PODCAST · fiction
Ren Reads Too Much Podcast
by Ren Reads Too Much
A podcast for readers who feel a little too much about books…and don't ever want that problem to ever go away.I’m Ren, and I talk about the stories that stick with us, the characters we can’t move on from, and why the books we love are usually telling us something about ourselves.Expect short, honest episodes about reading, identity, comfort re-reads, emotional damage, and the occasional spiral over fictional characters.If you’ve ever reread a book instead of moving on, you’re in the right place, and you are amongst bookish friends. renreadstoomuch.substack.com
Episodes
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Reading for Joy: Yaga, Community, and Unconventional Self-Care
It’s officially cardigan season, and I am fully leaning into the cozy vibes. But this week, my reading life has been a mix of comfort and challenge. While I’ve snuggled up with some heartwarming fanfiction to counterbalance the heavier nonfiction titles I’ve been working through, I’ve also been...
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Building a Joyful Home: My Go-To Books for Parenting (And Homeschooling!) Differently Wired Kids
This week, I took a detour from my usual “what I’m reading” updates to talk about homeschooling: the messy, creative, deeply imperfect way we’ve done it for thirteen years now. I’ve been getting a lot of questions from others who are homeschooling, or thinking about it, and it felt like the right...
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Why Nothing Works, Drama of the Gifted Child, and Choosing Joy Anyway
August is traditionally a challenging month around my house, and this year was a double dose whammy…It’s been a couple of weeks since my last podcast update. But I should be back to my regularly scheduled weekly updates going forward. This episode pairs two books that seem like they wouldn’t go...
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Heated Rivalry, Divorcing While Going Viral, and the Magic of Finding the Right Book
The past few weeks, things got a little bit spicy off the podcast too. One of my videos went pretty freaking viral (it’s now at over a million views, which is banana pants). And boy, did the questions and comments roll in! Some of them were gentle curiosity about why I love certain stories so…
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Fifty Books Later: My Ultimate Book Nerd Challenge Reading Recap
I did something a little wild this episode: instead of breaking down a couple of books I’m currently reading, I walked you through all 50 books I finished for my local library’s ultimate book nerd competition. Putting the list together was both a celebration and a chance to look back at what made...
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Joyful Resistance and Spicy Reads: Embracing the Power of Smut
This week, my reading life has been all over the place! From comfort to transformation, and sometimes right back to comfort. I bounced around between a few physical books, but let’s be honest: it’s been a big fanfic and smut week for me. If you’ve ever needed a permission slip to lean all the way...
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Reading as Joyful Resistance (And a Coping Mechanism)
This week, I’m leaning all the way into what reading looks like when your brain and your body aren’t always on your side. After a June full of burnout and chronic pain days, it feels especially honest to talk about how books slide into those little gaps where the world feels like too much, or…
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Why You Should Make Art, Read More, and Share It With Others
This week I’m living for the way reading has completely cracked open my creativity, especially the kind that’s shown up in fandom spaces lately. My reading life is spinning out all this energy, and it’s turning into real-world projects, joy, and small acts of rebellion. Books aren’t just for...
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Burnout Survival Mode: Reading What Brings Joy When Life Gets Hard
This month was a crash course in burnout, resilience, and remembering how important it is to let books and small routines take care of you when real life feels a little too real. I’m not going to sugarcoat it: between family changes, tough conversations, and the general chaos that seems to come...
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The Magic of Parallel Perspectives in Series Like Game Changers and Twilight
This week, my brain latched onto something it really loves: books that happen on the same timeline and let you see a story from multiple angles. There’s something so deeply satisfying about seeing a favorite story or scene play out in a different character’s head. It scratches an itch for…
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From the Pivot Year to Game Changers: Why Some Books Just Feel Right This Week
This week was a strange one for my reading life…total hodgepodge energy, hopping genres and moods by the day. I tried (and gave up on) a Booker Prize winner, finally admitted defeat on The Hobbit for now, and dipped in and out of a handful of books that felt exactly right for this moment, even if...
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Dopamine, Smut, and Self-Help: Curating a Reading Life That Feels Good
This week, I leaned in hard to that belief that the book you need always finds you, right when you need it. My reading life has been shifting alongside everything else. Does anyone else feel like 2026 is just this nonstop transformation party that they never even RSVP’d to, but find themselves...
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Rereads, Revelations, and Reading Joy
I'm changing my mind on Tough Guy and switching podcast day to Thursday because Tuesday is just not the day I can make this happen anymore! Some weeks, it feels like my whole reading life stretches and shifts right along with my real life. I found myself in the middle of a massive pile of books,...
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Legends, Librarians, and Sir Reginald: Finding Joyful Community in Your Reading Life
Okay, sometimes you go on a tangent about your all-time favorite books, but this week felt like a return to the usual rhythm. I’m deep in my Heated Rivalry spiral (again?? still??). But now, I’m reading just a chapter or two a day, because I know myself…full-on hyperfixation feels amazing until…
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Creating Joyful Reading Rituals and Crafty Comforts: Stories that Soothe and Spark
This week, I had to pivot a little: less reading, a lot more creating. Getting my pop-up merch shop together turned out to be a much bigger project than I expected, which meant trading some of my regular reading time for crafty energy and behind-the-scenes hustle. You can check out the merch…
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From Big Magic to Badass Habits: Life-Changing Nonfiction for Real Life
This week, I’m channeling all my energy into the books that have changed my reading life, not the ones that kept me up crying at 2 a.m. (though shoutout to those). These are the nonfiction books that have shifted the way I think, write, and just generally exist in the world. There’s something…
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Crappy Podcast, Great Books: Joyful Reading and Imperfect Progress
This week was…a lot, and honestly, I don’t have the energy to pretend everything is polished or perfect, or worse, try to actually make it be like that. So I figured, why not lean right into the mess and talk about why this podcast exists, why it sounds the way it does, and why I don’t care about...
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Stay Feral for Fiction, Not Real People
Some weeks, my brain is like…yeah, we’re not doing anything new right now. I reread Role Model this week, and knowing what’s happening in The Long Game at the same time?? Completely different experience. There’s so much happening in the background that you don’t fully catch it the first time, and...
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Some Weeks, You Don’t Need a New Book
Some weeks are not “try something new” weeks. And I feel like we don’t talk about that enough. This has been a low-capacity week for me. The kind where everything feels a little too loud, a little too heavy, and I do not have the energy to invest in figuring out if a new book is going to give me...
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You’re Not Stuck. You’re Returning to Something That Feels Safe
There’s a difference between being unable to move on and choosing to stay somewhere that feels good. There’s this boring narrative floating around that rereading the same book means you’re stuck. That you should be moving on, finding something new, expanding your horizons like a “good reader.”…
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You Don’t Have to Outgrow the Books You Love
This week felt a little off. Not in a bad way, just one of those weeks where I really wanted to curl up with a book and disappear for a bit. And instead, I was doing mom stuff, cleaning, organizing, trying to settle into a new rhythm around the house. And when I did get time to read, I noticed...
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There Are 83-Year-Old Elder Loons, and I Need You to Know That
This week felt like one of those moments where I zoomed out a little and realized, oh, there are a LOT of us out here. I had someone comment that they were 83 the first time they read Heated Rivalry or watched the show, and I have not stopped thinking about it. Because that’s it, right there.…
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This Isn’t a Slump… It’s a Reread Loop
This has been coming up a lot in my comments and messages lately: people saying they’re in a reading slump, they can’t get into anything new, nothing is hitting the same. And I get it. I really do. Because I am still picking up other books right now… My TBR is full of things I genuinely want to...
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Why I Read Too Much (And Why I’m Not Stopping)
I’ve been a reader for most of my life…until I wasn’t. College kind of knocked it out of me, as it does for many of us. Reading became something I had to do instead of something I loved. Somewhere along the way, I just stopped reaching for books altogether. And then in 2012, I picked up Twilight...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A podcast for readers who feel a little too much about books…and don't ever want that problem to ever go away.I’m Ren, and I talk about the stories that stick with us, the characters we can’t move on from, and why the books we love are usually telling us something about ourselves.Expect short, honest episodes about reading, identity, comfort re-reads, emotional damage, and the occasional spiral over fictional characters.If you’ve ever reread a book instead of moving on, you’re in the right place, and you are amongst bookish friends.
renreadstoomuch.substack.com
HOSTED BY
Ren Reads Too Much
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Ren Reads Too Much Podcast have?
Ren Reads Too Much Podcast currently has 24 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Ren Reads Too Much Podcast about?
A podcast for readers who feel a little too much about books…and don't ever want that problem to ever go away.I’m Ren, and I talk about the stories that stick with us, the characters we can’t move on from, and why the books we love are usually telling us something about ourselves.Expect short,...
How often does Ren Reads Too Much Podcast release new episodes?
Ren Reads Too Much Podcast has 24 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Ren Reads Too Much Podcast?
You can listen to Ren Reads Too Much Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Ren Reads Too Much Podcast?
Ren Reads Too Much Podcast is created and hosted by Ren Reads Too Much.
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