You got to introduce it to them for the first time and that's such a wonderful experience to be able to give to those students. I bet they remember that. I wish I'm sure they do, but I kind of wish that I was in touch with some of them because I would love to ask them. Though when I think about it and how old they would be now, they're like full-blown adults probably with their own families and that kind of like blows my mind. I've been out of college for 18 years, so oh my god. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hello, hi, and welcome to Medium Lady Reads. This is Episode 8. The books we wish we could go back and read for the first time. I'm Erin, a mom of three, a hospital administrator in Ontario, Canada, host and founder of the Medium Lady Community and Medium Lady Talks podcast. And I'm Jillian, an Instagram content strategist for bookish people, a mom to two, based in Buffalo, New York. Together, we're bringing you medium-lady reads, a podcast about reading is so care, a passionate love for the public library, and plenty of thoughts and opinions about book culture having its moment. (upbeat music) Hello everyone and welcome to episode eight. This is gonna be all about some of the books that we wish we could go back and read for the first time. But before we dive into the meat of the episode, we're gonna do a little reading check-in. how's your reading going? - It's going well. I am kind of starting to dig into the fall reads. So all of my holds that I put on there that I've been waiting for to get into that cozy fall, cool weather vibe are starting to come in and I'm starting to dig into those and putting the summer reads, the, you know, at the beach type of reads, unhold and digging into the fall stuff is making me very, very happy. How about you, Erin? How's your reading going? - My reading is going okay. I'm sick. I'm sick right now. I don't know if you can hear it in the recording. Hopefully not too badly, but I'm sick. And thankfully, I'm the kind of sick that requires me to just stay in bed and read. It's not the kind of sick where I just have to kind of like block out all stimulus. So yesterday, I spent the day in bed and Beckett was beside me with his tablet and I read a whole book pretty much cover to cover, which was great. But you know when you're sick it just kind of sucks to be sick. So, but don't worry everyone, I'm re-upped on my Tylenol. I've got a cool drink here and we're gonna have a good episode. Well, I hope you feel better. Thank you. You're welcome. If you remember back in episode five of this podcast, Erin mentioned that we should do an episode dedicated to the books that we wish we could read again for the first time. And guess what? Today is that episode. Ta-da! We ask, well, you didn't ask, but we're providing anyway. In this episode, we want to talk about those books that left an indelible mark on us, the ones we wish you could erase from our memories, just so we could experience the joy of reading them for the first time all over again. That's right. We're talking about the books that captured our hearts and minds, the ones that made us laugh, cry, question everything. your favorite reading nook, a cup of tea or whatever you fancy, and let's reminisce about these literary gems. Okay, let's kick things off. Aaron, can you share a book that you wish you could read again for the first time? What was the initial experience like? Oh, absolutely. The book that immediately comes to mind for me is called Blindness by Jose Ceremego. It's been a long time since I read this book, which is published in 1995. I think I read it somewhere between 2005 and 2008. was adapted for film in 2008, although I've never seen the movie. Blindness was first written in Portuguese in 1995 and later published in English in 1997. It tells the story of an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness that afflicts everyone in an unnamed city. There are no character names. The cast is described by their primary characteristics or relationships. As the blindness epidemic spreads, we spend time in the early quarantine spaces, following a doctor who's actually an ophthalmologist and his wife who are afflicted early on in the story. As the social order rapidly declines, we get to know the found family of blind characters that bond together over the dystopian conditions that evolve. Society will break down continues in the second act of the book as nearly everyone succumbs to their blindness. This book is written in a way that propels the reader forward but also has a prose that makes use of "run on sentences" and your sense of kind of what goes missing when you lose your sight. There is limited punctuation in the book, and the dialogue also lacks punctuation. So the thoughts also kind of become embedded in the prose to the point where you start to feel the edges of the story's reality start to blur. And as that intensity builds for you as the reader, you start to experience really visceral feelings about the loss of senses. The fact that all the characters are nameless also gives the reader a hard time kind of getting grounded in place and space, which I think is really done on purpose. This book makes me nostalgic thinking of a time I'd love to go back to, which is the early days of my marriage with my husband, Nick. We were married really, really young. And I remember this is one of the only books to this day that we both have read. I think I read it on a trip to Nova Scotia and I pass it on to Nick, who actually read it as well, like, listen, there are as a as a as a bookish wife. There are lots of books that I say to Nick, I think you would really like this. I think you would really like this. And I like plant books around the house and I hope sometimes he'll pick them up. That rarely happens that he would take me up on a recommendation and actually enjoy it as much as I think he would. But to this day, we both describe blindness as something we both love and continue to stick with us for how it made us feel. Oh my gosh. I love that so much. What a sweet love story. We'll be married 17 years next weekend. Oh my gosh! Congratulations! That is incredible! I love that you have this book bond with Nick over a book you love and wish that you could read again for the first time. It's really funny how wishing to read a book again makes us all want to return to a specific time in our life too. I think that's actually like a bigger part of it than I considered. Going back to read a book for the first time is not just about reading it for the first time today for me, but it's also kind of about where I was in my life and what I was experiencing. And I didn't really think about the nostalgia factor when we came up with this topic. So I'm really, really glad that we're kind of tapping into that. And Jillian, I know you love nostalgia too. Oh, for sure. You know, it's my favorite. For me, I was in college when my mom turned me on to The Giver by Lois Lorry. What some of you may not know about me is that I have a bachelor's degree in elementary education. So I had to student teach. One of the years that I had to student teach, I needed to do a full unit on a book that was appropriate for fifth graders. As I was new to teaching, I had no idea what book would work, but my mom, who was a retired teacher, recommended the giver, a retired reading teacher, no less, recommended the giver. I read it in just a few hours. It was that good, if you haven't read at you too. I went on to put on an amazing unit for the fifth graders and we all had a blast doing it. There were so many activities that we did that I it was just so much fun. We one of the things is losing color and and now being able to see color and I turned off all the lights in the classroom and said to the kids I said now look around you and we pulled the blinds down and look around you. juicy color and they're like no no of course you had some smart Alex were like yeah yeah I can see bright green or whatever but for the most part they all were like no no we can't really see color and I said this is what your life would be like all the time if you lived in this in the you know givers world I'm pretty sure this was my first dystopian novel and I was blown away by the writing and the story since then I've read it three additional times in which I could read it again for the first time every time. Now that I've read it so many times though I can see it for not just a depressing dystopian story but one of relationships between the giver Jonas, the main character and a few of the other characters in the book. I truly love this book. Aaron, have you read this book? Do you have any thoughts? I have read this book and the giver is a book I think I read as a young adult maybe middle grade. It's hard to remember but I would also list this book in one one of my top books of all time. Definitely would have been a great contender for the books that turned me into a reader. I remember this being a book that I found really curious because it isn't part of a series. And I remember reading it when I was really embedded in my like babysitters club, Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High phase, or at least maybe like a little bit older. It is a really special book. And I actually wonder if enough time has passed that I could reread it for the first time again. I don't think my kids are old enough yet to appreciate it. And I love what you said about it being the kind of story that you can access and think about relationships. But also I remember the plot being really kind of a forward moving. And I love imagining you with your class of first fifth graders because not only was it a book that you read for the first time in love, but you got to introduce it to them for the first time. And that's such a wonderful experience to be able to give to those students. I bet they remember that. I wish, I'm sure they do, but I kind of wish that I was in touch with some of them because I would love to ask them, though when I think about it and how old they would be now, they're like full-blown adults, probably with their own families, and that kind of like blows my mind, 'cause I've been out of college for 18 years. So, oh my God. (laughs) And this wasn't even my last student teaching placement. This was one earlier on. So yeah, they'd be quite old now. (laughing) But you haven't changed a day, that's so weird. - Oh, I know, I know, thank you. Thank you for noticing. Aaron, do you ever find yourself rereading books hoping to recapture some of the magic? - I had to think about this a little bit because I'm not much of a re-reader, but one thing that has been really special as a parent is to revisit the classic books that I loved as a kid. It's really hard to ever experience a book again for the first time. There is something comforting about revisiting those familiar words and characters and seeing them affect your kids, sort of similar to your grade five class. It's like introducing them to an old friend. One book that we have really loved as a family, all of us is The Lion the Witch in the Wardrobe by CS Lewis. I read these books as a child. I remember completely falling for the series. And then, funnily enough, actually Nick read these books as a university student, sometime during his own teacher's college days, similar to your giver experience, Jillian. And he's loved the books as well as an adult. But this summer, we found they were perfect for our kids during some of our long drives to the cottage or driving home from a visit with family. It's the perfect audiobook to keep everyone chill and relax, at least until the end when the intensity really ratchets up. But I won't give any spoilers just in case you haven't read the line in the which and the wardrobe. And I would say that's like pretty consistent with my rereading experience. I do love rediscovering a favorite read through a new medium like audio or going from audio to print. What about you, Jillian? Do you ever reread books hoping to recapture the magic? 100% yes. I did this not too long ago with Under the Whispering Door by TJ Clune. This is my favorite book of the last three years. I'm sure you've probably heard me mention it at least once on the podcast. It wouldn't be an episode of Medium Lady Reads if we don't mention TJ Clune. It's true. I wish some way to get in contact with him and let him know that we're like super fans. I haven't had a book yet come close to topping this one, so I decided to ingest it in a different way than when I read it, the physical book the first time. I listened to it on audiobook instead and oh my goodness it was just as good as I remember it. I balled my eyes out listening to it driving the kids around just like I did while reading the physical book for the first time. If you haven't read or listened to under the whispering door I'm going to ask what the heck you're waiting for. But in reality I really do feel like this book is for everyone. It's a book full of second chances, found family, empathy, it's a book that has you laughing on one page and then crying on the next, at least for me, crying. Plus the characters all found and filled a space in my heart that I didn't know was open and available to be filled. I've mentioned this book, as I said, on numerous occasions, and if you still haven't read it, stop what you're doing, go to your library's website and put a hold on it immediately. The audiobook for Under the Whispering Door is quite excellent and I would say the narration of that book was also five stars, which I think I was a little bit nervous when I reread that book because you never you just never know if the narrator is going to do it justice and sometimes your ears and the audio reader's voice don't quite fit. Yes, but the audiobook narrator, I think his name is Kurt Groves and he does a Phenomenal job with this book. Yes, I loved it. He made it so memorable something I definitely Not only will I probably reread this book again sometime, but I will read listen to it as well. Mm-hmm Okay, Erin, I need to ask are there any books that you wish you could read again for the first time where you feel like it must Be your recommend for our audience. Yes I would honestly recommend any of the books we've described today. These are all five star reads, but a book that I consistently press into fellow readers' hands is Burnout, the secret to unlocking the stress cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski. This book is my personal gold standard for self-help and personal development. It actually, I credit this book for kick-starting part of my own confidence to talk about Burnout recovery in my own life and to share that with the medium lady audience. Emily and Amelia Nagoski are twin sisters. Emily is a counselor and PhD in human behavior and Amelia is a professor and holds a doctor of musical arts and conducting, which make for a really great right brain, left brain conversation through the book. They use their own experience as ambitious women and they also use some sort of prototype characters to expand the content beyond their own points of view. I own this book. It's one of the ones that I continue to reach for reference and pull down. But I do wish I could go back to reading it for that first time to stay grounded in how inspired I was to see my life in a new way. Like a lot of self-help, we usually read and move on. But I remember this book started changing how I saw things, how I saw my life, my burnout, and my recovery from burnout more permanently than just moving on from every other book. And it was a really special feeling that I would love to harness again. Listeners, if you have not yet red burnout by Amelia and Emily Nagoski. I would implore you to please pick it up today and let me know how it makes you feel you can connect with us at Medium Lady Reads. Jillian, what about you? What book do you wish you could reread for the first time that our listeners must read? Well, I feel we're making this recommendation because I've already made it a few times, plus I already re-recommended under the West Spring Door. But I guess it doesn't matter since it's our podcast and we do what we want. We do. What I wish I could read for the first time again and I believe it is a must read is every summer after by Carly Fortune. It's just so good and definitely one of my absolute favorite books. The book has everything I love in a novel. Romance, friends to lovers, found family, happy ending, coziness, there's literally nothing I love more than coziness and love in a novel and this book has it all. The only issue is that I've already read it so I know what happens but I desperately wish I could read it again for the first time. I am actually going to be rereading it soon though because I'm going to be on Julia Washington's podcast, The Jelly Pops Book Club at Jelly Pops Books on IG, discussing every summer after and who we'd want to see playing different roles if it were made into a movie or TV show. So excited about rereading it and very excited to be talking about it on Julia's podcast. Oh my gosh, that's going to be great. I loved Meet Me at the Lake, which was the new book that came out this summer from Carly Fortune and every summer after is like an instant summer classic. But I love that you're going to be going on the Jelly Pop's Book Club to talk about this book because there was a lot of buzz lately because apparently Megan and Harry have picked up Meet Me at the Lake for film adaptation. So that'll be really, really interesting. There'll be a lot of eyes on Carly Fortune as a writer. She's also Canadian. So love to plug our Canadian authors at least I do personally. You'll kind of probably re-experience it by talking about it in depth and detail with Julia. Yeah, I don't, I, I'm nervous because it's something I've not normally done is And I've gotten better, but we don't know I don't normally look at a book and place characters with like who's gonna play who in the book I don't normally do that but since you and I and Steph and Ellie have started doing that. I am a bit better But I'm nervous because I'm like who do I pick for each role? But I'm hoping by rereading it it'll kind of spring to mind the individuals that I think will play these roles really well Totally and honestly, it's like fantasy. You can't really go wrong This is true because it's my opinion and and if Someone feels like that person wouldn't play a good role then that's okay because I'm actually not the producer And we'll not be making this into a TV show We're just having fun and casting characters is also a great way to relive a book that you love Yeah. And a great way to re-experience or to just kind of go a little bit deeper in a book that you wish you could read for the first time, but instead you're going to just kind of sit with the fantasy of it for a little bit longer. Oh, this was an amazing trip down memory lane, Jillian. I hope our listeners enjoyed hearing about these books we wish we could experience a new. And if there's a book that popped into your head that you wish you could experience again for the first time, we would love to hear about it. You can screenshot your podcast right now in your phone and post that to your stories, tag us and let us know what book you wish you could read again for the first time. Jillian and I might have might even be able to add it to our TBR or engage you in conversation in the community about about those special special books. Absolutely. We're going to pivot to our segment called Instagram made me buy it. Instagram can be a happy place for bookish people and the algorithm is very good at least for me at showing targeted ads, which means that we're often getting hit with ads that have Bookish Merch. So today we're going to be doing our beloved Instagram made me buy it bit. Jillian, what Bookish Merch has Instagram made you buy recently? Okay, so admittedly it's not Instagram but it's still Bookish Merch and I'm very excited for it. So school picture day has happened for Emmett already and Esters is coming up and one thing that that you can buy our metal bookmarks with their pictures on them. So, I have to have that. (laughs) So I bought my self one for Emma and then when Esther's picture day comes up in October, I will be doing the same for hers. And I am so excited because, number one, I love bookmarks anyway, but like, their pictures are gonna be on them. - That is the freaking adorableist thing I've ever heard of. - Right, I'm so excited. Oh my gosh. Now I'm thinking like about more bookish merch that I could put my kids faces on like my cobo cover or Oh my god, that's gonna be I can't wait to see them. Please share them on your stories when you get them Of course, of course because I feel like the biggest dork, but I also am so excited about it All right, so Aaron what has Instagram or otherwise? I made you buy bookish merch wise So this episode I thought I'd share how Instagram and podcast accounts in particular have influenced me to subscribe to Patreon communities. I am a subscriber of the currently reading podcast Patreon for one particular perk and that is their reading tracker. I pay $5 a month and while I do love the bonus episodes, it is really this tracker that has me smitten. I love to look back on my reading data and this tracker is almost too granular in all that it has to offer. The data breakdown has taught me so much about my reading habits and helps me also keep my reviews contained. I seriously love this thing and it was definitely worth the influence. How about you, Jillian? Do you belong to any podcast Patreon groups? I do. I belong to currently readings and I didn't know about their reading tracker. So I need to look that up. And then I belong to Ann Bogels, but I don't miss it Darcy, I belong to hers as well. And I love Ann Bogels because of all of the book reviews that she does. They just released her fall preview and there's some good stuff on there. So I do recommend that you join and check that out. But currently readings I love all the extra content you get. And now I need to go find the reading tracker somewhere. It is so granular. I think each book you could put in maybe 40 data points, which include things like where did you, where did this book get recommended to you? Include things like, is this an own voices? What was the country of origin of the author? Where does the book take place? When did you start the book? When did you finish the book? When was the book published? What do you rate the book, obviously? But it could just like, there are some columns that I've actually hid. It has a budgeting line. If you have a goal for how much you spend in a year, it will track how much you pay. It tracks where the book came from, whether it was Libby or Hupla, where there was a gift, you paid for it, it tracks buddy reads, it's dense and so much goodness in there for people who really want to feel like, "Yee, look at all the books that I'm reading!" But I will say is it probably has a little bit more than what I need, and so I've been carefully kind of like hiding columns as I've used it. I've been using it since January. And Jillian, It's got me thinking that maybe our listeners would like a medium-lady reads tracker and you and I should probably collaborate on an idea like that for the new year Because I've gotten some ideas from this tracker and it doesn't have some things that I kind of wish it did have So that's just kind of fun to play with it's very inspiring these podcast patreon communities Are so inspiring to bookish people and to bookish creators like us. I think that sounds like a great idea Is it and their Facebook or is it in the patreon? It's a download in the Patreon. Okay, I'll have to look for that. We're going to wrap up with the holds list. Aaron and I are very passionate about the library and because we're both avid users, we have a very active holds list. And we feel like that's something we don't hear a lot about on book podcasts or book talk or IG. So we feel it's something that we can offer our bookish community. So Aaron, what's on your holds list? Okay, I'm going to share my digital holds list. I try to go back and forth between my physical holds list and my digital. So this episode, because it's an even episode, I'm going to talk about my digital list, I have been using the delay delivery feature on Libby quite a lot these days. And just so people know, if your hold comes available on Libby and you're not ready to read it, just go into Manage Hold and you can delay by your chosen period of time. I usually delay by two weeks. And then when your time is up, you will slot back into Q for that book. I feel like all of the summer reads that I requested are finally coming in. What I have right now on my holds list coming up soon is Out Live by Peter Atia. This is a book that I think Oprah has been shouting from the rooftops of wherever Oprah is shouting these days. I know it's been on the top 10 lists of nonfiction for weeks now. The library is also saying they've acquired four additional copies, which I love when they do that on Libby, Jillian, because it feels like they're paying attention to what patron are taking out and it feels like they're modifying their catalog to make sure that there's enough available copies of things that are really, really hot. And I feel like it's a really nice, like, transparency feature in Libby to understand that like, "Hey, you've been waiting for this book for a long time and we understand and we're adding more books to our catalog." That's something that I didn't really know the library did. I don't read a lot of digital books from the library, but that is great. That's great that they're communicating that. I have two other digital holds. One is Good By Earl, by Lisa Crossmith. This is one of those summer books that caught my eye. The cover is really fun. It's bright yellow with this piece of pie kind of splattered on the front and it says a revenge novel across it. So I'm looking forward to that one and also The Whisperers by Ashley Audreine. This is like a huge book right now. She wrote The Push which I also still have not read. All of these books look like they're going to come up in the next few weeks or so. So we'll see. I got to get reading with the stuff that I've got right now so that I can be ready when these these books come available because I'm excited for them. Jillian, how about you what is on your holds list. So I just picked up three books that were on my holds list. The first is Happiness Falls by Angie Kim, which is huge right now. I have to say I don't know much about it, which I kind of love when I don't. I just know that it was on all the lists, so I added it. Super hot. In the company of witches, which we talked about in our last episode by Orally Wallace. I'm so happy you finally have that. I can't wait to hear what you think of it. I'm worried now that I've hyped it up too much. I don't think I have. I think that anything with the Kozy vibe, even if the book itself, like the content, is just subpar, I'm gonna love it, because I love all the Kozy vibes. And then I also picked up The Sun and the Void by Gabriella Romero La Cruz, which is actually I'm in a small tiny little book club that reads a book a month. We don't really talk about it or anything. We just all read the same book. And that's the book for September so I'm a little behind but that's okay. And then I have five other books waiting to come in which I wish they would hurry up but I don't even think some of them I don't even know if they've been formally published yet so I have some time to wait. Yeah everyone. Jillian's fatal flaw is that she will scour for new releases and put them on hold months in advance. And then she gets She gets the new hot reads. I think you read more 2023 releases than anybody I know But the and that is wonderful But the problem is is that I never I don't have a lot of time for backlist reads and that makes me sad So the one thing I absolutely love about our buddy reads is that we're always reading older books So I'm still at least once a month getting in an older read Alright, that wraps up Episode 8 of Medium Lady Reads. Medium Lady Reads is a spin-off of the Medium Lady Talks podcast and Instagram community. You can find me, Jillian, on Instagram at JillianFindingHappy, and you can find Aaron at Medium.Lady. For more of our current reads and other shenanigans, and of course you can follow the podcast itself on Instagram at Medium Lady Reads. If you like this episode, please share it with another or focus friend or post on Instagram. Be sure to tag us. We would be tickled pink to hear from you. Thank you for listening. I'm your host, Jillian. And I'm your other host, Aaron. Until next time, we hope that your holds arrive quickly. And your next book finds you right where you need it most. We'll talk to you soon. Bye. Bye. [MUSIC PLAYING] [Music]