Lit Vibes Only 101

Listen in to get to know your podcast hosts Kelsey & Amanda in their first full length episode! They talk about their personal book journeys and the types of books they're reading now. They also cover the the types of episodes they'll be releasing and the podcast schedule. And so much more!

Follow us on TikTok & Youtube @litvibesonlypodcast and on Instagram @litvibesonly_podcast. We'd love to hear from you!

See you on Mondays!

Transcript

Ep. 1: Lit Vibes Only 101
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[00:00:00] 

[00:00:02] Hey, everyone. Welcome to our podcast, Lit Vibes Only. I'm Kelsey and I'm Amanda. And we're so excited to be here with you all. And, , we've got our intro episode for you today. Where we just kind of tell you a little bit about ourselves and, , you get to know us a little bit more and see where your vibe or not.

[00:00:28] Yes. If lit vibes are your vibes. , maybe we should start in with the name of the podcast and just explain where that came from. Yeah. 

So basically the lit, I mean, We know that it's slang, but we're using it to reference literature. So a little play on words there. , so lit vibes only like we're all about books on this podcast.

[00:00:49] So if you are a fellow bookworm book lover, this is the spot for you. Yeah. We wanted to, we wanted to pretend we're cooler than we are. We really are just like [00:01:00] very unhip millennials. Yeah. We stay in and read books in our, in our free time. Exactly. And actually that sounds. Great. Sounds fabulous. I'd rather be doing that.

[00:01:15] Right now. Exactly. Oh my gosh. Especially today. So we're, so we're, we're in Seattle. We're located in Seattle. Both of us. And, , it is definitely a gray Seattle day today. Like even in the middle of the summer, well, it's normally, or it has been for the past month and a half. Sun and so much heat sweltering.

[00:01:37] Yeah. , but yeah, today is one of the first days where we have cloud coverage. I know. So it does feel like a Seattle day today, which for me makes me sad because I love sunshine and I know I'm living in the wrong city, but, , 

summers here generally are sunny and gorgeous, but we are getting a very traditional Seattle gray day, which is what is it's perfect for reading.

It's perfect for like, [00:02:00] Curling up with a good book. So, or a good podcast.

[00:02:07] , so yeah, I guess we should talk a little bit about. , ourselves, we're going to like, get a little, a little personal. , yeah, so I'm Kelsey, like I said at the beginning, and I grew up in Washington state actually. And, , I am very accustomed to the rain and the clouds, but I don't necessarily, I I'm not in love with it.

[00:02:33] I love having like a streak of sun and then rain because then it feels like, Oh, we earned the rain or we need the rain. And I feel like that's a really like adult thing to say these days. It's like, Ooh, we needed that rain to say that too. Like I just turned 35 this year. And how old are you? I'm 36. I [00:03:00] actually didn't know.

[00:03:02] I knew you were older than me. I knew how old you were. Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, and I was like, when's your birthday? So yeah, your birthday's in January, but early January. Yeah. So I'm, I'm past the 36. So we are both firmly, squarely in the millennial range. Oh, totally. 100%. , we're about as millennial as it gets, you'd think.

[00:03:22] , I am not from Seattle, if you couldn't tell from my earlier comment. , I am a Midwest girl, so, , originally from Ohio, but have lived on both coasts, actually, now. I spent some time in New Jersey. And then moved out to Seattle. Yeah. I'm starting my fifth year in Seattle, which is wild. Yay. , so yeah, excited to be here.

[00:03:42] And, , we are also both teachers, right? Oh yeah. We're both Millennials and we're both in education. I guess you're not a teacher. I am an assistant principal at a middle [00:04:00] school in the Seattle area. And yes, it is a lot of work and yes, it is stressful. And that's why we're doing this podcast because we need an outlet.

[00:04:09] We definitely need outlet and outlet because education in general is just a fucking shit show right now. And it's a lot. And, , a lot of our schools in Washington, I don't, I can't speak to a lot of schools outside Washington state, but in Washington state, we're really struggling with like budget cuts and things like that because, , the pandemic really.

[00:04:35] Did a number on, on schools and enrollment and all that kind of stuff. , but that's not why we're here. But we will, you will hear us referencing education things throughout this podcast. Cause it's a really big part of who we are and what we do. , and like further down the line, like what we might integrate into this podcast and into our brand.

[00:04:56] , You'll probably see elements of like, Oh yeah, they are [00:05:00] teachers. And if you're an educator and you're listening to this podcast, let us know. We'd love to hear from you. , I am, I am not, I have not made it to assistant principal level. I don't know that I ever want to be an assistant principal.

[00:05:11] Honestly, I am a department chair and a classroom teacher. And, , I think for right now that is my sweet spot. , So yeah, both, we're both in education and, , both Millennials and we both have ADHD, which I feel like should, should be said right off the bat. I, I think this really lends to like, God, everything in my life.

[00:05:38] One, my life is Chaos all the time. As my brain cast will be chaos. My brain is constantly in chaos and, , we've been trying to like. practice this over audio and over recording where we're like not interrupting each other, but it's just so hard with [00:06:00] our brains. So Amanda does a better job than me. I will say she'll be like, go ahead.

[00:06:06]  And if we're ever like, Oh yeah, go ahead. Like, that's why. It's because we're reminding ourselves that we should not interrupt each other. I also feel like, because I feel like I have to model for my students too. And so I feel like it's just both being aware of like not interrupting or trying to do it less and slowing down.

[00:06:24] Like I'm a really fast talker. I don't know if that's necessarily my ADHD, but it could be. I'm a very fast talker. And so I feel like with teaching, it's made me really mindful of like my rate. Speaking in this podcast, I'm also going to have to be like, I articulate, articulate, articulation. , yeah. Is there anything, Oh, Oh, the other thing that's important is we're both women of color.

[00:06:47] , I identify as black and Kelsey, I'm indigenous and actually indigenous of, , the, this area where I I'm enrolled Tlingit from Alaska area, but I grew [00:07:00] up on the Lummi reservation. And. , my father is actually from the Spokane, area. And so, I definitely have like, the Midwest, like, indigenous, like, conglomerate in my, in my blood.

[00:07:16] No, not, is it Midwest or is it, that's Northwest. Oh, sorry. Did I say Midwest? Oh my God. I've got the Midwest. Northwest. Northwest. You're the Northwest. You're the Northwest. Yes, yes, yes. I actually don't think I knew that specifically. About your indigenous background. Like, I knew you were indigenous. I didn't know specifically, I don't think, which tribe.

[00:07:34] So, I just learned. Yeah, I, so, I'm, yeah, like I said, I'm in rural Tlingit and basically, if you don't know anything about blood quantum, , it, in every tribe, it works differently and, , Most of the time it's, you are a quarter or a more of a particular, , , tribe. And that is where I [00:08:00] stand. In for Tlingit and I wouldn't be, I also have a third tribe, which is Klamath, , down in Chiloquin, Oregon, but, , the only two that I can be enrolled in is Tlingit or Spokane cause Spokane actually adds all of my blood quantum up from all of my tribes.

[00:08:20] So I would be three quarters rather than one quarter where I am at Tlingit. And so eventually I'm going to need to move over. , because. I want children and I want my children enrolled. And so this is just a random tidbit, but isn't that interesting because they wouldn't federally be considered indigenous unless they're enrolled.

[00:08:46] And so, and some tribes do it by ancestry, , like the Puyallup and I actually don't know if Michael, she does that, but Puyallup for sure does that. And just said by descendancy. And so, , anyway. [00:09:00] That's just a tidbit too. I want to like do a whole other podcast episode on this. I'm like so fascinated. And there's, I don't really know honestly that much about a lot of this.

[00:09:09] And I'm sure our listeners don't either. And I'm just like, I have all these questions. I'm like, tell me the whole blood quantum process. Okay. But we're going to pause because that's see. My little ADHD brain is like already going off down this whole other path. But that makes us relatable, you know, I feel like so many people struggle with ADHD and it's like not talked about, especially in women, especially not talked about, talked about a lot.

[00:09:34] Yeah. And so, , Yeah. The, the tools we use, the things we utilize to like support our ADHD and like make sure we live productive lives, I think maybe it could be a cool podcast because it relates to reading too. Yeah. And like one of the things, I mean, and I'm looking at this right now as we're talking as we made an outline before this episode, so that we could like stay on track and remember what we needed to talk about.

[00:09:58] Because otherwise this would be [00:10:00] like an eight hour podcast talking about literally a hundred percent. We're just like over here checking off the boxes. So, so Kelsey, why don't we move on to our next? What a lovely transition.

[00:10:15] We wanted to talk a little bit, , because this podcast is about books and about reading and, and, , Stepping outside of kind of our, our literary comfort zones as it were, , to talk a little bit about like our journey as readers and like, is this something that we've both always done? Is it something we came to later?

[00:10:33] Like kind of, how did we get into reading? , do you want to start and then I can like jump in after. Sure. , I, I have a funny or interesting rather story here. What reading, what did we say? Reading journey where, , I hated reading as a kid, I didn't grow up reading and I also was like placed in like, [00:11:00] Not special ed classes, but, , Classes where I, cause I never was identified for special ed, but I was in classes with like students who didn't speak English, who were like, Immigrants to the United States.

[00:11:18] And yes, I don't think it was deemed that back then, but we were like mixed up. It was like the lower level. They would say, you know, the lower level English. , and that, that had a bit big impact on me. So then it kind of made me, , really. Sort of resent like reading and all of that because you know, I didn't see myself as a strong reader.

[00:11:40] I was in this class With other students who really were like learning English. And so I was like, okay, so I'm like learning English and And so that's where I was when I was younger. And then I kind of in high school kind of came into my own. And then in college is when [00:12:00] I started like reading more. I read a little bit before then, but, , it was really, really college that started it off for me.

[00:12:08] And I remember reading the divergent series. Like when I was really like, I was like 18 or something, I was young. And that book. Those books ripped me open. I was like, they're so, and I was like, they're so upsetting. At least the ending, I suppose. , but throughout seeing like Trisha's trauma from like every, all of the things that she's done, like, right.

[00:12:35] Like that was one of the books that like I related to as a young person and then got deeper into this world. , But I think, like, with my ADHD brain, like, I couldn't just continue reading, like, consistently. I think it was an issue of, like, you know, being able to sit down and, like, just read. , and so, like, further along, [00:13:00] like, I, I would just read, like, here and there, here and there.

[00:13:04] And, , I would read really tragic books or I would read like fantasy books or dystopian books, which I really love. , and now I've kind of came into, , a new era of my life in the last couple of years where I've really dived into books more and, , I think. A lot of our viewers, , hopefully we'll understand that, , the books that got me back into like reading, not back into, but into reading consistently, I would say, , are the ACOTAR books.

[00:13:35] And, , 

it's so funny because I've heard people talk about this, like reading pipeline where it's like, oh, you read Twilight or Harry Potter when you were younger and then you. That means you're going to be like into ACOTAR like later on in life, 

[00:13:53] like that kind of pipeline. It's so hilarious. , and that kind of was my trajectory.

[00:13:58] And so I read ACOTAR. 

[00:14:00] Blew through that series and then was like, what else do I read? And I just kept like picking up, picking up books. And so, , I'm in that phase of my life. The, the heavily romantic y, the very romantic y phase. And so to get to now to present, yeah, I'm reading a lot of romance and fantasy, , dystopian books. I love those. We just read, , Ferryman and, , I can't wait to talk about that one. , but yeah, I love. All of those types. Yeah. That was like, so beautifully said. And so just like, linear. I'm going to try and tell my journey.

[00:14:44] It's going to be like all over the place. , well done. , Educators. Yeah. No, but I feel like, I feel like when I'm trying to explain something as like, Expansive as this topic. It's like, it's, I feel like I'm going to be all over the place, but I'm going to try and follow your beautiful [00:15:00] example and be concise and focused.

[00:15:02] You're going to do great. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Okay. So a very different journey when it comes to reading. , I started reading very early. I learned how to read when I was three. , my parents taught me at home and pretty much like once I figured out what words were and how to put them together and read them on a page, I was like, Gone.

[00:15:22] I just couldn't get enough of reading. I don't know if you remember, this is like, this is gonna like age me, but like back in the early nineties when you were learning how to read, at least at my school, they would give you like those paper books. Like they weren't even actual books. They were almost like pamphlets.

[00:15:38] Staple together. Yeah. Yeah. And they were like, you know, and you'd get them in like pre care kindergarten. And it's like the cat sat on the mat, you know, the bug is snug in the rug. It's very, very, very basic. And my mom who was teaching at a preschool at the time, I believe it was preschool, she would bring home like bags of those books for me and I would just like zip through them.

[00:15:58] , so that's how I got started. And then, [00:16:00] yeah, I, I would say pretty much been, you know, a bookworm kind of my whole life. , I grew up in a really kind of sheltered fundamentalist Christian home. So what we read was really. limited and, , you know, what we were allowed to engage with. But I do remember specifically, because even though we had those limitations, , my mom was, both of my parents, but my mom especially was really big on education and making sure that we were like well prepared academically to be successful.

[00:16:28] And so, , she was really big on us reading the classics. I don't know if you remember these either. They also were like a 90s thing, maybe an 80s thing too, but it was a series of books called great illustrated classics. And they basically took the classics, you know, a tale of two cities, David Copperfield, and they were like the abridged version.

[00:16:48] So much shorter. And they also had like black and white illustrations that went with them. And you could buy like the box sets, like these, just like all the classics. And so I read all of those. And so that was [00:17:00] like my. , kind of entry into like more classic literature and getting familiar with like the big names like Dickens and Austin and all of that.

[00:17:08]  It all makes sense. Right? And oh, like once you hear this, like, I understand so much about why you read what you read. And also I was a huge American girls fan and I read all of the American girls books, which I think really sparked my love of historical fiction, as you know. There you go. Just like, you know, getting to understand and experience.

[00:17:30] , you know, life at different points in history, it just became really fascinating to me. And it was also, those kinds of books were absolutely, like, mom approved, right, because they were educational. Oh, sure. So, I think that's really what got me on that path where I really loved, I can't remember the name of the series.

[00:17:46] I think it was called, like, maybe Dear America. And they were, they were written in like the style of like journals. And it was like, it was usually women, like young women or girls, like writing about their experiences at different points in [00:18:00] history. And you'd like read their journal, right. And then be like, you know, like the colonists or it'd be like, I don't know, like, you know, during the civil war or whatever.

[00:18:08] And you would like read their journals. , yeah. So I feel like historical fiction for me has been around since day one. , and then when I got older, , I, It was tricky because I still had like a lot of parameters around what I wasn't, what I was and wasn't allowed to read. So like anything with like sex and drugs and violence was like off the table.

[00:18:26] Anything, anything magical was off the table. Like I wasn't allowed to read Harry Potter. It was like Bad news. Like, yeah. So, , and I think it's maybe also a reason why I don't read a lot of fantasy now just because like I didn't read it a lot growing up and it was just kind of like I was cut off from that.

[00:18:42] , so I read a lot of, , like contemporary Christian fiction as a high schooler. Which is actually, you're going to love this actually, because a lot of it is like romance. It's like Christian romance novels. It's so bizarre. We won't, that could be a whole other podcast episode. [00:19:00] We won't get into it. So I read a fair amount of that.

[00:19:02] And then there were also some. Kind of more thriller based, like Christian, contemporary Christian fiction, and it really wasn't until I went to college and was kind of out on my own that I just started to read like contemporary fiction, , that, you know, everybody else was reading. And, , and then it's, it's kind of just been consistent since that point.

[00:19:25]  You know, I, I still read a lot of historical fiction. That's probably my number one. I love mysteries. I love thrillers. , I think the thing that's interesting with Fantasy is that growing up, I loved fairy tales, like anything related could not, I mean, you can see behind me, there's like my grim fairy tales collection.

[00:19:41]  , so I, I loved it, but, , yeah, I never really got into fantasy outside of that. , maybe a little bit with like YA fiction. Cause like, yeah, I read, , you know, like I like dystopian novels and things of that nature, like, you know, like, yeah, like the ferryman, , and things like that. But, , yeah, I guess that's kind of, kind of my journey.

[00:19:57] And I feel like I've been pretty 

[00:20:00] consistent, , since probably about college in terms of what I read. Yeah. And you also are part of a book club. Yeah. So I started a book club with a group of friends. Oh my gosh, I think it's maybe six or seven years ago now, which is wild. Holy shit! Yeah! So definitely have been in this like, you know, bookworm, book club world for a while.

[00:20:21]  We actually did a book club trip to Greece last summer. Phenomenal. Yeah, you guys take a trip every year, don't you? Well, no. That was our first. That was our first. Oh. An international book club trip a couple years prior to that we did because we all were living in New Jersey at that point, which is where we all met.

[00:20:40] We did like a long weekend trip to like Long Beach Island. , but now, now that we did the trip trip to Greece, we're like, yeah, we need to like make this an annual thing guys. This is fantastic. Oh, do it. Yeah. But I'm excited to have like this new like podcast, but yeah, all of our listeners, like this is going to be so exciting.

[00:20:57]  So if you can't tell by now, we have 

[00:21:00] quite The different tastes in books. And so the whole premise of this, , I was going to say book club. It kind of is book club. , this podcast is that we are going to be discussing and reading books that Kelsey loves and books that Amanda loves. And so we're basically going to be forcing each other to read our loved books.

[00:21:23] And, , It's been going okay so far. I can't wait to tell you guys, but she's forced me to read. Absolutely. Miserable. And I've been way nicer to her. I don't know that book was awful. I am. So our first two books that we are going to be talking about in, in upcoming podcasts is none of this is true by Lisa jewel.

[00:21:49]  Right. And what did you read? I read Twilight, guys. I'm so sad. Like, literally, there's no comparison getting to [00:22:00] read a Lisa Jewell thriller versus Twilight, which I had successfully avoided reading for 36 years. Okay, I'm sorry. And I made you read it. So you can, you can already tell these episodes are going to be quite, , Passionate, we'll use that word.

[00:22:18]  Passionate, and entertaining, I would say. And entertaining. , But yeah, so, , kind of, let's transition into some of our hopes for, like, this podcast. And, , Yeah, I love it. I mean, I think, , obviously going back to like the book club aspect is just like building, yeah, a community of, of readers, of diverse readers.

[00:22:45]  , I think with anything as humans, we tend to, which makes a lot of sense, right? We tend to, It's really about how do you form groups with people who have similar interests or tastes, etc. And I think the thing that, one of the things, we have many things, but one of the things that connects us is like, yes, we love to read [00:23:00] and we love books.

[00:23:01]  But we don't agree, right? On what we like to read. And normally then I'd go, oh I'm gonna go associate with people who are gonna read the books that I'm gonna read, you know? And so I like the fact that we're kind of encouraging people who, you know, love a variety of genres to come together to discuss them.

[00:23:17] You To talk about what they love and what they don't and why. And in the process, hopefully, maybe develop some, some new loves, right? And realize like, maybe I actually do like this particular element of the fantasy world, right? Maybe I could give like, romance a try. , so, you know, we're all about being open minded on this podcast.

[00:23:37] And as teachers, I think we definitely are all about like learning and growth mindset. So I think definitely, , yeah, looking just to build a broad community that welcomes us. Readers of all walks of life and all stripes and interests, for sure. Absolutely, yeah. I think also, people love to polarize things too.

[00:23:58] So it's like, it does that [00:24:00] in the same way, but also like, there are gonna be books and aspects that we like about the books, , but Yeah, I think it's, it's just going to be fun to see like, Hey, yeah, for sure. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Seating the floor. I already spoke. You go right ahead. Kelsey. , I was just going to say that in my own personal journey, I first, I kind of date it back to my middle school times when I was like a struggling reader.

[00:24:33] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, , speaker, I was so quiet as a child that maybe I just didn't get enough practice or something. I'm not sure, but oftentimes my brain, like I will, I trip over words a lot. Like when we were recording our trailer, like I said, shit in the shit. And you're like, , what are you trying to say?

[00:24:57] And [00:25:00] like, things like that will come out of my mouth where I'm just like, yeah, I, those are the things, right. And it's not, but, , so I really hope that. One, more reading and two, being able to express myself and talk so much on this podcast is going to help improve my like, articulation, , and And your vocabulary, just like picking up like Exactly.

[00:25:25] Yeah. And so, yeah, it's something like, I'm like, oh, like I'm reaching for this word, but I can't think of what How exactly you say it, I don't know what that's about. If it has anything to do with ADHD or what, I have no idea. But, , so I'm hoping personally for that growth. Yeah. I think my problem is just, I have trouble with like, word recall in general.

[00:25:49] Like, I feel like I know the appropriate like phrases or terms or whatever, but then thinking of it in the moment, like, I feel like this podcast is going to challenge me because I'm like, okay, we're on, we're doing the thing. What is that word? Yeah. I'm [00:26:00] trying to like express myself in this moment. , so that has, I guess, more specifically to do with podcasting itself versus like books.

[00:26:07] Definitely a skill I think we'll both work on. , and I think to like, , in terms of like kind of going back a bit to like, Diverse readers and diverse tastes. I think this podcast will also, and we want it to be a place to also celebrate like diverse like authors and like their stories and that's why and we'll talk about this in a moment later.

[00:26:27] Why we do want to kind of highlight each month particular , authors from marginalized groups and their, and their works and their stories and celebrate them and uplift them and encourage folks to, to, again, in another way, maybe step outside of what you might normally read or like the content you might normally be engaging with.

[00:26:46] And I think even, you know, as, as women of color to write, , being able to like, celebrate like our stories and stories of those like us on this podcast. , and kind of put that out into the world and, and find points of connection, , with the folks [00:27:00] who are like listening in, I think I'm really excited, , to incorporate that too.

[00:27:04] Cause that's really important. Yeah, absolutely. , it's really interesting kind of on that point of, you know, celebrating like who we are and, , our backgrounds and things. So right now I'm reading, , Firekeeper's Daughter. Have you heard of that one? I don't think so. It's about this native girl. , and it's, you know, she's about to go off to college and it's kind of talking about her experience. , and she's like interested in a boy, but anyway, it's like, so I don't know if it's like romance.

[00:27:40] I think it's, it's YA. So I don't think it's like going to, you know, Dive into that, but probably relationship dynamics is what I'm guessing. But the other thing that I find, like when I'm reading, , indigenous books, if it's not like fantasy or like, , you know, a fake world, , that was built, I actually struggle [00:28:00] reading it on like emotional and.

[00:28:04] Sometimes physical level. , because did you ever read red paint? No, I don't buy Sasha LaPointe and you would like that book. It's a memoir. I also enjoy memories before you told me about it last year. I remember. Yeah. , I finished that a few months ago and it took me like three months to finish and it was, it's a small book, it's tiny book, but.

[00:28:27] It was mostly because of like the emotional baggage that comes along with like her story. And I just see myself so much in a lot of what she writes and what other indigenous authors write. And it's hard to, , process those things. Sometimes they're very heavy topics and. So I find myself like only reading those when I'm like emotionally and well and stable.

[00:28:55] Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And it also makes me think of, I used to do [00:29:00] a bit of work as a DEI facilitator and we talked about, you've probably come across this concept of windows and mirrors. , and this idea like that, depending on like what you're engaging with, , whether it's a text or a movie or a book or an article, If it's a window, right, it's giving you insight into someone else's lived experience, right?

[00:29:17] And so helping us to connect and understand each other that way, or if it's a mirror, which it sounds like that book for you is a mirror, right? It's like, this is something where you're like, I can speak to this from the eye perspective. Like this is very much connecting to my own personal life experience and my journey.

[00:29:31] And the great thing about literature is that they're either, you know, windows or mirrors for us. And it really does change our response to a text and how we engage with it. And then how we are situated, , in relationship to like the characters in the plot. So yeah. Yeah. With that being said too, I don't, I love it when a book makes me cry.

[00:29:53] Wait, you love that? Yes. I want to feel something. Okay. That's true. That's fair. That's fair. [00:30:00] And if I have no investment in the main characters, like what is the point? I mean, you could like smile, like you could be invested and be happy. Like I said, my life is chaos. I get it. I get it. I do. I do like having strong emotional responses.

[00:30:22]  I don't necessarily look to cry, but that is a sign of a good book. I cry or have like that much emotional, , interest in the characters, but, but I will say. I fucking cry at everything. Like I will cry at everything. So the bar is not high for me. Like if, yeah. So, Oh, it's funny. The only thing that I hate about a book, well, okay.

[00:30:48] There's many things like the one thing, the one thing that will like, you know, is if it's boring, if it's boring, I can't move past it. [00:31:00] And like with my 80. DHD brain, like if I'm not engaged, like there's no way I'm finishing that book. Yeah. Yeah. And that comes to like the struggle of what we're doing to each other.

[00:31:10] I told you I have to listen to audio books because I, I'm bored and I need to, I need To know that it's going to progress no matter what. Right. Just sit there and listen and like, take it in. Yeah. Big thing for me. And I honestly, it's one reason I didn't mention this during my reading journey, but, , I have to be really captivated by a book and if a book is very slow and it's pacing or a lot of time is spent.

[00:31:38] It's been, , you know, describing, you know, the English countryside versus moving on to the next plot point. It's really hard for me. And it's one of the things that I'm really attracted to, or one of the reasons why I'm really attracted to mysteries and thrillers, because the pacing tends to be very quick.

[00:31:53] There's always something happening. My brain is super engaged. So I'm trying to figure things out and, and like connect the dots. [00:32:00] And it's one of the reasons I think, I gravitate towards that versus some other genres, , because I need, I need that. Like my mind will very easily wander somewhere else if the text isn't keeping me engaged.

[00:32:11] , so I definitely have the same, the same issue for sure. And I think, and this, I'm going to go back really quickly to the crying thing. , and then, and then we can move on to our final point. We'll, we'll wrap this up guys. We promise. , but the crying thing. So like, you're like, Oh, when I cry, that's how I like, you know, what's one of the ways I knew that it touched me for me.

[00:32:27] And I was actually just talking about this with my friend. For me, what I, the emotion that I want to feel when I like close. a book, especially if it's a contemporary fiction story. I want to be like, Oh my gosh, I'm never going to see those folks again. And I'm really sad about that. Like, I feel like I'm losing a friend.

[00:32:45] And that's when I know like a book has really touched me because they've become so real for me. I've spent, you know, whatever a week or so with them and their stories and really just enmeshed myself and meshed myself in their lives. And that for me is like the sign of like a book [00:33:00] that has like really like Got me, you know, firmly in its clutches and, and moved me.

[00:33:05] It's like, yeah, I lost some friends and now I'm like, that makes sense. Yeah, I definitely, yeah. We can talk more later on down the road about like book. , Oh God, what are they called? See, it's happening. Like reading slump, reading slump. And then, , what's the, I feel like there's another one reading slump or At the end of the book, you get a book hangover, haha!

[00:33:31] A book hangover! I was like, I don't think a book My first response was a trope. I'm like, why? Like, what? We were not talking about anything along those lines. You should definitely do, , favorite tropes. We should. We should. We for sure should. For sure. Well, I think, I was gonna say, for books to read, I feel like it's more of a thing.

[00:33:50] I don't know that there's a ton of tropes for, like, historical fiction, but maybe for, like, mysteries and thrillers. I know for thrillers there definitely are. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I'd have to just, like, [00:34:00] Yeah. Yeah. Research. But anyhow, we're going to, we're, I love it. We're like saying that we're transitioning instead of just like really like smoothly and suddenly.

[00:34:10] Hey, it's our first episode. It's true. We're going to be, we're going to be kind to ourselves. So, , the last thing we wanted to talk to you guys about the, probably the most kind of important logistical thing is how our podcast is structured, like what to expect from us each and, and kind of how we're going to go about this whole process.

[00:34:27] So, , We have three different types of episodes that you'll see from us. , I'll talk about one and then I'll popcorn over to Kelsey. You can talk to the next one. So the first one is lit it or quit it. And those will be the episodes. We're doing two of those, I believe, a month. And those will be the episodes in which I'll be reading a book that Kelsey will be reading.

[00:34:47] Forced me to read Twilight and she'll then read a book that I have forced her to read in this case, , you know, for the first two episodes of that, she'll be talking about her experience with None of Us is [00:35:00] True. None of this is true, right? Yep. See, that's what I meant. None of this is true. None of us is true.

[00:35:07] There's no grammatical sense. None of us is true. Okay. So none of this is true. , and in those episodes will essentially be, that's kind of where the kind of the book battle aspect comes in where like we're kind of on opposing sides and, you know, we'll be, be defending our choices and what we liked and what we didn't like about the book.

[00:35:27] Yeah. Maybe, 

maybe in some of these instances, we're going to realize, Hey, this was actually a really good book. 

[00:35:33] I can understand why you like didn't have this. Maybe on the rare occasion, , we will agree on a book. So that's how, , the lit it or quit it. , episodes will be structured. Over to you, Kelsey.

[00:35:47] One of the episode types we are going to, , include is called lit scripts. And, , we're really diving into this literary, , 

We're going to just lit [00:36:00] everything. Yeah. We're just going to lit the shit out of everything. 

[00:36:03] There you go. , so we, what we would like to do is, , talk about Movies that were made from books.

[00:36:14] And so, , we plan to discuss some books that were made into movies, probably fairly recently, more recent stuff is what we're focusing on. , so look forward to those. Yeah. We'll just be like comparing them and seeing like, you know, which we like more to be like, Hey, both of them are like all the, all the, all that good stuff.

[00:36:35] We'll just be unpacking both the book and the movie together. And it'll be from any type of genre. It's not from any specific type of genre. It's like whatever movies that are out. Exactly. So yeah, look forward to that. And then our third and final type of episode type, , I said type twice, , is lit rex, which is, , an episode that we'll be doing each month in which we [00:37:00] highlight.

[00:37:01] Authors and stories that are associated with a particular heritage being celebrated that month. So if you listen to our trailer, we kind of talked about it a little bit, but as we head into the fall, you know, we have Native American heritage month coming up. We have LGBTQ plus month, , heritage month coming up.

[00:37:18] And so what we'll do is we will be recommending, , books that we are familiar with that we've read, maybe even that we've heard about, but haven't quite read, but we've heard really great things about, , just to, again, , highlight, celebrate, uplift those stories and encourage folks to, , maybe engage in some, in some, looking into some windows, right?

[00:37:37] , and engaging with experiences outside of your own and learning something wonderful in the process. So, , that's what you can expect from us, , each month. And we will be releasing, , on Mondays. Right? On Mondays. On Mondays. So you can expect. It's the plan. That is the plan. We'll see. There have been so many little hiccups already in this process, and we are just learning [00:38:00] and rolling with the punches.

[00:38:02] So, , I think we'll also be learning a lot of resilience during this. Oh, absolutely. We're going to be improving our tech skills. Huh. 

No one talks about that when they're making a freaking podcast. They're just like, they're on here and they're just like, Yeah, I just popped into my closet and recorded like an award winning podcast.

[00:38:20] , we're, we're just slogging through it, but we're gonna, we're gonna find our stride and we're excited to have you guys. on this journey with us. , is there anything else that we're forgetting before we just want to welcome people to follow us on social media as well? , we have a tick tock account and an Instagram account.

[00:38:38] So the tick tock account is lit vibes, only podcast. And our Instagram is lit vibes. Wait only. Yeah. Lit Vibes only. Underscore podcast. Under podcast. Podcast. Okay. , we had to like do a little name change there, so yeah. , so yeah, Instagram Lit Vibes only. Underscore podcast TikTok is Lit Vibes only podcast [00:39:00] and we'll be posting lots of fun stuff on there as well.

[00:39:04] So be sure to follow, , and 

enjoy the episodes where we have zero ads. While it lasts. 

[00:39:14]  Exactly. Enjoy. Enjoy. , awesome. I think that's it for us., how do we sign off? How do we, how do we end this? We'll see you on Mondays. See you on Mondays.