Plot Twist, Please

Readers Are ONLY Reading the Dialogue Now, AI Bookstagrammers... What Are We Doing?!

• Susannah, Beth and Cass • Season 1 • Episode 38

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This week on Plot Twist Please, we're diving into one of BookTok's most controversial reading debates yet. From dialogue-only readers and AI Bookstagrammers. We have one word: Wild.

📚 Spoiler alert: No books were spoiled in the making of this episode!
 ✨ Today's cocktail: GIRLS NIGHT OUT LIMONCELLO SPRITZ
 🎧 Tune in, sip with us, and remember — keep your glass, your bookshelf, and your TBR full. 🍸📖✨

__________________________________________________________________________

Welcome to Plot Twist, Please – the ultimate bookish podcast for readers who love deep discussions, honest book reviews, and trending BookTok favourites. We talk fantasy books, romance books, thrillers, YA series, and everything in between whilst sipping on our favourite cocktails. From old favourites to the latest viral reads, we’re here for all the plot twists.

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INTRO 
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SPEAKER_03

Oh, we're gonna get canceled for sure. This community can be so amazing.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

But it also can be very toxic. If you're just reading dialogue, you're not reading a full book. So how do you sit there and rate a book, write a review, when all you've read is the dialogue? Cass, this video is about you. No, I don't do it for every book. Do you mark it as finished? I mark it as finished. I'll admit that I I skimmed it. Hypocrite, right?

SPEAKER_00

No, no, no. Have you ever felt pressure to read more books personally? Yes. Why? Because me? Yeah. Readers began discussing how they skim books and only read the dialogue. At that point, read a play. Alright.

SPEAKER_01

And then they judge the book?

SPEAKER_00

And then they mark that book as red? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

The nerve. Oh.

SPEAKER_00

And they review it too.

SPEAKER_02

That's what I mean. They judge it.

SPEAKER_00

This is why you can't trust reviews. That's true.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Did you actually read the book? Probably not.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome back to Plot Twist Please, where you sit, flip, and spill the tea on books and foods. I'm Susanna. I'm Cass. And I'm Beth. And today we have some problematic issues that we are going to discuss. First, dialogue only Raiders.

SPEAKER_03

Shame.

SPEAKER_00

Just shame. Right now, shame your finger. My finger's occupied disc. We also are going to dive into reading goals. And then we're also going to touch on this new development where there is an overwhelming surge of AI bookstogrammers and AI, well, mostly bookstogrammers at this point. Yeah. I haven't seen any TikTokers, but we're going to talk about that. And then whether BookTalk has accidentally turned reading into a productivity competition. So we're going to get into it.

SPEAKER_02

It's a hot take. So today's drink of the episode is Girls Night Out Lemon Cello Spritz. Which is refreshing. It is very refreshing. Yeah. It does not taste like there's alcohol in there, which is always the dangerous one. It's always very concerning.

SPEAKER_03

All right. Before we start judging other people for how they read. Oh, we're going to get cancelled for sure. What are we reading currently? That's all. That's what I mean. Figure it out.

SPEAKER_00

If you're not watching us, you should know. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I'll help you out. How far are you in? First chapter. Okay. Is it cringe? No, it's liking it. It's not cringe. I'm enjoying it. The first chapter. That's what I was going to wait. They're long chapters, though. They're what? They're long chapters. They're like over 20 minute chapters.

SPEAKER_03

You have an idea. Yeah. What you're getting into. Yeah. What are you reading? I haven't crapped what you're reading. I knew what Susie was reading.

SPEAKER_02

It's Hideaway or Kill Switch.

SPEAKER_03

Kill Switch. That's what you're reading. I saw that.

SPEAKER_02

I think Hideaway was the last one. Yeah. Kill Switch is this one. Yes.

SPEAKER_03

By Penelope Douglas.

SPEAKER_02

Kill Switch by Penelope Douglas. Yes. That was a struggle.

SPEAKER_03

That was a struggle. I'm reading. The third one in the Devil's Night. Oh, right. Yeah, perfect. I'm reading This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum. I added a Oh, you're doing that one. I am. Without me. We didn't agree, did we?

SPEAKER_02

We did not agree.

SPEAKER_03

Oh.

SPEAKER_02

You sent it in. It needs to be in firm agreement before our. It was mostly like a you should read this. It's really good. Yeah. I assume any ones that are sent in the group or potential buddy reads. Make an ass out of you and me. No, it's it's just an ass you.

SPEAKER_03

Anyways, it's really good so far. I'll probably be done by tonight. And then I want to get into yesteryear.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I guess we need to read that. Yeah. I'm not gonna dive into that. All right, let's dive into it. So for anyone who missed it, the conversation started after readers began discussing how they skim books and only read the dialogue. No explanations, no descriptions of anything, no world building, just discussions between characters. At that point, read a play, all right?

SPEAKER_01

And then they judged the book.

SPEAKER_00

And then they marked that book as well.

SPEAKER_01

The nerve. Oh.

SPEAKER_00

And they review it too. That's what I mean. They judge it. This is why you can't trust reviews. That's true.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Did you actually read the book? Probably not. I will say that like movie reviews, I usually don't agree with.

SPEAKER_01

Why?

SPEAKER_02

I just I was I always find the one the ones that are reviewed, like have bad reviews, I usually enjoy. Oh, fair enough. Yeah. But it's like rom-coms or horror movies. Horror movies always have really bad movies. Yeah, so rom coms, horror movies, things like that. Any movie that has like high ratings are usually too artsy for me.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

If that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that makes sense. We're gonna reference booknotification.com. It says according to several book talk posts, a staggering number of readers are explaining how they're able to zip through books on the ready. It's not speed reading, it's not Spencer Read Before Wheels Up in 20. No, no, no. They are only reading the dialogue of the story, not the description, not the prose, not the meat of the book, not the explanations, the litany of adjectives, the vastness of world building, not lineage, nor heritage, not in a box, and not with a fox. Okay. Though I suppose that's a direct quote, meaning they may have read that. How does that work? Don't you need to understand the context? Dear quasi reader, my question is does the story even make sense? One commenter chalked up this new trend in the literary world as reading novels like comic books.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

They are only reading the dialogue, the exchange of conversation between characters. I don't like this trend. No foremost.

SPEAKER_03

It shouldn't be a trend. And like, here's how I know Beth reads the actual book and not just the dialogue dialogue, because you remember things that sometimes I don't even remember in a book. And I'm like, Huh. Her mind's like a steel trap.

SPEAKER_00

I know.

SPEAKER_03

I read it.

SPEAKER_02

Word for word.

SPEAKER_03

It's wild to me.

SPEAKER_00

Reads so fast, understands everything. If you listen to any of our deep dive book episodes, usually Beth is the one that's talking because she's the one that remembers.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my god, but Susie and I are like, I think it was I forget. And then Beth's like, no, no. She's like, girls.

SPEAKER_02

I'm like, wait a minute. I'm pretty sure You're wrong. Like, Google it.

SPEAKER_00

It's like she's right.

unknown

She's right.

SPEAKER_00

Brutal. So the argument from some readers, the ones that are in question, was that descriptions can feel boring. They slow down the pace. And they just want to get the conversations romance or action.

SPEAKER_02

There's not usually a lot of dialogue in action. There is a little bit, though. A little bit. Very minimal. Put it here. Bend me over. Good girl. Yeah. Good girl. That's it. I'm coming.

SPEAKER_03

Sometimes not even that.

SPEAKER_02

Sometimes decorations of love. How do you know if you've hit the end if they don't say that? That was great.

SPEAKER_00

Splendid. We should do this again sometime. High five. So the backlash was immediate because many readers argued that dialogue is only one piece of the storytelling. It's like maybe 40% of the book, depending on what you're reading. Say even less sometimes. Some books. Yeah, definitely less. Yeah, sometimes even less. You're missing the atmosphere, the emotion, the tension, the character development. And often entire plot points. Even if you are to like only read the dialogue, you're missing the internal dialogue of that character as they're going through the story.

SPEAKER_02

So let's say because it usually either you have your narrator or your point of view.

SPEAKER_03

So there is some kind of person who's filling you in on what's happening or what they're thinking or I'll tell you what, I have read dialogue only when I am just trying to get through a book that I don't enjoy. Cass, this video is about you. No, I don't do it for every book. Do you mark it as finished? I mark it as finished. But I'll admit that I I skimmed it.

SPEAKER_00

Hypocrite, right?

SPEAKER_02

No, no, no. I think there's a difference between skimming though and reading dialogue only. So which one is it?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, do you skim it? Well, like skim it. When you realize you don't like it, or do you start the book and you're like, you know what? I'll need dialogue.

SPEAKER_03

Like, I'll when I don't like it, but I need to finish it, I'll just skim. And most of the time I'm just paying attention to the dialogue just to get through. I finished the cocktail diaries and it felt like I was cheating. Why?

SPEAKER_02

Because she was skimming? Well, no, because it was full of recipes. So it's like, there's the recipes. This is the recipe. This is the ingredients. That's really what I thought that book was. Okay, so I thought it was gonna be more about like, and I said this in my review, I thought there was gonna be more of an actual story because that's like everything, what everything he's written up to this point has been. Yeah. For each drink, he does have like a little story that he does with it. So I read all of those with each one, but yeah, it did feel like cheating.

SPEAKER_03

No, like I read actual books, like I'll read dialogue, like and the descriptions. But if I'm not enjoying it, I'll skim it and I'll just give it a low rating because I didn't like it anyways. Fair. So I don't think that counts. I think these people are actually just that's all they do.

SPEAKER_00

We'll let the good people watching this episode.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you can come for me, but I'm like we let them decide. If I'm in like into a book, I read word for word, and most of the time I do. It's just if I hate it. Like some of the book club books we were reading before with our other book club. I would skim a lot of those because I was like, oh my gosh, these are so painful. Like Zodiac. When I got to like the fifth book, I skimmed almost all of that. And I gave them like two.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you didn't get the whole thing. I gave it five books. But you skimmed all of them.

SPEAKER_03

I didn't skim all of them. It was one I was gonna get monotonous.

SPEAKER_02

Why can't you skim six, seven, and eight, and nine?

SPEAKER_03

I got better things to do. Just like huge books.

SPEAKER_00

And then novellas.

unknown

That's what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_00

So this isn't actually a brand new conversation, but it has been, I guess, regurgitated. That's the word I'm gonna use for this. Swallowed, then thrown up again this year. So that's a good word.

SPEAKER_03

That's a good regurgitate. That's a good description for this topic, I think.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. So it was early as 2024. Readers were admitting back then that they would skip long paragraphs, skim descriptions, or jump ahead to the next piece of dialogue. So this isn't a new conversation, but I think people forgot about it. But bringing it back and bringing it back.

SPEAKER_02

This is why I DNF most of the time. I was gonna say, I'm surprised you would even skim, and you just wouldn't. That's what I'm saying. Do you read it?

SPEAKER_03

Here, I'll give you an example of what I've skim and then you're like, okay, I've skimmed 20% of this book, DNF. Here's what I here's Onyx Storm, skimmed it, but I had to get through it because I knew I was gonna continue the series. Brimstone read most of it, skimmed the last bit till the the bombshell ending. Yep. Because I know I'm gonna be last chapter. Those are what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_02

But how do you if you're skimming, how do you know when you get to a bombshell moment?

SPEAKER_00

This is why Cass doesn't remember anything.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I'll remember things that I pay attention to, but if I'm not interested, but if she hasn't paid attention to it, yeah, she's skimmed past.

SPEAKER_00

What's my excuse?

SPEAKER_02

I have no idea, but I'm just not smart. Terrible memory retention. I have good memories for faces. Okay, so but the this is the thing though, is I think everyone has good memory for different things. Yeah, because there are other things that I'm just like, I I can I'm good with faces, not with I'm horrible with names. Horrible with names.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, names are hard, but like I do this thing whenever I'm out in public where I'll see someone that I recognize and I have to go up and say hi. Like it's a compulsion, and sometimes I just can't walk past. So this one day we're seeing.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I'll walk past. I will look at anything but them. Yeah, even if they are smiling and waving at me. Oh, I see they've redone the ceiling in this part of the store.

SPEAKER_03

Susie's like, be line.

SPEAKER_00

Hi, not even it's you would be my nightmare out in public. It's it's so Nate and I go to this tea shop, and I'm not gonna say the name, well, I'll say the name Steve's tea's crucial information for this story. So we were at Zare's. What? I feel like I know this story. Yeah, well, we were at Zare's and he was at the phone booth because there's like a phone store in the grocery store. Nate was no Steve. Steve from Steve's tease. So Nate and I were checking out, and I see Steve. And I've met him maybe like three times. He has no idea who you are. Nah. I like, no.

SPEAKER_03

He sees a lot of people in a dance.

SPEAKER_00

I never even say hi. I just go, Steve Stees! Out loud. He looks at me, he's like, hi, and I'm like, hi.

SPEAKER_03

Like the time you high-fived my aunt at my papa's funeral when that was very much not what she was in. I don't want to relive that.

SPEAKER_00

I that was actually forgotten out of my brain. And now you've traumatized me all over again. I actually think half of the awkwardness is how you high-fived.

SPEAKER_02

Well, she was like this by my head. Susie! Again.

SPEAKER_03

It's been a while actually since you've dropped something.

SPEAKER_02

There's just something about your hands. It was I'm telling I'm telling you. Like when she high-fived. When I high-fived. Like how it's taken you how long have we been doing this for now? Eight months. Eight months to learn how to clap. Properly. Yeah. Well, I didn't know you had to cup them.

unknown

I thought you just did.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, and the fist? And the fist. I was gonna lost cause. And then her high fives of Yeah. I'm better now. I'm learning. I swear someone broke both your hands when you're younger. And you had to relearn how to use them again.

SPEAKER_03

Something happened for sure. And I mean that in the most nice way, lovingly way possible. Apparently, we're not nice. We're fake nice. Yeah. Fake nice and we're rude.

SPEAKER_00

Let's get into it because we have segued way too far.

SPEAKER_03

Bring it back, Susie. We're gonna ask some questions. Okay. To me or the audience. To you guys. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

But feel free to chime in. Yeah, they'll they'll comment along as we go. So when you first heard that people were reading dialogue only, what was your first reaction to that? Blasphemous. I have secondhand embarrassment for them. I think many people do. I think at this point, knowing the backlash they got, they have second because there's people that just that's how they read.

SPEAKER_03

Like, not like me, we're all just like skim. Like this is actually how they read books. But that's not reading to get through.

SPEAKER_00

Like, I mean it's reading, but it's not reading the book.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

If you only want to read dialogue, read like a play, because then it's only dialogue, archie comics. Yeah, comics. Loved those.

SPEAKER_03

Archie comics. Same.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Cass already answered this. Have you ever intentionally skipped parts of a book? Yeah. Yeah. And I'm you probably have too. You skipped Sam's recipes. I still refer though.

SPEAKER_03

Oh still read the recipes.

SPEAKER_02

She skimmed the recipes. It's so boring. No wonder it takes you so long. I didn't feel like I was reading them because it literally it's like you're reading the ingredients and then what you do. But like I'm just like, I was kind of interested.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. I'll just DNF. If I'm not enjoying it, bye. Like I said, the books that I know I'm gonna continue in the series, I have to skim through if they're painful.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but why would you continue the series if you like the book before FOMO? Would you ever reread the series again? Because I feel like part of the issue is that you waited so long, like we all waited so long for Fourth Wing, for example, like years between books. At that point, you forget what happens. So they're not like as immersed in the stories. If you went back and read the series back to back, do you think you would still skim? Was it a bad book or were you just not as invested? See, this is like one of my hot takes.

SPEAKER_02

Cause like I've I've talked about this in other episodes where like every single time I've had to continue a series, I find it so painful. Yeah. But I do think it's because you're so far between. Well, and especially with fantasy, you learn so much in the first book and then you forget all of it. But you need to have that knowledge in order for the like the continuation to make sense.

SPEAKER_03

So I feel like I'm spending like 50% of the book trying to figure it being like I did find Onyx Storm was pretty slow and there it was pretty boring. And same with Brimstone. There was parts of Brimstone that kept me my interest peaked, but Brimstone I found so confusing and it dragged, but I don't know if it just dragged because I found it confusing. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. But the ending, I was like, ooh, I'm gonna read the next book.

SPEAKER_00

And she's probably gonna skim it.

SPEAKER_03

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00

Well, hopefully not. Hopefully, good one. Yeah, hopefully it is good. I find the the second and third books are always uh let down. Are there any areas of books that you'd naturally skim? For me, it's like spicy scenes.

SPEAKER_02

If I find I'm skimming, it's that's usually when I've gotten to the point where I'm too tired to read and then I stop and go to sleep.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, fair enough. I will skim if it's over description. If the description of a certain situation is going on for too long, I'm like, all right, enough of that.

SPEAKER_00

Like, this kingdom will not kill me.

SPEAKER_03

Oh that book killed me for sure.

SPEAKER_02

I'll be I'll be reading that kingdom. And I won't wanna I won't wanna stop and I'll start so that I'm almost like trying to rush before I like fall asleep reading the book and I'll be like and then again, like I will literally go back and reread.

SPEAKER_00

We're gonna get into what counts as reading. So this these are more questions. Okay. So if someone only reads dialogue, can they say they read the book? No, no, no, because you didn't. You didn't read the whole book, you only read parts of the book, so therefore you didn't you can't count it as a book read.

SPEAKER_03

Dialogue is a small portion of a book.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yep. Yeah, so people may not agree with that, but we we that's fine. We stand on business. Yes. Where do you personally draw the line?

SPEAKER_03

Well, for me, it's like if I'm getting to the point where I'm skimming so much, I'm just DNFing it. Like I said, unless you're going with the series. That's my line. If I get to a point where I'm skim skimming and only reading dialogue, obviously I'm not enjoying the book. So out she goes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, goodbye. Yeah, I don't think people who only read dialogue should even count the books towards their book goals. No. I want to know why they do that. Maybe there should be like a check mark of how how did you read the book? Did you read it for the book?

SPEAKER_03

They would lie, they would lie to meet their goals.

SPEAKER_00

People aren't truthful. Yeah, that's true. It's the pressure of the reading goals. I think we're gonna get into that in a few minutes here. But you guys are the worst for that. What? The reading goal competition. I'm be I'm winning. I'm fine.

SPEAKER_02

I know. I've stopped looking because it makes me sad.

SPEAKER_03

See what I mean? You two are the worst.

SPEAKER_02

But that's okay because most days she's dead when I check her out what she's how active she's been.

SPEAKER_03

I don't think it's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00

Like on my watch on.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I went through a spurt of being active and my watch. But then you got my competitive juices going, and I was like, I'm winning this one. And then she just stopped. And I think it's flat line. Yeah, it's what it was. Well, I think dead every time.

SPEAKER_03

She's a sore loser.

SPEAKER_02

She's sitting over there being like, She's a terrible loser. That's right, Beth.

SPEAKER_00

Well, there's no way I was winning every day. I'd like, yeah, it's been such a good active day. And then I look at Beth at 10 a.m. She's already got like 10,000 steps in. I'm like, how on earth? She has kids, she's chasing. Yeah, but I can't catch up to that. By the time I get to 10,000, she'll be at like 15.

SPEAKER_02

There's no point. So I just sit on my butt. Someone's I said something to someone the other day about how like it'd be nice if I lost my boobs because then they wouldn't want to try to like knock me out if I was like running. And they're like, Well, why are you running without a bra? And I was like, I don't know, maybe when I'm standing there and my child decides that she's going to free frawl off of the side of the trampoline, then yeah, I'm running. Yeah. That's fair. Fair enough. Not in the traditional running down the road type of sense. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00

There is an obvious answer to this, but I'm gonna ask you guys anyway. If someone reads a detailed summary online, is that reading a book? Oh no. Yeah, there's some people that do that.

SPEAKER_02

What? And mark it red? Yeah. I've heard some of the things.

SPEAKER_03

The only time that's acceptable is if you're just trying to jog your memory.

SPEAKER_02

But you don't still wouldn't be marking the book like re-read.

SPEAKER_03

No, no, but like if you're like we said, rereading a if we're reading a series and we've already read the first two books and the third one comes out a year and a bit later. If you want to joggle your memory a bit, yeah, reading a that's fine.

SPEAKER_02

I do, I do well that I've been trying to do that when we go into like this, like the book two or book three in the series because I said like I'm not enjoying.

SPEAKER_00

I did that with Quicksilver when Brimstone came. I just read a summary because I already read it. Shame. Yeah. Feel the shame.

SPEAKER_02

Shame. The shame. I we need a shame bell.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

That's shame. So audacity.

SPEAKER_00

Full of it. Very big audacity. We've all read fourth wing. But if someone only reads dialogue from fourth wing, what percentage of the story do you think they're actually getting? 30%. Yeah. Do you know the actual amount? No. Oh. I don't know that. Oh, I thought this was just a guesstimation.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, I thought this was a question that you knew the answer to. No.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. I'm asking you guys for the answer. I don't know. I just asked questions over here.

SPEAKER_03

30%. You can't take my 30 to 40.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I'd say I'd say that for sure. There's a lot of descriptions.

SPEAKER_03

Dialogue is not 50% of the book. No. It's very much under 50 all the time. Imagine if you had to read that dialogue. No, I have a husband that does that for me.

SPEAKER_02

And he dialogues more than ours, men then.

SPEAKER_00

He does. He does. Anyone who's been around her husband knows that. He likes to talk. Oh, he's a talker. Has book talk turned reading into a competition? So before we get into any of the other things I wanted to kind of talk about, I wanted to talk about some recent drama that's come up. Basically, there's this book talk account that is posting AI bookstagram. It's not book talk account, it's bookstagram. But they're posting photos. I'll put some in the podcast so people can know what I'm talking about. But you know, like Bookstagram is very known for aesthetically taken book photos. But a lot of people were pointing out like discrepancies in the photos, how the books don't have intelligible English on them. Yeah. Yeah, like on the spines. On the spine, like there's the lamps are different. Even the lighting on like the trees.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. It was the comment. The comment, like pointing it out.

SPEAKER_02

The like, oh, I love that lamp. Thanks. Got a local thrift store. Yeah, no, we got it off chat GPT. And maybe she actually has that lamp. But if everything else in there is AI.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Yeah. I used to do Bookstagram back in the day, and it was like a lot of effort to take aesthetically placed.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you did the most.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'll find some photos to put on there too. I don't do it anymore, but I would like create full, like I don't even know, like you had backdrops.

SPEAKER_03

Backdrops. You had like plant, like fake plants and like mirrors and fabrics. Yeah. I did. She did. She had a whole thing. I remember. I remember seeing that. Yeah. It was legit.

SPEAKER_00

No AI in sight.

SPEAKER_03

No, that was before chat even existed.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And a lot of people built their bookstagrams on the work that it took to make these aesthetically pleasing photos. And now we have Chat GPT doing the work for these people. Yeah. And People are, you know, pointing it out. Underscore book arrest is the bookstagram account that has been pointed out. She has 5,185 followers at the time of filming this episode. People are commenting on her photos and she's removing comments that are saying this. Yeah, it's blatant AI. Guilty.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Guilty. But I just don't get why, you know, the reading community is so against AI. And yet you're trying to enter the bookstagram space using AI in an obvious manner. Yeah. I think this goes into this topic discussion we're gonna get into, but has book talk or bookstagram turned reading into a competition? Even with the dialogue skipping, a lot of people said that this feels like a symptom of something bigger that's happening within the book community. Book talk specifically is obsessed with reading goals, good reads, repeatable challenges, monthly wrap-ups, reading a hundred books plus a year and all the recommendations. There's a lot that goes into the content that's been going on, and I think people are trying to keep up with other creators to stay relevant. Yes. So true. It's become a competition in many different ways. So why do you think people are so obsessed with reading goals? I know you and I were in We're very competitive. We're very competitive. But why are we competitive? Why do we feel the need to read over a hundred books a year? I don't know the answer to this.

SPEAKER_02

Satisfaction. I think it's like a little mixture of everything. I think for me, it's definitely satisfaction. For you, I think it's satisfaction and a bit of FOMO.

SPEAKER_03

Susie has the worst FOMO I think I've ever met in my life. For things that she won't even enjoy. Yes, you have FOMO of everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You have FOMO of certain things.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I let you guys go to the movies without me. No. I was not invited.

SPEAKER_03

You weren't invited. Neither was I, really. Susie. Prime example. Susie can't watch anything scary. Like, not anything. She just admitted that Twilight scared her the other night. Twilight. Okay. Twilight, yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but when they're on the when the they're killing the old guy on the boat, it's scary. James, Victoria, and Laurent are scary. They killed somebody.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, so here's to further prove my point. I went and saw the movie Obsession. If you're a horror buff, you know what movie I'm talking about. You probably already know, even if you don't know about horror, it's all over the interwebs. I went and saw it with my husband. We loved it. We called Nate and Susie because my brother used to love horror movies, but because since he's been with Susie, he doesn't watch them as much anymore.

SPEAKER_00

No, I will I'll get mad at him.

SPEAKER_03

So when I told him about this, he's like, Oh, I really want to see that. And I was like, Well, I wish I never watched it in the first place, but I'll go again. And Susie was like, Well, I want to come. And I was like, No, please trust me when I say this. This is not a movie you want to see.

SPEAKER_00

It's not the movie I want to go see. It's the experience of getting the poutine at the movie theaters that I want.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, poutine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

She just wanted to go without her.

SPEAKER_02

I would have a movie theater experience without her. If you want, you come. We're going to take Harrison to his first movie.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, that'd be nice. Toy Story 5.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I do love a good Toy Story movie. I just won't want to see it though, too.

SPEAKER_03

But my point is Susie has foam more for the things that she doesn't even she would literally ruin her life. Yes. Temporarily. I don't think I wouldn't. I don't think you would have. If you didn't sleep from Twilight, you still, if we went and saw that what two weeks ago, you probably up until this point probably still wouldn't have slept.

SPEAKER_00

I don't sleep anyway, because my dog, so my dog likes to chew her paws and yeah, but then you would have been lying awake, been like, is that her chewing her pa?

SPEAKER_02

Or is it demon?

SPEAKER_00

I used to watch scary movies with my friends.

SPEAKER_02

In the corner.

SPEAKER_00

Why don't you love me? I have been doing the no, no, no, no. It's a Nate all the time.

SPEAKER_03

No, no, no, no. We are having such a why would you do it?

SPEAKER_00

So have you ever felt pressure to read more books personally?

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Why? Because of you. Because of me? Yeah. Cast don't care.

SPEAKER_03

I don't care. I'm just for the vibes. I'm just reading.

SPEAKER_00

Fair enough. You're almost, I think you're almost beating your goal from last year. Yeah, I'm at like 32.

SPEAKER_03

32 books finished, I think. And you read 49 last year? Yeah, I read 49 last year total. So I read 50 last year. I think I'll be. I think my goal was. What did I say my goal was? 60? I think it was 60. Yeah. So I'm halfway there. Yeah. Yours is 105.

SPEAKER_00

Mine's 100. And you're definitely going to beat that. Good. I better. I would be very disappointed if I fell off the trail now. The train now. I'd be okay with it. You would. I wouldn't. You can't beat me at activity and books. I need to win something. Yeah, but you're not even letting me win activity.

SPEAKER_02

You removed it.

SPEAKER_03

You're winning in vibes. So I'm good. How does it feel to be you? I'm winning in the vibe check.

SPEAKER_00

It's stressful. Every time I finish a book, I go to Beth's profile still, and I'm like, I'm still winning. You finished the the oh, the last one we read before me. The Demon's Val one. Yeah. I was really upset. Took me like two days after Beth finished it to finish it.

SPEAKER_02

I think at one point you're like, I'm at this part.

SPEAKER_00

I was like, I think it's fair to say that we've all felt pressure apart from Cass. Have you ever picked a shorter book because you wanted another book toward your goal? Yes. Yes. 100%. Novella's best friend. 100%.

SPEAKER_02

I literally saw you reading Novella. And I was like, I'm reading that one this month.

SPEAKER_03

Love another killers. That one. For me, a novella is like 160 something pages. I was looking at yours and like 68 pages. That's like a it's a short story.

SPEAKER_00

It's a it's a it's a palette fresher, refresher. Palette refresher? A palette cleanser? That's what I'm looking for, yes. Palette cleanser. There you go. That's what it is. And they usually suck, so I don't recommend. Yeah. The last couple of books I've been reading have been over 400 pages. I haven't read a novella in this.

SPEAKER_02

There are actually a couple of books in the Devil's Night series that are on the lower end, like in the hundreds. That's good. I'm looking forward to those because this one right now is like 600 and something pages. A lot.

SPEAKER_00

Do you think reading 20 books deeply is more valuable than reading 100 quickly? Yes. Yes. By such a small number.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, but at least you're actually reading it and not just dialoguing it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you're only reading dialogue, then yeah, then 20 books deeply would be definitely more valuable.

SPEAKER_02

That's what we're saying, like when you say deeply, I'm like, I feel like you mean like, yeah, every single word taking it all in, whereas like quickly would be skimming. That's how Nate reads. He's only take it all in.

SPEAKER_00

I literally was like the one night I looked over his book and I'm like, what percentage are you at? He's like 40. We read for an hour in bed. I look over 42%.

SPEAKER_03

Wait, what book was he reading? Caretaker?

SPEAKER_00

No, he was reading the one that uh I read. You did nothing wrong.

SPEAKER_03

Oh quote.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, that one does look good. It is really good. Nate said it was messed up, which would be right up your alley. But I love that. Uh he read it so freaking slow, and I just wanted to talk to someone about it because y'all suck and haven't read it yet.

SPEAKER_03

I'll read it this month. We're still at what do we got?

SPEAKER_00

You still have to read stage set for halfway through. I'm calling Brandy out in this episode, okay? I have seen a stage set for villains on your currently reading for about a month and a bit. What are you doing? Brandy, you keep adding more books to your currently reading. Brandy. Get to it, girl. It's not bad. It's a good book. Just finish it. I want to talk to people about it.

SPEAKER_03

Brandy's in trouble.

SPEAKER_00

I'm so mad. Every time I see her currently reading, get another book on top, and a stage separate villains is still on there. I fume inside.

SPEAKER_03

For those of you who don't know, Brandy is one of our OG fable book club members. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. We've had a lot of people since then, but Brandy's still an active member.

SPEAKER_03

She's our OG. Her and Alua were the most active from the get-go. Still are. The real MVPs. Yes. Appreciates, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Let's get into it. We weren't already into it. We're getting further into it. We're getting further into it. We're over there. Bring it back. So we're going to get into the author perspective. You fished, I lassoed. Lasso'd. That's the one. Lasso'd. That's the word. So let's answer. Well, you guys are going to answer these questions as if you're an author.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So how would you feel if someone only consumed part of something that you created? Pissed. What the heck? It's like people skimming parts of our podcast instead of just like skipping episodes like things. Yeah. I'd be upset. Like we're fun all the time.

SPEAKER_02

I worked hard on that. Every word. Yeah. Every word is like ingest that with your eyes, all of it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, the amount of time it takes for Susie to edit.

SPEAKER_00

Watch the whole thing. Just talking right now is so hard. I've been having some teeth pain.

unknown

Oh, Jesus.

SPEAKER_00

Don't even start. It's an issue. It's not in my head. I couldn't even enjoy my birthday.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, that's so sad. And no. She had a 3D scan. The literal orthodontist said everything is fine. Yeah, the 3D scan is like it's just like just like a picture.

SPEAKER_00

Are readers becoming less interested in beautiful writing? Yes. For example, Nora Roberts is no. You're gonna have Janet coming after us. No, Janet! Bring up Nora Roberts and beautiful writing.

SPEAKER_02

And readers just don't just can't appreciate the beauty. I've looked hard line.

SPEAKER_00

Not an ounce of beauty was to be found. You know what was beautiful writing was I gave you a book.

SPEAKER_04

Oh yeah, you can read it.

SPEAKER_00

The most beautiful writing I've read recently has been The Heartstring Duet by was it Liv Xander that wrote that? Oh my dead Crown of Yours.

SPEAKER_03

That was a masterpiece of a duet.

SPEAKER_00

That really cried. Beth was bawling. Caps is freaking cold hearted. She didn't do anything. But beautiful writing. I almost cried last night. Oh, that ending. MGK? Yeah. That's different.

SPEAKER_03

I'm talking about beautiful writing. Well, you guys say I don't cry at anything. I said I almost cried last night.

SPEAKER_00

Music takes a while for you to cry. What happened that made you cry? You were also drunk. No, I wasn't. You texted us. You're like, I'm a little bit drunk.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah, at that point I was drunk. I was I had sobered up by the concert.

SPEAKER_00

And can a book still be great if nothing happens, but the writing is incredible?

SPEAKER_03

No.

SPEAKER_00

What? What do you mean nothing happens? If it's just dialogue, like nothing.

SPEAKER_02

If I read if I read it and I was like dee dee die die di and then got to the end and it was like nothing happened.

unknown

What?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I probably already so upset.

SPEAKER_00

I probably I probably would throw it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I think that if nothing happens, it's just a waste of freaking time. I've never burnt a book, but you'd like to never say never, you know? You just I'll throw some Nor Roberts on there, you know. Stop, Janet. Whoa. Janet just doesn't appreciate the the humor that we have when it comes to Northern Robert.

SPEAKER_03

There's a lot of people that don't understand our humor. Sorry, not sorry.

SPEAKER_00

It's mostly like the inside jokes that they don't get. Like we have an inside joke between us. Yeah, like if you've watched us from day one, you would understand. And also those reels were Beth's idea. So she volunteered and encouraged us to roast her.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, the one wasn't my idea. Which one? The one of you giving the fingertips. Oh, yeah, that was that was my idea.

SPEAKER_03

That was her idea. Because she did it. I did it naturally. Yeah. And I was like, wait, go back. And she told me to do it again. So I was like, say less.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I was like, why not?

SPEAKER_03

But the other ones were totally Beth's idea. The one of Susie throwing the book. That was literally her idea.

SPEAKER_02

And yet we are being called horrible people. Because I think it's those mixed with the episode where all you guys did was hate on me and Nora. Yeah, but that's what you you knew that was gonna happen. Nora, call me.

SPEAKER_00

That's why she wanted us to do that episode. She volunteered to be roasted.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. No, we've talked about doing a Nora episode since like the beginning. But it changed from me convincing you guys to read Nora. That's actually what happened. We technically did read Nora. We just didn't enjoy it. Is Nora still relevant in today's episode?

SPEAKER_03

I think she is just she's for relevant in with the people that keep her relevant. And that's all I've gonna say. With my Nora's fan club. Yeah. You Janet and Debbie.

SPEAKER_02

There's a few of them.

SPEAKER_03

There's a couple other ones in there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. We're gonna do Devil's Advocate, and Cass really likes playing Devil's Advocate all the time. No, I just love playing the devil.

SPEAKER_03

Sometimes I'll play Devil's Advocate. She's the okay.

SPEAKER_02

Then you can you can ask the devil's advocate questions then. Okay. Does it actually matter?

SPEAKER_03

Yes. Does what actually matter? Reading dialogue only. Oh, does it actually matter? Skimming. Does it actually matter? Yeah, it matters. Okay. Because if you're just reading dialogue, you're not reading a full book. So how do you sit there and rate a book, write a review when all you've read is the dialogue? That's true. That's embarrassing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And I'd say like even the AI bookstagram things matter a lot as well.

SPEAKER_03

People want authentic content. Yeah. Exactly. And a lot of work goes into those posts. So 100%.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. If someone enjoys books more this way, who are we to judge?

SPEAKER_00

No one. We have no authority. We have no authority.

SPEAKER_02

But we will judge you anyways. Is some reading better than no reading?

SPEAKER_03

Yes. Yes. I think if you're reading, that's always a very good thing.

SPEAKER_02

They actually, so a lot of people who struggle with reading dis uh dyslexia and other ailments that you may have that make reading hard. A lot of them say that uh comic books is kind of like a gateway to reading. There you go.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, I don't judge people for reading comic books because they're actually reading like what the book is.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, so let's let's then just clear this up immediately before we get slandered again. If you have some sort of reading, I don't want to say impairment. Is it an impairment? Yeah. If that's the only way you can read, we're not talking about you. No, we're talking about people like that can like us. That can competently read and are only choosing to read the dialogue. That's who we're meaning. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I'll put a disclaimer at the beginning of the episode.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. Yes, don't cancel us, please. Let's clear that up. Are readers becoming too judgmental of each other? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I mean, we're not helping the matters. We're we're also being judgmental at this point. But you know what? Like, our authors put a lot of work into these books. I see how Nate, like, he's working really hard on his book. If someone only read the dialogue, that's like such a slap in the face.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I think this is warranted judgment though.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. It's not like a, you know, we're upset that you're marking them as books read. It's more so the fact that like you're just You're not getting the entire story. Yeah. And then you're rating it for other people. Meanwhile, you know, it might not even be a good book, but you're only reading the dialogue, or you give it a false review. Yeah. And then, you know.

SPEAKER_03

I also think a big part of it is they're just doing it to get their reading goals.

SPEAKER_00

But it's just like I I get the pressure because of Beth. But at the same time, like I don't think I would just cheat read in order to up my goal. I think that would like I would know.

SPEAKER_02

Real win. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I would know, and I would be like, I didn't actually read so and so many books.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know?

SPEAKER_02

And have we turned reading into a weird purity contest?

SPEAKER_03

I would definitely say yes. Yeah, I would agree. Yeah. Yeah. This community can be so amazing. Yeah. But it also can be very toxic. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's more so toxic. Like uh Mariana reads, she posted she's always in some kind of controversy.

SPEAKER_03

I love her.

SPEAKER_00

I yeah, she's she's always, you know, she says she likes a book and then people attack her for liking the book. But like I think the one thing that this community sucks at is understanding that reading is subjective. If you read the full story and you didn't like the story, that's your prerogative. Everyone enjoys different things. I don't understand the hate that people like will put out there to people who enjoy books that they didn't, or vice versa.

SPEAKER_02

It's like and you a zodiac.

SPEAKER_03

Fuck zodiac.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but we don't like we don't actually hate each other.

SPEAKER_03

No, we don't it's all in good fun. Like if you guys like zodiac.

SPEAKER_02

Is it fun, Cassandra?

SPEAKER_03

It's but like these people are actually being rude to her. That's the difference. Like we say things in good fun. Yeah. And nobody hears our feelings are not hurt.

SPEAKER_00

No. I'm just it's like our I don't know. I I get a good laugh. So yeah. Yeah. Most of our you guys hated on Wings of Starlight for so long. I've given us after you read it, so I don't think. It's the fact that it's a Disney Tinkerbowl book. That's people what I feel like you'd like it. Beth would, I think. There's no you and Cheryl were hating on me hard. But I didn't take it to heart. I still have it displayed. Yeah. It's a great book. Would you rather now you have to do a whole that accent for the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. Okay. Would you rather read only dialogue forever or only descriptions forever?

SPEAKER_02

I just went to go reply in the same accent. That's a rough one.

SPEAKER_00

I would say dialogue because sometimes descriptions should be boring. Oh, I was gonna say descriptions. That checks out for you.

SPEAKER_03

That does. You did sound like Moira. Oh, rest in peace. That's why she liked This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, when This Kingdom in fact did kill me. Yes. Okay. Would you rather read five amazing books or 50 mediocre books? Five amazing. Yeah, I would agree. Yeah. Are you fighting an accent? No one's stopping you. I hope our UK listeners find me. I'm finding you very entertaining.

SPEAKER_00

You're fucked right out of the Harry Potter universe right now.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. Go on. Would you rather lose dialogue or lose internal monologue?

SPEAKER_02

Where's the accent? Go back. Oh, sorry. Try again.

SPEAKER_03

Lose dialogue or lose internal monologue. Ooh. Lose dialogue, please. You'd rather lose dialogue. I'd say the same. Would you rather read a synopsis or read only dialogue?

SPEAKER_00

Ooh. I'd read a synopsis. If I could only choose one, I'd I would read the synopsis because then you get like the full scope of what's happening in the sh the book dialogue, you only get the interactions between characters. So you're missing. You have no idea what's going on.

SPEAKER_03

No.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So if I had to put a synopsis, if it was a Nora Roberts synopsis, you get basically a whole book.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So she's agreeing. So if it was done in a Nora Roberts fashion, it would be beneficial.

SPEAKER_02

I was gonna say dialogue I was gonna say dialogue here, but I've kind of been convinced of the synopsis instead.

SPEAKER_03

Would you rather have unlimited time to read or unlimited money for books? Time. Time 100% money.

SPEAKER_00

Money, money, money, money.

SPEAKER_03

What do you want? Time. Here's the thing: money always can just like appear for things you want, right? That's girl math, but not really math, yeah. For sure, but so that's why I picked time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Question for you guys. What is one reading habit that other readers judge, but you don't think is actually a problem? I'm excited to see what you guys have to say about that one. And more importantly, if someone only reads the dialogue in a book, did they read the book? Let us know.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I'm I'm very curious about your guys' thoughts.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, mine is gonna be from The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber, page 273. If it's easier, you can pretend too, he whispered. You can pretend that I'm still Jax of the Hollow and that you want to be mine. His mouth pressed against her throat once more and slowly traced a blissful line up to her neck, to her ear. Then his teeth nipped her earlobe. She gasped. The bite was sharp and a little painful, as if he wanted to hold her and punish her too. But he didn't have to punish her. This was already torture because she wanted it so much. She wanted him to want her, even if he was half delirious and just wanting. I'm not delirious. His voice was husky with something like sleep, but when he looked down on her, his eyes were clear and lucid, and Evangeline felt as if she were tumbling into them.

SPEAKER_02

I like that. That was really a journey.

SPEAKER_00

Nice.

SPEAKER_02

I was gonna do a different one, but I decided after all the chit-chat about the cocktail diaries. I'd do one from that.

SPEAKER_03

Oh brother. Okay. Is it a recipe? It is not. That would have been funny.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So the cocktail diaries, Sam Hewen, page 24. Okay. I've always been obsessed with James Bond. I grew up watching the movies on our black and white TV, Sean being my favorite, of course. And was even lucky enough to addition for the part way back in the day when they were doing Bond 21. The golden gun from the movie with Christopher Lee was on the table in front of me, and I'll admit I was rather shaken, more than stirred. Ooh, little James Bond moment.

SPEAKER_03

Nice. All right. Mine is from The Bad Bishop. A Dark Mafia romance. Society of Villains, Book One by LG Shen. Page 73. The most beautiful woman on the continent. No close seconds. They call her a vision, a masterpiece, a myth. From now on, she only has one name. Mine. Ooh.

SPEAKER_00

That's a good one. That's good. Well, that's it. That's all she wrote. That's it. That's all she wrote. You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Black Twist Please Pod, or also anywhere you can get your podcast. So make sure you're following or subscribed so you never miss an episode. If you love this one, hype us up a little. Leave us a comment, drop a rating or review, and tell us what you would like us to read next.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you so much for joining us on this episode.

SPEAKER_02

And as always, keep your glass, your bookshelf, and your TBR full. Cheers