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[00:00:00 ] MICHELLE ACIERNO LOFTUS: Yeah, so I was kind of volunteered to become the leader of this group when the old leader...

ANNE BOGEL: Voluntold is how we joke about that in our team meetings.

MICHELLE: Yes.

ANNE: 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, talking all things books and reading every week.

[00:00:38 ] Today, Shannan is joining me to talk about talking about books and reading as we get into what is today our 500th episode of What Should I Read Next? Y'all, what a ride!

Over the years, and that's almost 10 years now, we've connected with so many readers, and today we're welcoming back a past guest to talk about how her reading life has evolved since our first conversation. That happened nearly two and a half years ago in Episode 378.

Michelle Acierno Loftus joined me then to share her experience of rediscovering the joy of reading being her YA book club. We thought as we're moving forward to Episode 501 and beyond, taking a moment to look back at just one way that What Should I Read Next has shaped an individual's life would be so fun. And as we approach this anniversary, we've really enjoyed hearing from you and how the podcast has shaped your life.

[00:01:36 ] Now, many of you have asked over the years, and especially lately, 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 the end way off base? What did your family and friends think when the episode aired?

Now, Shannan, you know that we have a history, a long-ago history at this point of airing episodes where we featured like five to seven composite short interviews about what our alums actually did read next. And yeah, we discontinued those a long time ago because y'all didn't download them with the frequency you downloaded our main episodes. But lately, we have heard a lot of these requests and we're going to start doing it again over in Patreon.

[00:02:30 ] We've done this in the past, but not for years. So much so that it might've been Michelle who teased us and said, "Hey, you said in the Patreon promo that you're going to talk with past guests occasionally, but it's been at least a year. Is that going to happen?" Yes, it's going to happen, and soon. We're kicking off a loose series soon.

And Shannan, thanks for coming on because I thought this would be a good time to talk about what else we're doing in Patreon these days, which really has been unchanged. We put a new rhythm in place almost two years ago now, and sticking pretty closely to it.

SHANNAN MALONE: Yes, we do these bonus episodes on Friday following a loose theme. Book recommendations galore, industry insights,