This week, we catch up on what we’re reading, including Jackie’s continued descent into Dungeon Crawler Carl, Anni’s complicated relationship with Carl, and a very successful return to gothic horror with What Moves the Dead. We also get into why the format you read a book in can make a surprisingly big difference.

Then it’s time to choose what comes next, with everything from cozy fantasy and death magic to fairy-tale retellings and books we’ve been meaning to pick up forever. And, as usual, our TBRs are significantly more ambitious than our available reading time. main-episode-draft main-episode-draft main-episode-draft

Discord:
https://discord.gg/CANZK9UEhK

Jackie:
https://www.instagram.com/readingafic/

Anni:
https://www.instagram.com/annilubiens/

• Dungeon Crawler Carl — Matt Dinniman
• Witch King — Martha Wells
• Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea — Rebecca Thorne
• What Moves the Dead — T. Kingfisher
• What Feasts at Night — T. Kingfisher
• What Stalks the Deep — T. Kingfisher
• The Fall of the House of Usher — Edgar Allan Poe
• Compass and Blade — Rachel Greenlaw
• Treasure Island — Robert Louis Stevenson
• Tress of the Emerald Sea — Brandon Sanderson
• Annihilation — Jeff VanderMeer
• Authority — Jeff VanderMeer
• Innate Magic — Shannon Fay
• The Fairy Godmother — Mercedes Lackey
• The Martian — Andy Weir
• Jade City — Fonda Lee
• No Man of Woman Born — Ana Mardoll
• A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet — Becky Chambers
• Lace and Lies — Nancy Warren
• Legends & Lattes — Travis Baldree
• The Foxglove King — Hannah Whitten
• Dreadful — Caitlin Rozakis
• Ascension — S. T. Gibson
• Kill the Beast — Serra Swift
• The Memory Police — Yoko Ogawa

#ReadingAsFastAsWeCan #BookPodcast #WhatWereReading #FantasyBooks #HorrorBooks #CozyFantasy #LitRPG #GothicHorror #BookRecs #TBR #Bookstagram #BookTube

In this bonus episode, we play Bookish Would You Rather and immediately make things difficult with haunted libraries, spoiled endings, favorite villains, unfinished series, rereading beloved books, impossible fantasy-world choices, and the fate of our favorite characters. We also discover that we’d both rather trust fanfiction than accept a terrible series ending, and that apparently neither of us was willing to disagree very much.

Discord:
https://discord.gg/CANZK9UEhK

Jackie:
https://www.instagram.com/readingafic/

Anni:
https://www.instagram.com/annilubiens/

Books Mentioned

• The Hobbit — J.R.R. Tolkien
• Witch King — Martha Wells
• Annihilation — Jeff VanderMeer
• The Butcher of the Forest — Premee Mohamed
• Witchmark — C. L. Polk

#ReadingAsFastAsWeCan #BookPodcast #WouldYouRather #Bookish #ReadingCommunity

This week on Reading As Fast As We Can, Anni and Jackie are catching up on what they’ve been reading—and things get weird fast.

Anni has officially fallen for Half a Soul, survived the unexpected dragon family dynamics of Tooth and Claw, and tore through The Butcher of the Forest. Meanwhile, Jackie is venturing into Witch King, revisiting Hades and Persephone with Neon Gods, and talking urban fantasy with Black Wings.

Then there’s Dungeon Crawler Carl.

We’re reading it together as our first shared quarterly-ish read, which means it’s time to talk about Carl, Princess Donut, the Hitchhiker’s Guide energy, and why this series may be exactly the kind of chaos we needed.

And, of course, we have to choose what we’re reading next.

📚 BOOKS MENTIONED

• Half a Soul — Olivia Atwater
• Tooth and Claw — Jo Walton
• The Butcher of the Forest — Premee Mohamed
• Lace and Lies — Nancy Warren
• Witch King — Martha Wells
• Neon Gods — Katee Robert
• Black Wings — Christina Henry
• Dungeon Crawler Carl — Matt Dinniman
• The Genesis of Misery — Neon Yang
• Compass and Blade — Rachel Greenlaw
• Piranesi — Susanna Clarke
• Nettle & Bone — T. Kingfisher
• Day Boy — Trent Jamieson
• Witchmark — C. L. Polk
• Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea — Rebecca Thorne
• Borne — Jeff VanderMeer
• Parable of the Sower — Octavia E. Butler
• The Burning God — R. F. Kuang
• Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir
• Legends & Lattes — Travis Baldree

Next week: Bookish Would You Rather. Would you rather never be allowed to DNF another book… or never be allowed to reread a favorite?

💬 Join our Discord: https://discord.com/invite/CANZK9UEhK

📸 Find us on Instagram:
Jackie: @readingafic
Anni: @annilubiens

#BookPodcast #BookTube #FantasyBooks #ReadingAsFastAsWeCan #DungeonCrawlerCarl

In Bonus Episode 2 of Episode 7, we’re talking about the book extras that actually matter: maps, family trees, glossaries, timelines, indexes, dramatis personae, and all the little reference tools that keep complicated worlds readable. We get into why translated fiction benefits so much from glossaries, why political intrigue desperately needs character guides, and why a sufficiently complicated family tree can save you from wondering how one person somehow has thirty uncles.

Discord:
https://discord.gg/CANZK9UEhK

Jackie:
https://www.instagram.com/readingafic/

Anni:
https://www.instagram.com/annilubiens/

Books / series mentioned

• Harry Potter series — J.K. Rowling
• A Song of Ice and Fire series — George R.R. Martin
• Annihilation — Jeff VanderMeer

The episode also discusses Tolkien generally, The Untamed and its source material, and Star Wars, but no specific Tolkien, Untamed-source, or Star Wars book title is actually named in the transcript, so I would not quietly invent one for the Books Mentioned list.

#ReadingAsFastAsWeCan #BookPodcast #FantasyBooks #BookMaps #ReadingLife

In Bonus Episode 1 of Episode 7, we talk about how we actually choose what to read, from ADHD-friendly backup books and decision fatigue to years of assigned academic reading and the freedom of finally following your mood. We also get into multitasking while reading, DNFs, brain bunnies, and the reality that sometimes the vibe decides everything.

Discord:
https://discord.gg/CANZK9UEhK

Jackie:
https://www.instagram.com/readingafic/

Anni:
https://www.instagram.com/annilubiens/

Books Mentioned

• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy — Becky Chambers
• Lives of Bitter Rain — Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Elder Race — Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight — J.R.R. Tolkien
• Lace and Lies — Nancy Warren

#ReadingAsFastAsWeCan #BookPodcast #MoodReader #TBR #ADHDReader

This week we get into Elder Race, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, This Is How You Lose the Time War, Jackie’s decision to abandon My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and why some books make crossing into a new genre surprisingly easy. Then we choose our next sci-fi and fantasy reads, which somehow gives us Pride and Prejudice with dragons, a vampire book club, Regency faeries, post-apocalyptic sequels, and a child raised by dungeon monsters.

Discord:
https://discord.gg/CANZK9UEhK

Jackie:
https://www.instagram.com/readingafic/

Anni:
https://www.instagram.com/annilubiens/

Books Mentioned

• Dungeon Crawler Carl — Matt Dinniman
• My Best Friend’s Exorcism — Grady Hendrix
• Any Way the Wind Blows — Seanan McGuire
• Elder Race — Adrian Tchaikovsky
• This Is How You Lose the Time War — Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
• Annihilation — Jeff VanderMeer
• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy — Becky Chambers
• Tooth and Claw — Jo Walton
• Pride and Prejudice — Jane Austen
• The Book of Etta — Meg Elison
• The Book of the Unnamed Midwife — Meg Elison
• The Ghost Brigades — John Scalzi
• Golden Son — Pierce Brown
• Red Rising — Pierce Brown
• Blue Mars — Kim Stanley Robinson
• Red Mars — Kim Stanley Robinson
• Green Mars — Kim Stanley Robinson
• The Dark Forest — Cixin Liu
• The Three-Body Problem — Cixin Liu
• Lace and Lies — Nancy Warren
• A Court of Thorns and Roses — Sarah J. Maas
• Half a Soul — Olivia Atwater
• Lilith — Nikki Marmery
• Tales from the Hinterland — Melissa Albert
• The Dungeon Book — Gareth Hanrahan
• Vicious — V. E. Schwab
• The Murderbot Diaries series — Martha Wells
• Witch King — Martha Wells

#ReadingAsFastAsWeCan #DungeonCrawlerCarl #SciFiBooks #FantasyBooks #BookPodcast

This week, we’re talking about books that hit completely differently depending on your age, mood, or stage of life, including Pride and Prejudice, The Hobbit, Black Sun, and Damian. We also wander into family reading traditions, Christmas books, and the questionable usefulness of some of our college education.

Books mentioned:

• Black Sun — Rebecca Roanhorse
• Demian — Hermann Hesse
• The Hobbit — J.R.R. Tolkien
• Pride and Prejudice — Jane Austen
• The Night Before Christmas — Clement Clarke Moore
• A Christmas Carol — Charles Dickens

Come talk books with us on Discord:
https://discord.com/invite/CANZK9UEhK

#BookPodcast #BookRecommendations #PrideAndPrejudice #TheHobbit #ReadingCommunity #BookDiscussion #RereadingBooks

Anni is almost finished with Rachel Harrison’s Cackle and trying to figure out whether she’s being gaslit right alongside the protagonist, while Jackie dives into Lily Mayne’s Soul Eater and discovers that monster romance may be very much her thing. We also get into ACOTAR frustrations, book ratings that make no sense to us, reading outside our comfort zones, and a pile of horror, fantasy, gothic, and sci-fi recommendations for what comes next.

Discord:
https://discord.gg/CANZK9UEhK

Jackie:
https://www.instagram.com/readingafic/

Anni:
https://www.instagram.com/annilubiens/

Books Mentioned

• This Is How You Lose the Time War — Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
• Cackle — Rachel Harrison
• Black Sun — Rebecca Roanhorse
• A Court of Thorns and Roses — Sarah J. Maas
• Harry Potter series — J.K. Rowling
• The Hunger Games — Suzanne Collins
• Soul Eater — Lily Mayne
• Graveyard Shift — M. L. Rio
• Acceptance — Jeff VanderMeer
• Annihilation — Jeff VanderMeer
• A Deadly Education — Naomi Novik
• Elder Race — Adrian Tchaikovsky
• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy — Becky Chambers
• Shroud — Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Children of Time — Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Dungeon Crawler Carl — Matt Dinniman
• Mexican Gothic — Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle — Shirley Jackson
• Meddling Kids — Edgar Cantero
• My Best Friend’s Exorcism — Grady Hendrix
• Haroun and the Sea of Stories — Salman Rushdie

#ReadingAsFastAsWeCan #BookPodcast #HorrorBooks #MonsterRomance #BookRecommendations

In this bonus episode, Anni and Jackie compare their completely opposite ways of organizing bookshelves — from vibe-based shelving to full alphabetical systems. They also get into library shelving chaos, backwards-facing books, rainbow shelves, and the very real possibility that reorganizing a big collection might require alcohol and several weekends.

Discord:
https://discord.gg/CANZK9UEhK

Jackie Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/readingafic/

Anni Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/annilubiens/

Books Mentioned

• Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
• Ring Shout - P. Djèlí Clark

#ReadingAsFastAsWeCan #BookPodcast #BookshelfOrganization #Bookish #ReadingCommunity #BookLovers

This week we talk about Upright Women Wanted, Space Opera, single vs. multiple POVs, books that push us outside our comfort zones, and a surprisingly difficult choice between gay witches and gay werewolves. We also pick our next reads, trade recommendations, and preview next week’s bonus episode about the very different ways we organize our bookshelves.

💬 Join our Discord:
https://discord.gg/CANZK9UEhK

📸 Follow us on Instagram:
Jackie: https://www.instagram.com/readingafic/
Anni: https://www.instagram.com/annilubiens/

Books mentioned:

• 4 Janes: A Novel — Marian Yee
• The Stardust Grail — Yumi Kitasei
• Space Opera — Catherynne Valente
• Upright Women Wanted — Sarah Gailey
• River of Teeth — Sarah Gailey
• This Is How You Lose the Time War — Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
• The Two Towers
• Shroud — Adrian Tchaikovsky
• That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon — Kimberly Lemming
• Soul Eater
• Piranesi — Susanna Clarke
• Hood
• Innate Magic — Shannon Fay
• Katabasis — R.F. Kuang
• The Poppy War
• Babel
• Assistant to the Villain — Hannah Nicole Maehrer
• The Not So Superhero
• Crave
• Wolfsong
• Electric Idol
• Cackle
• Sisters of the Vast Black — Lina Rather

#BookPodcast #BookTube #ReadingCommunity #BookRecommendations #FantasyBooks #SciFiBooks #ReadingAsFastAsWeCan

In this minisode, we match book genres with fruit using questionable logic, unexpected mythology, and increasingly chaotic reasoning. Science fiction becomes a banana, orange, or uniquely hairy kiwi; fantasy gets the classic apple; horror turns into smashed berries; and romance leads us directly into pomegranates, figs, and Georgia O’Keeffe territory.

Genres discussed:
Science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, mystery, mythology, classics, children’s literature, young adult, historical fiction, biography, and nonfiction.

#BookTube #ReadingPodcast #BookGenres #SciFiBooks #FantasyBooks #BookishHumor #PodcastClips

In Episode 4, we review Evocation and Shroud, debate the difference between cozy fantasy and “no plot,” react to bizarre book covers, and choose our next reads—including Space Opera and Upright Women Wanted. We also discuss one short-story collection that was disturbing enough to leave the house immediately.

⚠️ Spoilers for Evocation and Shroud, plus discussion of disturbing content.

#BookTube #ReadingPodcast #BookReviews #FantasyBooks #SciFiBooks #Evocation #Shroud #SpaceOpera

Books mentioned:
Evocation, Shroud, Space Opera, Upright Women Wanted, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Project Hail Mary, Assistant to the Villain, You Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea, The Secret Market of the Dead, Firekeeper’s Daughter, Never Let Me Go, Kiss Marry Kill, Initiation, Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird, Tender Is the Flesh, and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

Then Anni and Jackie dive into Annihilation, including the changes that made the film feel completely different from the novel, why unnamed characters matter, and why sometimes you need to sit with a story before deciding how many stars it deserves.

We also talk about the unusual time-travel rules in Before the Coffee Gets Cold, sci-fi disguised as horror, post-apocalyptic Shakespeare, books purchased entirely because of their covers, gardening victories, e-readers, and the eternal dilemma: should you restart an abandoned trilogy or let AI summarize what you forgot?

Books discussed include:

Annihilation
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Shroud
Automatic Noodle
The River Has Roots
Evocation
Dreadful
Four Janes
Nights at the Circus
Station Eleven
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
The Priory of the Orange Tree
The Faded Sun Trilogy
…and many more.

Come hang out with us for a funny, spoiler-filled conversation about science fiction, fantasy, adaptations, questionable cover design, reading slumps, parenting, and all the tangents that happen along the way.

Subscribe for more low-stakes conversations, chaotic recommendations, and honest reactions from two friends reading as fast as they can.

⚠️ Spoilers for Annihilation and its film adaptation.

#BookTube #ReadingPodcast #SciFiBooks #FantasyBooks #Annihilation #BookRecommendations #BooksToMovies #ReadingVlog