MashReads Podcast: How to set a New Year's reading resolution you'll actually accomplish

If you're a book nerd, there's one goal that's always on your list of New Year's resolutions: Read more books. But with the hustle and bustle of daily life, the question remains of how to set a bookish standard you can actually accomplish.

Luckily, we brought in a pro to give us some advice.

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we're joined by Lisa Lucas, the executive director of the National Book Foundation. The National Book Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to honoring great American literature/ It hosts a plethora of annual programs ranging from the Innovations In Reading Prize to the National Book Awards. In other words, the organization is expert at discovering and celebrating amazing books. "It seems to me that so many of the things every community really loves has some relation to books and literature," says Lucas. "Books are one of our most important keepers and disseminators of our ideas."

Join us as we chat about how to set a realistic reading resolution, discover great new books, get through a reading funk and celebrate books of all genres.

Then, as always, we close the show with recommendations:

• Aliza recommends Netflix's The OA. "If you want something weird and esoteric and somehow still incredibly compelling and beautiful, [check out] The OA."

• MJ recommends Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir Fun Home. "It was beautiful, it was moving. The storytelling, for me, was kind of revolutionary."

• Lisa recommends the British sitcom Peep Show. "It's the best show. It's hilarious. The news has been so depressing; it's been fun to watch this ridiculous, super sarcastic British show. It's escapism in a really nice way."

Next week, we're reading and discussing Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. We hope you'll join us.

And if you're looking for more book news, don't forget to follow MashReads on Facebook and Twitter.