0:06

You're listening to Reading Glasses, a show about

0:08

book culture and literary life designed to help

0:10

you read better. I'm author and book devourer

0:12

Mallory O'Mara. And I'm Bria

0:14

Grant, filmmaker and e-reader. This episode, we're

0:16

talking about alterations for print books to

0:19

make them cuter or better or

0:21

worse. Or worse. We'll

0:23

see. We'll talk about it. We're giving tips on

0:25

getting the most from a used bookstore and we're

0:27

recommending Gateway Fantasy Books. But first, Bria, what are

0:29

you reading? I am listening to

0:31

a book from my book

0:33

club called Boys in the Valley by Philip Fercasi.

0:36

I have never heard of this. It's a horror book,

0:38

Mallory. Oh, it just came out. That's why it came

0:40

out in 2023. I didn't realize that. How have I

0:42

still not heard of this? I'm mad at myself. Oh,

0:45

it takes place in a remote Pennsylvanian valley at the

0:47

turn of the century. By the way, I'm listening to

0:49

it and it's narrated by David Aaron Baker. And

0:51

basically it's a boys' school and there's a

0:54

bunch of priests who are running the school.

0:56

And then at some point on a story night, a

0:59

bunch of men show up at the door and they're

1:01

like, we have someone who's sick with us. And you

1:03

know, this is not going to be great. He's wounded.

1:06

I was going to say, because of these books, if someone came up to my door and

1:08

was like, I need help, I would be like, sorry. And

1:11

so it's like the sheriff and his men, they're like, we happened

1:14

upon this occult. They were doing these horrible

1:16

things. But this one, the sheriff's like, this

1:18

one was my brother. And so like, he's

1:20

wounded, but I need to see, try

1:22

to save him. So they take him in and they're like, well, we

1:25

are in a hospital. And he's like, I don't think he's that kind

1:27

of wounded. You know, like

1:29

it's like a wound of the soul.

1:32

And then things, horrible things

1:35

start happening among the boys

1:37

at the orphanage and the priests. And

1:40

it turns into like, it's like when evil lurks. It

1:42

is. It's like, oh, they say it's

1:44

the exorcist meets Lord of the Flies. And I say that's

1:47

right on. Oh, wow. It's

1:49

pretty spooky. There's some parts that have been really

1:51

scary. Like young boys being

1:53

evil is kind of a scary thing to

1:55

me. Because they're already so close. Very

1:58

close to being evil. Been right on the edge. And

2:00

I'm listening it to my, from my book club, which is

2:02

tomorrow and I have to finish it today. So,

2:05

uh, let's, I'm, I'm right in the middle, but I

2:07

still have a couple hours to go. Uh, what

2:09

are you reading? I'm reading some nonfiction. I'm, you

2:12

know what? We are not even

2:14

a week into 2024, but so far I've been doing good

2:16

on all my resolutions. Oh, good. And I

2:18

am reading a book that was one of our

2:21

anticipated books from last year. And one of

2:23

our members only anticipated books episodes that you

2:25

can get by going to maximumfund.org/join. It

2:27

is called Against Techno-Ableism by Ashley

2:30

Hsu. And it's a whole

2:32

book about how a lot of people try

2:34

to use technology to change disabled people to

2:36

fit the world. And her whole argument in

2:38

the book is why are we not using

2:40

technology to change the world to fit the

2:43

people who live in it and make

2:45

the whole world more accessible? Because

2:48

she mentions that there's a, sometimes people who

2:50

are able-bodied or only are called temporarily able-bodied

2:52

because at some point we're all going to

2:54

need some sort of ability help and it

2:57

seems ridiculous that maybe we try to make

2:59

people change their bodies to fit the world when we

3:01

could just change the world to fit everybody's

3:03

types of bodies. And it's very

3:05

fun. It's very funny. It's very,

3:08

it's pretty short. I'm reading

3:10

the audio book and it's narrated very

3:12

well by Maria Pendolino. And

3:14

it's, I think it's only like four and a half hours long.

3:17

So if you're looking for like a nice short book to start,

3:19

it's just really great. You know, just a lot of eye-opening stuff

3:21

for someone who doesn't use a lot of, I mean, I empathize

3:23

the fact that I have glasses and I don't

3:25

hear super well. I don't use a wheelchair. I don't use

3:27

a lot of accessibility aids and I have

3:30

to push myself to think

3:32

about the world in those terms. And this is, I just

3:34

think this is a great book to do it with because

3:36

it's so fun and funny. So

3:39

that's Against Techno-Ableism by Ashley Hsu. And

3:41

mine is Boys in the Valley

3:43

by Philip Ferkasy, narrated by David

3:45

Aaron Baker. So

3:51

we want to take a moment to share some

3:53

listener feedback. May wrote in to say, Hi Brianne

3:55

Mallory, I'm a library assistant and an MLIS student

3:58

in my last semester. Hey! do

4:00

not keep lists of what people check

4:02

out. Oh. Oh. Someone

4:05

was concerned about it. Right. Why

4:07

were they concerned? They were trying to make friends

4:09

with that librarian. Oh, okay. And

4:13

they were like, oh, they can see all the books that I checked

4:15

out. I see, I see, I see. Once you check the book in,

4:17

there's no record of you checking it out. So if a patron comes

4:19

up and asks me the title of the book they returned last week,

4:21

I have no way of knowing. Interesting. Because

4:23

I can see it online on... Yeah, you can

4:26

see it, but I don't think librarians can see

4:28

it. Okay, interesting. Librarians will let you change

4:30

a setting on your account that will keep track

4:32

of everything you've checked out. But staff still cannot

4:34

see it. Privacy is important in libraries. Also, you're

4:37

right that if someone is returning and checking

4:39

out something a lot, we're more likely to buy

4:41

the author's next book. Renewals don't change this, though.

4:43

Interesting. Also, unlike a lot of grad students,

4:45

I've been able to read more since I started. Audio books

4:47

do help a lot. I like to listen to them or

4:49

podcasts while I'm cataloging books at work. Thank

4:51

you for making your podcast every week. I've been listening

4:53

to you since you had less than 10 episodes. Wow.

4:56

OG Glasser over here. We've come so far. May.

4:59

Also, we've... I think we've grown as people. Our

5:02

tastes have changed. I've grown, physically. My muscles are huge

5:04

now. My muscles are twice the size, isn't it? They really

5:06

are. May, thank you so much. We always love

5:08

when we get some librarian insights. Yeah.

5:11

Library secrets. Although, I

5:13

guess this is not a secret,

5:15

especially if it's about privacy. For

5:17

sure. For sure. AJ wrote in

5:19

and said, hi, Bree and Mallory. I just listened

5:22

to the segment on adding a new reading format

5:24

and wanted to share something that worked well for

5:26

me moving from print to digital. I sometimes want

5:28

to take notes on the book I am reading,

5:30

maybe a biography or self-help, but I thought of

5:32

putting a highlighter to paper gives me anxiety and

5:34

a light pencil in the margin isn't always the

5:36

right answer either. I also can't usually read at

5:38

a table with the notebook open, probably because

5:40

that table is a mess. Fair. Enter the Kindle

5:43

Fire or app. You can highlight passages in four

5:45

different colors and dog your as many pages as

5:47

you like, and then later sort through a list

5:49

of those passages and pages when you are ready

5:52

to summarize or journal. I think reading position is

5:54

synced between devices so I can read on a

5:56

large device at home or pick up my phone.

5:58

when I'm in the waiting room and want to

6:01

get a few pages in. Thanks for the great

6:03

podcast. I've shared more than a few book recommendation

6:05

of yours with my wife, and she is now

6:07

a listener as well. That is very sweet. And

6:10

listen, I also can say I do a lot

6:12

of highlighting on the Kindle. And there's a book

6:14

right now I am working on adapting. And

6:17

the highlight function has been incredibly helpful to me.

6:19

Because I can just highlight stuff that I want

6:21

to come back to, and then I look at

6:23

it later. And I transfer

6:25

all that to a new document. It works

6:27

out wonderfully. Oh, fantastic. Also, AJ wrote in

6:29

with A Wheelhouse, which is, dystopic fiction, post-apocalyptic,

6:31

space opera, planetary exploration, descriptions of flora and

6:33

fauna, time paradox, and dry humor. I will

6:35

say, I do love in a sci-fi or

6:37

fantasy book descriptions of the flora and fauna.

6:39

Oh, it's nice. I like it. Tell me

6:42

what those flowers look like. Tell me what

6:44

those little animals are. I bet you're going

6:46

to say dry humor in a sci-fi book,

6:48

because I like that as well. Oh, that

6:50

too. I love. Maybe it's

6:52

because in a parallel life, I would have

6:54

been a wildlife biologist. That's what I was

6:56

in college for before I dropped out. Still make

6:59

that happen. No. You don't have

7:01

time? Don't have time. I work for two

7:03

jobs. I

7:07

do not have time to pick up a lot of poop anymore.

7:09

That's what I did at my internship. At

7:11

the Wildlife Center in York, Maine.

7:14

Why? Picking up a lot of poop. For

7:16

who? The animals. What are they

7:18

doing with it? Making it. You're

7:22

cleaning. Yeah, when I was a wildlife intern, that's what

7:24

I did. The first thing you do is you don't

7:26

get to do cool stuff. They're like, oh, cool. Here's

7:28

your first day. Here's the show. Yeah, that makes sense.

7:31

So I think because of that, and because that

7:33

was my first career path, I'm always

7:36

like, I want to know what those fantasy animals

7:38

look like. Please. Of course. You can email us

7:40

every on Glasses Podcast at tmail.com if you want to

7:42

list all the books we talk about on the show

7:44

delivered to your inbox every month. You can sign up

7:46

for our newsletter. There's a link in the show notes.

7:48

And reminder, folks, the readathon is Saturday, February 3. We're

7:51

going to start in the morning and end at 5. And

7:55

you can do that whatever your time zone is in.

7:57

And we're going to be doing some check-ins throughout the

7:59

day on Instagram. Instagram Live, pick out your stack

8:01

of books, pick out your stack of snacks,

8:03

and it's going to be really fun. We're

8:06

also still taking votes for the Glasser

8:08

Voted Book Club. We are only going

8:10

to be taking votes through the month

8:12

of January, and then in February we're

8:14

going to announce the pick. And

8:17

right now the forerunner is still Starling House

8:19

by Alexi Harrow. I'm very excited about it,

8:21

but you can email. There's a thread in

8:23

the Slack channel right now if you want

8:25

to add your vote there. Email us whatever

8:27

book you want. It can be adult graphic

8:29

novel, middle grade audio, but whatever you want to do,

8:31

let us know. But

8:34

we're all going to read a book together, and then

8:36

we're going to have a members-only Zoom to talk about

8:38

it. It's going to be super fun. It's exciting. So

8:40

before we talk about altering and improving print books, we're

8:42

going to take a quick break. Reading

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maximum fun.org This

12:05

week, thanks to TikTok, we've been getting a lot

12:08

of emails. There are readers out

12:10

there rebinding books, altering the spines, recovering them,

12:12

doing all sorts of things to print books

12:14

to make them more aesthetically pleasing or easy

12:17

to read, but glasters want to know, does

12:19

this stuff really work? Is it okay to

12:21

do? We've got you covered,

12:23

pun intended. All

12:25

right, let's start with book rebinding. Bria, you want

12:28

to read the question that Anna wrote in to

12:30

ask? Yeah, Anna asked, as someone who is bookish

12:32

and chronically online, my social media algorithms have been

12:34

showing me people who rebind books. Each video starts

12:37

with them ripping the cover off a book and

12:39

then shows the whole process of putting a new

12:41

hardcover on the book. Have you all seen these

12:43

videos? And if so, what are your thoughts? Part

12:46

of me really loves this because if you have

12:48

a lot of paperbacks in your collection, it's a

12:50

good way to get a hardcover without buying a new

12:52

copy of the book. The other part of

12:54

me feels icky because I feel like it's completely

12:56

dismissing the work of the artist who created the

12:59

cover design. Mallory, what do you think?

13:01

Is it disrespectful? No. Okay.

13:03

Also, because remember, you have to remember, the ultimate

13:06

goal of a book cover designer is to get

13:08

you to buy that book. After

13:10

that, it's all gravy. Sure. I mean,

13:12

obviously they put a lot of work into it and, you know,

13:14

my best friend is a book cover designer, so I have a

13:16

special appreciation for the art form. But after

13:19

you buy that book, it's your own business. It's

13:21

your book. Yes. You

13:23

can put a lot of effort into that design, but it's yours now. It's

13:27

not disrespectful to the author to

13:29

read the last page first or

13:31

read on the toilet. So

13:33

why would it be disrespectful to take the book and

13:36

do your own stuff with it? Maybe

13:39

you can save the cover and glue the art into

13:42

your book journal or make a collage of all the

13:44

books you read that year. That would be fun. Yeah.

13:47

But what do you think of this? Yeah. No,

13:49

I think it's your book. It's your book. You

13:51

can do whatever you want. And bookbinding is actually

13:53

an art form. This is it is really my

13:55

mom. My mom does it as an art form.

13:58

If you want to take the time to. learn

14:00

that art and that skill set, like more

14:02

power to you. I mean, I think about like,

14:04

if someone took the DVD of my movie and

14:06

they made a different cover that they wanted to,

14:08

I would be like, wow, you care enough about

14:10

this movie to make your own cover. The thing

14:12

too, is that, you know, it's not like these

14:14

people are ripping the covers off of the books

14:16

and burning them. Yeah, you know, they like they

14:18

love the book. Yeah, they love the book so

14:20

much that they want to make it their own,

14:22

make it more aesthetically pleasing, make it fit into

14:24

their collection, whatever it is. Yeah, I yeah, I

14:26

think it's cool. Do you think people should try

14:28

it? Um, me

14:33

personally, I'm not a crafter. So I've seen a

14:35

ton of these videos and while it makes the

14:38

book look wicked cute, it's

14:40

too much of a pain in the ass. For me,

14:42

you're not really. What is the craftiest thing you've ever

14:44

done? Oh, no,

14:46

no crafting at all. I feel like you can craft.

14:48

I feel like you have that in you. What do

14:50

I I don't know, decorating the

14:53

Christmas tree. Okay, that's crafty. Yeah, sure. That's

14:55

about as far as I go. I don't

14:57

I I don't find it relaxing. I see.

14:59

I do not lose myself in the joy

15:01

of craft. I just go, Oh

15:03

my god, it's not perfect. Oh my god. I have glue everywhere. Oh my god,

15:06

this cat hair stick to things does not does not

15:08

relax me. But if you are the opposite of me,

15:10

and you love it, and it seems fun, I think

15:12

it's worth a try. Like, the thing is, I can

15:14

definitely see the appeal of having all your books be

15:17

the same dimensions and the same aesthetic. I saw some

15:19

video of a woman who's basically done all of her

15:21

books like that. Wow. So every single book that she

15:23

owns is the exact same size,

15:25

same like shape. And it's

15:28

like, obviously hundreds of

15:30

hours of work. But I was like, it

15:32

does make it like that is your fucking

15:34

library. Like it looks like it's your exact

15:36

aesthetic. I might be inclined to try it

15:38

if I had and I actually do have

15:40

books like this that are so old and

15:42

worn out that like I have my copy

15:44

of The Exorcist is held together with rubber bands

15:46

and it does not have the cover on it anymore. It's

15:48

a mass market paperback that like, I am pretty sure that

15:50

if I bend it too hard, it would crumble to dust.

15:53

So I would be very interested in being like, all

15:55

right, I'm gonna rebind The Exorcist

15:57

and like some spooky cover and do

15:59

something. with it. Would you would you ever do this?

16:01

Would I do this? I don't

16:04

know. I mean, look, I'm gonna say for

16:06

other people, like, it's always good

16:08

to learn new skills. And I am a little crafty.

16:10

Like I do, I do craft, I make things with

16:12

my hands. There are tons

16:14

of classes on bookbinding. There's tons of

16:16

YouTube videos. I would just

16:18

be careful before ripping up your favorite books. Yeah,

16:22

pick a two star book. Here's why

16:24

I wouldn't do it. It

16:26

looks hard. Like it looks quite hard. I mean,

16:28

it's doable. It's just something that takes a lot

16:30

of measuring, a lot of time, a lot of

16:32

practice. It takes special tools as well. Oh, yeah.

16:35

You like to buy that little special stick they

16:37

have. Yeah, like a stick. So recently,

16:39

which is a very sweet, my mother

16:42

bound one of my scripts that I wrote for

16:44

12 hour shift. She bound that script and made

16:46

a book box for it. And

16:48

I mean, your mom is so cool. It took,

16:51

you know, weeks to make this because she had to

16:53

press it. She had to like build the buying. I

16:55

mean, like it's a whole thing. There's a lot of

16:57

measuring. I'm not great at measuring. That's something I know.

16:59

I was going to say last episode, we didn't know.

17:01

We neither of us know how much a centimeter. That's

17:03

exactly right. And when I hear not the people,

17:07

I literally look up there and I go, seems about

17:09

right. And then I just, I just nail a hole

17:11

right in the wall. I do no measuring it like

17:13

me. I'm sure people would really hate that. Yeah. There's

17:15

someone out there who's weeping. Yeah. And I just look,

17:17

if you are that crafty and that good at that

17:19

kind of stuff, I think it's great. But it is

17:21

a skill set and it's a wonderful skill set to

17:23

learn. I just don't personally have it at this moment.

17:25

So, but you think people should give it a try

17:27

maybe with a book that they're not a huge

17:29

fan of wanting to dedicate, you know, a couple of

17:31

weeks to doing this. I think that's how long it's going

17:33

to take you the first time. I think it's going to

17:35

take you a minute. Yes. The first time we do it.

17:37

This is actually is not in our episode outline, but I

17:39

did want to ask what about people who just make covers

17:42

that are like reusable for books? Yeah.

17:44

Like that's easier. Like, like, like those stretchy

17:46

ones that we use for textbooks and stuff.

17:48

Do you think that's worth it for people?

17:50

I think there's like something you specifically want

17:52

it for or something. I think, yeah, if

17:55

you, if you were like, Oh, I just don't like

17:57

the texture of books and I want to, You

17:59

know, make something. My own or like you just

18:01

want to personalize mean that would be easier way

18:03

and whipping whole cover off as if you were all

18:05

the mass. You could make your own cover and put

18:07

it on all of the what? Yes we did. We

18:10

talked about that a really long. Time ago there

18:12

are people who. Sell. Just the

18:14

book jacket. Have a pretty

18:16

dicey legal territory where. I

18:19

go to her making yourself like us like the

18:21

person who does a lot of fan art. How

18:23

cool would it be to like printed out and

18:25

put it on? like make a book cover of

18:27

it and put it on make your own book

18:29

jacket? yeah that would be really fun or like

18:32

getting one of those like stretchy or of like

18:34

paper reusable book jacket to dislike put on your

18:36

book to protect it in your purse or look

18:38

pretty isn't as fun as I took was they

18:40

were. In a talk about. Three. Sent me

18:42

a video about something called spine trainer which

18:45

I think sounds that sounds like he's a

18:47

oh ours is a sounds like some sort

18:49

of like stress you doing yoga where they

18:51

like this is spying trainings is gonna is

18:54

gonna train your spine I thought it sounded

18:56

like a kinky thing. okay what does it

18:58

involve more sign I guess I don't know

19:00

like it's just are like maybe the zebra

19:03

who do have like wastes trainers incandescents. sadly

19:05

when the I yeah who is it's own

19:07

oh this is something about I don't like

19:09

those I don't like the term is eyeing.

19:12

My dream. How does the whole church says we're

19:14

basically sports find? Rating is as when you have

19:16

a paperback that as a hunk her and you

19:18

wanted to lie flat when you read it but

19:21

you don't want to crack the spine we will

19:23

linked to the video but the way that you

19:25

do it as you balance the book on it's

19:27

fine on a flat surface in a small section.

19:30

Starting from the outside, you press the pages flat

19:32

onto the flat surface by running your finger down

19:34

the. Spine. The book but women

19:36

as until you get to the center and

19:38

them than it's spine trained. I guess what

19:40

do you think of it I didn't have

19:43

it works because I entire oh I tried

19:45

it and a foggy word. Now I train

19:47

the shit out of As by. Trying

19:50

to sign can sit a thermostat. potty

19:54

training the freight train i it's

19:56

very frustrating for my calculator here

19:58

a little barn I

20:01

was actually kind of skeptical about this because sometimes I

20:03

every once in a while I try things that

20:05

like I'm not on chick talk because it gives

20:07

me anxiety but Sometimes people send

20:09

me videos of things on check talk and I'm

20:11

like I'm gonna try this and then it doesn't

20:13

work out Like someone sent me a recipe for

20:15

like protein pudding. It tastes like cement. Ah, they're

20:17

like, oh a delicious treat I was like for

20:19

the ground So

20:21

I was kind of skeptical about this and it looked like it would be

20:23

kind of a pain in the ass to do But

20:25

I do have several paperback honkers And

20:28

I was like, all right. Well, I'm gonna try it and

20:30

it only took me a couple minutes Well in the

20:33

video it looks like it's gonna take a lot longer, but

20:35

only took me a couple minutes and it really worked Wow,

20:37

I actually am going to be doing this with future Honker

20:40

paperbacks, it's great because it makes the book feel

20:42

have that like loose worn-in feel But it doesn't

20:44

you don't crack the spine at all and like

20:46

the spine does not bend or bow in any

20:48

any way Wow, it really fucking works. Yeah, that

20:50

surprises me that it works. I like when I

20:52

saw it I was like, I don't know but

20:54

okay, that's cool. That's cool So would you want

20:56

if you had a big paperback honker? Would you

20:58

do this? Maybe it's kind of irrelevant to me

21:00

because I'm not gonna have a paperback honker I

21:06

do some comic books that are huge like, you

21:08

know, oh, yeah Maybe

21:11

maybe I'll try it You

21:13

want to like see the art in that you do you

21:15

want to see the art and you but you don't want

21:17

to crack the spine Yeah, if you can avoid it cuz

21:19

it's probably art on the spine. Yeah, maybe I'll try it

21:21

I mean, I don't really care if I ruin the spine

21:23

for the most part But um, I didn't used to and

21:26

then I was going through my books the other day I

21:28

you know, it's a new year I was going through my

21:30

little cart pulling out stuff that you know I

21:32

wasn't interested in anymore and then I got this book at

21:34

a used bookstore and I opened it up to Like

21:37

it looks like a page was sticking out and I opened it

21:39

up and the page just fell out of the book Oh my

21:41

god, I was like, uh, someone should have

21:43

spined during this just fine trained it. They should have spined during

21:45

it All right, cool. Well, maybe I'll try it. This maybe I'll

21:47

try it this year if I get a giant a

21:50

giant New strategy mom. Yeah.

21:52

Yeah, maybe the new which we'll talk about the new

21:55

my favorite thing is monsters will be probably really big

21:57

Yeah. Yeah. Oh for sure. And honestly, I'm gonna I

21:59

did try this on a few different sizes of books,

22:01

but I didn't try it on like a average trade

22:04

paperback size book that wasn't, you know, sub

22:06

400 pages. But

22:08

I think this is great. Honestly, I think we're

22:10

both very on board for whatever you need to

22:13

do to a physical book to make it easier

22:15

to read or more like make you happier, do

22:17

it. You know, unless that

22:19

involves hitting somebody with it. I'm

22:22

only happy if my book has been used

22:24

to bludgeon somebody. Oh, what a dream. That's

22:27

the kind of villain I would be is like I

22:29

would hit people with a giant book. But

22:31

I mean, again, when you buy a book, it is

22:33

yours. It is your object. You are not beholden. Like,

22:35

I mean, we hope that you would, if you like

22:37

it, you'll like review it and, you know, buy

22:40

that author's next book, you know, recommend it, those

22:42

kind of things. But when it comes to the

22:44

actual physical object, you can dog ear it, you

22:46

can read it on the toilet, you can spine

22:49

train it, you can rip it, rip the cover

22:51

off and put something new on there. It's

22:54

your object. Like, that's really what we're saying here. Like, no, no stress

22:56

on that. It's yours. You

22:58

can send your thoughts to reading glasses [email protected]. Before we

23:00

recommend some gateway fantasy, we're going to take a quick

23:02

break. Reading

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24:59

Glasses. I'm Dan McCoy. I'm

25:03

Stuart Wellington. I'm

25:05

Elliot Kalin. And

25:08

together, we are The Flophouse, a long-running podcast

25:10

on the Maximum Fun Network, where we watch

25:13

a bad movie and then talk about it.

25:15

And because we're so long-running, maybe you haven't given

25:18

us a chance. I get it. But you don't

25:20

actually have to know anything about previous episodes to

25:22

enjoy us. And I promise you that if you

25:24

find our voices irritating, we grow endearing over time.

25:27

Perhaps you listened to one of our old episodes

25:29

and decided that we were dumb and immature. Well,

25:31

we've been doing this a while now. We have

25:33

become smarter and more mature and

25:36

generally nicer to Dan. But we

25:38

are only human, so no promises.

25:41

Find The Flophouse on maximumfun.org

25:43

or wherever you get podcasts.

25:51

Thanks for listening. Time

25:57

to answer a recommendation request from one of

25:59

our listeners. Kara writes in, I love fantasy

26:01

games and fantasy shows, but I do

26:03

not read fantasy novels. My wheelhouse is

26:06

entirely thriller, who done its stories, families

26:08

with secrets, and meet cute romance. I

26:10

know that I would enjoy fantasy if I could

26:12

just find the right entry point. My only concern

26:14

is getting into a massively complicated world in a

26:17

giant double digit series. I think that will scare

26:19

me away. Here's the question. Can you recommend an

26:21

easy to digest fantasy novel to try? A one

26:23

off, does that even exist? Or maybe a three

26:25

to four book series? The last time I read

26:27

anything close to fantasy was the Twilight series as

26:29

it was coming out. I love,

26:31

in fantasy, fairies, witches, alchemy, anime

26:33

style magic, historical elements, and a

26:35

hint of romance never hurts. Bria,

26:38

what do we think that Tara should

26:40

read? I just wanna say I also would like

26:42

a fantasy who done it if someone can send that

26:45

my way. I couldn't think of one, but I really-

26:47

I would read the shit out of that. Yeah, I

26:49

couldn't think of any, but I do like

26:51

a who done it, and I would like if

26:53

it was fantasy. Like, that would be fun. I

26:55

know that- Maybe

26:58

there's a couple I've read, but like- There

27:00

is- The Jim Butcher.

27:02

The Helm of Midnight by Marina Lostetter,

27:04

which is like a fantasy thriller kind

27:07

of who done it, but that is, I would not

27:09

recommend that for Tara because it is very

27:11

dense, very- See,

27:14

I'm always saying it's like who done it sort

27:16

of mystery. Like a cozy who done it, but with

27:18

fantasy. Yeah, I'd be into that. That'd

27:20

be really fun. Anyway, it's only been about two weeks

27:22

since we talked about Emily Wilde's Exacto-pedia fairies, so I

27:24

think it's time to bring it back up. Well, the

27:27

new one just came out. Oh yeah, I know I

27:29

saw that on someone's Instagram. It has a meet cute,

27:31

it has a mystery aspect to it, it has secrets,

27:34

and there's only, well, there's two now.

27:36

So you can really jump

27:38

into this and not feel- And the world doesn't feel

27:40

that big. No, as someone, Tara, I was in the

27:42

same place as you. I'm trying to get more into

27:44

fantasy, but I don't have a lot of bandwidth for

27:47

complicated world building, and I jumped right into this one.

27:49

It was one of my favorites of last year. Yeah, I think this

27:51

could be perfect for someone who's trying to look for some fantasy, doesn't

27:54

want super, it's not super high fantasy, but it's

27:56

got fairies and- that's

28:00

great is it's set in our world, but it's adjacent

28:02

to another world. So they dip into that world a

28:04

little bit. And you do get to see, and I

28:06

wonder if in the next one there's gonna be more

28:08

of that world. Yeah, I bet you. Right? Because

28:11

it does all take place the next one in the same.

28:13

I don't know. Oh, we don't know. Wow, neither of us have

28:15

listened to it. But it's very romantic. It

28:17

does have a romance too. Yeah, so that's exciting too.

28:19

So it has a meet cute, there's all

28:21

sorts of fun stuff in that

28:23

one. I think it's great. People really like it, and

28:25

I can definitely recommend it. What do you got? I

28:28

think I have the perfect book series for Tara. I love

28:31

that our accents say that the name differently.

28:33

Maybe she told us. You say Tara? I say

28:35

Tara. I say Tara, oh, and then? But it maybe, did she tell

28:37

us how to pronounce it? No. Sorry,

28:39

okay. It may be, I think in the

28:41

South we say Tara. Interesting. Yeah,

28:43

you say Tara. Yeah, like I say aunt and some

28:45

people say aunt. Interesting. Oh,

28:48

what if you had an aunt Tara? Yeah.

28:51

An aunt Tara or an aunt Tara. All

28:54

right, but anyway, Tara, however you

28:56

pronounce your name, I have the perfect book for

28:58

you. From our friends over at

29:00

Orbit, it's a romanticy trilogy, so a

29:02

limited number of books. It's

29:04

by Olivia Atwater, and it's called The Regency Fairy

29:07

Tales, and get ready for this. It's

29:09

got fairy magic and romance in

29:11

historical Regency England, and it's billed

29:13

as Bridgerton Meets Howl's Moving Castle.

29:15

Whoa, how does that work? I'm

29:17

about to tell you. Okay.

29:20

It's about a woman, and she's been cursed by

29:22

a fairy to never feel fear or embarrassment. Oh,

29:24

I love that. And because

29:26

it's Regency England, she gets constantly embroiled

29:28

in these social scandals because she doesn't

29:31

feel embarrassment. Great. So it's just

29:33

like, say stuff, and people will be like, oh

29:35

my God, and she's like, what? So she ends

29:37

up meeting this very rude but handsome lord who

29:39

has discovered her curse, and he becomes fascinated with

29:41

her and ends up drawing her into these fairy

29:43

affairs. Oh, cute. And so I

29:45

just think it has everything that Tara's

29:47

looking for. Like it's not super high

29:49

fantasy. It's got witches, it's got fairies,

29:52

it's got magic, it's a history book,

29:54

and it's a romance. So I think it's gonna hit on

29:56

everything for Tara, and

29:58

again, it's a trilogy, it's only three. The

30:00

series is called The Regency Fairy Tales, but

30:02

the first book is called Half a Soul,

30:06

and it's just so fun. So

30:08

much fun. Tara, I hope you

30:10

love it. So you can send your recommendation

30:12

request to [email protected]. Now

30:18

let's solve a bookish problem from Anna. Anna says,

30:20

Hi Bree and Mallory. Do you have any recommendations

30:22

on how to get the most out of a

30:25

used bookstore trip? I recently went to a Planned

30:27

Parenthood book sale, and when I got there, I

30:29

was incredibly overwhelmed. I had no idea what I

30:31

was looking for or where even to start. I

30:34

did end up walking away with a few books, but

30:36

I felt like I happened upon them by chance while

30:38

I was aimlessly wandering around. Would love to hear your

30:41

thoughts on how to tackle used book buying and how

30:43

to get the most out of a shopping trip. Also,

30:45

not sure if these happen in all states, but Planned

30:47

Parenthood in my city, Des Moines, Iowa, hosts

30:49

a used book sale to support the organization.

30:51

People can donate their books and Planned Parenthood

30:53

sells them to raise money. As a reader,

30:56

this is an amazing way to not only

30:58

clean out your shelves and find new reads,

31:00

but also to support this vital organization. Would

31:02

highly encourage all glassers to search for a

31:04

Planned Parenthood book sale near them. I

31:07

love that. I know. I want to do

31:09

that now. I know. It's cool they

31:11

did that. Bree, what used bookstore

31:13

tips do you have for Anna? I would say it could go

31:15

a lot of ways. You can

31:17

either crush it and come away with books

31:19

you've been dying to read, or, and this is

31:22

usually me, you just choose this moment

31:24

to live free. Live free,

31:26

no rules, pure anarchy, which sounds like

31:29

is exactly what Anna did, where you

31:31

just kind of, you wander, you see

31:33

where the road takes you. See where

31:35

those pages take you. Where the book

31:37

road takes you. For me,

31:39

I'm not going to find probably what

31:41

I've been dying to read here, so I've just been

31:43

looking for fun stuff, weird cookbooks,

31:46

gifts, something I'm like, oh, this is something

31:48

somebody likes. Maybe copies of

31:50

books I've already lost or want to reread or

31:52

want to own. That's always a good thing. Or I e-read.

31:55

I love doing that so that

31:57

they can be on my shelf later. Seriously,

31:59

I'm not. And don't talk on the cookbooks.

32:01

You can find some real weird ones, some real fun

32:03

ones in there. Cookbooks are expensive. And yeah, and there's

32:06

usually people giving away somewhere. I just recently,

32:08

my friend had a box of books and he was like, do

32:10

anything in it. And one was called Soups. And

32:12

it was a whole book of soups. And I was like, I

32:14

will be taking the soup book. This

32:17

looks amazing. Like some gem from

32:19

the 80s made of like, it's just

32:21

like dishes made of canned goods.

32:23

Like look for that, that's fun. That's

32:25

me. But like something you might be interested in like

32:27

that as well. Cause I think if you're going to

32:30

kind of support the organization, you're

32:32

not going to like whittle down your

32:34

TBR, I think, because it's just gonna

32:36

be hard to find that in this kind of

32:38

environment. Unless this is like a bunch of people who

32:41

like kind of read the same stuff you do and

32:43

they probably don't. So I think just like go and

32:45

genuinely do as you did. Let the

32:47

wind carry you where you want. Where's

32:49

May? And you

32:51

know, do a little digging. Feel free to dig and

32:53

look through and like read the back of some books

32:56

that like the cover catches your eye. Like don't feel

32:58

like you have to go in with a mission because

33:00

I feel like these kind of places. I think that's

33:02

what's pressing Anna out. It's feeling like she's failing at

33:04

a mission. Mission will be impossible. Like I think mission

33:06

might fail. Like if you try this, cause you're not

33:09

what you need there. They're not going to have, you

33:11

know what I mean? What do you

33:13

think? Do you have, what's your advice? I also agree.

33:15

We have to go check out a Planned Parenthood

33:17

book sale. Yeah, that's fun. Multiple things that I

33:19

love. Second, my tip is, so

33:21

I do this thing on my book buddy

33:24

app where I keep a running list of

33:26

backlist books that I am like interested enough

33:28

to read them, but not interested enough to

33:30

like, I was going to say this sounds

33:33

complicated, but I know who I'm talking

33:35

to. I'm talking to you all. You all

33:37

live for like weird niche complicated book rituals.

33:40

Sometimes if I, like if I, if my

33:42

Libby holds list is too full, I don't

33:44

want to add to it. So I'm like,

33:46

I see a book somewhere at

33:48

a bookstore mentioned online, it's a backlist book, been

33:51

out for a few years, definitely will be probably

33:53

available at a used bookstore. And I go, I

33:55

kind of want to read that, but I'll

33:57

save it. I make a list, I have probably like 10. of

34:00

those books. And so whenever I go into

34:02

a used bookstore, I'm like, ta-da, this is perfect. I

34:05

understand her or their stress

34:07

about going into a bookstore

34:09

and not feeling, like feeling

34:11

aimless because it's very overwhelming.

34:14

You know, you never really

34:16

realize how many books there are in the

34:18

world until you are So

34:20

many books. So many books. Yeah. So

34:23

I like having some kind of structure, like some kind of goal. I see.

34:25

So whenever I find other books on the way, I like

34:28

having, all right, I'm looking for So

34:30

it's the books you found along the way. It's all about the books we

34:32

found along the way. I like having some kind

34:34

of aim to like, all right, well, I'm at least ... You

34:36

like the goal. If I don't find these books, I can look

34:38

for them. I see. And so that's what

34:40

I like to do. I

34:43

like to have some sort of place to start. Yeah.

34:46

I think because I don't read that many physical

34:48

books, I prefer eBooks, that my journey is going

34:50

to be a lot different. Yeah. Because

34:52

it's more to me like, what can I buy to support this organization

34:55

that might be fun, that I can give away, that I can put

34:57

on my shelf? You're looking for soup. Yeah. I'm

34:59

just looking for a ... Look, give me a soup book

35:01

and I'll be happy. So if you want

35:03

to solve your reader problem, you can send it to readingglassespodcasts.com.

35:06

As always, I want to thank the wonderful Monster. We

35:08

run our Facebook group. We appreciate them so much. And

35:10

remember, you want a cute sweatshirt, you want a tote

35:12

bag, you want a t-shirt that shows the world that

35:14

you are bookish. Maybe you could wear

35:17

it at a used bookstore while you're buying books. Check

35:19

out our Void Merch store. There's a link in

35:21

the show notes and the stuff that you buy

35:23

there directly supports us and our very hungry animals.

35:25

And if you like the show and you want

35:27

to do something nice for us that really makes

35:29

a difference, please rate and review us on the podcast

35:32

listening app of your choice. It really warms

35:34

our hearts and helps people find the show.

35:36

You can email us at [email protected]. Find us on

35:38

Twitter at Reading Sheet Podcast. On Instagram at Reading

35:40

Glasses Podcast. Thanks for listening and thanks for reading.