The Lazy Genius Podcast - #141 - What to Read This Winter

Episode Date: January 20, 2020

I know that so many of you folks who listen to this podcast love to read. You love books and more books and finding more ways to get more books into your life. In today’s episode, we’ll create a quick and easy path to figuring out what to read this winter if that’s on your radar and how to make the most of your reading minutes over the next couple of months. Helpful Companion Links Here’s my winter stack if you need to see my titles in black and white pixels. I take this seasonal approach to meal planning as well. You can hear all about it in Time to Make Your Winter Dinner Queue. My completely digital, downloadable short ebook The Swap is available through the end of the month. This episode covers the books I plan to read, but I share what I think of books I have read in my monthly newsletter, The Latest Lazy Letter. You can get on that list here. You can finder older reading stack blog posts here: Fall Reading Stack, Summer Stack, and Special Edition Stack: Kids. Follow me on Instagram @thelazygenius and share your own winter reading stack using #winterstack2020. Download a transcript of this episode.   This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everyone. You're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 141, What to Read this winter. I know that so many of you folks who listen to this podcast love to read. You love books and more books and finding more ways to get more books into your life. I tend to approach my reading life kind of like a I do dinner. You might have heard last week's episode number 140 about creating a winter dinner queue. I respond so well to thinking in terms of seasons. My brain is too naturally caffeinated and likes to plan and figure things out and sometimes things can go a little crazy. So it really helps to look at major categories in my life and make decisions based on the season I'm in. And then I do it again when the next season comes. We did that last week with figuring out what's for dinner, and we'll do it this week with our reading. We are going to create a quick and easy path to figuring out what to read this winter, if that is on your radar, and if you want to make the most of your reading minutes over the

next couple of months. Before we do that, quick announcement, the swap is back. The swap is a completely digital, downloadable short ebook. I wrote a while back on how to declutter, like a lazy genius. The description of the swap is actually the lazy genius guide to decluttering for life. When the year started, I got a lot of emails and DMs asking, is the swap coming back? I need to declutter. I think we all get those January jitters, as I like to call them, wanting to calm our space and clean our stuff. And sadly, what often happens is we get all gung ho and we grab like a giant black trash bag and just relentless. attack our stuff. So many things get thrown out just because we're over it. Or we pull everything out

of every closet and every drawer and we start putting stuff in piles and trying to organize it. And then we lose steam and we're just stuck with rooms that are covered in piles. There is a different way, I promise. So if you want that different way, if you want a clear path through your stuff, check out the swap. It is available through the end of the month. And there's a link in the show notes. are interested. Okay, let's talk about a reading this winter. I am all for the approach of just like grabbing the next book when you finish the last one. You might be in a really good reading rhythm and don't see the need to change it at all and that's fine. But here's why I am being a bit more intentional than that for myself and you might feel the same. First, reading itself matters

so much to me and likely to you as well. It's fun. It's educational. It's inspiring. It's like stories and imagination. It's all the things, right? Reading is great. And because reading is great, I want to give it not just the time I think it deserves and I want it to have, but I also want to give it some direction so that I don't forget how important it is and it actually like takes me somewhere. If you subscribe to the latest lazy letter, which goes out every month, you can sign up for that by clicking on the link in the show notes or you can go to the lazy genius collective.com slash join. But I've talked a lot in recent months about being in a reading rut. I mentioned in an episode, I think, a few months ago when I talked about my fall reading plans,

which let's revisit that real quick. My three goals for my fall reading were to read what I want, to read when I want to read it, which I very much did, to take a break from my library because my at-home reading stack, it just kept getting interrupted and I kept losing momentum. I mostly did that. The only two books I got in the entirety of the fall from the library were ones that like were long holds, you know, which I was not going to give that up. Otherwise, I just pulled from my own shelves, which was great. And then the third goal I had in the fall was to not worry about reading a certain number of books. Because I like to share book recommendations with you all in that latest lazy letter, I sometimes put a needed pressure on myself to read a lot.

And I don't need to do that. Like it's okay. It's okay. Okay. I also had a list of seven books I wanted to read in the fall. I read four. I quit one because I just couldn't get into it. And I did not read the other two yet. They're still on my shelf though and we'll likely find their right time eventually. So setting those goals and making a list of books that fit the goals, making a seasonal book stack in the fall, it really helped me be intentional about something that matters like reading. So what about this winter? and what can this mean for you and your reading? Just like we talked about last week with our dinner queue, think about the season you're in and how you want your reading to serve you in this season. What do you want it to do for you? It could be an escape.

You might want to learn about a certain topic or a time in history. Maybe you're wanting to reread something beloved in these likely slower, quieter months. It so helps to just name. something simple that you want your reading to do for you in this season and then choose books that serve that purpose. It's really simple, so simple it almost feels stupid to say, but the simplest things, as we know, are so often the most impactful. We think it's just inconsequential,

which is why we're like, why are we even thinking about this? Like, why are we even taking the time? I'm just going to read. And you totally can. But my reading is more enjoyable when I name what I want to do, what I wanted to do for me in the season I'm in. So if you've never tried that, maybe now is a good chance to. Okay, so what do I want my reading to do for me these next couple of months? Two things. One, I want to be immersed. You might remember two episodes ago when I talked about my time in the winter, episode 139. One of the things that I'm doing this season in planning my time is not being on Instagram as much. Not because of some life altering Instagram as bad reason, but because I know that I'm going to be on it a lot in the

spring and summer when I'm telling you all about my book that is coming out. So I'm going to enjoy this season where my internet obligations are like a little slower and a little smaller. So therefore, I want to fill that time with reading, right? And if the reading is immersive and something that pulls me in and offers me another amazing world to escape into, I am all for that. This is the season for that. So I'm going to choose fiction that matches that. The other goal I have for this season in regards to my nonfiction is to learn things that will benefit both my business and my soul in the second half of the year when I'm in book launch mode. So I am choosing some books that can help me share the message of the book well, but they can also help me like name things within me that I don't

want to forget when life becomes busy. Extremely busy probably. I am also including in my list Bill Bryson because I just love his writing and I want to read it. So, you know, but we'll get to that in a second. So those are my two very simple goals or purposes if you don't want to use the word goals of my reading this season. Now, it's not, it's not on purpose that I have one purpose for fiction and one for nonfiction. But if that particular rubric kind of helps you in naming purposes for your own reading because it's just simple, then do that. There are no rules here. Just ask yourself how you want your reading to serve you in this upcoming season. I have my list, my seasonal stack. It's on the blog. I'll put a link in the show notes, but I will quickly run through what I've chosen and why.

But you don't have to write it down because it's on the blog. Okay, so for fiction, I have nine books. The first two are from a trilogy that I mentioned in the latest lazy letter. It is the Seithe trilogy by Neil Schusterman. I just got the second book from the library and I will definitely get the third point very soon. It is a, you know, it's a dystopian situation where all of the world's knowledge that was stored in the cloud like coalesced into a consciousness called the Thunderhead. It solved all the world's problems. There's like no poverty or natural disasters. The ozone's back to normal, like all these things. The only problem is overpopulation because people don't die anymore. So the big computer in the sky figured out how to beat death, but people are still having kids. So

there is a group of chosen people called Scythes that are responsible for gleaning the population. And they just kill people to keep the population in check. It's bonkers. It's so good. I love it so much. So that trilogy is like top of my list this season. Super immersive. I always have grabbed it when I was reading the first one and now that I've got the second from the library. Aw, isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life. Whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Next is The Starless Sea by Aaron Morgan Stern. She's the author of one of my favorite books

ever, The Night Circus, and my beloved friend and someone you should be following on Instagram, by the way, Aaron H. Moon. She sent it to me as like a really nice present. She heard that I was like really deep down on the library waiting list. And she just sent me the book. It was so sweet. But that one is for sure happening soon. I cannot wait to read that. The fourth book is called the Cloven Viscount. Okay. Now this is a book. I don't even know like even where it's sold. I hope it's sold where you are. I got it at my local independent bookstore. And it is so weird and awesome. I'm like a little ways into it. It's it's very macabre. And it's very macabre. dark. It's about a guy who goes to war and gets cut in half, like straight down the middle.

And one side is evil and the other is good. And both sides fall in love with the same woman. So it's like really strange. I've had it on my shelf for a while. I picked it up a couple of weeks ago and then I got like two library holds in and so it got shelved again. But it's super short. It's so weird and interesting. And I'm really excited to finish that. The fifth fiction book is the next Ton of French book, Broken Harbor. I love Tonof. Friend. I know that this book, it doesn't get the same raves as some of her others, but I trust her. I love the world that she has built with this, you know, Irish police force or whatever. And mysteries are always something that I want to go back to, so I'm excited about that one.

Speaking of mysteries, I'm also putting on the stack, Hush, Hush by Laura Lipman. I've never read any Laura Lipman, but I feel like I'll really like her. The description on the back of this book is about some lady who, like, commits a crime and then pleads insanity and then has like a documentary made about her or something but she's like maybe actually a master manipulator i don't know it sounds great i love that kind of thing so that's on the stack three more the 13th tale by diane setterfield i read her book once upon a river last year i really loved it the story was a little slower um some of you actually um contacted me about that when they were like i'm surprised you usually like like really plot heavy things and this story was slower

that is true. But she just has a vibe that I'm so into. The writing feels like walking through fog and darkness. And it is just so great and experiential. I really enjoyed her writing. And I own the 13th tale, so I'm just going to try it out. Big Little Lies is another one. I've seen the series. I've read several books by Leanne Moriarty and I loved every single one. So I really want to read this, even though I know the story. This is the one I am a little skeptical about just because I have seen the series and I know the story. But I think that if I give it like two chapters, I'm going to be in because I love her writing.

So I'm just going to commit to giving it two chapters and I'll probably finish it. But it is enormous. And then the final fiction pick that will actually be saved for the transition from winter to spring is Jaber Crow by Wendell Berry, which has been on several stacks so far. I have yet to pick it up. I think, though, that reading it before a busy season, it will be such a gift. It feels like the right time. It's not like the usual fiction I go for. It's actually not immersive in the way that I usually like to read. But I love his writing. And I think a slower like human story will be a great thing to start a busy season. Okay, for nonfiction. And again, I'm choosing books that are hopefully going to help me in like moving into this this next book launch season. reason. So I've chosen six books, one of which I'm reading right now, The Body by Bill Bryson.

So Bill Bryson is my new writing idol. I had never read him before, but he somehow is teaching me about the digestive system and brain cells and making me laugh and keeping me interested. And it's kind of remarkable. I want to be the kind of writer that teaches kind of wrote dry things in a new way. And he is basically the master at that, which is by the second book on my nonfiction list, which is also on my shelf, which is fantastic. Is his other masterpiece a short history of nearly everything? I do not do history. I don't like it. My brain does not like looking back, but I want to, you know, I want to be the kind of person who knows what the Spanish-American war was. Wasn't there a Spanish-American war? I want to understand like sinking ships and wars and

movements and revolutions and all those things. And if anybody is going to make me like it, it's Bill Bryson. So both of those picks are really less about like the specific purpose of helping me in the season and more learning, not just like the information in the books, which is highly interesting, but learning the craft of writing better by reading his writing. He's just brilliant. Okay, so the other four nonfiction picks will hopefully do what I, you know, need them to do. I am going to read, This Is Marketing by Seth Godin, before embarking, on lots of book marketing. I'm going to read The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer to help me eliminate the hurry before my actual calendar hurry begins because it's going to.

I'm going to read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin because I really love to hear and learn about other people's experiences and finding what makes them feel like a person. It gives me more language to name that for myself, especially again, going into a season that will likely be busier and more stressful than the one that I am in now. And then finally, I'm going to read Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee. It's a book about creating joy in your spaces and your interactions and your life. And I'm all about that. It feels like it will go really well with one of my favorite books from 2019 called The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. I love environments and bringing people together in intentional environments. The art of gathering is obviously about gathering. And then joyful,

I think is going to be a bit more like boots on the ground and how to create joyful spaces for those gatherings. I'm super, super excited about that one. I love joy. Joy is great. So those are my books. That's what I'm going to reach for this winter because I want to be immersed and I want to learn some things that will benefit both my schedule and my soul in the spring and summer. So for you, As you move forward from this episode, how do you want your reading to serve you in this season? Name it and then choose a book or 12 that match that purpose. Again, I will have the list on the blog. I will likely have a picture of my stack on Instagram at The Lazy Genius.

So if you want to leave some book ideas or show me your own stack and everyone else, your own stack, you can leave a comment on the blog post or you can tag. or you can tag me on your Instagram post and use the hashtag winter stack 2020. That way we can see what we're all reading. We can all click on each other's winter stack 2020. I love talking about books. Thank you for listening to me talk about books. And I hope it gets you excited to read and choose your books this winter.

Okay. That's it for today. Don't forget about the swap. It's available to buy for a couple more weeks. and I will not be doing an Instagram live this Thursday because I will be out of town. But I'm going to be with the likes of Jamie B. Golden, B. G. Gricoy, and Laura Tremaine. So I'm not promising Instagram content while I'm with them, but there is a chance of some shenanigans. So be sure you're following me at The Leazy Genius on Instagram and follow them.

They are seriously some of my favorite follows on the internet, truly, truly delightful humans that share are such helpful and funny and enriching. That's the word. They enrich your life in their own ways. So go follow them. I'll put links to their accounts in the show notes too. Okay, thanks for listening. Now go make your winter stack. I'm so excited to see it. Until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra and I'll see you next week. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that more dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called

Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.