#229 – Reading Confessions: I Regret Buying My Kindle!

Hello everybody and welcome to books Unbound the podcast where we unbind books to get to their hearts with your hosts us it’s Ariel and raen hello whoo all right we’ve got a good old juicy episode for you today because we’re doing another reading confessions oh yeah this is when our dear listeners

Specifically dear patrons submit their bookish problems to us and we try our very best as seasoned readers to give advice is it always good advice I think so we don’t promise that but I think we’ve been doing pretty good I think we’ve been doing a good job and we have

Some really interesting dilemmas that people have sent in one of which is about e-readers and Kindles and ethics that literally I’ve been thinking about for hours I’m I’m like I’m that’s the one where I’m like have I that’s a very complicated one have I helped yet have I

Helped we’re going to see when we get to that how are you doing Ray good yeah pretty good it was my mom’s birthday yesterday so we went out for dinner at her favorite restaurant which is just like the most expensive restaurant in town essentially but it’s good it’s a

Steakhouse so there wasn’t like a lot of options for me so I just got a bunch of appetizers and so did Kyle that’s what we did like instead of spending $50 on one entree how about we just uh spend half of that on a bunch of little

Appetizers so it was fun one of the things I got was just like a cheese dip oh and bread so I’m feeling pretty pretty good today the dream yeah I’m not regretting that at all no no no a full of cheese yeah cheese really is one of those

Things where like the consump the way that you’re consuming it changes everything about it like if I just just gave to you six huge pieces of cheese and I was like eat these that with nothing else that seems crazy but the second you like wrap it in breadcrumbs

And deep fry it moah sticks you’re like well of course I can eat 10 of those yeah that’s so true it’s a lot of cheese it’s like oh if it’s a bowl of melted cheese sure I can eat the entire thing it’s kind of a scary thought little little frightening we have no

Control yeah so okay so you had a lot of cheese and life’s pretty good yeah that’s pretty much it it’s been snowy here actually that’s the one thing I haven’t really talked about yet I think I teased it last week or maybe the week before but I want to roller skate so bad

But there’s just snow everywhere and I still haven’t been able to track down a good kind of indoor spot I did get some good suggestions from people in comments saying like use parking garages and stuff but where I live there really aren’t any like underground parking things at least not like accessible ones

That don’t belong to people’s apartment buildings and stuff so still hting I know that there are there are options but they’re like a little bit of a drive so if I if I’m going to do it I got to I got to do it you know yeah yeah yeah so

Thank you for the suggestions people I did see that yeah I thought it was yeah when I saw someone be like you’ve got to go to a parking garage I was like genius yeah brilliant makes so much never never thought of that and it would be probably

Smooth because a lot of them are like have nice pavement so yeah they’re like actually this reminds me of um when I was a pre-teen like when I was like 13 and so my brother CJ would have been like 11 my dad bought us helies oh my

God I couldn’t do hey it was the dream of a generation to have Hees and every now and then I see a kid wearing helies and I’m like yeah hell yeah that’s good so we had these helies but like they are imagine I mean people know what Hees are

But they’re just a shoe that had one roller skate wheel in the heel and so you had to learn learn how to like balance just on your heels um and we got pretty good at it I’m not going to lie to you we got pretty good at it but

Because it’s just inherently a very unstable system it’s not good like outside like on roads and stuff like it’s just one little wheel um but we would go to like the mall and we would go to um I remember specifically and I know CJ is editing This and like nodding

The floor at the Flex was the best floor I don’t know what it was it was you know what I mean like I don’t remember what the hell the material was but it was just so it was kind of like a gym floor like I flat smooth smooth but maybe

Bouncy glossy a little bouncy like a little give so nice so nice God that was the dream that was the life yeah um as for me my I have a good I have a good big again to use the same word juicy update oh okay actually I have two one

Is mine and one is ours so the first one is I bought the mini truck oh hell yeah yes you did I’ve seen it I’ve seen it people so cute you’ve seen it it’s adorable it’s perfect I love it and as I’ve mentioned I my goal this year one

Of my goals this year is to fix up and launch a bookmobile Endeavor and so so I’m going to be chronicling that here on the podcast giving you updates as things go along but I’m also going to be making videos on my own YouTube channel so um

While that is being schemed up and I’m figuring out like what details to include and what stage I’m at um there’s certain things I’m going to hold back here like I don’t I don’t know it’s all very choosy in my brain but I have the bookmobile oh I have no I have a

Miniature truck is what I have I don’t have anything else but I have the miniature truck I have now also reached out to a possible designer to help me design a logo for the whole Endeavor and to help me with a color scheme because while I enjoy colors and like painting

My house and everything I would love Direction on how to make sure it actually looks really good and what colors look good on cars and like all this sort of stuff that an actual designer would know so I’m I’ve reached out to them it seems like we’re going to

Work out but we’re like literally at the phase where um they’re telling me how it’ll cost and we’ve I’ve got to make sure that I it’s in my budget and everything so but that’s going well and um yeah so the next stages are I have to get it like actually registered and get

A license plate there’s a whole debate about do I do a vanity plate ooh maybe it’s possible and a good idea potentially this might be the one case where I would actually advise that I know cuz in normal life when you see a car with a vanity plate it it depends on

The person I’m not going to shame anyone cuz I know that there’s someone listening here who has a vanity plate if it brings you Joy damn it I’m glad you have that plate but overall when I see them I’m just a little like ah it’s a little cringe it’s a little cringe but

When it’s for a business yeah I think it’s C when it’s a business when if it’s a business or if it’s like a vintage car or a cool car like it’s like something weirds going on with this car it’s not your like daily driver I think that it’s

Kind of awesome actually totally I feel like I’ve seen a pink car where somebody just had the license play like Barbie or something like that I’m like that’s fun genius you got a theme you got a whole thing unlike just you know having a like a station wagon and it

Just says like like pillow and you’re like okay okay I don’t get it but okay I don’t get it all right um but yeah so I have the miniature truck I it is right-and Drive which is hilarious in Canada cars drive on the left or we we

Drive on the right hand side of the road but we sit and steer on the left hand side of the the car so this is on the right hand side of the car is where all all the actions happening I keep accidentally doing my windshield wipers

When I mean to do my turn signal oh is that reversed too that’s reversed as well and this it’s it’s a manual stick shift car and so the stick shift is on the left hand side in thank God the clutch is on the same side oh good the clutch is on the same

Side so the pedals are all the exact same that would have been scary that would have been crisis I was like that would have been a dangerous change because the worst thing that happens if you if you are slow on shifting gears is that you can like throw on your hazards

And like roll to the side of the road but if you accidentally slam the gas when you meant to slam The Brak or vice versa or whatever that’s like a crisis that’s bad um but yeah I drove it home which was a whole story and a half good

Lord it was fine it was good it was just slow because we took um Nova Scotia has these beautiful new highways they’re fast they’re efficient but they’re so fast that I was like I don’t think my first big Drive should be on a one of the new highways like I think we should

Take the old roads and so we took the old roads and we didn’t realize like most of them are like 50 km an hour 70 km an hour and so we never got to go that fast so it took like double the amount of time which was good because I

Was able to just kind of take my time the other this is so unnecessary but it’s so freaking awesome the guy who owned it before me installed a sick Bluetooth sister with new speakers and so I was like really jamming out to Miley Cyrus driving my mini truck down

The roads of Nova Scotia like what am I doing what a way to start the year what a way to start the year but things are on track right yeah right like getting if I get it all and I will if I get it all registered and insured

And I already have the insurance but if I get all of the kind of paperwork stuff done by the end of January and then February is all of about like the design the logo the painting of the truck and then like starting on the build of the

Shelves and then by March the shelves are all done and then the miniature truck the bookmobile exists then I’ll have like March April May to sort out sourcing books getting merch Etc and I would be ready for my June July hopes and dreams amazing so I’m feeling very

Good about all of that and that that’s my big fun update that’s great I have two questions oh please I love questions firstly do you have a name for the truck yet or a name for the business obviously you don’t have to tell us but have you

Thought about this yes I’ve thought a lot about this I have a name for the business and I’m surprised I didn’t tell you did I tell you no and you’re just acting koi for the podt okay okay okay I do I did decide and I won’t reveal it

Yet until I find out that it’s all above board um but I very happy with it and I yeah I’m really really happy about the whole business name side of everything then when it comes to the name of the truck I haven’t named it yet I will say

First of all it’s definitely a boy I don’t know why sometimes you just get a Vibe right but I just feel very distinctly like it’s a a little boy truck guy like he’s just like I think because it reminds me of a toy a little boy would play with like it’s just feels

So adorable but it just has like male energy and that’s that’s great that’s great I I love him I love him I’m obsessed with this little truck I drove my friend I did a little drive with my friend I did a little drive with my dad

I drove my mom unnecessarily to the end of the road and back like everyone’s getting a drive um so I really love him but I haven’t named him yet I want the right name to come by I’ve got a couple things a couple options rail you mentioned possibly giving it a Japanese

Um like possibly Studio gibling name and I love that idea because it is a Japanese mini truck it was imported from Japan so a Japanese name would suit him well very cute but you can also call it like Bobo or something like and that would be

Cute oh it’s so cute it’s so happy I kind of feel my mom mentioned this and when she said it I kind of was like yeah you know that might be what’s going on my mom was like maybe you shouldn’t name it un cuz I was saying like what if I

Gave him a name like that could be fun and she was like I think you shouldn’t name him until you’ve painted him his true color true because that could really impact what the name is and I was like actually you’re totally right and that might be why I haven’t named him

Yet cuz I don’t feel like I he’s not he’s not in his final form yet he’s not in his final form yeah that makes a lot of sense question yeah my second question is and I’m sure you’ve probably looked into this but maybe you haven’t like for selling books on a book truck

Do you have to get like a business license like what’s the what’s the business end of all that I know great question I don’t have to get a food truck permit good I’ll say that much cuz I heard a lot of like negative stuff about Nova Scotia and food trucks like

Apparently it’s hard to get a vendor permit for a food truck in no Scotia blah blah blah blah blah and like the restaurants in NOA Scotia seem to be a little aggressive against food trucks which I hope is like turning because there there’s some cool food trucks that

Are popping up I know that there’s a sui one somewhere and I heard that there’s a Korean food truck somewhere and so like these are restaurants that we need we need food like this in Nova Scotia and the idea that like mo mobility a cheaper investment etc etc is like making them

Possible I’m like why would people be against that it’s so crazy but anyways because I had heard of all that I made I looked it all up and it’s very clear that this is I don’t need a food permit because those are tricky because they’re food permits because you’re selling food

And apparent that’s just like a whole can of worms I don’t need anything like that I don’t I think I need some form of vendor permit yeah but I I looked into it it was so vague it was so vague I was like this is like annoyingly vague yeah

Tell me actual information it seems very possible that I don’t need a vendor permit that like as long as everything is insured like as long as I have business insurance and like I’m not liable for anything blah blah blah blah blah then I just have to sell Goods yeah

And it’s just a stall no one is writing it no one’s getting into it it’s just a stall um so it’s a good question though because that is one of the things I need to figure out next so many so many Logistics totally all of it I know me

Too I’m so like figuring like right now the biggest thing that I just had to learn all about was insurance because it turns out ensuring a right-and drive in Canada is not straightforward and I had I yeah like with my insurance on my jeep that I drive I remember I called up an

Insurance place I was like can you insure the Jeep and they’re like yeah well year is it I was like I gave them all the info and they’re like yep it will be this much and I was like okay cool I’ll call a competitor and like I

Called a couple places and they all gave me quotes and I picked one and they’d set it up within an hour like it was all fine I know it’s it’s different BC but it is easy it’s expensive and cruel BC has an insane system um because there’s no competitors exactly the car insurance

Is run by the province in BC which I actually think should be illegal because it’s a monopoly anyways this is like my least favorite topic I hate BC insurance I think it’s crazy but um with it’s still easy like cuz they’re the only on insure it you walk in and they’re like

Here you go and you pay what you pay and because I will go on the smallest side because they’re Monopoly they’re the most expensive Insurance in Canada like it’s so expensive over there um so anyways I call this place the first place and it’s the place that like

Ensures my Jeep and I was like you know can we do a bundle or something yeah and they’re like uh what kind of car is it I was like oh it’s this and this and it’s a right-hand drive and the woman literally got angry at me she got angry

At me what I she was upset she was like this this isn’t in my drop downs I’m going to have to do a manual insurance and I’m like okay okay yeah I’ve called an insurance firm you have to give me Insurance like or you can say no but you

Can’t get mad at me cuz you have to manually do it I okay so then I called another place this woman got even angrier at me and I actually think she was unbelievably rude like I was explaining the whole thing to her she got kind of aggressive

And then she like was like well I’m just going to have to email you the things that I need and then she didn’t email me until the next morning and she was asking some like complicated questions she was like how do you not have a commuter vehicle because I don’t

Commute anywhere cuz I don’t work anywhere I work in my house so I don’t so my own vehicle is not a commuter vehicle this vehicle is not going to be a commuter vehicle so she’s like so how do you commute I was like I’m just going

To have to call her and explain my job yeah that’ll be fun people love this and so I call her and I’m like uh hi I’m just calling because I think it’ll be easier to explain over the phone she was like okay and I and I explained my job

She’s like oh okay I understand blah blah BL yeah and then she I start explaining certain things and she gets angry and she said you know this would have been a lot easier if you’d been able to find a left-and drive like I give a [ __ ]

Lady what are you saying like like it was so rud treat people it’s not how you treat people that’s not how you treat a client that’s not how you treat a customer that’s like you know me Ray I’m like annoyingly polite I was so friendly

To her and she was just like if you’d been able to find a left-hand drive this would have been a lot easier and I’m like what do you mean if I’d been able to find I didn’t want a left-hand Drive I want this car and I need insurance for

It can you give me insurance or not like just that’s insane to me I know I know so then I messaged the guy who’s selling it to me cuz he’s so nice and I was like who did you ensure it through yeah and he was like oh this really small

Brokerage in Dartmouth they’re really cool um smk insurance I was goingon to say it because they’re awesome and they uh they were really chill they gave it to me the same day I was like I’m gonna call them so I call them oh my God they were so nice they’re just the only

People who know what right-and Drive is basically I guess but they were like they were like um I just called I was like hi I’m calling to inquire for a quote about insurance and it is a right-hand drive at this point I’m like this is my pitch line and she was like

Okay that’s no problem and I’m like is it’s it’s not she’s like no we do them you know it’s a little more expensive I was like yes I do know that she’s like yeah I just need to know have do have you had your license for over 10 years I

Was like yeah she’s like yeah you know they don’t want they are really trying to dissuade young drivers from these cars because they’re blah blah blah and they’re like trying to import these cheap cool cars and they’re just trying to disuade them so as long as you’ve had

It for over 10 years I was like yeah I got my license when I was 16 like yeah I’ve been driving for a long time it’s a mini truck not like a Lamborghini or whatever yeah exactly exactly she’s like well you’ll be totally fine then it’s

Just going to take me about half an hour to send you over the paperwork so then she did that and she emailed it to me and then I called her back and I I ended up saying to her I was like thank you so much for being so kind like this has

Been so fun and we T we had like R we just talked about her 50th birthday for a long time like we had a whole beautiful conversation but because of that I was like you’ve got to hear what this woman at the other place said to me

And I told her and she couldn’t believe it she was like that it doesn’t matter if you would have showed up with this kind of car we need to Ure everything we can Ure anything I can’t believe they said that to you and then the final

Email that I got from her with my finalized insurance that I could then take and use to drive the car the her email starts hi Ariel great talking to you this afternoon I love being able to help people out especially when they’re basically told to go pound sand by someone else exclamation

That’sand I love that so anyway she’s the best she was so awesome and helpful and yeah I knew going into this that the first part of it was going to be an admin Nightmare and it has been the DMV with the registry of motor vehicles in

Canada they said no this you can’t have this you need this form so I so I had to go there twice I had to do this three times like I knew it was going to be that so I’m just kind of like releasing myself to the process

It is what it is right it’ll be so fun when it’s all done but you got to do all these things first but you just got to go through all these hoops but there you go that’s my big update thanks for the questions R those are fun and I’m like

I’m so excited to talk to everyone about this whole thing throughout the months um yes yeah the journey is going to be very fun to follow yeah and I have so many fun um like videos of me driving it and stuff that my brother took for the

Video that I’m making like I’m so hyped on the video that it’s going to be so fun it’s going to be so the first video is just going to be called like I bought a mini truck and it’s going to be about the Journey of

Buying it and it home and doing a little tour of it cuz it’s got some fun features yeah I haven’t seen the inside of it yet really so oh I should send you I should FaceTime you and like we should do a little video just so I can tour you

With it but want a FaceTime with Bobo the Trap I feel like um yeah you know I could kind of see it having like a robot name likeo or something that would be really cute give him a Droid name oh yeah that’s cool all right enough about

Us wait no there isig bigger news more about us more okay we’ve got huge news you guys yeah huge huge news many years ago we made a promise a promise we will live to regret a promise we live to regret in fact currently we promised back it was

In 2020 right Ray it was 2020 it was 2020 listen we were all crazy it was a crazy year for us all it was a crazy time for us all back in 2020 May 2020 we promised that if we ever reached $55,000 of monthly support on

Patreon we would dye our hair Peach yeah well what do you know what do you know folks it happened last week this is so so exciting for us like we cannot emphasize enough how beautiful of a problem this is we did this as such a stretch goal that we truly didn’t

Think was ever going to happen we didn’t think our humble little podcast would reach this goal we thought you know maybe one day it could but we really didn’t think that it would and also we were what 25 when we made this promise so times were different there

Was a global pandemic shuddering us like we we just wanted to feel alive we just wanted to feel happy so we made this crazy go we made this fun fun dream now it’s happened and we have to dye our hair Peach yeah um and so we just first

Of all wanted to let you guys know that this has happened because it’s so exciting and we’re so grateful and as much moaning as we are going to do over the coming weeks because oh my God our hair is so pretty right now and we have to destroy it get crazy fried we’re

Going to moan and moan it’s all ingest because we’re so excited and we’re so we’re feeling so supported you know like that’s how I feel I feel like wow this is all happening because everyone like that listens to our podcast is so lovely and wants to support us on the patreon

And we’re just super super grateful so we’re g to hopefully be getting this done in the first week of March logistically because it’s such a giant hair appointment we literally couldn’t get appointments really closer to that and we wanted to be able to do it in the

Same week so that was also kind of tricky so um hopefully beginning of March we will have Peach hair yeah it’s gonna happen it’s gonna happen how do you feel how do you feel Ray I feel excited but also scared for different reasons um like I’m excited because

It’ll be fun to have cool hair I’m also going to get some kind of haircut that’ll be different from what I’ve had historically for the past little while so I’ll come in with like very different hair like very very different so I’m excited for that but I’m also at the

Same time nervous about that that cuz I’m like okay I’m going to have to be really confident about this new hair that I have cuz like it’s going to be bold hair and so I have to like Infuse myself with confidence that I don’t know

If I have so we’ll see we’ll see how that goes and I’m also just going to show up at work with this hair I’m just going to surprise everyone I’m not going to give them a warning cuz I don’t want them to be able to tell me that I’m not

Allowed to do it so I’m just going to show up with peach hair and hopefully everything will be fine I think it will totally be fine and they love you so much at work that it would be crazy for them to say anything about it um and

Also you’re not front-facing like if you were front if you were front desk it’s true I feel like they would have more of a reason to say anything but hopefully they won’t say anything but it is a variable it is a variable that we’re both like she just has to go to the

Office with and I’m like I like tie my hair in a bun so I look more professional should I wear a blazer every day like and a hat a figure that part out I think I just need to wear a blazer every day so I look really professional yeah I think I

Asked you um does anyone else in the office have colored hair and you said somebody did and they got fired is that right yeah but it was completely unrelated to the hair it was completely unrelated to the hair as far as I know this person had that hair before they

Got hired so I think it’s fine so they hired someone with colorful hair I’m assuming so cuz like she kept keeping up the colorful hair yeah like streaks it wasn’t like a full head so it’s tough to say it’s going to be a different V Peach

Is almost a neutral it’s I feel that’s how I I had a dream last night that I had blonde hair it’s like it’s starting to become a reality it’s see my dreams but what I in my dream what happened is the hairdresser dyed my hair blonde and

Was like okay we’re done for today and I was like no no no we need to dye my hair Peach and she’s like that’s all you get for now and I was like so I was stuck with the blonde bage which was yeah it was okay I didn’t hate it

Yeah but I don’t want it to happen in real life that’s so funny all right well there you go everyone thank you so much to everyone who has supported this patreon I mean this podcast through patreon we are so grateful we feel very lucky it’s really enabled us to do a

Bunch of fun things like become a video podcast like when we wanted to do that we had a bunch of upfront expenses like getting railen a camera and getting CJ to able to invest more hours and therefore pay him more CU editing video takes about seven times excuse me longer

Than audio does so Etc there was a lot of uppr cost but we were able to do it because of this and we have like you know we’re doing new segments on the podcast and when we do those we want to be able to have nice branding to go

Along with that well that takes money so all of this takes money and the fact that you guys are supporting it just means we can throw a lot of that back into the podcast um which is just sick so so thank you and as a as our deepest

Form of gratitude we will dye our hair Peach yeah and we’re excited about it it’s going to happen it’s going to be really fun I’m also the thing that I haven’t really thought much about but that I actually am hyped on is that we’re going to be twins that’s going to

Be so cute I know we’re going to on the opposite sides of Canada Coast to Coast there will be two chips matching hair that’s so cute I love it oh boy all right well it is time to get into our reading confessions we’re going to be listening to these clips that were

Submitted by our dear patrons and um if you wanted to submit a clip you can become a patron and we have a form on there so that you can do that but if that’s only if you’re curious we’ve got some really good ones let’s start with this message from Daniela hi Ariel and

Raene I would like to ask your advice on a problem that is completely of my own making I have currently way too many books on my TBR my physical TBR is over 300 books right now and I can’t stop borrowing books ebooks mainly from the library I keep borrowing books from

Friends so it just keeps growing and growing and it gives me huge anxiety sometimes like sometimes I get so overwhelmed that I can’t read anything so I like your advice on how should I deal with this this feeling and also how can I tackle it in a realistic way thank

You all right really how about you start us off what do you think what do you think about daniela’s wo well this one struck my heart because Daniela I have the exact same problem as you this is the way I live my life as well having a

Large TBR that just scares me but I like can’t stop buying books because I get so excited about buying books and people will Rec me things and I’ll take things out from the library and um I’ve really started kind of dialing that whole habit back so maybe I can give you some advice

Cool so I feel like there are two options there are two options here one either you need to just become okay with having a large TBR and be okay with the fact that you’ll never read all of them or you may not read all of them and you

Can just be okay with that um I actually found a quote um from an author Umberto echo or Eco and um I I have this because one of my friends actually sent this to me because she also has like she has about 600 unread books so she was like

She’s trying to get rid of some books to try and bring it down but then she sent this to me and this is a quote directly from it it is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy as it is foolish to criticize those who buy

More books than they will ever be able to read it would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones so that’s just a piece of the larger quote but he also kind of refers to

Books as being like a medicine cabinet and it’s like sometimes you need the perfect medicine and you can just go to your cabinet and grab it if it’s not there then you’re not going to like get that you know healing factor that that specific book might give you so

Apparently this author had like 50,000 books in his collection or something crazy so that’s that’s an insane level of it but it’s kind of just goes to show like you can live that way if you can kind of just release that pressure that’s being put on yourself cuz that’s

How I feel when I have a large TBR it’s like okay I have to read all of those I did this to myself I bought myself all those books or they’ve been gifted to me and like for whatever reason I have to read them but over the years I and now

This is kind of going into option number two which is you can make your TBR smaller you have to make Cuts where you might not normally have wanted to make Cuts because you just can’t read that many books especially if you have more coming in especially if you’re wanting

To read books that are from the library or from friends like there’s just always going to be so many books out there that you have to bring it to a level that makes sense to you and for me I’m thinking I I like to think for myself if

I had maybe 30 to 50 books unread on my shelves like that’s a decent amount of books still that gives me a lot of variety um but I’m still working towards that I still have like 160 right now so I’m still trying but my advice is getting rid of books like just coling

Books and the thing that I know is scary about this it’s like okay but I spent so much money on these books if you if you start thinking about that it can be scary and it’ll make you not want to do it but if you just kind of look at your

Books and think okay do I actually want to read these I bought these ones five years ago and I haven’t even thought about reading them yet you know maybe maybe those ones should go out the door and I find the the more you do it the

Easier it becomes and uh so CU I’m really good at it now like I even have times where I’m like okay I just need to reduce my collection so it fits on my shelves and so I’ll look through it I’m like okay that’s a book I read and I

Kind of enjoyed but I’m never going to read it again I’m not going to recommend it to people so I may as well get rid of that one so sometimes you know youve come up with your own systems for getting rid of things but I think that

That is the the other way either you become okay with it or you do something to change it those are the two options in my mind what about you I love what you said because it really is almost exactly what I was thinking because I I

Do think I guess this is it right these are the approaches I think on the one hand you can just accept that you like buying books yeah like that’s okay and I actually also pulled some quotes Ray one of them um I remember I had heard this

Idea that like collecting books was like a wine seller yeah I love that one and so I looked it up and I found it and I think originally it was said by this Irish author whose name is Ronan hesan it was from a tweet we’ll link that

Below but um he said I said this before but I try not to think of it as a TBR pile but more like a wine seller you try and time the right combination of mood energy and interest so that you pick a book when you have the best chance of

Getting along with it and that’s what writers prefer too he says um and I just I remember when I heard this idea it clicked something in my brain because I was like that is more like what I’m doing like when I’m buying a book I’m not thinking to myself I want to read

This next sometimes I am like there are a couple of times when I buy a book that I’m so excited about that I like drop everything and I read it that does occasionally but not most of the time like most of the time I find a

Really cool book and I’m like this is really cool one day I think I’d like to read this or this fills this section of my shelves I don’t really have anything like this this would be really cool to read eventually and then what happens is

One day I’m in the mood for it and I have it and I’m like oh yeah this is this is exact like weasel in the Attic like weel yeah it’s a very specific one but like I’m like oh my God I have a book about weasel I could read that right now

And so it’s more like this wine seller thing where it’s like when people are buying lovely wines for their wine seller they’re not thinking we’re going to drink this tonight they’re thinking this will pair really well with a meal sometime down the road and we’re going

To be excited to have it so similar to your medicine cabinet thing right that’s like that’s so perfect yeah it just feels good to have that perfect book when you need it and I find that’s what’s Difficult about the library is like okay what if I really want to read

This specific book but the library doesn’t have it available now what I’m just lost and then you lose the and then it’s gone you know so I agree like having a collection is awesome like I definitely do love it and that kind of transitions to this other point that

Goes along with this whole thing that um I forget where I first heard this but I’ve definitely heard it from other people before this idea that collecting books and reading books are two different Hobbies they’re not actually one and the same and when you put the

Pressure of I bought a book so that means I have to read it right away you’re like conflating two Hobbies but they actually don’t have to be and this is how I feel about my reading life like my reading life has very little to do with my book buying life they’re somehow

They intersect but not most of the time and not all of the time and I don’t need them to when I’m in a book shop I’m not like this is what’s going to fully influence my next reading decision no I’m like this is going to influence my book collection like that’s they’re two

Different different activities and two different hobbies and I think you can care about buying books and and enjoy it and enjoy supporting authors and enjoy supporting publishing and enjoy good book design and enjoy the thrill of the hunt like I just bought I wasn’t going

To haul it today I was going to haul it the next episode I will as well but I just got this book at the grocery store it’s called ainop Uh novel in letters and I was like oh that’s perfect I I’ve actually been looking for that book at

Thrift stores for you and I haven’t found it yet I’m really glad I got it for a dollar and I was like this is such a perfect find am I going to read this right now probably not but I’m excited about it and I’ve enjoyed the hunt like

That to me is a whole collection mentality that is like really fun however on the other side you did specifically in your message say like sometimes I get so overwhelmed that I can’t read anything and I I’m pretty sure that you mentioned the word anxiety

In message and so if it is anxiety I think think we can turn to my beautiful pal that I’m literally in the midst of oh God I folded the pages that’s not good okay uh Maria condo in the life-changing magic of tidying up so I I

I picked out a quote here when we honestly confront the things we own they evoke many emotions within us those feelings are real it is these emotions that give us the energy for living believe what your heart tells you when you ask does this spark Joy if you act

On that intuition you will be amazed at how things will begin to connect in your life um putting your house in order is the magic that creates a vibrant and happy life she loves tting doesn’t she she’s so excited about it yeah so basically her entire philosophy is does

This thing spark Joy yeah when you actually pick up each book I actually do think you get a little moment of like I am excited about this even if I’m not excited to read it right now I am still excited to read this I’m excited that I

Own it excited to have it so I think you need to do an honest to God Purge pull every single book out off of your shelves and then hold each one and think do I like this do I actually care about this yes and I think that will be the

She really suggests this like when you’re doing books or like a collection of any kind like actually pull them all off your shelf yeah and then because it’s the act of like having to put it back on the Shelf having that one moment withholding the book like actually

Holding it that is going to help you really make up your mind about whether you actually care about this book or not totally yeah I always find that when I’m reorganizing my books is when I do my most of my purging so maybe that will help too like just even moving them

Around and then like that movement and the effort really makes you think like do I care about these it’s true it’s like I think she’s so right about the physicality of it she’s like you can look in a drawer and be like I think I need all that stuff yeah that’s not

Doing it like if you pull them all out and you actually have to physically put each thing back in that’s where your mind and the object connect is happening where you’re like okay actually I don’t need this third pair of scissors I don’t need this other copy of this and the

Other thing that she I couldn’t find it CU I don’t remember what page it was on but uh the other thing that she kind of mentioned that when I was rereading it that I really liked was she talked about how sometimes the the usefulness of an object was in the buying and the

Discarding like you were never supposed to read that book and it still fulfilled a purpose in your life like people feel like a lot of guilt about buying a book and not reading it MH but she was like no the purpose of that book wasn’t for

You to read it it was for you to have it and then realize you didn’t want to read it and I’m like that’s such a positive way to look at it and I think she’s right like you can own a book for a really long time and then realize wow I

Never read this and actually I don’t care about reading it anymore and she like she’s very specific about the way that she wants you to do things like she wants you to hold it and thank it and be like thank you for letting me know that

I didn’t want to read you and then donate it um but I think she’s right like I think you can spin that another way be like okay maybe these items did help me realize that I don’t like collecting books and actually just causes me anxiety and thank you to all

Of you for being here and like teaching me that um I also wrote down Ray that there’s a couple of things that might help here like uninstall Libby for a while like yeah like disconnect from other avenues of getting books disconnect from other avenues CU I think

Once you’ve done your honest Purge like a true and honest Purge then maybe uninstall the library app because maybe scrolling has just become a thing that you do and you don’t need to be cuz I feel that like I go on Facebook Marketplace and I just scroll and scroll

And scroll and like I love the hunt but I’m like what am I even looking for so I have to like physically just uninstall Facebook because otherwise I like keep going on it then the other thing is when you’re in a book shop take a photo of

The book put it in an album and think about it or if you are online and you’re always like book shopping on like some website that you use a lot just start a wish list and add things liberally to the wish list you will be amazed at how

That action of saving it taking a photo of adding to a wish list actually satiates that buying vibe that you had and then you actually don’t care about buying it that much yeah um and then the other thing I said was maybe find an accountability buddy like find someone

Who also doesn’t want to be buying books right now and just like it you can be like look at this cool book I didn’t I didn’t buy it but look at this cool book and then they can be like good job not buying it like that little cheerleader

Like when you and I do our no buy months and I’m like I really wanted to buy this and you’re like you don’t need that I’m like you’re right no you’re right so true speaking of which we should do that again next month yeah we should actually

Yeah we really need to do that let’s do that all right our next message is from Brena hey guys my name is Brena um I’d like to start by saying how much of a shock to the system it is anytime you guys mention Brena thumler because it’s

A rare enough name that I’ve never heard it spoken without it being spoken at me so all the times that you guys have said that you love Brena I want to just thank you so much but anyway that’s not where we’re here finding new hommes for books um I

Regularly clear out my shelves much like railin so I have no issues with figuring out what to get rid of we know how to get rid of [ __ ] but it’s where to take them after um I live in LA and they don’t do BuyBacks anymore at any of the

Bookstores around me after the pandemic and so I always just just kind of battle myself with myself on what is the least wasteful option where they might actually find a new home so is that thrift stores libraries little free libraries friends like I know that there

Are a lot of options but just kind of curious what you guys generally go toward first um because I feel like I fight with myself every single time I have a clear out so if you could help me not do that that’d be great thanks we love brenos on this podcast I know

We do our two Brena we love them all right what do you think bril well with this one I was like I had a very clear answer until near the end of the message when Brena says um that they don’t do BuyBacks at La bookstores anymore and that that’s fascinating that really

Scared me I was like what do you mean like how do they get more books first of all like used bookstores like I just I don’t understand that thought process I think that’s crazy um so that was going to be my answer but I have a few a few

Sub answers so I think that firstly Brena should try selling them on Facebook Marketplace because since this is basically your only option to potentially make money off of them you can like just price them really low if you want to like they can all be $2 each

Or $5 each if they’re like fancier books or you can sell them in bulk even like one time I had a pile of books that I just wanted to get rid of but they were kind of random and there was like 10 of them and I just put them up for $10 on

Facebook Marketplace and someone was like sure I’ll take those and it was like the strangest collection of books like none of them went together so they might have only wanted one of those books and it might have been worth it but yeah so I that’s my main recommendation because that could be a

Good way to like especially doing them in bulk is a good way to potentially get rid of them quickly and potentially make a couple bucks off of it at the same time but I think the next best option from that would be little free libraries if you do have them like brand did

Mention that in the message and I think that’s kind of a big thing in like LA and like you know there’s lots of people there so I’m sure there’s lots of little free libraries um but I can see there being a problem of them filling up too quickly if especially if you’re getting

Rid of a large amount of books at a time so I think that’s a good option but a backup option would be either a so you know those Book Sales that we always talk about that we’ve been going to for the past couple of years I wrote this

Down as well so where I where I am from they’re like they’re run by a rotary club I don’t know if that’s like who runs them everywhere so you’re going to have you’d have to look to see where you can give donations but for me like if

You just look up Rotary Club BC you’d be able to find it um and they just like take and then sell them at these giant Book Sales so I think that doing something like that is good because it is I think it’s charitable in some way I don’t

Really know what the Rotary Club does but I think they do good things with the money so I’ll hop in on this one just cuz I had I had also written this down in Halifax The Big Book Sales that happen twice a year are run by oh God I

Forget what it’s the Women’s Music society and they raise money for women in music and so they it’s a charity book sale and so it’s such a great place to donate your books um so yeah I agree with that one did you have any other ones yeah the final option is just like

Thrift stores are always a good place like as a last resort at least for me like I try to give like get money for them if I can if I can’t you know donate it to a charity shop and if not then you know whatever just like CU like Value

Village is the is the prime example like they’re always taking donations but they also have really high prices so I don’t like donating my books there because then whoever ends up buying them is paying way too much for them um but if you drop them off did you say Value

Village yeah yeah yeah they’re like Value vage Plus now it’s such an interesting scam because they’ve really made it seem like they’re a charity yeah but they’re not they’re a for-profit business and we just give them stuff to sell we could be selling ourselves and making the money for exct it’s very

Interesting crazy but yeah if you were to find you know a small charity shop that might be a better option cuz they’ll sell the books for like a dollar and they’re more accessible that way so I think that’s a way to do it but yeah any kind of like

Book sale thing I think is probably the the coolest way to do it y we’re on a similar page on this one as well railen I um at the end of brena’s message she kind of asked like what do we do so I I just wrote like my system so the First

Avenue I go to is friends I say uh railen look I have this picture of all these books I want to donate do you want any of them and I just message local friends I’m like do any of you guys want any of these that’s first because I

Would love to give books to my friends second is selling because you know you’ve made a bit of an investment into these books if you can get money out that’s the nicest possible way my favorite place to sell my books to is definitely my favorite used bookstores because they’ll give you store credit

Usually and then you can use that money to buy more books later on obviously this doesn’t really work for Brena who’s saying that there’s no BuyBacks left in going on in LA but for other people who might not not have thought about that then after the that’s really the only

Place I’ll try selling them back to is like used bookstores cuz Facebook Marketplace you’re totally right it would work I just I’m like I can’t be bothered pain in the ass it’s a pain and I live in such a rural place that I’m like there’s no one buying stuff here

Like I’d have to set it up for a Halifax pickup and oh my God yeah yeah nightmare so then the next thing I would do is donate them and exactly like you’re saying like I’ve written down try and find a book sale for a charity or find a

Food bank there’s a food bank near me that has a thrift store and like it’s a thrift store and all the money raised there goes to the local food bank and they s they take books so I would donate to them libraries that’s a give or take

Situation cuz I went to a library when I lived in BC to try and donate books and they were like we don’t take books I’ve never I’ve never heard of a library taking donations which is so interesting because when I looked it up online every website was like your local library

Would love to get your books no they and I’m like is that true is that like they have Book Sales like multiple times per year cuz they have so many things that they don’t need so it would be worth calling them though because what I think

Is while what I wrote down here is libraries may not take them but they might know where best to donate them to they might be like oh this is the best this is a local charity they’ll take your books from you or whatever so that might be good next one senior centers

And prisons this is very interesting but they do need books because they don’t have the budget to buy books or whatever but usually they need books so if you call a senior center and you’re like hi I’ve got some books would you are you guys interested in a donation or a

Prison or whatever like a place that is having a hard time funding stuff that could be a great option next option build your own tiny free library or just donate to local ones but I think that if you had your own one it would be it

Would just be such a fun project this is something that I’ve dreamed about doing for a long time like building a tiny Free Library installing it somewhere and then every time I don’t want a book just putting it in my own tiny Library I love that I’m obsessed with that idea that’s

So great um this is really interesting I was like searching I was searching for answers and somebody on Reddit I’ll link to the comment but somebody on Reddit explained that parrots love shredding paper and books and like people that own parrots are always looking for books that their

Birds can shred and so if your book is literally like falling apart yeah it’s basically trash that it’s basically trash then this would be a par do you know anyone with a parrot um and then the final option was like once I’ve tried donating them if I still have them

You can recycle books this is really interesting because I think people feel really really like books are so sacred that we can’t recycle them but I have had to recycle loads of books because for example arcs are usually not you’re not allowed to sell them or donate them

You have to just recycle them and so I’ve looked up like you have to tear the spine out because that glue is not recyclable but all the pages are super recyclable and I read the the I found this fact that just said if we recycled all of the printed newspapers in the

World we could save 250 million trees from being cut down like there is so much paper waste that is just sitting there because people are scared to recycle the books that no one is reading are just sitting there and so if you just have a bunch of books that aren’t

Really in great condition you don’t think anyone’s ever going to buy them if you donate them they’re just going to sit somewhere forever you could just recycle them um but you’d probably have to call your local recycling center to figure out the proper way to recycle

Them cu the glue in the spine that’s your tricky Factor right there I see I see very good lot of just some fun facts for you yeah par all righty so up next we have have this message from Valentine hi raing and Ariel my name is Valentine I live in the

Yukon and I want to make bookish friends but I don’t really know how I love consuming book content on YouTube and listening to books Unbound but I have been wanting to connect with people in real life who love reading and books as much as I do people with whom I could

Sit down have a cup of tea and talk about our reading life a little bit like you two do on this podcast actually I’ve tried joining book clubs in the past but I found that I don’t really like it because I usually ended up forcing myself to read books I was not that

Interested in um so if you have any tips or ideas on how to make bookish friends that would be fantastic thank you Valentine’s in the Yukon how cool is that very cool I’m obsessed with that all right this is a this is a cool one what do you

Think R what what were your what was your advice oh this one is kind of tough um but what I what I thought made the most sense and I know Valentine kind of mentioned like meeting people in real life so I have a couple of like different things so I first was thinking

Getting to be a part of online bookish communities that you like like for example our podcast and like getting involved in say the Discord of our podcast there are so many people in there who want to chat books so you it may not be like IRL like you’re sitting

Next to each other but you can like chat with these people you can you know do a video call but people have also met as we talked about recently in a mail room segment a couple of our patrons have actually met up and that’s so cool so

Like it is possible if you find a friend they might live totally somewhere else on I mean Ariel and I don’t live close together either we get to chat about books and we don’t live close to each other so it you can make it happen if you want to replicate what we’ve got

Going on here you can make it happen so that was kind of what I was thinking is first like just find bookish communities wherever that may be that like are interested in the same things that you’re interested in so that’s my first bit of advice but I was

Thinking if you want to actually like meet people naturally like in real life um where you live then I think what you need to do is just start like going to public places and reading just everywhere all over the place but then look for other people who are also

Reading and maybe if you become a regular at a certain place and you keep seeing the same people then maybe maybe you’ll feel comfortable striking up a conversation with them maybe if you see that they’re reading books that you’re interested in or you’ve read then you

Can just kind of make it happen you know I’m not like the type of person who would ever do this but maybe maybe Valentine is maybe Valentine is a go-getter extrovert so that’s that’s what I’m thinking like just insert yourself into more like bookish conversations I guess but you also have

To put yourself out there for that because then if you’re in a Coffee Shop Reading every Tuesday at a certain time or whatever other people might notice you too so it might kind of go both ways and um yeah I think just carrying a book around is like a good conversation

Starter no matter what I love this I love I had a moment the other day this is a little cheesy but I had a moment the other day where I felt shy which doesn’t I know it doesn’t happen to me very often I all the time I just felt really shy for so

Basically i’ gone to a meeting with the book Arts group people here in in Halifax yeah and I uh I it the whole thing was about popup books okay and I had taken a book to show MH they didn’t say that we should take books but like Everyone likes looking at books there

Because they’re book art people so I was like people are really going to like this book so I packed it and I had it there and I had it in a tote bag and I felt so shy I was like I don’t want to bring this book out I’m so embarrassed

Right now this is so cringe I’m like this is so I you know what nobody knows about the book so I don’t have to bring it out like it’s fine I felt really shy I was like not confident and then I was like what the hell am I talking about

Just do it no you can’t you can’t let shyness stop you from stuff just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it and I was like no that’s lame I can’t do that I can’t just be like I brought this book but I’m too shy I’m too

Embarrassed to show anyone no it’s a cool book and so I pulled it out and I was like hey Stephanie look at this book I brought I felt so awkward but she was like whoa what’s this and we started talking then Marilyn comes over and then

I showed it to Rhonda you know what I mean like the whole conversation started flowing and I was suddenly I wasn’t try people were like I’m glad you brought that book yeah right you just have to get over that hump got to get over the hump it might be hard it doesn’t mean

That it’s not going to be hard but it doesn’t mean that it’s not worth it and one moment of awkwardness can really be worth a longer term like win and so you might think God it’ be so awkward if I saw someone reading and I go up to them

When I say hi I see you’re reading I also love reading you might think that’s so awkward and what if they hate you you’ll get the vibe right away they’ll be like um I don’t want to talk and you’re like okay and you leave but you’ll find someone who wants to talk

Because they also want a bookish friend exactly there’s going to be someone out there you just have to search for them CU that’s the thing like just making friends in general as an adult is so hard like this is a thing that I hear all the time and I agree with like my

Friends are all met through work for the most part like most of my people it’s like I either worked with them at the bookstore or like you and I like we’re work buddies in a way like we met through our industry or whatever like whatever you want to call it it’s all

Like related to an activity that you do so if you’re you know if you are part of a roller skating Community I’m sure you’ve made lots of friends with your roller skating Pals and stuff like that like all of these things happen because you’ve done some kind of activity I

Can’t wait to be friends with the mini truck Community exactly you’re going to you’re going to meet so many interesting people when you start selling books at flea markets and stuff like I’m sure there will be regulars who you like never would have met these people but

They’re going to become your pals I bet because I’m so excited um okay so what I wrote down here was sometimes you have to be the starter there are often lots of people who want a thing but are a bit too busy or a bit too shy to be the ones

To start the thing but they would be down to attend the thing once somebody else has done a little bit of groundwork whether Maybe they just their job is a little too exhausting they or they’re just a little too shy to be the one to

Start it but they would be the ones to show up so sometimes it falls on us to be the starters um this very similar to what you were saying Ry and I I I was thinking like Valentine was willing to send our podcast a message you seem like

A selfstarter to me so here are some ideas I had number one get in touch with your local Bookshop or your local library they might already have a reading program what I have found like our reading club program what I have found is that libraries are really bad

At marketing because they don’t hire a marketing person because it’s run by the government so it’s not like they don’t have budget for marketing but because of that they’re like terrible at marketing stuff like I found out that my local library does all sorts of stuff I’ve

Lived here for three years and I had no idea because it’s only on their website I’m like who my library I’ve been a part of it since I was an actual child and I looked once a few years ago and I’m like oh they have a a knitting club that I

Can I know mine is a knitting club mine is a knitting club I’m like who told what but there’s no no posters around the library like you would never know no there’s no posters there’s no info there’s nothing and then like on the website it’s not even on the main page

It’s like in our hidden events page ridiculous anyways reach out to them they might already have something that’s going that you’re just not aware of similarly with your local Bookshop um your local Bookshop might be a great way to find people because people that like are going to bookshops usually I find

Are pretty cool so you might find some pretty cool people at your Bookshop same with your library like these are just hot spots right that’s true start another start a little Free Library join Brena start a little Free Library I think when you start a little Free

Library you could totally have like a little note on the inside of it that says if you read a book here let me know what you think and then put your Instagram handle or whatever like that would be a way to connect with people start a radio program now you might be

Thinking Ariel what the hell are you talking about my dad was my dad was stationed in the Yukon for a while when he was a training pilot and he started a radio program when he was there oh my God be like Ariel’s dad be like my dad

The coolest guy I know um and so when you said that you were from the Yukon I was like you could start a radio program in my in my brain everyone inuk can do radio that’s surely not right um but yeah so basically Al though I was like

You could though because in local communities they’re dying for someone to go on the radio so you could probably start like a on hour weekly radio show where you’re like reaching out to people basically I’m just trying to jig your brain into maybe there’s some little

Idea that Sparks of a way to get Incorporated um another my my kind of last idea that I I wrote here was start like something like a Yukon Readers Club Instagram where you just post about bookish stuff that’s going on in the Yukon um or in Yukon Territory

Because that often is a thing that pulls people together someone who’s organizing news and events like you’re suddenly the person who knows about everything you’re starting to meet people who are hosting stuff that might be the way and then finally I said if you do start one of

These let us know and we will promote it on our podcast if you start a radio program a reading club a literary Society let us know cuz yeah also mentioned we didn’t talk about this explicitly but Valentine mentioned like they don’t want to do a book club don’t

Do a book club you so many other ways you don’t need a book club yeah you don’t need that no um all right our next message is from Rachel hi Ariel and railen my name is Rachel and I’m calling from Washington DC my bookish problem is

That my favorite books bum me out I really love reading books about disgruntled Housewives and mothers who are at the end of their rope and their lives start taking crazy turns a lot of the books have a real or sci-fi twist once the lady really goes off the rails

I think the prototypical example is the yellow wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman but recent favorites include night [ __ ] by Rachel Yoder Mrs caliban by Rachel Engles and shuet by CLA etty it’s kind of a subg genre of the unsound women genre that you guys like the

Problem is is that even though I really love these books and they really resonate with me they also really bum me out and sort of make me spiral about my future as a woman I’m only 24 and I feel like my ideas of marriage and motherhood have been really biased by reading these

Books for like seven years I mean it’s not all that I read but you get the idea what should I do I don’t want to stop reading these books but I also don’t want them to ruin my day Rachel from Washington DC says my favorite books bum me

Out that was really sad to hear what do you think Ray the key is balance that’s what I have to say so I also like feel this way like about different types of books but I love reading stressful books you know I like reading things that are kind of

Stressful or that are like about unsound women just like going crazy doing crazy things or like you know crime like true crime documentaries and stuff like as far as like things I’m consuming I I also have that but you can’t just do it all the time because then it’ll bum you

Out so you just have to balance it out um so that’s the main part of my advice but my more specific advice is that maybe you should try finding some other books that are about marriage or motherhood but are a little bit more positive and like aren’t that kind of

Unhinged sci-fi weirdness um so maybe just finding some books that are kind of grounded in reality and are uh about you know real people and like the way you know maybe more normal more quote unquote normal relationships um and so I did have a couple of of recommendations

Um I haven’t read a ton of oh really great I also brought a stack so this is perfect I love that I uh forgot to bring them so I don’t have them in front of me but um I wanted to recommend the time travelers wife yes it’s sad and yes it

Does have sci-fi but it is very much about a loving relationship and like the trials and tribulations of of being married um I also wanted to recommend forever interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reed another one that’s kind of sad and like kind of different because this one they’re they’re all sad but maybe that’s

Better uh better than stressful and better than buming you up true but this one is interesting because it’s about a married couple who they get married and a week after they get married the husband dies so like they barely had a chance to be married so it’s very it’s an interesting

Situation Taylor Jenkins Reed is good for that um but then the final one I wanted to recommend is an American marriage by tari Jones that’s one I read a couple of years ago and it was so good like it is a bit stressful because that one is also about like a situation where

Something bad happens to the husband he gets incarcerated wrongfully and it’s just like a very stressful book but very beautifully written and like the characters feel very real and it’s I think about that book all the time actually I really to get my hands on a

Copy so yeah I feel like if you read some books that are just like a different vibe but are still about marriage like maybe it’ll make you spiral about your future a little less because you can see a different perspective yeah what do you I love that

I yeah I wrote this down because I found this really fascinating I I wrote down you can make your own Echo chamber and that means you have to be the one to yank yourself out I think it’s really interesting cuz like we talk all the all

The time about how on social media you can realize that you’re in an echo chamber like all the the platform is um pushing at you is people that think the same way as you and you get more and more and deeper and deeper into just hearing from people that agree with you

And suddenly you think everyone is that way and you lose the diversity of thought and opinion that exists in the real world and it’s like such a it’s a terrible way to live well you can do this Yourself by like only reading one type of thing or only watching one type

Of thing like suddenly you’ve created a little Echo chamber for yourself but the great thing is you have total control on pulling yourself out like it’s not unlike an algorithm which you have no control over this you have full control over so I wrote down the same thing you

Said raan I think non-fiction might be the solution real stories about real women who are cool and live neat lives because you’re right like um I was just thinking of Joe March where she’s just like women exactly um women are like it’s being a woman is hard because being a human is

Hard no matter what human you are you’re going to have trials and tribulations but when you read about really cool women doing really cool things I think that might be the antidote to this problem yeah that’s true so some of the ones I pulled out I loved my own two

Feet by Beverly clear the story of a young woman who wants to be a librarian and in a time when like going to college in the 30s for a woman was like a hard thing but she’s so positive and excited and eventually gets a real dream of

Becoming an author I pulled these two just as examples I haven’t read these as we know um the biography of Lucy M Montgomery um by Mary Henley Rubio and the one by about Agatha Christie by Lucy Worley these are both really cool important epic women who did really cool

Things and we can read all about their cool lives I did also pull some like fun books True Grit was such a fun book and part of the reason I loved it was because Maddie Ross the 14-year-old main character she’s such a badass and she’s so fun to read about and she’s like

Cooler than all the men around her um and then the Blue Castle by Lucy M Montgomery is a great novel about a 29-year-old woman who’s like realized she hates her life and she has to be the one to fix it and so she like pulls herself out of that hole by living the

Less she really wants to live those books I think would be the antidote to to this problem um I also found this book I haven’t read it and it had mixed reviews like some people seem to like be like this is my new favorite book some people were like

This is not great so you know just take it with a grain of salt here but I love the name of it who cooked the Last Supper women’s History of the World by Rosalind miles so basically like this going through a lot of human history and

Looking at all of the impacts that women have made in like places where they haven’t ever really gotten credit um I think sounds really really cool yeah so fingers crossed Rachel you got this I you Rachel said like I don’t want to stop reading these books but I also

Don’t want them to ruin my day I think maybe you do need to stop for a while I was think break take a little break take a break I think maybe like take a few months off read some other stuff I think it’s going to be okay good stuff all right our last

Message comes from Emily hello Ariel andryan um my name’s Emily I’ve been so stressed about admitting this but about a year ago I bought a Kindle basically my old Kindle from like 2012 died while I was on holiday and I had nothing to read and it was stressing me out so much

That I had nothing to read and I was about to go on this giant Road Troop that I bought a new Kindle um I regret it so much I wish I had bought a CBO but I didn’t know at the time the cbos were a thing I’d only ever heard of Kindles

And bad on me cuz I hate Amazon and I hate having to support Amazon with this Kindle and basically now I have this and I really enjoy reading on it I have a chronic illness that affects my like ability to hold big books so being able

To just hold a Kindle is really helpful and Kindles in Australia don’t have the option unfortunately to connect with our libraries I’ve Googled every which way I could possibly do it and it’s it’s just not an option I really don’t want to have to buy another cobbo because one expensive and

Two like the idea of like then this perfectly good e-reader is just sitting there being unused unstressed about this Kindle because I really really really like it but I really really really hate Amazon so I don’t know which they help place thank you okay really this is the one that

Really broke my brain I think this is really really fascinating before we we jump into it I wanted to mention something that’s just like a fun fact I actually pitched this as topic as my entire Master’s thesis when I was in my masters so when you’re in a Masters or

With a PhD I think you pitch your project beforehand but with my masters like you you get accepted to the program and then you have to pitch your your thesis project and I sat down with the directing supervisor and I was she was like what do you want to do and I was

Like I have two ideas the first one is I want to figure out if books are bad for the environment I want to look at whether like what actually what is it when we publish a book and we buy a book like what is the impact the environmental impact on paper on blah

Blah blah blah blah versus looking at e-readers are e-readers actually better for the environment are they worse for the environment and I was like cuz this is like a really fascinating topic but I couldn’t find very much information about it and so I feel like no one has

Like or like there’s studies that have been done but no one’s like pulled it together and been like this is what we know so I really wanted to do that the other idea was about Instagram poetry because I thought it was a very interesting topic and she said that

Because I was a YouTuber I should do the Instagram one so I did the Instagram one and it probably for the best but I I really am intrigued by this topic and haven’t for a really long time and so when I was listening to Emily’s message

I was like Emily you’re right it’s a Minefield out there um very very tricky so ran what did you think what did you write down for this one well first I thought that it was crazy that you can’t use the library for ebooks in Australia so my first suggestion was I don’t think

That it’s I think it’s only Kindles oh just Kindles it’s just Kindles just it’s just Amazon being evil and blocking libraries I was like May that was my first bit of advice maybe move to a different country check if New Zealand has different laws no I think that in

Canada too you can’t get the library on I’ve never thought about it CU I’ve always had a Cobo so I’ve never had to had to think about these things but that is that is wild it’s Amazon being evil yes so that really sucks that really sucks my answer and I think it’s not

Going to be maybe what you want to hear but but I think that you need to get rid of the Kindle because Emily has expressed so much regret and like it’s Soul crushing yeah exactly like it’s it’s ruining Emily’s day a little bit just hearkening back to the other the

Other one um it’s it’s bumming her out and ruining her day so I think that what you need to do is sell it and then use what money you get from that to put towards buying a Cobo so that’s like that’s option number one option number

Two would be to just stop using it for a while until maybe you can ask for a Cobo as a Christmas present or a birthday present and then maybe you could gift the Kindle to someone who already uses Amazon and won’t care um cuz yeah

Another thing I know I saw when I was kind of doing some research online um Amazon has like a Kindle buyback program but that’s only useful if you want to then use money to you know buy more stuff from Amazon like they give you a gift card but it’s for Amazon so it

Would only be useful if like if you’re some someone who actually wants to support Amazon but that’s interesting that is interesting though yeah so that’s like an option potentially but not a good option but so my main my main thought process is you need to get rid

Of it and get a new Cod but whatever way you do that um I’m thinking like maybe try to selling it on Facebook Marketplace or look locally and see if there’s any places that would like you know tech places that would give you money for it like maybe you could try

That and obviously you’ll lose a little bit of money and that’s just natural but I think like it one thing you don’t want to do is buy more Kindle eBooks right like I think that’s the main goal here is not to give Amazon more money so either you have to

Just stop using your e-reader completely just not use it or just read what you have on there only because you’ve already bought them or you need to get a new one or maybe start reading books on your phone like if you want to still be reading digitally maybe that’s a way you

Could do it because you can use Libby on your phone yeah but I think ultimately you just need to not buy any more books on the Kindle you know just cut that off and move forward whatever way you want to do that I am fascinated by this whole

Subject because it it it’s like a Sophie’s Choice situation on the one hand you’re being good to the environment but you’re supporting Amazon on the other hand you’re being ethical to publishing but you’re being bad to the environment so there’s a little bit

Of a of a it’s like a lose lose like you lose no matter what direction you turn in so knowing that is actually important I think both options you do lose something so you this this can’t be a full win there is no full win solution

So you got to just feel in your heart which one is going to make your life more manageable I think that you need an e-reader like it sounds like you love using an e-reader you said you have a chronic illness or or chronic pain I forget but you like you’re finding this

To be so much more useful I love my e-reader so I really get why you love your e-reader um so I think you need an e-reader I agree with that I think that this is an interesting case partly of taking too much responsibility for what an evil Corporation has done

Because it’s not your fault that you weren’t aware at the time that Amazon is so evil towards publishing towards books and towards authors and the fact that they have locked you into an Eco system that means the only way you can buy books is through their limited service

They won’t allow library books they won’t allow epubs to be dragged over they won’t allow you to read PDF files like they’re only letting you read books in one certain way it’s really not your fault and so I think that you should follow your heart on this one because

There’s no there’s no perfect win so I think the best that you can do is feel better for yourself and I think buying a Cobo and really using it or any other thing yeah like and really using that for its full lifespan will be better I have a couple

Of facts that I think will help you okay buying books in general isn’t very good for the environment I don’t think people want to hear this but I’m gonna have to tell you all about it unfortunately um the amount of paper that gets the amount of trees that get destroyed and

And forests that get leveled so that we can read paper is slightly devastating um like here’s a this is an interesting fact 20% of a book’s footprint is due to the car trip to purchase it the amount of time that you’re spending burning gas to get to your book shop because you

Want to buy a book or on Amazon the amount of gas gas that’s being spent by an Amazon delivery truck to get it to you that’s terrible for the environment it’s complet it’s like terrible this little thing that you’re going to go get because you want it right now it’s it’s

Really bad um it says 50% of the environmental footprint is due to the production of Pulp and Paper because of heat production and bleaching because we want paper to be white we don’t want it to be gray um and so but then when you look at e-readers they’re also terrible because they use

Like these really um minerals use minerals that you have to mine right so the truth is that just reading in general isn’t great nothing is great using a switch a Nintendo switch playing video games uh the leather that’s used in a sports ball the wood that and glass

That’s used in a in a frame everything that we do creates waste and so you can’t be perfect anyway so if you think about it this way no matter what way you turn it’s never going to be perfect whether you bought physical books um and

By the way there’s a boat at 20 to 50 book amount that you need to read for your e-reader to even out oh oh wow so if you read let’s say 30 if you read about 30 books I remember find like I

Had to do a bit of a pitch when I did my Master’s project so I I learned some facts but when you read about 30 books probably your e-reader has now done as much environmental impact as if You’ bought those as paperbacks oh okay and if it’s hard covers it’s less cuz hard

Covers are even more exhaustive on the interet on the environment so if you’ve read about 20ish 30ish books on your e-reader you can feel about as good as if you’d bought 30 books from the book shop okay so it’s like you it’s not like an e-reader is really bad and God I

Shouldn’t have even gotten into the ecosystem in the first place everyone who’s buying physical books is doing the exact same thing so here’s what I think would be the ultimate thing you could do to to absolve yourself of this problem figure out how to recycle your Kindle so if you want to completely

Remove it from the system like you feel bad selling it to someone cuz now they’re just going to go on and use it and you don’t want to gift it to someone because they’re going to go on and use Amazon go to your recycling center and

Figure out how to recycle it like you can rip the the case apart and put that in Plastics and the screen goes in this type of plastic and this the battery goes in this type of battery and reducing it to the smallest bits that you can and prop properly recycling it

Is the best thing I think that you can do that’s a good tip I’ve thought about this for a long time like I literally would have not thought of that at all I believe that that is your best bet because it will it will actually return

Some of that material back um making it not as much of a loss but I agree railen I think that what Emily needs to do is buy a new Cobo because at the end of the day it’s not going to make that big of an impact the truth is like I I felt

Really bad as I was listening to this message cuz I was like I feel this I really feel this and it’s so awful that like the consumers I think we have some responsibility but the consumers have almost all of the responsibility put on us to we have to be perfect and know

What everything is doing whereas why isn’t Amazon being held responsible for all of the awful stuff that they do so I think ultimately get rid of the Kindle get it out of there get it out of there because reading should be fun and happy correct course think about it this way

Too this was the other idea I had how long were you going to use that Kindle for 5 years 10 years say it was 5 years just get a Cobo that’s going to last you 10 years and then it would have doubled out anyways yeah thank you very good very good very

Good all right we are going to go record our patreon mini podcast or the movie tub where we talk about the movies and things that we’ve been watching thank you all so much for watching this episode and we hope you’re doing well and we’ll talk to you next week bye Bye

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