Episode 355 || Best of Literary Therapy
We are still on our podcast break so our team put together a compilation of the best moments from past Literary Therapy episodes. We will be back next week with a new episode of From the Front Porch.
If you’ve never listened to an episode of Literary Therapy, the first few episodes are linked below:
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.
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Episode Transcript:
Annie [00:00:01] [squeaky porch swing] Welcome to you From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the South. [as music plays out].
[00:00:24] Hi, it's Annie. While I am on a little break for the start of 2022, we are still releasing some special episodes each week and this week we're taking a look back at the best moments from our literary therapy episodes. If you are a new listener and you aren't familiar with these episodes, it's where I do my best Frasier Crane impression and answer listener questions specifically bookish kind of literary dilemmas. If you would like your own literary question answered, all you have to do is visit: fromthefrontporchpodcast.com/contact. And if you scroll to the middle of the page, you will see an orange button that says, Start Recording and you can leave me a voicemail. No microphone needed. No headphones even really needed just your phone or your computer. You can hit start record, leave us your name where you're from and your literary dilemma, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode of Literary Therapy. Now, on to some of our very best moments from those episodes.
[00:01:23] Hi, friends. I am very excited about this edition of Literary Therapy. This is one of my new favorite shows that we do. And so I'm excited to get to dispense a little bit of advice and wisdom. I feel like if you are like me, the pandemic has kind of gone in these ebbs and flows and some weeks are better than others. And last week, for all kinds of reasons, was a hard week. And so I think this is coming at a good time for me to think about other people outside myself and to try to offer a little bit of light and guidance as you all navigate literary quandaries, which may in the grand scheme feel small. But we all, I think, have been turning to literature to help inform us, to help comfort us. And so in that sense, Literary Therapy matters, so we're going to get started. First up, let's give it a listen.
Tana [00:02:17] Hi, this is Tana. I'm from Clint Texas. I just finished Transcendent Kingdom and I loved it. I picked up four books on hold from the library today. Which one do you think I should follow it up with? Health Lessons by Erica Bauermeister. Friends and Strangers by Jay Courtney Sullivan. This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell or the new Marilyn Robinson, Jack. Please tell me one of these are worth pushing past the first chapter, because that has been a bit of a problem for me lately. Thank you so much.
Annie [00:02:50] Hi, Tana. I am so curious to know if you wound up just diving in because you sent in your recording and obviously this is not an immediate response situation. I am not really Frasier Crane on a radio show. So we've had a few days now where I'm curious if you went ahead and tried to read one of these. But Transcendent Kingdom, which I led with a quote from at the top of the episode, is such a beautiful book and it is hard to follow up. And I think some of my biggest reading ruts have been created by beautiful, life changing, earth shattering, gorgeous books that it just then is really hard to follow them up.
Kelly [00:03:29] Hey, Annie, it's Kelly from Brandon, Mississippi. I am a busy mom, wife, and teacher, so I have to carve out time and be very intentional with my reading life. Here's my biggest dilemma: when I have time to read, I only want to read fluff, all the thrillers, all the page turners. However, I feel like I should be reading more important books to be a well-read reader. You know, all the books you see people reading on Instagram, the important people. What do I do? Help!
Annie [00:04:02] First of all, Kelly, I got the biggest grin on my face listening to your message. I understand that southern accents are different depending on your state, but your beautiful voice reminded me so much of going to college in Alabama, and you sounded so much like dear friends and women in my life. And so your voice sounded so familiar to me that I just listened to your whole message with a big ol grin on my face. Also, thank you for being a teacher and for all the work that you were doing during the pandemic times. Teachers are miracle workers on good and normal years. But I think what you all are doing right now is so heroic and outstanding. And I'm sorry you've been put in all these different positions that you've been put in, but we are grateful for you and we are cheering for you.
[00:04:42] I think this dilemma is pretty common, particularly right now. I think it's always something that's on the minds of readers I know. But I think during a global pandemic, all of our reading lives are a little bit different, and what we're drawn to and gravitating towards are different. But I think this idea of "Hey, I want to read important things," is valid and I think it's especially valid now that you're wanting to read fluff. It sounds like you have probably a pretty stressful life right now. So I think it's totally understandable that you would also want to find like a comfort and an escape. Here's what I want you to do. First of all, take yourself off the hook a little bit. I do want a little bit less pressure put on our reading lives just in general. And I think for better or worse, Instagram has helped the pressure and it's given all of us a little bit of anxiety.
[00:05:31] I think about how many books we read, how many books we own, what genres we're reading. So I want you to take yourself a little bit off the hook. Then what I want you to do is ask yourself, what does important mean to you? You mentioned seeing books that people talk about on Instagram. So do you mean important, like, popular, like, books that are receiving a lot of critical acclaim, books that are receiving a lot of attention on social media? Or do you mean important in terms of the themes they're dealing with? So I think that's the first thing, is define what's important and take a page out of the Lazy Genius book and ask yourself what's important to you right now. It's okay for your reading to be seasonal. You are in the middle of a stressful season in the life of a teacher, so maybe it's okay that you're reading life be a little more fluffy than usual.
[00:06:21] And maybe during the summer, maybe you start planning out your reading year. That doesn't work for everybody, but I think you could potentially start telling yourself, "Okay, I'm going to read fluff right now because that's all my brain can handle. But during the summer, when I have a little bit more margin, I really want to read this nonfiction book or this book that deals with racial justice or this book that deals with a social cause." And, again, depending on your definitions of important.
Angela [00:06:46] Hey, Annie. This is Angela from Thomasville. My question is, how do you process a beloved character being universally hated? Up until this most recent iteration of Little Women, Amy has been pretty universally hated, but she was always who I related to the most out of the Little Women. I would type myself as Amy with a hint of Meg. Greta Gerwig and Florence Pugh gave her the depth I've always read in her character. And I feel like she's been somewhat redeemed. But it's still a bit painful when you relate to someone like literally putting a close pin on my nose, and they are despised by pretty much everyone. So thanks so much.
Annie [00:07:30] Angela and I have talked a little bit about this in our real life outside The Bookshelf, and I love this question so much because I am someone who I think relatively notoriously hates Amy. I've always hated that character. And hearing Angela talk about Amy and coming across a couple of other people, both through the podcast and through Instagram and through people I know in real life, I have come across a couple of other people who love Amy and who find themselves in Amy. And so talking to Angela is a reminder that sometimes the very characters we hate someone else loves and someone else sees themselves in. The closest I think I can come to this personally is regarding Beverly Cleary.
Annie [00:08:13] So Beverly Cleary passed away a couple of months ago. And her legacy was talked about on all corners of the internet. And so many people piped up and said how meaningful Ramona was to them and how much Ramona meant to them. And as a pretty goody two shoes responsible kid, I saw myself at least partially in Beezus, and so I found a little left out of the conversation. The grieving conversation regarding Beverly Cleary because I thought one thing I love about Beverly Cleary is how she saw and gave stories to the Ramonas of the world, but also the Beezuses of the world. And so the good news, Angela, for you is that Louisa May Alcott treats all of those sisters with tenderness and nuance and grace. It's readers who are constantly looking for a good guy or a bad guy, a villain, a villainess. And so I think readers are who kind of sometimes twist the narrative a little bit.
[00:09:18] And I'm wondering if it has been helpful to you to have Greta Gerwig's adaptation, to see the conversation around Amy be more redemptive or at least more complicated and more nuanced. And I feel like it's been given before, and I think Florence Pugh really helps that cause, right? Not that there's anything wrong with Kirsten Dunst, but I just feel like Florence Pugh really embodies the character of Amy. I think -- and I know this because I know Angela in real life. I think now is your chance as a mom to change the narrative around this character you love. In your reading later to your own two daughters, I think you can get the chance to really let Amy shine and to explain Amy a little bit. You know, in our real lives, hopefully we acknowledge that the people that we come across and the people that we interact with on a daily basis are so much more than we often know or give people credit for.
[00:10:17] And I think the same is true in literature. Amy is so much more than the time she burned a book, right? We are more than the worst things we've ever done. And what a powerful lesson to bestow to young readers who, like me, may come across Amy and really despise her. But then to be reminded that Jo does things that are really difficult to understand, and even saintly Beth has things that she does that just don't make sense because we are complicated. And Louisa May Alcott did us all a favor by portraying her Little Women in complicated ways.
Elizabeth [00:10:54] Hi, Annie, it's Elizabeth in Kansas City calling to follow up with you about my summer of rereading. Overall, I really enjoyed it. I decided to reread five titles and then read a new one, which I think was sort of great motivation for me and also made me a little more selective about what new titles I was going to be reading. I think the biggest thing that I learned was that the books I had read most recently and loved that I chose to reread, I found myself loving even more. And the books that I remember loving as a child or a young adult and rereading now didn't hold up as well. I think in the future I will definitely be rereading more. Maybe not five in a row, but more. Sometimes when you finish a book and you think I just am in the mood for something that made me feel like Song of Achilles made me feel. I think in the future I will just reread whatever book that is that I am thinking about. Thank you so much for the push. I really enjoyed the challenge, and I hope you have a great rest of your summer. Thanks.
Annie [00:12:03] I loved this idea so much back when Elizabeth first brought it to my attention, and I'm thrilled it worked for you, Elizabeth. You've inspired me to consider a project like this in the future, one that kind of combines both a love for backlist titles and for rereading, which is something I do not always make time for, but also still allows time in your reading life to tackle a new book or two. So I'm so glad this worked for you. I really am considering it for my own future reading project, so thank you for sharing that with us and thanks for reporting back. That was really fun.
Jenniffer [00:12:33] Hi, Annie. This is Jennifer, and I'm from the Kansas City, Missouri, area. 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!
Annie [00:13:14] 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 now has the actor and actress on it instead of just some beautiful artwork or something like that.
[00:14:14] So this isn't the 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 on 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, we are 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.
[00:15:06] Occasionally, we will get a heads up, particularly for an Oprah book will get 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, oh no, should I had picked a different book? Like, is this one too popular because Reese picked it?
[00:15:54] And so I want us to move beyond those ideologies and those viewpoints because Reese Witherspoon selecting it shouldn't deter from us 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 does the opposite thing that it's supposed to do, right? It instead kind of pushes us away from the book, maybe because we think it's going to be too popular. Or maybe because 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 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.
[00:16:37] 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 look like now that it's got that sticker on it? So for me, if it's a Jenna pick, if it's a read which 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 Jenner's.
[00:17:38] 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 most align. 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 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 passed 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?
[00:18:46] Like, I think we all know that Reese Witherspoon doesn't just read 10 books a month. 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 trust 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 Reese's 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 fellow readers and people whose tastes she also has to rely on and trust. So I think if you can remember the rigorous selection process these 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.
[00:19:43] 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 was a 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 fine, and we all would have lost out if we had just ignored it because it came with the Reese sticker. 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.
Dana [00:20:30] Hi, Amy. My name is Dana, and I live in Raleigh, North Carolina. I've read some really great books in the last few years, and many of them were thanks to your recommendations. I find that when I look back over my read list, I sometimes struggle to remember why I loved or didn't love a book, the plot, or even, embarrassingly enough, sometimes the characters names. I love the enjoyment that a book provides me in the moment, but I wish I could relive the joy a bit as I review my list or look to recommend a great book to a friend. I currently use Good Reads to track my read books, but the public nature of writing book reviews on that platform scares me a little bit. I know that you use Instagram as a sort of log now, but I'm curious to know what methods have you tried and enjoyed over the years to help you recall details of books and how they made you feel? Thank you.
Jesica [00:21:21] Hi, Annie. This is Jess from Michigan. Just calling in to ask for your advice or tips on writing a good book review. I'd go on Good Reads and I read some just really thoughtful book reviews, both positive and negative. And I just -- I know there's an art to it. I don't have that art. I would love to get some tips from you and how to write a helpful book review. Whether, like I said, it would be good, negative ,when I do my book reviews. Looking forward to hearing any of your advice and thoughts on this. Thank you.
Annie [00:21:52] These are my favorite kinds of questions. I love giving people book lists, and will do that next up for Debbie. But I do kind of love these more philosophical. I think this speaks to my personality type, right? Like the in part of my INTJ brain just loves thinking big picture. And so this kind of semi philosophical question about tracking your reading, writing book reviews, I really do love offering this kind of advice. Whether you take it or not, is up to you. So I currently, as I think Dana pointed out, I currently do my book reviews only on Instagram and here, and on From the Front Porch. I do them those two places. I loved recording and still love recording my reviews on Instagram, but I loved doing it, I think started either in 2017 or 2018 because I really did not want one more thing to keep up with.
[00:22:40] So I know some of my fellow book club members, friends I have in real life love and utilize Good Reads. I truly cannot keep up with one more thing. It's part of the reason why I refuse to be on Tik Tok, and I just rely on my cousin, Ashley, to text me the best Tik Toks. I can't do it. I can't add one more thing. I'm barely hanging on to Instagram by a thread. So I keep track of my reading on Instagram. But I have previously used notes in my books, book journals, and a blog. A blog is kind of where it all started, I guess, in terms of tracking my reading. Otherwise, I just read books and loved them and put them on the shelf once I finished them. Like, there wasn't really much tracking going on until I started doing little reviews on a blog I had. So I think you could do -- if public sharing is of interest to you. I think we are moving back toward, you know, post the Instagram blackout of 2021. Like, I think a lot of people are reconsidering newsletter formats or blog formats.
[00:23:45] And so maybe there's a little newsletter that you shared just with your book club because I think, Dana, that's something you're kind of talking about specifically is this public sharing of reviews. And part of the reason I publicly share my reviews is because I work in a bookstore and I own a bookstore. And so this is one way that I can maybe get people to visit my bookstore. But maybe public sharing is unnecessary, but sharing with people you love makes sense. And what if there was a Google Doc or a newsletter that you and your book club or your friends and family, like your fellow readers who you trust and you love all shared together? I just wonder if that could be a way where you could share your reviews and track your reading without feeling maybe this pressure of the public review, if that makes sense.
[00:24:31] And then I also really loved -- and it didn't help me track, it didn't help me tally up the number of books I read. But if I owned the books -- this obviously would not apply to library books. I'm not a total monster. But if I own a book when I finish, I make a note in the front, the date I finish and what I liked or didn't like about it. Now, if I didn't like it, if I hated it, it may not stay in my house. Like it may make its way to a little free library or to a friend I think might really like it. But I found that to be really fun. And so now when I am looking for quotes to start the episode with or when I want to go reference something in a book I've read previously, I'm pulling a book off my shelf and I often can flip to the front cover or the front page and see that past Annie read in 2019, it made her cry. It made her laugh. Like those little notes actually bring me even more joy than maybe my public Instagram reviews.
[00:25:30] The other thing I'm considering for 2022 and you might want to consider is a book journal. I'm still trying to figure out the best way for me to publicly offer my reviews other than From the Front Porch episodes. But there's a part of me that also wonders if I would really like to just privately keep track of my reading through a book journal.
Joanne [00:25:50] Hi, Annie. It's Joanne, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I have a book club dilemma. We're reading a book that is controversial that has been in the news about being not authentic in terms of what the author had to contribute. I don't want to blow a book club by bringing this up. And it's not my job to tell people what to believe. But at the same time, I don't want people to think that this book was written based on the author's experiences. I'm not sure how to bring this up nicely. So any advice you have would be great. Thank you.
Annie [00:26:30] Joanne, I think so many of us know what book you are probably referencing. But I don't want to make assumptions and so instead, I'm going to give my general advice because I do think this is going to come up more and more when we read books in our book groups. And often our book groups probably are pretty homogenous. They probably look like whatever we look like and whatever our neighborhoods look like. And I think we're also learning a lot mor e about authors behind the scenes and authors lives. And much like we're having to kind of reexamine the music and the TV shows and the movies we love because of things the actors or directors or creators have done. I think a lot of us are looking at literature under that same lens. Like, what do we do with a book where we have issues with the author?
[00:27:23] Or What do we do with a book where we have issues with how the book was marketed? What do we do when we have issues of authenticity about a book? And so I don't think this is a new conundrum, and I don't think it's going to go away. So here's what I would suggest. One of the great parts about a book group, to me, is the safe space they provide. And so when you're in your book club, my hope for you is that it is a safe space to have difficult conversations. I'm with you. I don't want to blow up Book Club. And I frequently have these issues and these questions come up in the bookstore, right? And I don't want to blow up the bookstore. So I think you have a real opportunity here to gently bring this up just like you brought it up to me. You know, what do we do with this author who's writing from a perspective that might not be her own? What do we do with this voice that might not be the voice of the people she's writing about?
[00:28:23] And I think that's a fair question to ask a book club. I also think book clubs are very open to further reading. Some of the very best book clubs I've had or hosted or been a part of, the discussion eventually reaches the point where we're sharing other book titles. I think you go into your book club discussion -- and you may have already had it by the time you hear my advice. But I think a great solution is to go into your book club meeting and say, you know, read this book. I have thoughts about it. Maybe I appreciate some of it, some of it I have issues with, but it definitely led me to do some digging about some other books by authors of color or by own voices authors. And it led me to read more widely than I might have read otherwise. So come armed with other book recommendations for your fellow book club members.
[00:29:16] Hey, you all like this? Could I point y ou to some other books written by authors of color, authors living on the border, authors who are telling their stories in their own voices? Here are some recommendations. That is one thing we love to do at The Bookshelf, right? Because, Joanne, you said it. We can't always make people read what we want them to read. We can't always deter them from reading. I don't really want to deter people from reading. But what if instead we offer them options? We offer them alternatives? Oh, you liked this? Great. Could I point you in the direction of some other books that are similar, but they're written by authors who are telling their own stories? I think that's a great way to go into your book club. So I think there is a way to again gently bring these issues up. I think it's going to come up in your book club anyway.
[00:30:08] If your book club is like mine, there are probably a couple of members like you, Joanne, who maybe have googled or done their research and they've seen, oh, this book was more controversial than I thought. You also might have book club members who didn't know it was controversial at all. One of my booksellers recently talked about, I think, the book that you're talking about and she had no idea. She's a relatively new bookseller. That book came out a couple of years ago. She had no idea kind of the history of its publication or what issues up with it. And so you're going to have in a book club, despite perhaps being a homogenous group, you're going to have a wide range of opinions of worldviews and of expertize. And so you might have people like you who are familiar with the controversy and you might have readers who are totally unfamiliar and who loved this book.
[00:30:59] There's a way to meet in the middle to talk about these things. There's a way to, I think, kindly, kindly and gently -- those are two words that I just constantly come back to when I have conversations of any kind. I think a lot of us are wary of the word polite, but there's nothing wrong with being kind and with being gentle and with being tender when we bring these things up and approaching them from a state of grace and from a place of grace.
Holly [00:31:28] Hi, Annie. It's Holly from Austin, Texas. And I've noticed that recently my reading has been feeling more like work than leisure, and I'm sure you can relate with all of the reading you have to do for your shop. But I was really curious if you had any tips on how to help yourself switch gears from kind of a work mode to reading mode. I don't know if it's making myself a cup of tea or what it is, but I'd really like to feel a little more relaxed again when I read instead of so in got to get it done mode. Thanks for all your help. Bye.
Annie [00:32:07] Holly, look, reading is hard right now. I hope that's okay for me as a bookstore owner, slash avid reader to say. But I think partly give yourself a little bit of grace because tis the season to have no attention span. You just don't have one right now, and that's okay. Also, tis the season to be exhausted. And maybe reading isn't coming naturally to you right now, and maybe you're feeling bogged down. And I just want to affirm you and tell you that that is okay and you are not alone. That being said, this also just could be a case of not being able to turn off the working part of your brain or the part of your brain who's trying to reach a reading goal or the part of your brain that's constantly comparing yourself to other readers on the internet and trying to move yourself back into your former love of just the written word. And so I want to help you with that.
[00:33:02] I wanted to ask again if you were on my couch today a follow up question I would have is, is there a time of day when or a place in your home where you are more relaxed naturally? So for example, I get home from work -- not during the holiday season, but like normally I get home from work around four o'clock. From four to six o'clock is what Jordan Jones has kindly termed any time, right? Jordan works in Tallahassee. He doesn't typically leave until 5:30 or 6:00. So from four to six, if I'm home from work, those are two blessed hours where I am supposed to do whatever I want, whether that's watch a show, read a book, exercise, go for a walk, whatever. It's two hours of my time. Those hours are when I am pretty relaxed. Sometimes when I initially get home, I will read. But it is not for fun reading. It is work reading.
[00:34:00] So I get home at 4:00 and I need to read my young adult book club book or I need to read my shelf subscription. That's work reading. I do that in a different chair. I do that in my reading room away from my TV in a different spot. Fun reading I do on my couch or in my bed. I don't know that this rule always applies to me. There are definitely exceptions. If you were to come into my home, you would be like, "Hey, you're reading a shelf subscription on your couch?" Sure. But what I'm saying is there are times of day in places where I am more inclined to think of reading as work than I am other times and places. So is there a time of the day or a place in your home where you are more relaxed?
[00:34:43] So Laura Tremaine, the author of Share Your Stuff, I'll Go First, she's also profound on Instagram, and she has these little reading parties, right? Because she swears by this 20 minute timer where she gets most of her reading done. I love this idea. That is what I would call reading for work for me personally. Like, if I'm setting a timer, that means it's because I've got 20 minutes of time and so I'm going to read, but my brain is probably going to feel more in work mode. So that might be great for me to do at lunch or at four o'clock. But in the evening, when I'm reading a book that I just love, I don't really want to set a timer. I just want to read because I like to read and because I have the time to. And so that is more relaxed reading. So there might be this way, Holly, to incorporate both of these in your reading life because it sounds like when you say that reading feels like work, I think what you mean is you're struggling to finish a book. Or maybe you're bogged down in a nonfiction work. Or maybe you're trying to meet a deadline, whether it's a self-imposed deadline or a deadline because you're a librarian, and I didn't know it.
[00:35:49] So what if you read those books at a different time of day, like on your lunch break or listening to an audiobook? But then other books that you're just reading for your own sake, you read at seven o'clock after dinner because that's your downtime. I think you mentioned brewing yourself a cup of tea or something like that. Setting and timing are everything. So go ahead and look at your day and try to figure out, is there a time of day where I could tackle some of these books that feel like work? And then is there a time of day where I could just read for fun? And then speaking of setting, I think light a candle that is always my go to. I don't light a candle at my office at work. I mean, I do on the floor of The Bookshelf. There is a candle lit. But upstairs at The Bookshelf, I do not typically light a candle. I turn on a lamp or something like that.
[00:36:47] But at my house, what signals to me like this is home time, this is fun time, this is cozy time, is a candle, a lamp, a warm blanket, cozy pair of socks, pants without buttons, et cetera. And I think that might lend itself to a more cozy atmosphere that would then translate into your brain. So your cozy on the outside results in cozy on the inside. Maybe you need to create a designated reading spot. Maybe you need to have a candle that you light only when you read. Some kind of ritual, I think, could really help you here. So, Holly, first of all, you're not alone. Reading can occasionally feel like work, especially if we're trying to meet a deadline, whether it's self-imposed or not, or if we're trying to keep up with the latest new releases or keep up with what books Instagram's talking about.
[00:37:44] Like reading can occasionally feel like work. Maybe that's okay if we treat certain books like work and we read for 20 minutes or we read nonfiction in the morning or whatever it is. But I do think there should be a way in which reading is kept sacred and fun and cozy and warm and comforting. And I think that's going to be about picking a time of day when that is most appropriate and a place in your home where that is most appropriate. I hope that helps. I feel you on this and you are not alone.
[00:38:27] From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf daily happenings on Instagram @bookshelftville.
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