Season 7, Episode 44: Sick Reading + To Skim Or Not To Skim

Currently Reading

Meredith Schwartz

Allthebooks, Books, Read, Arts, Bookpodcast, Reading, Whatshouldireadnext, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing:

Bookish Moments: reading while sick and reading on birthday trips
Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately
Deep Dive: when it’s okay to skim and when it’s not
The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives

Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site)

1:40 - Our Bookish Moments Of The Week

8:09 - Our Current Reads

8:29 - The Compound by Aisling Rawle (Meredith, pre-order releases June 24, 2025)

9:32 - Lord of the Flies by William Golding

13:54 - The Guilt Pill by Saumya Dave (Kaytee)

18:07 - The Power by Naomi Alderman

18:19 - Curfew by Jayne Cowie

18:22 - Vox by Christina Dalcher

19:07 - How to Order the Universe by Maria Jose Ferrada (Meredith)

20:36 - I’m Traveling Alone by Samuel Bjork

24:06 - Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green (Kaytee)

27:46 - The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

28:26 - Blood over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang (Meredith)

33:10 - King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby (Kaytee)

37:57 - To Skim Or Not To Skim

47:10 - Lord of the Flies by William Golding

49:52 - Meet Us At The Fountain

50:17 - I wish instagram always included what you said in addition to someone’s response when interacting in DMs. (Meredith)

51:34 - I wish to press The House in the Cerulean Sea into readers’ hands. (Kaytee)

51:35 - The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

51:41 - King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby

51:47 - Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune

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Transcript

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0:00.0	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
0:21.5	having strong opinions, so get ready. We are light on the chit-chat, heavy on the book talk,
0:27.1	and our conversations will always be spoiler-free. Today we'll discuss our current reads,
0:31.4	a bookish deep dive, and then we'll visit The Fountain. I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz, a mom of four
0:36.5	and full-time CEO living in Austin,
0:38.7	Texas, and sometimes even sick reading can be fun. And I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mom of four,
0:44.8	living in Arizona, and I love fitting my life into spreadsheet cells. This is episode number 44 of
0:51.7	Season 7, and we are so glad you're here. 44, Meredith. I know, almost to the end of season seven and we are so glad you're here 44 Meredith I know almost to the
0:57.3	end of season seven I know we have to start planning for crush week here soon which is crazy I know it's
1:03.4	gone by so so fast it's like a whole person now all seven years crazy okay I don't know why. For some reason, that is hitting me today,
1:13.4	probably because I just had my own birthday. Our deep dive today, though, comes from a listener
1:17.9	question. We love them. Please keep sending them because it delights me no end to get deep dive idea
1:23.5	as a subject in our inbox. This one comes from a listener name. Cindy, she wants to know
1:28.7	when it's okay to power through and skim a book. Like when, when is that okay? Yeah, it's a good
1:35.7	question. Got some thoughts for sure. But we'll get started the way we always do with our bookish
1:40.8	moments of the week. Meredith, what is yours? All right. Well, my last week has not been the world's most fun week.
1:47.2	After Jackson was sick for an entire eight days with flu-bee, right as he was getting better,
1:53.5	I came down with it.
1:54.6	So we have had more than two weeks in the Schwartz family household where we have not been
1:58.8	at the top of our game cumulatively.
2:02.3	So this last week, the flu hit me hard. I was in bed for about three and a half days, which is a really,
2:10.4	really long time for me to just literally like take to my bed. And however, what I was cognizant of is a lot of times when I am sick like with the
	...

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