Episode 337 || Literary Therapy, Vol. 9
This week Annie is back to answer listeners' literary questions and dilemmas in round nine of Literary Therapy.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our new website:
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
A Place for Us by Fatima Fahreen Mirza
Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Z by Therese Anne Fowler
A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
Sisters in Arms by Kaia Alderson
The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis
The Address by Fiona Davis
The Doll House by Fiona Davis
The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson & Ronald Cotton
Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found below.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
This week, Annie is reading Matrix by Lauren Groff.
If you liked what you heard on today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on iTunes. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can hear our staff’s weekly New Release Tuesday conversations, read full book reviews in our monthly Shelf Life newsletter, follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic, and receive free media mail shipping on all your online book orders. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
episode transcript:
210909_FTFP_Ep 337_Literary Therapy 9
[00:00:00] Annie: Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the south.
“She had made space for discovery in the midst of a most contained life, the life that the world seemed bent on handing her.”
Natalie Jenner, The Jane Austen Society
I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And today, I'm channeling my inner Frasier Crane and conducting a session of literary therapy. Today's bookish dilemmas were submitted by listeners and readers. If you have your own literary conundrum you'd like resolved, just go to from the front porch podcast.com forward slash contact, scroll to the middle of the page, and leave me a voicemail. No microphone required. Each month I'll pick a handful of voicemails to work through during a literary therapy episode. Now onto our September dilemmas. First up is Jennifer.
[00:01:27] Jennifer: Hi, Annie, this is Jennifer, and I'm from the Kansas City, Missouri area.
Okay. So my question for you is, how do I deal with my snobbish aversion to books that are picked for certain monthly book clubs? You know, the ones with the stickers imprinted on the front that you can't actually take off. I will have a book on my TBR list for months, and then the second that it's announced as a book club pick, I just roll my eyes and cross it off the list.
And I know this is ridiculous and snobby, and I'm missing some great books. I mean, The Paper Palace I did read, and it was my favorite book this year so far. So any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
[00:02:08] Annie: Jennifer, first, as with most of the literary therapy conundrums I receive, I want to tell you, you are not alone.
Those stickers drive you crazy. They really bother booksellers and bookstore owners too. We will frequently get a book that we have ordered, and it will arrive with the sticker already kind of imprinted right on the book cover. Like they are not removable. And we also are bothered by that. So this, I think, is actually a pretty common problem.
It reminds me of my own personal bookish pet peeve, which is I hate movie cover tie-ins. Is that the right word? I hate movie tie-in covers. I hate when a book that I really like has been turned into a movie. I don't mind a rereleased or redesigned cover, but I hate when the cover, like now, has the actor and actress on it instead of just some beautiful artwork or something like that.
So this isn't. You aren't alone in this literary conundrum. What I do want to resolve for you is your avoidance of the book entirely, right? Because you mentioned yourself that The Paper Palace is one of your favorite books you read this year. Well, that's a Reese Witherspoon pick. So I want you to know you're not alone.
But we do need to move past it. Right? We need to move past the sticker off the cover of the book. And I say this too because when we... I'll give you an example for us at The Bookshelf when we are picking our shelf subscription selections, Nine times out of 10, do not know what book is going to be a, either a book of the month pick or a Jenna Bush Hager pick or a good morning America book, club pick, or Reese Witherspoon pick or an Oprah pick.
We don't know. Occasionally we will get a heads up, particularly for an Oprah book. We'll get like a heads up, but generally speaking, we don't know. And The Paper Palace is a great example of this because I also loved that book, and I loved it so much. I made it a shelf subscription selection. I ordered a lot of copies, and then they came to us, and they all have the Reese Witherspoon pick.
And that was my first bit of knowledge that it was a Reese Witherspoon selection, which was a bummer to me because even though I like Reese Witherspoon and I think she does a fine job picking books, it was a bummer to me because I like there to be a sense of discovery when I've selected a shelf subscription book and you can kind of feel like, oh no, Reese beat me to it.
Or, or, oh no. Should I pick a different book? Like, is this one too popular? Because respect it. And so, I want us to move beyond those ideologies and those things. Because Reese Witherspoon selecting it shouldn't deter us from reading it. And I think for some people, it encourages reading of it, but it sounds like maybe you and I, Jennifer, have similar personality quirks, which are then it kind of, it kind of does the opposite thing that it's supposed to do, Right? Instead, it kind of pushes us away from the book, maybe because we think it's going to be too poppy. Or maybe because we just, maybe in your case, you just don't like the sticker. You don't like how it has kind of destroyed the cover of this book. So, so I want us to really start giving these books a chance, particularly if you're like me and you now have maybe an aversion to them.
Here's how I think you can do this. So. I have found over the months and years that Jenna Bush Hager and I have very similar literary tastes. So I am now no longer bothered by her sticker or her selection because I at least think to myself, oh, well, If Jenna liked it, I probably will. So I think it could be a little bit like going into a bookstore and picking the staffer whose tastes you most align with, like, maybe you have a selection that you are going to move beyond the sticker because you trust the picker.
Oh boy, it rhymed. That advice rhymed. So you're going to focus on who picked it instead of what does the book cover looks like now that it's got that sticker on it. So for me, If it's a Jenna pick. If it's a read with Jenna pick, I'm going to give it a little bit more weight even than a Reese pick or good morning America pick because my tastes so frequently align with Jenna's.
If, if all of these book clubs were like listed out in a row, I think Jenna and I would have the most books in common. Our literary tastes are most aligned. And so, even if I don't like the read with Jenna sticker or logo, Instead of me seeing that and immediately being turned off. I see that. And I'm immediately intrigued because if Jenna read it, chances are, I also will like it.
So I think first, see if there's a book club that you trust, whether it's the book of the month, Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, like somebody whose tastes you mostly line up with. And I think that sticker will start to be easier to ignore. Or get past because you realize you trust their reading tastes. And the other thing I think you should know, and you probably already have guessed this, right.
Or you can logic your way. You can think your way to this conclusion, which is if it's a book pick from a nationally recognized book club, it has gone through a lot of selection processes, right? Like I think we all know that Reese Witherspoon doesn't just like read it. Ten books a month. Right? I mean, maybe she does.
I don't know, but it feels like it probably went through a process, a weeding out process where maybe some of her staff read it and or maybe somebody she really trusts read it. And then Reese wound up coming to that book because of the trusted reviews and readings done by. People she trusts because I assume recess time is super valuable.
And so if she selects a book, I'm going to assume that's because it went through a process of, of fellow readers and people whose tastes, she also has to rely on and trust. So I think if you can remember the rigorous. Selection processes books went through and maybe do a little bit of research on the book and the author outside of it being a book club selection.
So taking a book that Reese Witherspoon picks and yes, you're bothered by the sticker, but. I think about Daisy Jones and the Six, which I'm pretty confident with the Reese Witherspoon selection. Okay. What if we all had ignored Daisy Jones and the Six? What a tragedy, right? That book is legitimately good and interesting and compelling and fun.
And we all would have lost out if we had just ignored it because it came with the restate. So I think, really look into the author. So I already read Taylor Jenkins Reid. I already trusted her. I already really liked her as an author. So when Daisy Jones came out, I wasn't deterred by the sticker because I was already familiar with the author, and I trusted the author.
So look up the author. Is this an author you trust? Is it a debut author? Will. You know, how much did the book sell for who kind of read it and picked it? Why did they pick it? Why was this author chosen? Why was this book chosen? And maybe that's a little too much research, but I just think you might be missing out on books and by your own admission, right.
You might be missing out on books because of this darn sticker. And, and again, we're with you. I wish they weren't printed on the book, but. It's to help the author sell books. Right. I mean, it's to help the publisher, but if we could maybe have that higher goal in mind that like I, okay, I'm going to give you another example.
This isn't a book club selection, but Sarah Jessica Parker has her own imprint. In under a publishing arm. And one of my favorite books of the last oh five or ten years is A Place for Us. And A Place for Us might not have been on my radar and might not have been as hyped by the publisher. Were it not for Sarah Jessica Parker’s appreciation of it and her recognition of it and her choosing it to be, I think the first book under her imprint, if I'm not mistaken, I don't know.
But I'm pretty sure that's right. So A Place for Us is written by Fatima Fahreen Mirza. She's a debut novelist. A Place for Us was her very first book, and who knows what kinds of support she would have received or what kind of marketing support she would have received were it not for the celebrity, right?
The celebrity endorsement. And so I do think that something else to consider is that even though the stickers are a deterrent to readers like you and me, for some people, that sticker or that celebrity endorsement Is the only thing getting them to pick up the book. And we have seen that as booksellers constantly.
So as much as we might roll our eyes, just at that imprinted emblem on the front of the book, we have readers who we might not normally see come into The bookshelf and specifically ask for a book because they saw it on good morning America, or because they saw it on Reese's Instagram. Like we have several books I could name for you that we have sold.
Just because of that celebrity endorsement and, and I think decades ago, it was Oprah's book club book, right? Like everybody was reading Oprah's book club book because, at the time, she was the only celebrity endorsing books. And so I think there is for sure for the publisher, right there is an incentive to get that celebrity endorsement because it'll sell more books.
To romanticize that a little bit for the bookseller. It's a way to get books into people's hands who might not normally pick up a book. And so, even though that sticker isn't our favorite stylistic choice. And if it were up to us, those stickers would be removable for many people. And I'd love to know what writers think, but I guess if I was a writer and my book was chosen by Jenna Bush, Hager or Reese Witherspoon, or Oprah, I'd be peeing my pants.
Like, I'd be super excited. And who cares if that sticker’s on the front of my book? So from a writer's perspective, it might be a really big deal. And then, from a bookseller’s perspective, it's getting people to read who might otherwise not. We sold so many copies of Daisy Jones and the Six, not just to Taylor Jenkins Reid fans.
Because those at the time were not a huge number, but we sold that book in droves because of the Reece selection where the crawdads sing is another great example. I think that book, I mean, it would have taken off in Thomasville because the author is local to us. But I think that book really took on a life of its own because of the Reese endorsement.
And so, as much as those stickers bother us, I think. They are helping a new audience of readers find a book. And maybe if you can, when you're, when you're scanning the shelves, maybe if you can wrap your brain around that concept. Right. And if you can look at that book and think, okay, I don't like this cover because of this darn sticker, but a whole new group of readers has discovered this book, thanks to the sticker like this sticker.
Helped this book reach people. It would not have reached otherwise. And maybe that's romanticizing it too much. But I do think that is something for all of us to consider when we see those stickers or when we see those celebrity endorsements is, Hey, this book is going to have a wider audience now because this celebrity picked it.
So those are some things to think of. Know that you're not alone. Know that it drives us crazy too. But also, don't miss out on really great literature because of a sticker, right? That's the point we don't want to miss out on really great works of art because a publisher decided to capitalize on a celebrity endorsement.
We want to still support the art and the artist. And the way we can do that is by reading their work or by buying their work. So, yeah.
[00:14:25] Caryl: Hi, Annie. My name is Caryl, and I live in Peterborough, New Hampshire. And my question is, what is the distinction between historical fiction and fiction? Clearly, whatever I thought historical fiction is, it's not. I have always maintained, I don't care for historical fiction.
And yet, if I named you some of the novels I've been reading, for example, the hotel at the corner of bitter. I'm starting to think from listening to your podcast for reading reviews of books, that I am gravely mistaken. That is indeed historical fiction. So given that I might actually enjoy historical fiction, I’m asking for suggestions that are in the same vein, as for example, The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, I'm thinking there are things that take place in the 20th century. I feel although I did enjoy March, there's another one by Geraldine Brooks. I enjoyed that one. And I'm just wondering if there's anything in those veins. I, the things I do not care for or any things that are books that take place very far back, like in the 1600s or the 1500s.
So if there's more current historical fiction there, like those two books, I just mentioned. I would love that because I guess now I'm into historical fiction.
[00:15:48] Annie: Hi, Caryl. What a great reminder that the language that we use on the podcast or in bookselling, we don't always define that language. And it's a reminder to me that things that are industry-specific, I sometimes still need to clarify.
So. Commercial fiction versus literary fiction. I D I wouldn't have been able to know what that was prior to working in bookselling. And now I do, but I don't know that I've ever defined it well, so historical fiction when I use that phrase on the podcast, and I think this is mostly true. Across the board, but when you hear it on from the front porch, that phrase is talking about books that feature storylines and characters from the past.
So whether it's the 1800s or 1600s or the nineties, right. Like to me, and look, does it pain me to say that historical fiction might also be set in the nineties? It does, it does pain me, but that would be true because it's in the past. So when I'm talking about historical things, What I mean is books with stories and settings and characters from the past.
Mostly what I think that often means in the book world is a lot of world war II fiction. There's a lot of world war II literature, a lot of world war, one literature, but I think it can also mean. Okay. I'm thinking about the book that I'm reading right now, matrix by Lauren Groff. It is set during the medieval era and about nuns.
It's fantastic. It's great. But that is historical fiction. I mean, it might not be historical fiction. You're interested in, but it is historical fiction. So historical fiction. Runs the gamut, just like history runs the gamut. What is important for you as a reader is to know which era are you interested in?
And it sounds like you've already kind of started to narrow that down, but I think as a reader, that would be important for you to know. And I think you're starting to figure that out. Right? You said, “I don't want books set in the 1600s.” Then Matrix by Lauren Groff might not be for you, but when you hear it described as historical fiction, don't get excited, right?
Because it might not be the historical fiction you have come to know and love. So you've got to identify which era or eras you are most interested in. For a lot of my local readers. It is, it is World War II. When you hear me say that I don't like historical fiction, I really need to be more specific about that.
What I typically mean is I don't always love world war two fiction anymore because I feel like I see it everywhere. And there are exceptions to that, that I'm going to talk about in a minute, but that is, that is something I have learned about myself. So, narrow down the era you were most interested in. I frequently say that I don't like historical fiction, but I sat here thinking, wait a minute, I do like some historical fiction and I'm going to name some of them for you because I think you, Caryl might like them too.
So I really like the author, Therese Anne Fowler. Most recently she's written more contemporary fiction con fiction set in a more contemporary era, but her very first works were works of historical fiction. The first is Z. It is a historical book based on the life of Zelda Fitzgerald. So it's fiction, but it's based on the life of Zelda Fitzgerald.
A Well-Behaved Woman is a novel about the Vanderbilts. So these are books that Therese Anne Fowler. Really researched all about these historical figures, but she's fictionalized them. So Z and a well-behaved woman are two of my very favorite historical works, historical fiction works. And I think that's because it turns out I like books about real people but fictionalized.
So it's a way to get me learning. About these characters, are these people who I've really cared about in history, but who, I don't know a ton about this author has done the research and she's fictionalized it so Z and A Well-Behaved Woman are two really great works of historical fiction. Another recent example is the book Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge.
This is a book I loved and I don't know if I would have known it was historical fiction until I started reading it. And it's loosely based on the life of one of the first black doctors in America. And it's about a mother and a daughter. It's a very quiet book. There is not a ton. I would say there's not a ton of plot.
I definitely remember some major turning points in the book. So major plot points, but it's a quieter book than I think Z was for example, so Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge is a book that I don't know if it was really being sold as historical fiction, but it is historical fiction. It’s set if I recall, kind of in the 1800s mid to late 1800s.
I really fell in love with the characters and it was again, kind of loosely based on historical figures. Another book that I really liked that was based on historical people or people who really lived is We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter. This was one of our towns, one book selections a couple of years ago.
I read this book and absolutely loved it. I had put it off because again, not typically a historical fiction fan, or at least that's what I've thought to myself. I think I stand corrected, but I kind of had avoided it. I picked it up. Absolutely devoured it, handed it to everyone in my family. Like mom, dad, aunt, uncle, another aunt, like everybody read it.
Everybody loved it. It was loved by everyone on a wide scale of reading tastes. And Georgia Hunter, the author had based that book on the life of her real-life family, like people who really did live. So she fictionalized it because that was the easiest and best thing for her to do as a writer, because she did not have actual transcripts or something like that, of what these people might've said or done, but she did a ton of research.
The book really came to life. I think because it was about real people who, who really experienced the horrors of world war II and the horrors of concentration camps and work camps and Georgia Hunter did her research to figure out what was that actually like? What was that like for these characters for these people?
So We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter is an example of a book I would have missed because I thought historical fiction wasn't for me when it turns out that I am drawn to books about real characters, which makes sense, right? Because one genre that I know I like is journalistic nonfiction.
Well, so why wouldn't I like journalistic fiction? Right? Why wouldn't I like well-researched fiction if I really like well-researched well-told nonfiction stories? And so I think remembering that helps me know that there is historical fiction I might really like. Some other historical fiction works you might be interested in are Sisters in Arms, this is a newly released paperback by Kaia Alderson. She has really done her research about black women who fought in world war II. And I am very intrigued. I've got an advanced reader copy. I've passed it along to my mom. Cause I think she might like it too.
I also really love Fiona Davis. So going back to kind of that journalistic writing style, Fiona Davis is a former journalist. She takes a landmark in New York, like a physical landmark in New York City, and builds a fictional story around the actual history of this landmark. So The Masterpiece is about Grand Central Station. The Address, The Doll House, really you could read through, in my opinion, I think those are my three favorites of hers, but I think you could read through Fiona’s entire backlist and probably be really pleased.
The storytelling is great and she's really done her research. That is a commonality. That is something I have found that I really liked. What you might want to do is make a list of the historical fiction you've discovered that you enjoy and figure out, okay. Are all of these books set during World War I?
Okay. Well, maybe I love world war one historical fiction. Do they all have female protagonists? Do they, were they all written by journalists? Like what is the common denominator? What's the common factor in this historical fiction? Books that you've found yourself drawn to when it was a genre, you thought you weren't interested in.
So for me, I think it's the journalistic nature of the writing. I think that might be my commonality, that, and it being based on real-life, historical figures. Another example of this is the Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner. This is perhaps not my most favorite book I've ever read, but I loved the setting.
And you could tell the author had really done her research and based it on this actual society that helped retain Jane Austen's legacy. And I knew about that story. I knew that that had happened, but Natalie Jenner. Put flesh on the bones to put it really grossly. She put, she put flesh, she put meat on those bones and helps me really flesh out that story because it was a story that I knew happened, but I certainly had not done my research to figure out how it happened.
And instead, I just got to read this really lovely work of fiction that told me the story of the Jane Austen Society, these people who saved and preserved her legacy. Another work of historical fiction that I really loved, even though there was kind of a slight twist to it is The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.
And a book that Olivia has read recently, and Olivia is not typically drawn to historical fiction. She read and loved The Sweetness of Water. So I and that book is by Nathan Harris. So I think there is. This examination, we sometimes need to do every so often, right. We need to check in with ourselves and do our, the tastes that we used to have still the tastes we have.
And I think for so long, I just thought, well, I just don't like historical fiction. When what I really meant was, well, I don't like these and it's going back to the book cover design. I don't like these books with women on benches on the cover. Okay. But I loved, We Were the Lucky Ones, which definitely has a bench on the cover.
So maybe my issue is with the publisher's artistic rendering of what's inside this book, and maybe I should give the book a chance. And so I think it's really evaluating what do we really mean? And when you say you really like historical fiction, What does that mean for you? What genre does that mean?
What kind of storytelling tactics does that mean? Really evaluating your tastes. And so I'd make a list of your favorite historical fiction titles, figure out what the commonalities are. Hopefully, some of these recommendations work for you too, but I think it's great to reevaluate and to figure out why you do or don't like.
I think that's really important. Sometimes we can articulate something for so long that we forget what we started saying in the first place and maybe historical fiction. Is that for you or even for me? So I hope that helps, Caryl.
[00:26:55] Eve: Hi Annie. My name is Eve and I'm listening over here in Missouri. And so my dilemma is that I am an INFJ, which I think is a great thing.
And I'm also an HSP, which is a good thing for the most part. But the problem I have is that there are many reads that I have avoided for fear of it being too much for me. So case in point right now, I'm reading the book, the reading list. I, Sarah Nisha. And one of the books recommended or mentioned in that book is a kite runner, a book I've avoided forever.
And it's just kind of making me rethink if I should reread that or read the kite runner. And if there are other books that are in the same game, brutal, but beautifully written and worth the risk, what do you think?
[00:27:49] Annie: Eve, being an INFJ, HSP is great. It is not a weakness. It's a strength. It's who you are, but I love that much like Caryl, you are also kind of re-evaluating your tastes and reevaluating the decisions you've made about the books you read.
I have my Mom, who is a sensitive reader. She's been on the podcast before you probably already know that, but she is a sensitive reader. She's an ISFJ. She's an empath. And so when she reads a book, she really kind of takes it on. She's like that in real life too. She really kind of takes on the burdens of others.
And so in literature, she does as that as well. And so we really have to think about what books she, we should recommend to her because we know her literary tastes and preferences. One thing I've learned in recommending books to my mom isn't that she wants to shy away from hard dark things, because we are all living hard, dark things.
And so my mom is not afraid of hard things. She's living hard things, but what she does want in her books is redemption. And so I think that is what we have realized. What I have realized when recommending books to my mom is she is willing to read about hardships and difficulties and tragedies, even trauma.
She's willing to read about those things. If there is redemption at the end, I mentioned to Caryl the book, We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter, but I think it's a great example here of a book that my mom loves. Okay. It's set in world war two. It depicts some really horrific acts of violence. Some really horrible moments in our world's history.
My mom devoured and loved that book. She still talks about We Were the Lucky Ones. She would've missed out on it if she had avoided it because of content. And so I think you've really got to ask yourself. Is there specific content that troubles you or that sends you into a thought spiral or that brings you anxiety?
Like, is there an actual event in your own life, perhaps that affects your reading life? Because I think that's worth asking and very important and maybe something you're not ready to read about yet. Right. If something actually happened to you and caused you pain and trauma, then you might not want that. I know women who don't want to read about miscarriage because it's what they've experienced and I don't blame them for that.
So I think really asking yourself as an HSP, as an inf, Jay, what content do you want to avoid? Because it actually brings up maybe. Awful memories or hardship for you that you aren't quite ready to face in fiction. And that's fair and fine. But are there things that you could read about that might bring you in.
And might make you cry and might make you sad for a moment. But then the story is so redemptive and so powerful that you're so glad you read it. And I know for a fact, my mom has read books. Like We Were the Lucky Ones, like Picking Cotton, which is true, it's a memoir about a true-life incident. It does not shy away from hard things. It's rooted in an act of sexual violence and sexual assault. But my mom read that book and loved it because of its nature of forgiveness and redemption. And unfortunately, we've talked about this a lot on From the Front Porch and we talked about it a lot at The Bookshelf.
There is no rating system for books. And even when we do rate things, it's really kind of arbitrary and hard to figure out. Like I might write a book. Are because there are a lot of open-door sex scenes, but man, I know my mom is going to love it. So how can she read that book? Even though she doesn't like explicit sex scenes?
Maybe my mom just read a book. I'm not going to name it here because she chose it for a shelf subscription. So we're kind of trying to keep it right. Kind of secret and surprise. But she picked a book for her upcoming shelf subscription, which is supposed to be PG. I'm using air quotes. You can't see them, but it's supposed to be a PG selection designed for more sensitive readers.
And my mom was like, I loved this book, but there are seven. Like she, no, that was, that was what was like, sorry, exact phrasing to me. Invoice and in text, she described it to me. She counted them and I was like, mom, but is the story redemptive and powerful and interesting. And, and something that you typically like, because now people are used to, my mom's reading tastes.
My mom was like, well, yes. And I was like, well then fine. It's fine. You can just put on your card that there's some language that you don't really love. And so the fact that there's not a rating system for books, I do think makes it a little difficult, but I also think it makes sense that there's not a rating system for books because you could miss out on something because you're typically a PG reader.
If a book was rated R right. So ask yourself what your actual content warnings or trigger warnings might be like, what is something that really would bother you if you were to read about it? Would you be okay to read something that has some violent content or sexually explicit content? If the story was good, if the story was powerful, because I think that's the conclusion my mom has reached is there or something she's really willing to look past or move beyond because she loves the story so much.
Do you like a story of redemption? Do you? Okay. Another thing my mom really likes my mom wants a happy ending. Darn it. She just wants, she just wants a happy ending. And so she might be willing to power through or to read about hard, difficult, traumatic things. If she knows there is hope on the other side.
So hope redemption forgiveness. Happy endings. Like these are things that my mom wants in her literature. And I think that's actually a better descriptor of my mom's reading tastes than PG or sensitive reader. Like I think we really have to burrow down into what do we mean when we mean that you mentioned the book, the kite runner, which is still a book I have not read, not for any reason, except it missed me.
I missed it when it came out. And so I have not revisited it as a backlist title. From what I know though about the country. And the people I know who love that book, you probably would really like that book because I think there is an overarching story of redemption there. And I don't know your personal tastes or triggers or what brings you to your knees?
I don't know that, but I do know. Many readers, who I interact with at The Bookshelf, love the kite runner and they are more sensitive readers. And so I think when we describe ourselves as sensitive readers, we have to ask ourselves what we mean by that. I think about myself. I joke a lot on here that I'm a prude and that I don't really like a ton of explicitly sexual content.
Will. I love Sally Rooney and I love, I love her new book, Beautiful World, Where Are You? And I know that that book has a lot of sexual content. It has a lot of sexual content and I'm recommending it right and left knowing that it has sexually explicit content, because the way that sexual content is written is easier for me personally, to record.
It is written really poetically romantically kind of in, in a way that shapes the characters in the book. And so for me, the sexual content is actually kind of important to who these characters are and to their development, their relationship development. I also know that I can skim some of those sections and maybe some of you are gasping in horror that I would like skim sections of a book, but, but I do.
If it's content that I know I going to love the overarching story, but I just need to move past this open door sex scene. I will just skim it there. It's fine. There aren't rules. It's okay. And so you might be the same maybe for violence or maybe for language, like whatever your. The content is that you sometimes struggle with.
It would be okay to skim through some of that content. I think that's fine. I mean, maybe I'm an outlier there, but I think that's fine so that you can enjoy the overarching power of the book I would have missed out on Sally Rooney's work. Because of my prudish tendencies, but I'm so glad I didn't because her books yes, include a lot of sex. And boy, I could not finish the TV adaptation of normal people because of so much sex. And I kept watching it. I think I watched two episodes and I kept. Is there a, is there this semester sex and like the book version, there is, dear reader. There is, and yet I love the book. I loved it, but that's because my brain is trained to move past that in the book because what is more important in the book is this overarching relationship, this overarching story.
And so for me, I skimmed those sections in the book in Beautiful World, Where Are You? I read most of it, but occasionally would scan a little skim, a little bit paragraph or two, and move past it because the book is about so much more than the sexual content. A book can be about so much more than the language or the violence.
And so you've really got to ask yourself, what are your personal triggers or content warnings that you want to pay the most attention to? When you say you're a sensitive reader, what do you mean by that? Like, as that's really asking, like, what do you mean? What are you most sensitive toward? What content are you most sensitive toward?
Are you willing to look past content? If a story is redemptive, like is what you're really looking for? Redemption and hope because that's what we figured out about my mom. She's a sensitive reader. Yes. But what she really wants is hope and redemption. So she can read non-fiction and fiction that deals with hard things because she knows.
There's some redemption to be found here. So asking yourself those questions, I think is important. And then also giving yourself permission to occasionally skim. I'm not saying skim entire works of literature. I'm just saying if you love a book, but yikes. There's this act of violence that you really don't want the details on.
Okay. So skim it. So skim it. This is a weird example, but I think about the book turtles all the way down by John Green. I really loved that book. It. So I have people in my life I love who deal mightily with anxiety. And while I was reading that book, I felt anxious. Like the way John Green wrote about like circular thought was so well done that it bothered me like that.
I, I mean, I felt a little bit, I had to finish that book cause I felt a little physically ill by, by the circular thought because I know, oh, I have people I love who struggled with that and who. Who deal with that on a daily basis. I'm so glad I read that book so that I could feel what it was like to be inside the brain of someone who struggles with OCD or who struggles with mental health issues.
And so like, I'm so glad I read that book, but it was troubling to me, but I'm still glad I read it. And so I think there are some books that you might be missing out on because you are a little bit afraid of. I hope that's okay for me to say that maybe you're just a little bit reticent and I guess I'd encourage you to ask yourself why, what your content warnings actually are or would be like, what would really send you over the edge, I guess, like, what would really send you to your knees?
What would really trouble you? And then what are some things that could help you move beyond those things? So for my mom, it's having hope, it's having a happy ending. My mom can read a lot of hard things if she knows there's a happy ending to be had. And so. I think really asking yourself some questions could open up a whole new world of literature for you.
And I think it sounds like you might be ready for that. Okay. Today's last literary conundrum comes from Becca.
[00:39:48] Becca: Hi, Annie. This is Becca from Maryland. My problem is that I'm always prioritizing reading my library books over the books that I own because of the darn due date. How can I start to make a dent in this ever-growing pile of books that I actually own?
Thank you.
[00:40:02] Annie: Becca, this is every reader's dilemma, right? This is, this is the issue for, for readers the world over. How often do we read so many things, how do we read all the things and how do we balance the essential question? How do we balance library books, which we borrow, and then books that we buy in a moment of genius or weakness, depending, depending on how you're feeling.
I just bought books while I was in Maine. Did I need to buy books? I most certainly did not. Did I want to support the independent bookstores we visited? Yes, I did. Have I read the books that I bought in Maine? A couple of them already. Yes. But I'm worried that a couple are going to stay on the kind of the back burner for a minute.
So this is a question I think a lot of us ask pretty frequently and probably the average reader asks it more than I a bookseller do because you're utilizing library even more than I am. I will utilize a library every now and then, but I own a bookstore. And so my need for the library has diminished ever so slightly over the years.
So you're still utilizing the library. Rightfully so. Libraries are wonderful and great, but library books also have a due date. So that gives you a deadline, which it sounds like works really well for your reading life. It gives you something to work towards. It helps, you know, I've got to read these five books by next Friday or whatever.
So it sounds like you work well on a deadline, which I think is worth noting in your brain. I did want to talk to you about a concept that I know I have seen many places, but the very first place I saw it. And I remember because at the time I thought it was magnificent and super original and fascinating.
It's this concept of The Unread Library or your unread shelves? I came across this concept on a blog. I read. Many many years ago called pancakes and French fries. I follow the woman who wrote the blog is Jules. Jules is a librarian out in, I think California. I have followed her on the internet for years.
She now has an Instagram. I think it is at Mrs. Kinney. So she's a librarian and she wrote this blog post about going around her house and grabbing all the books she had bought, but never read. And she decided she was going to devote herself for, I think a year. And I think maybe that project exceeded. But she was going to devote herself to reading her unread library.
Again, this is a concept I've seen many other places since then, but this was the first place I saw it. And I thought it was such a great idea. And I toyed around with doing something myself. This was way before I was a bookseller. I love this idea that you would go around your house and you would find, or go on your bookshelves and find all the books you've never read so that you could at least see, what am I working with here?
One other kind of Instagram follow, who I know has done this is Rachel Dawson. Her Bookstagram, I think is @alltheradreads, all of this will be in the show notes. But one thing I think is interesting that she has done is on her bookcases. If I recall she kind of denotes what is unread on her shelf, by how she faces that book.
He'll need to go, maybe scroll through her Instagram to find it, but I'm pretty sure there are photos of some of her books laying down on their spine or facing the pages out so that she visually knows what on her book paces. She has not read, which I think is great. So the reason I think it's great is because I don't really know that I want to go a year without buying books.
Maybe you do. And maybe that's something to evaluate. Maybe you have so many books in your unread library, that it would be worse fasting to use the spiritual term fasting for a little bit from buying books. I don't know that will, that will be up to you. I don't want to have to do that. I don't want to have to, to commit to that, but I think you could commit to a month or three months or six months or a year, whatever you could commit to a period of time where you're not going to buy any new books.
I think you can do that. I think the first thing you could do though, is figure out what you're dealing with. So do what Juul is, did do what Rachel did, and really go through your bookcases and figure out, okay, what have I not read? And then what if there's a book you forgot about the, you really want to read?
And so I think. Maybe making your stack, making your list of your unread titles, maybe creating a visual, maybe putting them on their own bookcase or maybe doing what Rachel does and facing them, your bookcases, your books are supposed to like work for you. They're definitely works of art, but you know, They're also for reading.
And so, so, and so if you're like, oh, it won't look pretty to have some books on my shelf facing the wrong way. Okay. I mean, maybe, I don't know. Or maybe it would help you as a reader, figure out what you've got left to read. Maybe it would help you evaluate. So anyway, so maybe you want to face some of those books out or whatever, so that you can visually know what am I working with then?
I think you could start giving yourself some deadlines. I feel like we talked about this on the previous episode of literary therapy where somebody was maybe trying to do the same thing, where they were kind of balancing and trying to figure out what do I read? And when do I read? Maybe they were trying to balance genres.
That's what it was. And so I was like, what if you, what have you during the month, no, I'm going to read a romance novel and then a historical fiction and then a journalistic nonfiction. Like what if you had this rotation? So what if you knew? Okay. I really like reading books from the library. It gives me a deadline.
I know that I'm going to read those books. And I like going to the library. I love going to the library and the serendipity of finding new books. They're great. Awesome. Wonderful. What if once a month you read a book from your unread life. Once a month and you pick out one book a month, first of all, if that would be kind of fun to me, because I'd think, Ooh, I get to now go shop my shelves.
I get to now shop in my own little bookstore that I've created in my house. And I'm going to pick a new book to read. Like, I think that would be kind of fun and exciting. And you implement that deadline element that keeps you reading your library books by saying once a month. I'm going to read a book for my unread shelves.
I'm going to read a book that I've bought, but I've never read and think about the sense of accomplishment as you slowly do it. Rachel does. And like turn those books around. I just think visually as a visual person, I think that would be so helpful to be like, oh, but guess what? Now I get to put this book back spine out because I read it.
I did it, I accomplished it. I'm big into metaphorical gold stars. So I think. I don't know. I think this could be really fun for your reading life, that you could still have the serendipity of going to the library. You could still have that deadline-based reading that it sounds like you really like, but you also could get to shop your own shelves, experience something new and fun that you haven't read before, and maybe breathe new life into your reading life.
Maybe get you excited about something you've not done before. So if you Google for the unread library, And Juul, Kendall. I think you can find information there. You can follow at all the rad reads for Rachael's kind of way of doing this. But I, I, and I think there are infinite ways. Like I think if you Google unread shelves or something like that, I feel like a lot of people do something similar.
So you may just want to do your research and figure out who has done it the way you would like to do it. Rachel and Jules are just women I've followed on the internet for a long time. So I trust them and I really do. I love the way they've kind of balanced their reading lives. And so I think, and that gives you two examples too, because Jules is a librarian. So she comes in contact with new books, probably all the time. She's also a mom. And so I think that could give you one aspect of reading and then Rachel reads so many books a year. And so if you fall into the racial category of reading as one of your all-time favorite hobbies, and you read a lot, Rachel might be a good example for you.
Anyway, you may want to Google this, but those are my two recommendations for that. I think the key is just. Really getting a grasp on what you have. I just think that's a good idea in general. I don't know a big part of being like a good steward of what you own is figuring out what you have and so maybe figuring out.
Okay. And what if it's that you only have a dozen unread books? Okay. That's probably really good. And then a year you could have read them all. Or you may realize, oh no, I have 50 or a hundred I'd read. I don't know. I don't know what a number would be, but oh, no. Like I've got all of these unread books.
Okay. Well, but you're going to read them or you're going. Or you're going to keep them because they're sentimental or you're going to get rid of them. So somebody else can discover them and read them. And so I think evaluating what you have is important and then maybe incorporating not changing your reading life.
Totally because it sounds like reading books from the library really works for you, but, and, and maybe not even fasting from buying new ones, but just making sure you know, what you own. And, and you're going to maybe try to work your way through those books. I think that's really admirable and also could be really fun, a fun way to get excited about your reading life.
And those are our literary conundrums I hope solved for the day. So if you have a literary question or conundrum you can leave me a voicemail and just make sure to leave your name and where you're from. Fromthefrontporchpodcast.com/contact.
You just scroll to the middle of the page, you'll see an orange button that says, "leave me a voicemail" and you can leave one without a microphone. All of this information is in the show notes. I would love to hear from you, especially if I've solved or literary conundrum today. I'd love to know if it worked for you. I'd love to know if this advice is helping you in your reading life.
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website:
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This week I'm reading Matrix by Lauren Groff.
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