At the beginning of the new year, our writers gathered to discuss our reading goals for 2024, and the conversation devolved from there. Here is a brief collection and transcription of our discussion. It has been edited for length and clarity.
EU: Eugene
EL: Elise
P: Peyton
On reading goals:
EU: In terms of reading goals I know we kinda dropped the ball; are we doing anything differently this upcoming year to administer that?
EL: I don’t wanna put any number goals; I feel like you and I talked about that before, Peyton. I just wanna do my best.
P: I agree, I think a number goal is kind of . . . The goal is not to hit a certain amount of books, it’s to change, like, am I reading before bed? Or if I have free time, am I choosing to watch something or choosing to read something?
EL: Choices.
EU: I’ve been reading a lot on the subway–it helps that I have a two hour commute every day, in total. One hour each way. That’s been a really big help getting through books. I’m trying to use my Kindle more; I feel like physical books are actually kind of a physical barrier, sometimes, to reading. So using my Kindle has been a game changer. Although I’m getting yelled at by my roommates, like, You should be using the Libby app on your phone!
EL: Oh my god, I use the Libby app!
P: Support your local library.
EL: Yeah, support your local library!
P: What I found last year is whenever I checked a book out from the library, I always read faster. Because you have five days to pick up this book and then three weeks to return it. I was like, Oh my god, I’m on a time crunch! I need to get on this so I can return it on time! I almost have to give myself homework.
EU: I do think having a little bit of a time crunch helps. When I’m on the train, I only have 50 minutes to read as much as I can for today. So bust out the pages on my Kindle. Maybe the goal is to have self-discipline . . . I do think I want to aim for some numerical goal though.
On Romance Novels:
EL: I read five books I liked [in 2023], and I think I read around seven romance books to fill the void and they were all terrible.
EU: Why is romance like that? I cannot do romance books, which is so sad, because I would like to enjoy a little romance.
P: In these romance novels that you’re reading, are the relationships thematic, or is it just these two characters get together? Cause that’s the difference.
EL: Mostly these two get together, and it’s fucking miserable, dude.
EU: I hate it.
EL: I’m wanting the powerfulness of Queen of Attolia and it does not hit. So I’m chasing something that’s never going to happen.
EU: It’s like a drug except you never get a rush.
P: Part of that is . . . very few things in this world will reach the madness–the illness–that Queen of Attolia gives you. I just came out of re-watching When Harry Met Sally in theaters and even though that’s a rom-com, the entire relationship is thematic and deep, and they spend special attention working on the themes of that relationship. That’s why it works. That’s why it’s so good. It all has to be working together. It can’t just be “I want character 1 to get with character 2,” we have to understand why.
EL: Yeah, I agree.
EU: I think the worst part of romance books is when there is no plot but they’re manufacturing conflict, so I’m just sitting there like, Why is this happening? It’s so painful.
EL: They’re really good at writing moments, but they’re not built on anything in particular, so they don’t hit. They have well written moments, but where is this coming from? You barely know each other, there’s nothing this is built off of, but that’s a nice speech that you made, I guess.
P: It’s the Red, White, and Royal Blue, like, “We hate each other, but we hate each other based on really stupid nonsense and a few quips and jokes about the royal crown, and now all of a sudden we’re switching and we’re in love with each other.” So people bill it as “enemies to friends for lovers,” but they didn’t hate each other over anything for real, they had no diametrically opposed views that would make them enemies, and now the resolution as friends or lovers, even though it might be a nice moment, it still doesn’t hit because the set-up isn’t there.
EL: Yeah, that was my experience.
EU: I think the one thing that The Song of Achilles does for me that other romance books don’t do is the yearning and the constant need to be in this person’s life–
P: The devotion.
EU: Yes, the devotion, the loyalty, because they build it the entire novel. It’s not just like, Where is this coming from?
On The Fifth Season & Narrative POV
EU: The other book I read, The Fifth Season, was stunning.
P: Literature.
EU: I felt almost bad for N.K. Jemison because when I was like fifty percent of the way through the book, I was like: I’m having a good time, and this is a good fantasy novel, but I don’t see why everyone is so obsessed with this. Then I got to the point where my eyes were opened, and I was like, fuck, now I feel bad for underestimating the author while reading this. Basically, there are three different characters and three different timelines, and then the author pulls a twist where they show you how those three timelines intertwine and combine, and it’s just stunning. The way they pulled that off was just . . . infuriating, to be fair.
P: If you wanted to teach anyone about third person, second person, and first person point of view, and why they matter, and how you can use them in different ways, this novel . . . Not only are there three different characters in three different timelines, but also three different points of view. One person’s in second, one person’s in first, and one person’s in third. It completely shapes the way the novel is written and told to you. I was very similar to Eugene, where I was halfway through and I was like, this is intriguing but I’m not in love with it. And then that point of view twist at the end . . . That realization you have at the end, where it’s like, I basically didn’t understand anything that I was reading and I thought I did. And that kind of relief that you’re in the hands of a much smarter author than you are. You’re like, “Oh, thank god.”
EU: Yeah, I’m along for the ride now.
P: Elise, I wanted to get your opinion, however much you’ve read of it, of the perspective switch of Harrow the Ninth.
EL: I’m wondering who is the one speaking.
P: When I read these two series, I was going back and forth between them. I read The Fifth Season, which has its major point of view/perspective twist, and then I read Harrow. For Eugene, Gideon the Ninth is third person through the character of Gideon, and then Harrow the Ninth suddenly switches, and the majority of the book is done in second person point of view. For me, because I had just come out of reading The Fifth Season, I was kind of primed. I was like, Woah, I’ve seen this before. Not that Harrow is copying by any means, but I was a little bit more attuned to the perspective thing going on here. Because I had read The Fifth Season, I could see it coming. . . these books are doing quite fun and fantastic things with their perspective.
EL: It seems like she [Harrow] is a little bit crazy . . .
P: Yeah, I think what Harrow and The Fifth Season especially has taught me, is . . . I always thought that second person point of view was very familiar, like it’s literally “you” doing it, but after those books, it actually feels de-personalized. Like they’re disassociating. They’re not an “I” and they’re not a name. It’s good character work.
EU: It was exciting to be that moved and that inspired by a book. It’s been a really long time since I’ve felt like that over a book.
To drop or not to drop a show?
P: [Re: Bleak House, 2005] I got to episode four and I decided I have to do something else, because . . . It’s quite painful to watch, and it’s fifteen episodes. It drags. It’s boring and it drags.
EU: On the note of not finishing things, I am definitely in the camp of if it’s starting to feel like a chore, I just stop doing it. I’d rather preserve the joy of reading/consuming media than forcing myself through something and being like, “Bye, I never want to do that ever again.”
EL: Yeah, I’ll drop it.
P: Don’t get me wrong, I might finish it.
EL: But that’s what you do with TV, whereas normal people are like, “Okay, I don’t want to watch this anymore.”
P: Because for me, watching it and going, “This is so bad, and these are all the ways it is bad,” is quite entertaining. I just have to take it piece by piece.
