How good it is to be among people who are reading!

Readers, after more than five years, over 900 books recommended, and so many amazing conversations, we’re celebrating What Should I Read Next with our 300th episode!

I’ve spoken to so many fascinating people about how reading is important in their lives, and alongside the team here at What Should I Read Next, I’ve loved seeing our community of readers grow, connect, and create thriving reading lives.

So today, we’re taking a moment to celebrate the people and process behind our weekly podcast and explore the many layers of What Should I Read Next. Listen in as I chat with some of our original voices, talk about how our show gets made, share some behind the scenes fun, and look at how we’ve grown over time. Plus, we asked for your stories—and we’ll be hearing from you throughout today’s episode, too! Many of your submissions mentioned specific episodes that influenced your reading lives, so we’ve included a full list below so you can revisit some of these listener favorites.

The fun doesn’t stop here, either. We’re going to be continuing the 300th episode celebrations over on Patreon with a special LIVE event! Our Patreon community can tune in on October 7th, when we’ll be sharing interviews and conversation with three of our most recommended and most read WSIRN authors. If you’d love to join us, you can learn more and become a part of our Patreon community here.

Finally, it’s almost time for our annual book gift matchmaking episode! As we have in the past, we’ll be inviting a special guest on the show to help us match YOUR loved one with a perfect bookish gift.

Want to submit your gift recommendation request? Because we know that local bookstores and publishers are facing supply chain challenges this year, we’ll be bringing you this special episode a little bit earlier than usual, so we’re asking you to submit your request by September 26. We’ll need to know who you want a gift recommendation for, a couple books they love, a book or genre you know they don’t like, and any other little details you think are useful. You can either email this information to our producer Brenna or leave me a voicemail from your phone or computer at speakpipe.com/whatshouldireadnext. Please make sure to keep your message under 1 minute! 

You can listen to What Should I Read Next? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast app—or scroll down to press play and listen right in your web browser.

---

Episodes mentioned:

•WSIRN Ep 1: Books that inspire crying jags and sleepless nights with Jamie Golden
•WSIRN Ep 61: When the plot comes full circle with Will Bogel
•WSIRN Ep 213: Art, fear, and discoering great books with Kate DiCamillo
•WSIRN Ep 158: The life-changing magic of clearing your unread shelf with Whitney Conard
•WSIRN Ep 34: Books that marry fiction and reality with Rose Booth
•WSIRN Ep 28: Books that no one’s writing about in Entertainment Weekly with Andrea Griffith
•WSIRN Ep 117: Literary fiction over US Weekly with Rachael Robinson
•WSIRN Ep 166: Just don’t call it a book club with Tiffany Patterson
•WSIRN Ep 182: Matching the right (audio) book to the right listener with Michele Cobb
•WSIRN Ep 102: A new way to think about fictional characters with Gretchen Rubin
•WSIRN Ep 282: I’m a little bit obsessed with reading with Jeremy Anderberg
•WSIRN Ep 6: Books for book nerds, author backstories, and simple stories told well with Tsh Oxenreider