Appreciating a rare success
00:00:00
Speaker
Oh, look at her. Um, I just want to take a moment and like appreciate that we don't have to do some failed test thing right now. Okay.
Introduction to 'In the Mood for a Podcast'
00:00:29
Speaker
Mary, what do you, what's going on over there? Yeah. Oh, okay. Clunter, get out of here.
00:01:27
Speaker
Let's go. Okay. Welcome to In the Mood for a Podcast, a podcast about all these secrets. Now I close the pressure.
00:01:57
Speaker
Okay. Welcome to In the Mood for a Podcast, a podcast where we talk about all things romance books. My name is Bonnie from BonReviews Books on Instagram and TikTok. And with me is Shani from Shani Reads and Mary from The Vibrian. And just, oh, that's my chair.
Reflecting on the year's podcasting achievements
00:02:24
Speaker
Just the crew today, we are closing out the year, or almost closing out the year, and this is our what, 17th, 15th episode or something? 18? Oh my god, oh, that's crazy. I'm...
00:02:57
Speaker
I'm impressed, actually. Wow.
Challenges in book content creation
00:03:25
Speaker
I rarely do, ever, yeah. I'm like, why haven't I talked about this more?
00:04:26
Speaker
Yeah. I think that's better.
00:05:54
Speaker
Like your creativity out.
00:06:19
Speaker
Mm hmm. Yeah. Oh, yeah, there are lots more, huh? Dude,
00:06:51
Speaker
Okay, yeah, I'll figure that out.
00:08:19
Speaker
Calm me up. Yeah.
00:09:01
Speaker
Yeah, agreed. Yeah.
00:10:05
Speaker
It's also exhausting, in my opinion. I got to this point where I was like, I'm sick of trying to figure out or understand what works and what doesn't versus just posting stuff. I really just want to get back to actually posting videos of being like, this is the book I read this week. I love that you do like, here are all the books I read this week. I don't really read that fast, so I never did that.
00:10:33
Speaker
usually would do like a monthly recap my monthly recaps have like tanked and I was like that sucks because this is actually the videos that I like making the most but I was like I'm just gonna keep posting them because like that's a whole point of these and like I'd rather just sit here and talk about the books than like actively trying to come up with content is like exhausting and if it's not for a trend and you're just like figuring things out I'm like well I
00:10:58
Speaker
I don't know, like I've hit several walls where I'm just like, this isn't it's fun when you're feeling really creative, but then like when it feels like you are just creating it for the sake of creating it, it can get kind of. Yeah, it's not natural.
00:11:33
Speaker
Yeah, I love yours. Yeah. But I love those. Those are like, yeah, and it is hard to your it's kind of like a muscle for sure where you're like, I have to
00:11:56
Speaker
like use this muscle over and over again because sometimes I will I try to record something the other day and it reminded me of you when you were like oh I tried to record this video about fourth wing and I recorded it like 10 times and I was like I'm not adding anything to the conversation and I hate everything I just did I did that like a million times and decided to just like give up because I was like fuck this I'm it's not working
Shifting content focus: Discourse vs. Reviews
00:14:38
Speaker
I also like, and I don't mean this as like, people should stop doing, like talking about discourse, but I see more discourse videos than I do actual book recommendations from a lot of people, which like is fine because I get it and then like I want to be a part of the discourse, but I also have seen some accounts just, what?
00:15:11
Speaker
Well, I mean, it's not even that. It's not even reviews. Like some people, I feel like it's just completely gone away from that whole side of it. Like I said, I want to get back to me making like reviews of the books I'm actually reading and not just kind of like the snippets or whatever of like one spicy thing, which like are fun once in a while. But like I do just want to like actually talk about books.
00:15:36
Speaker
And then I also want to see and be a part of the discourse. I get that. But then I just realized that some of the accounts that I have followed, that's all they do now. They're not even reviewing books, barely. If I see them at all, it's not anything other than that. And I was like, that's a shift. It's not negative, or it just is a shift in what I see.
00:17:45
Speaker
doing all. Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:23
Speaker
Yeah. And you know what, you know what I think too, is that if that's how you feel, like you're like, I don't want to see the discourse. I don't want to be a part of it. I just want book talk to be fun again, etc.
00:19:51
Speaker
Just don't record that and post it. Just keep those thoughts and insights in the group chat and if that's how you feel, curate your own for you page and you don't have to be a part of the community that talks about that stuff. But I feel like talking about it that way almost discourages or looks down on the conversations happening and that's where I'm like, okay, that's not...
00:20:16
Speaker
That's really just so unnecessary. Like, you know, it's the same thing as people, like, for example. Yeah, I know. And then and then you get people like being like, you know, calling people out in the comments and saying, like, you know, this is like really privileged view. And then it becomes just like a whole thing. And I'm like, well, if you hadn't opened your mouth and said this in the first place, like you're just outing yourself is the thing.
00:21:50
Speaker
your natural first reaction to something like you might not want to voice to the world. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:24:27
Speaker
I know, it's so weird.
Humor in the book community
00:25:01
Speaker
Girls are always bragging about how they're basically like FBI agents. So if anyone is in my comment section being like, I can't find the book. I'm like, bitch, you didn't try very hard because it's right there.
00:25:51
Speaker
Is that real? They actually said that. Oh, okay.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah. I was going to say, so this is how Mary figured out, what were we talking about on the last episode that was making me laugh?
00:28:09
Speaker
No, no, you had another example of something that you'd like, oh, it was the fucking movie and the theater is being like hot or something. And it was actually churches buying the tickets. I was like, how did she find this out? It's like detective work.
00:28:40
Speaker
Okay, yeah, segue time. We can put, wait, we can put a little
00:30:47
Speaker
Yeah, that's all the rage. Did you just raise your hands?
Misunderstandings in online book discussions
00:30:56
Speaker
Wait, no, I actually like this because I feel like I'm so bad at interrupting people. I don't know if that's like a neurodivergent thing, but I'm like, hello, hello. I know, I just like hate it. I hate doing it. I'm so bad at it.
00:31:41
Speaker
I know, okay, anyway.
00:31:44
Speaker
Wait, so we've seen what exactly? Because we keep going out of context. Yeah. What did you say it was called?
00:32:24
Speaker
Something about gumdrops. A quart of gumdrops and
00:33:01
Speaker
Are you talking about like the Kate Corin thing first or no? Okay. Oh, all right. So what's the, what's the deal? Okay. Okay. By Rebecca of Kenny. Okay.
00:36:09
Speaker
Wait, I'm gonna find her. Callie is reading. And also she's on private now.
00:37:51
Speaker
Oh my god. Whoa, that's, yeah, that's obnoxious.
00:38:19
Speaker
I would not look at the cover of this book, a quart of sugar and honey, what would we say? A quart of sugar and spice? I would not look at this and be like, oh, it's about Christmas. Like a nutcracker retelling too, like, doesn't... I don't know.
00:38:54
Speaker
Yeah, this is. Yeah. And it does. And then in the genres on Goodreads, it says fantasy romance Christmas as the top three genres and then retellings fae fantasy. So it is. Okay, continue.
00:43:54
Speaker
No. I also for some reason was under the impression her other series was why choose and it's not.
00:44:24
Speaker
Devil's Night. I've never read it yet. And yeah, I just I think there was like, I think there's a threesome or something in the first book. And that was talked about so much when I first joined book talk. And I feel like it just led everybody to believe it was like, why choose or something? I still think people just didn't understand what why choose was, because everyone always said that, um,
00:44:49
Speaker
flock and exodus were why choose and they were not at all. And I was like, okay, this, this I we need like, yeah, there needs to be a learning lesson. So I feel like we're figuring it out. But slowly.
00:54:09
Speaker
Yeah, I saw that.
00:54:34
Speaker
Yeah. No. Yeah, you would think, I mean, you would hope not, right? Like, you'd hope that wouldn't be how that would. Yeah.
00:55:04
Speaker
Oh, interesting. Okay. Oh. Okay. Well, yeah.
00:55:34
Speaker
No, and she's from the UK, right? Jesse Hastings. And isn't it very popular in like, at least I feel like in London, I see a lot of shit online about women tanning to like excessive amounts too.
Sensitivity and backlash in book content
00:55:51
Speaker
That's a total stereotype too. So I want to just say that, that
00:56:55
Speaker
investigative journalism.
00:57:29
Speaker
Oh. But they're talking about a white person and calling him dirty. It's not about a black. From the outrage I saw, I was like, I cannot believe they would describe a person of color skin like that. That is so racially insensitive. Wow. Come on.
00:58:01
Speaker
They were still attached to that.
01:01:12
Speaker
right and that the fairy tales are all really dark and really messed up and also like not like that's why when i got it i got attacked for that peter pan video that i made after i read um what
01:01:26
Speaker
The Neverking, yeah. Oh my god. I've never been attacked like that online before and it was horrifying. And I was just like, what, why do you, like everyone, basically I posted about the Neverking and it was just like a spicy quote, but it was including the fact that it was Peter Pan and the Lost Boys in this spicy scene.
01:01:45
Speaker
And everyone in the comments was like, what the fuck is wrong with you? They're children. And I was like, no, in this story, they are adults. And they were like, no, you're aging them up. They're children. And I was like, what does that mean? That's not the same thing at all. Yes.
01:02:41
Speaker
No, and you don't a lot of times people don't give a shit about that They just want to like write snarky comments on the internet and they don't really care and also like those videos and
01:02:52
Speaker
Those videos like go viral that people misread or are intentionally misunderstanding. That actually happened to me. A Christina Lauren quote video that I made last year that was about beautiful stranger. I wrote on the thing like he sets up a warehouse full of mirrors because she likes to watch.
01:03:20
Speaker
And I got about a thousand or more comments saying, I thought you wrote minors. And I was like, well, I did it. I wrote mirrors. Stop commenting that's on my video. Like what is wrong with you? It says mirrors. I was, oh my God, I was shook. I almost took the video down because I was like, I'm really sick of these comments. And then I was like, I think something's wrong with you guys because it's not me.
01:05:45
Speaker
But no one has the context of what that even is from or what it means. They're just taking it and saying, this sounds offensive and I'm gonna, yeah.
01:07:06
Speaker
offended. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. So the
01:09:22
Speaker
I was dying. Oh my god.
01:10:09
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
01:11:02
Speaker
Yeah, I thought that's, that was the weirdest part for me. I was like, I don't understand what you're, like you, I was a child once too.
01:11:14
Speaker
I am now grown. How are you not understanding this concept of they could get older and be older and be told in a different way? And also, do you even know what their age was in the original retelling? And that the fact that he was eating children in the first one, I'm pretty sure. I think we've come pretty far from retelling the story. So yeah, it's just the lack of understanding and then the insistence on just
01:11:44
Speaker
I don't know, latching on, like you said, to this Puritan culture, or whatever the point of view is that they take, they're like, never back down after you make this statement. And they're like, they'll just keep calling you names and shit. They don't care. They don't want to understand. And I'm like, OK, let's give up.
01:12:24
Speaker
I know. Yeah. Oh my God.
01:12:57
Speaker
Ooh, that's sad. Oh. Okay, okay. Okay.
01:13:57
Speaker
I'm pretty sure I've been watching a lot of videos lately of people watching Disney movies and being like, what did they say? What, what was that? And there's, I mean, it's not good. Yeah, I'm like, the roots there are just bad, you know, it's rotten to the core. So like,
01:14:20
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I don't know. But wait, what else?
01:15:57
Speaker
Yeah. Policing other people. Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure.
01:17:17
Speaker
I almost bought Corrupt at Barnes and Noble today and then I remembered that I actually bought it on my Kindle like a million years ago but I picked it up in because it's a trad pub book now I guess. Okay so it is much shorter I think in its traditional published version but I could be completely wrong I gotta check.
01:17:42
Speaker
I mean, I didn't buy it, so I'm gonna read the original one that I have on my Kindle, just in case. Wrapping up thoughts.
Book Talk as a game of telephone
01:18:05
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:18:11
Speaker
Do you want me to do like a little intro? Or should we finish our outro here and then, or do you want me to just like, I can just do like another intro like I did on like the part two podcast where I'm like, Hey, this is our mini episode. We're on like the week off. Yeah.
01:18:41
Speaker
Yeah. So should we, that's what I mean. Should we record it just as a part of this episode and I'll edit it out and keep it separate? Okay. Okay. Sounds good. Yeah. Cause I'm, this whole Kate thing is, I actually did go down the rabbit hole on that. So I'm like,
01:19:26
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, so in conclusion, Book Talk is basically a game of telephone. And once people find out what the truth is, it is kind of up to them to figure out whether or not they're going to accept that or not. But it seems like people are just doing whatever the fuck they want anyways.
01:19:52
Speaker
And like normalize on like getting new information and thinking critically about it is what I would say because everything's being taken out of context.
01:21:13
Speaker
Oh my god. I'm starting to understand. Yeah.
01:21:56
Speaker
I think that's good. That's good advice. Passing it by a million people. Especially ones that you consider your hot takes. Believe me.
Social media wrap-up
01:22:28
Speaker
Well, thanks for joining us this week. We will be back with a mini episode next week. What should I say? Okay. All right. Thanks for joining us this week. We'll see you guys next week. Um, Shawnee, where can we find you? And Mary, where can we find you?
01:22:59
Speaker
And you can find me, Bonnie, at Bon Reviews Books on Instagram and TikTok. Bye. All right. Should I close out and send a new link? Or do you want to just stay on here? Okay. Okay. Um, I'll do that now.
01:23:32
Speaker
Okay. Oh my God. Yeah. Oh yeah. I got to pull up all my notes. Okay. All right. I'll send this now. I just like, yeah, saved a bunch of stuff.