An Insider’s Guide to Publishing

26 things I learned from starting a literary podcast

Before I started my podcast “Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books,” I was just your average hardcore booklover. I regularly shopped at bookstores, always excitedly perusing the new releases, stacking hardcovers in my arms up to my chin, and plopping them down at the register.

I read the New York Times Book Review and ripped out the literary suggestions in Elle, Vanity Fair, even People. I ordered books online immediately if someone emailed me a suggestion. For my (second) wedding, my girlfriends threw me a “book shower” at which all the guests gave me an inscribed book that meant something to them.

And I read. A lot. When my third of four children was born, I propped up Z by Therese Anne Fowler against my breast pump and read in the middle of the night, the endless whirring accompanying me in the dark. I read in the rattling backseats of taxis. On planes. In line at the grocery.