[00:00:09] 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 have a special episode. We are taking you all behind the scenes of our patron community, a place where avid readers and listeners come together to share their love of What Should I Read Next?, and as I say in the opener each week, to talk about all things books and reading.

In today's show, we're not just telling you about Patreon. We are giving you a taste of what it's like by sharing two actual bonus episodes we shared with our patrons this season. Friday bonuses are one of the perks we offer our patrons. When you join, you can expect to hear new episodes and our one great book series, which is a ten-minute deep dive on a single noteworthy title.

We have book recommendation episodes where we discuss titles on a specific theme, often when chosen by our patrons. We have regularly recurring episodes dedicated to mini matchmaking, where patrons tell me—this may sound familiar—three books they love and one book they don't and I rapid-fire recommend a book or sometimes two or three that they may enjoy reading next.

[00:01:29] And then we have the two kinds of regular episodes that you will hear today. First, you'll hear a recent industry insight bonus episode where I illuminate a specific aspect of the publishing world. In this one, we are diving into the world of bestseller lists, what they mean, how they're compiled, and why it matters for your reading life.

Our patrons contributed a lot of questions that I answered in this episode, and they found the result really interesting. I hope you will as well.

After that, you'll hear a recent episode from our Dear Book Therapist series, where I address vexing, bookish conundrums submitted by our patrons, like how to deal with overflowing TBR lists, how to get out of a reading rut, or just navigating big changes in your reading life.

We also asked our current patrons to chime in with what they love most about being a part of our community here. So you'll also hear several patron voices throughout our episode today.

Our patron community is a welcoming space for book lovers to get more quality book talk and connect over their shared love of reading. On top of the bonus episodes, our patrons also enjoy our beloved seasonal reading events like our Fall Book Preview coming up on September 14th and popular life events like our regular Ask Us Anything gatherings.

[00:02:39] All the book bonuses you'll find on Patreon are our way of saying thank you for the very real financial support the show receives from our patrons. And look, many of our patrons don't have time for more podcast listening, but they sign up anyway simply to financially support our work. So no matter why you choose to join or how you engage with this community, we are so grateful. We truly could not do this work without you.

If you are already a patron, thank you so very much from me and our whole team. If you are not, please consider supporting us there. Visit patreon.com/whatshouldireadnext to learn more or sign up. We do our best to make our patron community a fun place to hang out. But don't just take my word for it. Here are a few words from Patreon member, Jen, about her experience since joining us over on Patreon.

[00:03:27] JEN: Hi, this is Jen from Montclair, New Jersey. There's a lot to love about being part of the Patreon community, but my favorite moment is the unboxing of the Summer Reading Guide. I joined the evening Unboxing event and immediately I loved the vibe. It was warm, bubbly, energetic.

I didn't know any of the other participants, of course, but immediately I felt like these were my people. We had all shown up for our common love of books. I usually took notes in recommendations. I rank the books I place on library holds. and since then I have spent the entire summer head down into the Summer Reading Guide books. And my reading life is at an all-time happy place, and joining the patron community has been a big part of that. And for that, I'm super grateful. Thank you.

ANNE: Thank you so much for those words, Jen. We are so glad you feel like you've found your book people. We feel that way, too.

Now, if you are curious about how books become New York Times best sellers or how any of the notable publishing lists actually work, you are not alone. This is a fascinating corner of the publishing world, and whether or not you pay attention to bestseller lists, the fact is that they play a role in the books we all hear about and see featured on the shelves. This bonus episode is about how those lists work and why it might matter for your reading life. Let's get to it.

[00:04:47] JENNY: Hi, this is Jenny [inaudible 00:04:49] from Herndon, Virginia. The deep dives into the publishing industry are by far my favorite, from looking at the types of books that are released in certain months to the Colleen Hoover Deep Dive. And recently, after the unique personalities of imprints discussion, I started tracking my four and five-star reads, and I found several imprints that are particularly aligned with my reading. These episodes are automatic listens to me. Thanks so much.

ANNE: Hello, readers. It's Anne, and today we are talking about the bestseller lists with an emphasis on the New York Times list. I realized when I sat down to put together this bonus for you that I was envisioning a thorough explainer that could really fill a college course for an entire semester. I really had to rein myself in to keep it on the side of brevity. But let me know in the comments on Patreon if you do have any burning questions that I have left unanswered or if there's more you would like to explore in this topic because there are certainly more that could be said. I would love to hear what you are interested in.

[00:05:48] So today what we're talking about is what are bestseller lists and why do they matter? In theory, the various bestseller lists seek to tell readers what books people are buying in the greatest numbers. Bestseller list matters. This is indisputable. They matter because there are so many books out there, and the bestseller list draws attention to certain titles. And in that way, those titles are able to stand out from the crowd.

Now, there are lots of ways books can stand out from the crowd. This is just one of them. The biggest obstacle to a book's success is readers simply not knowing or remembering that book exists. And a bestseller list is just one way readers can discover or be reminded of a certain book.

I think the most important thing to remember through this whole conversation is that bestseller lists are a means of discovery for readers. When I talk about theater books here in Patreon, that is a means of discovery. When we compile a book list on Modern Mrs. Darcy, that is a means of discovery. When Reece and Jenna and Oprah make their selections, that is another means of discovery. When we feature books in our Kindle deals email, it serves the same purpose.

[00:06:50] Bestseller lists also matter greatly to authors and publishers because they're hitting a bestseller list and specifically hitting that New York Times list means more book sales. We will get to that.

I asked you all here on Patreon for your questions about these bestseller lists. I'm also drawing from what you shared when we asked earlier this year for your burning bookish questions. Some of those were on the same topic. Thank you so much for letting me know what is of interest to you and what sort of information you would find of value as we talk about bestseller lists today.

You had a lot of questions about how the lists actually worked and then questions specific to the New York Times list. It is true that The New York Times list gets talked about as the list in the industry. But there are lots of different bestseller lists. We talked a little about the Publishers Weekly bestseller list in our episode about the Colleen Hoover Publishing phenomenon that aired on February 3rd. Y'all can go back and listen to that anytime.

And also we talked about how the Publishers Weekly List is sometimes called a pure, hear my air quotes, bestseller list because it is based on the numbers. I'll repeat a little of what we talked about in that episode here, and that is that much to the surprise of many, it is impossible to share a simple list of what book sold and how many copies.

[00:08:03] I know that sounds like really straightforward information to have and to share, and it's just not. Books are sold in many different places. That data is not pooled, so we can't know exactly how many copies are being sold of anything. I think it's really important to understand that fundamental truth as we get more into the various lists and what they represent.

I'm sharing an interesting piece in the notes to this bonus written by Melanie Walsh on Public Books. It's called Where Is All the Book Data? And if you're thinking that sounds familiar, I previously shared it on Modern Mrs. Darcy on links I love when it was first published.

In it, Walsh says, "I went looking for book sales data, only to find that most of it is proprietary and purposefully locked away. What I learned was that the single most influential data in the publishing industry—which, every day, determines book contracts and authors' lives—is basically inaccessible to anyone beyond the industry." And popping in to say it's only so accessible to people in the industry. So Walsh says, "I learned that this is a big problem."

[00:09:04] So my aim today is not to get into that big problem of data or question the existence of bestseller lists, but to shed light on what they mean and what they represent. They can be a tool for and also a distraction from the reading life you want to build. When you understand what they mean, you can use them well or you can choose to ignore them, but you'll be doing it on purpose, fully understanding what it is that you're looking at.

So let's touch on some of the big bestseller lists, starting with the Publishers Weekly List I already mentioned. I never see Publishers Weekly touted on author sales pages or reviews, but it is a source that industry people pay a ton of attention to. The Publishers Weekly List is based on BookScan data. About 85% of physical book sales in the United States and 80% of eBook sales are captured by BookScan. But that can vary wildly by the specific book. I told you this before.

So, for example, book sales of my book Don't Overthink It, are believed to be pretty well captured in BookScan. That 85%-ish, that seems right compared to what my publisher says I have sold. And the reason is that book is primarily sold in independent bookstores and in places like Amazon and Target. But BookScan and doesn't capture even half of my sales for I'd Rather Be Reading and the My Reading Life book journal. Oh gosh that book journal, it's so... it doesn't even get half because so many of those copies are sold by retailers that aren't bookstores like gift shops, stationery shops, coffee shops. Those are not in BookScan.

[00:10:34] Another note on what BookScan doesn't capture, because we got a lot of questions about this. And when BookScan doesn't capture it, it's not on the bestseller lists. Those are books sold to libraries, direct-to-consumer sales and books sold at big events or conferences. So that is the data Publishers Weekly is drawing from in their list.

Something else noteworthy about the Publishers Weekly list is they include individual sales numbers for each title. And that is not common for these lists. So you can look at this week's list, which I'm linking in our notes, which features best sellers for April 2nd to 8th and see that Dav Pilkey's new Dog Man book tops the overall list of any book sold, kids, adult, business, whatever with 152,650 copies sold. That number is not typical.

You all had a lot of questions about how many copies a book needs to sell to be included on a bestseller list. That is not a static number. We got that question too. It's not like you hit a certain number sales and you make the list. It's all relative. And it, of course, depends on the individual list, like who the curator is. And that number will vary from week to week for those individual lists.

But I will use the current hardcover front-list fiction list to give you a feel. And again, this is from Publishers Weekly. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is first with 17,506 copies. Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling is the 25th and last book on the list with 3,093 copies.

[00:11:57] Time out to talk about how Dog Man sold 152,000 copies, which, y'all, that might be more than Prince Harry. It comes down to preorders, a topic you all had a lot of questions about. You wanted to know if pre-orders count towards the bestseller lists. And the answer is absolutely yes. Any book purchased prior to its publication date counts towards the book's first week sales. In this way, pre-orders have a significant influence on bestseller lists.

Book tours also matter for the same reason. There's a lot of speculation about whether in-store events count towards the New York Times list—We'll have more on that shortly—but they definitely do contribute to the raw numbers. And that's why authors go on tour when their book comes out. Well, that's one reason we should say. I remember the moment I first understood book tour math, like back in 2017, and it blew my mind. We can talk more about that if you want to. Tell me. Ask me.

Okay, now for the Wall Street Journal list, which is also data-driven. They say they also rely on BookScan to gather print book data and e-book data. They specifically say they exclude free eBooks and those selling for less than $0.99 for their list. They also say they aggregate sales data for all eBook formats except audiobooks, which do not count here, when compiling their fiction and nonfiction combined lists.

The Wall Street Journal list is especially well-regarded in business circles. Incidentally, Don't Over Think It was a Wall Street Journal bestseller. These notes about my books and I have a few more. My experience is not necessarily representative, but you know me. You know my books. I can speak well to this experience. I'm just sharing what I know.

[00:13:35] KATE OLSEN: Hi, this is Kate Olsen from Wisconsin, and I'm calling to let you know that I just love the Patreon episode where Anne gives us a little in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the book and publishing industry. Specifically, I love the episode where she talks about the publishing calendar, and I love the episode where she talks about insiders from booksellers. I remember that one was a great one too.

Anything where we get to go behind the scenes and look at stuff that not everyone else gets to hear about on the regular podcast, it makes us feel like insiders and part of a special club. So thank you for all that you do.

[00:14:20] ANNE: Now let's talk about the USA Today list. There was much lamentation when the USA Today list announced back in December that it was going on hiatus. That it was a bad thing for readers, that it was a bad thing for authors because like Publishers Weekly, it was also a data-driven list that tracked what books people were actually buying, as in not a curated list as some of them are. Again, I'm saving New York Times for last.

USA Today featured a ton of genre fiction, especially romance. It included books in a variety of formats, and it ranked the top 150 bestselling books in order of sales by their numbers. And it did it as well as it could. There's a major disclaimer here. Given the limitations of gathering that sales data, ranking by the numbers means by the best numbers they have. And we've talked about how there are limitations there.

I've also read that the USA Today list didn't include sales from a couple of major retailers like Walmart, which is obviously massive. But even though it wasn't comprehensive, is still deliberately cast a wide net.

Amazon has its own bestseller lists. And because Amazon's market share is so high, it's upwards of 60% for books. Those are really pretty meaningful numbers, if you want to know what's selling. Amazon Charts is their weekly list of books that sold the most copies in any format. This is one of the few lists that includes audiobooks, which rarely count toward the book's bestseller status. And as best as I can tell, their list still includes Kindle Unlimited borrows as it did at that program's launch. I couldn't find an update past 2020 though, and these things do change over time.

[00:15:51] The American Booksellers Association has its own list called Indie Bestsellers. This used to be the IndieBound List, and you can always see these at Indiebound.org. These are compiled based on sales data from upwards of 500 independent bookstores across the country. And instead of representing pure numbers, this list is weighted to reflect what is popular in independent bookstores everywhere.

For example, let me tell you about two independent bookstores that you may know. One is my local indie Carmichael's Bookstore, which I talk about mostly because you can order signed copies of my books through them, and I Instagram them when I go. It's the bookstore I go to the most.

And then let's also take New York City's The Strand, which is huge. So if there's a book that's selling really well release week at Carmichael's, it'll sell ten copies. If there's a book selling really well release week at the Strand, I don't know how many copies it's going to be, but it's going to be a lot more than ten.

So the ABA says they don't just add up, let's say it was 500 copies at the Strand, 500 copies at the Strand, ten books at Carmichaels, they added together five, ten. Those books don't count the same. What they will say is, Oh, it was the top bestseller at the Strand and the top bestseller at Carmichael's.

[00:17:03] Now, if two books outsold Dog Man at Carmichael's, then they will take into consideration that was the first bestselling book at the Strand, but the third bestselling book at Carmichael's. I don't know their exact formula, but that's the general philosophy behind it. Their goal is to reflect what is selling well and how well is it selling in independent bookstores right now.

And that brings us to The New York Times list. You had a lot of questions and you wanted to know why is this list the most prestigious. Friends, I can't tell you why that is, only that it is. This is a real thing. It is widely recognized to be the one that matters.

When authors and publishers talk about hitting the list, they don't say which list. There's only one list they have in mind, and that is the New York Times bestseller list. It's certainly been around a long time since 1931, if you're keeping track. But the longevity is not the only thing that matters here. It is true that hitting this list does have a measurable effect on authors' sales and the money they earn, both on current, the book that hits and on future lists, the books that they will be able to sell, contract, move into the marketplace in the future.

[00:18:10] That New York Times bestselling author designation is worth a lot: reputation, status, and also actual money. So it's really important. But no one outside the Times knows how it is compiled. What we do know is that it is a curated list that does not correspond to data sources like BookScan. It's not that there's no relation, but the relation is flimsy.

The list is put together by a team of three at the Times who work full-time to compile both weekly and monthly lists. In an editorial published in 2020, I'm going to give you a gift link if I have any left. Otherwise, I'm so sorry about the paywall. It's in the notes though.

They say they do it by combining data science, investigative reporting, and their own special blend of foxhole humor. Their stated goal is to reflect what individual consumers are buying across the country, and that is as opposed to what purchases made for events or for the purpose of buying one's way onto the list, hear my quotes. That's discouraged. It's not impossible to do. If you want, do some googling on that, you can certainly find out a lot about how that can work. We're not going to go into the details here today.

The bestseller list team does say repeatedly, they go off the sales data. But friends, no one in the industry believes that is actually the case, at least not to the extent that this editorial seems to claim. Obviously, I don't work for the Times, I don't know the formula, but I'm sharing what I know.

[00:19:34] What I do know is that I have heard so consistently that the New York Times editorial team with their bestseller list is looking to recognize books that are being purchased by individual shoppers from independent bookstores across the country. Then I was shocked to discover while researching this bonus that they don't actually say that. The New York Times has never actually come out and said that. But is that widely believed to be the case? Yes, it is.

The New York Times formula, if one can even call it that, has certainly changed over the years. At least that's what industry folks gather by comparing notes. Like in 2018, an agent told me she was thrilled to discover the Book of the Month sales counted toward the New York Times list. I was telling her I really enjoyed a title, that was her title, and she told me like, "Oh my gosh, we were delighted. We were counting down. The list was about to come out. We were looking at sales and we were going, Darn it. She missed it. She's not going to hit. There's no way she's going to hit. And then she did." And it was because she had X number of sales, and yes, the agent knew exactly how many off the top of her head, book of the Month club sales. And that pushed her over. Significantly over. She was pretty high on the list and yes I know what this book is and no, I'm not going to say what it is because I think I've said enough.

[00:20:43] But in 2019, that was no longer the case. And I remember a conversation I had with author friends in somebody's living room before the pandemic. The New York Times list had just come out and somebody had a new book and they thought, "Well, my agent would have called me if I hit. So I clearly didn't. But I want to see what's on the list."

And we were reviewing it and we had Publishers Weekly sales data pulled up at the same time, and we were noting that a major big deal literary retelling was on the list and was pretty high on the list. But Publishers Weekly said it had only sold 3,000 copies. And a couple of people went, "Oh, that's not fair." And somebody said, "No, no, it's that author. Look at our history." They had to reward her for that work. It's really important. She'd never hit the list before.

Now, is that how it works? That is not what I'm saying. But I'm saying this is how people talk about the New York Times bestseller list. I don't know that they're wrong, but I don't know that they're right either. I can say that it is a mystery.

And it's interesting to me how for a long time, how The New York Times Best Seller list is put together was inside baseball. But in recent years, there seems to be a lot more interest outside the industry in The New York Times practices and requests for more transparency. I find that really interesting. And I'm curious to see how this evolves in the coming years.

[00:22:00] Now, you all asked a lot about publishers and if a book's publisher mattered for, I keep wanting to say hitting the list, for inclusion on a bestseller list, let's say. The vast majority of books on the list, books on most lists, in fact, but even more so for The New York Times are from the big five publishing houses. That is Penguin Random, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Macmillan. And who am I forgetting? Harper. I'm forgetting Harper.

My books Don't Overthink It and I'd Rather Be Reading are with a smaller press. And I was told that while it wasn't impossible to make the list because titles from that press do in fact occasionally hit, that it would be tough. Again, my books are familiar reference point for me and you. My experience here is not representative. But to give you a ballpark feel of how many copies the book has to sell to hit the New York Times list, the answer is generally between 5,010 thousand copies, depending on the title itself and the competition in any given week. For example, lots more books are out in May than July.

My memory is fuzzy and I couldn't find the actual data, but I believe each book sold about 7,000 copies in the first week, according to the BookScan data back then. And they didn't hit. Believe me, if they had hit the New York Times list, I would have told you and it would say it under my name everywhere.

[00:23:17] So that's a quick overview of bestseller lists. And they matter. They matter for your reading life. These are books that all get talked about. These are books that have special sections in bookstores. A novelist friend calls the New York Times Best Seller List a collection of books that are selling well because they are selling well. When a lot of readers don't know what's a read, they look to the bestseller list to help them decide. And there is nothing wrong with that.

These lists are just one means of discovery. I know you care deeply about your reading life and you are very invested in how you spend your reading time and choosing what to read next. So I want you to feel empowered to do that, knowing where this information comes from and how you might or might not want to rely on it.

I find this all extremely interesting. I'm happy to share what I know and to take the opportunity of receiving your questions to dive down the rabbit hole and research it further. So thank you so much for your questions today. I hope you found this episode interesting and useful. And I really look forward to talking more with you about the reading life and the industry and how it affects your reading life in the future.

Thanks for listening to this bonus. Share your comments in Patreon and we will talk again soon, friends. Till next time, happy reading, everyone.

[00:24:35] Readers. I hope you enjoy tuning in to that Industry Insights bonus episode. And thank you to Jenny and Kate for telling us more about why you love these episodes so much.

Next, you'll hear a recent episode in our Dear Book Therapist series. While I often talk about unique reader struggles on the weekly podcast, here in Patreon we get to dig deep into the specific bookish problems, queries, hopes, and predicaments our patrons bring to our attention. Let's listen in.

Hello, readers, and welcome to Dear Book Therapist. The idea for this ongoing feature came from you who frequently joke that What Should I Read Next? episodes are basically Bibliotherapy. Plus, we receive so many cries for help, sometimes tongue in cheek, sometimes not, from readers asking me to fix their bookish conundrums or simply give them needed insight into their own behavior in their reading lives.

So today, we're going to start with a quick round featuring a potpourri of readerly queries and then we're going to camp out for a bit on the question of the push-pull between wanting to enjoy your current read without being distracted by everything you want to read.

[00:25:45] Okay, for our potpourri popcorn round, let's go. This one came in via Patreon comment from Laura. She says, "Dear Book Therapist, I kind of want to throw caution to the wind and mass delete my TBR. As of today, I have 1,342 books and I don't think it's bringing me joy, as Marie Kondo says. I feel that if there is a book on there that I should read, it will come back to me eventually. My question is, how can I have a TBR but not get back to this mess of a list?"

Laura, let's investigate. First of all readers, I know most of you already know this. But if you don't, we're talking about the to-be-read list. The list is sometimes very long list of titles you think you may want to read next or read someday. Laura, it sounds like you're kind of... you've been mulling and now you're ready to act on impulse. Do you want to do it? And I think if this is what you want to do, do it. Do it. It's okay. But listen to the rest of my answer before you do it.

[00:26:47] So your question here is how can you have a to-be-read list but not get back to the mess of a list 1,342 titles strong that you have now. I really see two possibilities for you here that I'd love for you to consider. Number one, raise the requirements for books earning a place on your TBR. Ask yourself to supply more information to yourself than just "Oh, that sounds interesting," before a book scores a place on your TBR.

So two things you could do. Ask for more of the book, like it's really got to make its case for earning a place on your list. And ask for more of yourself. I wonder if you don't raise the hassle factor just a little bit, it could possibly... No, this won't work for everybody, but for Laura, it could help you only add books to your TBR that you feel really belong there.

And this is not new information or new recommendation. I'm just emphasizing things I've already said before. I would encourage you to note the date you're adding a book to your TBR, the source of the recommendation, and why you want to read it when you're adding it to your TBR.

[00:27:52] Also, this filters in another way. If you can't answer that question of why or if it's a flimsy answer, don't add it to the list. At the same time, I want to validate that I don't know why exactly "it just sounds awesome for me" is a totally valid answer. That is enough. But if you're like, "I don't know, I saw it on Instagram," that is not good enough.

So raise the requirements. Make sure that book belongs. I mean, make it sure as you can, there are no short things in the reading life. Make sure that book belongs and ask yourself to do a little more work before a book gets added to your list.

Also, Laura, maybe you need to hear this. I don't know who needs to hear this. But you can keep a list of books that have caught your attention or that you think sound interesting that is separate and distinct from your TBR. Maybe you don't want to delete that TBR. Maybe you want to rename it a list of books that at one time or another I have thought sounded interesting. Especially if you have this in a format that you can search, that could be really valuable information. But it does not have to be the same thing. In fact, I would say it should not be the same thing as your to-be-read list. Laura, thanks for the question.

[00:29:02] Next. This one came in from email from Julie in Illinois. She writes, "Dear Anne, I have too many books. Help. And they all sound so good. Is there a randomizer for books? What should I read next? Thank you. Julie."

I'm going to answer this with a clip from Elizabeth Cooper's episode. You love to read, don't ruin it. You're about to hear Elizabeth Cooper describe how she describes books. Now, after this clip ends in the episode, she says, "My husband's a computer programmer. He designed this for me." She talks a lot more about this in the episode. Go listen to the whole thing. But here's that little clip. Because that randomizer that I think you might be asking about cheekily it could really exist for you. Okay, here you go. Listen up.

ELIZABETH COOPER: Here's the other really interesting thing about me. I choose all my books randomly. I never, ever walk into my library or bookstore or wherever and pick out a book and bring it home and read it. I pick up a book, I add it to my Good Reads list, and then when it's time to read something new, I go to my trusty randomizer and I plug in a number, and whatever that number pops up with is what I end up reading.

[00:30:14] ANNE: Oh, I really enjoyed revisiting that episode. Next, we have a question from a What Should I Read Next? alum, Allison Matz. She writes in Patron comments, "Dear Book Therapist, I recently traded in my two-hour commute, one hour each way, for a six-minute one. While basically my whole world has improved, my audiobook listening has plummeted. Where and when else do you get a lot of audiobook time in other than, say, a daily walk?" Thank you. Allison, thank you.

And that is amazing that your whole world is basically improved from this big change in your life, and yet I hear you when you say your audiobook listening has plummeted. I'm also hearing the unstated assumption here that Allison wants audiobook time.

Readers, if that doesn't matter to you, it doesn't matter. No worries. But it sounds like it matters to Allison. And she is asking this specifically and personally, "When do I get a lot of audiobook time other than, say, a daily walk?" She can also be asking you. When do you get a lot of audiobook time? And so tell us in comments.

[00:31:16] Allison, I have not had a big change in my commute in this past year, but I did have a lung issue that if you've been around here this year you know about because I sounded weird and didn't talk at all for a few weeks, which I do not recommend. But I spend a lot of time sitting on the couch reading. I was not on my feet. So I wasn't driving anywhere. I wasn't walking the dog. I wasn't doing laundry. I wasn't even standing at the sink doing dishes. I certainly wasn't working out.

And I noticed I mean, it took me a week or two, but I noticed I am not listening to audiobooks and I love audiobooks and I missed it. But you have just heard me rattle off the times where I am listening to audiobooks even when I'm not driving in the car, and that is doing household tasks like laundry, dishes, tidying. I do it when I'm walking Daisy. I do it when I'm working out. I used to love to listen to music when I'm working out, and I still do sometimes. But I realized if you listen to books while you're working out, you get through more books.

There are also some really boring tasks that can be combined with audiobooks. I know. So you do this in your workplace. I do it around here when I'm filing receipts and when I'm editing photos. Allison, I hope you're able to carve out a little bit of time if you decide that's important to you and get to find some great audiobooks soon.

[00:32:31] REBECCA: Hi, my name is Rebecca. I'm calling from Chicago. I've been a patron for about three years. My favorite part of being part of the Patreon community is that you have more access and visibility to the entire Modern Mrs. Darcy team. And I have learned so much from hearing from other team members as well.

I will specifically point to an episode where Shannan talked about her love for the sci-fi genre and that somewhat reinvigorated my love for the genre as well. I went immediately from listening to that episode to downloading the audiobook of A Psalm for the Wild-Built. I inhaled that in a day. I was just so delighted and that episode was so delightful. So I think it has been so worthwhile for many reasons, but I think my top reason has been getting to know more of the Modern Mrs. Darcy team and hearing from them on a regular basis. Thank you all and have a great day.

[00:33:27] ANNE: Next, we have an email from Anonymous who says, "Help! I keep reading new releases and am disappointed. I have major FOMO and hates a DNF." She says, "I will sometimes, but ever the optimist I read on most of the time. In June, I read and loved The Secret Book of Flora Lea, Fourth Wing, and The Five-Star Weekend. Not for me were The Celebrants and Girls and Their Horses. Help me. Anonymous."

I want to encourage a gentle reframing here because in this email you listed five new releases and you read and loved three of them. That's not bad. So you keep reading new releases, but you're not disappointed in all of them. And I just want to stop and note that for you if you haven't already.

I'm also noticing that the thing that differentiates the books you loved from the books you didn't is tone. The Celebrants, Girls and Their Horses, totally different tone than The Secret Book of Flora Lea, Fourth Wing, and The Five-Star Weekend. On the spectrum, Girls and Their Horses and The Five Star Weekend are closest. But I can totally understand why a reader with love one and not the other.

I think the tone you're drawn to is one with softer edges. I hope that gives you something to think about. I also would encourage you to think about is that true about tone and is that true about your... we're going to call it batting average—I kind of hate that metaphor, but there it is anyway—about the books that are not new releases.

[00:35:01] I'm glad you're trying to identify these sticking points in your reading life. I'm wondering if this one about tone is consistent across new releases and backlist. If so, that will give you the information you need to dig a little deeper and more specifically. I wish you well.

Next, we have another from Christie that came in in our Patreon comment thread. She says, "Dear Book Therapist, life has conspired to require a book embargo and the delay of anything not strictly necessary. It's not fun. Usually, I would turn to our library, but they have made changes, which is making it hard to get books in a timely manner or request the purchase of new books. It is proving frustrating and my mood is not helping." I know. "I think I am just in a reading funk. We have a generous home library for which I am exceedingly grateful. How do I lean into that to reboot my reading joy?"

Christie, framing is everything here. High fives and gold stars for having the self-awareness to even ask this question and articulate the situation you are in right now, it sounds like you have several things going on here at once. And really, we could file them all under change is hard.

It sounds like life has changed recently for you. It sounds like your library has changed recently. And both these changes are forcing your reading life to change. Change is stressful. And you've got a lot of changes happening all at once. That's a lot of readerly stress, and it's no wonder that you are diagnosing yourself as being in a reading funk.

But you also see a potential way out. It sounds like you see it, but you're not emotionally on board, you're not excited about it. And I do think a key ingredient for a vibrant reading life is enthusiasm about the books that we're going to read in the near future.

[00:36:41] So, Christie, by your invitation, I'm going to in turn invite you to tweak your framing. I'm asking you to make another change. I'm so sorry. But I'm going to give you a little nudge. I'm going to ask you, how did all those books end up in your home library? What excited you about bringing them into your home in the first place? They are there for a reason.

And as we've explored on What Should I Read Next?, not every book past Christie has brought into her home is one that present Christie is going to read and love. But I am willing to bet a lot that a lot of them there are books that you would love and enjoy if you started reading them today. Those books are there for a reason.

I'm also going to invite you to consider your generous home library from a different angle. And I'm going to do that by sharing the words of Will Schwalbe from back in Episode 184. It's called You'll Never Conquer Your TBR—and that's a good thing. Does this go back to Laura's? Yes, it does. And I am not sad about that.

Okay, listen in.

[00:37:37] WILL SCHWALBE: But when you come visit my husband and me in our apartment, you'll see that we have a lot of bookshelves like most people do. But our bookshelves are filled with books we have yet to read. There are very few books that we have read on it. And I love that. I love waking up in the morning and looking at a wall of books and thinking, oh, I haven't read any of these. I have all of these ahead of me. Adding books to my to-read list just gives me more reason to live and I would be... It'd be a terrible thing to read every book that you wanted to read. Every book I can add fills me with joy.

ANNE: One of my favorite lines is from Emily Dickinson, I dwell in possibility. I'm imagining you and your husband literally dwelling in the possibility of all those books awaiting you.

WILL: Yes. And it's fun also to shop your bookshelf. It's like going to a great indie bookstore and every book speaks to you.

[00:38:27] ANNE: I love the way Will puts that so much. And of course, we have links to these past episodes in the show notes. The whole thing is worth a listen.

Next, we're going to linger a moment on a theme raised by multiple readers, which boils down to the pull between what you're currently reading and all the things you could be reading. This theme takes different forms in your different queries. I'm going to read you three from listeners so you can get a feel for how this is manifesting right now in different reading lives.

This first one is from Sarah. She says, "With all the new book releases and unread books on my shelves, I've been struggling to stay focused on the book I'm currently reading. When I'm in those first 50 pages or so of a new read and I haven't connected yet with the characters or story, I find myself thinking about those books I haven't read yet. How do I cultivate curiosity about the books I haven't read while focusing on the book I'm currently reading?"

Next, this is from Nina, who writes, "Dear book Therapist. I feel like I've been consuming books this year rather than really enjoying them. I have had several five-star reads that have stuck with me, but those seem to be the only ones I sit with before quickly moving on to the next one. I specifically didn't set a number goal for the year except one nonfiction book a month to try to focus more on quality.

I have, for the most part, really enjoyed those reads. They take me longer to get through, so they seem to stay in my mind longer. My favorite this year so far was Hunt, Gather, Parent. Do you have any recommendations for savoring my reads more or how to choose books that are more reflection-worthy?

[00:40:00] Suzanne writes, "Hi, Book Therapist, I made a commitment this year to read all of my book club books prior to the actual book club meeting and to prioritize those books. However, I find myself resenting this—That's a strong word, Suzanne. I'm noting that—because it does not permit me much time to read mysteries, my favorite genre." This is a battle of "should" for me. The book club reading is aspirational, but not a passion. How do I reconcile my desire to be a good book club member—hear those air quotes—with my desire to read books that bring me a lot of satisfaction."

Now, could we talk to each of these readers for a full hour or all day about the peculiarities and particulars of each situation? We absolutely could. And if you did, we'd be focused on choosing reads for reflection and gathering that information, how to sit with a book, how to reconcile competing desires, how to identify aspirational reading, how possibly to make more time for reading. We could talk about all those things, but alas, we are not going to.

[00:41:04] What we can do, what we are going to do is take a moment to acknowledge common and widespread feelings readers experience in the reading life. If there was a single one of us listening right now who has never experienced this wandering eye sort of feeling where we're asking ourselves if we've chosen poorly, like if we don't have another book in reach that might be better, hear my air quotes, than the one we've chosen to read right now, I would be really surprised.

So what I want to do is normalize that grass is greener feeling. And I also want to provide a framework in which Sarah, Nina, Suzanne, and you can think about this tension when it pops up in your own reading life. There are four questions you can ask yourself that will help you identify if you're on the right path. They can help you see, like, "Yeah, maybe I should put this down," or "No, don't get distracted. Keep reading. You picked up this book for a reason."

Question one: What am I reading? Of course, answer this question by yourself with the title and author but also describe the book to yourself and listen to yourself when you do. If my answer was like, "Oh, this dumb history idea..." I mean, listen to that self-talk right there. Like, this matters. What are you reading? Describe it for yourself.

[00:42:11] Question two: Why am I reading it? What I mean is, of all the books you could be reading right now, why did you pick this one? For what purpose?

Question three: What do I hope to get out of this book I'm reading now? What kind of readerly outcome would make you feel satisfied about this reading experience?

And question four, finally, ask yourself, Is that likely to happen? Do you feel good enough about the odds that you're willing to roll the dice and keep reading?

Question one: What am I reading? Question two: Why am I reading it? Question three: What do I hope to get out of it? Question four: Is that likely to happen? Now, go back and review your answers. Do you like the answers you gave to these questions?

If you're reading it because you feel like you should, that's not a good answer, friends. If you're reading it because you impulse bought it with cash money at the bookstore and you'd feel bad not reading it, also, I mean, understandable, but not a good answer. And look, you can't shortcut your way out of here. If you tell yourself you're reading it because it's the book club selection, I'm not going to let you off the hook with that answer. You've got to dig deeper. Why? Why? Why? Why are you reading?

[00:43:20] Sometimes we need to be reminded of why we want to read something, of why we picked up a book in the first place. Like we were just saying of why we put a book on our home bookshelves in the first place. Sometimes we need our eyes open to the fact that our reasons are seriously lacking. Sometimes we need to be reminded of why we want to read it. And I cannot tell you which is which but I can offer this nifty little framework to help you figure it out for yourself.

Readers, that's it for this bonus. Thank you for listening. Thank you for trusting us with your reading lives. We will talk soon. And till next time, happy reading.

[00:43:51] Hey, readers, I hope you enjoyed today's glimpse inside our patron community and hearing from some of our current patrons about what they love most about this space. I'd love to invite you to join them. Sign up at patreon.com/whatshouldireadnext. Whether you wish to tangibly support our work or want to get perks like the upcoming potluck preview and new episodes of Dear Book Therapist, industry insights, one great book, and many matchmaking, we'd be so grateful if you joined us there. Sign up at patreon.com/whatshouldireadnext.

As always, you'll find links mentioned today along with the full list of titles we talked about at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com.

Thanks to the people who make this show happen. What Should I Read Next? is created each week by Will Bogel, Holly Wielkoszewski, and Studio D Podcast Production. Our Patreon community manager is Sara Aeder. 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.