Welcome to the What Next podcast. So excited to be back and I'm excited to chat with you of all things, how to build your own read and retreat. So I'll be honest, I was planning today, it's Sunday. I had no responsibilities. I had no outings. I didn't wanna spend money. So I was like, oh, perfect, I'll just go and do a reading retreat. I have a couple of craft books that I'm reading about mysteries 'cause I'm thinking of writing a book and I had some books about like, some new arcs that were really interesting, some mysteries, some fun books to read. I've been listening to a couple audio books listening to these summer storms with some Sarah McLean listening to Rush Week and Michelle Gannon delightful. And I was like, I should just spend a day reading like, what else can I do? And I'll be honest. I did nothing. I spent time watching Love Island UK because I am in a, I'm in my love island journey and I am mad about USA, it's just, it's been a terrible season, but I can't stop watching it. And so I was like, I have to do something else. So I watch on Love Island uk. I am like the first week I'm about to enter the second week. Love that they have Unseen Bits, because that's actually my favorite thing is to see like the different things about the. Cast members and like how do you interact and how they have fun and all those different things. I wish the USA version has that as opposed to after Sun. 'cause I couldn't care less about after Sun. I would like to just watch on seeing beds. That's like my take on. But you probably think it's because it's less, it's much more tedious to edit and everything, but it's just the light bulb. So I watch tv, I updated podcasts. I got this podcast back on YouTube, so you'll be able to see, listen to episodes on YouTube, music, new episodes. I uploaded my Turkish TV obsess backlog of episodes that we recorded because I forgot to update it since December 20, 24. And I was like. Oh my gosh. I got like seven months worth of episodes. And guess what? We're almost done with the series. We are recording all the episodes, all the way to C, to episode seven to season three, and so we are just about to record the last episode of series. So we'll have a whole complete series coming very soon. We just need to get show notes. We just need to get the stuff, but you'll be able to watch. And what we watched this past year was as the crow Flies, which is a vote on Netflix, it is a delightful fun. Thrilling. Just like very nuanced series. If you're looking for something more darker theme, so the morning show, this show is for you. It's as to crow flies. You can dub it in English, you can dub it in Spanish. It has subtitles. It is. Very tight. The episodes are actually 40 minutes long, and there's eight episodes per season and each season arc is just as good as, is better than the other one. The premise is established newscaster and a young up and coming very, very hungry. Newscasters wants to take over her job and know you just get to see, and I have to say Ashley Tuna is like my favorite character ever. She. Amazing. If you watch it, let me know. Send me a message, leave it a comment, and let's chat about Turkish TV. Obsessed. But also, I know under Turkish TV Obsessed News, I was accepted to a a fan site for one of the cast members. I watched a couple Turkish Novas, it's like it's normal in Puerto Rico. They watch them. That's where they ex like sports, like the can tell instrument sport. But there's a, there's a big Nova or. Called Early Birds, and the main actor, he's just really famous, but he actually got banned from Turkey and then he's not living Italy. I, or my co-host Melissa, shares the tea with me and it's just fascinating. It's just like this crazy story. But there's a fan group in Facebook that they're all like. Obsessed with him and it's the most interesting place to be just to watch and observe. I'm like, holy crap fandoms are gonna be really scary. And I think in some ways it's like fresh take on different fandoms and I'm like, yep, this is interesting. So yeah, on bookish news, lots of dramas going on. I'm thinking of covering bookish news and Substack, so if you're interested, join the Substack. I may just give you an update, like here's some of the major news that are happening. Some stuff is coming up as Dramione Fanfictions are getting published, even though they original. Published stories. They've been marked as your Dramione fan fiction, and that causes hurt because JK Rowling is a terrible, terrible person. We believe in trans rights. We believe that everyone has a right to exist and everyone has a right to live their truth and their life and whatever they feel like they're supposed to be. So it is trans right and so. We don't support JK Rowling and for all the damage that she has created. That's been drama right now. Like what's going on? I have read one of the books I read Rose in Chains. It's different. It's definitely checked trigger warnings, understanding that it's called the auction and there's SA or implied SA and all these different things. But I really just taking away, it didn't feel. Like the original canon of Germany, it felt very like fresh. It felt very subtle. It's very political. It is not this fancy world building. It's much more darker themes, and I really enjoyed it for that reason because I'm not like a typical fantasy reader. I found Fourth Wing to be much more younger audience and I didn't enjoy Fourth Wing and it's hard for me to get into fantasy. It just depends. But this one worked. I listened part of it on the audiobook and then I read like, quite a bit. So both experiences were just as great and I really enjoyed both of them. I tried the resistible, the Brigitte Knightley new book. I tried a couple times. It just did not work. And so it may be someday, maybe I'll work maybe when the due, it's complete. But right now I'm just putting it down, I'm planning to read Manacled, I read part of Manacled or Alchemised. I got into the flashbacks, but the flashbacks were too Harry Potter and I couldn't curl by any of that stuff. So that's been like a challenge. And so I was like, I stopped. So I'm hoping to see the original work and what it looks like in this world. That is definitely essay that is definitely triggers, it's trigger warnings galore. It's. Handmaid tale reimagine in a fantasy world. So it is, it is triggering, but it will be interesting. I have, I don't even know what the ending is. I know a lot of my friends have read it. They'll enjoy it. They just love this book, but it's just, it'll be interesting to see. So that's been the latest in the bookish news. And I have not been on Threads because my goal was to read. Why I'm not reading and why I wanna create reading retreat and why I wanna share, maybe you wanted to do this. So I'm not reading because I'm doom scrolling and I keep saying the same thing and I'm like, I wanna change the behavior. But it's just challenging in today's world, it just feels like. We're just bombarded with news and it's like a dopamine high and you get stressed and it feels good. Like, I don't know how to explain it, but it just feels good to feel stressed. It feels familiar. As someone who grew up with trauma, this is like a very familiar pattern and because my life is not in that familiar pattern, it just goes back to that space. But instead, their news, I had to go back to when was the last time that I really enjoyed reading and that I. Truly enjoy, and it was actually September, 2024. There was a hurricane, don't remember the name, that was not that important, but the Hurricane R Tampa and it shut down power from most of the city. I was without power for about three days and did not get evacuated, did not have flooding or wind issues or anything, just the power loss. And for the first day, I basically spend the day reading. I. Loaded off my Kindle. Basically I have a Kindle A with eight gigabytes and I downloaded a bunch of books and I just went through an Ally HBO bench. I read check and mate, I read. Not in love. I read Deep End 'cause I had an arc I read and something else. I read like three books. Natalie Haze book and then I read only for one night, but Jessica James and I think I read something else and I was like, that's all I did. All I did was just to read. I read physical books for the first time. Without actually glasses and I was like, oh my gosh, this is great. Even though it's like it was difficult. Now that I have glasses, I can't wait read physical books and I do enjoy them. I read actually like just all I did was just read. I did not check my phone because I needed to save my battery. I saved my battery, like my battery lasted for two days because I was not checking my phone. I actually upgraded the phone after that trip, but I saved my battery. I timed it to just check my text messages and my WhatsApp messages for five minutes, and then I just went back and just got back to read and I wish I can just like. Put myself in that shoes and be like, whoa, can you just like leave the phone? Can I break up with my phone? And I don't know how hard it is. Like it's just feels it just feels difficult. And I think in some ways that's what I'm long for is like just breaking up with a phone. So how to build a read and retreat, which is the whole point, and this is how I view it, is that I think what I wanted to do this week is to sort of detox, like not fully cold Turkey, break up with my phone because that's not realistic, but I think detoxing from my relationship with my phone. So that means being mindful, so having time to meditate and time to breathe and think about do I need to pick up the phone or can I have another option? And actually. Crowd myself with options that allow me to do this. So this week I wanna do like a media reading retreat because I don't wanna spend money. So I have like thousands of books. I have hundreds of audio books I already own and I can just listen to books. I'm also okay with just consuming media like that is actually entertaining. That's not YouTube because I think in some ways YouTube. Instagram threads. All this as apps are just creating so much noise that I need to detox from the noise. I need to detox from the space of like actually understanding like, this is what I have to do, this is what I can do. This is like what it feels, that feels in mind, not numbing. And it's, I think it's just difficult to feel mind numb and then not actually be present and then feel like your life is it's just moving faster and you're just like, but you're not part of your life. So\ next Sunday I'm gonna do a reading retreat. We're gonna talk about this and I'm gonna check in with you. I may leave a like short voice note on an episode next week, share a little bit about it. But my next Sunday plan is to basically. Have my meals planned. Have like lots of snacks and lots of fun things to do. Maybe set up some time to go for a hot girl walk first thing in the morning before it gets too hot. And just put on the audiobook for half an hour. Go for a walk around the neighborhood. And then come back, read a little bit, maybe plan to read a physical book, maybe read a couple arcs that I wanted to try on, or maybe try to Kindle Unlimited 'cause I haven't spent so much time with Kindle Unlimited and just give myself a thing. But if you're thinking about creating your own read retreat, there's some ideas you can do. You can set up your space, you can have your reading nook, you can have your cozy blankets. Candles. You can have an ambiance music. I'll set up a playlist. I can share a playlist for you so you can have this. I like to listen to meditation, music and classical music when reading. You can set up like actually there's YouTube channels that actually have ambiance, jazz music. Cozy environments. You can listen to rain, that's another option. Or you can listen to the ocean waves. It feel like you're on the beach. You know what? I may just do, I may go to the pool actually, 'cause it's hot. And read by the pool. I do have a. Pool in my building. That was like a big thing that I wanted to have. So maybe go to the pool, have my B retreats and listen to books, or maybe I listen to books while I'm actually coloring. Or I may just actually read a Kindle book and it's okay to, or read a physical book. That might actually be fun. Just read a physical book. And so creating a little list. The other options you can do is you can create a theme. You can say I'm gonna try on these books, I'm gonna do a chapter sample, so I'm gonna do five books. Try on the first 10% or the first 50 pages of the physical book. And then if you don't like it, you can put it down, is maybe do not DNF forever. Maybe it's. Softy enough, like maybe not Now. Maybe I'm not in the mood and maybe it's you know what? This one's engaging enough. I wanna continue reading. I wanna keep doing this. I think a lot of times we think like we have to read a bunch of books and we have to finish the book, but there's something to be said about just like actually DN fing it in a way that feels like. Not right now. And that's probably what I'll say about the Dramione fanfiction. Is that the one that I did DNF? It's probably not right now. It's just not right though. This moment it is just, this is not where I am and I'm okay with just. Having flexibility with it. So that's that. Other than that, I feel you can actually create an ambiance. You can create accountability, you can share on socials, you can share with your friends. Let's do a detox. Make sure your phone is set in the other room, or make sure your phone is actually set. Do not disturb. So you're not doing this. Maybe delete the Instagram or the social media apps like TikTok. Threats and whatnot, so you don't have the temptation for it. So just allow yourself just to be, and then just have fun. And then maybe just allow yourself just to enjoy the pleasure of reading. There's no rush at how many books you need to finish. There's no rush on how many books need to be five stars or stuff like that. Sometimes you just need media for books. Sometimes you need a little bit of fun things, or sometimes you need like just a romp, like quick, short, novella and just to kind of be a pile cleanser. It is okay. Whatever book you decide to read, just enjoy the process. Just truly enjoy it. And if you don't read, if you don't finish right away, that is okay too. So that's it for me. I hope you have a great day. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider rate review, subscribe, and this is the best way to find a podcast. If you like book recommendations, please make sure to join our whattoreadnext Slash newsletter or if you wanna have daily book lists about all types of recommendations. And I'm telling you, we're repurposing. Some of our all podcast episodes are are showing up the block, but we also have recommendations from like book set and the Hamptons, cozy Mysteries and Romance. We have Best Beach. Reads booklet books for summer 2025. We have actually different L-G-B-T-Q lists from historical romances to cozy, which are queer, cozy mysteries and whatnot. So we got a little bit of everything. We got some thrillers. If you're looking for read of listen books, we have lists for you. So come and join us in the block, whattoreadnextblog.com We update on a daily basis. And yeah. So thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a great day.