. Hi,
Speaker:I'm Francesca.
Speaker:I'm Victoria.
Speaker:I'm Laura.
Speaker:And welcome to Novel Nights!
Speaker:Hello everyone, welcome to Novel Nights and let, we want to be the first to
Speaker:welcome you and also wish you happy 2025!
Speaker:Yay!
Speaker:Happy New Year everyone!
Speaker:Listen, I am tripping because this is a pre recording, okay?
Speaker:It's still, the past where we are.
Speaker:But anyways, I want to wish you a happy new year, happy 2025.
Speaker:Today, we're going to be talking all about reading goals, how to track
Speaker:your reading, share some fun reading challenges, and all the good stuff
Speaker:to get you ready for the new year.
Speaker:So if you want to read more books this year, if you want to be more mindful,
Speaker:intentional, but also have fun and gamify your reading experience, We're
Speaker:going to help you do that and more in today's episode, but before we get
Speaker:into it, how are things Francesca?
Speaker:Things are good.
Speaker:Things are good.
Speaker:I am excited for 2025.
Speaker:I mean, I know that I shouldn't get too excited because things have been a little,
Speaker:things have been a little shaky, but yeah, I think 2025 is going to be a good year.
Speaker:I'm not going to set any intentions or any big goals.
Speaker:I'm just gonna go with the flow.
Speaker:Flow is the year of letting go.
Speaker:I'm excited for that.
Speaker:What about you, Laura?
Speaker:2025 is the year of freedom because I'm getting a car as someone who's
Speaker:been carless for 20 years and in a city that you need a car, it's a huge deal.
Speaker:So it's happening in a couple of weeks.
Speaker:I'm very excited for it.
Speaker:Listen, living in Florida without a car is rough.
Speaker:So this is a little overdue, my friend.
Speaker:I think I'm going to steal Francesca's intention of letting go.
Speaker:I like to obsess over details, getting things right, setting big goals and
Speaker:ambitions, but I am telling you, I am letting go this year, which
Speaker:is very unlike me, but guess what?
Speaker:We're just going to have to go with the flow and you know what?
Speaker:I'm going to encourage you all to go with the flow as well.
Speaker:So let's get into today's episode.
Speaker:Like I said, I'm going to be starting things off and talking
Speaker:about, how to read more books.
Speaker:If in 2025, so my thing is odds are, if you're watching this,
Speaker:if you're familiar with any of us, that means you're a reader.
Speaker:You've been reading for some time.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:If you are new to reading, I have a whole separate video on
Speaker:my channel for like beginners.
Speaker:So if you haven't read a book in years, if you probably only read one or two books,
Speaker:which by the way, congratulations if you did, but if you want to kind of amp that
Speaker:up, I have a separate video for beginners.
Speaker:What I'm going to be talking about is how to read more.
Speaker:For people who are currently reading but for people who are busy Because I
Speaker:know what it feels like to feel like you don't have enough time But I have found
Speaker:practical ways to do all the things right?
Speaker:I'm taking care of home.
Speaker:I'm taking care of work I'm taking care of creating content and
Speaker:i'm still reading So even though you're busy, you can find the time.
Speaker:The first tip I'm going to recommend is that you have to make
Speaker:reading a part of your routine.
Speaker:I truly believe reading doesn't have to be a huge time commitment.
Speaker:Once upon a time, I used to feel you had to have this big chunk of
Speaker:time to lounge on your couch and read, but no, that isn't the thing.
Speaker:I think it's more about consistency and I also believe starting small and building.
Speaker:So maybe start reading for 10 minutes, 15 minutes before bed,
Speaker:then you up it 20 minutes and so on.
Speaker:So I think little bits of time add up over time.
Speaker:You could maybe do a page count.
Speaker:So maybe if the time isn't your thing, like the 10, 15 minute
Speaker:thing, how about reading 10 pages?
Speaker:That's a start.
Speaker:Again, once you get going, like anything, you exercise that
Speaker:muscle, it becomes habit over time.
Speaker:The next thing I want to recommend tip two is always carry a book with you.
Speaker:I never leave the house without a book.
Speaker:There's a book in my bag.
Speaker:There's a book in the car There's a book on my work desk on the couch nightstand.
Speaker:Listen, there are books everywhere So I think it's very important to always have
Speaker:a book now if you Don't want to carry physical books carry your kindle If you
Speaker:don't have a kindle you're on more an audio book person carry your phone So
Speaker:whatever it is a big trick is never leave home without some form of reading material
Speaker:So physical book ebook on your phone or your kindle or your tablet or audio book
Speaker:Just have something going right because you could be reading Listening or reading
Speaker:physically when you're in line somewhere if you're commuting and you're not the
Speaker:driver perfect time to read if you are The driver audio books come in handy pick up
Speaker:lines I don't know how many of us spend so much time in pickup lines at school.
Speaker:Trust me that works as well doctors appointments They never
Speaker:start on time Always carry a book.
Speaker:The next thing is create a reading list that excites you I know we share
Speaker:recommendations here on the channel during our live show every thursday 7 p.
Speaker:m.
Speaker:Eastern time Okay, we share lots of recommendations.
Speaker:But at the end of the day, I feel like nothing kills momentum When you are
Speaker:not reading what you want to read So create a reading list that excites you
Speaker:when we're sharing a book and you're like, oh that sounds interesting
Speaker:Write that down keep that list going.
Speaker:So when you do need something you have something Also again library books.
Speaker:You don't have to be buying all the books but library books audio books
Speaker:I live on libby and my friend laura.
Speaker:She is like the libby queen the ebook queen kindle queen she'll tell you
Speaker:about those apps Not just today, but in future episodes as well.
Speaker:So keep a TDR that really excites you create something that you want to read.
Speaker:Not what everyone else is telling you to read.
Speaker:Find your favorite format again.
Speaker:Sometimes it's physical.
Speaker:Sometimes it's ebook.
Speaker:Sometimes it's audio.
Speaker:It's good to mix it up again.
Speaker:Just listen to yourself.
Speaker:Maybe you're just audio only.
Speaker:That's fine.
Speaker:Ebook only.
Speaker:That's fine.
Speaker:Whatever works for you.
Speaker:If you're a mix and match girly like me.
Speaker:Go for it And then the last tip I want to say is join a book club join a reading
Speaker:community subscribe to our channels I'm, not just saying it from a content creator
Speaker:point of view of you know We want you to join our community or we want you to
Speaker:join our book club It's not about just that element for us as content creators
Speaker:But the reality is the more you surround yourself with readers and books and
Speaker:you hear what they're reading or what they're doing It can encourage you to
Speaker:read, you pop up and you share in the comments and you say oh This is what we
Speaker:were reading It gets us excited because oh my gosh we haven't read that yet or
Speaker:we did read it and we start getting into you know Nerding out about the book.
Speaker:I think it's really important to just surround yourself with readers I think
Speaker:it's helpful pop in at your local library pop into a bookstore Sometimes
Speaker:you don't have to be buying something All the time, but it's good to just
Speaker:kind of be inspired and do some of the bookish things I'll also have a separate
Speaker:video if you're currently going through a slump because I know that happens
Speaker:even to the best Readers like myself.
Speaker:It happens But I have separate content on that as well So I hope those tips
Speaker:will help you to read more if you take nothing away Just do you do
Speaker:what you want to do on your own time.
Speaker:Trust me Your future self and your reading self will thank you for it.
Speaker:Before I hop off I do want to share I have some reading challenges So if you
Speaker:want to gamify things a bit if you want to start small Then I recommend going
Speaker:with the winter reading challenge.
Speaker:Okay, this is like very easy peasy.
Speaker:There are three prompts So it's not like incredibly overwhelming.
Speaker:So prompt one is read a book with a snowy or winter setting.
Speaker:Prompt two is read a book that feels cozy and comforting and cozy and comforting
Speaker:is unique to each individual, right?
Speaker:For me, cozy and comforting is rereading books.
Speaker:I've read before reading classics that's comforting for me.
Speaker:And then prompt three is read a mystery or thriller set in a small town if
Speaker:you're looking for book recommendations I also have a separate video.
Speaker:You'll find all the links in the video's description for the winter
Speaker:reading challenge so you can learn more details, but also get book
Speaker:recommendations And I have some readers sharing their recommendations in
Speaker:the comments already So you can get recommendations from them as well.
Speaker:And if you're watching leave your recommendations, too Now the winter
Speaker:reading challenge is from December 2024 through to February 2025.
Speaker:So three months So if you're joining us in January, that's okay You have
Speaker:two more months to read three books If you're a voracious reader just times
Speaker:the prompt by instead of one book by two three, you know You can just go up
Speaker:as much as you'd like now if you want an annual commitment, that's also good,
Speaker:too I have an annual reading challenge.
Speaker:So this is a prompt a month.
Speaker:So overall they're 12 prompts.
Speaker:So, Maybe I should make this one a little bigger.
Speaker:Let's see about doing that.
Speaker:There we go Okay, so you can see the prompts a bit better So january read
Speaker:a book with new in the title february pick a book featuring an unusual
Speaker:friendship March, read a book with a floral cover or a nature theme.
Speaker:April, explore a book set in a place you'd like to visit.
Speaker:May, a one that, a book that won a notable award.
Speaker:June, a book by a debut author.
Speaker:July, a book with a journey or a road trip.
Speaker:August, a translated book.
Speaker:September, a book recommended by a librarian.
Speaker:October a spooky or atmospheric mystery And november read a memoir or a biography
Speaker:and in december enjoy a classic Or a book that's published over 50 years
Speaker:ago so again These are prompts just to kind of inspire you pick or choose as
Speaker:you see fit I'll have a separate video sharing book recommendations as we go
Speaker:along throughout the year but again, if you want a short challenge winter's for
Speaker:you If you want a long term commitment Choose the annual reading challenge.
Speaker:I hope you guys feel inspired by the book recommendations.
Speaker:If you are new book person.
Speaker:So if you love new books, check out the winter reading guide, it's
Speaker:exclusively available on Substack.
Speaker:These have 24 new books in seven categories.
Speaker:These are books that came out late December, January, and
Speaker:February for the winter season.
Speaker:I also have the short list with a list of all the books I read for
Speaker:the guy that I read and loved.
Speaker:You'll also find books like recommendations in there as well.
Speaker:So maybe you don't want the new books.
Speaker:You can, read the books like recommendations, or you can use that to
Speaker:determine if the new book is for you.
Speaker:So yeah, those are my tips.
Speaker:Those are the challenges, and I hope you all have a great reading
Speaker:year and get inspired to start.
Speaker:What do you guys think?
Speaker:Always carry a book with you, whether audiobook, an e
Speaker:book, your phone, anything.
Speaker:Your phone can be your best friend.
Speaker:You can have a phone book, you can have a phone audiobook, you can
Speaker:have something under Bluetooth.
Speaker:Just be careful if you're reading something spicy and the pickup line,
Speaker:there's something happening there.
Speaker:But you know, it doesn't matter.
Speaker:Put your AirPods on and it doesn't matter.
Speaker:Live your best life possible.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I do AirPods.
Speaker:in the car as well.
Speaker:I'm just saying.
Speaker:My biggest tip is to always mood read, like don't force yourself,
Speaker:like learn to DNF a book.
Speaker:If something is not working, just prevent going into that slump, just
Speaker:drop it and pick something else up.
Speaker:There are too many books out there for you to like be suffering
Speaker:through something that is not something you're really enjoying.
Speaker:Just start reading it.
Speaker:Yeah, listen life is too short and there are too many books out there I
Speaker:mean, jeez, you know spend your time reading something you actually want to
Speaker:read, so that should be the focus Okay, so here's the thing I just shared some
Speaker:tips to help your read but guess what if you have reading goals whether it's the
Speaker:challenge Romanceopoly is coming up later.
Speaker:So stay tuned You're going to need to track your reading.
Speaker:So Laura is going to be sharing with us about these reading tracking
Speaker:apps because I don't know about you.
Speaker:I get confused sometimes and check out, but she did the hard work for us.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So she's going to let us know all the things.
Speaker:So first things first, I want to talk about the Kindle reading streak.
Speaker:So if you're a Kindle reader, ebook reader of some sort, if you read on
Speaker:Kindle, the app, they'll actually track your reading if you read a book a day.
Speaker:So they'll track how many weeks you have read, and it gives
Speaker:you a streak of times and days.
Speaker:The trick is you have to read for 15, 15 minutes a day, and then you For
Speaker:that day to count that's what it is.
Speaker:It's 50 minutes.
Speaker:It's not hours It's not like the whole day just 50 minutes and then you get that day
Speaker:you get that gold star So if you're one of those people who needs gold stars It's
Speaker:like i'm reading out 50 minutes You can do this and you can do it on your phone.
Speaker:You can do it on your kindle You can do on your computer as
Speaker:long as you use the kindle app.
Speaker:So that's the first one so I want to talk about reading trackers and reading goals
Speaker:a lot of times If you're a reader, if you have a good reads, they said, and goal
Speaker:of how many books you're going to read and you're competing with your friends.
Speaker:You share your goals.
Speaker:You share the books.
Speaker:You read.
Speaker:Goodreads is the most popular.
Speaker:It's been around for a long time.
Speaker:It's not an intuitive.
Speaker:App, it hasn't been updated since 2012 since it started.
Speaker:So it has its issues But there's some stuff that is the chart truth.
Speaker:So goodreads connects to your kindle connects to Amazon so it
Speaker:does have the information because it goodreads is owned by amazon.
Speaker:So there is that there's a social aspect of it There's like a feed where you can
Speaker:find out what your friends are reading If you have friends who are reading kindle on
Speaker:goodreads, you can find out what they're reading You can hear some reviews so you
Speaker:get some ideas of some new anticipated books So goodreads is this it's the
Speaker:one that's been around for the longest.
Speaker:It's easy to set up a goal.
Speaker:You can set up a goal for one book.
Speaker:If you're going to want to have like a stressful year and you can just
Speaker:accomplish that whenever you do.
Speaker:And every time you've accomplished reading more books, it'll be like you accomplished
Speaker:a thousand percent more of your goal.
Speaker:So that's it.
Speaker:Trek, just do one book.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:You can do 50.
Speaker:You can always change it.
Speaker:If you realize that you're like, it tells you it's behind and you're
Speaker:like, Oh my gosh, I can't do this.
Speaker:You can change your goal at any time.
Speaker:So just doesn't matter.
Speaker:And greeting laws are arbitrary.
Speaker:You make the rules.
Speaker:Nobody's going to compete.
Speaker:This is not a competition.
Speaker:This is not, some reading years are great.
Speaker:Some readers are not.
Speaker:And that's okay.
Speaker:Just be okay with that.
Speaker:Again, let it go.
Speaker:We're going with the flow.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So if you're looking for a Goodreads alternative, because this is a time of
Speaker:year where like, okay, we don't want to support Amazon and Goodreads is so old.
Speaker:It doesn't have all the capabilities that we're looking for.
Speaker:There's a couple alternatives that I want to share.
Speaker:The first one, StoryGraph, which is a well known alternative to Goodreads.
Speaker:It is owned by a black creator who has been doing a lot of the coding
Speaker:and a lot of the work and has been listening to the people who are
Speaker:asking for the different needs.
Speaker:So it meets what Goodreads doesn't meet the needs.
Speaker:So there's a lot of stats.
Speaker:There's a lot of like tagging, shelving, reading challenges, buddy reading.
Speaker:There's actually a pause button if you're DNFing a book, but
Speaker:you're not really DNFing a book.
Speaker:You just want to put it on pause.
Speaker:I'm known to put things on pause.
Speaker:This actually has those features.
Speaker:It might be slagging right now because there's a lot of people
Speaker:coming to StoryGraph on January 1st.
Speaker:So bear with it.
Speaker:Just give it a try.
Speaker:Try it around my suggestions.
Speaker:Do not export.
Speaker:Do not explore your goodreads stuff.
Speaker:Start from scratch.
Speaker:Start from the beginning Don't worry.
Speaker:It's a new year.
Speaker:Just start from the beginning Don't try to explore it because the data is just
Speaker:like doesn't Mesh well and you might have to go back and clean the data And
Speaker:if you're like me who has like 2000 books in the red list That's a lot of
Speaker:data that I don't want to clean up.
Speaker:So start from scratch Just go with it.
Speaker:If you're like a stats person, if you just want to track your stats, this is
Speaker:the, this is a reading track for you.
Speaker:If you want a little bit of social aspect, which is what I actually
Speaker:like about GetReads, I do like to find out what my friends are reading.
Speaker:I'm nosy as that, so I just like go back and be like, oh, you're
Speaker:reading this, you're reading this, or you thought of this.
Speaker:Fable actually has that feature, and it's more like a social media.
Speaker:Aspect of it has like a feed where you have content you have like
Speaker:recommendations They do have some stats.
Speaker:It's pretty stats.
Speaker:They do have a nice little calendar that tells you like when you're
Speaker:reading different things when you read certain books in certain
Speaker:days, it has like the cover.
Speaker:It's a really pretty calendar the only problem with fable is that search fund
Speaker:is not as intuitive and so adding a book to read that you're currently reading
Speaker:Tracking when you're currently reading it You have to do that manual labor and
Speaker:it's not as intuitive as other trackers It's even good reads when good reads
Speaker:connected to your kindle They'll just tell you like they already put it on
Speaker:your you're currently reading the book.
Speaker:So if you're looking for more social and you don't want to use
Speaker:Goodreads, I would say Fable.
Speaker:If you're looking for the stats heavy and buddy reads and reading challenges,
Speaker:I would say Storygraph is for you.
Speaker:If you do not want to have this, and you're a data geek like myself, I
Speaker:love data, I would say Storygraph.
Speaker:I actually had created my own Airtable, but good news is that Francesca is
Speaker:offering an Airtable reading tracker.
Speaker:So Airtable is similar to, it's a better version of Excel.
Speaker:It's prettier version of Excel.
Speaker:It has options to do Kanban.
Speaker:It has options to do calendar view.
Speaker:You can connect to, if you want to connect your Airtable calendar view to your
Speaker:Google calendar, so you can see like, I read these books on my Google calendar.
Speaker:Airtable allows you to have asynchronicity.
Speaker:I've been tracking Airtable for a couple years.
Speaker:My suggestion if you're doing this is to track the same day or the day after.
Speaker:Don't wait till like a couple weeks later.
Speaker:I'm like I need to backtrack the data, like you have to
Speaker:track the data the same day.
Speaker:Airtable makes it easy to do it like a form, but just ask just
Speaker:enough data that you want to have.
Speaker:Don't go crazy asking a bunch of data.
Speaker:That you have to dig around and say like, Oh, I need to get the cover or
Speaker:I need to get how many pages I need to do this, just get the data that you're
Speaker:actually curious about and just track that data, track it on the day off or
Speaker:the day after there's actually, it's similar to a Google form, you can just
Speaker:fill it in and it'll just keep track it.
Speaker:And then at the end of the year, you can do pivot tables.
Speaker:You can do graphs.
Speaker:You can do charts.
Speaker:Francesca has a video.
Speaker:And so to get Francesca's air table tracker, you can just join her sub stack.
Speaker:And then after you join her sub stack, you should just join both of us both of our
Speaker:ability lifestyle and what to read next.
Speaker:Subsect is we're recommending each other.
Speaker:So it's a great place.
Speaker:You'll get plenty of recommendations But those are some of the trackers that
Speaker:are useful francesca's gonna talk about notion, which is another more another
Speaker:tracker if you're like it actually want to do a digital reading journal
Speaker:That's an option on the option or you bullet journaling you want to write
Speaker:and make a journal and scrapbooking That's all the options you can do.
Speaker:So have a fun way to see To look back at that year of what you read and think
Speaker:about, like, jot down the feelings, jot down what do you experience,
Speaker:what do you like about this book.
Speaker:You don't have to be a book reviewer, you don't have to read this book and
Speaker:say, like, I need to tell the world.
Speaker:Sometimes you do, sometimes you want to be mad about it, you'd
Speaker:share it to the world, but sometimes you just want to be mad about it,
Speaker:you don't want to tell the world.
Speaker:There's plenty opportunities, but there are some reading trackers that
Speaker:are social, there are apps doing, there's like your personal reading
Speaker:challenge, which you can do on Airtable.
Speaker:You can do Google Sheets.
Speaker:Etsy has a couple reading trackers, Google Sheets, if you're like
Speaker:a Google Sheet Excel person.
Speaker:Or you can just do a digital journal or bullet journal, like
Speaker:an actual physical journal.
Speaker:And those are my recommendations.
Speaker:Yay!
Speaker:I love that!
Speaker:I have to say, I'm the physical journal girlie, because sometimes I
Speaker:get so overwhelmed with online stuff.
Speaker:So I jot down the thoughts and the feelings, and I keep a index card.
Speaker:So I have a bunch of index cards sticky notes, I'm that gal.
Speaker:And as I'm reading, I'll write stuff and I'll use it as a bookmark too,
Speaker:but it's actually keeping notes, but I read lots of physical books.
Speaker:So that works for me too.
Speaker:I'm also a spreadsheet, just old school spreadsheet girl,
Speaker:which helps me with content.
Speaker:But yeah, I think the most important thing is I think people should just
Speaker:go with whatever feels good to them.
Speaker:Sometimes you want to share your reading publicly.
Speaker:Sometimes I don't.
Speaker:So yeah, whatever works for you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Alright, so Fran is going to share more about Notion next.
Speaker:Yeah, actually, before I get into Notion I have to say one app that
Speaker:I would add to Laura's is Bookly.
Speaker:I love using Bookly because you can also do reading sessions and it
Speaker:will give you like a little bit of a background sound so you can choose
Speaker:like, the ocean or this or that and it's tracking the sessions so it's tracking
Speaker:also your reading as you're doing it.
Speaker:So It's really fun and easy, and then you can take a picture of
Speaker:like a quote or something as you're reading, as you're in the session,
Speaker:and it will automatically transcribe that text and keep the highlight
Speaker:inside of the app under the book.
Speaker:So just another app that I think it's also really fun.
Speaker:I think of all the apps that I've tried, that's probably
Speaker:the one that I like the best.
Speaker:I just don't love the fact that you can't access the data from a desktop.
Speaker:It's app only.
Speaker:But yeah, I just wanted to mention, plug that one in.
Speaker:But yeah, you can definitely also get that free Airtable reading
Speaker:tracker and book inventory.
Speaker:So there's a couple of options in there.
Speaker:Just by joining the free subset, you don't have to pay that's available for free.
Speaker:And as soon as you join, it will just automatically come to your email.
Speaker:So, yeah, Airtable, I used it for so many years.
Speaker:I really love it.
Speaker:And it's also like Laura said, just track what you want.
Speaker:And on the actual paper, the paper journals, I will actually have a video
Speaker:coming up, kind of going through my old reading journals, because I used
Speaker:to do that tracking on paper a lot.
Speaker:So stay tuned to the channel for that as well.
Speaker:And so the first thing that I wanted to talk about is
Speaker:tracking your reading in Notion.
Speaker:So I am a bit of a Notion geek, and I do have a couple of templates.
Speaker:I have a more basic template than the one I'm going to talk about here.
Speaker:So if you are just starting out, there is a more basic notion reading
Speaker:tracker that I have for sale.
Speaker:And there, the one I'm talking about now is when you're
Speaker:ready to step it up a notch.
Speaker:So when you really want to like, make sure you know everything that
Speaker:you own, because you sometimes go to the store and you're looking to
Speaker:buy something, but you end up coming home and you already have that book.
Speaker:And maybe you've bought it two times.
Speaker:It's happened to me.
Speaker:So I'm going to give you guys a quick view of what that notion tracker looks like
Speaker:and so this is basically your front view.
Speaker:You can make sure you have like your currently reading
Speaker:books books that you've bought.
Speaker:It will track your books read for the year.
Speaker:You can do challenges.
Speaker:It will also track finances.
Speaker:So if you're somebody that is looking at not spending too much money.
Speaker:You can make sure you're keeping track of that.
Speaker:So whatever challenges you want to have, I have a 2024 reading goal challenge.
Speaker:I have the romance happily.
Speaker:So there's some things that I wasn't using on there, but what I
Speaker:wanted to show you is it will also track the authors that you have.
Speaker:So it's going to tell you who's your most read author from everything that
Speaker:you have inside of the notion tracker.
Speaker:It will also do an author check in.
Speaker:If you have something that you have on your inventory that you own it, but you
Speaker:haven't read it, it will give you what are the oldest things that you have in
Speaker:your inventory that you haven't read.
Speaker:So it might be a good opportunity for you to maybe go in and pick that up.
Speaker:And it will tally up.
Speaker:All of the years and how many books you've read by each author.
Speaker:So it's going to give you those stats automatically as you enter information.
Speaker:Then it's also going to look at finances.
Speaker:So it's going to tell you what are your expenses in terms of books.
Speaker:You'll be able to see that in yearly information as well as monthly.
Speaker:So as.
Speaker:It will also track how much you're spending on subscriptions.
Speaker:So you can track all of your book finances.
Speaker:If you have any upcoming, if you have any upcoming pre orders, you can log them in.
Speaker:So that way it will remind you when something is going to get charged.
Speaker:And then you also have genres.
Speaker:So it's going to tell you a lot of information as you're entering.
Speaker:Which ones, how many books you own, how many books you've borrowed, or
Speaker:how many you still have to read.
Speaker:So if you're in the mood for reading, say a cozy mystery, you can come in here,
Speaker:go into the cozy mystery and see which books you have that are cozy mysteries.
Speaker:It will also track books that you have on your want to read list.
Speaker:So you can enter them in here when there's something that you really want to read.
Speaker:You can enter it in here as something you want Or as a recommendation that somebody
Speaker:gave you and it will show up on here on the genre page to tell you Okay, you
Speaker:have this thing that somebody recommended it might be worthwhile like I said, you
Speaker:also can track goals and then you have your actual library of all the books
Speaker:that you have and As you enter books in, you can also enter different editions.
Speaker:So, for example, you're looking at a book, it will tell you that you own
Speaker:it or you borrowed it, and in what, how many editions you actually have,
Speaker:or how many versions of the book.
Speaker:So, like audio paperback, ebook, or maybe you have a special edition, You can track
Speaker:your signed books and all of that stuff.
Speaker:You can plan your TBR.
Speaker:So it's really simple to plan a TBR.
Speaker:You have your list of books you can search here and simply assign it to a month.
Speaker:And then you have your TBR built up for that month.
Speaker:And it will show you at the very top over here, what is your TBR for the month?
Speaker:So it's an easy way for you to do that.
Speaker:And you can also track just how you can track the authors.
Speaker:You can track the series.
Speaker:So for example, it will give you a reminder of a series that
Speaker:maybe you own something, but you haven't read in a while.
Speaker:So this will give you again, like a little check in for you to kind
Speaker:of get to read the things that,
Speaker:And then you also have a tropes database, which you can use or not use
Speaker:depending on how much you want to track.
Speaker:But I find it really useful, especially if I'm adding books that I own, and
Speaker:I haven't read so that when I'm in the mood for something, or even if I
Speaker:have read them, but I am looking for a recommendation to give to somebody,
Speaker:I can come in here and kind of look at the books that I have entered
Speaker:that fit that particular description.
Speaker:And then you also have some more stats.
Speaker:You do have a set here of how many books you've read for the
Speaker:month and also the whole year.
Speaker:You'll also be able to see, so this is current month, this is the
Speaker:year, and you will be able to see all of the books that you've read
Speaker:for the year inside of the system.
Speaker:So I wanted to show you what the inside of one card for a book looks like.
Speaker:So in their case, I entered actually information from a previous
Speaker:times that I've read this book.
Speaker:I've read it three times and it actually gives me all of that information here.
Speaker:So it's telling me I own the four entries in different formats.
Speaker:I have four copies of the inventory.
Speaker:That means I still own all of them.
Speaker:And two of them are signed, read it three times.
Speaker:The last time I read it, how many notes I've saved.
Speaker:So you can save like your quotes or your reviews or anything like that.
Speaker:How much money I've spent on this book.
Speaker:And of course, like an average.
Speaker:Rating as well.
Speaker:So and you can also upload pictures.
Speaker:So if it is a signed book, or if you want to keep like the actual
Speaker:photo of what that physical copy looks like, you can upload it here.
Speaker:I have all of the reading logs for all three times that I've read it.
Speaker:So if I want to keep separate notes and separate ratings, every time
Speaker:that I read it, I can have that here.
Speaker:And I can see here the pictures that I uploaded with my notes.
Speaker:So Lots of stuff that you can do on here.
Speaker:Like I said, it's more of a more in depth tracker, but it will give you a
Speaker:lot of information when it comes to what you want to track with your reading.
Speaker:So, I do have one that's kind of like the baby version of this one, if this
Speaker:one feels a little bit more intimidating.
Speaker:But I have a ton of fun with that.
Speaker:And personally, I am more of the person that doesn't really like
Speaker:anymore to track my reading publicly.
Speaker:So the less information I give publicly for me, the better.
Speaker:However, if I am still using this year, I still use this year.
Speaker:Last year, I still use StoryGraph, which I really love for all the stats
Speaker:that Laura was talking about, but I'm probably going to move to strictly just
Speaker:tracking inside of my Notion for 2025.
Speaker:Just because of that aspect, I want to kind of Distance that from
Speaker:that information be in public.
Speaker:So that is as far as tracking.
Speaker:And as far as notion, I do think that you need to give notion a
Speaker:try, even if it feels a little bit intimidating with a template is really
Speaker:easy to get started because all of that heavier work is done for you.
Speaker:And when you do get that template, it does come with video tutorials for
Speaker:every page and every step along the way.
Speaker:So you'll be able to kind of get yeah.
Speaker:somebody to hold your hand on what you need to do with all of them.
Speaker:So then the other thing that I wanted to talk to you guys about is Romanceopoly.
Speaker:So if you're looking for a fun reading challenge to do in 2025, we've
Speaker:been doing Romanceopoly for several years and it is basically gamifying
Speaker:your reading for the whole year.
Speaker:It is a year long challenge, so you start now and you have all the way through
Speaker:the end of December to complete it.
Speaker:There are 20.
Speaker:Basically core prompts.
Speaker:So it's 20 books for you to complete the challenge.
Speaker:And on top of that, there's additional things that you can do.
Speaker:So if you want to do more than those 20, there are more options
Speaker:available to you as you go through.
Speaker:And it is designed as a game board and you're moving through this game board
Speaker:with different Through different towns.
Speaker:They're seasonally themed and each one of these little steps that you see on the
Speaker:board will have a prompt for you to pick a book and read and every single season
Speaker:also has a kind of a seasonal event.
Speaker:So those are week long events.
Speaker:Those are entirely optional.
Speaker:You can join or not, or if you feel intimidated and don't want
Speaker:to do the board at all, you can still join those seasonal events.
Speaker:And we'll be talking about our first one for winter as February approaches.
Speaker:So I'm excited to also share that, but basically, yeah, it's all about
Speaker:reading through all of these seasonal towns and kind of getting a reading
Speaker:experience that matches the vibe that you would want for those seasons.
Speaker:feeling like you're kind of like playing a game along the way.
Speaker:You can also, as you complete the prompts, as you read and complete
Speaker:the prompts, you can actually win a membership, paid membership to our
Speaker:under the covers paid sub stack.
Speaker:So if you read the prompts, there's a schedule on how you qualify and
Speaker:how you claim your price, and then you will be able to get access to
Speaker:the paid features on our sub stack.
Speaker:So that is how Romans happily will work for 2025.
Speaker:I can't wait to get started.
Speaker:And I can't wait for you guys to really have fun with your reading this year.
Speaker:I think that's the most important thing.
Speaker:Whenever you are getting a little bit intimidated about
Speaker:reading, just have fun with it.
Speaker:That's my biggest message Yes, I agree.
Speaker:Have fun with it everyone and again do what works for you because Yes, what
Speaker:works for other people might not be for you But yeah, so I hope you guys
Speaker:benefited from some of the resources we shared with you today Okay, so, how to
Speaker:help you read more the different apps, you know go back and listen If you might
Speaker:have forgotten something or you just want clarity on an app also feel free
Speaker:to hop in the comments Okay Let us know in the comments replay crew if you're
Speaker:watching live, even though this is pre recorded But let us know in the comments.
Speaker:We'd love to hear from you.
Speaker:We'll respond as well Okay, so I do want to share with you and see
Speaker:now I want to share it with you I don't know where it went is.
Speaker:Or upcoming calendar Okay.
Speaker:So I'm really excited to share what we have planned for the year.
Speaker:I think I said in a previous video that we planned the entire novel
Speaker:night's calendar for the whole year.
Speaker:So I hope this is the right the right graphic, but yes, it is here.
Speaker:It is here.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So next week we are back live.
Speaker:Cause like I said, this is prerecorded, but we are back live next week.
Speaker:week to share book series that you can hibernate with.
Speaker:So these are complete series, right?
Speaker:So you don't have to wait on the next book in the series or so on.
Speaker:These are all completed series.
Speaker:So you can get all of them and just go hibernate this winter.
Speaker:Then we'll share some books with winter settings.
Speaker:Then the following week, we'll get into some magical realism.
Speaker:I feel like all these Themes are just very in line with the season of winter.
Speaker:So if you're a seasonal reader, you're going to be having lots
Speaker:of fun here at novel night.
Speaker:So stay tuned again.
Speaker:We have lots to look forward to.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I think that's it.
Speaker:I don't think there's anything else for us to share.
Speaker:I hope you all have a good week.
Speaker:Great start to the year and we'll see you all soon.