0:09

You are listening to reading glasses, a show

0:11

about book culture and literary life designed to

0:13

help you read better. I'm author and book to power,

0:15

Malorie O'Mara, and I'm Brea Grant. filmmaker

0:18

and reader. This episode, hey,

0:20

happy

0:21

Halloween week. Mallory?

0:23

Halloween week. We're talking

0:25

about

0:26

A new kind a new genre, a genre

0:28

we have taken notice of, and

0:31

it is called Explorer. That's

0:33

mushroom themed horror folks.

0:36

get excited. Are we talking about

0:38

that? And we're interviewing Powell of the show, past

0:40

guests of the show, Clay McCloud Chapman.

0:43

But first, what are you reading, Brian? I just started

0:45

a book that I feel like the Glassers are going

0:47

to enjoy. It is called

0:50

small town big magic. thought it was a good

0:52

Halloween y sort of read.

0:55

It has almost bought this book

0:57

recently because just because of the title. the fun

0:59

witchy rom com. basically, it's about

1:02

a woman. She lives in a

1:04

small town, and

1:06

she owns a bookstore. and she

1:08

lives in the Midwest and she's just really her

1:10

goal is just to make the town as great as possible.

1:12

She works for the city council. And

1:16

what she finds out is hold

1:18

on. Let me see if this given away.

1:21

Yes. This is all given away already.

1:23

is that strange things basically start

1:26

happening and paranormal things

1:28

turn start happening. And it turns out,

1:29

which

1:30

is

1:31

are real and she is

1:34

is a is a descendants of one and

1:36

she could possibly be one and

1:39

she finds out that her powers basically

1:41

start to come back even though this

1:43

whole town is I I'm not

1:45

giving it anything way. This is all all on the Goodreads

1:47

page. The whole town is full of witches.

1:50

Everyone in the town is a witch. And at age

1:52

eighteen, you if you are

1:54

not if you're if you have dim magic, you're

1:56

not great at magic. you can choose to leave

1:58

town or you can choose to stay, but have your

1:59

memory wiped of anything magical. And she

2:02

had dim magic. She was not great. So she chose

2:04

to have her memory erased. But

2:06

now for some reason, her

2:08

powers have come back and her friends tell her

2:10

all about what this town

2:12

is. This town is like a haven for witches.

2:14

and she used to figure out the

2:17

if, like, why this is happening

2:19

and what to do and also she's to keep her power

2:21

as a secret. So it's good. It's like a it's

2:23

like a fun witchy book

2:26

set in a small town with a secret. So

2:28

it checks a lot of boxes, I think, for me and and

2:30

for the class airs. and it's a romance segment

2:32

to it as well. What what are you reading, Melanie? I'm

2:34

reading a buzzy horror book that I was supposed to

2:36

say for the readathon, which as we're we

2:38

are recording this before the readathon, and

2:42

I couldn't wait because it looks so good. It's

2:44

a Jackal by Aaron, he Adams. I

2:46

saw that on your stack. Oh my

2:48

god. It is so good. I think you'd really like this.

2:50

So it's about this woman and

2:53

she has moved from her very small town

2:55

in Pennsylvania to the big city She's been

2:57

gone for a long time, and she's super successful

2:59

at her job, but her mayor her her

3:02

engagement has just ended. So

3:04

she's coming back for her best friend's wedding. And

3:06

even though she is like a super high powered

3:08

job, she kinda feels like she's coming back as

3:10

a failure and everyone's kinda like, oh, I thought you're

3:12

supposed to come back with your fiance and she's

3:15

like, no, we broke up. and

3:17

she doesn't like she she never comes back to

3:19

her small the small town because when

3:21

she was a teenager, she was very

3:24

close to an abduction that happened. this

3:26

young girl that she knew was taken

3:28

in the woods and it's kinda

3:30

messed her up for a really long time and she never really wanted

3:32

to come back and she's very creeped out about the woods

3:34

there. And that night, this is not a spoiler.

3:37

This is like first line of

3:39

the of the jacket

3:41

copy. At that night, at the wedding,

3:43

that's in the middle of the woods of this like

3:45

cool barn, her best friend's daughter

3:48

gets taken. And no one knows where she went, no

3:50

one knows what happened. and she

3:52

starts to connect the dots and realizing this is

3:54

a pattern that happens where it's always a

3:56

young black girl. It's always at a party.

3:58

It's always near the woods. These girls have

3:59

been being taken for years. So she needs

4:02

to solve what is going on and find

4:04

her god daughter before something really

4:06

bad happens. And it, like, kicks off with

4:08

a bang. The writing is really good. I

4:10

am loving it so far. It's very spooky. So

4:12

that's Jackal by Aaron e Adams. And

4:14

mine is small town big magic by Hazelbeck.

4:21

So we wanna take a moment to share some listener

4:23

feedback few episodes ago, we read some

4:25

listener feedback from someone who saw a

4:27

cool explorer display. It howells.

4:30

So this feedback is from the book

4:32

seller that may display. Wow.

4:34

They were this is one of my favorite pieces

4:36

of feedback we've ever gotten. It is

4:38

so cool. Wow. So

4:41

this feedback is Dear Mallory and Bria, I'm

4:43

Kirsten. I work at Powell's on Hawthorne in

4:45

the genre slash kids room. Someone came in

4:47

today and asked about the psychological horror

4:49

display. I did that display last

4:51

month for my first ever curated display.

4:53

It had tons of books on it that I was introduced

4:55

because of your podcast. Wow.

4:58

So what what if I recall? wish I

5:00

felt really gotten into, like, reading

5:02

glasses, like yeah. There's some sort of,

5:04

like, circle closing a circle

5:06

here. So person says when I was in college, I

5:08

fell in love with reading for the first time after listening

5:10

to reading passes. I'm behind lately, but I've

5:12

been listening for years and I even drove up to Seattle

5:14

to see Mallory speak when she did her book tour for

5:16

Lady from the Black Lagoon. I did a

5:18

spooky teen graphic novel display this month and had

5:20

previously requested copies of Mary to be

5:22

brought in. So those are on display now and

5:24

I've been excited to recommend it for the Halloween

5:26

season. This is all to say that I'm a

5:28

fan and a glasser and I owe y'all so much for

5:30

bringing me into the reading world after so much time

5:32

being too intimidated to join in. Someone

5:34

came in and she asked me where the psychological horror

5:36

display was, which isn't up right now since it was

5:38

for last month. I asked how she even knew about it

5:40

and she said reading glasses his son rang in and it was

5:42

mentioned on the show that I melted

5:45

into the floor and passed away because that's

5:47

a dream come true and I had no idea anyone

5:49

even knew about it. sold a few books, and I was

5:51

really proud of it already, but hearing that made me

5:53

feel super happy and excited.

5:56

Oh my god. Bria, you wanna read the rest of those?

5:58

Sure. It continues. I've

6:01

almost lapsed a full year working as a book seller,

6:03

and it's a job that makes me endlessly happy.

6:05

But I would not have found it if it had not been

6:07

for your podcast. I'm an Illustrator on

6:09

top of working full time as book seller.

6:11

I'm hoping to eventually go part time and work

6:13

in publishing and illustrating book covers for Wyeth

6:15

and Horr. I want to work for

6:17

Laura Panopinto one day. That's so nice.

6:19

A TLDR of all the time. person I did

6:22

send this email to Lauren. How great. The

6:24

TLDR of all that is that I love you guys and

6:26

being introduced to reading glasses drastically changed my

6:28

life's direction. Hearing some silly display,

6:30

I did made it back to you guys really

6:33

means the world to me. I'm embarrassingly emotional

6:35

writing this. It's so small, but this to me is

6:37

the coolest thing ever. We

6:39

also think it's the coolest thing ever. What fun.

6:41

Oh my god. I'm getting embarrassingly emotional

6:44

reasons. This is the whole reason

6:46

we do the show and to hearing that it makes

6:48

such a difference to people. Like, really

6:50

gets to me. This is this is like one of my

6:52

favorite pieces of efamil we've ever gotten. Yeah.

6:54

If you guys want the want the list

6:56

for the MicroLogic a gold horror display.

6:58

I can give you a rundown of what we chose

7:00

and why. I also run a

7:02

really dorky little Instagram where I

7:04

take I post all the shelf talkers

7:06

summaries and arts art I do for incoming

7:08

books, mostly horror at the store, and we'll

7:10

link to link to that in the show notes.

7:12

It's Kirsten's book nook. You can also

7:14

go to Kirsten underscore Valerie

7:16

underscore illustration. Wow. That Yeah. We'll

7:18

put a link to the show notes in that. And first,

7:20

and yes, we do want the list of what

7:22

you of what you chose and why. And

7:24

wow. This seriously made

7:27

my entire day when we got I love the glasses

7:29

that went in and asked about the display.

7:31

Like, what a fun follow-up? Oh

7:33

my god. This is just like five this

7:35

is five layers of amazing. And also

7:37

I Kirsten, you gotta ride in with your wheelhouse at

7:39

some point. We gotta know what the wheelhouse

7:41

is here. Yeah. Oh, for

7:43

sure. Yes. Please follow-up. Send us a follow-up.

7:45

So you can email us everything glasses podcast

7:47

at gmail dot com. you want a list of all the books we talk

7:49

about on the show, delivered inbox every month,

7:51

you can sign up for a newsletter. There's a link in the show

7:53

notes. Just wanna do a quick shout

7:55

out to all the folks who

7:57

have stepped up and signed up to support

7:59

us on some fun dot org to keep

8:01

the newsletter free because it still is

8:03

free and you sign up in the in the in

8:05

the show notes. We do a new

8:08

expanded newsletter now every month with all the

8:10

books we talk about on the show every month,

8:12

plus extra recommendations from Bria and

8:14

I, and then, like, fun seasonal stuff

8:16

that we're talking about. And yeah,

8:18

we just got an email from a maximum fund this

8:20

morning saying that even more people have

8:22

signed up to support us, it

8:24

really means a lot in Because of

8:26

that, we're able to keep doing the news letter

8:28

and we we really appreciate

8:30

it. There's also a a bookmark about

8:33

Bria's new movie. yeah, my new movie.

8:35

One Arts is available for free

8:37

on Amazon. So if you

8:39

have Amazon Prime, which a lot

8:41

of us do and you want to watch spooky

8:43

movie. It's not spooky. It is

8:45

it's a thriller. It's more of a thriller, but it

8:48

stars k. It's still a good Halloween movie

8:50

though. Yeah. starts Katie Seagull as

8:52

a country singer and things go

8:54

wild when two other young country

8:56

singers come to her house to try to get them

8:58

her to do a song with them. And

9:00

Yeah. It's for free. On Amazon Prime, and thank you for everyone

9:02

who watched it because it was on the top

9:05

ten watched things this past

9:07

week. on Amazon. Like,

9:09

overall, it was, like, number four watched

9:11

movies. So that was amazing. And those kind

9:13

of numbers obviously really helped me. So, yeah,

9:15

add it to your queue. Let it play in the

9:17

background. It's free now. You don't even have to pay for

9:19

it, but that kind of stuff means a lot

9:21

to my career. But you should watch it

9:23

because it's one of my favorite movies of the year.

9:25

It's brilliant. It's so good. Great

9:27

Halloween movie. So before we

9:28

talk about Explorer, we're gonna take a quick

9:31

break.

9:36

Reading

9:37

glasses is sponsored in part this week

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wake up and cook. I mean, maybe you do, but,

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god, you're probably the kind of person who

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glasses.

11:59

I'm

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Jesse Thorne. on the next bull's eye,

12:02

our annual Halloween Spectacular

12:04

will interview Anna Fabrega

12:06

from Los Azspooky's Monet

12:08

xchange, from Drag Race, and the great

12:10

RL Stein, creator of

12:12

goosebumps. You know, I don't really get too

12:14

deep into the real fears. It's a

12:16

lot safer to do a dummy coming

12:18

to life. That's on the next bull's eye for

12:20

maximum fun dot org and

12:22

NPR.

12:38

This week, Happy

12:40

Halloween. It was our favorite holiday

12:42

and my personal favorite time of year

12:44

to read So we've done Halloween

12:46

specials about witches, we've done them about

12:48

werewolves, even one about spooky

12:50

books that aren't too scary. In this

12:52

Halloween, we're talking about horrors

12:54

hotest trend, mushrooms, also

12:57

known as Sporer.

12:59

Bria, what is Sporer? It's a

13:01

new it's a it's a some genre of horror. I

13:03

won't say it's new. We we've

13:05

seen Explorer in the past. I think it's just

13:07

now suddenly has a name. But

13:09

it has been growing That's

13:12

Mallory's joke. It's been growing.

13:14

pun intended. No pun intended.

13:16

Over the past decade,

13:18

and I there's been a

13:20

lot more of it in the past year

13:22

or two. Yeah. And we definitely noticed it,

13:24

and other people have noticed it as well. But

13:26

it's basically a subgenre of

13:28

horror that involves mushrooms, fungus,

13:31

in in all sorts of way, in body

13:33

horror, in locations, You

13:36

could just be inside a giant mushroom that would

13:38

be Spore or two. So anything mushroom

13:40

or fungi related?

13:44

Yeah. And it's often mixed with, like,

13:46

zombies, like, girl with all the gifts or

13:48

ghosts, like, our

13:50

wonderful guests in today's book. So

13:52

you can you can you can make sport with whatever.

13:55

It's like the jeans

13:57

of horror. Yes. You can never mix

13:59

it with whatever you want. Yes. But,

14:01

Bria, why don't we start noticing this was

14:04

becoming a trend? Well,

14:06

III tried to do some

14:08

research on this, but I remember people

14:10

responding very positively to Mexican

14:12

Gothic, obviously. And that was a

14:14

couple years ago, and it had a sporer

14:16

element. And I think

14:18

that was one that really kicked off

14:20

things. But I didn't hear the

14:22

term until this year, too much more

14:24

too much recently. I think you told me. were like,

14:26

do you know if you were calling us from a glasser?

14:28

A glasser roader. Oh, nice. A glasser

14:30

roader and was like, I love mud from

14:33

horror. It's sport, we were like, oh my god. That's

14:35

very cute. Yeah. Very cute.

14:37

Interestingly, sport is also used

14:39

for sports horror. So

14:42

that is another way you

14:44

combine the two oh my god.

14:46

But I was thinking, like, we pride upon sticks.

14:48

Like, it's a good sports sports

14:50

horror books. That could do It's

14:52

a different kind of horror, but today we're talking about

14:54

the mushroom kind, which I

14:56

also find that it it coincides with a lot of Gothic

14:58

fiction. It seems because it's like --

15:00

Yeah. -- big spooky house. It's damp.

15:02

It's dark. So it seems

15:04

like it's kind of going in

15:06

that direction. But seen it in sci

15:08

fi horror. We've seen it in all sorts of

15:10

places. Mhmm.

15:11

I do

15:12

love I do love a damp horror.

15:14

Yes. Yes. They're in a spooky dance

15:16

place. sign me up. So

15:19

why do we think people are getting

15:21

into it? We've definitely seen people seen

15:23

it ramp up in the past year

15:25

or so. get a lot of fan mail about it. What

15:27

what is appealing about sport?

15:29

I I mean, I think mushrooms are gross

15:32

personally. Like, I I mean,

15:34

not like

15:36

Like, I like them if they're cooked,

15:38

but I don't like a lot. Like, you know when someone was

15:40

like, I want a mushroom filled pizza,

15:42

like, oh, too many mushrooms, grosses

15:44

me out. I feel the same way about

15:46

mushrooms that I feel about tomatoes is I like

15:48

mushroom like, I like how mushroom gravy, but I

15:50

don't wanna eat a mushroom. Oh, I wanna

15:52

eat a mushroom. I like salsa. but I don't wanna

15:54

eat a tomato. I like both of those things.

15:56

I like them both. I just don't like too many

15:58

mushrooms. That's like, in

16:00

large quantities, they start to freak

16:02

me out. And I I read one theory. I feel like

16:04

that's the whole underlying theme of the sports

16:06

genre, though. It's too many -- Too many mushrooms.

16:10

I did read

16:12

one theory that mushrooms they're

16:15

they kind of freak humans out

16:17

because they just

16:19

pop out pop up out of nowhere. So, like,

16:21

no sign, nothing there, and

16:23

then suddenly it rains in, like, hey, there's a mushroom,

16:25

which is kind of weird to us, like, normally

16:27

when things grow. It become it takes, like, a long

16:29

time. Also, they do grow

16:31

in these dark damn places. Like,

16:33

damp places. So

16:35

I I it's something that horror

16:37

fans like because they're like, Mallory, a lot of

16:39

people love a dance. Love a love the dance.

16:41

Mallory loves to sit down, put on a

16:43

humidifier Just keep a

16:45

real damp in that room. But

16:48

I think it's just wow. She's

16:50

literally she just held up her humidifier. She's a

16:52

little mini humidifier.

16:53

that Luvs

16:55

a damp damp damp room, which

16:57

doesn't go well with books, Mallory. I don't know how

16:59

you're skin. Hey, just good for your

17:01

skin. But, personally, I think

17:03

it's a fun new way into horror that can

17:05

be gross and weird, and it kind of just disturbs

17:07

us a little bit

17:08

on some weird

17:09

level that we don't totally understand. What what

17:12

about you? Why do you think people are getting into

17:14

sportswear? I think the newness is

17:16

it. Horace is a genre with a lot of

17:18

established tropes in sub genres. So I think that

17:20

anything new in fresh is

17:22

gonna attract readers. You know,

17:24

incorporating a mushroom element

17:26

makes subgenre, even one that is like

17:28

a very established, feel like something you haven't

17:30

seen before. You know, Mexican Gothic is

17:32

is a great example of this because it's like a very

17:34

classic Gothic haunted house story

17:36

But the mushroom element, along with some other elements of

17:38

the book, makes it feel so exciting and

17:41

new and makes it hard. Like, a

17:43

lot of there's so many tropes, you know, ghost

17:45

haunted houses, whatever it is, that you can

17:47

start to kinda guess what's gonna

17:49

happen. But I feel like with Mexican

17:51

Gothic, the mushroom element was such a huge surprised

17:53

that you really didn't know what was gonna happen.

17:55

And for, like, hardcore readers of the genre,

17:57

I think that's really appealing myself

18:00

included. So speaking of ourselves, Bria, are you

18:02

into sport or -- I like it. -- you're not

18:04

into sport. I feel the opposite way

18:06

about it that I feel about mushrooms on

18:08

a pete Like, I can take a

18:10

lot of four less mushrooms

18:12

on my pizza. Here's the thing. I'm not people are gonna

18:14

be mad about this. I'm not disparaging a mushroom

18:16

pizza. Like, I like The

18:18

the the proper pizza combination for me is

18:20

mushrooms, olives, and bell peppers. That's

18:22

like my favorite combo. So I do

18:24

like mushrooms that you don't like glass pizza we had

18:26

together had mushrooms on. Yeah. I always put

18:28

mushrooms on a pizza, but I don't want too many. And

18:31

I don't want those kind that look

18:33

like little

18:33

worms. You know those kind

18:34

sometimes they put a long mushroom on my pizza and

18:36

don't put a long mushroom on my pizza. I don't it

18:39

weirds me out. Those can

18:41

be, like, in the stir fries. But when you

18:43

put them on a pizza, I start to wonder,

18:45

is this some sort of spell you're trying to put

18:47

on me? I don't know what's

18:48

happening here. Gripey.

18:51

So I think, yes, I like them and

18:53

I like them in large quantities

18:55

unlike a pizza.

18:57

I I like it. I'm

18:59

into it. I find it creepy and

19:02

gross. And

19:05

there's I I don't like too much gross stuff

19:07

in horror, but I I like a certain amount, and

19:09

this is a good gross a

19:11

good gross place to dive

19:13

into for me.

19:14

the What about you?

19:15

You like it too? I'm into it. I

19:17

think it's wicked cool to see a new wave of

19:19

something in horror. I don't know if I'd

19:21

add it to my wheelhouse per se, but I I

19:24

think I can say it would peak my interest if I saw a

19:26

book in a bookstore that mentioned mushrooms

19:28

in the jacket copy. Yeah. I

19:30

personally think fungus is very terrifying. It's not

19:32

a plant, but it's also not an animal.

19:34

It's its own thing. It doesn't need

19:37

sunlight. It can communicate with other funguses.

19:39

It can take over your body. There's

19:41

just a lot of, like, inherently creepy

19:43

things about mushrooms. fact, because of that, I think

19:45

we're gonna see a lot more body horror that

19:48

involves mushrooms. But

19:50

I am I am pro Sporer and

19:53

I'm happy be to see more more

19:55

authors delve into that world. Mhmm.

19:57

Are you at any sports recommendations for

19:59

our our Halloween listeners? Yeah. I

20:02

mean, a book that I feel like a lot of people really

20:04

liked this year was what moves the dead

20:06

by to Kingfisher, great

20:08

sport. It's a retelling of the fall the

20:10

House of Usher, which apparently has a fungal

20:12

theme. Did you know that? I haven't read that book

20:14

or I mean, I

20:16

have a while ago, and

20:18

I think Yeah. I think it there it was mentioned that we're

20:20

like, there were weird mushrooms, but I don't think Poe

20:22

goes into it like Kingfisher does. Got

20:25

it. Yeah. And then I also wanna

20:27

shout out what you said earlier. Like, there are

20:29

sports books that

20:31

aren't just like There's

20:33

a lot of haunted house ones, I think,

20:35

but the girl with all the gifts by Emera

20:37

Carey, I love that book. It's a great fungal

20:39

horror with zombies, but the fungus isn't what you

20:41

think it is, and that I I really

20:43

like it. Yeah. And he uses,

20:46

like, fun

20:47

fungal. What's

20:50

the difference? fungi is, like,

20:52

multiple fun Is it are there

20:54

multiple kinds? Is it one of those kind of

20:56

plurals? Oh, no. Anyway, the

20:58

focus on the book is not what what

21:00

you think it's going to be. There's like a surprise. And

21:02

I feel like that book, it had a it was kind of

21:04

a hit a couple years ago, and I'm always trying to

21:06

shout it out because think it was like a really creative zombie book. Yeah. And

21:08

there was that because the movie of it came out

21:10

a few years ago. Right? Yeah. I thought the movie is

21:13

pretty good. I

21:15

still haven't seen it. Oh, it's it's worth watching.

21:17

And then, obviously, we have Clay on and

21:19

his book of Sporer. And it's

21:21

a it's a little bit of a surprise Sporer.

21:23

I hope that's not That's not

21:25

it. No. I mean, it's it it it's

21:27

not a it's a surprise what

21:30

the what the mushrooms

21:32

do. It's not a huge shock. as

21:34

to the fact that there are mushrooms there. Yeah.

21:36

Yeah. But it is I

21:38

will cosign that. I would

21:40

have talked about it more if we didn't have clay

21:42

coming up next. Yeah. But I I got to

21:44

read an

21:44

early copy of this, and I love

21:45

all of clay clay's books. But

21:47

this one, it's such a

21:50

unique take on us on like the haunted

21:52

ghost y genre. It's such a smart

21:54

book and it's truly scary and it's

21:56

just so brilliant. I love it. So if you

21:58

were looking for a good sport ghost eaters

22:00

by Clay McCloud Chapman is a great

22:02

one. It also wouldn't be a

22:04

Halloween episode if I didn't find a way to recommend something

22:06

by Caitlin Kiernan. Oh, yeah.

22:09

the god. I

22:10

am such a Caitlyn Kiernan

22:13

devotee. The first book in there, Tin

22:15

foil dossier series is a novel

22:17

trilogy from tour dot com. It

22:19

is a really creepy mushroom element where there's this cult

22:21

that injects themselves with this focus.

22:24

And It

22:26

is we culture already we all if you've listened to the show for

22:28

a long time, you know that I'm very creeped out by

22:30

cults because I don't like group activities.

22:32

And but they,

22:34

like, And yeah.

22:35

They inject themselves with the fungus and clearly nothing good

22:37

is gonna happen when they do that. And it's,

22:39

like, super

22:40

creepy, and it's so great. And it's like

22:42

The

22:42

shoes are around nothing good happen.

22:44

I I like, I know that I can find

22:46

I mean, I'm sure there's some examples in positive

22:49

mushroom books. There's some mushroom enthusiasts out there that

22:51

are like, they help the world, and I'm sure

22:53

they do. And They are great.

22:55

I'm sure they're they are wonderful. But in books,

22:57

most of the time, they are a signal that things are

22:59

going poorly. Yeah. There's a really great

23:01

book. A nonfiction book called The

23:03

Intangled Life by Merlin Drake,

23:06

which is what other person

23:08

would write a book about mushrooms than

23:10

somebody named Merlin. But

23:13

it's like, really great

23:13

nonfiction book about about mushrooms. That's

23:15

fantastic. But, yeah, if you if

23:18

you're reading a book and some mushrooms stuff comes up

23:20

unless a book about a pizza place. You are

23:23

probably in the in in in for

23:25

something creepy. Also, a book we used

23:27

to talk about all the time and have it recently leaves

23:29

the beauty by Elya Whiteley. It's

23:31

about a world where all the women have

23:33

died, and mushrooms start growing on

23:35

the graves of the women who have died, and the

23:37

mushrooms start turn into something sentient.

23:41

And it is super weird,

23:43

but it is super awesome. Both these

23:45

books that I'm recommending Oh

23:47

my god. I didn't even put the name. It's agents

23:49

of Dreamland. It's the Caitlin Hearnan, the

23:51

first one in the Caitlin Hearnan series.

23:53

And the beauty are both

23:56

very short So if you're looking for, like, a

23:58

quick fun Halloween Sporer Read, these are

23:59

both really great.

24:01

Yeah. So if you have Sporer

24:04

thoughts Yeah. Or or just walk yeah. Or just walk over to the damp

24:06

corner of your house and reach your hand in

24:08

and you can find a nice out of the basement. A

24:10

little horror book. based on

24:12

mushrooms. Ugh. I remember seeing a

24:15

post on social media that Merlin Drake

24:17

who wrote the entangled life. He

24:19

actually planted or,

24:21

like, grew mushrooms out of his author

24:23

copy of the book. Oh, that's

24:25

amazing. You know

24:27

those, like, something ear

24:29

mushrooms that people, like, grow get

24:31

kids in and they grow it to, like, eat

24:33

them at home. Oh, oh,

24:35

what are your mushrooms? You know, when you say

24:37

just ear mushrooms, the reason that

24:39

is really gross, but just

24:41

woodier mushrooms. That's woodier is fine.

24:43

Yeah. Woodier is like a kind of mushroom

24:45

that I can recognized, but something about

24:47

a yeah. I I don't know.

24:49

You're thinking of mushrooms growing out of people's head

24:51

and they grossed me out immediately. Yeah.

24:54

But we would love to hear you list

24:57

you listener, your Sporer recommendations. You

24:59

can send them to reading glasses podcast at gmail

25:01

dot com. And before we have A

25:03

wonderful interview about

25:03

Spohrer with one of our favorite favorite

25:06

Spooky author friends claiming Cloud Chatman, we're gonna

25:08

take quick break.

25:14

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26:58

Hi,

27:00

I'm Jesse Thorne, the founder of Maximum

27:03

Fun, and I have a special announcement I'm

27:05

no longer embarrassed by my

27:07

brother, my brother and me. You

27:09

know, for years, each new

27:11

episode of this supposed advice

27:14

show, was a fresh insult, a

27:16

depraved jumble of,

27:18

erection jokes, ghost humor,

27:20

and frankly, this is for the best

27:22

very little actionable

27:25

advice. But now as they

27:27

enter their twilight years, I'm as surprised

27:29

as anyone to admit that

27:31

it's gotten kinda good. Justin

27:33

Travis and Griffin's witticisms

27:35

are more refined, like a humor column

27:37

in a fancy

27:38

magazine. And they hardly ever

27:40

say Zynga anymore. So

27:43

after you've completely

27:44

finished listening to every single one of all

27:46

of our other shows, Why not join

27:48

the McElroy brothers every week? For my

27:51

brother, my brother and me.

28:04

So here

28:08

we are with one

28:10

of our favorite spooky reading glasses

28:13

authors, Clay McCloud Chapman, Clay. What are you

28:15

reading? The

28:15

spooky season? Oh

28:17

my god. You totally did this to me.

28:19

You made me read the nest.

28:21

I did make you read the nest. And

28:25

I I don't know if I can

28:27

forgive you.

28:27

That book

28:28

was scary. That book is written There's no

28:31

way that that book is written for

28:33

younger readers. That's like I

28:35

had some, like, intense stuff

28:37

right there. Yeah. That's sort of

28:39

the thing. It's

28:40

it's ostensibly middle grade,

28:43

but it is one of the

28:45

scariest books I've ever read. So

28:47

tell us about it. Did you like it?

28:49

I

28:50

mean, I loved it. I mean, I, you

28:53

know, it's kind of embedded in the head

28:55

now where What is the

28:57

nest about to buy Kenneth

28:59

Opel and Opel? I hope

29:01

I'm getting that name right. That's what

29:03

I say. Yeah.

29:06

Little young young

29:08

boy, middle school age

29:11

boy is has a

29:13

younger sibling in the

29:15

house now and, you

29:18

know,

29:18

parents are fretting

29:20

over this new child. It's

29:22

it's kind of unclear. There's

29:24

like a vague kind of concern and

29:26

lot of trips to the hospital and

29:29

they're very worried

29:32

that

29:32

baby dose is

29:35

not doing very well. and it just so

29:37

happens to be dovetailing

29:39

at the same time with

29:42

a, I guess, you could say like a

29:44

paper, wasp, nest

29:46

being kind of assembled outside

29:48

this young boy's bedroom

29:51

window. And

29:53

you

29:53

know, I I don't know if I how much

29:55

further I wanna go other than that these

29:57

two kind of events

29:59

tether

29:59

themselves together and

30:02

it's so creamy. It's in very

30:04

bearish ways, humanly possible. III

30:06

mean, oh, my

30:08

god. it really

30:09

makes me not want to look at

30:11

paper wasp nest. And

30:14

it's such a deceiving book because you

30:16

look

30:16

at it in the print is so big and that you're like,

30:18

oh, this is a kids' book, and

30:19

then you are being ushered into

30:21

a nightmare nightmare realm.

30:24

I mean, you you could easily

30:25

read it as an adult and it could fuck

30:27

you up. Yeah. You can if if you

30:29

read it, the the

30:32

target audience, Oh

30:34

my god. Like, how does this book

30:36

not

30:36

traumatize children? How come they're not

30:38

like campaigns to have this book?

30:40

word. I mean,

30:43

it's like I mean, like, it it

30:45

is one of those kind of profound books that, like,

30:47

I I never Is

30:48

this a recent book? This book is recent. Right?

30:50

It has Yeah.

30:51

And the way I look at it is I think that

30:53

for kids and, you know, you you have

30:55

written lots of for kids things are already

30:57

so hyperbolic for children that,

30:59

you know, when you're a kid, everything's gonna

31:01

kill you, everything is is

31:04

is the stakes feel so much

31:06

higher. So for

31:07

kids reading this, they always kinda live

31:09

in that world of of things

31:11

being so intense And, you

31:14

know, one of the things I love about

31:15

it is it's such a great sort of,

31:17

you know, exploration of being an anxious

31:19

child and not being told things

31:21

when you're a kid. the parents are

31:23

trying to protect you.

31:25

Yeah.

31:25

So III can

31:28

actually see where it would hit harder as

31:30

an adult. if that makes sense

31:32

even though it seems strange. Howard

31:34

Bauchner: Yeah,

31:34

I mean, and as the father

31:36

of two boys, like, I just can't

31:39

help, but you

31:39

know, I you know,

31:40

like, there's there's this just this

31:42

strange intensity of these the

31:44

the older boy

31:46

and how how like

31:48

you know, his anxiety and he's

31:50

kind of dealing with his, you know,

31:52

his own kind of anxiousness

31:55

and, like, it just your

31:57

your heart breaks, but at the at the same time,

31:59

like, it

32:00

is it is

32:02

terrible. Well,

32:04

I am so glad that I got to

32:06

give you such a spooky experience for

32:09

Halloween. I

32:11

will bill you my therapy from

32:14

here on out because

32:17

good. Gosh. listeners. I literally mailed

32:19

this book to Clay and said with a

32:21

card that said happy Halloween.

32:24

Yeah. Merry Christmas you're

32:27

never gonna get sleep again because I'm a sick

32:30

freak. Well, but speaking

32:31

of scary books that we love, can you tell us about

32:33

your

32:33

new book ghost eaters?

32:35

Yeah.

32:36

I mean, I guess the kind of

32:38

short and sweet of it is that it's

32:40

about a haunted drug.

32:42

Imagine that you could

32:44

pop a pill and see the

32:47

dead, like see ghosts. It

32:50

just so happens that, you know, you

32:52

know, the more, you know, now that we

32:54

can see these spirits, they they're

32:56

aware of being seen and they

32:58

either might not want to be seen or really,

33:00

really need to be seen. And

33:02

you know, the the kind of side

33:04

effects are pretty intense and

33:07

yeah. I mean, III feel like the,

33:09

you know, the the cheese ball elevator

33:11

pitch is that it's

33:12

trainspotting meets poltergeist. But I

33:15

mean, that's a as far as elevator

33:17

pitches go, that's a great 1II

33:20

mean, like, I wanted to write

33:22

about addiction. I wanted to write

33:24

about grief and and, you know, just

33:26

kind of asking that that question of, like,

33:28

what is it? What

33:29

is it like to be haunted? Like,

33:32

I like I I wanted the idea of like

33:34

a like a seance

33:36

in a pill, like something that,

33:38

you know, like, I mean, I love House

33:41

of Leaves. I love I love, you

33:43

know, haunted house books

33:45

or films or stories

33:47

that that basically you know, they might

33:49

not necessarily reinvent the

33:52

horror, like, the kind of trope

33:54

of haunted houses, but they they allow

33:56

you to see it in a different way or

33:58

just kind of like like the

33:59

architecture kind of changes. Oh, I

34:02

think you evaluated that in

34:05

this book. We're haunted. We are the

34:07

haunted houses. Oh, it's I mean, it's so brilliant. It

34:09

is one of the most brilliant horror books

34:11

I've ever read. And I am

34:13

a haunted stuff efficient auto.

34:16

But there's another really important

34:18

element to this book and I

34:20

don't know

34:20

how much you wanna talk about it without spoiling

34:22

it, but there is a mushroom element

34:24

to ghost eaters. And this is our big Halloween sports

34:27

special. So you wanna talk

34:29

a little bit about that element

34:31

without spoiling too much? Absolutely.

34:34

I mean, like, I mean,

34:36

you know, in the writing of ghost eaters, like,

34:38

I was really I mean, I had

34:40

to figure out, like, what is this drug? Like,

34:43

how do we Like, how you need I

34:45

was creating a new drug, and the drug

34:47

itself is called Ghost.

34:50

And you know, there was this idea of, like, what if they ashes

34:52

of cremated bodies? Or what

34:54

if they, like, you know, like, what like, it

34:56

was, like, trying to think of, like, the kind

34:59

of cool correlative of a narcotic

35:02

that has a certain

35:04

kind of like like

35:08

a fantastic element to

35:10

it. And then, you know,

35:12

as soon as, like, I I don't

35:14

know what it was and and it was just

35:16

mushrooms. I mean, mushrooms just like popped

35:18

into my head. And, you know, of course,

35:21

I don't know about you, but maybe

35:23

there's that, you know, let's just say,

35:25

hypothetically that, you know,

35:27

there were those those bad mushroom trips that we took to

35:29

our kind of Yeah. Just hypothetically.

35:32

Hypothetically. Totally hypothetically. Like,

35:34

streaming is one of those

35:38

you know, it's not LSD, but it is yeah. Like,

35:40

it is it it is what it

35:42

is. It's its own ride. It's own -- It's

35:45

sure. -- but I

35:47

mean, what's

35:48

in in in

35:49

kind of speaking of

35:52

Sporer, I I mean,

35:54

it is there is nothing nothing maybe

35:56

aside from paper wasps, but like

35:58

nothing that that I find

35:59

more terrifying than the

36:02

kind of the

36:04

internal invasion of fungus

36:06

of mushrooms. Well, that's what I

36:08

was gonna ask you about next is what is

36:10

scary about mushrooms.

36:13

in fungus to you. Oh my god.

36:15

It's the It's it's really

36:17

the notion that you By

36:19

the time you realize that your

36:21

body is in essence becoming is,

36:23

like, being converted by

36:26

mushroom. Oh my god. It's too late.

36:28

Like, it's

36:30

it's, like, it's like almost like John Carpenter's the thing it's

36:33

like mushrooms and

36:35

spores and fungus. Like,

36:38

it it invades

36:40

you. It, like, permeates you.

36:42

And it's either that you have, you

36:45

know, inhaled a spore or

36:47

you've been exposed you've been exposed to something

36:49

some element that is

36:51

either infinitesimal or invisible.

36:53

Like it's just

36:56

you're just not aware of it and yet

36:58

suddenly you begin to change

37:00

from the inside out and

37:04

you

37:04

know, like in in nature mushrooms

37:07

basically are they're they're

37:10

like terraformers. They they can kind

37:12

of convert you

37:14

know, elements of of the the

37:16

the

37:16

earth, the soil, body. Like,

37:18

you know, like, it it basically

37:21

make

37:21

something out of something

37:24

else. And I when

37:26

you

37:26

apply that to horror, to the genre,

37:30

it is you know, it's it's absolutely

37:32

terrifying, horrifying.

37:32

But it it's and I

37:34

think what gives it its

37:35

real true power is the fact

37:37

that it's not

37:40

necessarily

37:40

untrue. Like, it's

37:42

it's it hews so close to, like,

37:44

what is of the natural world, of the

37:47

real world, that it feels

37:50

almost kind of like extra

37:52

scary because it's real

37:54

ish. Yes. Absolutely. I mean, that's how

37:56

I felt about go seaters.

37:58

I don't know. Like, when I read Mexican

38:00

Gothic, when I read what

38:02

moves the dead or I mean,

38:05

even like god, what was the the girl

38:07

with all the gifts? Like -- Mhmm.

38:09

-- you know, we're we're

38:12

in this where in this world were these things, like, you

38:14

know, mushroom mushroom zombies.

38:16

That's not real. Come on. But

38:18

it's like, Well, you

38:20

know, then you can, like, do a little googling

38:22

around and you're, like, oh my god. Like,

38:24

the the cordyceps fungus

38:26

or the Like,

38:28

these these are things that that

38:30

have a root -- Uh-huh. --

38:33

in in nature.

38:36

And that's Yeah. It's very scary.

38:38

Yeah. But so scary. But those eaters

38:39

also deals a lot with grief, which,

38:42

for some reason, I

38:44

love books that deal with grief. I

38:46

do not know why. But so for you, is the writer how are mushrooms

38:49

and

38:49

grief related? It's

38:52

it's such a strange question if if

38:54

you haven't read the book, but I do

38:56

think that, like, they kinda go hand in

38:59

hand in my mind because mushrooms

39:02

are, like, the goth. Like,

39:04

they're, like, totally goth.

39:06

Like, they're just mushroom. They're

39:09

they really are, though. they

39:11

totally are, like, the golf element of nature.

39:13

It's like, hey, mushroom. What's

39:16

up? Like, the world is black. Like,

39:18

it's, like, We there's just something so Just

39:20

eating death. No big

39:22

deal. Just I

39:24

mean, I think that,

39:26

you know, when you think of

39:28

when

39:28

I think of mushrooms, they

39:30

they

39:31

are kind of in the

39:33

shade or their their Oh

39:35

my god. I was gonna say nocturnal. In

39:37

nocturnal, like their night their night element, night

39:40

shades, night shades. That's what I was trying to

39:42

go for. There there

39:44

is something of them that

39:46

feels closer

39:48

to the shadows or and and in my mind,

39:50

I'm gonna say closer to death. than

39:52

than they are to the light of life.

39:54

Well, they're one of the only creatures that

39:57

can survive without sunlight. Right?

40:00

Yeah.

40:00

Totally. Very gosh. And the totally

40:02

goth. Total

40:03

goth. You know? And

40:06

the end you

40:07

know, there are there are in

40:10

effect various strains of of

40:12

mushrooms that that do kind of

40:14

grow from

40:16

nothing but you know, dead things, dead bodies. And, like, even

40:18

even, like, I mean, like, treat. Like,

40:20

they they rise up from, like,

40:22

decaying plant

40:24

matter. So

40:26

I

40:26

don't know, like,

40:27

there's something about that that, like, that they are

40:29

so intrinsically connected tethered

40:32

to death. in their own

40:34

kind of genesis, in their own kind

40:36

of life cycle that

40:38

to tethr it, to grief,

40:40

it doesn't feel like such a far cry to me

40:42

because grief to me is the kind of like, how

40:45

do you exist

40:48

after

40:50

after the death of someone close to you. Like, how do you

40:52

move on? How do you exist? It's

40:54

not even moving on. It's just how do

40:56

you how do you continue?

40:59

and grief is the

41:00

kind of like the the one

41:03

of

41:03

the motions. One of the actions that

41:05

that is born out of

41:07

death So if I was to kind of,

41:09

you know, in my mind's eye, like, imagine

41:12

what does grief look like, it would probably be a

41:14

little little goth mushroom, kind of, like,

41:16

growing out of growing

41:18

out

41:18

of your heart. Now

41:20

as

41:20

cute as that sounds, this book

41:23

is very scary. So

41:25

if this book something that we have been asking are our

41:27

spooky writers because this is how we talk about them on

41:29

the show. If GoSeeders was a dish at an

41:32

Indian restaurant, how many red chili peppers

41:34

would be next

41:36

to it? scary wise. Yeah. Oh,

41:37

man. I mean, it's so

41:40

god. Of all the questions, this is the

41:42

one that freaks me up the most because I I don't

41:44

wanna get

41:46

the the

41:46

rain drunk? Are we talking, like, one through ten? Spicy.

41:48

Like, one through four or five? They

41:50

look for the okay. Okay. I

41:53

mean, I might

41:55

be conservative

41:56

in say three,

41:58

but I would really

41:59

hope for 4II

42:02

mean, as a person who read it and loved it, I I would

42:04

say that it's it's there.

42:06

Yeah.

42:06

Money, it's funny.

42:08

Because what are I'm

42:10

gonna I'm totally mealy mouth in this.

42:13

But, like, when you're having a dish, an Indian

42:15

dish, there's some sort of

42:17

like seed that they use

42:19

for flavoring -- Mhmm. -- but you never

42:21

are supposed to eat the seed. It's

42:23

not like a peppercorn, but it's like a I'm totally losing

42:26

my my bona fides here. But, like, there's

42:28

some some

42:30

kind of

42:30

kind of

42:31

ingredient that, like, they put it

42:34

into the food while you're

42:36

cooking it, but they leave it in there.

42:38

And it's like a it's like a pot

42:40

or like Oh

42:42

oh, wait. No. What it what

42:44

when you're having, like, cider and, like,

42:46

they have the, like, the apples or

42:49

the, like, the thing the oranges and they put the,

42:51

like, the leaves. Close. Close. That's it. Okay.

42:53

I got you. So

42:56

they put the cloves in the Indian food and

42:58

it gives it its seasoning and its

43:00

flavor and then you end up

43:03

accidentally eating one because they leave it in the food for

43:05

some damn reason.

43:08

That is like rather than being on

43:10

the spice meter, I think it's the kind

43:12

of like you're eat you you take a

43:15

bite of the food. And, like,

43:17

in the bite, there is the thing

43:19

you are not supposed to eat that,

43:21

like, totally, like, ruins the

43:23

mouthful. That's what I

43:26

see.

43:28

FLAWLESS Bitch.

43:31

It is the clove

43:34

of the Indian meal.

43:36

I I love it. And I love

43:38

this book.

43:38

So before before you go, I I you know

43:40

what? I I love this, and

43:42

I will happily recommend

43:43

listeners have this experience of

43:46

finding a clove

43:48

in their and they're

43:48

mouthful of Indian foods. So

43:51

before you go, what

43:54

is your spooky

43:56

edition. Spooky

43:57

things. What is your reader wheelhouse? What

43:59

are the sort of scary, any

44:02

kind of trope, any kind

44:04

of subject? something that

44:06

when you see a scary book that has this,

44:08

you're like, I wanna read that.

44:10

Oh my god. Haunted anything.

44:14

Like, you know, I know we talked about,

44:16

like, haunted houses, and I know we talked about

44:18

ghost eaters being about a haunted drug.

44:20

Like, if if you can just

44:22

say two words and it's haunted, whatever. Like, just mad

44:24

Lib, anything. It'll be just

44:28

like, throw haunted in front of it. I am so haunted

44:30

tennis shoe, haunted flashlight

44:34

on it. Like,

44:36

honestly, like, you know, we were having this conversation

44:38

earlier about, you know, the haunted Alexa

44:42

that is gust

44:44

marinos. Oh, my god. I love that

44:46

part. It's amazing. Right?

44:48

And, like, if you had to

44:50

tell someone about it, be like, oh, it's about

44:52

a haunted Alexa. And they'd be like, what? I it

44:54

like, I just love haunted

44:57

stuff. Like, if you

44:59

could just take anything and say there's a

45:01

ghost in there? I'm in. I'm down. I

45:03

love it.

45:08

It's like that joke where you pat the top of your car and you're like, this baby

45:10

can fit so many ghosts in here.

45:12

Just cream them in.

45:14

It's a clown

45:16

car. That's a

45:18

lot of ghosts. So, Claire,

45:20

you're on tour right now. You're doing

45:22

all kinds of stuff. Where can listeners buy the

45:24

book? Where can they find you? Are

45:27

you doing anything fun for Halloween event wise?

45:29

Oh my god. Event

45:29

wise, I'm going

45:32

everywhere.

45:32

I'll be let's

45:36

see. Next, I'll be in

45:38

Baltimore, then I'll be in what

45:41

is it? Houston, Texas.

45:44

and then I will be in Kentucky,

45:46

and then I'll come home, and I'll trick

45:48

or treat with my kids. But yeah,

45:50

I, you know I'm

45:53

online like you can do

45:55

the the Twitter Instagram y thing and the

45:57

Facebook thing. But yeah, fine. I'll

45:59

I'll

45:59

be I'll be on the road. And I'm coming to LA

46:02

in November.

46:04

I'm I will be there.

46:05

I'm very excited excited

46:06

to see you. Excited to celebrate

46:08

this book. Clay, congratulations, and thank you

46:10

so much for coming on the show.

46:13

Now let's

46:18

solve the bookish problem from one of our listeners

46:21

Hannah writes in Hello, Brianna, Mallory. My name is Hannah, and I just found

46:23

your podcast a couple months ago and have been devouring it

46:26

ever since. I haven't worked my way all the way back

46:28

through your

46:30

catalog yet. So I'm not entirely sure if you've talked about the subject before, but I

46:32

figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Recently, I

46:34

read a really buzzy book, one TikTok was

46:36

really pushing it as a new Saphic horror

46:38

must read, and I have to say I

46:40

hated it. I forced myself all the way through

46:42

because I really liked the premise, but I didn't enjoy a

46:44

single page. I thought the writing was bad, the bot

46:46

didn't make any

46:48

I'd like to keep tabs on my Goodreads page of my thoughts on books as I just

46:50

recently started reading again, but I really don't want

46:52

to write a negative review, and I really do

46:54

want to support young LGBTQ

46:57

plus horror off How would you both go about giving your

46:59

honest thoughts while remaining respectful of an artist's work? I've

47:01

been able to do it before, face to face in

47:03

an educational setting. But as for book reviews, I'm

47:05

completely new and very torn.

47:07

Bria. What should Hannah do? Well, first, there are

47:10

places that make this a bit easier.

47:12

So like Story Graph, less on

47:14

how you felt and more of a way just like, this is

47:16

what this book is about. this covers these

47:18

topics. You can just do a

47:20

general, like, this is what this book

47:22

is, which will help get

47:24

this

47:26

author's work out there. So Story graph is a great

47:28

place for that. If you are open

47:30

to using a new app, you can

47:32

also on GoodReed's just mark red. You don't

47:34

have to give it any sort

47:35

of

47:37

stars. But

47:38

I'm gonna say this, if TikTok

47:40

is really pushing this on you,

47:43

TikTok showed up to your house and gave you this

47:45

book and said you must grant. Don't feel like you

47:47

have to carry that banner too. You don't have to

47:49

jump on this bandwagon. Like, if they're they're obviously

47:51

people out there loving this book, they're pushing this book on TikTok, let

47:53

them do the good work of

47:56

promoting this

47:58

cool author You are not one

47:59

of the people who like this author. Like, I'm sorry. I know you wanna be

48:02

supportive. You didn't like this book. You do not

48:04

like this

48:06

author. Let

48:07

those people yell at from the

48:09

mountains and you focus on the books that

48:11

you do love and you want the world

48:13

to see. Because being

48:15

genuine is way more important than supporting

48:18

an author just because other people

48:20

are supporting the author or just because

48:22

I look, I get it. You wanna support a young LGBTQ

48:24

plus or author? That's really cool. There are a lot of them out there.

48:27

And, like, there are ones that you can

48:29

find that you will like. So

48:31

unless you are a paid book reviewer

48:34

and your boss is like, you gotta review this

48:36

book, you don't have

48:37

to say anything. Like, just

48:39

Go buy

48:39

the bambi rule. You know? If you can't

48:41

say something nice, don't say anything at all. And

48:43

go support an author you do

48:46

like. Like, We we

48:48

really I like Glassers are so nice,

48:50

Mallory. They're so nice. They want to

48:52

be supportive. You truly are. And we like

48:54

that you want to be supportive. That's like so

48:57

that's so sweet, but you don't have to support a book you

48:59

don't like. Like, just in the same

49:01

way, like, if you went

49:03

to the store, and there are,

49:05

like, multiple kinds of cereal. You don't have to buy

49:07

the cereal, you don't like, just you don't have to.

49:09

You can buy the cereal, you

49:12

do

49:12

like. Mallory,

49:12

what what? It's like, what do you think that Hannah

49:14

should do? Sweet Hannah, sweet

49:16

person. Well, Hannah, first off, I

49:19

wanna say, I fucking get it, you know, reviewing a book

49:22

that you didn't like by an author you want

49:24

to support is always gonna be

49:26

a pick up. Sure. And first off, I do

49:28

wanna say, and it next time. Tom's that fucking Yeah. Then you won't have to be able to this

49:30

problem because you won't have to talk about it. Oh,

49:32

yeah. You never have to read a buzzy book

49:34

that is a big tenant of reading

49:36

glasses. That's

49:38

hours of your life, you were never getting back. I know that

49:40

you like, especially when you're on TikTok,

49:42

you're on social media and all. Like,

49:45

is all these people and all this buzz around a

49:47

book that's saying, you gotta read it, you gotta read it, you gotta

49:49

read it, and you feel the pressure, resist

49:52

that pressure. You never have to read a buzzy

49:54

book, even it especially if you're not liking it. You say you hated every single

49:56

page. Oh my god, Hannah. I wish I could,

49:58

like, go back in time and

50:00

find you while you were starting this book

50:02

and, like, grab

50:04

it and replace it with a bar of chocolate instead and, like,

50:07

disappear. Please just dump it

50:09

next time. Try to resist that

50:11

social media pressure. Anyway, if you wanna poster if you

50:13

truly wanna poster review of this, which both Brie and I

50:16

are saying you don't need to, you

50:18

probably feel that you can just mark it as red. Yeah.

50:20

Mark my

50:22

go to way to talk about a book,

50:24

whether that's online or in person or whatever it

50:26

is that I didn't like, skip the star

50:28

rating, of course, just give a no rating and

50:32

say, not for me, but it's perfect for fans of x y and z.

50:34

You know, that's the way that I say it. You know what?

50:36

And you don't even have to say it wasn't for you

50:38

if you'd feel that uncomfortable, but, you know, you can be like, a lot of

50:41

this stuff wasn't in my wheelhouse, but it's perfect for

50:43

people looking for a new Sabik horror book. Or, you

50:45

know, check this out if you're looking for

50:47

a Sabik horror book. That way, you can help

50:49

the book find someone who might like while also being honest about how

50:51

you felt. You don't have to go go You

50:53

don't have to say

50:56

that what what did what did he say? The plot was bad. The writing was bad. You don't

50:58

have to say any of that if you don't want to.

51:00

No. You were there's no pressure. I know I

51:02

feel like, oh, in this in this

51:05

age that we live of media, much to like put everything online.

51:07

You gotta put a picture of every sandwich

51:09

you eat. You gotta put all

51:11

your thoughts on everything. here

51:13

I gotta say this, so I am interested in what sandwiches y'all

51:15

are eating. So keep that

51:18

that kind of content coming.

51:20

Perfect. Hannah, instead of uploading

51:22

a long well thought out review

51:24

of this book, upload a picture of a sandwich

51:26

and tag, Brianna. I like to when

51:28

people read a bad photo and from now on, all the

51:30

glasses read a bad book and they don't wanna

51:32

talk about it. on the Internet,

51:34

I start getting sandwich tags. I'm like, why

51:36

aren't we getting tag? Are all these sandwich? I bought a picture

51:38

of a sandwich and said. It's the way

51:40

to go. But, yeah, we we've we've talked so much on the show about how,

51:42

you know, you don't you don't need to

51:44

to review to say your

51:46

specific reviews for books. If you like them or if you

51:48

didn't like them, you

51:50

just don't don't need to do it. You can post about them.

51:52

You can, you know, whatever it

51:54

is. But a quick, like,

51:56

here's the wheelhouse items for

51:58

this book. check this out if this

51:59

is what you're looking for, but it wasn't for

52:02

me, is a really easy

52:04

way to to do this. I mean, I'd

52:06

love to hear tips some other glasses

52:08

about how they like to talk

52:10

about books that they didn't like. But

52:13

again, I I don't use them

52:15

any like, a good reads or story graph. I don't I

52:16

don't venture into those spaces because I'm also

52:18

an author. But it tells me

52:22

a lot if I'm looking on, like, my book buddy or something,

52:24

and a book has no

52:26

rating and no review. I'm like, oh, I didn't

52:28

like that. That's fine. Mhmm. You

52:30

know, you don't need

52:32

to spend thing is the way that I look at it is, like, you already

52:34

spent all these hours of your life on this book

52:36

that you didn't like. Why spend more time

52:38

talking about why you like, this book

52:40

has already stopped so

52:42

much of your life. Yeah.

52:44

Like, just don't don't bother. Don't sink any

52:46

more time into it, you

52:48

know. Mhmm. So Hannah, let us know what you end up doing and other glasses.

52:50

Let us know what your strategies are for

52:52

talking about books that you didn't like. And

52:54

it's always if you want us to solve your reader problem, you

52:56

can send it to

52:58

reading podcast at gmail dot com. We wanna thank the

53:00

wonderful mods who run our Facebook group and

53:02

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53:04

page. Remember, You can buy reading

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53:32

we're retiring those too. So if you really want

53:34

we either one of those on a mug,

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some sort of I don't know

53:48

what else you can get, but just a

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54:26

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