I have another idea for Laura! My husband and I have also been married for 2 years, and we mostly integrated *some of* our books… just our classics, primarily in our living room! (& yes, we love having them there for the decor element!) Then, in our bedroom, I have a shelf for my literary fiction and middle grades, and he has a shelf for his funky 70s fantasy mass markets 😂 tbh, the classics look pretty all together, but neither of us want our other favorite genres intermingling. Space permitting, you could give this a try!
I read a lot of non-fiction, and as a librarian I love footnotes, works cited lists and bibliographies. When I encounter an idea or concept, and I remember or become aware of another book that might be the source for that idea or might have similar ideas, I find myself compelled to compare notes among authors. Suddenly, I find myself surrounded by books....Yay!
RE: Book Clubs. Join your local Silent Book Club chapter! There’s no assigned reading, you just bring whatever you want to read, you can share what you’re reading, chat with your friends and read in silence. It’s the most low-stress experience while still being SO FUN
I came here to say this too! Found out about Silent Book Club this year and it has been an amazing experience. Low commitment, an hour of actual dedicated reading time in the company of others, and optional social time. A mood reader/introvert’s dream!
Another idea for the book club issue, maybe instead of your group picking a specific book to read, you could try and pick a genre or mood and all read books based off that and talk about them
Also, my library runs groups where people meet up regularly to discuss what book(s) they've been reading, without an assigned book. Instead of a Book Club, they call it a Book Cafe. And that sounds like it would be easy to start with a group of friends who like reading but don't have the same tastes.
Ladies, what you need is a ~Literary Society~!! I started one with my city library after listening to a What Should I Read Next episode. We meet to mingle and chat about books we’ve been reading or want to read. There’s always a couple buddy/group reads going on and we have a few new release reads every year and organized reading for Canada Reads and Giller Prize! No one shows up every event, its so low pressure but seems to be a great way to meet new people and be inspired to read new things! Inspired by the read-ins you two led a few years ago, we also run reading nights a few times a year to sit and read together. I’m planning one for Canada Reads this year where we all bring a competing book and read it during that week together!❤
Has anyone heard about Silent Book Clubs? The concept is reading together but not necessarily the same title. So you can meet with people, have a chat, and basically read different books at the the same time. The way it works is to have themed reading. For example, the theme for this month is work--everyone reads a book following that theme (using their own interpretation) and that's where the discussions would come from. (:
I didn’t realize the book club episodes were officially chopped! Those were some of my favorites 🥺 Maybe there could be an adapted version with some of the advice you gave in this ep? Like doing books you already read/ including the community in buddy reads, even if it is short notice! I love the community and connection the book club episodes bring to the pod🥰
Ladies - some of my thoughts - my husband and I have been married for ever. We have 4 libraries - each of us has our professional library -- housed in our "offices". We have a obscene number cookbooks - housed in our kitchen and dinning area. And we have a family, more formal library. The books here are books we've read and future possibilities. Sometimes our reading overlaps and other time not. We even have shelves for out grandchildren to keep their books. Our library has comfy reading chairs - we can read together - but not the always the same book. We also have comfy chairs for 2 - so we can snuggle with the grandchildren and read. The book club I belong to is very interesting - several times a year we all read the same book. Other times we read on a theme - like historical fiction, biography, or food and cooking, etc. Usually we come away with a list of things we want to read some day. Other months we read our choice of an authors books - again we discover new authors. This works for us and has for several years now. At our monthly meetings we talk about all kinds of things, eat good food, and eventually get onto the book.
I have advice for Tamara! I only ever am reading one physical book and one audiobook at any given time. Whenever I've tried to do more that than that I end up dnf-ing all of them. The experience of reading a physical book vs an audiobook is different enough that I have no problem finishing both when I'm reading them at the same time but I always make sure to finish what I'm reading be it physical or audio book before moving onto to the next. Maybe you could try this method too! ❤
Another suggestion...get your husband a cool cabinet with doors so his editions are easily accessible but you don't have to see them or worry about them clashing with your taste. I am all for showing the pretty ones and hiding the not so pretty ones.
Sometimes I feel like I bite off more than I can chew when it comes to books. Definitely the absolute most I can read at once is 3, anything more and I get night sweats lol. I have no advice except make the other books shorter if you read multiples!
I'm featured on the pod!! This is the best day ever & totally out of the blue!! You guys make my favorite podcast and this is just so cool to me! Sending love your way 🩷
Ooooh the melding of the books. I've been married 11 years now and our books have fully integrated. A lot of our tastes overlaps, but those books are so very BOTH of ours, like if we ever split up it would be a big question of who got those books! I have a shelf of books he's not interested in touching, he's got two shelves of books I'm mostly not interested in, and we share over 5 other shelves of books we both read. Not to mention the family books shared with the kids...
I am so much like Ariel with mood reading. I approach reading like my television watching. What do I feel like today? Comedy? Romance? Horror? A children's classic? Poetry? History? And then I pick up what I'm craving for that moment. I love to read non-fiction but I could never ONLY read a biography, I would also have to have some light fiction on the side for moments when I don't feel like thinking so hard or else I will be completely bogged down and just stop reading altogether. My recommendation for Tamar is to always have a physical book going, an ebook going and an audio book going at the same time. Different books obviously but try to limit it to just having those 3 books going on those 3 formats. That way you have variety but are still able to make progress. And sometimes you may finish 3 audiobooks before you finish your physical book, but that's ok. It's still progress! Who cares how long it takes to read. You are still reading and in my mind that's all that matters.
@wt042 Your suggestion to have only 3 books going (maximum) in different formats is excellent. I often have two books going; one is fiction, the other is non-fiction. Or I’ll have an audiobook and either an eBook or a physical book.
I'm a pure fiction reader and my husband is only into history books. I feel like one thing to touch on is that non-fiction books are usually heavy and tall. Half of them wouldn't even fit on my shelves, and if they did, it inherently wouldn't look cohesive, even if they were all pretty (which non-fiction books rarely are :p)
I forgot to comment this yesterday, but I also like to read multiple books at the same time. Usually, I'm only actively reading 2-3, but if I ever have more in my CR, I have a Goodreads tag called brb where I put books that I don't want to say I DNFd, but I want to move back to Want to Read to come back to at a later date. This helps me keep my focus on the few I'm actively working through and not have the list be too overwhelming. I also have a system where I usually have one physical, one ebook, and one audiobook going at the same time. Each format has a time and place for me, so I am always making tons of progress on all of them!!
For bookshelf combining-- I would suggest adding decorations next to his books that kind of fit (maybe a cool book end, mini statue etc.) Separating them a little bit (like adding space between them so they're broken up and at different heights) and having his books not at the center so your eyes aren't drawn to them immediately. Or maybe instead of books, you could add trinkets or photos he might have that mean a lot to him. So that way you could have the sentimentality, but still have each other's genre's separate.
As a mood reader, I've been in a book club with few of my friends for a few years now and what helps me get out of the rut (seeing it as a chore, starting to dislike every book and binge it the day before just to get it done) is reminding myself what I actually like about being in a book club. I really love reading books, learning new things, hearing different perspectives and bouncing ideas back and forth with my friends. I also like the rutine of knowing that I'm going to see my friends every month or two no matter what and that we are bonding over this shared experience (yes quality time is my love language :D). Reminding myself of these reasons really helps me challenge those "chore" thoughts that pop in my head. Like literally pushing back and telling myself "no, this is fun, I'm doing this bc of this this and this". Also spicing the book club up according to your needs. As we take turns picking books we hit a wall with ideas a while ago so we made a prompt box to pull from. Each of us secretly wrote 10 randomest prompts (e.g. smutty paranormal book, cozy mystery, a book focused on a friendship...) and that made it more fresh and fun. We also keep some statistics and at the end of the year we reveal average ratings, who picked the best/worst books, most read genre, average page size etc. which is also very exciting for us four nerds. Book clubs do require commitment but they should be fun. If they are not fun you gotta try things out and see what works best for your group or maybe it just doesn't work for you at all which is totally fine as well. Good luck!
I'm part of book clubs run by a store. She runs a mystery/thriller club, a historical fiction club, and a fantasy club every two weeks (they rotate, so there's actually 6 weeks between each fantasy club, for example) and it's great because there's such a community of readers who dip in and out, there's always a group of people who want to read and discuss the book, but it may not be the same group each time. Like I usually do all the historical fiction, but if I don't want to read a particular book, I'll just skip that round. And I never do mystery/thriller unless the book sounds really really appealing to me. Maybe there's something like that run by a bookstore or library by you??
Yes I'm a multiple book reader but I'm also a slower reader and how I manage the issue of too many books is I start them and if I gravitate more to certain ones I'll read a few together and go full mood reader between them and the rest of them will stay in a separate pile with bookmarks and I usually aim to read them within the next year instead so there's no pressure but there is still and end goal for them. It helps keep balance in a chaotic book world. Haha 😄
I'm a mood reader with adhd so me dropping a book for a next one does not mean I didnt enjoy the first one. I get overwhelmed though when my stack of started books gets to high (my cats will make the tower fall eventually) also running out of actual bookmarks haha What works for me is picking a few books for a month and I can switch between those but it still feels a little contained and less overhwleming. I would suggest only the amount of books you usally read in a month also depending how busy one is that month for me currently thats 4-5 books but I also read alot of shorter books
Pls don’t fight me! My advice for Tamar is, if the book is stressing you out too much because it remains unread, spoil it for your self. Go ahead and find a plot summary or something and see if that’s something you want to get back into or completely abandon. If you’re able to put a book down, then maybe something isn’t quite arresting you there. Maybe get yourself 60% of the way there, look up the plot, and call time on that book.
On the ugly books problem: I believe it would be appropriate to get your husband an e-reader. That way his ugly books will stay invisible and you have more space for the more esthetically pleasing ones. Another advantage is that non-fiction books are often heavier and take up more space. Reading on an e-reader is very convenient for heavy books. With Christmas coming up next, I think this could kill two birds with one stone.
44:13 One of the booktubers I follow does this kind of book club format - just talk about whatever you read recently, non specific book club. @chantelreadsallday 😊
![First 3 Hours Of Writing A Story (Starting From Nothing) - Jeff Kitchen [FULL INTERVIEW]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/b2RlPZmz9nc/mqdefault.jpg)
I have another idea for Laura! My husband and I have also been married for 2 years, and we mostly integrated *some of* our books… just our classics, primarily in our living room! (& yes, we love having them there for the decor element!) Then, in our bedroom, I have a shelf for my literary fiction and middle grades, and he has a shelf for his funky 70s fantasy mass markets 😂 tbh, the classics look pretty all together, but neither of us want our other favorite genres intermingling. Space permitting, you could give this a try!
I read a lot of non-fiction, and as a librarian I love footnotes, works cited lists and bibliographies. When I encounter an idea or concept, and I remember or become aware of another book that might be the source for that idea or might have similar ideas, I find myself compelled to compare notes among authors. Suddenly, I find myself surrounded by books....Yay!
RE: Book Clubs. Join your local Silent Book Club chapter! There’s no assigned reading, you just bring whatever you want to read, you can share what you’re reading, chat with your friends and read in silence. It’s the most low-stress experience while still being SO FUN
I came here to say this too! Found out about Silent Book Club this year and it has been an amazing experience. Low commitment, an hour of actual dedicated reading time in the company of others, and optional social time. A mood reader/introvert’s dream!
Another idea for the book club issue, maybe instead of your group picking a specific book to read, you could try and pick a genre or mood and all read books based off that and talk about them
Also, my library runs groups where people meet up regularly to discuss what book(s) they've been reading, without an assigned book. Instead of a Book Club, they call it a Book Cafe. And that sounds like it would be easy to start with a group of friends who like reading but don't have the same tastes.
That is genius!
Ladies, what you need is a ~Literary Society~!! I started one with my city library after listening to a What Should I Read Next episode. We meet to mingle and chat about books we’ve been reading or want to read. There’s always a couple buddy/group reads going on and we have a few new release reads every year and organized reading for Canada Reads and Giller Prize!
No one shows up every event, its so low pressure but seems to be a great way to meet new people and be inspired to read new things!
Inspired by the read-ins you two led a few years ago, we also run reading nights a few times a year to sit and read together. I’m planning one for Canada Reads this year where we all bring a competing book and read it during that week together!❤
I love that! 😍
A Literary Society. Good one!
That is a great idea!
Has anyone heard about Silent Book Clubs? The concept is reading together but not necessarily the same title. So you can meet with people, have a chat, and basically read different books at the the same time. The way it works is to have themed reading. For example, the theme for this month is work--everyone reads a book following that theme (using their own interpretation) and that's where the discussions would come from. (:
I didn’t realize the book club episodes were officially chopped! Those were some of my favorites 🥺 Maybe there could be an adapted version with some of the advice you gave in this ep? Like doing books you already read/ including the community in buddy reads, even if it is short notice! I love the community and connection the book club episodes bring to the pod🥰
Ladies - some of my thoughts - my husband and I have been married for ever. We have 4 libraries - each of us has our professional library -- housed in our "offices". We have a obscene number cookbooks - housed in our kitchen and dinning area. And we have a family, more formal library. The books here are books we've read and future possibilities. Sometimes our reading overlaps and other time not. We even have shelves for out grandchildren to keep their books. Our library has comfy reading chairs - we can read together - but not the always the same book. We also have comfy chairs for 2 - so we can snuggle with the grandchildren and read.
The book club I belong to is very interesting - several times a year we all read the same book. Other times we read on a theme - like historical fiction, biography, or food and cooking, etc. Usually we come away with a list of things we want to read some day. Other months we read our choice of an authors books - again we discover new authors. This works for us and has for several years now.
At our monthly meetings we talk about all kinds of things, eat good food, and eventually get onto the book.
I have advice for Tamara! I only ever am reading one physical book and one audiobook at any given time. Whenever I've tried to do more that than that I end up dnf-ing all of them. The experience of reading a physical book vs an audiobook is different enough that I have no problem finishing both when I'm reading them at the same time but I always make sure to finish what I'm reading be it physical or audio book before moving onto to the next. Maybe you could try this method too! ❤
Another suggestion...get your husband a cool cabinet with doors so his editions are easily accessible but you don't have to see them or worry about them clashing with your taste. I am all for showing the pretty ones and hiding the not so pretty ones.
Sometimes I feel like I bite off more than I can chew when it comes to books. Definitely the absolute most I can read at once is 3, anything more and I get night sweats lol. I have no advice except make the other books shorter if you read multiples!
I'm featured on the pod!! This is the best day ever & totally out of the blue!! You guys make my favorite podcast and this is just so cool to me! Sending love your way 🩷
Ooooh the melding of the books. I've been married 11 years now and our books have fully integrated. A lot of our tastes overlaps, but those books are so very BOTH of ours, like if we ever split up it would be a big question of who got those books! I have a shelf of books he's not interested in touching, he's got two shelves of books I'm mostly not interested in, and we share over 5 other shelves of books we both read. Not to mention the family books shared with the kids...
I am so much like Ariel with mood reading. I approach reading like my television watching. What do I feel like today? Comedy? Romance? Horror? A children's classic? Poetry? History? And then I pick up what I'm craving for that moment. I love to read non-fiction but I could never ONLY read a biography, I would also have to have some light fiction on the side for moments when I don't feel like thinking so hard or else I will be completely bogged down and just stop reading altogether. My recommendation for Tamar is to always have a physical book going, an ebook going and an audio book going at the same time. Different books obviously but try to limit it to just having those 3 books going on those 3 formats. That way you have variety but are still able to make progress. And sometimes you may finish 3 audiobooks before you finish your physical book, but that's ok. It's still progress! Who cares how long it takes to read. You are still reading and in my mind that's all that matters.
@wt042 Your suggestion to have only 3 books going (maximum) in different formats is excellent. I often have two books going; one is fiction, the other is non-fiction. Or I’ll have an audiobook and either an eBook or a physical book.
Agreed!
I'm a pure fiction reader and my husband is only into history books. I feel like one thing to touch on is that non-fiction books are usually heavy and tall.
Half of them wouldn't even fit on my shelves, and if they did, it inherently wouldn't look cohesive, even if they were all pretty (which non-fiction books rarely are :p)
thank you for the advice!!!! - a person who is currently (accidentally) reading 13 books :'D
I forgot to comment this yesterday, but I also like to read multiple books at the same time. Usually, I'm only actively reading 2-3, but if I ever have more in my CR, I have a Goodreads tag called brb where I put books that I don't want to say I DNFd, but I want to move back to Want to Read to come back to at a later date. This helps me keep my focus on the few I'm actively working through and not have the list be too overwhelming.
I also have a system where I usually have one physical, one ebook, and one audiobook going at the same time. Each format has a time and place for me, so I am always making tons of progress on all of them!!
For bookshelf combining-- I would suggest adding decorations next to his books that kind of fit (maybe a cool book end, mini statue etc.) Separating them a little bit (like adding space between them so they're broken up and at different heights) and having his books not at the center so your eyes aren't drawn to them immediately. Or maybe instead of books, you could add trinkets or photos he might have that mean a lot to him. So that way you could have the sentimentality, but still have each other's genre's separate.
love this idea!
You guys and your food comparisons ❤😂🥔
I found the advice helpful.
"maybe even have a special little table for books 'I'm kinda reading but not really reading,'", that's a nightstand or bedside table
As a mood reader, I've been in a book club with few of my friends for a few years now and what helps me get out of the rut (seeing it as a chore, starting to dislike every book and binge it the day before just to get it done) is reminding myself what I actually like about being in a book club.
I really love reading books, learning new things, hearing different perspectives and bouncing ideas back and forth with my friends. I also like the rutine of knowing that I'm going to see my friends every month or two no matter what and that we are bonding over this shared experience (yes quality time is my love language :D). Reminding myself of these reasons really helps me challenge those "chore" thoughts that pop in my head. Like literally pushing back and telling myself "no, this is fun, I'm doing this bc of this this and this".
Also spicing the book club up according to your needs. As we take turns picking books we hit a wall with ideas a while ago so we made a prompt box to pull from. Each of us secretly wrote 10 randomest prompts (e.g. smutty paranormal book, cozy mystery, a book focused on a friendship...) and that made it more fresh and fun. We also keep some statistics and at the end of the year we reveal average ratings, who picked the best/worst books, most read genre, average page size etc. which is also very exciting for us four nerds.
Book clubs do require commitment but they should be fun. If they are not fun you gotta try things out and see what works best for your group or maybe it just doesn't work for you at all which is totally fine as well. Good luck!
I'm part of book clubs run by a store. She runs a mystery/thriller club, a historical fiction club, and a fantasy club every two weeks (they rotate, so there's actually 6 weeks between each fantasy club, for example) and it's great because there's such a community of readers who dip in and out, there's always a group of people who want to read and discuss the book, but it may not be the same group each time. Like I usually do all the historical fiction, but if I don't want to read a particular book, I'll just skip that round. And I never do mystery/thriller unless the book sounds really really appealing to me. Maybe there's something like that run by a bookstore or library by you??
Yay! I love the reading confessions episodes :)
Agree!
Yes I'm a multiple book reader but I'm also a slower reader and how I manage the issue of too many books is I start them and if I gravitate more to certain ones I'll read a few together and go full mood reader between them and the rest of them will stay in a separate pile with bookmarks and I usually aim to read them within the next year instead so there's no pressure but there is still and end goal for them. It helps keep balance in a chaotic book world. Haha 😄
I'm a mood reader with adhd so me dropping a book for a next one does not mean I didnt enjoy the first one. I get overwhelmed though when my stack of started books gets to high (my cats will make the tower fall eventually) also running out of actual bookmarks haha
What works for me is picking a few books for a month and I can switch between those but it still feels a little contained and less overhwleming.
I would suggest only the amount of books you usally read in a month also depending how busy one is that month for me currently thats 4-5 books but I also
read alot of shorter books
Pls don’t fight me! My advice for Tamar is, if the book is stressing you out too much because it remains unread, spoil it for your self. Go ahead and find a plot summary or something and see if that’s something you want to get back into or completely abandon. If you’re able to put a book down, then maybe something isn’t quite arresting you there. Maybe get yourself 60% of the way there, look up the plot, and call time on that book.
The excitement I just felt when I realized who the update was from! I really wanted to hear the end of that story!
My friends and I used to have a book club run the alternate way that Raeleen suggested and honestly it was great! I would definitely reccomend it
Last episode before christmas 😍
I don't read in the car, but I love car naps!
Lets gooo🎉
On the ugly books problem: I believe it would be appropriate to get your husband an e-reader. That way his ugly books will stay invisible and you have more space for the more esthetically pleasing ones. Another advantage is that non-fiction books are often heavier and take up more space. Reading on an e-reader is very convenient for heavy books.
With Christmas coming up next, I think this could kill two birds with one stone.
44:13 One of the booktubers I follow does this kind of book club format - just talk about whatever you read recently, non specific book club. @chantelreadsallday 😊