Currently Reading

Season 8, Episode 26: The End Of An Era + Why We Re-Read

February 2, 2026

Key Takeaways Copied to clipboard!

  • The hosts attribute the difficulty in removing publisher stickers from books to complex, expensive manufacturing processes involving co-packers and manual labor, suggesting they are unlikely to disappear soon. 
  • Meredith introduced the 'pink ground beef moment' metaphor to describe the difficult, necessary middle section of a book (20% to 50%) that readers must push through before the narrative becomes fully engaging. 
  • Roxanna views rereading as sometimes being indicative of good mental health (comfort) or poor mental health (low bandwidth), while Meredith primarily rereads for luxurious revisiting, close reading alongside others (like the Journey to Three Pines), or immediate re-consumption of impactful books like *I'm Thinking of Ending Things*. 
  • Rereading habits are highly personalized, often driven by the need for comfort, emotional resonance (especially with romance), or the desire to glean new insights from non-fiction or older childhood reads. 
  • The speaker avoids rereading mysteries because the enjoyment is tied to solving the puzzle, which is lost upon a second reading. 
  • The 'Meet Us At The Fountain' segment is being retired from *Currently Reading* due to listener feedback, and Roxanna is using her final wish to encourage listeners, particularly those in Toronto, to start or join local or virtual literary societies. 

Segments

Podcast Introduction and Weather
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(00:00:11)
  • Key Takeaway: Canadian infrastructure is well-equipped for deep freezes, unlike the dangers posed by freezing rain and ice in places like Austin, Texas.
  • Summary: The hosts introduce the episode of Currently Reading, Season 8, Episode 26. Roxanna notes the deep freeze in Toronto, contrasting it with Austin’s heat preparedness. Canadians maintain infrastructure like 24-hour plows and mandate timely winter tire changes in October to manage icy conditions effectively.
Deep Dive Topic Preview
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(00:02:41)
  • Key Takeaway: The central question for the Deep Dive segment is why readers choose to reread books when an abundance of unread titles exists.
  • Summary: The hosts announce they will address a listener question concerning the rationale behind rereading books. Roxanna is identified as a significant rereader, setting up the segment where they will tackle the perceived inefficiency of revisiting known texts.
Bookish Friends Ad Segment
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(00:03:09)
  • Key Takeaway: The Bookish Friends Facebook Group, with over 2,500 active members, is highlighted as the most valuable community aspect offered by the podcast, fostering real-life connections.
  • Summary: Meredith and Roxanna advertise their paid membership, noting that many new members joined after being featured in a New York Times article. They emphasize that membership provides exclusive content like the Indie Press List and access to the Facebook group, where the hosts themselves initially connected.
Bookish Moments: Sticker Grievances
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(00:07:34)
  • Key Takeaway: Publisher stickers are printed directly onto the cover material during the initial printing process, making them difficult and costly to remove or make removable due to the need for specialized, expensive manual co-packing.
  • Summary: Roxanna explains that making promotional stickers removable would require extra steps like shipping books to a co-packer for hand-application, significantly increasing cost and complexity. She compares this to the wine industry, concluding that publishers will likely not change the practice since readers buy the book regardless of the sticker.
Bookish Moments: Reading Metaphor
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(00:11:34)
  • Key Takeaway: The ‘pink ground beef moment’ is coined to describe the difficult, unappealing phase of reading between 20% and 50% completion, analogous to cooking ground beef before it is fully browned.
  • Summary: Meredith shares a metaphor comparing the middle section of a book to the stage when ground beef is added to the pan—it’s necessary but unappetizing before it cooks through. This ‘yuck period’ occurs after the initial excitement (first 20%) but before the narrative momentum is fully established (50%).
Current Reads: The Q
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(00:14:19)
  • Key Takeaway: Beth Brower’s 2016 novel, The Q, is a five-star, immersive, 592-page historical fiction set in fictional Risdon, featuring a prickly business prodigy named Quincy St. Clair navigating mysterious inheritance requirements.
  • Summary: Roxanna highly recommends The Q as a warm, snuggly read perfect for cold weather, praising its immersive world and genuine plot twists that avoid common tropes. While Quincy is initially challenging, her character development and the book’s expansive world make it a deeply satisfying, non-stereotypical experience.
Current Reads: Lock In
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(00:20:18)
  • Key Takeaway: John Scalzi’s Lock In is a successful sci-fi, buddy-cop procedural that masterfully integrates serious themes of disability and technology with genuinely funny action sequences.
  • Summary: The book is set 25 years after a pandemic left millions ’locked-in,’ using robotic ’threeps’ or human ‘integrators’ to move. Meredith praises Scalzi’s seamless world-building and ability to balance serious subject matter with humor, noting that while the ending is complex, the overall experience is propulsive and thought-provoking.
Current Reads: Dead Husband Cookbook
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(00:26:38)
  • Key Takeaway: Danielle Valentine’s The Dead Husband Cookbook is a twisty, sensational thriller centered on a celebrity chef whose missing husband’s disappearance haunts her memoir, featuring food-centric chapters that include recipes with suggestive titles.
  • Summary: Roxanna was drawn to the book’s salacious premise, which involves an editor isolated on a remote farm while working on the tell-all memoir of culinary icon Maria Capello. The book balances implied cannibalism hints with appealing food writing and delivers a satisfying, non-graphic thriller payoff.
Current Reads: The Governess and the Rogue
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(00:32:39)
  • Key Takeaway: Mimi Matthews’ novella The Governess and the Rogue is a clean, closed-door romance featuring Beatrice Layton, a strong Enneagram Eight governess, and an injured Colonel Jack Beresford, serving as a perfect, low-bandwidth palate cleanser.
  • Summary: Meredith appreciates Matthews’ choice to write heroines who are not conventionally beautiful, making the romance feel more accessible. The story focuses on a fake engagement unfolding during a ship voyage, offering chemistry without explicit scenes (rated 0.5 on the chili pepper scale).
Current Reads: A Guardian and a Thief
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(00:38:25)
  • Key Takeaway: Megha Majumdar’s short, literary novel A Guardian and a Thief forces readers to confront situational ethics by intertwining the lives of a mother trying to emigrate and a poor teenager responsible for a tragedy in climate-ravaged Kolkata.
  • Summary: Roxanna urges listeners not to be deterred by its literary classification, noting its thriller-like pace and profound exploration of who is the guardian and who is the thief. The book stays with the reader by making them question their own code of ethics regarding family survival.
Current Reads: The Goblin Emperor
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(00:43:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Catherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor is a deeply cherished, character-driven fantasy where the half-goblin, half-elf protagonist, Maya, navigates court intrigue with fundamental decency after unexpectedly becoming emperor.
  • Summary: Meredith describes this book as one she feels emotionally protective over, noting that despite difficult-to-track names and political machinations, the story is riveting because the reader experiences everything in real-time alongside the decent protagonist. It shares a tender, hopeful energy with Piranesi and is a complete standalone novel.
Deep Dive: Why We Reread
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(00:52:34)
  • Key Takeaway: Rereading serves different purposes for readers, ranging from comfort during low mental bandwidth to engaging in deep, analytical close reads, such as the hosts’ ongoing reread of the Louise Penny series.
  • Summary: Roxanna admits rereading can signal both good and bad mental health, often defaulting to familiar books when the world is overwhelming. Meredith finds rereading luxurious and enjoys revisiting books through a different lens or reading along with others, noting that immediate rereads (like I’m Thinking of Ending Things) offer new perspectives upon knowing the ending.
Rereading Habits and Audiobooks
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(00:58:51)
  • Key Takeaway: Rereading comfort material, especially audiobooks, is preferred during periods of low cognitive bandwidth like middle-of-the-night wakefulness.
  • Summary: The speaker, a mood reader, finds listening to rereads easier than starting new material when experiencing sleep disturbances due to perimenopause, as new books require too much mental bandwidth for tracking names and complexity. Comfort rereads, like romances that evoke warm feelings, are chosen for these times. Mysteries are generally excluded from rereads because the enjoyment is lost once the puzzle is solved.
Categories of Rereading
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(00:58:48)
  • Key Takeaway: Rereading is categorized by emotional impact, informational density, and nostalgic connection to past selves.
  • Summary: Select romances are reread immediately if they provide specific positive feelings, such as hopefulness. Nonfiction books like Getting Things Done are reread later to absorb more information, while childhood favorites like Anne of Green Gables are reread to gain perspective on older characters.
Retiring The Fountain Segment
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(01:03:24)
  • Key Takeaway: The ‘Meet Us At The Fountain’ segment is retired due to negative listener feedback, specifically requests to stop the ‘ping splash’ sound effect.
  • Summary: Meredith announces the retirement of the fountain segment, effective next week, in response to hundreds of survey responses demanding its removal. A new segment, developed with Kaytee, will debut to keep the show fresh. The final wish at the fountain is Roxanna’s desire to revive the Currently Reading literary society concept.
Roxanna’s Fountain Wish
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(01:04:14)
  • Key Takeaway: Roxanna wishes to bring back the Currently Reading literary society for real-life and virtual meetups to build community.
  • Summary: Roxanna encourages listeners in Toronto to contact her via Instagram (@RoxanaTheReader) or the Bookish Friends group to form a local literary society for monthly or bi-monthly discussions. She also invites non-Toronto listeners to use the Bookish Friends group to organize virtual societies to discuss current reads.
Meredith’s Final Fountain Wish
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(01:05:52)
  • Key Takeaway: Meredith wishes for listeners to watch the PBS Masterpiece Mystery series Bookish to support PBS and enjoy well-written, bookish content.
  • Summary: The show Bookish is set around the WWII era and features a detective whose shop is named Books Books. Meredith praises the show for its top-notch banter and mysteries, noting it has already been renewed for a second season.