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- [00:00]
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Foreign.
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Hey readers, welcome to the currently reading podcast. We are bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the books that we've read recently. And as you know, we won't shy away from having strong opinions. So get ready.
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A
We are light on the chit chat, heavy on the book talk, and our conversations will always be spoiler free. Today we have a very special episode for you.
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I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz. I'm both a mom and a Mimi and full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And I am always happy to put another season to bed.
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And I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mom of four living in Arizona and eight years of talking books is truly magical. This is episode number 50 of season eight and we are so glad you're here. Wow.
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B
What a privilege. What a privilege to be able to say that we are finishing eight seasons, Katie. It is amazing.
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A
50 episodes.
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B
50 episodes in this season, right? Exactly. And we have this week, we have our best of season 8 episode. We always like to do one episode at the end of the season. Completely different from any other, probably a little bit shorter than the others, but one where we can kind of take a moment in time and look back on the previous year. We decided that from the very beginning that we were going to do the show in seasons as opposed to just kind of like a long writing, like this is episode number 650 kind of thing. Because I think there's a lot to be said for beginnings and endings and then new beginnings. I think it gives you a really good opportunity to say, what was this chunk of what we did about? What was it like? What were the good stuff? What was the not so good stuff? And what are we hoping to do more of in the future? So I like that we do it this way. And this year we are doing something a little bit different than we've done before in that we have created some awards that we are giving the season that I think should be a little bit of an interesting structure or format we've never done before.
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A
Yes, it'll be a bit of a trip down memory lane and we are so glad that you've decided to join us today for the best of awards of season eight.
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B
All right, Katie. We always like to start out with the season by the numbers. So as you said, 50 episodes this season, that's about always what it is, right? We just take a couple weeks off every year.
- [02:38]
A
Yep. Indeed. And that means now we can pretty much count on the fact that we are talking a little bit more than an hour every Episode, which means if you are just a listener of the big show, that's at least 50 hours of content that you've been listening to all season long with us.
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B
Right. Roughly 544,000 words that we've. That we. Half a million that we've uttered. We've talked about 1,170 books and uniquely 875 different titles just this season, which is amazing.
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A
We have a very large compendium of every book that we've ever mentioned on the show that our patrons can have access to. And that is either just about to approach or just over 6,000 total titles that we've talked about on the show. So 875. That's probably on par for our regular season, but it's still a lot of books by a lot of authors. And that's what we love about doing currently reading, is that it's not just A, hopefully the same books you're hearing about everywhere else, but B, the same books that we've already been talking about season after season after season. Yes.
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B
And we also had a really interesting stat that we noticed when we went to go put this together, Katie, which is that I think for the first time ever this season, we have had right. At 1 million downloads for a season, which for a book podcast, is really, really, really good. And we are so grateful to you guys who are listening who are hitting download on these episodes.
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A
Yeah, it's amazing because we have always been self supported, self promoted. There's not an ad network trying to get us into your ears. So a million times people hitting Downloads on. On 50 episodes. That's a lot of dedication and that's a lot of hours that y' all have decided to spend with us. What a special stat. I love that.
- [04:36]
B
Yeah. Well, as a part of that, we wanted to do something that we always like to make sure that we're talking about a little bit, because we have felt from the beginning like what we were building here, we were all building together. Right. So we always try to do something that I like to think of as business corner. Like, we try to give you a little bit of a sense of, okay, what was the season like in general, but also what have we been trying to do this season and in seasons past? For a lot of seasons, we have concentrated on, for example, growing our Patreon numbers, which is fantastic. And now we have well over 3,000, a number that I'm not sure we ever thought we were going to hit. That has been absolutely huge. Helped immensely by the content that we offer for sure. But also that mentioned in the New York Times at the end of 2025 was really, really incredible for us. And we are so grateful to all of you who found us in that way. That really underscored, Katie, one of the things that's been really important for us as we think about what we're concentrating on as a business. And so one thing that when you do eight seasons of a show, of a podcast, you have to be really cogn of the fact that you can't rest on your laurels. Right. And that is something that we have to be very cognizant of not doing. Right. Because we have such a vocal community, we have so many fantastic listeners who've come alongside us. It can be easy to kind of just sit back and rest. But like a shark that stops swimming, bad things happen. So we really are. This year we've concentrated on what I've been calling discoverability, which is how do we get into the ears of people who have never heard of currently reading before? So we did a few things this year. We've worked really, really, really hard this year on a few new things that we've really loved that have gotten us to the point where we're getting some new people. So the one of those big things, Katie, is our YouTube channel. Now, we're not monetizing YouTube in any way, so there really isn't a profit motive on any of these at all. This is just about how do we get in front of, how do we get into the ears of more people who love books so that we can all love books together. And YouTube has been a great way of doing that. So all of our episodes, all of the big shows are on YouTube. We would love it if you would subscribe there if that's a way that you like taking in your content. Yes, you do get to see us. Yes, you do get to see blue in the background. Katie, you are doing a fantastic job of editing and producing the YouTube content that we're doing. So you get to see the book covers, you get to see us and our facial expressions. So YouTube is a big part of what you're doing. And I think, Katie, you're enjoying your work over there on YouTube.
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A
It's been really fun to learn about the fact that YouTube is actually the biggest streamer in the world, like above Netflix and Disney and HBO Max. That is where people go to watch things more than anywhere else in the world. And so the idea of making sure that our faces are out there and people can see that we are two real humans sitting in our respective homes talking about books with each other that matters. That's a way for people to connect in a totally different way. And their backend is really built for discoverability. They want people to be able to find the content that exactly matches their preferences. So it's been a a learning curve and b really fun to try and pull different levers and see what's happening over there and how to get get in front of more eyeballs and earballs.
- [08:14]
B
Yeah, yeah. So that's been interesting. We also are now on Substack, which is has been interesting as a discoverability mechanism and both on Substack. And then the other thing that we're doing is we're doing a newsletter and this is devoted to Reader Know Thyself. Now this is something again, no profit motive here. This is something though that is super important to us because the Reader Know Thyself content is what Katie, you and I feel really, really strongly about. As far as what we've always wanted to do with the show is to help people live their best reading life, to have as many five star experiences, enjoyable experiences in their reading, whatever that looks like for them. And that's been from the beginning a through line for us and for the show. And so the Reader Know Thyself newsletter which you can sign up for on our website or or you can sign up for in Substack. Again, we have no dog in the fight about where you take any of this stuff in. We just want to make it available in the way that is easiest and best for you. And we would love it if you do share out some of this stuff. If you love currently reading, go rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. That's super helpful for Apple Podcasts to surface us to other readers. If you haven't rated and reviewed us, but you've been listening to us for multiple seasons, this is a great thing for you to do for us. We would really, really appreciate it. And again, subscribe if you love the Reader Know Thyself idea. Every newsletter has one question that it asks you about your reading. You can just think about it for two seconds. Some people have a collection spot where they're writing each of these things down. You can do with it what you will, but it gives you the ability to really noodle on what what is best for you and your reading life in all of these different areas. I have so enjoyed writing the Reader Know Thyself content this year. It's really one of the most fun new things that we've been doing and it's completely free to anybody who wants it.
- [10:18]
A
One of my favorite pieces of the reader Know Thyself newsletter, whether it's on substack or through our website, is that a you're getting Meredith's voice, especially in this new and different way. Every newsletter volume feels like Meredith sat down with you to talk about your reading life, not necessarily about specific books, although we do sometimes throw some book lists out there as well. But to get you to start thinking and being an active participant in your own reading life rather than letting it pass you by. Taking in a podcast is great. And we hope that every single week you are you are actively writing down something you want to add to your TBR or that you can't wait to tell your dad, mom, brother, cousin about, but also to sit down and think about you as a reader and what's working for you. Being an active part of your reading life. That's what those every two week nudges are meant to do. And I guarantee you're going to learn something about yourself if you go back through every single one of those volumes.
- [11:17]
B
Yeah, I spend a lot of time thinking about this and I've learned stuff. And then the number of people who email in reply to that or who comment on substack in reply saying, I had not really thought about this particular question. Like the latest one that we sent out, Katie, actually was your idea. It was am I a driver or a passenger princess in my life? Like, do I want to make all my own choices of my books or do I really like it when I kind of give somebody else the ability to recommend a book to me and I'm just like, great, that's what I'm going to read next. And so that's one example, but really interesting stuff there. So those are some things that we have done that have been new this year. We continue to think about the big show. We changed the ending segment. We'll talk a little bit about Rip the Fountain. We constantly want to be thinking about what are the things that we can be adding, tweaking, adding behind the paywall. We've got some ideas for some things that are happening there potentially in season nine. Behind the paywall. We always want to be doing something new and different.
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A
Yes. For eight years now, Meredith, you've been talking about keeping our edges sharp, like honing a knife edge over and over again. And it's really easy to let that knife edge get dull if you are making the same cut every single day. So that's actually one of my favorite things about partnering with you on the podcast is that it's forward thinking and we're always trying to make sure that we're interested so that you all are interested in what's happening here, whether it's in front of the paywall or behind.
- [12:57]
B
Exactly. If we get bored, y' all are gonna get bored. And there's. Yeah, there's no reason for that. All right, so in that vein, we decided to do something different with our Best of the Season wrap up episode, which is some awards. So, Katie, the book we talked most about, who's the winner of that?
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A
This is such a fun one because as we just discussed with our Groove show last week, the Correspondent by Virginia Evans was a hit for all five of us main people that you have in your ears on Currently Reading. It was mentioned over and over again by all five of us throughout the season.
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B
Yeah, Correspondent was definitely on everyone's mind. It was my number six book of ten of the year. Yeah, that was a crossover and we've heard about it here. We've heard about it on lots of other book podcasts for sure. That was really excellent. Of course, Katie, it wouldn't be a season of Currently Reading if we didn't also mention the Count of Monte Cristo nine times. That was our runner up mention. And then 4th Wing and Katabasis both were mentioned with six times each, which
- [14:09]
A
is also amazing because a lot of these are books that we love that are lifetime favorites or that there was a lot of unity in our decisions about the way we felt about them. And then we have Katabasis, which maybe that one was the spicy opinion award of the season because six mentions. There was a lot going on there.
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B
Yep.
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A
All right, let's talk about the books that made us cry. This is. This is an interesting category because some of us don't like to cry.
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B
That's right. I do not like to cry. That is not something that makes me want to raise my hand and read a book when someone says, oh, it made me cry.
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A
I do like reading a book that helps me access that emotion. Especially these past few seasons. I've needed that catharsis sometimes because I've just been powering through. So I did take the top spot on this one. The winner is Impossible Creatures by Katherine Applegate. It was a read aloud with my kids. My kids, they rubbed my back so I could keep reading. And Levi, my middle boy, Pre rated it 1 billion stars because, oh, mom cried. It's now getting a billion stars. That's just a check mark for them. They love that well.
- [15:19]
B
And I mentioned that the Goblin Emperor, which is a book that I read this season and has become a lifetime favorite. I actually just got a really beautiful copy of it too. I had gotten it from the library, so I had to get a copy for my home library. And that one did make me cry. Not because it was sad, although it was poignant. But I cried because it was over and I was so upset at having to leave this world in these characters. And to me, that is a reason that crying makes a book when you're crying because you just don't want it to end. I mean, sign me up for that all day long.
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A
Oh, so good. We do have a few more honorable mentions in that category, but I feel like one really good winner for each of us is the way to go.
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B
Yeah. All right. The book that had us laughing. The winner. My winner, Victorian Psycho. I read it early in the season and it was just unhinged and had me giggling the entire way through.
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A
Man, I had quite a few of these, but I loved the hot pink nonsense cover of a Duke Never Tells. And then you actually just heard about this one as well in our listener press episode because it was Kristen's press last year. Zero stars. Do not recommend. Had me cackling the whole way through. Even the title is punny because the Sun Explodes. Zero stars, y'. All. We have zero stars left. Right?
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B
Well, and then honorable mention definitely has to go to dungeon crawler Carl, because I did not even think I was gonna wanna read that book at all. And not only did I love it, but I laughed all the way through. That's a seriously funny book.
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A
I think that is gonna be my big summer read this year. I really need to get to that one.
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B
Yeah, it's very good. I know. I read the first one. I didn't feel pulled to, like, I needed to go further in the series, but, man, there are people who, like, that's all they've read for months because it's so popular.
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A
I feel like I just heard from one of my local bookish friends that there are going to be 11 all together in that series. I believe book nine just came out.
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B
That sounds right. He's getting those out pretty quick.
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A
Yeah, he really is. And that's amazing because they're big ones. All right, let's talk about a little friendly disagreement. As we know, there's no Team Meredith, Team Katie on currently reading, but we do have some books that we don't always agree on. Which one was our first one, Meredith?
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B
I mean, our winner was definitely Death of an Author for sure, right?
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A
Death of the Author was a five star read for me. Absolutely loved it. And then shortly, right around the same time, Meredith had read it as well.
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B
And yeah, my most hated. My most hated book of the year. Yeah, that one. We were very polarized on that.
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A
Right. And it taught us both some things about ourselves as readers. Sometimes you really need a character that you love, that you can root for. Sometimes the story is enough to pull you on, even if everybody is loathsome. And it's okay to not feel the same way about the same character and the same plot. Right. So we contain multitudes, is what we said about that one. Cause it was on my top books of the year list. And then in our superlatives of that same episode, Meredith said she hated it so much she was yelling, oh, man,
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B
I hated that book. Well, a milder disagreement, but still one that maybe in some ways was more heart hurting was Razor Blade Tears. Now, this was one that you had assigned to me for summer reading. So in our second episode, back for. For the season, episode two of season eight, we talked about how we felt about our summer assignments. And this was one that I liked but didn't love. I definitely see the unlike Death of the Author, which I don't understand how anyone could like that book. This one wreath, Bleed tears. I can see it. But it was a, like, not a love, but for you it was like a lifetime love.
- [19:09]
A
It is a lifetime love for me. This is one that I really loved, that I have pressed into so many people's hands over the years. It is Essay Cosby, who is a favorite of mine, which, by the way, he writes gory, horrifying things on the page. And he is this fluffy, happy teddy bear of a man with the biggest smile and the kindest voice, and you just want to hug him. I don't know if he's a hugger, but I would want to hug him if we met in person. And yet, what a marvel, these pieces of literature that he puts out for us. Razor Blade Tears was the first I read for him. And I have continued to love all the books that he has put into my hands over the years. So it was easy to assign as a summer read for you, but it was okay. Like, I understand why for some people it doesn't work.
- [19:57]
B
Yeah, well, speaking of things not working, we have the DNF With Prejudice award. So the winner, actually the one that popped in my mind first was the fact that Katabasis, I had been so looking forward to it. Of course, I And everybody else, or not everybody, but so many people loved Babel. Katabasis seemed like it was going to be the return to that Babel kind of form. And Roxanne and I were reading it together and we DNF'd it at 47%, which was a lot of reading to get to that place. But I just. I disliked the characters so much. I think what I said was I wanted Alice and Peter to drown in lithe and for us all to forget that they existed. So I just. I couldn't do this one.
- [20:41]
A
I finished that one with prejudice. So it happens. I did have a very late in the book DNF as well with We Are the Light by Matthew Quick DNF'd that one at 70%, which is probably one of the furthest milestones I've ever had in a DNF book, because usually by that point I'm like, you know what? I'm just. There's only 30% left. I'm just gonna power through. I've made it this far. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I was so mad.
- [21:11]
B
Yeah, for sure. And then you actually helped me with a book that I had tried three different times by a beloved author, the Once and Future Witches by Alixie Harrow. Now, obviously, anyone who's listened for very long knows that the 10,000 Doors of January, lifetime favorite number one book of the year, the year that I read it. Katie, you love that one, too. I have had the Once and Future Witches on my bookshelf for so long. I have wanted it to be that perfect October read, tried three different times, and I just can't seem to make that one work.
- [21:46]
A
Yep. And. But it was okay because we got to do some book therapy and discuss why that was probably not going to hit the same scratch, the same itches that you were hoping to scratch. So it was honorably considered and thoughtfully set down.
- [22:01]
B
Yes, absolutely.
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A
Okay, we are going to move back to the giggles and talk about the funniest pieces of segments for this season. And I have to kind of scoop our show notes here and mention that behind the paywall we did have a conversation that people tell us almost a full year later they will go back and listen to if they need a laugh. And it is about horses and ponies. And it was a realization. And it is still so funny.
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B
Yeah. That if it hadn't been behind the paywall, there's no question that that would be the winner. Because that conversation. What book were we talking about? We were talking about it.
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A
It was The Pony Confidential. Pony Confidential was the book and it was an ipl. It was indie press list from booktenders in July. Which means it was after we had finished recording all of season seven. So it wouldn't have made it onto our best of season seven anyway. But Lord.
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B
Right. So there was definitely. I had some pretty significant misunderstandings about what a pony makes.
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A
What makes a pony.
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B
Yeah. So that. That was behind the paywall, but definitely for sure. But Katie, there's no question that in front of the paywall I've actually laughed about it multiple times since then. Is when we talked about Eager the
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A
book Ben Goldfarb, the book about beavers.
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B
I love that that book exists. I loved everything about our conversation. I loved how much we had to stop in order to create that. Like we had to cut out a
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A
lot so that it was a cohesive conversation. Yeah.
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B
But also could go out without an explicit rating. That was definitely a favorite memory of the season.
- [23:44]
A
One of my favorite. This is the gift that keeps on giving. So one of my favorite things about Eager by Ben Goldfarb is that when somebody will post in the bookish friends group, you know, I'm looking for a new book about science to read or I'm looking for a nonfiction to hand to my person that I'm shopping for or whatever without having read it only based on that conversation. Meredith is always in the comments. Have you considered Eager by Ben Goldfarb?
- [24:11]
B
She's an evangelist. It's like I have read it and I'm so mad that I can't read it and bring. I'm so mad that I didn't find that book and bring it first.
- [24:21]
A
It's so good. Yeah.
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B
And so you're right. I have not read it and yet I always will jump in and recommend it. Can I just suggest Eager?
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A
Like have you considered it's an option if you're looking for something here? I. It makes me so happy to get into the comments and be like, oh, I don't have to worry about that one. Meredith has got us covered.
- [24:40]
B
Absolutely. Well, speaking of things that make me really happy this year, I would say for me was a year of hobby related tangents in my life. Because this in the space of season eight, I have gone down two rabbit holes that have completely sucked up every moment of my life that is not related to my family or one of my two jobs. And that is the world of sourdough. Right. Like I am completely like I'm baking multiple times a week something sourdough which is just really. It's so therapeutic. But the best tangent award, I think, has to go to my rabbit hole of fragrance because it has affected my reading. I have been talking about it on the show. I have been having countless conversations with bookish friends. Not just bookish friends, but listeners who have been DMing me on Instagram saying, like, I'm totally fascinated by this. What are your favorite? This, that, the other thing. They'll even, like, come to me and be like, hey, here's a couple of scents that I really love. What else might I love? I am so delighted by this. So are you going to keep getting Fragrance corner tucked in the very, very, very end of a lot of episodes? Yes, you are. I hope you'll like that. But we tuck it in in the end so that if you don't, it's okay. You won't miss anything bookish. So thank you to everyone. Katie, thank you to you for putting up with the fact that these tangents, they make their way into the show.
- [26:17]
A
They do. Because our lives are focused on reading. We have a lot of things to talk about with reading, but we also are full and complete humans. And the rest of our lives spill into our books and our conversation. Right? I mean, right.
- [26:33]
B
When your hobbies kind of come together. And for a lot of us, when we do have something we're interested in, books are the first place where we go to learn very, very interesting stuff. So I love that. Best metaphor. I'm not sure that my ground beef metaphor is the. Is the best metaphor that I've ever come up with, but is absolutely the one that a lot of people have been, you know, talking about, like, oh, I'm so glad that you gave me that. Now every time I make ground beef, I think about, like, this is kind of about that 20 to 50% stretch of every book where the taco meat is still pink. But you know, it's going to be. You know, it's going to get you where you want to go, but you got to kind of stand there while it's still p. Is that my best metaphor?
- [27:16]
A
I think it's pretty gross. But honestly, I think the longest standing metaphor, which is also a Meredith metaphor, is a milkshake book. When we talk about how when you go somewhere in a drive through and you get a milkshake and you can't even make it all the way home to eat your food because you've finished the milkshake on the way home, and a milkshake book is that experience. I mean, there's a reason that we've been Talking about that for eight seasons now. Right. So best metaphor of the season. Sure. Pink ground beef. We gotta get through that 20 to 50% in order to get to the browning and the deliciousness.
- [27:50]
B
But I think it's an apt metaphor. But I'm not sure that it's my best metaphor. All right, Katie, we did have one moment.
- [28:00]
A
Big pivot.
- [28:01]
B
Well, we. Yes, we. We did have a moment of sadness in this episode in that we lost a beloved. We lost a beloved friend this season, and that was the fountain. We lost the reading fountain. We did a survey. So many of you were so honest, for which we really appreciate. And so many of you told us how much you hated the fountain, which is, by the way, another metaphor that I came up with. Definitely not my best metaphor. So rip the beloved fountain. It went away after the first, what, 15 episodes of season eight.
- [28:35]
A
Yeah. But we had it from the beginning of season five to not quite halfway through season eight. So almost three and a half years of the fountain. Right. And the fact that probably three years of people hating it.
- [28:47]
B
Yeah, right. Right from the beginning, people started telling us that they didn't. That they didn't like it.
- [28:51]
A
Well, yes, but it was replacing the books we press into their hands, and people loved that one. That's why we do the listener press. You guys still get presses, right?
- [28:59]
B
Exactly. But the illustration of the ardent nature of this opinion was really the one bookish friend who filled out the survey. And in every single text field that was available all the way through the survey, whether it had anything to do with the fountain or not, she said, please get rid of the fountain or please stop saying ping splash, or both of those things. Please never, ever say ping splash. That was so funny, how much she hated it. And so I was like, okay. That just had me laughing. And also, I was just like, katie, we clearly need to. We need to get rid of the fountain. So rip the fountain. But that left us with the ability to do something different at the end, which now this segment is what we call before we go. And we like it. And I think you guys like it, too. We certainly haven't been hearing complaints about it like we did with the fountain from the very beginning.
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A
Right.
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B
But don't worry if you don't like it, you'll also get a chance in the next survey to tell us. But it does give us the ability to focus on the bookish friends community, which I know every time we talk about it, I know it feels like. Like I hear the fact that as a listener, I would probably think, oh, they're doing this to throw focus on the Bookish Friends community so that people will become Patreon subscribers. I know that's exactly how it sounds. You're just gonna have to believe me when I tell you that is not why we have this segment. It literally is, because the things that come up in the Bookish Friends community bring so much joy or laughter or they're so interesting that that's part of the reason why I wanted to throw focus on it every week.
- [30:42]
A
Yeah. It feels disingenuous not to share the breadth and depth of those 3,000 people in community with one another. And we have not just seen that over and over again, but because of the Before We Go segment, we've been able to highlight it over and over again. We had Elizabeth receiving 80 separate messages about her twin grandbabies being born, or being almost born at that time, because it was shared basically live on all things Murderful one week. And then she got to come on the big show and talk about how she felt this, like, outpouring of support and ardent affection for her and her children and her forthcoming grandchildren. And all of it was this. It couldn't happen elsewhere. Right. It can only happen here. We had a lonely bookish friend who posted, I just want to be able to find my people here in real life. And over and over again, people saying, where are you? Can we be your people? And if not, you got us here. We're right here for you. And it was. I mean, it's a magical place and it's worth getting to gush about it and be excited about it. So, yeah, I love that.
- [31:57]
B
I also love the fact that we have this menu of things, so the way that we do it, and we told you this before, but the person who's driving the show brings the bookish friend that they want to concentrate, focus on for that week, and then the other person then goes to the menu of the other things, and they can pick from any of those things. So I like the fact that we can still press a book. We can talk about what are we getting curious about? We can talk about what did we dnf. It gives us a lot of room to move as to things that we want to bring to the show. So I've been really happy with that tweak that we made to the end of the episode. And our analytics show us that actually you guys are listening all the way through that. So that's a really big piece that lets us know that you guys still like that content. So we love that. All Right. Katie, best friend in the supporting role. We have to give this to my friend Betsy Eikenberry because she gets mentioned by me over and over and over again because we travel together, because we live close by, because she recommends books to me. She's one of those people that I will be a passenger princess in my reading to. If Betsy says, meredith, I really, really, really think you should read this, I will definitely read it. So she got by far the most friend mentions.
- [33:19]
A
Yes. As, like, tangential to the conversation we were already having, whether it was about the actual book we were reading or the Kindle conversation about what do I do about this Kindle situation I have.
- [33:31]
B
Oh, because, yeah, Betsy has the upstairs and the downstairs Kindle.
- [33:34]
A
Yeah, yeah. She just. She gives a lot of wisdom in all areas of our bookish lives. And she's bookish Betsy on Instagram, but as we all know, her name corrects to bestie, and that's. That's the right move. Betsy constantly corrects to bestie, and it works in our brains as well. Like that. Yes.
- [33:58]
B
But she's a great.
- [33:59]
A
Congratulations, Betsy on Instagram.
- [34:01]
B
Yes. We hope that you really, really enjoy your award, best non human cast member. I'm really, really happy to give it to my sourdough starter, Agatha Crusty, because she's the most bookish sourdough starter in the world. I am just positive. I am so proud of her. I'm so proud that I created her from nothing but some water and flour and pure strength of will. Sure. Okay. You could say love. I would say pure strength of will. And then this season, of course, we have a chance to have Blue in the background. My Boston terrier. Blue. My blue Boston terrier in the background of the YouTube videos. That's fun.
- [34:41]
A
Yes. Blue adds so much to my experience every week, and I love that y' all get to partake of his antics and goodness.
- [34:49]
B
And then, Katie, kind of apropos of what we were talking about earlier, our lives always, always, always feature and affect what we talk about, what we read over the course of a season. And this year was not an easy year. I'll just talk from my point of view. I was. I've talked about this on the show before. Last summer, while we were on our summer break, my husband and I of almost 25 years separated for three and a half months. And when we separated, we had no idea if we were going to get back together. And all options were on the table. It was an incredibly hard time, and it was an incredibly hard time to keep doing the thing Right. Keep showing up, keep being on, keep reading. At one point, it was really difficult for me to even just keep reading. I go back and forth between times when books felt like my only escape from what was going on in my mind to times where I just didn't have the bandwidth. So there was that going on for me. Luckily, by the time we got into October, November, Johnny and I had done a ton of work. So much therapy, and we were able to get back together. And we were really grateful for that second chance. Made a ton of changes, but those things really, really affect the. The tenor of the entire season. And we've noticed that on and off as we've done so many years of the show, Katie, We've gone through some really, really big, great things and some really big, hard things all the time, keeping the show up and running.
- [36:19]
A
Yeah, it has been a journey. And the people that have listened from the very beginning or even joined us later and then went back to listen, you have been on this journey with us. Season 7 was that big pivot for me with my transition from married mom of four to single mom of four during the course of season seven. But it does affect our reading lives. It affects the way we feel about the books that we're finishing. It affects the energy we can bring to the show. We're real people on Mike, sharing not just our books, but our lives with you. And we also thank you for the grace to have that realness be part of this content that you're getting every week and that you, you know, send us messages of loving support and gratefulness about, you know, I thought I was the only one. And it turns out that you have been dealing with this as well. That means a lot to us also.
- [37:15]
B
Yeah, it really, really does. It really feels like such a great community coming alongside us. And we started out the show saying that we wanted to, of course, bring what we were currently reading. And that really is a part of the reason why, because that's our show structure. And we can't help but having our lives leak into that. And to have the support of all of you has been so, so wonderful. And so, Katie, what I would say is at the end of this season, I find myself feeling more grateful than ever for our listeners who have been here, some of you, from the very, very beginning. And also, Katie, for our partnership and the ability to keep that strong and keep that going, because that's also an ever changing thing. Our needs in the partnership ebb and flow, and so that's something that we continue to focus on. And really put a lot of energy into. And so I'm so grateful for that. And just really, it is the privilege of my life to be able to do something like currently reading every single week. It really, really is.
- [38:22]
A
I couldn't have said it better. Every week I am grateful to get behind this mic to talk to you, Meredith and the rest of our team and then to have this vast community of people that are just as obsessed with reading and the bookish life and knowing themselves as readers as we are. And to find our people to be in this weird Internet age where we can find that niche of goodness and the fact that we even found each other eight years ago to be able to start this, all of it, it's amazing to me every day.
- [38:58]
B
Yeah. So, Katie, in the real world, we are going to take about a month off from being behind the mic on the big show. Obviously we'll still do recordings for behind the Paywall, but we take a little bit of time off in order to rest, recharge, reset. For me, I need to read and I need to get my numbers back up because I really, I've been letting myself read Crescent City and that has eaten into my reading number. So I gotta add to my book, you know, my, my book cushion. I'm looking forward to doing that. So we're taking a month off from the listeners perspective. We're taking a week off. Just one week.
- [39:33]
A
One dark week. Yep. Y'.
- [39:35]
B
All.
- [39:35]
A
We do as, as our long term listeners know, every June we do what we called crush week where we just blast through a bunch of these very special episodes for you so that you are not having a long break from currently reading. But we get that time to rest, reflect, grow and read, which we both need. Yeah.
- [39:56]
B
So it's a great time for you to join us as a bookish friend. It is just $5 a month. You can join us on Patreon, be a part of the three, over 3,000 people who are getting all of this content and all of this community. And it means that, you know, you'll have so much content there that there really is no such thing as a dark week for you.
- [40:15]
A
Such thing as a dark week. And we will be back in your ears on August 3rd with the first episode of season nine.
- [40:22]
B
I love it. All right, that is it for this week. That is it for season eight. As a reminder, here's where you can connect with us. You can find me, I'm Meredith at meredithmonday Schwartz on Instagram and you can
- [40:33]
A
find me Katie at Notes on Bookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Puttivong Evans and you can find her on instagram @most megansreads
- [40:43]
B
full show notes with the title of every book we mentioned in the episode and timestamps, you can zoom right to where we talked about them can be found in those show notes and also on our website@currentlyreading podcast.com.
- [40:56]
A
you can also follow the show at Currently Reading Podcast on Instagram or email us at hellourrentlyreading Podcast. Com. We spent the beginning of this episode telling you all the places you can find us. Please take time to visit us, subscribe and check out that wonderful content, including our Reader Know thyself newsletter, our YouTube channel, and our substack where you can find so much great content.
- [41:20]
B
All right, and also, here's my plea. If you have not rated and reviewed us on Apple Podcasts, please go do that. That would be such a great gift for you to give to us here at this end of the season. If you've always meant to do that, take the time to just go do it right now. It makes all the difference in us finding our perfect audience.
- [41:40]
A
Yes, Bookish Friends are the best friends. We love your ratings and your reviews and your follows and your likes and subscribes. Thank you for helping us grow and grow and grow and get closer to our goals.
- [41:51]
B
All right, until next season, may your
- [41:53]
A
coffee be hot and your book be unputdownable.
- [41:56]
B
Happy reading, Katie.
- [41:57]
A
Happy reading, Meredith.