Welcome to From the Front porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South.

Lydia is dead, but they don't know this yet. 1977, May 3, 630 in the morning, no one knows anything but this innocuous fact.

Lydia is late for breakfast. Celeste Ng, everything I never told you.

I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia.

And today, I'm helping folks navigate their literary conundrums and issues in an episode of Literary Therapy.

If you're a new listener from the Front porch, we started this series on the podcast last year.

And it's been so fun to every so often channel my inner phrase or crane.

If you're interested in having your own literary issues examined and explained, I'd love for you to leave us a voicemail.

You can go to FromTheFrontPortchPodcast.com forward slash contact.

And if you scroll down, you'll see a space where you can leave your voicemails for us.

We'll also include a link in the show notes in case that's easier for you.

We've received a lot of voicemails for this particular episode.

So if you submitted a voicemail, thank you.

I saved a few to answer the next round.

So if you don't hear your voicemail today, chances are you will hear it on an upcoming episode.

Okay, without further ado, let's launch in to your literary conundrums.

Hi, Annie. It's Joanne from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

How can I respond positively to any book suggestion and not immediately dismiss it for one reason or another?

Hi, Joanne. This is a great question and a good problem to have.

We live in a time where we can get pretty much whatever book recommendations we want at any point in time.

And it sounds like you've surrounded yourself with bookish people who probably are offering you all kinds of books,

all the time. The problem with this is, of course, decision fatigue.

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