[00:00:00] ANNE BOGEL: I can talk for eight minutes about every question, but I will try not to.
WILL BOGEL: I just realized the very well-prepared doc that I got has timestamps. So...
ANNE: Oh no, does it really?
WILL: Yeah, it does. I just realized. I was like, "What are these numbers?" Yeah, we're supposed to...
ANNE: I'm not going to see them.
WILL: We are on the clock. So yeah, there we go. Live without a net, right?
ANNE: ANNE BOGEL: Hey readers, I'm Anne Bogel, and this is What Should I Read Next?. Welcome to the show that's dedicated to answering the question that plagues every reader, what should I read next? We don't get bossy on this show. What we will do here is give you the information you need to choose your next read.
Today, we've got an Ask Anne Anything episode for you, featuring audio we recorded live just days ago with our What Should I Read Next? Patreon community as our live audience. That's right. We invited members of our Patreon community to send us their questions and then join us live for my answers.
[00:01:02] This community is an intimate corner of the book universe, where we get the chance to periodically gather in smaller groups for events like the one you're hearing today. Our Patreon community members enjoy weekly bonus episodes featuring me or sometimes members of our Modern Mrs. Darcy and What Should I Read Next? team talking about a wide variety of bookish topics. And they're also invited to live events like this one you're hearing today.
Our community is gathering next on February 7th for our Reader's Day Spring Preview Library Chat. This is a relaxed and laid back virtual get together where I'll be talking about the spring releases I'm most excited about. And it's open to our Patreon and Book Club members. This is not the same format and style we had last year, and for that reason, an a la carte option is not available. That Spring Preview Library Chat is exclusively for members of our What Should I Read Next? Patreon and Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club communities.
[00:01:51] If you'd like to join us for that event and other upcoming good stuff, like our 2026 Summer Reading Guide, which, believe it or not, I am already knee-deep in, check out the details and join us over at patreon.com/whatshouldireadnext.
One of the things I love most about our Patreon community is the opportunity to talk to and with readers in our bonus episodes and events we do in that space, like Mini Matchmaking, Dear Book Therapist, and Ask Us Anything episodes.
Across the years, we've periodically hosted Ask Anne Anything events and bonus episodes, where our Patreon community members are invited to submit their burning questions and I do my best to answer as many of them as I can in our time together on Zoom.
As we continue to celebrate 10 years of this podcast and all the books and reading talk we've enjoyed across those years, we thought a live AMA felt right and would be a blast to share on our Tuesday show. You'll get to hear the range of questions and my answers in this replay of a casual, fun, unscripted event that really represents the feel of our Patreon community.
[00:03:02] We were anticipating that our Patreon community manager Shannan Malone would join me today, but Will Bogle is pinch hitting at the last minute. He is my husband, that shared last name is not a coincidence, and also relevant to today are What Should I Read Next?. I mean, you might get credited as co-creator later in this episode, but you are executive producer.
Readers, I hope you'll enjoy listening in as much as I enjoyed our time with our Patreon community. Let's get to it.
Okay, William, you have the master doc with these questions the patrons have submitted in advance, and the Q&A is open, and I'm going to try to blitz some of them later in our time together, readers, so you have all the power.
WILL: Thank you.
ANNE: This show is in your hands. Take it away.
WILL: I appreciate the casual and fun framing since I'm pinch-hitting here, so.
ANNE: Unscripted, did you catch that?
WILL: Unscripted. I saw that too. So, here we go. Unscripted. We have gotten these questions directly from Patreon. We asked there if you all had questions and fielded some of those. And we're going to start at the very beginning.
[00:04:04] Podcast origin story question right here from Susan from Tampa. She's a fairly new listener, started with Summer Reading Guide in 2023, and as someone who's relatively new, she had a question: what's the origin story for What Should I Read Next? And especially how you came up with the three books you love, one you did not, and what you've been reading lately. She's also wondering, where did the book club come from?
ANNE: Ooh, welcome, Susan, and these are good questions. I feel like this is a What Should I Read Next? legend or myth, in the sense that I have answered this question over the years, and I'm really curious if someone paying attention would note changes in my story over time. I don't think it's changed, but part of me does wonder.
The origin story of the podcast is with the blog. And I know that readers had questions about that as well, so I think we'll touch on that in a bit. But I started Modern Mrs Darcy in 2011. I had no intention of talking about books, maybe periodically, but I definitely didn't envision what the blog came to be. Reading was something I loved, but I didn't anticipate it being as much of a thing or the thing that it did become.
[00:05:18] But I found really quickly that because I love to read and because I've always thought that books are such a springboard to talk about personal, deeply personal, and also deeply universal themes that fascinate me and that are just so great to talk about, so good for human connection, I found myself blogging about books regularly.
And pretty soon, readers were asking me like, "Oh, hey, I know you read a lot. Could you tell me... what's a great book?" "I'm going on vacation. Can you recommend something that I'll really enjoy?" And I would be really annoying and be like, "Well, what do you like?" And they'd say, "Anne, it's not a hard question. Just tell me about a great book. You know what great books are." And I even then thought reading was so personal.
So after mulling this over on the back burner, and honestly, William, I was probably verbally processing this with you, on February 8th, 2014—William, could you put this link in chat? We'll put it in show notes for our Tuesday listeners as well—I launched a blog post that was called Literary Matchmaking: Personal Shopping for Books, whatever you want to call it, here goes.
[00:06:20] I explained what I just told you and said, "Readers, I have an idea and I want to take it out for a spin. How about you, in comments, tell me three books you love, one you don't, and the last book you've read and I'll recommend three books you may enjoy reading next." And I really enjoyed that. That was a lot of fun. There were 207 comments on that post in hours. Modern Mrs Darcy didn't get a lot of traffic in 2014. So that was a lot of comments and I loved it. It was great.
I answered a few of those queries a week on weekends over a period of many moons. At the same time, I was thinking, "Gosh, I wish I could talk to people. Like I want to know more. I think, oh, this book would be perfect for you. So perfect you've probably already read it. Are you willing to take a chance on kind of a grisly thriller? Because I think it would be perfect unless you hear me recommend the title and go, absolutely not. How do you feel about romance? How do you feel about family sagas?" You couldn't talk back to me over... You could over email, but it was so slow going.
[00:07:23] Meanwhile, my friends were starting podcasts and I thought that sounded fun. And it took me ages to put together literary matchmaking and the burgeoning podcast landscape and realize it could be a conversation. So that is the origin story for What Should I Read Next? The podcast launched on January 12th, 2016.
And 2016 was actually a real busy year for Katie, who worked with me for many years, called it our Pemberley estate for Modern Mrs. Darcy, but MMD and What Should I Read Next? and the book club, etc. We announced the Book Club in May of that year.
And it started as a summer thing. We thought, "Blog community is great, but what is a way that we could bring readers closer together in a more orderly fashion and where we could really go deeper with books?" And so we launched a trial balloon that we started meeting together in June. And by the end of summer, and honestly, it was actually possibly just a few weeks in, we knew that we wanted to continue."
[00:08:29] I can talk for eight minutes about every question, but I will try not to. All right.
WILL: I just realized the very well-prepared doc that I got has timestamps. So...
ANNE: Oh no, does it really?
WILL: Yeah, it does. I just realized, I was like, "What are these numbers?" Yeah, we're supposed to be...
ANNE: I'm not gonna see them.
WILL: We are on the clock. So, yeah, there we go. Live without a net, right? Okay, next question is from Nancy. Nancy's from Marblehead, Massachusetts. She's been listening for a long time, and wants to know, like, how'd you know that giving advice about reading was your passion? You know? I mean, not just like, how did it come to the blog or the podcast, but were you always a person that people wanted to ask a recommendation of?
[00:09:12] ANNE: No, but I was always a person who was interested and excited for that conversation. I wonder, hearing your question, Nancy, and it's a good one, thank you, is if I'm not one of those people who's found something great and wants other people to know what's available to them as well. You know, like the secret trailhead or the best menu item. For me, maybe that's books and reading.
But let's see. I didn't expect to be recommending books on a regular basis, and certainly not in a professional context, basically ever. Modern Mrs Darcy was born in a New Year's conversation between Will and me, right on the rollover between 2010 and 2011. And we were talking about what we wanted for the year to come. And I had... Gosh. Trying to think how old our youngest was at the time. I had little kids. I worked as a property law paralegal and I wanted a creative outlet. I don't know if I knew that's what I was yearning for. Is that what I was yearning for, William?
WILL: I don't remember.
[00:10:22] ANNE: It's possible. I just wanted to have something that I had more agency over that was fun and satisfying and finishable. But Will was like, "You could start a blog." And I was like, "Yeah, yeah." I mean, even now, does our work in this space get finished? No, never. But sometimes it does. Sometimes I write a book and it gets published and then it's done. And I'd love to do that again one day. But that's not Nancy's question.
So it felt like I incubated this idea forever but really, it was only maybe six weeks. The blog launched in February 2011, which means we do have a 15th anniversary right around the corner. And I did not tell a single soul it existed.
The joke that a lot of early bloggers had back in the 2000s and 2010s was "only my mother reads my blog." I didn't tell my mom. I didn't want anybody to read it. I was just writing in the basement by myself and got acquainted with the blogosphere, started finding other sites, leaving comments. People would visit my site. And during this whole time, I'm just thinking, "This is in my hands. What do I want to write about?"
[00:11:34] And what I quickly stumbled into was I loved writing about what I was reading. And I wasn't giving literary analyses or reviews. What I was saying was, "Hey, I read this book, and the character or the memoir said this really interesting thing that I can't stop thinking about. Here's what they said. And here's how it connects to my life. And here's what I'm thinking of. And here's what I have more questions about. Here's what I want to think further about. And here's what I want to explore."
I really just quickly stumbled into the discovery of how books are a way in to really meaningful and also just really fun conversations with people I know and also people who began as strangers on the internet.
And when I started blogging, I thought it was going to be about me writing by myself. I was flabbergasted to discover that blogging was a community. I had no idea. But that was the path towards talking about books in detail and regularly, and also, I think being seen as someone who might have something to offer to readers looking to find good books that would bring new and different meaning to their own lives. Thanks for the question, Nancy.
[00:12:54] WILL: Okay. So we covered some of this right there with that answer. But Jamie from Whidbey Island, she was wondering about sort of how, as a business, this all came to be. Where's it started? You just covered... But where's it gone? What was it like? You mentioned Katie. What was it like having staff? And when did you add staff? And then also, there's a question here about me. When did Will come on board? And is this his full-time job?
ANNE: See, when Shannan was going to be here, I thought I'd get to talk about you without you. Now you're here to fact check me. All right, well, we talked about this a little bit. But when Will and I were brainstorming at our kitchen table in 2010, 2011, I don't believe there was any conception of the blog as a business. And the fact that podcasts existed, zero presence on my radar.
WILL: Oh, podcast was definitely not a part of that conversation.
ANNE: I remember when we subscribed to an audio journal and got cassette tapes in the mail.
WILL: Cassette tapes in the mail, yeah. The original podcast, yeah.
[00:13:54] ANNE: But then I started to get oriented in the blog space, and I learned that there were people doing this who were making a little bit of income off it. That was mostly through ads, which I did not have the kind of views where I could run ads on my site, or affiliate sales. And I put a few affiliate links on my site, figured out how to do that, explained to people how they worked.
I do remember when I got my first 25 cent commission from somebody buying... it was vitamin D from my site. And it was a quarter. Can you still buy a gumball for a quarter? It was nothing. But also it made me go, like "This actually works."
Then later, months later, some kind soul, apparently based on my reports of my affiliate income, used my affiliate link to buy their college textbooks and I got like $25 from that. And I was like, "Oh, that is not real money, but that could..." I was beginning to understand how people did create an income from their site that could begin to justify the time that they weren't spending at their jobs or on other things in order to do their writing for the internet.
[00:15:10] My initial goals, when I thought... I don't know. I'm a firstborn daughter, I like to try things. I like to see what I'm capable of. And at first I thought, can I generate enough income to pay for the Diet Coke, fancy pens, and books I am purchasing? Actually, you know what? It wasn't books at that point. That'd be way too ambitious. It was overdue library fines. Like, could I balance that out with income? But that was the beginning of it.
So, for our team, it was just me at the beginning, except William has always been my tech helper, which that's not true. Like he's always been the tech lead. "Hey, this is what I need to do. Can you help me figure it out? Better yet, can you figure it out for me and show me how?" And just sounding bored about all the things.
I'm a verbal processor and I'm not going to invite you to say words about that, actually, William. The patrons can just see you nod. But I did have a virtual assistant, which isn't a phrase that gets tossed around a lot anymore for a few hours a week, beginning in maybe like 2014.
[00:16:16] We started... actually. I use the royal "we" a lot. Sometimes "we" is my team and I, sometimes "we" from this era is William and I. But I began hiring our first regular team members in earnest in 2015. And then 2016 was a huge year, just really pivotal. That's when Ginger came on. I know she's here today. I think Leigh was with us either before or after that period. She worked with me for a time as a VA, was not with me for a time and then came back. So if you're wondering, why don't you know? That's why I don't know.
But again, 2016 is having a moment in the cultural landscape, but it was a huge year for our business, just really pivotal. I had started talking about the contract for my first book in 2015. I signed it in 2016. That's when we started the podcast, the book club, hired people who are still with us. It was a great year.
WILL: Yeah, that was a big year.
ANNE: Did we say it was the question when you came on?
[00:17:23] WILL: It was in there. I started the next year because I noticed you kept adding things. And so it went from like "I'm writing a little blog" and "sometimes I write an email" and then you're like, "and I added this book club and I started making a podcast and I wrote a book" and I was like, "you might need to drop something." And you didn't want to. You liked everything you were doing. So I came on to help at that point because you needed more help.
ANNE: I have a funny story about that. So this was a couple of years later, but I hired a business coach that I really trusted and respected to help me figure out how to narrow. Because I've always had a lot of admiration for people. You do one thing and do it really well. And this business coach was very kind. She did not say sweetie or honey or bless your heart, but I heard it as, "Sweetie, you do not want to do just one thing. You would be bored out of your mind. And what would you quit? Like you have this lovely little constellation of related stars and I think you'd miss anything you cut loose. So let's figure out how to make it work."
[00:18:22] And my team—I know that Ginger and Brigid are here—have been making it work. William's been making it work. I'm really grateful. But yeah, William came on in 2017 full time. He came on full time when the podcast had taken off enough that we were generating ad revenues so it wasn't quite as terrifying to give up his health insurance. And oh gosh, which we were just saying, I really miss the health insurance from your old job. But like, I don't know, the next month, something changed in the podcast landscape and our revenue got cut in half because we work in a volatile industry. But he has been full time since 2017. Oh my gosh. And it's 2026.
WILL: Yeah, it's been a while.
ANNE: So that's longer than I realized, actually.
WILL: Yes, going on 10 years, which we're celebrating 10 years here. Stephanie from Flower Mound, Texas is asking, in the 10 years, you probably have a lot of superlatives, but she's wondering what is your favorite episode? The one that you wish everyone would listen to. And because I know you really well, I know you hate superlatives.
[00:19:28] And if anyone listened to Anne's Best Books and you noticed that she wrote a blog post about the best book she read and then the best audiobook she listened to, and then we did a podcast and it included additional titles that were not in the first two. Yes, narrowing down to like one superlative is really hard.
I also find this very hard. But looking back through our super secret spreadsheet vault, which patrons, if you can't find that in Patreon, let us know. But you have access to the spreadsheet that has all of the guests and all the books that they brought with them and all the books that Anne's recommended.
I think two of my very early favorites would be Esther from Read It & Eat, which was Episode 94. We went into her cookbook bookstore in Chicago and I was like, "I love this place. Let's talk to this person." Unfortunately, the Read It & Eat is no longer there, but lovely, lovely space. And I remember that being a real fun episode. Either that or also still real early, 99 with Caroline Weaver, the pencil lady. Also, a real place that you and I went and then you got to meet and talk to her.
[00:20:34] ANNE: I loved talking to Caroline. I wanted to send all the handwritten letters. I got her pencil box subscription. But you know what I still remember from that episode is her saying, "Oh, I walk in the street and then buy books based on who blurbs them." And I'm like, "People do that?" She was really happy with her reading life.
Okay, so first of all, Stephanie, I noticed that you asked me, "What is your favorite episode?" That's a hardcore, no holds barred, superlative. It's not the same as... I'm always telling What Should I Read Next? guests, "It's three books you love. Any three books." It could be different tomorrow. It could be different in a year. It could be different in 15 minutes.
But Stephanie, mm-mm, that's not what you went with. What is your favorite? Okay, going from the gut, and I might have a different answer at the end of our time together today, but I'm gonna say Tara Nichols, A century of good books (in a single year). That was Episode 168. It aired on January 22nd, 2019. And then we did a follow-up in January 2022. That episode is called "Your reading life is in good hands". We will link these in our What Should I Read Next? comments.
[00:21:36] But I think the reason this one is so top of mind is we're talking today in January 2026 and lots of readers have been doing lookbacks at the year gone by and lookaheads to intentions and hopes and dreams for the year to come, and Tara talked about how a very specific reading challenge changed her life. And something I've heard from a lot of you in the What Should I Read Next and Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club spaces are, you listened to that episode and it changed the way you thought about your reading. And I'm shocked at the number of readers who said, "I'm gonna do that one year." And then it first aired in 2019. You've had time to do that, many of you. So I'm gonna go with that one. Ask me again tomorrow.
WILL: That's a fun episode. Yeah, you can always have a new favorite. All right, Gina from SoCal, who is a What Should I Read Next? completist. She got caught up during COVID and now listens every week. So she's a completist. She wants to know, do you ever get sick of reading? And she imagines that it must be hard to turn a hobby into a job and wondering, like, what do you do about that?
[00:22:41] ANNE: That's a good question. I really don't. I joke that I read for a living, but I really don't. I write about books and I talk about books for a living. And the reading is something I get to/have to do along the way, but I don't really think about it like that.
I don't get sick of reading, but sometimes I do grow weary of the way I feel like my work requires to read in the moment. But something I love about what we do is if I don't like the reading I feel like I need to do for what we're making at Modern Mrs. Darcy and What Should I Read Next?, I get to go to my team and say, "Let's tweak what we're making. Like, what can we do differently?"
We're doing Spring Book Preview differently this year, and it's because I felt like I was on the new release treadmill and I didn't want to read 60 books to talk to you about some for that event. At first, we weren't going to have a Spring Book Preview. And then I said, "Wait a second. It's not only my job, but my delight and pleasure and privilege to read a lot of these new releases. I wanted to read because that is who I am and what I care about. So let's do an event where I can chat to you about it in a more intimate setting instead of providing you a big overview of what's coming out this season."
[00:23:53] So if I'm feeling kind of sick of the kind of reading I feel like I'm obligated to do, I feel really fortunate that I'm able to change that. Because being sick of reading...
WILL: No, that would be terrible.
ANNE: That's a symptom of something that needs fixing. If I were in grad school, maybe we'd be having a different conversation about this. But we don't put you all through grad school around here. We're having fun. Good, smart, nerdy fun, but we're having fun.
WILL: Okay. More on sort of the work of reading. Liv from outside Toronto is wondering, what are your top recommendations for sources? Where do you find the really interesting, most under the radar recommendations?
ANNE: That's such a good question. And Liv, you're catching me with this question at an interesting time. Because I have been both pretty busy in my personal life and also largely offline over the holidays. So I'm trying to think, what are some sites that I used to visit? Because I haven't been lately.
[00:24:56] I love to browse and see what's out there. I'm always ducking into bookstores when they're available. For my work, I'm browsing all the new releases and sometimes backlist that's being promoted on the Edelweiss bookseller publishing platform.
I love to talk to my bookseller pals. I'm always interested in hearing what they're reading, especially Holland Saltsman at The Novel Neighbor in St. Louis and Andrea Griffith at Browsers Bookshop in Olympia. She puts out a bi-monthly newsletter called... oh, what's it called, Andrea? Mostly Books. It's great. I love it. And you can order anything you want from Browsers. Same from The Novel Neighbor in St. Louis.
So interesting or under the radar from people who don't read like me. That would be you, William. Also, publications that aren't book-related, I think are really great, like Outside Magazine. My cousin.
WILL: Well, I mean, was, yeah.
[00:25:57] ANNE: Yeah, yeah, well, fair. Stuff like that. Nature Magazine. I found a great book recently from Science Magazine online. That's not typical for me, and I think that's why I was so happy with it. My cousin reads solely from the library, an audiobook, lots of backlist, fine stuff I've never heard of. And sometimes she'll recommend stuff to me that I just talked about last week on What Should I Read Next?. She doesn't listen. She doesn't know. I love that, honestly.
Our team member Ginger's here. I get a lot of good picks from her. I also go down a lot of rabbit trails. I'll read a book I love that will lead me to books that that author cites as inspiration, or books that the fictional characters are reading in the pages.
I get a lot of good recommendations from Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club. We host authors almost every month. And sometimes, I kind of hate to say this out loud, but sometimes you all hear all the books we talk about. But sometimes when we're soundchecking in advance, we'll just chat about what we're reading with the authors and I jot down a lot of notes about titles that sound good from those soundchecks.
[00:26:59] WILL: Okay, shout out to Ginger. I also get great recommendations from her. Ginger's a very odd Venn diagram of what Anne reads and what I read. And yeah, there's a lot of Ginger titles in our house. I would also say we have a fabulous used book sale. Like any used book sale, there are so many copies of David Baldacci or whatever. There's just tons and tons of the same stuff, or junk, either one.
But I think it just has a big draw. It pulls in books from a lot of different places. And if you're kind of patient enough... I found a lot of interesting stuff there. That's all obviously very backlist, but especially... there's a lot of great books that I did not read from 15, 20, 25 years ago that are not going to pop up now in the front of the library stacks or whatever.
[00:27:53] All right. Speaking of books and especially new books, Allison from Memphis wants to know, how many ARCs do you think you receive in a year?
ANNE: In a year?
WILL: Yeah, I look at your answer here and I was like, "Yeah, I just don't buy that." Were you answering a different question? Did you think it said monthly?
ANNE: No, I jotted, I'm going to say, something like 10. I think I read something like 10% of the books that come in.
WILL: Oh, I thought you were saying you got 10 ARCs a year and I'm like, "This is not true." You think you read about 10% of the ARCs that come in? Okay.
ANNE: I get a lot fewer physical advanced review copies than I used to. That really changed in 2020. And there are things that I do and don't like about reading digitally, but it takes up a lot less shelf space. I'm going to say, okay, Brigid's here. Brigid may have a better idea than I am. Brigid's my executive assistant in addition to her other roles and she spends a lot of time chatting with publicists about getting me books or politely accepting or declining offers of sending me books. And then a fair number of books just show up.
[00:29:03] I'm going to say maybe these days, unrequested, I get five in the mail a week and I'm pitched, I'm going to say something like 30 eGalleys. That's my best guess. We'll get back to you. But, oh, what percentage do I or someone from Team MMD read? The books are coming to me. Sometimes we do features on our team reading, but... and Brigid sometimes requests things for our team members, which is a nice perk of working at this space, I hope. But, yeah, I think it's just like 10%. Brigid is estimating 50 eGalley pitches via email a week. Is now a good time to chime in? We don't accept cash or compensation to talk about books. I don't get anything besides a free book out of it.
WILL: Oh, that's a good point here. Yes.
ANNE: We don't sell anything.
WILL: We don't do any sort of paid placement or whatever.
ANNE: If I can't find a book I want and I can buy it, I do.
[00:30:07] WILL: You were saying 2020 kind of shifted things or whatever. I do remember a few years back, I had the thought, I should actually count how many books are coming into our house, like, just in a month, just every... because it was a lot of physical copies that then have to be... whether you read them or not, something has to be done with them. Like we cannot have the space for them or whatever, you know.
ANNE: And sometimes I get emails that say, "Hey, do you want the new Ann Patchett?" And I'm like, "Yes, and absolutely, thank you. I love you forever. Thank you." Sometimes Brigid or I are trying to track down the books that I would really desperately like to read, say for the Summer Reading Guide, that are not among the ones that we're being offered. So I spend a lot of time thinking about what I want to read, especially because a lot of these pitches are just new to me. They're not ones that we're already in.
WILL: All kinds of directions.
ANNE: Yeah.
[00:30:59] WILL: All right. Let's talk about some specifics, talk about things that are new to you. Lori from New York City is wondering, what book surprised you the most? Oh, she didn't say the most. I'm sorry. What are books, a couple of books, that surprise you as being favorites that you just didn't know, didn't expect?
ANNE: Ooh. It's true that I do read a lot thinking, well, I don't want to make What Should I Read Next? listeners only listen to what Anne loves week in and week out. I try to read a lot of stuff that doesn't sound like it's up my alley, but that I anticipate being really good. Or sometimes I don't know how I'm going to think about something because I've never tried it. So I want to try it.
But three that came immediately to mind, Lori, were Painting Time by Maylis de Kerangal, Crooks by Lou Berney. Basically 80% of the nature writing I've ever read, I consistently end up loving that genre. And it's never my first reach when I'm thinking about what to read next. Good question.
[00:32:02] WILL: If I were better at doing this live, I would have asked this question immediately next, because we're just talking about ARCs and all the books coming into our house. Tina from Dallas wants to know, what do you do to keep the number of books in our home even mildly under control? And Tina, I really appreciate the framing there because like, yes, it is... She's saying she's dealing with stacks and piles everywhere. She wants to know how you cull when it starts to feel out of hand.
ANNE: That's such a gracious assumption. They are not in control at the moment, but I don't think they're completely out of hand.
WILL: It's been worse.
ANNE: It's been worse. I do regularly cull. I have various shelves in various parts of the house for various purposes, and I'm looking at each area with a different set of eyes. I do a lot of waiting and seeing. I'll look at some books and think like, "Oh, you just came in recently. I haven't read you yet. Let's see how you age in this little collection here." And then the next month or year, I'll decide if it's time for that book to stick around or not.
[00:33:08] Sometimes I make choices out of necessity. Like, we got to find more boxes or build more shelves. Do I want to do that or do I want to get rid of some books? And almost always the answer is get rid of some books. But I really try to find good homes for the ones that I'm moving out of the house. Also, when I'm thinking about what to get rid of, I think about how important is it to me to have a specific copy.
Like, if you gave it to me with love on the occasion we met together, I'm not going to get rid of that book. But if it's something I picked up at a used book sale that I know my library has four copies of on the shelf, basically ready and waiting for me at any time, that's the one I'm going to get rid of.
WILL: We do add a lot of bookcases. I think we're about out of bookcase space, though.
ANNE: I don't know. The kids are going to college. They have rooms.
WILL: We're not going to talk about that. I mean, it's always fun when Leigh comes to town. She loves to go through the bookcases and say, "Okay, what are we doing here?" She's very hands-on and helpful about like, what books do you need and do you want?
[00:34:14] We also have a couple of friends that will... you say you give them good homes. We have a couple of people that will take like ten at a time. It's like, "I think you might like these." It doesn't matter if I'm real specific. I think you might, and then off they go. That's helpful.
Okay. Speaking of books that you're just definitely going to hold on to, Zippy from Phoenix wants to know who your auto-read authors are, the ones that you just absolutely know you are definitely going to read as soon as you hear they have a new one, and who's like a completist author.
ANNE: Ooh. We have a series in the works on Modern Mrs Darcy that I am kicking off very soon on this exact topic of our completist authors. This is non-exhaustive, but here's a few. Tayari Jones, Ann Patchett, though I'm not a completist on either because I haven't read their first books. I'm scared of Tayari's and I haven't gone back to Ann Patchett's. I'm scared of Tayari's because the content is a little murdery. Xochitl Gonzalez, Emily St. John Mandel, Peter Heller, Maylis de Kerangal, who I'm not a completist on that last one because I don't read French, and all her works haven't been translated. But that's a handful.
[00:35:33] WILL: Are you a Peter Heller fiction completist?
ANNE: Yes. I've only read Kook for nonfiction. If he has more, I haven't read it.
WILL: Yeah, he wrote a book about whaling. And I think there's one other nonfiction.
ANNE: I haven't read that one. Have you?
WILL: The whaling book? No. I'm not opposed. It's not high on the list. I like Kook. I like Kook a lot. So those are authors that you are like, "I know I'm going back to that immediately because I just love everything they do."
Carrie from Canaan, New Hampshire, wants to know over the past 10 years, have you noticed your reading tastes change? And has that surprised you?
[00:36:18] ANNE: Hi, Carrie. That's such a good question. I'm sure they have. Although when this question first landed on my brain waves, I was thinking of it as how do I read differently? But maybe what I initially thought of as taste is probably more like I'm older. Like my life experience, the lens through which I'm reading these books has really changed significantly in 10 years, both in reading and in life.
I have a lot more books in my mental hopper. I've seen a lot more of the range of what a talented writer can bring to the page. And I have a lot more life experience to draw on than I did previously. But all in all, I read more fiction than I used to. I think I used to read a lot more biographies than I read now actually. I read more literary fiction than I did. I think 10 years ago... wait, is this true? How old would I have been? Nevermind, that's not true at all. I'm picturing 20-something Anne at the library, and that was not 10 years ago.
[00:37:27] I think now I either want to read a familiar story in a way that makes me see the ideas fresh, either because of the angle or because the prose is really sharp. I think I'm looking for insight in a way I wasn't before. I'm looking for entertainment that is really sparkly and fresh and well done. I think maybe my standards are higher, but at the same time, I'm more willing than I ever have been to just try a book and see where it takes me, see how I think and feel about it.
So that was a real muddle of an answer, but I'm really grateful for all the bookish experience I'm now bringing to what I'm reading these days. I think I just have a lot of appreciation for what's possible on the page.
WILL: Oh, that's a good phrase. I was thinking there when you were saying you're willing to take a chance and all that. I think one of the things about, and I don't know if this is taste, but you really... taste is probably what you try to read. This is definitely what resonates with you. I know you really like someone who's doing something interesting, right, the unique format or point of view or... you just really enjoy that part of the craft.
[00:38:49] ANNE: Yeah. No spoilers, but I was just telling you on the couch last night that I'm reading this new book that comes out in June that might be in the Summer Reading Guide that has a structure that I've just... who came up with this? How?
WILL: I'm glad I left that to you because I was not going to mention it. Not gonna mention it. Hot off the presses. Yvette from Mexico City wants to know how you manage working with your partner. I know it's difficult for many and easy for some, and I wonder how you make it work. Do you have rules around it? Go ahead.
ANNE: It's funny how some people think working with your partner sounds like the dream, and some people, including happily partnered people, think it sounds terrible. It's really interesting to get people's reactions for the first time. If they're meeting me or finding out for the first time that I work with my husband, sometimes I get, "Aw," and sometimes I get, "Ugh, better you than me." I understand that this is a highly individual thing.
[00:39:51] We are both big quality time people, so this sounded really good to us. One of the reasons that I knew I was really into my husband back when we were babies was...
WILL: 10 years ago in our 20s. Yeah. Very early.
ANNE: ...we go to the DMV together, and it wasn't terrible because he was with me or I was with him or whatever. He'd be like, "Oh, you're going to Target? I want to come." And I'm like, "I mean, I like Target too." But he just wanted to be with me. It was so nice. And we did seek counsel from a variety of trusted sources before he quit his job, and we felt like we got... I mean, we're not locked in. Either one of us could do something different at any time.
WILL: I'm curious whose counsel you're thinking of.
ANNE: Well, we went to see a marriage therapist for the first time, for sure.
WILL: Yes, we talked to an actual therapist.
ANNE: Yeah, yeah.
[00:40:50] WILL: I was thinking, after we decided, or after I decided, I'm going to quit my job, we met people from the internet. I don't remember why, but we were with a bunch of couples.
ANNE: We won't name names.
WILL: No names.
ANNE: But you might recognize them.
WILL: Several of whom worked together, and one of them had just, for two days, worked at a new job. And they were like, "It's amazing. He's no longer in the house. We don't work together. I don't have to worry about whatever." They're giving us just all this scare tactic. They weren't even giving advice. They were just saying their experience. And I'm looking at Anne going, "Huh, I'm definitely quitting this job that I have. So now I'm confused. Do I jump in and do this with you?" Yeah.
ANNE: Yeah. But you did.
WILL: Now it's what we just figured out, nine years ago. It's been great.
[00:41:37] ANNE: I think when people ask this, I think usually they're asking about the interpersonal dynamics and how it affects their relationship. But working together is hard in practical ways. I did not at all anticipate when we started contemplating working together. Whether it's something really fun, like we're taking a big trip with our kids and both of us want to be offline. When two people are out of pocket from our small team, it really impacts everybody else.
And then sometimes that's for hard stuff, like when there's a death in the family, it takes both of us offline. That's hard to really impact our team like that. And that's just something I didn't anticipate when we started working together. But we have a really great team. I haven't said that for 20 minutes. I'm going to toss that in here.
[00:42:23] WILL: Those are big challenges. I thought you were going to say when we first started working together, we had one home office and we sat almost, you know, side by side. Anne was just like, "You can't keep talking to me. I'm working. I'm writing, I'm thinking, I'm creating. I'm structuring sentences and you cannot just turn and talk to me." And so we needed a little workplace culture there.
ANNE: So when Yvette says, do we have rules around it, yes.
WILL: Oh, there are rules. There are rules. But we now go out to coffee every Friday. So we talk about all the things that I did not turn to ask her in the moment.
ANNE: That's one of my favorite work routines.
WILL: Oh, I love that one. That's great. Okay, here we go. This is another one that I just love. I'm like, "Really, is this about me?" Mandy from Spokane is asking, she says, "Anne often says Will is out on a bagel run. What's your favorite? And are there any special bagel memories?" Anne, I have a question. Is that true? Are you frequently talking about me getting bagels?
[00:43:34] ANNE: I was wondering this too. Do I really say this? I do definitely know that I said it regarding Links I Love, either on the blog or in the email on Friday, January 2nd. Was January 2nd a Friday?
WILL: Everybody was home. Yeah, I'm getting bagels. That makes sense.
ANNE: Our team offices, offices, air quotes, were closed until January 5th. Like from right before Christmas till January 5th. And I wasn't sure if I was going to do Links I Love or not on January 2nd. I love putting that together. It was one of my things that worked for me in 2025. I just really enjoy the process. I think you all like reading it.
But I wasn't sure if I wanted to do that over my holiday break or if I wanted to stay on the couch with a book during the several hours it would take to put that together. But then Will went out for bagels, and I was like, "Sure. I can tool around the internet and share a shorter collection." And I did say, regarding Links, "Will is on a bagel run, so I'm popping in here."
[00:44:35] We do like bagels. Maybe not as much as we like some of the local bakeries and coffee shops. But sometimes I'm like, "You know what I want in my life soon is a big schmear of cream cheese and a whole bunch of smoked salmon on something crispy and chewy." We have a couple local to Louisville places. And look, they're not New York bagels, but they are good enough to make me happy.
But Mandy asked if we had any special memories. We've had some really great bagels in New York and elsewhere on our travels. And Mel and Dave were in town. I want to say it wasn't that long ago, but it actually probably was that long ago.
WILL: Yeah, it was July.
ANNE: They brought bagels from, I think, Pittsburgh that they loved, that were amazing. So, I mean, yeah, bagels are food. Who doesn't? We have great memories about food.
WILL: We do.
ANNE: Yeah.
WILL: We do love our local food bakery.
ANNE: But that's funny, Will's on a bagel run. That's gonna be my catchphrase, guys.
[00:45:31] WILL: I didn't realize that was a thing. Okay. Thank you all for all those questions. I love seeing them. They're fun. I didn't expect all of those. So I appreciate that. For the folks that are here, Anne, we have a couple of questions here in the Zoom chat here. Let me ask you a couple of these real quick as well.
ANNE: Let's do it.
WILL: Recognizing that this is your job. How many books do you read in a year?
ANNE: Ooh, max 300, minimum 200. In between, really varies.
WILL: 200 minimum, okay.
ANNE: Yeah, we're talking on January 20th. I finished my 14th book of the year last night. But that is an exaggerated pace because of the holidays. So I won't continue at that pace. But since I know some hard data, coincidentally at this moment in time, I'm going to share it.
[00:46:34] WILL: Melissa wants to know, where do you do most of your reading?
ANNE: Ooh, the couch, the yellow chair you see on Instagram. Sometimes on the treadmill, sometimes in the car, not while the car is moving, when I'm waiting for my kid.
WILL: Or audiobooks. You do a lot of audiobooks in the car.
ANNE: Yeah, I do a lot of listening when I'm walking the dog or folding laundry. I almost said going for a run. I haven't been for a run in a solid year. But yes, couch, yellow chair, car are probably the big three.
WILL: You read in bed every night.
ANNE: Oh, I forgot that. Never mind.
WILL: It may not be a lot, but that's-
ANNE: In bed belongs in the top three.
WILL: That is definitely every night.
ANNE: More than the car.
WILL: Speaking of your reading habits, I'm sorry, this is actually not live, but I think we have a moment to fit it in here. Helen asked in Patreon, she's asking from Melbourne, Australia, where it's not freezing cold, I expect, what do you drink while you read? Is it coffee, tea, wine? What do you...?
[00:47:39] ANNE: It depends on the time of day, but I do drink a lot of coffee with my reading, a lot of tea, herbal tea at night. I love decaf Paris or Earl Grey or the Bangkok blend from Harney in the morning. I used to love a glass of wine with a good book, but I haven't drunk for a few years. But I do love those St. Agrestis, like Phony... the Amaro Falso, I think is my favorite. No, you know what's my favorite is the Mezcal, like the smoky one. But I probably do that like once every two weeks, not terribly often.
WILL: Okay.
ANNE: But yes, I love a good beverage to go with my books. Sometimes I'll like line them up. Sometimes I'll have my Spindrift and a glass of water or something beside because I don't want to get up. I want to read my book. I was just reading how sitting to watch a show for an hour at a time is not as good for you as people who don't sit for an hour at a time to watch TV. And I was thinking, "You're talking about TV, but probably the implications are the same for sitting and reading my book or not." I'm just going to pretend not.
[00:48:45] WILL: Since we're talking about how we work together or whatever, there is a lot of transitions. What do I do next? How do I move forward? The answer is just a beverage, right? Just set the scene, right? Whatever time of day it is, it is time for coffee, it is time for Diet Coke. It's like, I need to sit down with my beverage.
ANNE: I mean, like so many people who work, I was going to say from home, but probably who work at a desk anywhere, I know I've been productive when I have like three empty glasses around me. I can't work without a beverage means business.
WILL: A beverage means business. There you go. Anne, I have one final question for you. Julie from Bakersfield wants to know, in 10 years, the past 10 years, what are you most proud of?
ANNE: Aw, that's such a nice question. Thank you, Julie. Okay, far and away more than anything else, the community we've created around books and reading in our spaces. You all are kind and gracious and helpful and delightfully nerdy and enthusiastic.
[00:49:49] I feel like we all love books a little more than is generally believed to be normal or reasonable. And I think that's why we're good together and good for each other. And also what the show and community and the people in it have done for people's lives and their reading lives.
On a secondary, maybe, well, I don't know if this is concrete exactly, but running a business in the Wild West of the internet and the podcasting landscape and rolling with the changes, I hope through all that we served you, the readers. I hope I've been a good boss. And just riding the waves I can't control and also operating out of a firm sense of our values through all that. There's been some hard stuff thrown our way, hard stuff in the world, hard stuff in my and my team's personal lives. And I feel like we're doing it, in spite of all that. I'm proud of us.
[00:50:53] WILL: Yeah, right on the heels of that. I'm proud that we make what we want to make. There's probably a lot that goes into that. But we got pitched by a very famous author who someone thought should be on the show or whatever, and we just, we're like, "Oh, this is amazing. This will be great." But we could not agree on what the show... they want to show up in a particular way for an interview. And we're like, "That's not actually what this show is." And just couldn't make it in a way that felt like it was the way we wanted to make it, you know? And just all the way through I think that's true. So I'm proud of that. Because I see a lot of things that are like, "Hey, just take a poll, what the audience wants to hear and then throw it in ChatGPT and create a bunch of emails or whatever." And I'm just like, "What? How?"
ANNE: We don't roll like that, though.
[00:51:44] WILL: We don't roll like that. We see stuff like that all the time. For 15 years we've seen that. But one thing Anne and I have said for 15 years is ideas are easy. If you don't have an idea... like it's actually having time to sit down and do it well, but the ideas have been easy. And we love coming up with new stuff. That's why Anne's business coach says, "Don't quit things. You'll just want to do more things."
I would also like to throw in... you said the community, the whole community, but I love the friends, the team and friends, and we mentioned Leigh coming to our house, you mentioned Mel and Dave, who we met for the first time literally traveling together. Anyway, there's a lot of people that we've gotten to meet along the ways. You've mentioned a couple of booksellers that are now friends. So, yeah, I love that.
[00:52:30] ANNE: And I feel like we're doing something right. To have these amazing people, some of whom are in chat, Ginger and Brigid, with us for the long haul, it makes me feel like we must be doing something right, if they're excited about doing good work in this space, if y'all are excited about hearing from all of us. It is a mutual admiration society. So good work with good people about good books.
WILL: Yeah.
ANNE: Thank you, Julie, for the lovely question.
WILL: And thank you all for all your questions.
ANNE: I am turning back to the chat. Marianne says, "A life goal is to meet all the MMD team in person." That's a life goal for me. I still haven't met Holly in person, whose work I'm grateful for every day.
WILL: That's true.
ANNE: Holly and Ginger got to meet in Japan, but I wasn't there. Oh, thank you all so much for joining us. Okay. This has been a blast. We'll do it again soon because it's always fun to answer questions and you always have them. Now, as we do, we're going to close out the show.
[00:53:40] Readers, I hope you enjoyed this replay of our Patreon live event today. For more conversations and gatherings like this, join us at patreon.com/whatshouldireadnext. As always, you will find the full list of titles we discussed today, short though it may be, at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com.
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Thank you to the people who make this show happen. What Should I Read Next? is created each week by today's co-host and my executive producer, Will Bogel, media production specialist Holly Wielkoszewski, social media manager and editor Leigh Kramer, community coordinator Brigid Misselhorn, community manager Shannan Malone, and our whole team at What Should I Read Next? and Modern Mrs. Darcy HQ. Plus, the audio whizzes at Studio D Podcast Production.
Patreon members, thank you so much for joining us for this event. We could not make this podcast without you. Readers, that's it for this episode. Thanks so much for listening. And as Rainer Maria Rilke said, "Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading." Happy reading, everyone.
TOGETHER: Happy reading.
English (US) · 