Falling In Love w/ Reading, Fantasy Obsessions & Honest Book Reviews w/ Emma Brooks | Booked & Busy

Emma Brooks is officially Booked & Busy 🎀📖

Today's episode is maybe my favorite so far because I'm joined by my actual best friend in the whole word... THE Emma Brooks. And tbh, this episode feels like the one that started it all, because in a way she's lowkey the reason this podcast even exists!!

We talk about how we both fell in love with reading (hint...it starts with a 500-page book and a questionable Koreatown apartment in Los Angeles), our full reading journeys from the Crave series by Tracy Wolf, Colleen Hoover, and Taylor Jenkins Reid to the ACOTAR series and what we've been reading most recentlyyy. We also dive into our favorite tropes, self-care reading routines, audiobooks and the books that made us book a session with our therapists post-breakdown (and like so so much more omg)

Grab a beverage and a snack, get cozy, and let's get Booked & Busy ;)

xoxo,
Olivia

✎ This Episode Is For You If You Like...
→ Genres: romance, romantasy, contemporary romance, fantasy, dystopian fantasy
→ Tropes / Vibes: enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, plot twists, booktok/booktube recs, hidden gem book recs, YA nostalgia
→ Books Mentioned: Crave Series, ACOTAR (Court of Thorns and Roses, Court of Mist and Fury), Throne of Glass, Fourth Wing, The Alchemist, Normal People, Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Malibu Rising, Daisy Jones and the Six, Guild, The Butcher and the Blackbird, Book Lovers, If He Had Been With Me, A Thousand Boy Kisses, Quicksilver, Confirm, Every Summer After (and probably so many more i missed girl idk lol)

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi angels, welcome back to another episode of Booked and Busy. Today we have an incredible guest. We have my best friend in the whole wide world, Miss Emma Brooks. Hi guys. On our way to the studio, I could see Emma's location on my phone that was like right next to me. So I look out the window and she's just walking on my phone. So I was like, yo. She did, she cat called me. Yeah, I didn't. And you know what? It worked. So it did work. I picked her up. Maybe let's not recommend that. Okay, so clearly on Booked and Busy, we're talking about all things books related. So I want you to tell the story from your perspective on how we both got back into reading. Because I've said it before, but I want it to come from the heart. The heart, the heart and the soul. Yeah, I got back into reading what it was 2021 when we were living together. Yeah, end of 2021. That that's wretched apartment. That was yeah, a scary, scary place. Um, but we were living together and you came home with a humongous book, and it was Crave by Tracy Wolf. And I don't know, you just really got into it, like in a very obsessive fashion. I felt like it was right after Christmas break because I remember I read it when I had COVID in New York City. So I didn't, I was locked in my apartment for two weeks. And I couldn't tell you what in my brain was like, let's pick up this 500-page book and like let me just try reading it. I didn't like off-rip, like had did not read anything else prior to that. Like this was before you fell in love with Colleen Hoover. Yeah. Like you, this is the first book. Like, I don't know what it when incentivized me. And no, but you loved it so much and it made me want to love something that much. But I also I used to, I used to love reading, especially whenever I was younger, and that I fell out of love with it because I feel like it was forced upon me and that made me not want to read as much. I was literally like the same thing. I just don't like how much teachers did you ever read The Giver bring up? Yeah, I didn't know. That was like a part of our Yeah, that was the thing school. I like that one more because it was like a part of that dystopian, but it was an older book, so it was like a little bit more old fashioned. But I remember reading Silas Marner and like hating my life, and it was like forced upon me, and I just did not want to I didn't want to read it. And it was that one specifically, I hate it. See, that was the way you feel about that book was with me and the giver. Like it was so forced, and we had to read like a certain amount of pages like every single night for this class. And I would literally just like skim a page, and if they asked me a question, I'd just be like, I'm sorry, I didn't this is so boring to me. Like I just I can't I couldn't get into it, but I think it's because I hated my teacher so much and anything that they told me to do, I was like, no. Yeah, no, I was also the same. Like I just literally didn't want to do anything that they told me to do. Out of spite. Yeah, sorry. And then um no she read all of the books in the Crave series. Oh, I devoured those books. I think I only read I got to the book before when Jackson and what's the main character of the book again? Holden and Grace, like his his brother, his evil brother Hudson. Yeah, Hudson. Oh my god. Where am I getting Jackson from? Her name's Grace. Yeah. Gargoyle Grace.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Yes! Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Okay, I'm not gonna lie. Like looking back on that book, it's not. I've read other fantasy books that have opened up my um eyes to maybe what no Tino Shea to Tracy Wolf. There's just there's better world building. Yeah. And what makes like a good fantasy, like what makes it well rounded, and like you know, I'm a die hard thrown of glass fan through and through. A moment of silence. A moment of silence for thrown of glass. Thank you very much. I mean, I would honestly agree with you because I feel like it was a really good first book for me to read, and hopefully for you too, because I feel like that was the first bit of like addiction I got from a book. Yeah. And then I feel like we went on to feel those exact feelings with like Colleen Hoover, but like that first moment where you're like a hundred pages in and you're like, wait, I think I I think I like it here. I think I'm gonna stay here. Yeah, like I think we especially because it flew by like a hundred pages to 300 pages, like then you're done and you're like, wait, what? It's been two days. But no, I I remember flying through those books, and then from there I read, I needed to understand the hype behind Colleen Hoover because this is whenever she was really blowing up. So I read like five of her books back to back. Because I remember easy, yeah. And I remember very, very specifically. I was on my way home from the Newark airport and I called you because I think I had just finished like Ugly Love or November 9th. Yeah, yeah, and we like had to talk about it. Both, I mean, I've read not every book by her, but pretty much You've read more Colleen Hoover than I like read five and like I haven't picked it up since. Yeah. But I would say the same. I read all of her books and then I haven't really touched one. But I she just came out with a book called Woman Down, I think. Okay, it's supposed to be like a scary book, like a horn one. So like Verity is obviously like a little bit more like haunted vibes. Then she's one named Lila. I honestly didn't finish it because I lost the book in Ibiza and then I never bought it again. But I read the first like three quarters, and it was basically like uh a couple got lived in this house, and she was in love with the man, but a ghost started communicating to her, and then I think she starts falling in love with the ghost. It was really weird, but it was like creepy, but not creepy to the point where I couldn't read it. Yeah, it was just like odd at some point. So I was like, okay, she's an interesting one, yeah. And then so I think Woman Down is like in that same field because I think Verity performed so well. Yeah. Verity was really good. I actually will say I enjoyed it. Now, like I think like November 9th was like my favorite for a while. But then it was like, so I read five Colleen Hoover books and then I read Taylor Jenkins Read. And that whenever I was like, oh, this is good writing. And then I was like, okay, I'm in, I'm back into reading. I read through like Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Malibu Rising, and uh Daisy Jones and the Six, back to back to back. I couldn't do Daisy Jones, and I told you this when I because I loved Evelyn Hugo. That was like, in my opinion, like a six-star book, like incredible. Yeah, I loved it. And it was just like good, like at the time of my life, I felt like I could relate to the characters in like a weird kind of parallel universe. And then I read Malibu Rising and I thought I was gonna love it because it's Malibu and it's surfing and it's like so me. I'm like, okay. And then I think I equally got like three-fourths done. I remember you not like finished it. I remember I don't think you did. Because I remember you could have getting I couldn't get into it. Yeah, I remember you not being able to get into it. I think I read that one last and I loved it because I thought it was fun that there was like crossovers from like the universes. Like it did have seven, like Evelyn Hugo crossover and uh Daisy Jones crossover, I believe. It's been so long since I've read it, but no, those were though those were like the stages of me getting back into reading. Um what'd you read after that then? After that, because I remember that time. It was right when I moved into the apartment that I live in now. Because I was reading Evelyn Hugo and I remember posting it and people being like, I feel like that was also when book talk was like really getting on my for you page. Yeah. And like I was finally talking about books with other people than just you, because I feel like for like a year and a half, you're the only person I talked to about books with. Yeah. Because you're the only person that in my life that read, which you still kind of are. And Sabrina, Sabrina reads too. Yes, yes, she does. No, after that, I read I was getting into like different romances. Now the books that I read, I it's very different. Like I read Spanish Love Deception, Book Lovers. That's the only Emily Henry. Yeah, that's the only. What do you think about book lovers? I loved it really. I'm really I'm looking at my looking at my review right now on Goodreads at Emma Brooks. Um, it's at Emma Books. We that's really huge. That's my that's my username. Oh. Let's see. What did I say? This book was so fun to read. The character development is amazing. And what you think happens actually doesn't happen, which in my opinion is a win. This is so funny. Like twist. Being unpredictable can sometimes be hard with romance novels. Also, the romance between Charlie and Nora never made me cringe. Their chemistry was very enjoyable. This book is definitely for anyone looking for a good rom-com read. Did you laugh out loud reading it? I think so. I think there was a couple points. And then I read normal people and conversations with friends back to back and had a manic episode because of it.

unknown 8:49

Why?

SPEAKER_00 8:50

It was you know what? It literally made me spiral. I remember being, I was in New York actually, and I was sitting on the sidewalk with on the phone with my therapist, like rocking back and forth, crying, being like, and I was like, damn you, who's Holly Rooney. I'm no, and you know what? I feel like that is the why I like reading so much because I feel like it can give you emotions that like nothing else really can. Because yes, you'll have like a manic episode about it, but then you can come back to Earth and be like, this isn't real. Oh, a hundred percent. And I feel like that's what I like. I read if he had been with me. Oh, I don't remember the author, but it was like a book talk book. No, I remember, I remember that. Yeah, and I read it. I was in Columbia with my family for Christmas. Yes, yeah, and there was guys six people in one, a one-bedroom apartment. Me, my dad, my sister, A was a lot, but I didn't really have anything to do. So I read this gut-wrenching book, and it was so cute. It was the love story. I was like, Oh, this is gonna be adorable. Like, I love this book. And then the ending happened, and I woke everyone up from how loudly I was crying at night. And they were like, What? My mom literally thought like something really traumatic happened to me, and I was like, my book, and she's like, Bro, are you kidding me? I was like, Wait, I wanna cry. I think I need I think I need another book that will that book cry that hard. Yeah, that book made me bawl my eyes out. Um, A Thousand Boy Kisses. I remember made me oh my god, I was not, I was not okay after that book. And then I just read Enemy of Time. Oh my god, and I didn't know that was gonna be a sad book either until I got to the end. And then I was literally sounds intriguing. Um okay, so now we're gonna go back into the Crave series because I want to know from your perspective, why do you think it was a good book for you to get into and segue into reading? I think it was really good for me because it's just it's fantasy is so easy to enjoy if you like love that realm anyway. Like especially like I love I enjoy those kinds of movies. I already whenever I was younger, I really was a big Hunger Games girl. So, like that era of time where like Maze Runner, like Divergent. I was literally gonna ask you. I was like, if you had to pick a movie between Divergent Hunger Games and Maze Runner, which would be your favorite movies? Hunger Games. Really? Catching fire specifically. Best one. Like the actual adaptation of it is so good. And but you read them? Yeah, I read all of them. I was a Hunger Games girl. Like I had the side braid and everything. I actually really want to see a picture of that. Yeah, I need to find it. I am like my childhood best friend, her name was Alex, and she um she was like my catness everdeen. Truly. She was really PETA. I I was a gale. I was just attracted to Liam Hemsworth whenever I was a kid. But when I I know I know I'm an adult because PETA is obviously the bet the best man out there. But whenever I was younger, those thick eyebrows really got me. Are you serious? I think I also like him and like Miley were together, and like I just like loved them. But no, Gail sucks so bad. Stop whining. God damn. Anyway, what were you? I was you give divergent. Yeah, like I I would say it's in between divergent and hunger games, but I love I found Maze Runner a little bit later in life. Like I didn't watch them till no Brian. So I think I remember watching the first Maze Runner movie. I think I was in like seventh grade because I remember being at my childhood friend's Claire Daniels' house, and we watched it, and I was like, what are the what's up with these walls moving? What is going on? I was so confused. And then I feel like I watched Divergent, and that actually changed the way that I looked at life. I really, really, really wanted to be a part of Divergent. I wanted it to be a real thing. I was like, oh my gosh, like what would which of the four would you be? I think I would want to be Dauntless, but like I feel like I'd go into law probably probably. Really? Law, maybe? Maybe I'm just saying that. I would say like abnegation, or isn't abnegation isn't the the woman like in the fields? Oh, that's like I was you think I'm a farmer? I could kind of see you like maybe I would love a peaceful life. Like I don't really I'm trying to remember all of them. I know I'm not the one where they're like no the stiffs, no fears. What are you talking about? I like looking at myself. No. Yeah, um, I wouldn't be donators. I probably would. What would I be? You you'd probably be a lawyer. You think? Yeah. Wow. You're like, would you think I would be with the government that they you know, remember like the whole preface of Divergent is like the government versus the people. And she's like, uh well, yeah. Because like would I be with them or would I be a part of the rebels? Well, I feel like I would hope in the world that we would be a part of the rebels. Yeah, we would be rebels. Did you read Conform by Ariel Sullivan? No, I didn't. It's like really similar to Divergent. Oh. And it's like really, really, really, really, really good. There's, I want to put this out into the to the internet because I've been looking for this book series that I read whenever I was in middle school. I'm curious if you know. I don't know the name of it, but it's a series. Okay. It's a young adult and it's like five teenagers in this like beachside town. There's like really there's like the really rich kids, and there's like one girl who's like not so rich, but like one of she has like kind of getting bullied, but like dating one of the guys, and there's like a murder. Oh, and it's like a murder mystery kind of thriller, YA. It was like existing around the pretty little liars of the world at that time. And if anyone knows what it is, but it is, please come. Please leave it. I've gone, I've been looking for two years to find this book. But uh me saying all of this to say already loving dystopian books whenever I was younger, I had never really read, I had never read Twilight whenever I was younger, which I regret. Yeah, but I still haven't read it. I actually would love to read that. But I had never tapped into fantasy. So when you read it, I was like, oh, like I loved these books when I was younger, maybe I'll enjoy it as an adult. And I thoroughly did. Open the open the door to Throne of Glass. Yeah. Acatar was a discover, like, once I discovered Avatar, which, you know, I know everyone's read it. I know how popular it is. And I loved it as I was reading it, but then I discovered like reading Throne of Glass was such an all-encompassing experience because it's just such a commitment, and it's she does such a good job with doing great world building, but not too much. Like, I feel like the problem with Avatar was there was so much world building. And that was my problem with it, is I felt like I went from reading Fourth Wing, and I think I tried reading Avatar like pretty much directly after it because I was like, Oh, I love this like fantasy world, like, let me try this next. And comparatively to Fourth Wing, the world building was like times four, and I was like, is anything going to happen? Any fights? No sex? Like, what's going on? It took me, I think it took me two to three tries to get through the first book. And then once I got to a court of mist and fury, I was like, okay, I'm understanding. See, mine was the opposite. I really got into Avatar, and then by a court of Miss and Fury, whatever it is, I would say furry, but it's just not furry. You also used to say a court of Rose and Storns. It's like, but I love it though. I think it's cute and endearing whenever you do that. But I got like halfway through the second book, and I was just like, I think I remember texting you and being like, Does anything happen? Because like, holy crap, I felt like I've spent the past month reading this book, and I'm still not to something that is like attention grabbing. Yeah. So I gave up. No, and that's that's so fair. But what was your favorite parts of Throne of Glass? Like, if you could say like three, I don't know, like a theme or like something that was like reoccurring or like a love dynamic. Spoiler alert. Spoiler, we'll be talking about this. I think Ailen Galathenia's white horn. Crazy name, by the way. Crazy name. I love the name Ailen, but no, she is probably one of my favorite protagonists. I mean, I love how in fantasy books her like her tiny skinny little waist and her curves and her bouncy curly hair. I'm like, Jesus Christ. But she's one of the, I don't know. Sometimes I find that like some writers make their protagonists like purposefully aggressive or like purposefully like really annoying. You kind of like hate them a little bit. She had secrets, but like with good purpose. And I really thought that there was always these full circle moments happening throughout the series. Like things were always tying in together constantly. It was like a Venn diagram throughout each book connected to one another. I loved the tandem read. I actually really enjoyed the tandem read. By the at first, I was like, holy shit, reading two books at the same time is really a commitment, and this is crazy. And the size of them too. Yeah, because they were both like what 600 pages. So it's like you're reading a 1200 page book, but whatever. But whatever. Whatever, it's fine. And it by the time I finished, I was like, wow, I'm so glad that I did this. And then the last book being a thousand pages, which Kingdom of Ash is, I think about it every other day. And that book made me cry. Like, so like I was like four pages in and four chapters in, and I was like, But I loved her and her dynamic with um it was enemies to lovers, which is my favorite trope. Really? Enemies to lovers. See, I feel like you would not like enemies to lovers. Oh, I love it. I love it so much. What's your favorite trope? I got asked this question a few weeks ago, and I like didn't really know what to say because I'm like, I love like this isn't a trope, but like I love a massive plot twist. Like, preferably if the book can have like three plot twists, that's like my golden ticket. But like a trope, maybe I love like a protector of some sort, and then like she's in trouble and like he needs to save her. Yeah. He's like, because then that brings action into it. Don't touch her. Yeah. Sometimes when I'm reading that, I'm like, enough. No one cares. But that's why I'm like, whenever it's so impressive, whenever you can write something like that and like not make me want to crawl out of my skin. And that's probably why like I'm so bad at reading regular romance novels now. Yeah. I read Problematic Italian Summer. Oh. I thought it was one Italian summer. Problematic. No, it was like problematic something. It's by Ali Hazelwood, the girl that's a good one. Oh, okay, okay. Problematic something summer. Anyway, and that was like the first time I read a normal romance that wasn't like a fantasy. It was good. I don't know. Fantasy romance just hits different because I'm like, yeah, you're in trouble. The world is ending, everything is shit. And it's not real. Like it's just not real. No. Um, it's not real in any capacity. Yeah, and all of the romance novels just maybe this is me being a pessimist, but they all feel unrealistic to me. And I would agree with that. Like my last episode was for The Deal by L. Kennedy, and like while I was talking about it, it's a cute story, but like it's a little cringe. And like everyone knows that, and everyone agrees with that because it's so unrealistic. Because like, why would you ever fake date in real life? Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I get like having like a guy best friend and them being like, oh, let me like hang out with you more so like this guy gets jealous. But like to a certain degree, I'm like, question mark. I know, I'm like, it's just not real. And I think like I enjoy the reality that fantasy is setting because I'm like, oh, okay, like I know this isn't real. Yeah. I don't know. I think I just enjoy that kind of romance more. But sometimes I'll like tap in just to be like, do I enjoy this? I was talking about it at the book swapped that we did for coach. We do what we do in the dark, which is like sometimes I like the love story like that, which is like a sapphic story that is set between a student and who has an affair with her professor. I know. And it's like not like one of those, like, oh, this is like a hee hee ha ha romance. This is like a oh, wait, that's not wait, that's fucked up. But like it's real. At least I'm like, wait, this is real. I was able to relate to it. I felt very seen in different ways. And it was just like fascinating, and like that's more interesting to me. And also, like I try not to read just fantasy or like stick to one genre just so I can like expand my mind a little bit and not get sucked into the world of Prithian or Well, that was my thing, is like I feel like so many times I've read like the same genre for like three weeks straight or like three books back to back. And I feel like by the time I get to the third book in that same genre, it just doesn't hit the same because I'm like so used to those same emotions. So, like recently I've been trying to do like if I read a fantasy book, I can't read fantasy for like one or two more books. I have to like go into something else. I get that. And I feel like that's been kind of good for me. Like, like I read The Butcher and the Blackbird, and that's kind of like romance ex like quarry horror almost. Whoa. It's like kind of disturbing, but like in a good way. If that makes any sense. Is it like a dark romance? No. Because there's not like romance? No. Because I I actually I did I did read one and I stopped reading because once the guns came out I was like let's not do this. I can't do this. Yeah. I can't even talk about it. I hate that self. Um yeah I had to put that down. I was in Hawaii and I was like reading on the beach and I was like this is just not a book that you pick up on the beach first of all. But it's kind of like a horror mix with like there are two serial killers who like fall in love. But they're serial killers that kill other serial killers. Whoa. So it's like a it's like a I think honestly you would probably wait no I would love that. Yeah. So it's like you go along with them on their like journeys to kill people. Sorry that's like kind of gruesome to say out loud. But then they also kind of like realize that they really enjoy each other's presence and like that they understand each other because they're both like these like I mean you gotta be a little insane to be able to do that for your job. Yeah. So I don't know I read that and that was kind of like a genre I never tapped into it. And then I read The Enemy of Time which like oh my God I was really not okay after that when I was really really really that one. Yeah. And then I read Guild by Raven Kennedy have you heard of that? Yeah. It's like a white cover with a gold on it read that and it felt like the tip of an iceberg if that makes any sense. Okay. Because the book was very short. It was like 250 pages or 300 pages and normally fantasy book is like six or seven right anyways I felt like it was a perfect book to end off in so you can start the second book but I don't have the second book so I was like well now I'm just stuck on this cliffhanger. And then I am reading Mile High by Liz Tom Ford. It's a part of like her Windy City series if you know what I'm talking about. I feel like I've heard of it. I haven't read it or anything. So you know what was really good was the book that you got me the Quicksilver book. Yeah. I actually really enjoyed that book. Want to tell about talk about it? Yeah Liv and I did a book swap for Christmas and she gave me this book Quicksilver which has a second book Brimstone that I really want to read. I'm reading Hemingway right now so that's the sun also rises. I was like let me expand my mind a little bit more. It's good so far really yeah there it's old it's an older book so it's just like takes me a second. Yeah. No, but it's good and I'll probably treat myself to brimstone maybe after. Okay so now we're gonna go into like self-care with books because for me at least it is a part of my self-care routine because if you don't like set time to read every day you don't read and I feel like in my brain the only time I have to read is when I'm not doing like work or hang out with friends and stuff like that. So my my brain that's self-care because that's the only way I can validate it. So tell me your favorite self-care routine or like day that includes reading. Ideally I'm reading in like a third space. So like whether it's like a coffee shop, a library like a really like I mean there's so many libraries in New York um a park I ideally outside is best case scenario. If we're talking dream world like a spa. But like reading in a third space where like I'm like truly and like alone because I live alone time and I'm just like with my book and I'm either drinking tea or wine. Fake your poison. Very comfy clothes whether it's like a robe or just like loose trousers and like a t-shirt like and I'm just comfortable. I like to listen to like um like playlist that matches my book. Yeah. You're one of those people oh my God when I was reading Throne of Glass like I was playing oh yeah like I was like listening to like music scorings while I was like reading my book because I was because it felt like a movie. Like literally there was oh my God I'm gonna sound like a crazy person. Okay. Whatever they were on the battlefield and like the set like the when the perfect song starts playing and like a scene is playing out in a book oh my God it just feels like so serendipitous. It's so awesome and it's fun like it's so fun to like have something like that happen. And I've only done that I think it was with Fourth Wing and I listened to like the ambient music from the playlist but I know some books have like a curated playlist for it but I can't listen to music that has words in it me neither while I'm reading. So I normally listen to like anti-anxiety frequencies. I have like one very specific playlist on Spotify that I listen to literally every single day. Oh and I just listen to it my free time too because it calms me down. No I I I love listening to frequencies especially if I'm walking but now I want to do I want to do audiobooks while I read like for example the book that I'm reading right now um like I said it's a little bit harder for me to just like sit down read. Once honestly though once I started reading it in like a transatlantic accent it made it a lot easier to read because I was like I'm understanding the tone. I was not getting the tone. I was reading it in my voice and I was like what the f are you saying I'd love to hear you you narrate an audiobook for me oh I would love that's my dream I wanna I would love to narrate a book. I know wouldn't that be fun I've always talked about that I'm like that would just be like because I had Julia Wheelin on who's literally narrated like 700 audiobooks and I'm like what's that like and she's like I read a lot and I read books two or three times and I'm like okay I don't know about reading a book like twice in a row like she's a read it and I'm like I just don't want to love that one. But have you listened to any other books on audiobook or is that would that be your first one? This would be my first one interesting so I'm trying to yeah I wanna I have some words to say about that. So you know Sterling I went to a Spotify the Spotify did you go to that? No I wasn't able to okay at the event so Harlan Coben perfor um gave a speech do you know who that is he's like the author of like you know all those crazy oh I don't know if you watch those types of movies. I love them. They're like limited series on Netflix. His most recent one that just came out is called Missing You and it's about like a missing person. I've probably watched four of them. So there's one's called Stay Close Missing You Lazarus The Woods they're all on Netflix. Okay I'll have to look it up. But oh I'm a huge fan of them but anyways Spotify just came out with this new feature that you can scan your physical book and then it will pick up the audiobook version of it. So because my biggest thing with audiobooks is I hate having to find exactly where I because I like to go back and forth. So if I'm like cleaning one day I want to listen to the audiobook but then I'm gonna read later that night my kryptonite is like trying to find where I left off in between but now you can just scan the book and it will go vice versa. So if you're listening to audiobook you scan your book and like you're gonna have to flip a few pages but then it will tell you the exact sentence that it left off on and what page that's gonna be on. Amazing. So it's really nice. So that was what you missed at the Spotify thing. I feel like it'll help with reading books that are a little bit like harder like the classics you know like the classics are not easy. Yeah I'm just not one of the I'm just I want I want to be one of those people I want to be I'm just a fourth wing girl at heart. I don't know what to tell you. No it's have you read Pride and Prejudice? Um I have read a fourth of it. Okay. And then I also have like like I have like weathering heights for dummies which haven't read yet. Oh there's one for dummies like there it's like um well I don't know if you did this in high school but when we were doing Shakespeare like there's like something called Shakespeare for Dummies and it like will have the play on one side and then a modern translation on the other side. So it's just like easier to understand um if you're dumb. Okay. You are not dumb. No kidding but I just think like anyone that's why I've always been so daunted by like the older class it's intimidating. It's intimidating I just don't talk like that and for me to sit down and lock into a book like I just I have to be able to read it in like a timely manner because if I spend more than like three weeks on a book it's like I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore. That was actually my 2026 resolution is that if a book took me longer than three weeks to read I'm just gonna I'm done. Yeah. Unless of course it's like a thousand page book but if it's like 200 pages and I haven't touched in four days it's like well yeah I'm not gonna I never force myself to finish anything. Okay now we're gonna ask Q and A's which I feel like is basically what I've been doing. But these are more like niche specific questions that I came up with myself that I was like yeah what am I curious about with this eye proxy so first question if you could reread a book for the first time which book would you reread? Oh my god that's such a good question. My first answer was The Alchemist because that book I read it in high school but it really like kind of changed my philosophy on life. It just like changed my way of thinking it was so good I really wish I could rediscover that book for the first time and then the indulgent side of me wishes I could read uh Kingdom of Ash for the for the first time. I would do anything. I've never read either of those books. Alchemist is really amazing and it's a short book too. It's a short book it's just it's so it's so good. I was recommending it like when I first started reading like right after I think I read the Crave series and I bought it I had two of them but I just never touched it. Favorite place to read at your house my town couch that I have in the corner. Can you explain this couch? Yeah so I have a couch I it's my first I have couch. Um I got it when I first moved like when I first moved to LA I thrifted it for like 90 bucks it's an amazing couch and I've literally dragged it with me from like wherever I I have lived okay for six years. We need to preface the Korea town apartment. Yeah so basically when Emma and I first met it was in Los Angeles right when TikTok started there was like these crazy Snapchat group chats group chats yeah where it would just be like anyone that was even remotely on the app we would get added into these like I'm talking like 20 plus people in these Snapchat group chats and we would just talk 247 all day long and a lot of those people are so in my life like literally that's this is how I was introduced to Emma. What did I post? Cause you swiped up on it you posted something about either signing to Wilhelmina or going to college to like your dream school. Yeah. And I slid up on your story about you modeling and then you told me that you were moving to LA and then I told her I was moving to LA because I was doing an internship out there and she was like oh like we should be friends like I don't know anyone and I was like I don't know anyone at all. Like I know actually zero people. That is how we initially became friends and then we started hanging out and going on hikes all the time. Yeah and she was like my health active friend and then I dragged her I dragged her into the dark side and then we started just like going out a lot. I remember so specifically I was at a party in Malibu and it was like four o'clock in the freaking morning and no Ubers were connecting and this was like an Oscars party or something like that. Yeah. Crazy crazy night and I couldn't get an Uber. I'd been trying for like two plus hours so I call Emma at like literally three o'clock in the morning and I was like can you come pick me up she drove from Koreatown to I'm talking deep Malibu. Like it had to have been like an hour two drive picks me up and then takes me back to my house in Calabasas and I think he went back home after that. I did like how and that's when I was like wow and I went to work the next that's crazy. Yeah yeah she's always been like that very protective which I love in a very protective over my friends. But yeah that's how we met but I was living in this like really I was a broke 18 year old I had to live in LA like I lived in like a really dodgy place for a little bit but that's where Liv and I met and that's where this couch came in and now it's like but it's so comfortable. It's like one solid cushion like a love seat and I love to like huddle into the corner. It's like molded to my body now at this point. So that's my favorite place to read it was just a meme because that couch went with you every single place that you went. Yeah. And you're like can't forget the K Town couch. No it's the one thing and I'm a very sentimental person and it's like one of the only pieces I have from that time and it was I don't know that apartment is so important to me. So I just was like I'm gonna keep you forever. And like even my mom my mom now is like if you ever want to get rid of that couch like please give it to me. I'll keep it and I was like okay it's actually really sentimental. Yeah I like that going back to the QA what is one destination from one of the books that you've read like any of the magical islands like any of that which one would you travel to mine would be Lightlark the Island of Lightlark from the Lightlark by Alex Astor. I want to read that book. I really recommend I think as a fantasy girl you would it's a perfect mixture of like world building and action okay in my opinion I would go to where Avatar is um I don't know how pronounce that either I'd go there because it just like the night court sounds so magical to spring court sounds nice. Spring court is definitely your vibe I like love I think the night court is like my dream so yeah I would go to where guild is taking place because the king turns everything into gold so your entire living quarters are like the entire castle is made out of gold because everything he touches it turns gold. That feels so overwhelming yeah it could be but it could also be gold you know love to go love to try it out. Um who's your favorite author if you could pick like literally one like if you could sit down and talk to one of them I would probably be RF Quang or RF Quang. She wrote Babble which was one of my favorite books of 2024 that I've read and I think that she would just be very interesting to talk to like that book truly for an entire for like the rest of the year I was just talking to everyone about translation and colonization. I just find it so fascinating and like I think she'd be someone who's really interesting to talk to her or Otessa Moshveg? Yeah I just want I'm like you fascinate me where the f did you come up with this reading Lap Vona was the craziest experience of my life like what do you the grape scene? I don't know what you're talking about. I don't want to know what you're talking about. I'm scared about it. You don't even want to know you wouldn't like it. It's so gnarly so I think Otessa is someone who I would like love to talk to and like I I haven't read Eileen but I got my girlfriend Eileen for her birthday and she read it and she loved it. I just like find her mind fascinating like my year of rest and relaxation like there's just so many I remember you reading me your good reads for my year of rest and relaxation and I was just like I like I whenever I do write a review I I you know I'm not a critic and I'm not you know I write for fun I'm not a critic I'm just a bitch writing that it's the longest review that I have because I was like what the is like is going on so those are two people I mean and then for fun like Miss Moss of course because I'm just like Sara J Moss sorry okay my girl like where when inspiration more it's from me I'm pretty sure she you're she's coming out with three this year. But are they all of Crescent City I don't know I don't know what they're part of it's also Crescent City is like a good one actually I really enjoy all of her books. So okay so then this kind of ties into my other question because I think I know what you're gonna say but if you could be casted in a book adaptation what character would you want to be casted for? Let's go with wait what the main character from uh the main character from Throne of Glass. Oh okay so then I was gonna say before before you really had that locked and loaded in there. Sorry, sorry sorry I was gonna do like okay divide it into like fantasy and then romantic okay because I feel like that's two different genres. I was gonna say romance but I just don't really feel like you're giving that you want to be in a romance. I mean I I think for film yes okay so then throw that genre in there. Actually I know exactly I know exactly what I would want to be I would want to be in a dark and drowning tide which is interesting dark academ sapphic dark academia kind of minor bits of fantasy okay um it's actually more about it's more like alchemy so the next segment we're gonna do is if you could recommend me one book from what we've talked about today which would you recommend me and I'm gonna do the same for you. I would recommend you I actually wrote down I actually wrote down three. Okay. While she looks at those I would recommend you Conform by Ariel Sullivan just from like hearing your movie preferences and the fact that you love a dystopian world that is like the perfect dystopian world and it's not too long of a book. I think it's like 400 ish and the next book comes out I think in March. So if you like read it kind of soon ish then you could go right into the next book which could be I think you'd really really really if you liked Quicksilver I feel like I kind of have a good par so I think that would be good. I think that you would really like since you're kind of reading different things now I think the last thing he told me was a really good Laura Dave. It was actually turned into a show um or a movie but I read it in one sitting on a plane and it's like it's like a mystery thriller about this woman looking for her husband and I just think that since you're like kind of switching up your genres like that would be a really good one for you. And then I wrote Every summer after I've been recommending every summer after to you for a second now by you think I would really like it I just think it's like sweet it's like a good like when you go to the beach like when you're when it's summertime again and not miserable I think like that's a really great beach read for you. It's really sweet. So I think one golden summer is the sequel to every summer after oh I could be so wrong. I don't know I don't know the books that well but well that is kind of the end of the episode I feel like we talked about kind of a plethora of things and book recommendations, self-care how our love for reading kind of started we wanted to do this for a while because I felt like Booked and Busy kind of was planted from when we both started reading and she was the only person that I talked to about reading. And I was like I need more people to talk to about this. So now we're here. Yeah that's my best friend. That's my best friend. Okay thanks for watching love you