Ep 500: The little things that add up to a rich reading life

What Should I Read Next?

Anne Bogel

Books, Arts, Leisure

4.8 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today marks a major milestone: the 500th episode of What Should I Read Next! To celebrate, Anne is joined by two guests today. First, you'll hear her in conversation with our What Should I Read Next Patreon Community Manager Shannan Malone as they explore what's new in our Patreon community space. Then, Anne welcomes one of our previous guests back to the show to talk about how her reading life has evolved since their first conversation nearly two and a half years ago. Michelle Acierno Loftus joined Anne back in episode 378 to share her experience of rediscovering the joy of reading via her YA book club. As we mark 500 episodes of talking all things books and reading, it seemed a great moment to look back at just one way that What Should I Read Next has shaped an individual's life. While much has changed in Michelle's life since her last conversation with Anne, as you'll hear, her reading life is still going strong. And yet, it's also shifted. Today, she and Anne discuss Michelle's recent explorations into nonfiction and character-driven, introspective stories. They also dive into how Anne's previous recommendations for Michelle landed, what's working for her these days, and what she's looking for right now in her reading life. Anne shares recommendations for Michelle, and each of them recommend titles that might work for many readers. Find the full list of the titles mentioned today and share a comment to help us celebrate our 500th episode on our show notes page at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/500. If you'd like to hear from more past guests or experience the bonus episodes Anne and Shannan discuss at the top of today's show, please come over and join us on Patreon. That's where we share bite-size insights into the reading life and a behind-the-scenes look into the podcast, as well as book recommendations galore. To all of the readers who support us on Patreon, thank you. We couldn't do this without you. If you'd like to join us there, you'll find all the details at patreon.com/whatshouldireadnext. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Yeah, so I was kind of volunteered to become the leader of this group when the old leader.
0:05.2	Voluntold is how we joke about that in our team meetings.
0:08.4	Yes.
0:13.5	Hey, readers, I'm Anne Vogel, and this is What Should I Read Next?
0:18.9	Welcome to the show that's dedicated to answering the question that plagues every reader. What Should I Read Next? Welcome to the show that's dedicated to answering the question that plagues every reader.
0:23.9	What should I read next?
0:25.7	We don't get bossy on this show.
0:27.7	What we will do here is give you the information you need to choose your next read,
0:32.3	talking all things books and reading every week.
0:40.0	Today, Shannon is joining me to talk about talking about books and reading as we get into
0:46.3	what is today our 500th episode of What Should I Read Next?
0:51.3	Y'all, what a ride over the years, and that's almost 10 years now. We've connected
0:56.9	with so many readers, and today we're welcoming back a past guest to talk about how her reading
1:02.9	life has evolved since our first conversation. That happened nearly two and a half years ago
1:07.9	in episode 378. Michelle Aserno Loftus joined me then to share
1:13.4	her experience of rediscovering the joy of reading being her YA book club. We thought as we're
1:19.5	moving forward to episode 501 and beyond, taking a moment to look back at just one way that
1:26.0	what should I read next has shaped an individual's life would be so
1:28.8	fun. And as we've approached this anniversary, we've really enjoyed hearing from you and how the
1:34.3	podcast has shaped your life. Now, many of you have asked over the years, and especially lately,
1:40.2	can we hear from those old podcast guests again? Internally at our meetings, we call them, what should I read next? Alums. And we've heard increasing requests to bring the alums back to say, well, hey, what was the podcast experience really like? What did you read next? And did you actually like it? Or was Anne way off base? What did your family and friends think when the episode aired? Now, Shannon, you know that we have
2:01.9	a history, a long ago history at this point, of airing episodes where we featured like five to seven
	...

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