Caroline: Hello, and welcome to Shedunnit, the podcast that unravels the mysteries behind classic detective stories. I’m Caroline Crampton, and today I’m going to be taking you behind the scenes a little bit of the making of this show.
Whenever I chat to Shedunnit listeners online or meet you out in the real world, one of the most common topics to come up is research and reading. People really seem to like that I put a lot of effort into exploring the backstories of the authors and novels I discuss on the show, and I love doing it. But keeping up a high standard of research for a podcast that comes out every two weeks can be a lot of effort. And I do have to be very organised and deliberate about the way I read to make sure I get through everything I need to.
And I have help. My production assistant Leandra Griffith does an awful lot of the work of tracking down and reading obscure stories and novels, as well as organising all the information we find. She also has a highly evolved reading process. So I thought today we would share with you some of our reading habits and plans, as well as our highs and lows from the last year of reading and the things we’re looking forward to in the next year. I hope our conversation gives you a bit of an insight into what goes into the making of Shedunnit, and perhaps provides you with a book to check out, or a tip to try.
Let’s start with the bad bit, Leandra. What would you say is the worst book that you read in 2023?
Leandra: I am fortunate that it’s not going to be something from the Golden Age, but it is one that I was very much anticipating.
So it is a bit bittersweet to know that I had high hopes for this one. And maybe that’s why my rating of it is so low. This one, it was a historical mystery. It was called Death and the Sisters by Heather Redmond.
Just came out in 2023. So, yes, very anticipated, brand new release. And the reason why I was really excited for it was because it was a mystery retelling. We see this quite a bit featuring authors or well -known characters. This one in particular is following Mary Shelley. And I loved the premise of that. It might be a bit darker than people anticipate as far as their cosier historical mysteries go. So I was thinking that there would be thriller elements mixed in, maybe a bit of horror because of Mary Shelley being our primary amateur sleuth. And the mystery itself wasn’t super impressive.
I could not get past the fact that the author elected to start Mary Shelley’s career when she was 16 years old and was beginning her romance with Percy Shelley, who was an older man at the time, which of course understanding how time works this wasn’t viewed as an appropriate back then but as a reader who is in 2023–now in 2024–I kept seeing their romantic you know minglings as just icky and I couldn’t get past it. And so for me, it just distracted from everything else beyond the fact that the mystery wasn’t well plotted in its complexities. There was the reveal at the end. I personally like it when a mystery gives us enough where it’s not obvious, but we feel accomplished if we are right in who the culprit is. This one was too obscure and then when the reveal happened, I thought there is no way we would be allowed to know this.
I don’t feel fooled by the, you know, clever author. I feel as though the rug has been pulled out from under me, if that makes sense.
Caroline: Yeah, that sounds very dissatisfactory. And I agree, my ears pricked up when you said historical mystery starring Mary Shelley as a detective. Great premise. Unfortunately, not executed as you’d hoped.
Leandra: Yeah. How about you? What was your worst?
Caroline: So mine was one of the British Library crime classics series, which I’m sure lots of Shedunnit listeners will be familiar with. This is actually their 10th anniversary year, 2024. They’ve been going for 10 whole years. And I think this was one of their earlier publications. It’s called Murder of a Lady by Anthony Wynne, first published in 1931.
And this really infuriated me, this book. It’s set in a remote Scottish castle, and I didn’t feel like the Scotland of this book was very well realised. It felt a bit almost theme park highlands, as opposed to accurate. And it’s a locked room mystery, a very classic locked room mystery, in which someone is found dead inside a locked tower room. No clear way how anyone can have got in and out, also no clear way that they could have killed themselves. And yet there they are dead. So very, very classic impossible crime set up.
But I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who does want to try this book. I personally found the solution quite obvious and dissatisfactory, and then some of the surrounding hijinks involving midnight boat trips on a lock and so on, I found very irritating. So overall, a book like yours, I think, that failed on several aspects for me, its setting was irritating. The actual mystery was frustrating and quite obvious, I felt. And overall, there weren’t even any redeeming subplots or anything that I could latch onto and go, “Well, at least I’ve really enjoyed this character.” It didn’t have anything like that.
So, sorry, Anthony Wynne, Murder of a Lady. Not for me.
Leandra: Yeah, it seems as though we each had the problem of entering a book that had a great premise. It had certain elements that intrigued us that really should have added up to being a great plot. And that’s quite disappointing. I think it’s more disappointing when you’re excited by certain elements saying, Oh, this is such a great idea. I can’t wait to see this author execute x, y, and z. And when they don’t, the downfall is worse than if it was a book we were like, “Eh, I’m sure it’s going to be entertaining. I won’t think much about it.” And we’re just not as disappointed if it does fall short.
But your plot ended up being too simplistic and mine, my author, I would argue, was trying to make it more complex than it was to the point where things just didn’t add up.
So yeah, it just shows that there’s a spectrum of reasons why a mystery might not be great.
Caroline: That’s such an interesting point as well about expectations in reading, because I think we probably overpraise books where we go in with low expectations and have them exceeded.
And perhaps I’m overly critical of a book where I go in with high expectations and the book doesn’t live up to them. So yes, I think perhaps it’s always worth bearing in mind the way expectations might be influencing your reaction.
But it doesn’t change the fact ultimately that we didn’t enjoy these books.
Leandra: Exactly. And it doesn’t devalue our feelings about it. We’re allowed to dislike books, we’re allowed to provide subjectivity, because what is reading but not subjective all the time?
Caroline: Exactly, yes. So other people might enjoy these books, and good luck to you if you do. Let’s turn to more positive reflections on last year.
What was the best mystery you read last year, do you think?
Leandra: Now this is going to go along the same vein of a book where I entered it without any expectations. So I think we’re on to something here. It was The Birthday Murder by Lange Lewis. So I ended up receiving this book in my subscription to the Mysterious Bookshop. I get a book every single month that is published by Penzler Classics because they are on the mission to republish editions that may have been out of print for decades at times, if not since the first publication. So it’s very exciting for me. And I had never read anything by Lange Lewis before. Her nom de plume is Lange Lewis. Her actual name is Jane de Lange Lewis, if I am getting that information correctly.
This mystery is published in 1945. It follows Inspector Tuck. But it is interesting in the fact where I think the reason why I like it so much is because we don’t see the detective as often. We have seen this quite a bit in the past year with the book club specifically, books that we’ve picked up where the inspector kind of takes a backseat at times and other characters bloom on the page.
For instance, we had Murder After Christmas. We see this with Dorothy Bowers at times as well, the inspector not being the star of the show, but being an additional character who’s trying to figure things out.
And I actually really enjoyed this.
Caroline: These being all books that we read in the Shedunnit Book Club in 2023, by the way, for those of you who aren’t members yet and don’t know.
Leandra: Yes. Thank you, Caroline. I always forget because I’m typically on the book club extra bonus episode content. So for those of you who aren’t a part of it, this is a shameless plug that maybe you should join. It’s a fun time. But back to the actual topic of the episode.
So The Birthday Murder, published in 1945, follows this woman, Victoria Jason. And it’s a bibliomystery for those who enjoy that element. She is a writer and her husband ends up dying of mysterious circumstances. He’s poisoned. And it turns out that he is murdered in the same way that her book had the murder occur. And so they’re wondering, did she do it? If not, who was targeting him?
Why would they target him and do it in the way they would point to her? I just found myself really enjoying her strong woman character, the fact that she is a non-traditional main character as far as the other women in the book. And I also have to admit that I’ve found a trend where the 1940s is my sweet spot, both for British and American detective fiction. I think that that’s my decade.
I just always really enjoy that specific decade, not that, you know, later or earlier crime fiction isn’t also super enjoyable, but I always end up looking at the publication date and realizing that it was published in the 40s.
Caroline: That’s fascinating. So it’s the right balance of, I don’t know, social progress for you, perhaps. Gender balance, racial balance, all that kind of stuff. You’re less likely to encounter unpleasant jolts than you are a bit earlier maybe. It’s starting to feel more modern.
Leandra: Yes, exactly. And the genre itself has been sharpened. People have tested different tropes, realized what they enjoy. And many of my favorite writers happen to be the women writers of that time, especially in when it comes to American detective fiction. And so we are seeing that gender rebalancing between the world wars or after World War II. And I just, yeah, I really like how I don’t have to worry too much about certain depictions, whereas we get it at times. But I feel as though I can trust the authors a bit more to have not aged super poorly.
Caroline: Now, I’m very intrigued by the concept of that mystery. I think I’ll be putting that on my list for this year. That sounds really interesting.
Leandra: I recommend it. I think you’ll enjoy it. And so what ends up being your favourite of 2023?
Caroline: This was a clear winner for me. It was not hard to think of this. And it was Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson. They were both Detection Club members.
This book was from 1928 and they co-wrote three novels together, this being the first. Sir John Samaras is an actor manager in the mode of David Garrick, who was famous in the London stage in the beginning of the 20th century. He’s this larger-than-life personality. He gives these heartbreaking performances of classic plays on stage, but he also is highly respected as a playwright and a manager of a company. And he tours very extensively. So this mystery is set among his theatrical company when they’re out in the provinces on tour, and a death occurs while they’re out on the road. Like a lot of theatre mysteries you get that immediate closed circle of just the cast who travel together and they have all their petty rivalries and difficulties and personal conflicts, but they also have to go on stage and you know pretend to laugh and die and sing every single night.
And I just thought it was so well done, and a bit like yours you have, so John’s not a predating amateur detective. You know, this is the first time he stepped into that role. And so you get to see his hangups and difficulties and his wild overconfidence as the successful actor thinking, “Oh, I can just do anything. I can turn my hand to this too.” And again, I don’t want to spoil this, although I will say this book is really hard to get hold of. It’s one that hasn’t been reprinted yet, as far as I can tell, ever since 1928. So you need to find a copy from 1928 to be able to read it. And it doesn’t seem to be digitized anywhere either in any of the usual places.
I was really lucky to be able to read it in the library. But unless you can do that, it’s really hard to find. Sorry about that.
Leandra: Oh my goodness. Yeah, it sounds lovely. And I’m so sad that it hasn’t been republished republished…yet. Right? That’s the key word: yet. Those listening, if you can make any connections for us, that’d be great. I actually have never even heard of that title before. So I’m intrigued, and I’m worried that it’s probably even more obscure in the United States. So I don’t know if I’ll ever get my hands on.
Caroline: Possibly, yes.
Leandra: Yeah. But I’ll be keeping an eye out in my secondhand bookshop because you never know. Things could happen. Hidden treasures.
Caroline: You never know. I only came to it because I was looking at the list of the original Detection Club members when it started in 1930 -31. And I saw that Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson were on it, but I wasn’t really aware of their detective fiction. So I went looking for it and discovered that they both barely wrote any and the stuff that they did write, they wrote together. And it was these two they did two Sir John novels, Enter Sir John and Re-enter Sir John, and one other non-Sir John novel, which I haven’t been able to track down yet. So I don’t really know what the premise of that, but they did them very quickly. I think it’s like 1928, 29, 30. And then they were invited into the Detection Club. And I don’t think either of them wrote any crime fiction after that.
So there must be a story there that I’d be interested to know. But yes, very interesting. And also that they were a partnership, but they were a partnership of friends. I think a lot of the co-writers that I’ve looked at so far have been couples.
Leandra: Yeah, I was going to say, I love how they possibly thought, “Well, you know, we’ve made the detection club. Don’t need to do anything else. We’ve reached the top of the top. On to new things.” And I was about to ask what their relationship was if you knew it because I am so fascinated by duo writers, those who write together.
We’ve talked about that on the podcast quite a few times as well. And that leads us into our next question, which involves authors that we’re really excited to try this coming year.
And one that I have actually is a duo. And I have a stack of books to my left unintentionally. So, this is just perfect timing. And it involves Richard and Frances Lockridge.
So this is another couple, but they’re American and they’re married. And they had an entire series that was the Mr. and Mrs. North mystery series. So interestingly, not only are they a duo writing team, but they then had a duo sleuthing team as a married couple, which I just I very much enjoy that mirror image. I find it very funny when authors tend to do that. And so that’s that’s one of many, I suppose, author opportunities that I’m hoping to have in 2024. We’ll see if I can get to them.
I own them, so you’d think it shouldn’t be hard for me to pick them up. But of course, my eyes wander, and there are so many different opportunities to try to pick up at different times. And I know it might sound like a surprise, or not a surprise to those listening, but because we’ve run a podcast that involves certain episode topics and themes, we are a bit dictated in our reading choices at times. It isn’t as easy as it sounds to just pick up an author on a whim at times. And I don’t know if you can add to that Caroline or just move on and let us know what author or authors you’re interested in.
Caroline: Yes. I think you make an excellent point that one of the downsides of turning your passion for it particular kind of book into something you also work on is that you end up being very scheduled with your reading. And so we have the 12 books a year that the Shedunnit Book Club reads, which we read ahead of time so that we can make bonus episodes about them. And then we also have books that we’re reading and researching for upcoming main episodes of the podcast.
And this actually connects into an author. I’m excited to try this year because something that that I want to do with Shedunnit this year. And I hope this is something that listeners are going to be excited about. I think I’ve heard from plenty of you that you do like it when we do this. I want to do more episodes that are devoted to what we might call lesser known writers. I think we’re at this wonderful point in publishing where all of the what we might call major writers have either been in print the whole time like Agatha Christie or have been recently reissued like Penguin have just done these beautiful Josephine Tey editions with new introductions and stuff.
And so publishers are now looking further than that. There’s so much enthusiasm. People are buying these books. And so other writers who were maybe popular in their day, maybe a bit less popular are also now being brought into ready availability. And so I feel like the time is perfect for doing episodes that focus on these less well-known books in the hope that people can broaden their reading, discover more things they like, etc. And so one of several that I’m interested to focus on this year is Rudolph Fisher, who is a Black American writer who is generally known as, I think he’s called the best short story writer of the Harlem Renaissance. And he wrote two detective novels in the late 20s,
early 30s, The Conjure-Man Dies and The Walls of Jericho. And I’m really excited to read these, both because I’d never heard of him before. I’d never, you know, British school system being what it is, there isn’t a huge amount of American literature you get to read. And I just had no idea that he was out there. He’s been recently republished, but also because the blurbs on these books are incredible.
So many people are saying incredible things about them that, I mean, maybe I need to tampen down my expectations because they are currently riding very high for Rudolph Fisher. But anyway, I’m excited to try out his detective fiction and also learn a bit more about his life.
Leandra: Yeah, I have to say that I also don’t know much about him as someone who grew up and was a part of the American educational system. So I feel as though that could be a failing on our part as well. So I look forward to you reading him, talking about him on an episode, and then getting me excited to try him as well.
Caroline: So we touched on this a little bit already, the way that being part of a podcast dictates the way that you read. And I think we’re both people who like to be very intentional about how we read.
That’s partly required when you do this a bit as your job. But is there a change that you’re going to make to your reading life this year? Something new that you’re going to try, or something that you’re not going to do anymore?
Leandra: Yes. So I have in the last year so become very comfortable with reading multiple books at multiple times across various formats. I’ll have an e -book going in a physical book and an audiobook. I might be immersive reading something. Actually the latter format has really fascinated me in the last year: immersive reading. So having the physical book and pairing it with the audio at the same time, I feel as though I’m in a movie with subtitles, because I’m able to read the words while listening to someone, especially if you have a full cast of characters. We unfortunately don’t see that very often in detective fiction. I feel as though there isn’t enough interest at the moment in doing that.
But when I’ve read other books that have a different actor for every single narrative focus, different POVs, I absolutely adore that.
And I feel as though it helps me focus a bit more. And so I think I’m going to try when possible to read especially books for the podcast in an immersive setting where I have the physical book and I have the audio and then it allows me as well to take notes a bit more easily as I’m reading because I can allow a paragraph to go by as I’m listening to it and taking notes rather than always having to set the book down and then taking a note and then opening the book again. I also am hoping to have potentially a book on the go all the time that could benefit the podcast.
I like to kind of blend business and pleasure. So I’m always really reading a detective fiction novel anyway, but something intentional that I think could add to the podcast or add to my knowledge.
Because if we’re going to be honest, I felt as though I was all right in knowing about the ins and outs of detective fiction before I started working for Shedunnit. And now with every passing day, I feel as though I know less and less because the world of my oyster. There are so many authors that we’re discovering all the time, which is lovely. But that also makes me want to have a little bit of a taste test of all of them, which can be overwhelming. So I think just taking it author at a time and making sure that I’m introducing myself to more new authors this year than I did last year, that’s one goal that I have.
Caroline: I’m fascinated by this concept of immersive reading, which is totally new to me. I’ve not heard of this at all. So just to make sure I understand it right, so you’re sitting there in your chair, you’re reading the physical book, and you’ve got the unabridged audiobook of the book playing at the same time.
Do you adjust the speed of the audiobook to fit your reading pace?
Leandra: Oh yes. This is a big discussion in the audiobook world of my friends, and all of them this past year have basically called me a baby listener because at first it was really hard for me to speed up audiobooks. I was like, this is- especially because I have friends who speed it up by two times or three times speed.
Caroline: Oh, wow.
Leandra: And I don’t understand how they function because I feel like it would make my heart start to beat faster because all the characters are talking faster and I would be overwhelmed.
I would not know what’s happening. I would have to be cleaning at the same time at two times speed, which I don’t do. So, what I will do, though, when I have the physical book, I do feel a bit more comfortable having the audiobook going faster because we do read at a certain pace faster than what someone would read an audiobook at normal speed.
Usually I will pick it up to maybe 1 .5, potentially 1 .75. And it’s not as overwhelming because I have the physical book in front of me. And it’s very enjoyable. I find it almost a luxurious form of reading, even though reading in it’s to an extent is a luxury. We enjoy it. It’s a passion, a hobby of ours. But having someone read it to us. I think oftentimes we also relate it to the idea of when was the last time someone read a book to you? When we were children. And so we don’t really think about the idea of having the book propped in front of us while this actor, this person who’s paid and as an expert at doing it, they do it well. It’s just, it’s a very luxurious experience that is very lovely. It’s become one of my favorite versions of reading when I can get the audiobook from Libby or some other free source, I’ll pop it on while I’m reading and it’s lovely. You, that should be something you should try in 2024, Caroline.
Caroline: That’s what I’m thinking. Yeah, I’d never heard of this, but you make an excellent point about, you know, when was the last time somebody read to you? And, you know, very long time ago. And it used to be so enjoyable. So, no, I absolutely want to try that. As well as that, what I had thought previously when we were preparing this, what I would say for this is I want to be better actually at having different books on the go for different purposes because I do always have something I should be reading for the podcast. I often sometimes have something I should be reading for another aspect of work, a book I’m reviewing or something. And sometimes. I get these mental blocks where I just don’t want to read a “work book” in that moment.
I want to read something for relaxation or for fun or to fulfill some other need. But because I’ve restricted myself to like, we’re reading this book at the moment, I end up spending time in a way that I don’t really want to, scrolling on my phone or watching something rubbish on television that I’m not even care about. Just because I haven’t given myself a reading alternative that matches that situation.
A really good example of this is that for a long time, I didn’t really read digitally at all. I only read physical books. And that meant that, you know, if you’re waiting for an appointment or you’re on a train and you didn’t have a bag that you could fit a book into or something, you know, you’re on a train and don’t have a reading alternative available to you. So I think I want to be much more intentional about having a book I’m reading digitally that I can just flip through on my phone, or having an audiobook that I can easily access, and also having different types of books on the go at the same time. So if I’m feeling tired and ready to read something uncomplicated that I don’t need to retain or take notes on, I’m like, “Oh, well, that’s that book. Let’s dive straight into that.” And therefore, I’m still reading, I’m still gaining something, I’m still enjoying it. And I’m not just filling blank time with activities that I don’t really ultimately care about.
Leandra: Yes, I like the idea of having a read that, yeah, you’re not researching or feeling as though you need to put your full attention into because that also stresses you out. And in those brief moments when you are on the train or waiting five minutes for your name to be called, it doesn’t make much sense to pull out a book that will eventually be a part of some type of research process because you’re not really going to get into it. You’re not going to be able to thoroughly think about the information you’re gathering. I actually have found a good balance where a friend of mine and I will read a book every single month together. And usually it’s just for fun. We, last month, ended up reading a space opera.
So very different. Yes. And it was just this very fun process of us enjoying these characters going off in an adventure. And typically what I like about reading with her is that we don’t choose mysteries. We don’t usually choose that genre. And I don’t know if that’s an unconscious or conscious decision. Maybe she knows that I’m already bogged down by so many mysteries. But we’ll throw in a fantasy, a space opera, a thriller, a bit of a modern thriller, which I think is very much a different kind of pace than what I typically read for the podcast. And it just, it’s a different part of the brain. I don’t have to think too much about how certain plotting devices are being mashed up.
I’m just like, “Oh, that’s fun. All right. Let these characters be often and see what happens in the end.” And so I agree that there should be like a bit of a balance. And I don’t want to say a throwaway read because it’s not that, but it’s more just a genuinely pleasure filled read where you’ll get something out of it no matter what, even if it doesn’t have anything to do with work or some type of project that we will be juggling along the way.
Caroline: Yes, exactly. And this actually links into the next thing that we were going to talk about, which is a habit you started last year that you’ll be keeping. And for me, that is twofold. One is more digital reading. So I have a, it’s not a Kindle so much as, I think it’s called a BOOX. B-O-O-X tablet. It’s one that you can also write on, but it does have the Kindle app on it.I have the Libby app on there. I have a few different digital reading apps on there that I can use. And that really has been game-changing for me. I’ve been doing a lot more digital reading, a lot more digital note -taking on the books I read, and it’s great, so I want to keep doing that. And that connects into what you were just saying about those, not throw away, but just for pleasure reads, I suppose. Easy reads, I call them in my head.It’s easy to borrow ebooks from the library, and that situation, it’s low pressure. I haven’t spent any money, I have invested lots of time in uncovering a rare edition or something. And I can just try it out. And if it’s not for me, send it back to the library.
No big deal. So that’s a habit I started maybe in the second half of last year that I definitely want to carry through to this year.
Leandra: Yeah, I like the idea of you saying easy reads. Immediately for some reason, I thought of soft reads. I tend to say soft sci-fi and hard sci-fi, or soft boiled and hardboiled. We had this discussion where we were talking about cosies. And I remember in my research, I discovered that a lot of times cozy mysteries are also called soft boiled mysteries because they’re the opposite of hardboiled.
And so maybe we could say soft reads and hard reads as far as, you know, the easy and pleasurable, they’re soft, they’re cosy, they’re a hug, as opposed to the hard reads where we need pen and paper or Boox, which I’ve never heard of. So I might have to look into what that device is because that seems very nice and accessible rather than you having a straight up Kindle or some other type of e-reader that is only for that kind of function.
So a habit that I started last year and that I want to continue doing is actually pairing an audiobook with my walks. I think that because we are so much more comfortable with audiobooks in our ears these days, at least I am, I’ve become more comfortable with it. I love the idea of it encouraging me to go for walks. And so at times this year, what I’ve done is I have also allocated a certain audiobook for walking so that when I want to listen to that book, I’ll be like “Perfect!” I’ll go for a 20-minute walk, a half an hour walk, and it’s really been a great balance in allowing me to make sure that we are moving our bodies when we can.
Of course, movement is its own privilege depending on how your body works, what it can and can’t do, but I’ve found it to be a really good way for me to kind of get up and go while admittedly having to accept that I have a bit of a sedentary life as far as like the jobs I have, the other hobbies I enjoy, including physically reading. Unfortunately, you can’t, some people can, you know, some people are very skilled where they can walk on the sidewalk while also physically reading a book. I don’t know if I could do that. So here we are. I tend to stay at home in my cosy chair and read, but the audiobook element has kind of allowed me to be like, you know, what, you can be moving while you’re listening to this, whether it’s cleaning my apartment, but like getting out in the world going for a quick walk. It’s been really good for me. I did it all actually throughout the month of November. Every day in November, I challenged myself to go for like a little walk every day. I called it reading on the move. It was a little bit of an event for me tried to hype it up for myself.
And I really loved it. The weather is terrible here at the moment. But once it gets nicer, I think I’m going to going to reinstate that daily task.
Caroline: Yes. I really like that idea of deciding in advance that you designate this audio book for this purpose. It’s a bit like me with saying these books I’m borrowing through the Libby app are soft reads. I like that term. And it just means that then when you’re in the mood for that, you’ve already laid the path out clearly for yourselves like, “Well, we’re just going here and we’re just doing this.” And for me, that’s really crucial in not ending up in this really dissatisfied place where I’m like, “Oh, I don’t really know what to do. I kind of feel like I want something, but I don’t know what it is. Oh, I’ll just look at Instagram for an hour, and now I feel a bit gross about myself.” I think it’s fine, incidentally, if you decide, “I’d really like to look at Instagram now.” If that’s your choice of activity, enjoy yourself. But I seem to end up with these pockets of time where I don’t quite know what it is that I want, and so I gravitate to an activity that isn’t very fulfilling and isn’t very, I don’t know what the word is, nourishing, wholesome for myself. I don’t end up feeling better.
Whereas I think if I’ve already made the plan in advance, then it’s much easier in those moments of not weakness, but fragility, tiredness to go, “Oh, yes, this is when we do this. Off I go.”
Leandra: Yeah, for risk of sounding like a lifestyle guru, but I think we’re kind of looking for intentional joy, you know? If you’re intending to really enjoy yourself, being on social media, seeing what people are doing for however much time, then yeah, it’s great when it’s intentional, but it’s the gravitating towards it just to find something quick and realizing that’s not what you intended to fill up your time with and have fun with. So I think that, yeah, intentionally enjoying something is something that we have to plan, unfortunately. It’s not as conducive to spontaneity, I think, for some reason. We really do have to kind of plan out enjoyable activities these days.
Caroline: Yes, and part of that is where we wanted to end up in this episode, which is with a brief rundown each of our reading setup, because I love hearing and seeing other people talk about this, and therefore I want to do it myself. So by reading setup, I mean all manner of things. I don’t have a particular chair or spot, I suppose. I read all over the house, all different places, but I do have certain tools and devices that I like to have around me when I’m reading.
One is when I’m reading physical books, I have a little light that clips on it that really helps read at night. I am one of those people that hates having the big light on in the room. It makes me feel like I’m, I don’t know, under a spotlight or something. So having nice ambient lighting and then your little book light on your book is great for the eyes. The aforementioned Boox– I wish I knew how to say that. Books, maybe B-O-O-X, anyway, is how it’s spelled–device and its little pen, that’s really great. Very easy to highlight sections, or it has a kind of notebook section where you can just be writing in your handwriting that you can quickly switch to and from with your book and it lets me have Libby so it’s got audiobooks and ebooks on it as well as Kindle. If you use that, I think you could probably get other digital reading interfaces on there as well. So big fan of that. And then I think the last thing is Storygraph.
So I’ve been using this, I think for about three years now as my reading log of choice. And I haven’t been super consistent with it in the past. I’m trying to be better about it because it is really enjoyable to me to be able to just quickly look back over what I’ve read.
I don’t put ratings on there. Maybe I might start doing that soon. But just having, when I started reading a book, when I finished a book, what format I read it in, and being able to review that is very enjoyable to me. I know you are more of a physical recorder of your reading though, so tell us about that.
Leandra: Yes, that is a great segue, Caroline. So I record my books, I do record my books through Goodreads and Storygraph. I agree that I’m leaning ever more towards Storygraph. I like the various functions it provides, the fact that it asks you questions about, you know, character, plotting, and it’s just easier rather than you having to type out a full review. And I can say, “Yes, no, yes. This works,” without feeling as though I’m spending so much time trying to craft because, let’s be honest, we’re trying to craft our words more often than not in other areas of our work, so I just like to answer a few questions.
I also admittedly like the fact that Storygraph isn’t owned by Amazon. I feel as though that is one negative element to Goodreads the fact that it does allow quarter star ratings I have never been someone who has ever used used quarter star ratings. I’ve always thought one through five, perfectly fine. It’s either a four or three, something like that. Whereas actually this year, I have been influenced to finally start doing quarter star ratings.
And I think it is because of the type of books I’m reading, I’ve been reading a handful of four stars, in my opinion, if you are someone who rates books, but I still order them differently in my mind. And I’m like, “Okay, maybe it’s actually a 4 .25. maybe it’s a 3 .75.” And so that has made me actually rearrange the true place where I record that Caroline mentioned. And that is my bullet journal. So I have been keeping a reading journal for the past few years, and it’s become this lovely keepsake. I really enjoy including little blurbs about my month. I’ll do a monthly calendar, and I will assign a color to each book I’m reading. reading. So then I circle the date with those colors to show what books I was reading that day.
And it just, it looks very nice. Also it allows me to keep statistics. I think I’m a bit of a luddite even though we’re using technology every which way on this podcast and elsewhere.
I really like the feeling of handwriting statistics and keeping track of things and flipping through the books throughout the year. Being like, “Oh, yeah, that’s right, I read this book! I adored it!” It’s just, it’s very pleasing. This is my third year. And so I’m very proud of myself. I’m beginning to collect. I’m going to have my own shelf, not only of books, but maybe of reading journals one day.
And it’ll just be very satisfying to see how that works. I will say that I have a pretty simplistic reading area myself. Only in the last month or so, the chair I’m sitting in that Caroline can see, but you all can’t because that’s how podcasts work. I ended up getting it through Facebook Marketplace. I was ready to haggle with the buyer at one point because they were selling two chairs. When I arrived, they were this lovely elderly couple. They were so sweet. I couldn’t do it. I came home with two chairs. I am a single person who lives in an apartment. I don’t need two armchairs. And yet here we are.
And so I’ve designated them where I have one that is like Caroline’s setup where I have this really lovely, higher lamp light that is just above it. So in the evenings, the rest of my apartment is dark. But this one chair is my glowing oasis. And then the other chair is closer to a window, so during like the mornings or the day, I have natural lighting. I’ve become very bougie in my reading experience, all because I could not say no to this lovely elderly couple.
So if they happen to be listening to this podcast, you’re wonderful. Unless you tricked me, maybe they’re the cunning ones. And they’re like, “Haha, we got this, we got her right where we wanted her! So I’ve been meaning to extend my luxury and get myself a bit of a footstool propping my feet up.
But beyond that, that, I also tend to rely on my phone. When it comes to audiobooks with Libby and in the US, we have Hoopla, which is very accessible if your library has access to that.
I do have an e-reader. It’s a Kindle and to get into the technicalities of it, it’s, I believe it’s called a Paper White, Paperweight? That brand, that version. But here’s the hack for you. It is the kid’s version. They have a kid Kindle version and they have one for adults. And I was looking at it, the prices aren’t very different. I think the kids version was a bit cheaper and it has a bit less space. But that’s fine for me because I’m not a huge e -reader. For instance, I have yet to ever buy an e -book still.
I only get my e -books through NetGalley if they’re sent to me by a publisher or through the library. library because Libby can send it directly to your e -reader, so I just haven’t had to purchase one.
Also, the reason why the kids version, if you’re in the market and you’ve decided that Kindle is what you want, it doesn’t have any ads on it because it’s for children versus if you have an adult version, you have to pay extra to not have the ads. And I was like, “Well, color me a child because I’m buying this for myself. So I don’t have to deal with that.”
And so it’s worked out really well for me that way. Beyond that, though, I will always prefer a physical book, though, I do love immersive reading. So I’m a new fan of audiobooks. But if I had to choose between an ebook and a physical book, for me, it’s always going to be a physical book, though I understand the lovely aspects of having an e-reader where you can search for certain terms. As a researcher, the e-reader has changed the game.
Caroline: Oh, they’re invaluable. Yes.
Leandra: Yes. They are amazing. It makes you wonder how we did it before, the hours we slaved away looking for terms and making sure we had thorough notes, whereas at this point, it does make certain functions so much easier. So, yeah, it’s wonderful how accessible reading is in its various forms at this point.
Caroline: And are there any particular reading challenges or particular areas of focus that you’ve decided you’re going to do this year?
Leandra: So in my personal life, I continue to try to focus on my physical TBR, for those of you who don’t know what TBR is, it’s “To Be Read,” the books that you own that you haven’t read yet and they just keep glaring at you. That is a challenge that I continue to apply to myself every single year. For the podcast, though, I am honestly really hoping for Caroline to allow me to embrace certain elements of the podcast that I haven’t really partaken in. Obviously, I have been on the podcast, which was something I never anticipated, which is very fun for me. I do a lot of research in the background for a certain historical elements, or if we’re really looking into a lesser known author, but I think I want to take on a bit more responsibility next year, which Caroline and I have talked about briefly as far as how I could do that.
But I’m just I’m really looking forward to seeing how much Shedunnit doesn’t change, but grows and becomes more complex, because I think that that’s what we’re looking to do in 2024. Just really add to the versatility of the podcast and dig deeper beyond the surface level of what we’ve already done.
Caroline: Yes, absolutely.
I second all of that. And that very much feeds into my own reading challenge that I’m going to be doing this year, which I’m not going to tell you exactly what it is right now because more details will be coming on the podcast soon, but there is a, should we say a a sequential reading experience that I’m going to be undertaking this year that listeners will be hearing more about in the near future.
So yeah, that’s going to be a big change for me because although I’ve long enjoyed other people’s projects that involve that, All About Agatha being a great example where Kemper and Catherine read every single Agatha Christie novel in order, I’ve always wanted to try one of those. And I think I’ve finally, finally worked out a way in which I can do it.
Leandra: Yes, it is going to be very exciting. Again, we can’t say much, but basically stay tuned.
Caroline: Well, I think that’s everything we wanted to talk about today. I hope you found something in that that you’d either like to try or try to read. And I look forward to another year of reading, and Shedunnit.
(outro music)
This episode of Shedunnit was produced and hosted by me, Caroline Crampton. My guest was Leandra Griffith. If you enjoyed this conversation, you might like her previous appearance on the podcast in an episode from June 2023, titled ‘Miss Marple Spinster Sleuth‘.
We also publish chats like this regularly as bonus episodes for members of the Shedunnit Book Club. If you’d like to hear those, join now at shedunnitbookclub.com/join.
You can find a full list of the books we mentioned in this episode at shedunnitshow.com/areadinglife.
I publish transcripts of every episode including this one. Find them all at sheadunnitshow.com/transcripts.
Shedunnit is edited by Euan McAleece. Production assistance from Leandra Griffith. Member support for the Shedunnit Book Club from Connor McLoughlin.
Thanks for listening.
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