Bookstagram & Book Reviews | Christy, Briana, & Stephanie

If you're a book lover and an Instagram user, you may already be familiar with the world of Bookstagram. If this is a new term for you, you definitely won't want to miss today's conversation. Librarians Christy, Briana, and Stephanie share their experiences as Bookstagram content creators and consumers. They'll discuss a variety of social media platforms and online book reviewing spaces. This conversation will even explore proper etiquette when reviewing books. Remember authors are people too, nasty comments are not constructive or helpful, they're just mean... plain and simple. Be sure to stay tuned for Turn that Shhh Up with Kim and Shannon for all of Russell's upcoming programs and events.

Book Recommendations

Old Enough by Haley Jakobson
A Court of Mist & Furyby Sarah J. Maas

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Transcript

0:10

Welcome to Middletown Strong. Looking Up with Russell Library. I'm Christy Billings, along with podcast team members Briana Gannon, Hulu and Stephanie Rush. Hi. Today we are doing a shelf life takeover and we are talking about books and books to Graham and book threads and some other online social ways to share and find new reads. So this is kind of exciting. Brianna, let's start with you and let's start with books, too, Graham. So this is a part of Instagram for folks that are not familiar. A social media platform that has videos and reels and is really made up of creating beautiful photos. So you have a book to Graham and you just wrote a cool blog post which people can check out online at Russell Library dot org. So tell us a little bit about why you started a bookstore. Graham. Yeah, so I started my books to Graham because I just wanted a separate space to talk about books and bookish things and not necessarily do it from my personal account because it just felt weird to me mixing the two because my personal accounts are just like, very different than my books to Graham. So I started my books to Graham in February of 2023. So I've been around for a little over a year now and I've loved it so much. Like, I just love having that space to talk about books. I remember when you started doing you go, What should my name be? I was like, Oh, I don't know. So I kept it super simple and just did. Brianna and her books. It's a lot easier to keep your handle simple. That's like my first little tip of the day. That way it's just easier for people to find you, and you're kind of telling people what you're gonna be posting about. Mm hmm. And since I talk about books, someone named Brianna, That's my and Brianna enter books. Hey, you want to know what you're getting? Exactly. We talked about a little bit about that that we really like. If you're following a bookstore in person that they talking about their books and not necessarily the luggage they bought or the cute little, you know, poof thing that's now on their nightstand or whatever. Because, yeah, there's a difference between someone who's an influencer and someone who's a bookstore. Grandma, I. Think, And you can be a book for winter, but they're like, We were talking about tears because I'm like, I'm not here to learn about, like, the new water bottle. You got that? You're taking it to work every day. You're not doing. It. Sorry, I don't care. No, And some people are. Yeah, which is cool, if that's your thing. Cool. That's just not what I'm looking for. And that's not what I'm doing. And that's not what I'm personally looking to follow either. No. Like, if I want to follow an influencer, I will, which I typically don't. Every once in a while I will be following someone on bookstore gram and they will do ads, which is fine because I get that. That's part of the deal. But I personally don't want to engage with that all the time. Yes. And most of that sometimes, though, they have cool stuff. I've actually gotten some very cool. I have to stop through. But but like specific people, like I like them and their accounts. So what they are selling as an ad I resonate with, it's not just like the hottest new thing. Like, yeah, it tends to be like varnish. Yeah, they really taken the time to partner with brands that they care about, and I think that makes a huge difference. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. So is it hard, Brianna, to set up a bookstore? Graham And what kind of tips would you have besides that? The first one, an easy name would you have for somebody that is thinking about getting started as a bookstore? Graham Yeah. So in my blog, I kind of covered this more in depth, but I'll try and give like a quick little couple tips for you. So basically, just make sure you have a profile photo that is not super busy like some people like mine is just my username, but I made it in Canada. Other people do these cute little like air renderings of themselves and little cartoons. Those are very popular for a while. Get your profile photo, set up your bio and make it that super simple as well. Like mine is just like a quote. And then three different books that I'm reading and that's kind of it. And then find your aesthetic and you don't have to have one, but a lot of people do. So just kind of scroll through other people's accounts and see what clicks with you, what doesn't. Some people get props for their photos. I've used my part. If you go on the blog post, you'll see I took one with my dog Harley. We love Harley. I think that's right. Yeah. No pets. Our pets are. I mean, that sounded really. Weird. It sounds bad, but. You said, you know, pets are great books to grim props because they want to be in the photo anyway. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's like don't spend an outlandish amount of money on some fancy camera or fancy props like you can make do with what you have at home and once you find that having a bookstore frame is for you, that's when you start investing in things. And I like, I don't that's not me. Like I have some fake tulips I've used in a picture once or twice my dog. But usually I just use like a nice neutral background, like my comforter is white, so I put my books or my Kindle there, or sometimes I'll take a picture in the library or at a bookstore or outside, but really just try and find what vies with you and go with it. Don't try and copy someone else. Don't try and get all the followers you can because it's not. It's just you're not going to get genuine engagement that way. I like find the people that resonate with you and you'll start making content that resonates with you and people will start wanting to see what you're doing. Yeah, Be yourself, be yourself. I will say hardwood floors. Also a great option. Nice background. Yeah. Brick wall. Brick wall, hard hours. So I have hardwood floors and a deck, a wooden deck? Yes. Walls are good to. Excellent for taking photos. Sometimes I take them out in the grass. Can't always get the right lighting there, but a white comforter is primo. I didn't realize that. That's what you're not. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to add something quick. So you were talking about finding people to follow in your bio. So I love that you have books that you've been reading. I also find it super helpful when people talk about like the main genres they read, so that right off the bat I know if we're going to vibe, like if, if your bio is like reader in Santa Fe and it has like a flag next to tell me like, whatever. Yeah. And then it says like romance horror. And I'm like, Oh, I'm here for you. I mean, yeah. Or I know sometimes, like scrolling through their feed, you can always, you can tell that. But like, I like knowing upfront what genres you're going to generally be talking about because that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for someone who's like reviewing and reading books that are similar to what I'm reading because then I know we're going to vibe. Because you have very specific tastes and you have like understood the tastes that you have. And I love it because you're like, Yeah, not that book's not really for me, because you already know. Yes, I know myself very well as a reader, and that's taken years. But in 2024, I know myself so well as a reader that I know what books are going to work for me, what books are not going to work for me, and which people to follow to get the content that I want to see. Yeah. So I'm going to segway to that. So you are also an Instagrammer and I love how you share your reviews, your book reviews in your story. So tell us a little bit about what a story is in case somebody isn't aware and then a little bit about the process of how you share your stories. Sure. So so unlike Brianna, I keep all of my book content on my personal account because I've always talked about books. So it made sense for me to kind of keep them together. I actually thought about starting a bookstore game, and then I was like, Yeah, but are the people going to the same people going to follow me over there? Am I going to still get the same engagement? And I've noticed personally, if you don't have a bookstore grand, that people don't engage with great reviews super much. And that's just how it is and that's fine. So I thought to myself, okay, well, people aren't engaging with reviews on the grid. Where can I put them that people are going to engage with them and then people can come back and find them. So I started posting them in my stories, which is it's a clip that goes on your little profile and it's up for 24 hours and it's small. You have to hold it to read. So it's a little different from like a full feed grade review, but it gives me an opportunity to show people a picture, tell them what worked and what didn't work for me to scream about all my feelings. And then I saved it to a highlight on my page so that if you missed it for 24 hours, you can go back to it. So I saved them to a highlight. I have two different highlights. One is four mini reviews, which is what those are. And then one is for the year that I read the books in. So 2024 reviews are 2024 reads. Those fill up fast. So I have multiple versions of those highlights throughout the year. But I just started realizing that people wanted like a quick snippet and they weren't engaging with it on the grid. And I was like, Okay, how can I do it in a way that people get the highlights, but it's not dominating my feed as if I did have a bookstore game. So that's been working really well for me. I don't know if other people like it, but like that really works well for me because it's like quick and you can come back to it at any point. And so I actually end up engaging with people about comments in my DMS instead of on my page, which is more personal. It's more personal. Yeah. Not everybody is seeing that conversation. But for me, that's okay because I'm making those connections with my followers and my friends in a more private place and that works for me. So DM is direct message in case, in case somebody is new to the socials. Yeah. So people can respond directly to the story in my messages and we can talk about whatever they resonated with in that review. And I tend to in my little mini review, I tend to tell you a little bit about the book, what I liked, what didn't work for me. And sometimes I'll include a clue to star review. Not always, but it's basically me, just like a picture of the book and then me like in all caps yelling about what I like. And that's what I want to hear about a book. Yell about the parts that you like that works for me. And so does it take like all the writing that you put on there, does it take like, how long does that take you? It depends. So when I finish a book, I know some people will finish a book and sit on it for a little while. No, I finish a book and I get out there, I'm like, I finish this book 10 minutes ago. Here are my thoughts right off the bat. So what I like to do is I'll do a brief like summary of what I liked in my story graph where I'm logging my reading and I'll usually copy and paste that for what I like to do is in my notes app on my phone. I like to take notes as I'm reading so that when I do the review, I remember what I was thinking as I was reading. I love those thoughts of change. Yeah, so like halfway through the book I'll start being like, Ooh, interesting character growth or didn't like that so that by the time I go to write the review, I have all the thoughts, especially if it's a longer book. So I'll, I'll copy and paste the notes into the little story review if I'm just going right off the bat like fresh from the book Zero Thoughts and I'm just writing it, it takes me about 5 to 10 minutes. Yeah, that's the work. And I use my thoughts and to make sure that you can get all the relevant information in that tiny rectangle because it's it's. Small, right? And I choose the same font every time. So it's consistent and I, and I pick the colors of the highlighted font based on the colors in the picture of the. That you're using. Yeah. Yeah. So I try to make it look aesthetically pleasing, but at the same time it's really just a picture of a book and all of my thoughts smush onto a page. Yeah, it takes about 5 to 10 minutes, especially if I'm already writing the thoughts as I go along. It's easy to copy and paste small chunks of text that way. I love that. So story graph is like a way that people can keep track of the books that they're reading. And also it helps people can maybe look up a book based on like this book is about X, Y, Z, and I want to read more books about X, Y, Z. So story graph is one way to do that. Yeah, it's a great alternative to good read, right one because. Another way to keep Amazon. Yes but I still use good reads a little bit, but I like story graph as an alternative because it gives you all this beautiful graphed data at the end of the year. Oh nice. And you can actually check every month what your graph data looks like. So I can pull up July, I can just toggle July and it'll tell me the moods. I've read that month mostly it can tell me the amount of pages. It can tell me which ratings were the highest like. And it tells me like how many pages I read has these beautiful graphs. But at the end of the year, those graphs get converted into this beautiful data for the whole year that reflects your entire reading year. So that's why I switched to story graph, because the graph components are just they're so excellent. And story graph also gives you information that you can't get anywhere else because it's user generated. So users can come in, read a book and be like, I like this book, but also was it character focused or. Yes, it was. It was emotional. Was it dark? Was it tense? Was it hopeful? You can rate all of those moods and then you can also put trigger warnings, which I feel you can't about yet. But good reads doesn't offer that. I mean, you can put it in your review but I, I really like that story. Graph have a specific section for content warnings lovely rate the content warnings from like explicit to medium moderate to like light or only a little bit So that people know what they're getting into. And the other thing I like about story graph is that when you click on a book good read Tesla rating right on top story. You got a lot of yeah you got to. Do. I'm like, I don't want to see the rating I want to see I just want to see is this book plot based and does it have specific triggers? And then I don't have to scroll all the way down. That's lovely. And again, I actually like that Goodreads has the rating on top most of the time because if I'm looking for is this book decent, I want to know the rating upfront. But when I get on story graph, I want to know like what the content really is. And I don't care about the rating. Right? Because you really have already decided to read it in most cases. But I want to know, is there something that's really going to put me off? Yeah. Or is there something about this book that is really going to hit for. Me and I'm going to add we talked a little bit about good reads and what not to do. So yeah. Let's just talk a little bit about like things that you do not do for authors on Goodreads. So it's more so I would say Instagram than good reads. Yes, because the author's going to see it regardless on good reads. Okay, but just be nice. Yeah. Like people are really mean, but like authors worked so hard on their books and I get it. If you don't like it, you don't like it, but you don't have to go and like, say horrendous things about the author and their creation because that's just not nice. And especially on Instagram, if you're going to be doing a review, don't tag the author or the publisher if it's under four stars. Absolutely. 100%. Yeah. Like just be respectful because it's just it looks really bad for you if that's what you're doing. And you don't have to post about a book. If you don't like it, if you don't like it, you can still post about it, but just be nice. So how are how do you guys decide what makes the cut like, do you? I know you probably don't review everything because we are voracious readers, but how do you decide if a book is going to make it? So? Brianna, I'll have you go first. I just have to like it enough to want to talk about it. Oh, so I was just talking to Christie this morning before we came in about a book. I just finished the indigenous romance. I read it. Oh, yeah. It's called The Truth. According to Amber, I loved it. But there was a part of it that it just drove me crazy. And we've talked about it before. It the character lies nonstop throughout the entire book, and I just found it frustrating because she is 25, which is around my age, and I found it very frustrating that she was not cleaning up her act because I'm like, You're an adult. See this? You're just digging. You're digging deeper and deeper and deeper. But bad choices as young adults, as different, as bad choices as adults. I will ring this bell for forever. But I still overall of the book, so I'm still going to talk about it. I gave it five stars, even though that part bother me. Like I just really enjoyed the book and I'm already like, hungry for book too, so. Yeah. And who's the author? So the author of The Truth, according to Amber, is Danica Nava. There we go. And the book publishes August 6th. Oh, that's. Oh, it was an arc. That's exciting. So I'm going to pick it up. Yeah. Nice. We have a copy coming in for the library, so keep your eye out if you love your romances. And this one is the first indigenous romance published by a major publisher, Berkeley. So it's a book. It's a Berkeley book. We're seeing more of that, which is pretty exciting. And Berkeley has his own romance imprint now, so it really moves in a good direction. So same question for you, Stephanie. Do you decide to just go ahead and do a story about books that you read or is there like a time we like now? I really I'm not putting this one out there. I review almost every book I read. Nice, because that story format allows me to so like, like I said, if I reviewed every book on my feed, it would be it would be cloud. And my personal feed is like also snippets of my life. So I review almost every book I read with the exception of if it's a book that I don't think anyone's going to care about. And I read it for a very niche reason. I usually don't include that and I will be candid on on here. Right now there is a book that I recently read is a scientific book about the science of sexual connections. I did not review that one because I was like, Huh? It felt a little too personal, right, to review and my mom follows me on Instagram right now. I took that one. I personally decided I'm not going to share this one. I've talked about it to people in my own life. But yes, that one, I was just like, Hmm, not sure about that one. Right? Well, like I said, either something very neat or something very personal, but for the most part I'm like, Hey, this is what I'm reading. I'm going to tell you. Right. And that's why we like I would like to add trigger warning sometimes because like, if I put a book out there, yeah, my mom might pick it up and I might think that maybe it's not really something she's going to enjoy. So it, you know, is judicious. You want to you want to be careful, kind of like, here's the content that I'm reading. And, you know, maybe for some people this might be something that you would enjoy, but this may not be for everybody. I can think of a few books that we've talked about that are they're heavy, you know, and I don't myself, I don't review those anywhere except good reads to keep track of it for me because I would not just blanketly recommend these. Yeah, because sometimes they're just really dark or really hard. So jumping off of that, I made a note earlier about when I'm reading other people's reviews, what I like to see, and so I put those into my own little review. So I want to let you know what it's about and what I like. But I also want to let the reader know what kind of reader this book would be good for. Yes. Those same lines. I read a book a couple of weeks ago that was about puberty. Yes. I'm 34. I do not have children, but I find the that books about puberty are so interesting because they're different than the way that they were told when I was growing up. And when I reviewed that book, I actually did put this one on my feet because I had too much to say. But when I reviewed this book, it's called The World Divided by Piper, by Kayla Carter, and it's a middle grade book. But when I reviewed it, I said, Wow, this is a book about puberty. However, I really enjoyed it because it kind of gave it gave me nostalgia about when I was going through that. And I said this would be a great book to read with your kiddos who are going through the same thing. Or if you just have a specific interest in this topic. So I said very explicitly, this book is excellent. Here are all the reasons, but you might not want to read a book about puberty and that's fine, right? Perfect reason you might want to read this. Or here's a person who might find this coming across their plate and might really enjoy it for these reasons. And I also I interact with a lot of people who do have kids or a lot of people who are teachers. So I like to let them know that this might be good for their students or their children. But I also do like to include trigger and content warnings at the bottom. If they are very egregious. I will say I love this book here. All these reasons, however, content warnings for substance use or loss of a parent or sexual assault like. Or something. Like, yes, I want to put those up front so that you do know as a reader whether or not this book is for you. And reading is one of those things that everybody has their own journey. And I might have loved this book, but you might have a reason why this book doesn't work for you. And that's okay. Yeah, Truly. Absolutely. So I'm going to jump in with a new media platform, please. Yes, it's called Threads. And so I used to be on Twitter and Twitter is kind of a dumpster fire. So I left. I was going to say, is that why you jumped over it? Absolutely. So I'm going to just give a quick thing about what threads is it's very similar to Twitter a.k.a X. It's a place for viewing and sharing public conversations. You can post, reply to others and follow accounts that interest you. And so Book Threads is a subtopic or subgroup within the Threads app. You can follow book related accounts or engage with people about books and posts. Right now, book threads is full of stuff for the Olympics. There was an author out there that had talked about she has just written or if you or if you're following the Olympics and you're excited about it, you can follow her book. And I, I just like it because it's sort of broad like I read such a big swath of books. You do that for me. I don't I don't necessarily want to be so specific. I will read just about anything and then maybe I would be it would be better if I was more like Stephanie and I could find like a real niche. But I don't know if I can like, go down that yeah. To that. But that smaller type of genre. Yeah. So for Book Threat for me, Book Threads is great because it's like everything. Throw it against the wall and see what sticks. Yeah. So I'm really enjoying it. I don't have a specific book thread right now, but it is public. It's more public, just like Twitter was so kind of the same thing. You want to be careful somewhat about what you're posting or who who's following you. You know? BLOCK works just as well. That's true threads as it did anywhere else. I will say. My one frustration with threads is if you do not have a threads account, you cannot click through and see the reply. The comments in the. Comments like you can only engage with it if you have an account which is connected to your Instagram account. So yes, I chose to not have that. Yes, sometimes Christy or other people, you'll post something and I'll go to click out and be like, That's so interesting. I want to repost and I can't, you know, open up and be like, Do you want to get threads? And I'll be like, No, I do not want to get the right thank you. Because previously if it was a tweet, you could click through and share it. And now, like, the permissions have changed, right? So I can't share a thread that you've shared because I don't have threads. Which is interesting. Frustrating. And I think people should know. Yes. That that is the or so if you want to share it, get an account. If you don't, you've got to talk about. Absolutely. You know, I love that. So yeah let's let's talk about other social media platforms on Tik Tok. There is book talk. You know, do you guys follow any creators or have book recommendations or reviews on that social media platform? I, I have a TikTok myself, same kind of thing. I do a lot of my own personal content. So all of these platforms are really visual. So I do a lot of train content on my TikTok because I love driving, you know, driving, listening to me. Driving, making drive trains. Now I. I love taking the train and I'm the I'm the person with my phone out like the filming. Like I could I could film an entire train trip. So I do a lot of that. And then of course, I post the book that I'm reading on the train, too. But yeah, for books. Do you guys do any kind of book talk and how do you find your creators? How do you follow people? You know, Do you find reviews, things of that nature? So I'm on tick tock on my personal account, and then myself and a couple other staff at the library, including Chrissy run the library's tick tock account. So like, we're on that a lot. But personally, like, I don't follow anyone really for book recommendations anymore. Maybe in like 2020 I did. It's a whole separate. It's so different now. Like I found the Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller on Book Talk. Great. When I was looking to get back into reading, but I slowly started not using it and shifted to like Instagram. Instagram. Yeah. So like my book talk, my my book talk, my TikTok has pretty much nothing to do with books lately. I've done a couple videos back when I was kind of trying to be a book talker, and it just didn't happen. But it's like it's all over the place. Yeah, I'm like very much on like Instagram for, like all my little books and reading content. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about the library account. Yeah. So we have a social media team that runs the Russell Library, Instagram and TikTok accounts. Something we're currently working on right now is librarians on the go. So you may have seen us kind of walking around Middletown, going to different local businesses. So we actually had a video on Tik Tok go viral. It's at 386,000 views. I want to say we went to Purgatory Coffee and just like got some drinks, brought some books, paired our books with our drinks, and we had a great time. Skeletons everywhere. Like that. I love. All the summer wine vibes people are kind. Of looking for. Right now, and it just took off. I was going to say, Why do you think that particular video went viral? I don't know if you've thought about it when you. Think. About. It. Yeah, yeah. You just think of us. The content. Yeah, the. Content. I think the song helped because it was that whole. I don't want to say his name. Hozier. Hozier, Hozier. His whiskey. Neat song. Yes, whatever that one's called. Finding audio does. Help. Yeah. So it was like an acoustic cover of it. So it really went with the vibes there. And I think another one of our members, it might have been Dylan was like, just the algorithm. Is the algorithm like, Yeah, sometimes it just happens. That's true. But our next trip is actually to the Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore. We're going to just like find books that we loved that are in the bookstore and talk about them and point out everything we've write. I would probably be doing that, absolutely. I wasn't able to look at the last few. Years to come. I'm getting big FOMO about it. So basically every Tuesday our goal is to go out and film content. So sometimes we might go out to eat, so we'll do a little bit of a longer session or we'll just pop by a local business and be like, Oh, that's really cute. That goes up my book. Yes, we did that with Nitro, which is a place that makes ice cream. It's a liquid, and then they add the nitrogen and now it's ice cream. It's kind of. Cool for a fun process. Too. Yes. So we did books and food, all of it as a as a pair. I think that is so much fun, like picking our books out and then so we don't talk on these. We don't. It's music much like music, aesthetics, just vibes, which is interesting because some people will talk. Yes, but we're like, Nope, this book looks cute with this ice cream. And I think that most of the book talk content is talking. Yeah, about books, which is interesting because it's very different from the vibe that you're doing and it's different from the vibe that we're really doing on Instagram. It is very different. I know your Instagram is more visual and that is more visual. Yeah. Yeah, I had seen a really cool aesthetic where it's almost sweater weather. I mean, it's only it's not even August 1st, but it's like this lady had her books like In Between Sweaters Cue and like, I'm like, Oh, I love that I'm stealing that. But right. Like, that's the kind of thing this is very visual. It's a very carefully curated type of content, like when you see the pictures that you put but you're vibing with like think about why you like that. Yeah. Before like you start just taking pictures willy nilly. Like this is like something that you're like, Oh, somebody is going to also vibe with this because what a cool idea. Sweaters. And like. Boy, that leads me to another point that I had. I'm going off the rails, but I've got to go on this. Okay. Speaking of aesthetics, I don't care if you have a cute aesthetic picture of your book. If you're not telling me about the book, I don't care how cute your picture is. I want everybody. I want to know about the content. So like, yes, it's great that you took a cute photo. I'm sure the photo was very fun to take, but if it's just a photo, I don't care. You need to tell me why you like that book or what's inside. That's really helpful. I'm not just going to read the book based on the cover, even though that is a prompt on our summer reading challenge this year. Yes, I. Do. And I do get sucked in by covers, but I want to know what the book's about. Yeah, sure, I'm sure those sweater books were great, but if it doesn't tell me what the books are about. You're not going to read any of them to me. Person I like. That's not useful to the way I use books. Diagram So like, how did it make you feel? What are the important plot bits? Like, like I was talking about, I write a review based on how I want to read a review and I don't actually I don't care if your book pictures cute at all. You can tell me what it was about and scream about how much you liked it. I don't care if you took a picture like like just on your bed. Yeah. The picture doesn't have to be aesthetic for me. It helps, but I'm more interested in what's inside the book and how it made you feel that I'm paying attention. And so, like, that is the real the real piece behind this, right? Like how we interact with these. I love. That. I will also say if I keep saying the same book over and over, I have two reactions. I don't know how you feel about this, Brianna. If I see the same book over and over on books to Graham, either, wow, I have to get it immediately or please get it away. I cannot look at this cover any more. Now I feel like. It cycles through. Like you'll see the same ten books for the same ten days. And I think that's one of the traps of books too. Graham Yeah. Is that a lot of people are reading the same books. Because they're coming out. And it doesn't mean they're good books. It just means that that everybody's reading them. So sometimes you have to sift through that. That's why knowing yourself as a reader is really helpful, because I've seen the cover of the same books. I'll give you an example. Okay. We were just talking about the other day, Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay. Yeah, I've been very excited to read this book. It's been all over books, too. Grimm Well, at least the horror side of books read. I was really excited to read it. I tried it. It wasn't for me, and that's okay. And there were lots of reasons. It wasn't for me. It wasn't just because I'd seen the book everywhere. But like, I finally got a copy and I was excited to read it and I gave it 42 pages and it was not for me, but I have people on my bookstore, Gram that are raving about it, and it really worked for them. And the reasons it works for them are the reasons I knew it wasn't going to work for me and that's fine. But like I'm like, okay, I've seen that book around. I tried it and now I can move. On and DNF like, so do not finish. Like if a book is not resonating with you, do that, but do not feel like you have to finish it. Yeah. So for you, and especially if you are thinking about another book while you're struggling through your book. Hello. Yeah, I don't know the pacing or that whole stack of books you have on your shelf. If you're thinking about those six books on your shelf more than the book you're reading. Gory The other six books. Yeah, absolutely. If you're just kind of like you've been reading it for a while, you're not really picking it up Like, that's that's a sign. It's so if you're not excited to pick it up, unless I have to read it for some reason, which I don't love doing. But like if I'm not excited to pick the book up every time, it's not rhyming for me. And that's fine. It can be everyone's favorite book and not my favorite book, and that's okay. Absolutely. I think for me, if I've seen the book and now suddenly it's skyrocketing, it's very, very popular. I have to read it pretty soon. Yes. Or interest. Yeah. Or the interest has gone. Like, okay. Daisy Jones in the Stakes. Everybody recommended that book to me at the time and I just didn't get to it and didn't get to it. Now I'm like, Well, either don't read it at all or you don't read it for ten years when the buzz has kind of died down. Because if I don't read it right in that buzzy pocket, I've lost interest. Yeah, see. I read that after the buzz was actually, you know, I think I read it when right off the series came out. Yeah. Because I wanted to read the book first because I was. You saw it on TV. So I like I loved it and I didn't read it when everyone initially was like, Oh my gosh, I need to read it, blah, blah, blah. But I did kind of read it when there was like a second wave. It had a resurgence. The series. I also think that it's pitching a book to somebody in the right way is really important. Yeah. So a couple of weeks ago, that book, The Husbands by Holly Hermosillo, they just came. Yeah, yeah. Everyone was talking about it and I kept seeing it on bookstore and I was like, It has a cool cover, but I don't know, it's about, Yeah. And then somebody told me what it was about and I was like, Oh. I'm in. That book. Sounds interesting to me for the first time, just seeing the cover did nothing for me was a cool cover, but I know it was about but having it pitched to me in the way it was pitched, I was like, okay, now I'm in. But it took the right person talking about the right way for me to be convinced to pick it up. I think the book Mercury is like that, so it's kind of what's brand new. Yeah, pretty much. I think it was like in the early part of this year and I got sucked into it because very first thing in the book, someone finds a body in the choir loft. Oh, you remember you telling me about this at the church? And then there's like, all the stuff that happens, but it's definitely one of my best reads this year. And, and we'll we're going to do it as a book, some bruise book, next book. But like Mercury. Okay. I don't know anything about that. Why is it called this? Like, is this something I to want to read and I highly recommend? It was really good. And that's the fun thing about this show, this podcast, particularly because we get to bring books that we are excited about that we can talk about in a way that might hit somebody differently, right? And maybe someone wouldn't have picked up that book. That cover does not get that cover doesn't. That's exactly how I bought it. And then we talked about it. I saw it at a bookstore and got it. And I was like, If Christie loved it this much, like, it's got to be good. Well, then you get to know your reference sources to your, I guess not only knowing yourself as a reader, but knowing the types of people in your life or the people in your life that can recommend books that do well for you. And knowing the people in your life that recommend books that don't work for you was really important to you. It's like, Oh, I'm glad that works for you, but that's not a book I want to read. Or like, if I know we're gonna described a book a certain way, I'll be like, That's great. And the way you describe it, I know that I will not like it, but you're describing it was helpful for me to know it wasn't going to work for me in the same way that you were describing it in a different way would have helped me know it is a good match for me. So it's really knowing where to get your referrals. Yeah, and knowing the tastes of other readers in your life is really helpful. So is there a book that you guys have read that was recommended on books to Graham that you probably wouldn't have picked up any other way? I mean, I have. That's a really good question. Yeah, I have. One come back to me with that one. Yeah. Okay. So it was actually my first five star book of this year. Nice. So this book I saw popping around on people's bookstore forums, but it wasn't like a buzzy bookstore Graham book. It just happened to be really popular among this small group of readers that I trust. It's called Old Enough by Haley Jacobson has a stunning cover. It's Orange and it has a young woman who she has like a her hair piled high on her head and like a clip in it, just the back of her head. You never would know what it's about. I never would have picked it up. But three people I really trust sold me on this book as one of their favorites of last year. So I'm gonna tell you about it. Please. It's messy. Shocker. It's a messy book for me. Yeah. So it's new adult coming of age. So it's like that cusp y adult that I love coming of age. I love queer discovery, which I love, and difficult friendship dynamics and that idea of outgrowing your friends as you get older. So it's about Sabb, who's a sophomore in college. She's recently come out as bisexual and is trying to find her people. Her childhood best friend, Izzy has gotten engaged, which still finds out through on social media. Oh man. Yeah. And in the back of her mind, all she can think about is the thing that happened between her and Izzy's brother a couple summers ago. She's trying to reckon with the fact that her best friend is getting married. She wants her to be the maid of honor, but she can't get past this thing that happened. This book hurts, but it's amazing. It's going to. It's going to shock you right in the stomach. But like in the best way that books make you feel, anybody listening right now was like, it's such a stunning book. It's so big. All the feel, all the feelings. I'm like, getting hot thinking about this book. And it's also about being seen and appreciated and listened to, even when what you have to say is really hard. So trigger warnings in this one sexual assault pig warning for this one, readers, please take care of yourselves. But oh my gosh, this is my first Five-Star book of the year. And it is thanks to my bookstore grown friends Casey, Meghan and Ginny, because they kept talking about it. And I was like, I think this is a book that's going to work for me. I devoured it in like two days, and then I tried to give it to everybody I knew, even though I know it's not a book for everybody. I basically handed it to Shannon B and was like, Please read this. I'm so sorry. It's going to make you very sad, but please read it. Oh, I love that for like just absolutely. I think sometimes there's a book that comes across that you read that you're like, everyone has to read this. But I also know that it's not going to. Be for. Everyone, but I want everyone to read it anyway. All that this. Is perfectly in my wheelhouse. Like everything about this book was made just for me, and I never would have found this book without it. I'd have. My books are going around and I've been talking. That's amazing. Yeah. Brianna So mine's going to be a bit of a more generic response, but a core of missing very. Yes. I have put off reading Be a Guitar series by Sarah James for probably at least a year or two. And my best friend has been telling me to just get past the first book. I got past it realized by the end I did actually like the series. It's like high fantasy, romantic, CFA, all this fun stuff that is not usually for me, but because my very close friend told me I should read it, I'm like, I have to reach out to you. And a lot of friends I've made on books too. Graham Everybody raves about this book, so I picked up a quart of mist and fury. Ended up loving it far more than I thought I would. It's big, too. It's a bit bonkers. Yep. And that's half the reason why I didn't want to read it off. Right. I don't like to read Bond books, but I just sucked me in and I'm glad that I listened and wasn't stubborn and was just like, Now put it off for another year. So I've read that. But then I needed to take a break because it's just so long and it's so good, but I'm like, I can't do that much fantasy. Back to back. Yeah, you have to take genre breaks, definitely. So the third book is on my roster for August. Hopefully there's. What, six or seven in. The series. I think there's you should. Just keep going. Yeah. So interesting from a like a librarian standpoint of bookstore gram and book talk these books are really buzzy on book talk. Yeah, all the book Talk Girls and Babes are reading them. And I will say we get a lot more requests for books that have blown up on book talk and books to groups, especially for me for ordering young adult books. The amount of requests I get for books that are on book talk, even if I'm like, This is not even a new book. But like for some reason I've got a second Life on book talk. Oh, seriously? Yes, Those. Are all the books I get highest requests for. So the three most books, but a song of Achilles, which is an adult book. But I think Colleen Hoover blew up for. Book talk. For book talk. But like for a younger audience, which I have big feelings. It's very. Interesting. But yeah, a lot of these books have like a Second Life on book talk and books to Gram, so I get flooded with requests. I'm like. Really? This came out in 20 like 2021. Yeah. Then like books that came out in 2012 that they're just rediscovering. Yeah. So it's been really interesting from a librarian standpoint to hear that these are the books that people want. And I'm like, Why that book? I'm like, Oh, it must be popular on book talk. So I actually will see what's kind of trending on book talk from an ordering standpoint. Beautiful. Make sure that we have multiple copies of those because they are highly requested. Yeah, because it used to be something that was coming out on TV or something on HBO and still get that. We do, but it's not is not as prevalent now. It's more like water. All of the book talk babes talking about. Yeah. Is there anything that has surprised you about your your books to gram accounts or the way that people have interacted with you over certain books? Couple things I think that surprised me from just like being on the bookish side of Instagram. You forget that you are in a bubble and you forget that outside that bubble, not everybody is reading the same books that you are, even if they're popular. Like my subsection of books, bookstore Gram is very niche because I only follow people who I really engage with their content. So I'll be screaming about a book and I'm like, Why is no one heard about this? Why is no one talking about this? It was so good, but like the general populace. Hasn't heard of it. Yeah, exactly. So there's a little bit of that. There's also some really tense what's the word I want to use? There's a lot of tension in the books, a growing community. don't know if you've experienced this, but a lot of tension of what you should be talking about as a bookstore grammar and the fact that reading is political. And a lot of people get very upset when you talk about issues on books to Gram, and the argument always comes back to why are you putting politics in books? And the argument is always books are political, reading is political. So not to get heavy vernacular, but like that is fully a reality on Instagram. If you're in the bookish world. As librarians, we see that. Exactly. And there are a lot of librarians who are on bookstore Gram But yeah, this idea that we have to keep our personal beliefs separate is just dicey for people. I personally don't believe you have to keep your personal beliefs separate because reading is political. Books are political. Especially on our own pages. Exactly. Yeah, but a lot of people have a lot of thoughts about you don't talk about the issues, you don't talk about politics, and that's fine. I personally believe that they are linked, but a lot of people to keep them separate. But that's a really a thing I wasn't really expecting. Yes. On on the bookish side of Instagram was that it's very charged when you talk about the issue. Yeah. If you put something up on your page and I found that out, I got a lot of positive feedback. But also, you know, then you have the trolls show up, Yahoo! And it's like you don't even read. What do you. What do you do in here? Yeah, Yeah. So there's definitely like this undercurrent of political charged ness or just tension that you can be a reader and not have opinions on the internet is a little bit of a minefield. Yeah, definitely is. But I will say I haven't really experienced much of that at all. I think I, I just don't follow people who are really talking politically. Politically, I don't want to deal with it. So that's probably part of the reason. Yeah, but I would say something that I guess surprised me was just how nice everybody is, which shouldn't be a surprise. But like people are just super supportive. Like I can DM someone and have like a random like, how did you do that? Edit And they'll send me like, yeah, like this is everything I did. Yeah. Like everyone just wants to support each other, at least in a lot of the groups I'm in. I'm in a group with a lot of Connecticut based bookstore grammars, and so we've all kind of gotten close. I've not met them in person yet. I know they've had some meetups, but everybody is just really supportive of each other and like we like each other's content, we share it, We comment like just a good group of people. I mean, it's cool to know that like there's a lot of other local people because I feel like a lot of what I follow is like just all over the world, primarily probably in the U.S., because I'm from the U.S. But like I follow some people from like India and like Australia, it's pretty cool that we all get to connect like through our phones. It's just like, it's crazy, it's cool. And I'll add that for book threads. That's awesome. Guys. Meet you. Book threads just seems to be much more international. I'll have people that comment that are from all over the place. Norway, like you said, like India. You know, it's sort of interesting when you hear some of these comments or a British comment or something about a book and you're like, Oh yeah, that's an internationally published title. Now, I think I forget sometimes that people read from other parts of the country. Really easy to get stuck in this like American centric Central America centric like mindset. You're like, Oh no, like the whole world for you. It's just not in the same way. Yeah, Yeah. It's very cool. Yeah. So thank you so much for joining us today for our little thank you for joining us today for our shelf life takeover of Bookstore Grimm and all things bookish. Have a great day, everyone. Bye bye. Hello and welcome to the segment we're calling. Turn That Show Up projects at Russell Library that are too good to keep quiet. It's hard to believe, but it's the end of summer. And Russell Library is celebrating the end of our summer reading programs with a series of family friendly events. On Saturday, August 17th at 10 a.m.. Zens Critters will return to Russell Library with a selection of farm animals. Participants will have the opportunity to meet the animals and learn something new. We've had a lot of animals this year. Yeah. We kicked off with some llamas. The other day we had owls and turtles. I think we're going to possums. It just keeps going. Yeah. Oh, exciting. And on Monday, August 19th, at 3 p.m., the library will host the Maddox Circus Family Show. Maddox is acro comedic performance features a diverse array of masterful juggling. Tim memorizing hula hoops and an awe inspiring six foot unicycle. And much more. I That's so cool. I didn't know we were out. I love doing this. On Tuesday, August 20th at 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.. Come to the library for an amazing art workshop with our friends at Abacus Doodle. Be sure to dress for mess in the Hubbard room on Wednesday, August 21st at 2 p.m.. The library will present the Mr. Magic Family Magic Show. This is an all ages program. It features interactive magic, the art of illusion, and the potential to win prizes. It's a performance guaranteed to put a smile on your face. And we definitely need to smile before the school year starts again. Oh, most definitely. I can't believe it's coming up. to register for any of those events, please visit the library's online calendar. Now, if you're still staying close to home and you want to hear about fascinating authors discussing their work, then you may want to check out author talks hosted by the Library Speakers Consortium and made available online by Russell Library on Thursday, August 15th at 2 p.m.. Author Erina Smith will discuss strategies for college applications featured in her book The Golden Ticket. And if you're interested in something a little more lighthearted. On Wednesday, August 21st, at 7 p.m., Shelby Van Pelt will discuss the themes of friendship and hope in her book, Remarkably Bright Creatures. And again, for more information about these talks, just visit our online events Calendar. Or you can give us a call, too. Yes. Yeah. So Russell Library appreciates all of the support that we receive from the community. Thank you for listening and please visit our website to learn more about our events and resources. Please be sure to subscribe to our podcast and feel free to share what you learn with others. Russell Library has too many exciting things going on to keep them quiet. I'll talk to you next time. Next time. Have a good one. I can. Write.