So the Glassers who are members are gonna vote on a book. We're, it's like what we did with Starling House. We really love doing these. We have so much fun with all of you. And we're gonna do another one. We unlocked it for the the Dr. Send in your, your best ideas for a, a good glass or book club. Pick something that's available in all formats. Probably not a brand new book so that it is available maybe in paperback, but let us know, we're really excited. And then also it's Summertime where we're recording this at the July has just begun. And I want to remind folks, join the summer reading programs at your library. Man, I, it was really funny. I went to go sign up at my branch of the Los Angeles library and she was like, explain. The librarian was explaining to me how it worked and she was like, well, to get the tote bag and you have to do four hours. You have to do one hour of reading per week or four hours total. And I was like, do you want me to do that right now? I want this tote. It's a really.

[Bria Grant]

Did you get the tote?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, yeah.

[Bria Grant]

It's so my mom got it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's like a bunch of little reading animal, forest creatures and they give you stickers to go with it. Folks, there are so many cool summer reading programs. We need to support our libraries now more than ever. Go to your local library. Sign up for your reading program. Even if you. I was like, I felt kind of sheepish because it's like the form is made for a child. And she was like, just put adult when it says the age. And I like, oh God, okay. But I don't have any kids. Sailor and Lula don't, don't care about summer reading programs. But even if you are an adult, a childless cat lady like myself, go sign up for your summer reading program. So before we do a mid year reading goals check in, we're going to take a quick break. Reading Glasses is sponsored in part this week by ZOC Doc. Folks, remember that doctor's appointment you were supposed to make a while ago? That one you've been meaning to book but you got sidetracked. Maybe you put it on a Post it note and one of your cats ate your Post it note? You know, that's happened to me quite a few times. But you know who can help you? Zocdoc. Why not book it right now? Zocdoc makes it so easy to find the right doctor, right? Now and it's all online. You'll probably be able to book an appointment before the end of this ad. All right folks, right now you want to race? Open up ZocDoc. And I'm going to keep reading and we're going to see if you can have a doctor's appointment by the end. All right, but what is zocdoc? It is a free app and website where you can search and compare high quality in network doctors and and click to instantly book an appointment. You can filter for doctors who take your insurance, are located nearby, are a good fit for any medical need you may have, and are highly rated by verified patients. Appointments made through ZOCDOC also happen fast, typically within just 24 to 72 hours of booking. More often than not, you could even get same day appointments. Folks, that is incredible. I have talked before on these ads about the time that I tried to make an appointment with a gynecologist who I found out was dead. It is very difficult to navigate different doctors websites, different insurance things and does octoc punches through all of that. It is so handy. It is so easy to use. We're in the middle of summer right now. Maybe you got a funky sunburn, a weird rash. Maybe you're like me and found out about a new food allergy that you have. I now cannot eat cucumbers. Really fun. It's great. So great. But instead of just suffering with it, you can make an appointment through zocdoc. So folks, stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to Zocdoc.com glasses to find and instantly book a top rated doctor. Today folks, spend less time on insurance websites and more time reading with Zocdoc. That's Zocdoc.com glasses Zocdoc.com glasses glasses. Do you want to travel this summer but don't have the time? Want to learn all about state mottos and history without summer school? Or maybe you just love urban legend and Latin. Well my friends, there's one podcast that ties it all together and celebrates the American states many call home E Pluribus Motto. Every episode we showcase a different state or commonwealth or district or territory and celebrate its official motto and the absurdity of all its local life. We'll go across the country with stops at Oregon, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and so many more. Join us, won't you to take in.

[Bria Grant]

The sights and sounds.

[Mallory O'Meara]

New episodes of E Pluribus Motto every other week on Maximum Fun. This week we're doing a mid year reading goals check in. How are we Doing on our goals? Are we adding anything, dropping anything? And most importantly, are our goals adding anything to our reading lives? Before we get into the list, though, Bria, I want to say, how you feeling about your 2025 reading life so far?

[Bria Grant]

I'm feeling pretty good. I've read some books. I'm a little behind on everything this year.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I feel like it's going way faster than it is that.

[Bria Grant]

Just getting old. What is going on? I, you know, I have a lot of goals every year and I have not achieved very many of them this year.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's because this year started out in chaos. January was six months long.

[Bria Grant]

Right.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And it feels like I'm still recovering from January and now suddenly it's July.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. And then we have the fires. It was like, there's a lot going on. Like all my life improvements, all my house improvements. I'm just, I've. I've done some stuff, but not as much as I had hoped to. That's good. I'm pretty much like averaging. I'm just, I'm reading wise. I feel like I'm right on track where I sort of normally am. Like, not better, not worse. What about you?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm doing great. Let me hear you. So I mentioned this in a recent episode, but I feel like I'm back to reading in a big way for the first time since my, like, my life fell apart completely last May. And I have just been like. I mean, I think there were a couple months last year where I read one book which is the, like, the least I've ever read as an adult. And I'm like, what I'm working on right now is like not beating myself up for it for like, I felt like I lost a year to grief. Like, I just. Lot like grief just ate, like ate a whole year of my life. But now it like truly like I woke up one day and I was like, am I happy?

[G from Book Roast]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And the first thing I wanted to do was read. And I'm just so excited about reading again. I'm back to reading every single day, all the time. I'm reading tons of five star books. I'm dumping books that I don't like very quickly. I just feel like I feel like a Viagra commercial. Like, I'm like skipping through fields towards a book that is also running at me. Like, I just feel great. So I just want to say we've had a lot of people write in that if you are also going through grief, at some point, you will not feel like a potato at some point you will Feel good again. Like, it just truly. One day I woke up and I was like, wait, is this a potato? Is this joy? Am I excited to do things again? And, like, I'm still sad about stuff. Like, I will miss Scott Wampler for the. Every single day for the rest of my life, but I just feel like I'm back to myself. And it's great. I'm lifting weights. I'm reading books. Not at the same time, although I guess I should. I should lift and listen to audiobooks at the same time.

[Bria Grant]

You could. I. I listen to audiobooks at the gym sometimes. Although my gym, they got a loud pumping music in the background, and I can't really hear, and I don't want to turn my headphones up that loud, so I don't think I could do it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, I don't want to be, like, straining to hear my audiobook. All right, let's get into our list. How are we doing on these goals? Bria, what was your first goal?

[Bria Grant]

To continue using the call pile relevant to today's episode. Doing that. I love that Cawpile system. Yep. Pretty easy one for me.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. I mean, it was interesting. I mean, you'll see in our interview, she talks a little bit about not wanting to add too much to the. The spreadsheet to make it overwhelming, but I love sitting down to add shit to that thing.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, it's fun.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I love it.

[Bria Grant]

It's very. Well, I mean, I think, like, look, if you're reading, like, a book a day, it would be overwhelming, but, like, you know, at the rate I read, it's kind of an exciting thing to look forward to, and I can't wait.

[Mallory O'Meara]

To look at those graphs.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. And I do it after almost every book. Sometimes I do it every two books or so, but, like, for the most part, I sit down and do it. And it's kind of also when I decide to. What I'm going to read next. Wow. I have to tell you, I dumped, like, the last four books I started trying to read, but it is that time where I look at that and then I kind of look at what I have at the library at the same time, which is sort of nice. What is your first one that you tried to do?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I set myself a numerical goal, but per month instead of per year, because I wanted to. I didn't want to do that thing where I'm just frantically reading as much as I possibly can in December to try and make it up like this. It's kind of forcing me to keep up with it. And it's working.

[Bria Grant]

Okay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I don't want to disclose it because I don't. Like, I know people get. I don't. I don't want people to feel like they're.

[Bria Grant]

We didn't ask.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Reading too. Not enough. Like, I don't know. It's like, you got a goal number.

[Bria Grant]

And you're hitting it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, I'm. The past couple months, I've blown past it.

[Bria Grant]

Right.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Which is very exciting to me. There have been a couple of months where I haven't and. But I'm also researching two books, which I can say. Oh, I could now say my second. My next non fiction book has finally been announced. I'm working on my first novel and another non fiction. So I'm reading a lot of stuff and sometimes I'm like, damn, I didn't read enough this month. And I'm like, oh, I read five research books this month, so I think it's all going to shake out by the end of the year. And it's like. And honestly, I've gotten so good at dumping books.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, it's a good feeling. It actually, like, I mean, look, this is not on the list, but because I dumped like four books literally, like last night or the night before I started reading, it was like the night before last, I was like, I started reading a book. I was like, no. And I just dumped another book. And I was like, oh, wow, it's great because these just came off my tbr.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

Well, it feel.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That's what. It feels really good. There was. I dumped a really big buzzy book that I thought I was gonna love. I feel like I'm free from that feeling of like, well, I think I thought I was really gonna like this book and, like, pushing through. And I was like, you know what? Nope, Dumping it. And then, I mean, it's not. Again, it doesn't. It's not like it goes up in flames, so. But it feels like. Like I was literally looking at my cawpile sheet this morning and I was like, wow, I've been reading a lot of really good books. I think part of it is getting your dump on. What's your next goal, Bria?

[Bria Grant]

Read three books related to my profession. How you doing? I've read one. I'm in the midst of a second one, which I really like. It's like a writing one. This is a helpful goal because sometimes I am too tired to do actual work at the end of the day. Like, because I start work later than probably most people around, you know, four or five. I'm like, I need to do a little bit more stuff. I don't want to do the actual work. And so I. It's helpful because I'm like, oh, the reading this book is work, and it's helping me with my work, but also fulfilling this goal. It's a very nice goal for me to have because it makes me. You know, I didn't go to school for filmmaking, so there's part of me that always feels like there's things that I'm not going to know about, and there's just some major, like, screenwriting books I don't. I haven't read.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

And so I'm reading the Dan o' Bannon one right now, which I've never read.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Nice.

[Bria Grant]

And I heard someone talking about it on podcast and I was like, oh, right. I guess I've never read that. And it's great. It's like, you know, it's really interesting. And, you know, it has a lot of very basic stuff that people talk about a lot. Stuff that I kind of already know, but because I'm rewriting a script right now, it's helpful to just think about general theory and. Anyway, so I'm reading that one. I already. I read another one. I read another one. It was kind of a coffee table book, but I loved it. And I totally am counting it that I got from in the library of the making of AD Max, which is fascinating.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Blood and Chrome.

[Bria Grant]

Is that what it's called?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I think so.

[Bria Grant]

Blood, Sweat and Chrome. Correct. Wow. Good job, Mallory. I haven't even read that book. What's your next one?

[Mallory O'Meara]

More audiobooks.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, yeah. Good job.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And, yeah, I'm doing. I'm doing one to three audiobooks a month, and I'm loving it. I think a part of it is that last year I was too sad to do stuff, and this year I've been doing, like, my little audiobook walks, which is around my neighborhood, which is so nice, even. And it's really great. It helps because I'm like, even if it's just 15 minutes, just go walk around the block.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And nine times out of 10, I'm like, what if I do another block? Because the book is good and it's also. But, like, it's. Because it's such a pleasant. Like, it's. It's such a different thing from my regular reading. I'm, like, walking around the neighborhood. Like, I forget that it adds to my monthly reading goal.

[Bria Grant]

Right. Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm like, oh, yeah. Another book.

[Bria Grant]

What? How many audiobooks did you read? Last year.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, I don't even know. I'd have to look pro. I mean, single digits for sure. I've already read more half of this year than all the audiobooks. Excited this year, last year, which is so I'm really happy. All right, so we have more goals, but we're going to take a quick break. If you have thoughts on on all of these goals or what your goals are, you can do a mid year. Check in for yourselves on the reading glasses podcast gmail.com. but before we go into the rest of ours, we're going to take a quick break. What's more action packed than prestige television? With more continuity than comic books and.

[G from Book Roast]

More reality than real television.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It'S professional wrestling. And to better understand wrestling is the ultimate form of entertainment, you need the Tights and Fights podcast. This is the perfect wrestling show with.

[Bria Grant]

A lot of love, a lack of.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Toxic masculinity, and just the right amount of butts.

[Bria Grant]

Cats and spandex listen to Tights and.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Fights every Saturday on maximum Fun. Okay, we are back. Let's check in on some more goals. Bria, what's your next one?

[Bria Grant]

Well, the reading glasses challenge, which I have to put on my urine gold, so I actually do it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

How you doing on it?

[Bria Grant]

I'm doing pretty well. I'm almost done. Done. I actually just started my book based on the title, which I think is the last thing I have to do. It's a horror book. And I was like, I'm not gonna read this during the summer. But then again, I dumped so many books lately that I was like, well, maybe I will read it during the summer. And it's really cute. I like a lot so far. And I think other than that, I am done.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Nice. Wow, finishing so early.

[Bria Grant]

Usually I finish even earlier than that because it's usually stuff where I'm like, okay, like, what's the next book? And I kind of just go through it pretty quickly since we have to cover it on the show. But yeah, almost done with that. What's your next one?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I wanted to read out of the house more. And I am doing this. I'm not doing it as much as I want to, but I am doing this probably because so I have a little patio at my house, but there is a dog next door that barks a lot. And true. Like a few weeks ago, HWB was like, why don't we go sit on the patio? And like, we never do that. And we were like, oh, for like two minutes. We're like, oh, this is so nice. We each had like a beard, like it was like sunset. And then started barking at us so loud. And I was like, yeah, not, not, not, not the most soothing reading environment. But I have been reading in bars a lot, which, you know, I love, and in some parks, but mostly bars. And honestly, I fucking love it. Now it's summertime. I'm hoping to ramp this up a little bit more. I'm gonna go on a little vacation for my, for my birthday. Honestly, the thing that's been helping this is I've been staying off my phone more like I'm offline off social media for the summer. So when I am like waiting at a place, I whip out my book instead of looking at Instagram. And it really, really, really helps. Even if I'm not reading a book, I will make myself read a National Geographic. Oh, yeah, definitely. I honestly, I think this is really adding to my general happiness because I'm just not on my phone as much. So it really, really is helping and it's just helping me get more reading done. So I always have my phone book. I have always keep a, like, specifically a book to read on my phone on.

[Bria Grant]

Libby, that sounds like you're carrying around like a phone book with like people's numbers in it. You know, like reading that thing.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's a honker.

[Bria Grant]

The 90s.

[Mallory O'Meara]

What's your next one?

[Bria Grant]

So my pals and I were going to start a graphic novel club and we just start organizing that and wow, we failed.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, no.

[Bria Grant]

Can I just tell you? We could not get these four people in a room. And so this is going off the list. This is, this is. I'm done. I'm done. I got done with this. I will read comic books on my own and if people want to read them with me, great. But like, I don't need. I, I. The book club. It just was too hard to get all these people in the room. What's your next one?

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is also my. This is also my failed one. I was like, I want to go to more author events. And maybe picking up this is a goal in the year where I released two books was not the best idea because I just like, you know, we did a ton of events this spring. I did a bunch of daughter of daring events.

[Bria Grant]

You went to your own author events?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I know. I just had so much and like, and I'm going on a little mini east coast tour this August and it, like, it made me not want to go. And also, like, I forgot now that I'm back in la, I'm like, Oh, I forgot that doing anything is a pain because I'm like, okay, this. This is happening at this bookstore, but this bookstore doesn't have a parking lot.

[Bria Grant]

You live a little bit further, a little bit live.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm not in the heart of la. Like, I'm kind of on the fringe. So, like, I'm like, oh, do I really want to drive 45 minutes? Like, especially after I've done so many author events, I, like, don't have the juice to, like, do more events that are not required by work. So I've really failed on this one. I think I'm gonna take this one off.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[G from Book Roast]

Fair.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Is there anything at the mid year point that we want to add?

[Bria Grant]

No. I feel like with this show and with reading smut and wanting to put a cool new book in our newsletter every episode, I am getting about six books a month. Month. Which is a lot for me considering I also read scripts.

[G from Book Roast]

Yeah, that's.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And write more than a book a week.

[Bria Grant]

It's a lot. It's a lot. So I do not want more tasks. I'm tested out. I am maxed. I am maxed out.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You are tax tasked. Wow.

[Bria Grant]

Tax.

[G from Book Roast]

Do it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Task maxed. Why is that so hard?

[Bria Grant]

I thought you were gonna say task taxed. Either way, what about you? You're gonna give yourself more tax? Taxes. That's not the word. Tasks.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Don't want more taxes. I think. So. I had a goal last year of reading more short story collections.

[G from Book Roast]

Oh, yeah?

[Bria Grant]

Great.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And I think I'm gonna pick it up because I keep a big stack of short story collections on my nights under, like, on the second shelf down on my nightstand. And I literally was dusting. And I was like, hey, you guys.

[G from Book Roast]

Where are you going under here?

[Mallory O'Meara]

And I was like, because. So I got into a book slump last year while I was doing this because I got a short story collection, but all the short stories were like 40 pages long.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, it's a lot.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And I was like, this is not short stories. This is medium stories. Yes, it's a medium story collection.

[Bria Grant]

Medium to long. Honestly.

[Mallory O'Meara]

In like. Well, because I give me 15. I don't want to open a short story collection and see these long ass stories. There's something. Because there was something exciting to me about being like, oh, all right. I'm gonna read this before bed. I can read a story a night.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And it got to the point where, like, I had been reading this one story for like two weeks because I was reading a few pages every night. And I was like, this is kind of not doing the thing that I wanted to do. So I just dumped that collection and I started a new one. And I was like, oh, ye. I love reading like a short story before bed. It's so nice. It feels very. Like there's an end to it. So I'm not like staying up thinking about it. So I think I'm gonna throw that back into the mix.

[Bria Grant]

Great.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And it's definitely making me happy. So we want.

[Bria Grant]

We.

[Mallory O'Meara]

We're both removing one thing. Do we feel like our reading goals are improving our reading lives this year?

[Bria Grant]

Yes. Like I said, like reading, like knowing. Well, here's the thing. They're making me feel better about my reading life. Are they improving which is gonna improvement?

[G from Book Roast]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Feeling good is an improvement.

[Bria Grant]

Feeling good is an improvement. Like, yeah, for sure. I mean, I'm enjoy. I've enjoyed the reading glasses challenge, for sure. I like reading books that are related to my work because I feel like I wasn't doing that. I forgot what else I have on there. But yeah, it's. It's improving. What about you?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, 100, I feel like. And honestly filling in that compiles.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Really?

[Bria Grant]

That's. That's a, That's a real joy if it makes me.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Because last year I was not reading and it like every single time I would like go to track my reading, it would make me feel bad because I'd be like, oh, God, I am not, not reading a lot. But now I'm enjoying reading so much. So I am happy every time I fill it in. And like I'm thinking about these, these goals. Like I'm trying to read one audiobook every. @ least one audiobook a month. Which is. Honestly, I thought I. I wanted to read even less than that when I started the year, but I've been going through them so, so much. I also will say I'm cheating a little bit. I have not been doing really long audiobooks.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, that's okay. Really long ones are hard.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

It's kind of hard to remember at all when you're doing a really long one. Because I listen as a person who's done 40 hour fucking audiobooks. Yeah, it's tough. You kind of have to be like going. So it has to be like, that's.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And I don't have a commute because I work from home.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Most I drive is to drive here to record. Record reading classes.

[Bria Grant]

I think also it helps me. Audiobooks, like, I like doing ones that are nonfiction or different genre.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And you're doing mine are all nonfiction.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, they sure, yeah. You're doing fiction.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm gonna do some smut ones for the show because people have been asking us.

[Bria Grant]

It's wild to do the smart ones.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I know. That's why I gotta do it.

[Bria Grant]

I did put my Rising and that was. Yeah, I will. I will not be doing that again.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, too much finger blasted in your ears.

[Bria Grant]

It's strange. It's a little strange. Yeah. Because then you're like, it's just my ultimate fear that like, like I took my car in to get work done on it. I was like, God, what if I accidentally turn? I had to like, remember that happened to somebody. I know. It's scary. It's scary. Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I do only non fiction on audio, but I've been picking shorter ones and it's better for me because I'm doing it in small. Like I'm walking for 20 to 30 minutes a day and it's like little small chunks. If I'm doing little small chunks. If I was doing a 40 hour audiobook, it would take me a month to get through it. And I mean, that's. That is part of one of the things we're doing for the challenge is to read a book slowly. We're talking about that next week. But for audiobook, I don't know. I like, I like a little. I like not. I like looking at the, the progress on Libby and not realizing that it's going to take me three, three more weeks to get through it. So that's been helping. But yeah, I just, I don't know, I feel very good and I feel like these goals are definitely. They're helping me this year. I can tell because I feel excited to, to complete them instead of like, oh, God, this, this thing that I have to do, you know?

[Bria Grant]

Yep. Yeah, that's good.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So speaking of Cawpile, we have an extra special. So this episode, this interview is a little extra long because we wanted to ask her more questions and it's the. For the rest of the episode. So enjoy. We're talking to G from Book Roast, who's the creator of Cawpile. After this quick break, we have a very special interview here today, folks. We're really excited. We have G from Book Roast, who, if you listen to the show, you know, we talk about Cawpile almost every episode at this point. We're so excited to have her here. G, thank you so much for joining us.

[G from Book Roast]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Mallory O'Meara]

All right, before we dive into the Cawpile of it all, we have to ask because it's reading glasses. What are you reading right now?

[G from Book Roast]

I am reading the Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. I believe I had to write it down because I'm terrible with names. It is a very, I want to say, a very non committal YA book which is so needed because my last read was Dune and I feel like my brain really needed something a little easier to digest and I'm having a great time.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Honestly, a non committal is such a good word for that. You just need something a little. Because it's not an offensive word. But I know exactly what you mean. Just something that isn't. That isn't a dynasty of in sand that takes place over thousands of years.

[G from Book Roast]

And yeah, I've got you exactly. Because it's not meant in any bad way at all. It's just much easier to digest. It's, you know, urban to. First of all, no worms. You don't have to learn a new language, which also helps.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes. And okay, so we talk on the show all the time about Cawpile. So instead of having you explain it, why don't you tell us how it got started for you? Like why you wanted to make this thing.

[G from Book Roast]

Yeah. First of all, very happy to hear that it's helpful for you.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, we love it.

[G from Book Roast]

I wish I had some sort of fun origin story, I really do. But the reality of it all is that for those who know me, this is not gonna come as a surprise, but I just seem to be incapable of walking through life without gamifying everything. Anything that I come to. Literally. I have a game that I made for myself that I roll a D20 die to see what I read, or the magical readathon or which our listeners also love.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I should say at some point we'll have. You have to have you back on for that because people are really into it.

[G from Book Roast]

I'd love to. And I think it was either just me having to gamify rating the books or then I will just not read them at all. And on top of that, I am terrible at keeping track of things. So again, if I don't have a game element, I will simply lose track of what I read. I know there's so many genuinely brilliant apps, but I am just apparently incapable of using them properly. I just will forget to log it if I don't have some sort of fancy schmancy thing to do. So it's either that or some sort of withdrawals from my study times. I studied psychology and I was in the spreadsheets a lot and I think maybe I just missed that you missed.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Being in those columns.

[G from Book Roast]

I know that sounds sad. Do you have nothing more exciting than an Excel spreadsheet? I'm sure people will relate.

[Bria Grant]

Honestly, you've found your audience.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That's usually spreadsheet people, for sure.

[Bria Grant]

Do you have a gaming background of some sort? Like, what is the gamifying part of you besides the spreadsheets?

[G from Book Roast]

I don't. I just play games for fun. Maybe it's because I come from a family that is so far removed from anything fantasy that I was just deprived of that as a child.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Okay, you need. You needed some whimsical in your life, so you found a way to combine the legacy of the spreadsheets with the whimsy that you acquired and put them together.

[G from Book Roast]

I'm realizing something here. Yeah, you might be onto something.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Okay, I was seeing it. So is this the only place that you track your reading? Do you have a journal? You already said you don't really use any apps. Is. Is cawpile the end all be all for tracking your reading?

[G from Book Roast]

Well, I did attempt to use Goodreads when I first started. It is so miserably not up to date. So I do still try to. I do also really want to migrate to. I think storygraph is a very beloved way. This is like very much I do want to do that. It's just so overwhelming, the amount of data that I have to transfer. And I know everyone always says like, oh, but you can export and import. It's like, okay, listen, that requires me having something worthwhile to export and it is completely not up to date. So in that sense, yes, the spreadsheet is the most reliable for me to just check what I actually did read because my memory is abysmal, truly.

[Bria Grant]

Okay. And those ones don't have all the categories that you have.

[G from Book Roast]

Yes.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Which is something that we love. Have there been any categories that you originally had in an earlier version and you dropped out because you kind of didn't. Weren't using them or didn't care about them? Is there like. Was there like a proto cawpile that has changed over the years?

[G from Book Roast]

Not really. I can't. This is really interesting to me as well, because I can't really pinpoint when I even wrote it down or how much thought went into it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, wow. Lightning struck you outside on a hill and it all came fully formed.

[G from Book Roast]

Yeah, it was really not that deep and I never even meant to share it, but I had someone notice that I was structuring my reviews in early days. I think it was like 2017 and they said like, oh, what are you using for this category? Do they mean anything? And I was like, oh, yeah, it's copile. And they were like, the what? Also, can I just go back to the name as well? What? Missed opportunity. Because if I just shuffle the same letters in a different order, I could have called it Epic Law and it would actually. It would mean something and it wouldn't.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Have the word because it is so specific. But, like, Epic Law could be a lot of. When I think of it, I think of this style very.

[Bria Grant]

I think I'm a tbr of my books. It's my pile of books that I'm reading. This is the cawpile of books that I have finished. Like, that's what I think of it as.

[G from Book Roast]

Okay, that is much nicer than what I associate pile with. No, I do.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Like, it's like. It's like a caw of a bird sitting on a pile of books. Like, I can see the. I can see the vision. I can see the. Like, I like that.

[G from Book Roast]

You've convinced me. I like that. Thank you for that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So, and another thing that we really like is you update it pretty. Pretty regularly, like, every year, every other year. Are there any new categories that you're kind of thinking about adding in the future?

[G from Book Roast]

So that was very much a community effort, I feel. I would always ask on my Instagram for people. You know, when you can put a little box for people to answer questions, I would always ask what they want to see because the spreadsheets, they were really for them as well. Again, I created this just for my own brain to structure how I'm rating and reviewing the books. Just some sort of order, because otherwise I am a certified yapper and I will yap myself into a corner that is completely irrelevant. I think in the. What was it, like, 10 minutes that we already spoken for? I've already done that, like, three times, so just a little glimpse. But then I did mention that I have a spreadsheet to someone, and they were like, oh, could you share it? And I was like, yeah, of course. And then I looked at the spreadsheet. I was like, I cannot share this how it is currently. Oh, such a mess. Yeah, it was just not, you know, it didn't seem worthwhile. So then it was a very simplified version. Also then meant that we don't have to sit and calculate it by hand, because, of course, with Cawpile, each category is rated from 1 to 10, and then you have to average it out into the star rating conversion. Right. And not everyone wants to do that manually, which is very valid. So I created a spreadsheet and then over the years people were like, oh, it would be great to see what format we can read these books in and track and have some stats at the end and also love spreadsheets. I am not an Excel wizard by any means. So that was a lot of like self learning and Googling. Thank God for Google Truly. And we added the pages read and the format and the genres and all the other categories that we're tracking. And I think I really can't take credit for that because it was a lot of people just saying, I would love to see that. And I was like, okay, I'll try and see if I can make that happen for you. So all of the additions throughout the years were genuinely someone else's idea.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, well, we, I mean our reading glasses community is pretty, pretty robust. So we understand because our, we get a lot of great feedback from our listeners and that's, that's what shapes a lot of the stuff that we do. So I mean, readers truly are the best people on the Internet.

[Bria Grant]

Wait, but can you give us, can you give us a sneak peek of one you might add next year? A category you might add?

[G from Book Roast]

I wish I could. I really wish I could. But I actually kind of of stopped adding things last year simply because we couldn't really find anything else to add without making it too convoluted, I guess.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It is a lot.

[G from Book Roast]

There is a lot of money to put in. Yeah. And we went to the stage of it of people asking like, oh, that's too much actually. So then I started uploading like simplified version and then like the plus is what we called it, the fancy version for like more things. But I think it's gotten to the point where it's just getting quite extensive and then it gets a little bit overwhelming for people to fill it all out and then they find themselves just kind of avoiding it, which is, you know, the opposite of what we want. But I did have a think of asking for more feedback and see what they want to see more or less often, maybe just rejigging it entirely a little bit. But that normally happens around like November. So I'm sorry, I don't have any.

[Mallory O'Meara]

We will, we will check back in in November and see what the, what the Book Roast community is is interested for next year. So this episode is all about reading goals. And this year is our first year where we're doing a kind of mid year check in on our, on our personal reading goals. Do you set reading Goals at the beginning of the year. Do you like. Is that part of like your reading life?

[G from Book Roast]

I used to set quite a few because I. It's just probably not going to be shocking as well. But I really like a list that I can tick off.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes. This is keeping with your personality for sure.

[G from Book Roast]

Definitely. But I feel like I've simplified it a lot throughout the years. So now I've this. Maybe this is the second year. I think that it's just stripped down to literally like I'll just slap a number of a loose goal of how many I want to read and if I have any goals, it's normally like, oh, I want to read a little bit more of this genre. What is a little bit more is, you know, very loosey goosey. But that is the only thing that I kind of have going on for me. So nothing too exciting there as well.

[Mallory O'Meara]

But how do you feel like you're doing so far this year?

[G from Book Roast]

I think I'm actually doing quite well. Well, I've started a different project which is going and looking at my old haul videos which is, as you can imagine, very painful. I don't think it comes naturally to anyone. Looking at yourself from seven years ago. It's just an experience, let's say little baby you. Yeah, yeah. Oh, you know, she tried and seeing what I hold and if I read that book, then that's grand and if I didn't, then I have to. So it's fun. Oh, look, gamifying things again.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, you are.

[G from Book Roast]

Who would have thought? So on one hand it's very exciting because I never know what I'm actually going to be reading. On the other hand, it's very hard to predict what the stats are going to look like at the end. So I can't really reach out for any specific genre because it will all just depend on what happened in the past. But it is very exciting, I think in the main genre category dropdown on the spreadsheet we have of classics as a category. I think this is the first time I've ever used that.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, wow. I don't use it often either.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, yeah, we're not neither big classics readers. Well, but. So that leads us perfectly into the next question. Does filling in your cawpile spreadsheet, does it help you with your reading goals? Do you. Do you find it sort of guiding your reading? Are you ever filling in something and you're like, oh, I should meet. I haven't done this in a while. Should I use more of this or wow, I'm reading like because sometimes for me, I'm like, oh, I am reading a lot of haunted house books. I should read something else. Like, does it. Does it affect your reading in any way?

[G from Book Roast]

Yes, I do like to have a little glance into it to see if I've DNF'd a lot that year, and if so, are there any themes? And then maybe I'd be like, oh, you know What? Maybe I've DNF'd a lot of books with. I don't know, I'm just gonna make. Make something up. Like ghosts. Maybe I should just, like, avoid ghost books for a little while. Maybe not in the mood at the moment or mainly looking at the genres. I'm not gonna lie. A lot of the other things are not as informative to me, I guess until the end. The end is just fun looking at the entire year.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, it is fun. That is the best part of the end of the year is looking at all your, like, all your favorite books. The graphs. Oh, we love the graphs. So speaking of it, what have you. Have you read a lot of new releases this year? Is there a book that's the top book for the year so far for you, for of like 20, 25 releases?

[G from Book Roast]

I. I'm not the best at reading things when they come out with everything. But, yeah, it takes me a little while.

[Mallory O'Meara]

A lot to keep up with.

[G from Book Roast]

It's obviously not gonna help that currently I'm doing. It's just reading stuff from the past. But I did read Sunrise on the Reaping. Oh, yeah, of course.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Everyone legally is required to read Sunrise on the Reaping.

[G from Book Roast]

I think so. And. And honestly, I had a fantastic time. Do I think that the book was very much catered for the fan base and it was kind of like fan servicey? Yes, but I am the fan.

[Bria Grant]

Me too.

[G from Book Roast]

I am a piece.

[Bria Grant]

I'm the person this was written for.

[G from Book Roast]

Literally. I don't have a problem because it suited for me.

[Bria Grant]

Who else are they gonna cater? Who else is she gonna cater?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, I love questions. I love when people say that because you're like, oh, oh, who. Like, that's who.

[G from Book Roast]

You.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Who's reading this book. Like, that's the point of this.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[G from Book Roast]

And I've not had a feeling of true nostalgia going into a book for such a long time. I feel. And this really kind of rekindled that. It felt really. I don't know, it made me feel like a teenager again. It was. It was fantastic.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And that's what we all want to feel like.

[G from Book Roast]

I actually read. Yeah, I actually read The Hunger Games when I was, like, in my 20s, so I don't know why, it made.

[Bria Grant]

Me feel like it was angsty. It's an angsty book, so maybe it brought you back to feeling angsty.

[G from Book Roast]

So that was. That was a good time.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So something we love to ask, and we're dying to know, is we love to ask our guests what their wheelhouses are. Your wheelhouse is tropes, subjects, anything that you really gravitate towards that will get you to pick up a book. Do you. Are game books in your wheelhouse? Are there clearly ghosts or not? Like, what. What is like, something that you see and you're like, oh, I have to read that.

[G from Book Roast]

That. Oh, interestingly, games are not quite there, but that's very interesting. Yeah. I feel like I need to go and do some introspection here after this. In general. No, but what is on the list is time travel. Yeah. That shit up every single time.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Bria is a big time travel girl for sure.

[G from Book Roast]

Nice.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[G from Book Roast]

So time travel is almost an immediate buy for me whenever I see that it is so difficult to do it well, but I have so much leeway to give with it because I don't really care. I just love the idea. I'm just there for a ride. Does it make sense? No, we're just gonna look at, you know, we're just gonna ignore the logic. In Cawpile.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[G from Book Roast]

Cawpile begins and it just ends in, like, cawpie. What would that be? Copy.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, it's fine.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's fine.

[G from Book Roast]

Special for time travel. You heard the fearful.

[Bria Grant]

If the logic, like, I can make it work in my brain, then it gets a high score. Like, if I can, you know, as long as it makes sense.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. If it works in the context of the book, then it's fine. That's what matters.

[G from Book Roast]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[G from Book Roast]

I think the key is to not try to explain it too much in those books.

[Bria Grant]

Right.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. Don't think about it. Don't think about it too hard. Don't look at it too hard. Just keep on reading. It's like in cartoons where if you don't look at, like you run off a cliff, but you don't look down, you can't fall. Like, that's. That's all you need. Just keep. Keep reading. So.

[G from Book Roast]

And anything speculative. Oh, sorry.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, no, keep.

[Mallory O'Meara]

No. I didn't know you had more. Keep going, Keep going.

[G from Book Roast]

I did. I did warn you. Certify the apper. Speculative. Anything speculative. Anything that sounds like it will read like a Black Mirror episode.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, yeah.

[G from Book Roast]

Give it to me immediately now and yesterday.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[G from Book Roast]

So obviously sci fi on the speculative side. It's just my jazz. Anything a little bit odd or unreliable narrator would definitely also be on the. What did you guys call it? Wheelhouse. Wheelhouse, yes. Wheelhouse. Yes, that's the one. So you know Bunny. Have you guys read Bunny?

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, of course.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, yeah, yeah. You guys have. The two of you have very similar book taste.

[Bria Grant]

There's a sequel or something in the same world coming out.

[G from Book Roast]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bria Grant]

Very excited about that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Mona Awad. Yeah. Like, she does really great weird books.

[G from Book Roast]

Yeah, I read Rouge as well, and that was a trip.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, it was a trip.

[G from Book Roast]

It was trip.

[Bria Grant]

It was wild. Don't try to explain it. Don't logic. I can't. Not high.

[G from Book Roast]

I can't explain it. Someone, when I was reading the book, someone said like, oh, could you like. Like, you know, describe it to me or what's the pitch? And I was like, I don't know.

[Bria Grant]

Couldn't say.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Couldn't say. But it was a great time.

[Bria Grant]

There is water involved. There's fish tanks involved.

[G from Book Roast]

Skincare, maybe questionable skincare.

[Bria Grant]

We don't really know.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Amazing. Okay, so we got time travel, weird stuff, unreliable narrator, speculative fiction. Yeah. The two of you definitely need to share book recommendations.

[G from Book Roast]

Absolutely. Please send them to me.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Where can listeners find you? Seems like YouTube is sort of your main spot. I know we have some listeners that are already big fans. Tell us about your channel and how people can go and watch your stuff.

[G from Book Roast]

So it's just book roast on YouTube and then bookroast on Instagram. That is pretty much the main platforms. I just do not have the energy for the rest of it. There's so many.

[Mallory O'Meara]

We're with you. We're with you on that for sure.

[G from Book Roast]

Just so many. And yeah, it's just what you heard, you know, a lot of sci fi, a lot of fantasy, a lot of games.

[Bria Grant]

We love that.

[G from Book Roast]

And a very, very sporadic upload schedule. So if you're after someone who uploads a lot, this is not the place.

[Bria Grant]

They're not. They're busy reading. They don't.

[Mallory O'Meara]

They don't need someone out there.

[Bria Grant]

They're reading. They'll check in every so often. It'll be great.

[G from Book Roast]

Thank goodness for that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Well, we'll have to check back in after your. You get your community feedback for the year. And at some point we gotta talk to you about the magical Readath on. Because listeners love that.

[G from Book Roast]

I'm happy to.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And come back anytime. This was so much fun. Thank you for joining us.

[G from Book Roast]

Thank you so much. I had a blast.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So as always want to thank the wonderful mods who run our Discord server and our Facebook group. And remember folks, it's summertime. You want some cut? You want some T shirts to cut off? You want some tank tops? You want to show off your love of reading and help us feed our hungry cats. I just bought my cats treats this last week. They didn't like them. I had to bring them for Bria's cats. Piglet loves them so I have to buy new treats. Very frustrating. So you can support all of that. You can support my finicky cat by going to our Void merch store and buying some merch. And if you like the show and please rate and review us on the podcast listening app of your choice. It is so great for us and helps us reach more readers. You can email us reading glasses podcast gmail.com find us on Instagram at Reading Glasses Podcast. Thanks for listening and thanks for reading.

[G from Book Roast]

Maximum Fun.

[Mallory O'Meara]

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