Book Dragon Banter

Endless TBR, Reading Challenges & Book Burnout

• Zinzi Brookbree • Season 1 • Episode 5

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Endless TBR, Reading Challenges & Book Burnout | Book Dragon Banter

Welcome back, Book Dragons! In this episode, we dive into the never-ending struggle of managing our endless TBR lists, tackling reading challenges, and dealing with book burnout. Join us, Zinzi Bree, Sage Moreaux, and Katherine Suzette as we share our insights, experiences, and tips. From discussing different types of reading challenges, such as the Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do, to sharing our personal book burnout stories, we cover it all. Plus, stay tuned for our book recommendations and a sneak peek into future episodes. Don't forget to check the show notes for all the mentioned book titles and reading challenges!


Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/bookdragonbanter 

TT: https://www.tiktok.com/@bookdragonbanterpod

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/bookdragonbanter/

Sage: https://readorbleed.substack.com/

Katherine: https://www.bookdragoneditorial.com/


Upcoming Bookclub: For She is Wrath by Emily Varga: https://emilyvargabooks.com/books/for-she-is-wrath-2/


Books Mentioned: 

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer

Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson

Dracula by Brom Stoker

A Year with Aslan edited by Julia L. Roller

A Year with C.S. Lewis edited by Patricia S. Klein

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Under the Tuscan Sun by Francis Mayes

Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan 

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

Narnia Series by C.S. Lewis

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell by Susana Clarke 

Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

Dungeon Crawler Carl by 

The Ghost Who Series by Bobbi Holmes



Recommended books: 

Zinzi: East by Edith Pattou

Katherine: The Foxhole Court by Nora Sacavic 

Sage: The Murderbot Series by Martha Wells

 

Book Challenges links:

PBS Great American Read: https://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/books/#/

Uncorked Librarian: https://www.theuncorkedlibrarian.com/uncorked-reading-challenge/

HRCYED Site: https://hrcyed.my.canva.site/ 

HRCYED YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzS1f5gbt60

Candid Cover Book Challenge list: https://candidcover.net/2025-reading-challenges-list/

52 Book Club Challenge: https://www.the52b

Get in touch with us!

Katherine Suzette :

Welcome back everybody. This is our episode on, wait, what is our title?

Zinzi Bree:

endless TBR, reading challenges, and book burnout.

Katherine Suzette :

All right, so I am looking at it. I was just wondering if that's the title?

Zinzi Bree:

We are book Dragon Banter. We're so glad you're here. I mean, if something else comes up that's snappier or funnier, then maybe we'll change it. But at the moment that's what I got.'cause I wasn't asking chat GPT.

Katherine Suzette :

Hello everybody. You're here for our episode on your endless TBR reading challenges and book burnout, and I can't wait to share with you guys some of my opinions. It is my favorite thing to do. right, so we have with us today our lead host. This is Zinzi Bree.

Zinzi Bree:

Hi guys.

Katherine Suzette :

And you've got Sage Moreaux.

Sage:

Everyone.

Katherine Suzette :

And I'm Katherine Suzette.

Zinzi Bree:

This is an explicit podcast. We don't really swear that's not what it's explicit for, but we do get into some heavy topics from the books that we're reading. Just a heads up.

Sage:

for another heads up. Be forewarned that there may be spoilers for books that you haven't yet read. you'll find those titles listed down in our show notes.

Zinzi Bree:

we had a little bit of a conversation about this not too long ago. And now I'm completely blanking if it was in our podcast or if it was out of my writing group, but I made the comment that my TBR is endless because it will not end until I'm dead. The day that I die, I will still be finding new books that I want to read. That when I'm dead I can't. So do you guys, for you with your endless TBR, how much of a concentrated effort do you make to actually knock stuff off? Or is it just you're constantly adding and you maybe, maybe not ever get to the books actually on it?

Katherine Suzette :

Yeah, great question. I am constantly adding, but I am such a mood reader that I'm adding it for later whenever I am in the right mood for it. So I add it because it sounds really, really cool in the moment, but I don't wanna read it right now or I don't have time right now. And I assume that when I get into the mood I will come back to it. But I did have a

Zinzi Bree:

friend

Katherine Suzette :

once upon a time who would

Zinzi Bree:

only add

Katherine Suzette :

two or three books to their

Zinzi Bree:

TBR

Katherine Suzette :

at time and she would

Zinzi Bree:

read

Katherine Suzette :

those actual books

Zinzi Bree:

and

Katherine Suzette :

add more to her actual TBR until she completed

Zinzi Bree:

them

Katherine Suzette :

was the strangest thing for my brain

Zinzi Bree:

Mama.

Katherine Suzette :

to wrap around it. I don't think I said that phrase right, Just somebody who actually stayed on their

Zinzi Bree:

TBR.

Katherine Suzette :

And used it how we think it's

Zinzi Bree:

supposed to work.

Sage:

I am such

Zinzi Bree:

a

Sage:

like, book hoarder,

Zinzi Bree:

Like a ah dragon, book dragon right?

Sage:

So I'm such a book hoarder that the thought of only putting a couple of

Zinzi Bree:

titles

Sage:

on my list at once make, gives me like a panic attack because what about all those books I might forget to

Zinzi Bree:

write down

Sage:

and then somehow miss, like

Zinzi Bree:

and never

Sage:

be able to read because I

Zinzi Bree:

didn't

Sage:

write them down at the time. My list is so long and I actually,

Zinzi Bree:

I keep

Sage:

a couple of different TBR lists. My primary one

Zinzi Bree:

in my journal

Sage:

where I have nerded out and rewritten it

Zinzi Bree:

and

Sage:

like color coordinated and by genre, I will throw a photo of that up on our socials if you guys wanna check it out.

Zinzi Bree:

but

Sage:

but I have,

Zinzi Bree:

also have

Sage:

have another another list on

Zinzi Bree:

my

Sage:

Good Reads account where if I find titles online, I will add it there and at some point

Zinzi Bree:

maybe

Sage:

marry the two. That one's probably considerably longer, but I refer to it less. But I did go to the library the other day and came home with a stack of books like this much to, and I was like, and I wish I could read them all today because maybe one of them is For She Is Wrath, which is for our book

Zinzi Bree:

Yes.

Sage:

but the others were like, not on maybe one of'em was on my TBR, but the others were not. And they just looked good and I couldn't help myself.

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm,

Sage:

yeah, it is a problem for me.

Zinzi Bree:

something I've started doing to grow my TBR'cause it's a monster and needs to be fed. And I feed it when I go to the library because often I'm with my kids and I cannot, I have to hold my daughter's hand. I can't just have both arms full of books. And also I read primarily through listening to audiobooks. although now I'm doing more eBooks or trying physical books are the rare one for me anyway. So if I see a physical book that I'm like, Ooh, I'm intrigued by this title, I'm intrigued by this cover. I'm intrigued by the concept. I take out my phone and I take a picture of it. So I have in my phone a whole section of it that is just books with the cover and the author title. easily seen. So I can be like that one. Okay. I'm gonna go look for that as an audio book or an ebook. So I can start seeing if the library has a digital copy so that I can go read it. There's also, I have lists on Pinterest. I have lists on good reads. I have lists on Fable. I think like a physical handwritten list is the only one I don't have. No, I do. Because anytime in our writer's group, someone is like, you should read this book. Then I'm writing it down from there so I take it back. Even my schedule has books in the margins to add to my TBR.

Sage:

Yeah, it is kind of like you said that it's gonna be reading off the TBR and books that I randomly acquire

Zinzi Bree:

on the TBR

Sage:

till the day that I

Zinzi Bree:

die

Sage:

a, it's like, that's a sad thought then. Then I won't be reading

Zinzi Bree:

No,

Sage:

on this plane of existence any longer.

Katherine Suzette :

What are you gonna miss most about Life? Books. and

Zinzi Bree:

the people

Katherine Suzette :

you love?

Sage:

Yeah. I'm not gonna answer that question.

Zinzi Bree:

yeah.

Katherine Suzette :

have an answer either.

Zinzi Bree:

Sorry. I just got the mental image of when Sage dies, we're gonna bury her with the TBR pile.

Katherine Suzette :

are

Zinzi Bree:

we'll find a cavern, put her in there, put all the books into and enshrine her. That'll be

Sage:

love those book,

Katherine Suzette :

actually.

Sage:

made out of book pages.

Zinzi Bree:

yeah.

Sage:

That'll be

Katherine Suzette :

Okay. So we've just planned Sage's and my in my funerals. Everybody

Zinzi Bree:

that's.

Katherine Suzette :

books and book pages.

Sage:

Except

Katherine Suzette :

just take the books

Zinzi Bree:

Well, no, no, no. I would want the reverse at my funeral. I would want, okay, here's, you know, my cas bit's over somewhere in the corner. I don't care. I don't care about my body. But mine is, I'm gonna be like, all right, you have to get all of my favorite books. Buy a bunch of copies of my favorite books. And like when you go to a wedding, you have a wedding favor. When you go to my funeral, you get to walk away with one of my favorite reads.

Sage:

but the

Zinzi Bree:

what I would want.

Sage:

be one of the books that you published,

Zinzi Bree:

Oh,

Sage:

published books?

Zinzi Bree:

I hope so.

Sage:

And

Zinzi Bree:

I hope I still like my own books.

Sage:

to clarify, my funeral will actually be me in a boat out on the

Zinzi Bree:

water

Sage:

the arrow being burning

Zinzi Bree:

Yes.

Katherine Suzette :

Ooh.

Sage:

But I could be

Zinzi Bree:

Oh Oh, it's a little burn.

Katherine Suzette :

Do you want? Books or flowers

Sage:

but

Zinzi Bree:

Oh, books

Sage:

Then that's too close to book burning, so maybe not.

Katherine Suzette :

Yeah.

Zinzi Bree:

I know.

Katherine Suzette :

you've already had people tear them up and they do a project day and they make these book flowers, then maybe it's not so bad.

Sage:

Mm-hmm.

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

know how the supposedly in the publishing industry, if a book doesn't sell, there's just like tons of backlog copies of a

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm mm-hmm.

Sage:

could be all of those books of mine that didn't end up selling. Although, who knows, maybe after my death, then all of my books would become so much more valuable.

Zinzi Bree:

Your death will make headlines and everybody will be like, I need to go over read my favorite. Do we need a death trigger warning at the beginning to be like, Hey, by the way, we do talk a little bit about funerals and death at the beginning of this one. Or is that covered in our'cause it's not like that's an explicit thing, that's just a trauma.

Sage:

think my family members that might listen might need to know that in advance.

Zinzi Bree:

yeah. Well now my,

Sage:

guys.

Zinzi Bree:

All right. we talked a little bit about our endless TBR and the fact that we are not the kind of readers that will ever finish it. it will be truly endless until we die. And then I want to hop over to, I'm really excited about this topic, which is reading challenges. To start this off though, I wanna say as a reader, if you read one book a year, awesome, great. If you read a hundred books a year, awesome. Great. If you read a thousand books in a year. How? I wanna know. But awesome. Great. Like there's, there's no judgment. Read, read as much as you want, however you want. if you're an audiobook reader, yes, that counts. If you are a short story or a novella reader, like if you, if that counts for you, that counts. I like reading challenges that you get to set the rules. So in any of this that we are talking about, it only counts if it counts for you. You don't have to go ask the Internet's opinion. You don't need anybody's approval to be like, oh yes, I succeeded at this. It's for you.

Sage:

Yeah, and if it's fun, not a stress,

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah.

Sage:

please don't be reading I have to read this book because it goes on my, you know, contest or

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

here.

Zinzi Bree:

if you're reading our book club books because you feel like, oh, this is a challenge, I'm joining a book club. If that takes the fun out for you, don't do it. only read if it's

Sage:

percent I.

Zinzi Bree:

do these kind of stuff, if it's fun for you. Now, for me, reading challenges are fun for me. I get, my little dopamine hit of going on to Goodreads and doing. I think this year my personal challenge was just to read, 60 books maybe for the year, which I absolutely knew I would be able to read because that is not, it was much lower than my normal goal for a year. And I made that choice because I was like, I'm gonna be really busy this year writing my book, so I'm not gonna have time to read as much because I try not to read other people's words and have their voices in my head when I work on my own stuff. So I knew at the beginning of this year, I gotta make this goal smaller. What's your average? Most years, I have a goal of a hundred. I think the highest I had one year on Good Reads that maybe the goal was 120 And I think that particular, whatever my highest one was, I know I didn't meet it. I came in under, by like less than 10 books. But yeah, I do not consider myself a super reader, but I don't actually know what the like is.

Sage:

I feel like that's a lot of books because that's like two books a week or more, three books a week, which I feel like is like if it's 150, that's basically three books a week, which is a lot. It depends obviously on the length of book that you're reading. And if you're listening in audio and you can speed it up, that sometimes works. Do you count graphic novels, that kind of thing?

Zinzi Bree:

I do count graphic novels personally.

Sage:

My goal is usually around 75 for the year. And I, the way I do it is I have a in my journal, near my TBR list, I draw a little bookshelf and I fill in the titles as I go. And I, I'll share that too. I can usually get 50 to 75 book spines on my little drawing of my shelf.

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm.

Sage:

so that's my personal challenge. And then if I, I'm gonna read more, I'll just make a new page and do another bookshelf. But that's usually about, I'm usually between 50 to 75 depending on how many of those are, like these epics that are 600 pages or whatever.'cause that slows me down a little bit.

Katherine Suzette :

I have a request. Sage, can you make a template of this because I want this, for me. I want a coloring page to color in like this. And I would really love to have a template version of this. Like I could download it into my digital calendar. I could print it out. I could stick it in my journal, whatever that is, however I go about this. But I really wanna do this bookshelf challenge with you.

Sage:

I'll

Katherine Suzette :

a hundred percent do that.

Sage:

I will post it on our socials for anyone who is interested, they can grab the link and download that.

Katherine Suzette :

Yes.

Sage:

And I love a drawing project to make me feel like I'm productively being creative and not writing when I need a break

Katherine Suzette :

And I requested it so it's all better.

Zinzi Bree:

Add that to our to-dos. So that's

Sage:

'cause I only have like my personal challenge and I have participated in, I think it was PBS's great read

Zinzi Bree:

Ooh,

Sage:

it was books that were nominated for best books ever. And it was like ran the gamut so hard.

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

was probably on there, but then also like, you

Zinzi Bree:

Moby Dick.

Sage:

and Moby Dick.

Zinzi Bree:

Oh.

Sage:

then modern classics also.

Zinzi Bree:

At least the Great Gatsby's short.

Sage:

Exactly,

Katherine Suzette :

We need to have an

Zinzi Bree:

episode on classics.

Sage:

A number of them. I never completed it. I will admit that now. I stabbed the paper somewhere laying around. I, it, to me it's like a lifelong challenge.

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm.

Sage:

because some of the books were like, maybe I'll get there, maybe I won't. That was maybe even in 2020.

Zinzi Bree:

War and Peace that's the, Long book. And I don't know why in my brain that's the book, at some point I will audiobook it obviously. But that's the one that makes me like a reader.

Sage:

Serious

Zinzi Bree:

Serious reader. Thank you. I was like, what is the, what, what am I even trying to A serious reader and I really need to replace that with a fantasy book. So maybe I'll have to find like the Brandon, uh, the Brandon, the Brandon Sanderson, series, maybe the Mistborn series or his Way of Kings. Make that my new like ha, uh,

Sage:

if it wants to be

Zinzi Bree:

goal series.

Sage:

think if that's gonna be like a nine book series.

Zinzi Bree:

Oh, okay.

Sage:

three or four.

Zinzi Bree:

what level

Sage:

of interest you have in being a super serious fantasy reader. But I did find that once I got into

Zinzi Bree:

the

Sage:

way of

Zinzi Bree:

Kings

Sage:

it was hard to put down,

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah.

Sage:

even though it's super epic.

Katherine Suzette :

sage, you're like Way of Kings and I'm like, Mistborn,

Sage:

Yeah. Ms. Moore is great.

Katherine Suzette :

it is.

Sage:

It's super good, but I feel like it's a little bit of an easier read, so if she's,

Katherine Suzette :

That's true.

Sage:

read War, peace, war, and Peace. Have you read

Katherine Suzette :

no, I've tried multiple times, but this is why I think we should have a classics oriented episode at some point because my opinion of classics is really just that they became really popular or influenced society for some reason, just like Twilight. But that doesn't necessarily mean they need to be on this classics list because they're somehow really amazing and really good, and really thought provoking, and they changed us for the positive. So I have opinions,

Zinzi Bree:

Oh great.'cause I also have opinions, and it sounds like my opinions might be different from the ones that you just said. So,

Katherine Suzette :

woohoo.

Zinzi Bree:

it might be, it might be on a case by case basis for those books. A future episode to stick around for. So we talked a bit about annual goals. Katherine, do you have an annual goal that you keep track of or aim for? Because you do like a book a day or something ridiculous, don't you?

Katherine Suzette :

Close. It depends, right? sometimes I wake up in the year or the month or the week or whatever and I'm like, I'm a set a goal. And you know what? Those goals never work for me. I don't know if it's something in my brain or whatever, but I'm like, I don't know. I'm gonna surpass that 300. There's no problem. So why set the goal? And that said, I read in all the formats. So I listen to audio and I listen at two times speed. And I reread books too. in my brain, I count that to a certain extent.

Zinzi Bree:

You should.

Katherine Suzette :

listening to it again.

Sage:

Mm-hmm.

Katherine Suzette :

With different purposes, like I'm rereading a book right now that was written by a trio of authors, and so when I reread it, I see all these layers and layers of things that they built in, and that makes it fascinating and interesting for me. So I count that as a new read, but it's not a new book. so I say approximately one a day because that, that does work out that way. I also read a lot of graphic novels, but it's really hard to count those unless the series is finished and the book is finished. So it's hard to know what to count and what not to and I think these days a lot of readers count audio books as a read quote unquote, even though you're listening to it and maybe passively absorbing it at a lighter level than you would if you were reading the actual words. So there's less judgment around that perhaps than there was a decade ago. But that is my main form of consuming the books.'Cause whatever it is that I'm doing, I've got a book.

Sage:

I almost never listen to audio books and I do sometimes and I enjoy it, but for some reason I think I'm just really a visual person. So I mostly am. Reading on paper or on my, on my Kindle. But if I listen to an audio book, I'm always like, it's more intermittent. So I don't ever feel like I,'cause I won't sit down and listen to an audio book. It feels like I have to do it while I'm moving around, or I'm in the car, or I'm walking the dog. I worry about having too many days in a row where I don't get a chance to listen or something like that. So I don't end up jumping on that as often. But I actually think it's mostly'cause I like to not be distracted by things visually while I'm listening.

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm.

Sage:

be looking at the words and that way I see the pictures in my head and I'm not thinking about anything else.

Katherine Suzette :

that's more of like a deeper read to me when you're fully absorbed in all the sensory ways with the book. And I love that too. the reason I know I read a book a day, no matter the format, is because even back in high school and prior to that, I would genuinely go to the library once a week and walk out with, the books up to the chin that you can't quite keep hold of. And the librarians know you're coming and they all know your name kind of thing. And they're like, oh wow. Okay. You're one of those. Yes, I was one of those. And then I would have all of the books that I purchased.'cause I can't walk into a bookstore without purchasing books. I can't walk by it. I can't do anything. It's like I have to have blinders on to not go into a bookstore and buy something. And I used to sleep with all of the books on my bed. But like half of my bed was me, half of my bed was books. So like, think roll over onto a big pile of books and be like, oh, okay. And then I just, wake up and start reading again. That was my life. So I know that I have been a voracious reader of all formats since I was really, really young.

Zinzi Bree:

This the, sorry. I just wanted to say, hot tip for when you go to the library and you've got a bunch of books get it's a box bag that you use for groceries, which is is designed to be able to carry cans and a lot of heavy weight, but you take out the bottom and it collapses down. Like just keep that in your car. So when you go to the library, you can pull out this bag that when you're walking around and picking your stuff, it can be flat. And then when you're at checkout here, you've got it. It's meant for heavy stuff loaded in there. And it's much easier to walk out versus I've seen this where having grown up at a homeschool family from a large family, bringing a laundry basket and just loading up the books in a laundry basket and walking outta there because there so many kids, so many books. And that's just easier to carry if they're, especially if they're like a ton of little picture books. And you've got little kids

Sage:

We were in walking distance to our library

Zinzi Bree:

Ah

Sage:

and the dog and I will walk down to the library and I will park the dog outside. And partially as a way to keep us from staying in the library all day.'cause there's other things to accomplish and also to get the dog to have a walk. But I then we have to carry the books home. So now my kids are a little older, they can carry their own bag of books. But when they were young, it was kind of like a way to limit, I think

Zinzi Bree:

hmm.

Sage:

going and pushing the library's limit on how many books to check out because of the picture book element when the kids were littler. But now, and they still love like a, they'll. Chapter books, but they still love a ton of graphic novels, so the books are heavy and I'm always like, Nope, you gotta carry your own books.

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

bring a bag. I don't actually want one of those giant bags because then the walk home it's uphill would be terrifying.

Zinzi Bree:

Okay. So outside of just here's your standard reading goal, any book counts? Have you done reading challenges before? The only ones that I can think of were specifically ones from my library, and again, that was they would either be read books off of this specific list. You know, read a couple of books that are an award winner or a new release. Or it would just be, it would be, you know, reach a specific number during the summer. Right now my library has for adults, it's like, read three books for the summer and win your t-shirt.

Sage:

Yeah, I've done the library challenge definitely of reading. It's our library. It's like Read this many days and enter. A raffle once you hit like 30 days

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

that you've read. Then you enter the raffle and you read 30 more days, you get another entry, something like that. Sometimes they give a free book, which is like super motivating to me. and then I read, I did do the PBS great read

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

Like I mentioned, I'm pretty sure it was through PBS. But other than that, I have not. I am a more like Katherine, I'm a mood reader, so the idea of signing myself up to do something that I don't feel in the mood for, like, I don't wanna read a book that I don't necessarily feel in the mood

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm.

Sage:

So I think that holds me back. But I am very curious about the hardest book reading challenge of your life

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah, the hardest book reading challenge you'll, you'll ever do, we will get to it, I promise. I have a list of some of the challenges that I came across besides just trying to do an annual goal and that is A to Z. So that's reading a book. That either something in the title or the author's name is one of the letters from the alphabet. So that's, you know, 26 letters there. if you're doing it in English there's the Rainbow Cover Challenge. So whether that's your seven books,'cause you're trying to Roy g biv your books and you're trying, you know, I feel like Katherine looking behind you at the Outlander books, there's enough of them that are a different color. That's like part of your, you could hit some of your roy g biv right? With just with that series. yeah, there's focusing on prize winners. There's doing around the world. So reading a book that either takes place in or is written by an author that lives, I don't know how you would do this for Antarctica, but like every. continent or every country. Or here in the us like I would, I would consider a doing a book challenge that was a book from every state, either that was, but I'd probably go for not necessarily written by an author that like, lived in Maine. I would look for a book set in Maine,

Katherine Suzette :

Yeah.

Zinzi Bree:

It was briefly and then the character.'cause fantasy, it was like a portal fantasy where they started out in Maine and then they portal fantasied somewhere else.

Sage:

a book that's based in Antarctica. I think it's even titled Antarctica, by Kim. Kim Stanley Robinson. He's a science fiction

Zinzi Bree:

Ooh,

Sage:

and like climate based writer.

Zinzi Bree:

could do that.

Sage:

because you can include

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah. I saw somebody when I was researching some of this, someone in the comments was saying there's a part of, no, it's not, it's not. There was a fantasy book that I was like, that's on my TBR and part of it, they visit Antarctica or something for some reason. and so you could check it off. Ah, I feel, so it would be easier to do fantasy, but also do geographical. If you're doing like paranormal books that are contemporary fantasy,

Sage:

Mm-hmm.

Zinzi Bree:

that would get me to read more of those.'cause I, I tend not to read contemporary fantasy. I usually am reading fantasy that are a, a whole other world setting. One of the ones was book specific chapter a day. And I heard, that this was particularly because Dracula is set up as in a epistolary. So you'd be reading one letter a day in the month of October, leading up to Halloween for spooky season. And I was like, okay, that sounds. That's like a, a really easy, mild book challenge that would be fun to do. There was, there was Dracula and there was, I forget what the other book was when I was seeing that as a chapter a Day Challenge. And I'm someone who grew up reading devotional books where, like, you do, one page a day that's, a prayer or has quotes, or is some theological thought. I currently have a year with CS Lewis and a year with Aslan for the next time I start doing that again. I'm gonna go through those because I love CS Lewis. I love Narnia, but I also really love some of his other books as well. So I didn't wanna just limit it to Narnia with Aslan. Oh, so another one is doing an author backlist. So that's like, that's picking an author and reading their entire collection.

Sage:

I do that not as a challenge, but when I discover an author I really love, I will often then go back and try and reread all of their, depends on how many they've written, but

Zinzi Bree:

mm-hmm.

Sage:

I might try and go back and reread all or most of their books, but I don't do it as a challenge to myself more just'cause I am appreciating their writing style.

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah. so doing an author backlist is something that I would really like to do and I would make a point of doing it not just as a reader to do the challenge, but as a writer, I'd want to. have my critical hat on, my lens on of how are they structuring it? how do they make it funny? how do they do this? I would love to do that with Diana Wynne Jones.'Cause I've read, Howl's Moving Castle the two companion books. And the Tough Guide to Fantasy Land. But there's several other of her books that I haven't gotten to yet that I would love to. I just, I love books that have whimsy and she's kind of the epitome of that for me. So she would be someone that I would read her backlist and study it, and study her and study her books. And there's a couple other authors that I would also put on the list. If I was going easy on myself, I would pick an author who was alive, who only had a couple books. But if I'm, if I was gonna commit, then I would, I would pick a, I'm sorry, RIP, dead author to do their whole catalog because I know they're not writing anything new and I can actually like check I did it. I've read all of what they've put out into the world that is publicly available.

Sage:

I've really enjoyed what you were saying about reading an author and then studying them. I've really enjoyed finding an author that I love. And then reading their very first book that they ever

Zinzi Bree:

Ooh.

Katherine Suzette :

Oh.

Sage:

And it actually is a big ego boost for me because it's like, okay, not that the books were bad, but like there's definitely a difference between an author's first book. Like even Brandon Sanderson for example, his, I read his first book and it's fantastic, super entertaining, but it's not as nuanced. The writing style isn't as fluid as his more recent novels. And a number of other authors also I've, I've done that where I'm like, okay, let's see what their first book was. And gives me a little like, okay I, my first, my debut novel that I'm working on now, it, like, it doesn't need to be perfect.

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

to be at this level in order to finish it and move on to the next book because will hopefully get, to be a better writer as I, as I work,

Zinzi Bree:

Brandon Sanderson. So his first published book is also his like 13th actual written book.'cause he had a bunch in the shelf first. so even he's like hard to compare to.

Sage:

Yes.

Zinzi Bree:

but so some of the.

Sage:

the. reasons I used him because his, his first book is quite good. There are some other authors that I've read that I love their work now, that their first books were slightly less, but I won't,

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

detail with that.

Zinzi Bree:

you even talking about that made me think of, the difference between Twilight and the Host by Stephanie Meyer. Those felt worlds away to me. As far as writing development to me that showed a lot of growth. So there's also the TBR challenge of getting through any books you own. So books that you, you have already purchased reading all of those. And for some people they're like, we have to read all of those before we can buy a new book. And I could never do that challenge. That would break my heart. I would cry. There's authors who are debuting that I wanna support. Like I can't just, I can't just not, so I could make the caveat of I have to read the ones that I physically have in my house that are physical, but I can still buy new ones that are eBooks or audiobooks or whatever. My husband would probably like that because that might help with our budget if I took that challenge on. There was another one that is birthday bestseller. So like you, you look up your birthday and you read whatever book that piques your interest or whatever's, you know, first place on the, on the New York Times bestselling that is from your birthday. Now having looked this up before,'cause I was like, oh, that would be interesting. My, the book that was number one on the, and almost the entire list were, we're a bunch of political thrillers, like almost the whole list on my birthday, which I will not say what it is. And I was just like, this challenge is not for me.

Sage:

Now I'm gonna have to look it up. My birthday is in October, so it might be all horror. And horror is not my taste, maybe, or it might be self-help books. Who knows? I'll

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

see.

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah.

Katherine Suzette :

So maybe mine will be a little bit more fantasy oriented, but honestly, who knows?

Zinzi Bree:

Another one that I came across that did appeal to me was called Uncorked, Librarian Reading Challenge. And this is one where you're picking a book and it's a book that is being paired with a movie and a beverage. And they're mostly books that are travel and location focused. So to me that was okay, you would read under the Tuscan Sun and eat Italian and drink a glass of wine and maybe watch the movie after, which is one of my favorite movies. The author has written books on poetry as well. So her writing is lovely. So I do recommend that.

Sage:

I've done a similar thing with my kids. They are big Percy Jackson fans and they've read most of Rick Riordan's books

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

when the Percy Jackson TV show came out, they had read the books. I had read the books. And so we sat down to watch the TV show and we did all blue food. We like made a plate of blue, which is mostly candy, I hate to say. But we did a plate of blue and there was blueberries. I forced the blueberries on the plate because Percy Jackson's mom would always give him blue food as like a comfort

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

and then I think they dressed thematically, we've done it for TV or movies before, but I've never done it with a book. So I love the idea of the meal that goes along with the story. That

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

fun to me.

Zinzi Bree:

I would fully reread the Hobbit with a plan of here's a whole hobbit feast to just, you know, at different points in the book, I get to eat this now because this happened and I get to eat this here. Maybe that would be a fun supplement project of a couple fantasy books be like, Hey, here's the meals to go with it as you're working your way through.

Katherine Suzette :

Or at a retreat or something like that. Like you could do

Zinzi Bree:

Ooh. Yes.

Katherine Suzette :

event. My mom

Zinzi Bree:

Yep.

Katherine Suzette :

you did Sage with? A Christmas Carol and a few other things. Some Narnia themed and things like that. I was also homeschooled, but only through high school. I was not a fan of all of the various different Christmas Carol movies, but that was one of the ones that we really studied, Charles Dickens the Great Gatsby, movies like that. And then we'd read the books and then discuss and do an event themed day

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm.

Sage:

Oh,

Katherine Suzette :

But I like yours a lot too. The blue food or the getting dressed up. I'm here for it.

Sage:

The kids had read the book, so then we did analyze the show. I love to do that kind of thing. Let's read the book and then watch the show or movie and talk about how much better the book is.

Zinzi Bree:

you, do you have a rule of you have to read the book first before you go see the movie or show if it's an adaptation

Sage:

I like a 90% rule.

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm.

Sage:

I think 99% rule. I have two kids, so for example, my daughter had read the Hunger Games before we watched the movies, but my son had not read them. But he

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm,

Sage:

since So he's just younger. So yeah, maybe for him it's 90% and my daughter it's higher. there was something recently where we saw the movie and I had not read the book and I don't remember, oh, it was the Notebook. My daughter and I watched The Notebook and I've never read it and she hadn't read it either, so I was like, we probably should have read the book first, but we didn't.

Zinzi Bree:

hmm. I enjoyed the Notebook movie. I can't remember if I read the Notebook, but I did read, Dear John, I think, and a few of the other Nicholas Sparks books before seeing the movie versions. So another one that I thought was fun was vintage scavenger hunt which is,

Sage:

Ooh,

Zinzi Bree:

cover focus. So you're looking for specific vintage items on covers.

Sage:

wow.

Zinzi Bree:

or

Sage:

Like a spy glass or what?

Zinzi Bree:

like a spy glass or, okay. So if you're into historical fiction, you're looking for, who's got a fan, who's got like a little clutch purse? Who's got or you're looking for things that are red that are so, like a red balloon or a little red wagon, you can pick your poison. So that's gonna bring me over to HRCYED I think i'm pronouncing this correctly, which is the hardest reading challenge you will ever do, which was created by Q on the YouTube channel, QTY, which is Q-U-O-R-D-Y. So q wordy they created this challenge last year and it is a bingo board that each of the spots on the bingo board is its own like sub challenge. And this is a bingo board that is five by five. So 25 spaces on the bingo board and to complete it you have a year. It's usually starts in July. So from July to July it starts on Q's birthday. And you have to black out the entire bingo board to succeed. this is a few people have successfully done it. It is a challenge to try to do, to get you to read more, to get you to have a variety. But success is not actually the point. The, the different prompts that she had were lovely. And there's also a, with the bingo board, there is a point system associated with it so that at a certain point, if you've done enough books that fulfill points requirements, you can redeem your points to. Skip a book or to, to, to give yourself some grace. So that was like a nice addition to how the board is built. So there's two colors on the board. There's purple and white and I am spacing right now. But one of them is a color. Where to successfully do the challenge. You absolutely have to do all of the ones that are in purple, but the ones or the ones that are in white, but then the other, the opposite color is flexible. You get to decide what challenge things you want on that spot in the board. You don't have to do her created version. So one of the bingo spaces in the challenge is called the Hundreds. you have to read a book that is a hundred to 199 pages. You have to read a book that is 200 to 299 pages. You have to, uh, going up the hundreds up to a book that is 700 plus. Is the last book to complete. So from 100 to 200 all the way up to 701 book in each of those hundreds. Seven books, so just that bingo spot is seven books of varying lengths.

Sage:

Yeah. And one of them is like over 700

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah. Yeah. Audio books count, so if that's, you know, that's your speed. Another one on the board is the series staircase, which I really like the idea of this one. So the bottom of the staircase is a standalone. The second of the staircase is a duology. The third is, you know, trilogy and then a quartet. Or I think on this one it's just read a, series that is four or more. And that counts as your last step. But again, that's Duology standalone trilogy. And then at least four or more. So that's 10 books right there. another one is the Rainbow Challenge. Some of the ones that I really love is she has a and these are in the required list is a diversity challenge where there's, there's different parts of diversity to hit. And there's also one, I think that's a disability. So you're purposely reading a book that either features a disabled main character or is written by someone who has a disability. Those are worth more points in your point system. To give you, so it incentivize you more to branch out and read books that are, that are diverse to read books that are by queer writers to read books that are disability rep. And I love that. I want to expand into all of those and be reading more of those. So I'm excited about those sections of the challenge.

Sage:

That too. I'm thinking that it sounds like a lifelong challenge more than just one year, but also, it also feels like a great way, first of all, I love that it's like, here's a great way to read more if you feel a little stalled in your reading, but also to read outside of your, like, if you only read fantasy or only read romance, or only read historical fiction,

Zinzi Bree:

hmm.

Sage:

nonfiction, like pushes you outside of your comfort zone to find some of those titles. That sounds super fantastic.

Zinzi Bree:

Yep. I will have in our show notes, links to Qwordy's stuff. So you can go find this for yourself.

Sage:

do you know how many books total, like to complete the challenge roughly?

Zinzi Bree:

No, because I don't know what the minimum is on the books questions that you have to do. And also because everybody's if you have spots that you can change your challenge then their ending list is gonna be different. Now, if I was gonna pick a challenge to do, if I was gonna make my own I love the Four Seasons Summer. Oh, so this was one of the other ones that was, become the avatar in this year's challenge, which is read a book that has. Fire, water, wind and earth, like either on the cover or in the title. Which I thought was super fun. My version of that would be, the season. So reading a book that has spring, summer, fall, or autumn or winter, either in the title or obviously on the cover.'cause it's set in that time of year.

Katherine Suzette :

Ooh.

Zinzi Bree:

one that I would consider doing, and I love four, four is my favorite number. So like, anything that's like, here's a four, here's a quartet, this is, that's my jam. the other one would be the cardinal directions. So a book that has north, south, east, and west in the title would probably be like, that would be a challenge I would go for. I have my recommended book here already hits multiple levels of those particular challenges. And oh, so with the, Hardest reading challenge you'll ever do is each book that you read can count for two spaces on your, on two slots in your bingo board. So you could pick East is part of a Duology, East and West. And so if I read this, it could be, okay, it counts for the duology because there's two books, but it also counts for my alphabet where, E is for E and West is then for my w. each book could count for those things. So that helps make it more doable, and it all makes your brain work hard and think about choosing your books to hit some of these extra beats and gives you that extra incentive to pick up a book that maybe you wouldn't have otherwise because it fits more of the categories you're trying to finish.

Sage:

If I was going to develop a reading challenge, which maybe I will now'cause I'm kind of inspired I think I would do it around magic systems.

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm.

Sage:

but it's tricky to know how much you would know just based off reading the spine or the back cover of the book,

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

So that's tricky. But if it's the magic is granted by the gods or the magic is something that you're inborn with or magic happens because somebody curses you or that kind of thing, or, and also probably some level of magical creatures or types of magical scenarios. I would probably base my challenge around that. So stay tuned. Maybe I'll develop it.

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah. Listeners, do these concepts we're coming up with are seasonal, directional and magic systems reading challenges? Would that be something you're interested in? Let us know. Maybe we can build them out and release them for you guys. Katherine, can you think of if you were gonna do a reading challenge, what you might, or as you're just like the ultimate read, no time limit, but read 3000 books

Katherine Suzette :

yeah, maybe. I don't know. I confess, I was looking at the books behind me just to see how long they were, because if you have books that were, like, I was thinking about the stair stacking page number thing.

Zinzi Bree:

hmm.

Katherine Suzette :

it's not a way that I make my decisions with books and, what's on the front cover. Oh. okay. I guess I do make my decision based on that a lot. when I'm mood reading, if I see the front cover, that might influence my decision really strongly. But I will not necessarily go, oh, this has a fan on it, or, oh, this has a loot or something like that. Or the page number is really short or it's really long. But I was looking at the Outlander series and for some strange reason this particular version of the series did not print page numbers, which is interesting. I do have the Jonathan Norell book back here, and it's 900 pages. You know, it's not impossible to find good books that are out there, that are this long without

Zinzi Bree:

chunky.

Katherine Suzette :

like, yeah, you don't have to read, for example, war and Peace in order to get a super chunky book. You can read something that you might've already wanted to read. I think Harry Potter's really long game of Thrones is really long.

Zinzi Bree:

I think I have the what would Katherine's book challenge be? And it doesn't have to do with what the books are, it has to be moods. So

Katherine Suzette :

oh,

Zinzi Bree:

you would go, okay, here's, I'm happy, this is the book I picked when I was happy, or This is a book. I was sad, I wanted to cry. This is the book that I picked to fill that, or I was super mad or frustrated or I want Revenge. Here's my revenge book that I read when I was super mad about something. So maybe that's what we'll make for Katherine, it has to do with your mood and you add in whatever book you found to fill that mood. Mm-hmm.

Katherine Suzette :

And maybe we could get sage to design it where you get to color the emoji face instead of like a bookshelf.

Zinzi Bree:

Yep.

Katherine Suzette :

it.

Zinzi Bree:

Let's do it.

Sage:

So now we have three new book challenges in the works to add. So once you finish the hardest book challenge of all times, or you'll ever do,

Zinzi Bree:

Yep.

Sage:

you could jump in and maybe one of ours will be ready for you.

Zinzi Bree:

Or you can just, if you decide to do the hardest book challenge that you've ever read, and you wanna take one of your squares that you get to decide what challenge it is, you could stick one of ours in there, or all of ours in there. Your choice.

Sage:

Check that off the list and feel really accomplished.

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah, I had the thought maybe I will just look back at the beginning.'cause I have all of the books that I've read so far this year I've written down. If I look back and just start going, okay, I read this and just plunk it into the board and like see how far along that I've already technically gotten and see, then see what I would have left if I was trying to complete it by January. I'm a little bit tempted, a little bit tempted to do that. I did also wanna mention, the candid cover website has loads of reading challenges and is updated throughout the year it seems. I was scrolling, scrolling on their page for their list of challenges they have. And there's another one, it's the 52. Book challenge, but it's not specifically like, read a book a week. There are some other parameter. this year 52 is doing book connections. So if you read, I'm gonna pull this out, for example. So if I read East and I decide my connection is gonna be the letter T, because T is the letter that the book thing ends with, the next book that I read has to start with the letter T. And okay, that book is the last Dragon of the East, which is part of our book club. that ends in t so I can't do that, but maybe I go to, it has a dragon on the cover. So my connection is a dragon on the cover. My next book, the next connection is that there's a dragon on the cover and it's just, it's 52 books that have a connection to each other.

Sage:

I

Zinzi Bree:

Yes, I thought that just sounded like such a, fun little way to help. And so this is something, part of the reason I like reading challenges is because as a person with an endless TBR, that also gets decision fatigue and gets overwhelmed with all of the options. I like having a reading challenge to help me narrow my options. That makes making the decision easier for me, not harder. So that's, that's an additional plug for why reading challenges sometimes are, are fun and helpful. Um

Sage:

That 52 book connections could be really great for kids

Zinzi Bree:

hmm.

Sage:

Oh, this is a nice way for any parents who are listening, getting your kids to read more is sometimes a struggle for parents. And giving them a fun challenge that is flexible. Because I was thinking what is the fun reading challenge for, you know, grade school kids or middle, middle school or high school? High school kids I think could do a lot of the challenges that we've been talking about, but for younger kids, like how to make it fun and rainbow covers could be super fun. Seasonal, it could be super fun, but doing the connections is a great way to like bump up the number of books that

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

reading and still give them agency over what the choices are, which kids love, love agency.

Zinzi Bree:

Awesome. So for you guys, when does, we talked a bunch about big book challenges, and we did say we were gonna talk about book burnout after you've done your challenge, after you've binged your big series or your 700 page book. What causes book burnout for you guys?

Katherine Suzette :

honestly, it's often the rest of my life that kind of gets in the way when my energy is feeling depleted and I'm feeling overwhelmed, and I've already got so many decisions I'm making, I

Zinzi Bree:

I.

Katherine Suzette :

pull away from reading books that are super in depth. Like the, the world builds that Sage loves, and the political intrigue in fantasy worlds. I would pull away from things like that and go straight over to Zinzi's corner of the world, which is all the cozies

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Katherine Suzette :

fantasy and things like that. I love cozy mysteries. Give me a, the baker who baked the muffin that killed the muffin man, whatever. I'll go read that cuteness and I'll do that instead. So I don't have book burnout necessarily that keeps me from reading a whole book for more than a week or two, but I do have overwhelm in life that burns me out. Then I have to simplify whatever it is that I'm reading which is part of my mood reader compulsion. So pull away from in-depth things for sure.

Sage:

I get genre burnout more than book burnout. Definitely, one of the things I love is to read a very lengthy fantasy series with many, many, many, many, like more than a trilogy. Like there's so many books in the series. And of that is because then I'm in the world and all of the world building stuff and character development and magic system and political intrigue, I don't have to learn it. So I've already done the mental hurdle when I in the

Katherine Suzette :

Hmm.

Sage:

book and then I can just keep reading the series and I It's also, I love the immersion of it, but after that, like the thought of starting a new one is too much. So then that's when I will jump into reading like a mystery or a romance or historical fiction or something less fantasy oriented altogether. I might do like a contemporary fantasy if I've been deep into an epic fantasy world. Outside of that, I might do like a graphic novel if I'm really feeling like I've read a lot. The one time I did get book burnout where I just didn't wanna read at all which is a feeling I don't usually have. Was that for my reviewing job for Common Sense Media. I agreed to read Haunting Adeline, which

Katherine Suzette :

Oh.

Sage:

book I would've never picked up. I had heard about it and I was like, oh, maybe I'll check that out at some point out of curiosity because of book marketing, like we talked about before. But agreed to read it as a reviewer and I honestly, if I had picked this up, I would've gotten a few pages in and just dropped it because I didn't find the writing style to be particularly interesting. But it is a 600 page book. It is part one of, I think two, maybe more. And on a cliffhanger, which drives me crazy. But that's a whole other topic and 600 pages and a cliffhanger. No, thank you. But it's got like, it's basically, stalker rape, excessive violence. There's

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm.

Sage:

That's a big turnoff to me. The way that the relationships are shown is so unhealthy. It's awful. It was so awful for me to have to read it, and it was poorly written, so it wasn't even that interesting. It was like a slog to get through, and it was a slog full of all of these super erotic sex scenes.

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm.

Sage:

and I don't mind the erotic sex scenes, but when it's somebody being graphically raped, like that's just not, and then she's like Stockholm Syndrome and in love with her rapist, like that's, to me is super gross. I don't believe that it should exist in the world. I was happy to review it so that I could at least like, let people know what the content was before they dove into it. After I read that, like I couldn't even read. I think I binge watch a bunch of like, happy television sitcoms. I couldn't even bring myself to read for like two weeks, which was a lot I Did pick up like a graphic novel here or there, or maybe I did a reread of a old favorite to get myself back into it.

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

experienced anything like that, and I think part of it was pushing myself through something I would normally would just put away, and not

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah.

Sage:

but.

Zinzi Bree:

did you, I don't know that I've experienced book burnout. I've, experienced series burnout with dungeon Crawler Carl listening to that as an audio book and bingeing through those because that got dark for me and I just, I couldn't live in that head space. That would be the closest I have. I am far more likely to experience a reading slump after having read a book that I loved. I will purposely not pick up something else for a while so I can just stay there with those characters in the world and the happy ending or whatever it is. and the magic, the dragon, like I would rather. Mentally live there for longer before picking anything else that I'm like, well, I could try this, but it's not gonna be as good and I could try this, but it's not gonna be as good. My brain gets stuck on that for a little while until I find some other entertainment to that engages my brain and triggers a, oh wait, but here's this, here's this fun Korean drama with this this trope or this fun setup. I'm gonna go find a book that has something similar and, okay, now I can reengage. But yeah, for me, it's a really good book, will put me in a slump in the best way.

Sage:

Mm-hmm.

Katherine Suzette :

I have that too. I call it book hangover.

Zinzi Bree:

Ooh.

Katherine Suzette :

rereading or re-listening, I find, again, something light and cozy that I don't have to get super involved with mentally or emotionally, and I don't have to track a lot of arcs and things like that. I think the most recent, you Sage, I kind of like a series. So if I go into the cozy realm because I'm in a slump or a burnout, then I'll read something like The Ghost Who is a recent series that I did. It was like back in January, and they're like 30 plus books in this series. And they're all predictable, but they're cute and okay written. I do recommend it for people who like cozies and predictable and ghosts like some paranormal mysteries and things like that. It, it's definitely not one that I'm gonna be like, oh my gosh. It was a, I'm gonna reread it because it, it had amazing characters that I'm in love with. I love the development, I love the relationships, I love all these different things. It was more like, it's sweet and it's cute and it gives me enough to feel engaged, but not enough that I'm obsessed. And that, that got me off through a recent like hangover or slump. I don't even remember what got me into that one. But essentially I get book hangovers with really good ones all the time, and I'll just start rereading them. Or I have to take a break and I do the same thing with Korean dramas too. Like Korean dramas and graphic novels might be the way that I recover from hangovers.

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah.

Sage:

I notice a lot of times

Katherine Suzette :

I.

Sage:

I'm feeling like. In a slump. Either I'm sick or when the pandemic started and I was stressed, or

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm.

Sage:

at other

Katherine Suzette :

Mm.

Sage:

life where I've had stressful things going on, I will go back and do a reread of some of my favorite books. Like there's certain books

Katherine Suzette :

Yeah.

Sage:

over and over again because they're comforting. I know what happens at the end, so there's no surprises. And I love them enough that I don't mind being back in that world with those characters. And that's a good way for me to get over any kind of like reading slump also.

Zinzi Bree:

We're gonna run through our book recs, so my recommended book for this episode is East by Edith Pattou, or Pattou, I'm not sure how to pronounce her last name. Its, uh, YA fantasy. It is a retelling of the fairytale, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, which is my favorite fairytale because your main girl is the hero. She saves the prince. The prince doesn't save her. It also has elements of is a Greek mythology, Eros and psyche, like that setup of she sleeps next to him but can't look at him at night. But it's told from multiple POVs. And it's setting this is an adventure story, so there's, there's a good amount of travel Denmark, Finland, France, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Germany. So if you've got some travel, but you want fantasy and this, this can tick a lot of boxes in your book challenges. So highly recommend East by Edith Pattou. All right, that's my book recommendation.

Katherine Suzette :

It's not fantasy, but it was by Nora Sacavic and, I guess it's alternate universe, but sports oriented. It's an MM love story and it's definitely, it's a slow burn. It's really well built. It was very deeply oriented towards character build and character development.

Sage:

so the series that I'm gonna recommend it is a series, but you can read the first one as a standalone is Murderbot. It is also

Zinzi Bree:

Yes.

Sage:

a fantasy, but so good. And the first is, I think most of them are novellas, so they would count as a short book. They're very fun, quick reads, and there's so much to unpack in the books. You can just enjoy them for what they are, but you can, there's also a lot around like mental health and social anxiety and what it means to be human, which is one of the things I love the most about a good science fiction story. And now there's a TV show, so read the book. If you haven't watched the show yet, please read the book I think you'll enjoy it that much more.

Zinzi Bree:

Hmm.

Katherine Suzette :

Now that I know there's a TV show, I may or may not.

Sage:

They're very short and hilarious. I think it's one of

Zinzi Bree:

The.

Sage:

in the last couple years that I've laughed out loud like numerous times while reading

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah, I just had the first one from the library and I agree with Sage. It's delightful and well, I have not read past the first one as an audio book, but it's, it's great. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. All right, you can find us on social media. Our links are down in with the show notes. our book club read is For She is Wrath by Emily Varga. that will be our next episode is discussing that. And if you haven't already, give us a rating. we would love to see what you guys are thinking of how we're doing. And the next episode after our. book club episode, will be all about FMCs Mary Sue's, chosen ones, and self inserts. Talking about our leading ladies. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for tuning in. This is so much fun and I'm so glad I get to do this with you guys. See you next time. Also, bloopers bloopers. Oh, which is me. Do, do, do, do, do. I am a bot. Yep. Okay. Hold on. Bloopers.'Cause I realized I needed to start just having a, here's the blooper section. Warning content warning. Hey guys, this is an explicit podcast. There's also, I have lists on Pinterest. I have lists on good reads. I have wrists lists, wrists. I have Wrists, guys um, I have lists the business person in me was like, Ooh, we should make that sign up for our email list, and you'll get sage's little, but then, then the reader in me is just like, no, you don't have to give us your email. You just, if you liked us, that means you listened to us. You're already in. You can just go get it. It's on our stuff.

Sage:

Maybe I'll do the 50 book version for the,

Zinzi Bree:

Mm-hmm.

Sage:

and the double page version if you wanna subscribe. I would like people to subscribe just out of the goodness of their heart, but I

Katherine Suzette :

yeah,

Sage:

always how it works.

Zinzi Bree:

Yeah. sometimes you need that freebie if we had our for this season, our full book, club books chosen, or maybe we should get on that so that we can release it and be like, Hey, here's our book club list. You can just color in as you read them.

Sage:

a hundred

Katherine Suzette :

Ooh,

Sage:

That's, fun.

Katherine Suzette :

2026.

Zinzi Bree:

Add that to our to-dos. Can you guys still hear? My daughter has my mic.

Sage:

hear

Zinzi Bree:

dammit. Do, do, do, do. Why is that my processing noise? I dunno. ooh, another dragon cover, give me all the dragon books, all of the dragon books, bye guys. Oh, I gotta stop the recording. Ah,

Katherine Suzette :

Oh,

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Katherine Suzette

Co-host
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Sage Moreaux

Co-host
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Zinzi Bree

Co-host

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