Poetry Reading for Beginners: The How And The Why (S9E7)

The Currently Reading Podcast

In this episode of Currently Reading Podcast, hosts Meredith and Kaytee explore the art of reading poetry, discussing how to approach it as a

Key takeaways

• Poetry can be approached with curiosity rather than intimidation; it doesn't require expertise to begin.

Main topics

• How to begin reading poetry
• Why reading poetry matters

Notable quotes

"I'm interested in that bite-sized intro, but first of all... let me tell you that we are going to do a deep dive today that is going to be more interesting than it sounds." – Meredith

Conclusion

The hosts encourage listeners to embrace poetry with openness and curiosity,

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:10) Hey readers, welcome to the Currently Reading Podcast. We are bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the books that we've read recently. And as you know, we won't shy away from having Speaker 1 (0:22) strong opinions. So get ready. We are light on the chitchat, heavy on the book talk, and our conversations will always be spoiler free. Today we'll discuss our current reads, a readerly deep dive, and a little something bookish before we go. Speaker 2 (0:34) I'm Meredith Munday-Schwartz. I'm both a mom and a Mimi and a full-time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And I am so happy when great Speaker 1 (0:42) authors get their flowers. And I'm Katie Kamm, a single homeschooling mom of four in Arizona. And sometimes I'm weirdly protective of this space. This is episode number seven of season nine, and we are so glad you're here. This'll be interesting, Katie. Speaker 2 (0:57) I'm interested in that bite-sized intro, but first... Let me tell you that we are going to do a deep dive today that is going to be more interesting than it sounds, if I might so boldly suggest that that is the case. And our deep dive today is on how to get into reading poetry and why you might want to do that. Speaker 1 (1:19) Yes, I'm excited to talk about this because it's been a challenge at times for me as well. Speaker 2 (1:24) Specifically, we've gotten some questions from people saying, I'm kind of interested in the notion of reading poetry. How should I do it? And then I think we have to answer the question, why? Why should you do it? Right? So that's what we're going to talk about later on today. And it's going to be more interesting than it sounds. But first of all, let's get to the good stuff. And let's talk about our bookish moments of the week. Katie, you talked about protecting our Speaker 1 (1:48) space. First phase, the one that you and I share, Meredith, I had the funniest experience this past weekend when one of my bonus moms, I would call her, saved me a New York Times article, like clipped it out to share with me because that's what that generation does, right? Speaker 2 (2:02) Yes. Speaker 1 (2:03) Meredith, I know you're also a subscriber to the Times, so you probably already saw this, but she made sure to save and bring to me a Spotlight article highlighting the fact that former President Obama is starting a book podcast. Speaker 2 (2:16) Yes, I saw that. Speaker 1 (2:18) Excuse me. Listen, I am never one to disparage Mr. Obama. I love him. She gave it to me in good faith. Look, you're in such good company. This is amazing. But listen, listen, I know he's not listening. It's okay. But some of us started our book podcasts with nothing and nobody and just hoped that 10 people would listen. And it seems totally unfair to me to start it with 43 million Instagram followers. What? That's starting at the finish line. So I got a little huffy about it, right? But then, of course, I read this whole article anyway, and it turns out it's a limited series of six episodes about the books that he says have stayed with me throughout my life, and each one has something to teach us about the human experience. He's also quoted as saying, at a time when fewer people are able to sit down with a book, it's important to remember the joy and power that can come from reading. And of course, that's a message we can all get behind. So on that note, I do wish for great success. for former president Barack Obama for his new podcast, A Great Book with Barack Obama. But I also beg and plead that it's really only six episodes. Speaker 2 (3:24) Come Speaker 1 (3:24) play in our playground and then be like, bye, have fun, friends. It Speaker 2 (3:29) does lend credibility to the whole concept of having a book podcast, right? True. That's a good thing. And it is good company. It is very, very good company. I think, you know, our take has always been from the very beginning. that the more people talking about books, the more people will be reading books, which will just high tides raise all boats. Isn't Speaker 1 (3:50) that right? Speaker 2 (3:51) And so every time, certainly lots and lots of shows have come into the realm and some of them have stayed and grown and some of them have gone away. And so I always just am happy when there's more people talking about books because I enjoy all of these other book podcasts too. We're so lucky that we're really good friends with a lot of... Speaker 1 (4:09) Such great podcasters. I think in other Speaker 2 (4:11) realms would be considered competitors, but I don't think we look at it that way at all. It's like, no, they're just our friends and they totally get what we're doing. So I do, like you, I wish Mr. Obama great luck and I'll be listening to it. Speaker 1 (4:22) And honestly, if he wants to be podcast pals with us. We would love it. I'm open to the idea. Absolutely. If he wants to join our Speaker 2 (4:30) podcast, our book podcaster group chat, we would save him a seat, right? Speaker 1 (4:34) We'll let him in. We'll let him in. All right. What's your bookish moment? Speaker 2 (4:38) I said that I'm always happy when great authors get their flowers. Now, one of the things that happened this week, this last week, that I was really excited about always is that the Hugo Awards were handed out. Did you see this? Yes. Speaker 1 (4:49) Yes. Speaker 2 (4:50) Right? And so because we just announced the fantastic new bi-monthly show that you're doing with Holly Farrell, Behind the Paywall for Us, Worldplay, I was like, I love the Hugo Awards. I always have. It's an awards list I always try to pay attention to. And I especially want to now that we're going to be throwing even more focus to fantasy and sci-fi and Hugo Awards are the best of those genres. So I was super happy to find that the 2026 award for best novel. Did you hear this, Katie? Went to The Everlasting by Alexi Harrow, which I haven't read The Everlasting yet, but I love, we love Alexi Harrow. We Speaker 1 (5:27) do. And I was thrilled to see that on my screen. I'm also really... like, selfishly thrilled that I already own my copy of that book so it doesn't get a new sticker on the front. Like, yes, put it on there. Hugo award winner. I love that for her. And my copy does not need to have that. I'm an original fan before Speaker 2 (5:47) she was big. That's right. Well, two other things that are of interest, Katie. Amal El-Mokhtar took best novella for The River Has Roots, which is one that's so good. So, so good. And then Antonia Hodgson won the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. And she won it. She, of course, is the author of The Raven Scholar, which is one of the IPL picks for this month. So super excited about all three of those Hugo Award winners. Again, that is an award that I pay a lot of attention to. And I consistently go back to the backlist and think I really am itching for some good fantasy and sci-fi. That's a great place to go to look for some of that. Speaker 1 (6:31) I Speaker 2 (6:32) agree, for sure. By the way, the best novel slate, like the kind of short list, let me just tell you, was A Drop of Corruption, which is book two in the Robert Jackson Bennett Tainted Cup series. Death of the Author. But did you hate that book? I hated that book, but a lot of people loved it. A lot of people loved it. And then Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky, who is an author that has been coming across my radar a lot. Speaker 1 (6:55) He was on the IPL as well for... There was a robot and a murder in a mansion, do you remember? And then like the only living being that was still there was this AI robot. This was on the IPL. Oh, I can picture the cover. It's black and green and kind of like a nebula on the front with this like silhouette of a robot on it. Oh my gosh, this is going to make me crazy. Speaker 2 (7:19) I continue to doubt my own brain because man, I would swear in any court that I've never heard of that at all. The Everlasting, of course, which won by Alexi Harrow. The Incandescent by Emily Tesh. And then The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson. So that was the full best novel slate for the Hugo Awards for 2026. Speaker 1 (7:40) And The Everlasting won. And I found it. It was called Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It was on the IPL as well. How Speaker 2 (7:47) long ago? Probably Speaker 1 (7:48) three years, I Speaker 2 (7:50) want to say. Do I have to find that too? Okay, no, no, no, no. I trust you. I don't Speaker 1 (7:55) have Speaker 2 (7:55) that Speaker 1 (7:55) information. Speaker 2 (7:56) We're going to put that in. That is the truth. And my brain just has huge holes in it. Speaker 1 (8:00) We only read the beginning of most of those, right? So it's okay. I just could picture the cover. And I knew that there was something in my brain about that. So I'm so glad that it's there, Katie. All right, let's talk about our current reads, though. All right, I actually have a little sci-fi here at the beginning for us. This book is now like newly in the zeitgeist. I am going to talk about Clara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Speaker 2 (8:27) So Speaker 1 (8:27) after watching the preview for the upcoming movie for this one, it shot to the top of my TBR. The preview is very good. I'm Speaker 2 (8:35) excited about it. Speaker 1 (8:36) This is Ishiguro's newest release from 2021. Clara is our main character and she is an artificial friend. a human-shaped automaton robot who uses her observational abilities to learn about the world around her. And her powers of observation are noteworthy. They are different than other AFs, those artificial friends. Each AF has their own personality and quirks, even though they have the same basic structure and programming. And Clara is not the newest model. So she continues to wait patiently to be chosen by potential customers that walk by the shop window or wander in to browse. The window is also where the sun shines brightest in the shop, helping to energize whichever AF is featured that day. So like, ooh, you get to stand in the window today and that's going to be a good day for you. When Clara is finally chosen and taken home, we get to see this new world through her eyes and through the interactions with her owner, Josie, as well as her parents, her best friends, her fellow classmates. Clara's life outside the store quickly becomes far more complicated than she could have imagined, as her true purpose is slowly revealed to her. She is not just a friend. Oh, that makes it sound weird. She's Speaker 2 (9:45) not that Speaker 1 (9:45) kind of friend either. Okay, this Speaker 2 (9:47) book is great. Speaker 1 (9:48) Kazuo Ishiguro is known for some really heady literary content, but I was intrigued enough by the premise here to dive in with almost no knowledge of the plot, and it paid off. This book was unputdownable for me. It's definitely more character-driven rather than plot-heavy, but Clara's internal dialogue, as well as the world that Ishiguro builds around her, was thrilling to me. It was thrilling to me. I did this one on audio and I listened incessantly until I was done. I could not find enough Speaker 2 (10:17) time to keep listening. I Speaker 1 (10:19) will say that there were times that I felt a little lost with the movement of the story, so I would go back and restart a chapter to make sure that I hadn't missed something. or rewind five minutes to be sure I was picking up everything he had laid down for me, but I had. It was just because of the narrative structure and the voice and the way that he had chosen to tell this story. There are times that the plot movements feel a little disjointed, and that's because it's not a human telling the story. It's this robotic, artificial friend. This is intentional, but it's worth noting for readers, right? Because that can be a really unsettling experience when you're reading. It also has an ending that did not ruin the book for me by any means, but it's definitely more open-ended and has some interesting elements to it. So it's bound to bother certain readers. Speaker 2 (11:03) Overall mood here is Speaker 1 (11:04) introspective and sad, and it feels a little bit like longing, like unrequited love. This is not a love story. It's not that type of book, but it holds that same melancholiness in it. His writing is almost poetic in nature, which leans into our deep dive today. And if I had been reading on paper, I'm certain I would have book darted the way he describes not just the human condition, but the natural world as well. It doesn't have fantastic ratings. It's not above four stars, even though all the more recent reviews I could find were people who, like me, picked it up because they saw the preview and they wanted to read it before the movie comes out. Those people were overwhelmingly positive. So I had to go dig. There were certain negative reviews that did mention the ending, as well as some who didn't feel it lived up to the literary hype and the literary merit of Never Let Me Go. In between that release and this one, he did win the Nobel Prize in Literature. So obviously that brought with it a lot of high expectations for this newer release. And I think that's what kind of... sullied this one. Speaker 2 (12:07) So Speaker 1 (12:07) I think there's a new crop of readers picking it up, right? People who are seeing the preview and they're like, that looks interesting. I want to read the book. And they're coming into it with a different set of expectations than the people who said, wow, he won the Nobel Prize in literature. I want to read that. And there's a mismatch there. I think that we'll continue to see those ratings go up over the next few months as that movie comes out and gains a new audience for this book. I loved it. I thought it was so readable, so applicable and nuanced and interesting. I gave it five stars. This is Clara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. I saw Speaker 2 (12:41) that trailer too. And I was like, oh, that looks really, really well done. Like it looks like it's going to be really good. Speaker 1 (12:47) Yeah, I think they used their budget right for that film. So. All Speaker 2 (12:51) right, Katie, my first book is Backlist, Back, Back, Backlist. And very rarely do I bring a reread, but it is. It's a backlist reread. It's Sourdough by Robin Sloan. Oh, fun. I had to bring this for a variety of reasons, all of which I will tell you since that's exactly what we do here. All right, here's the setup. Our lead character is Lois, and she's a young software designer, and she has gotten a brand new job at a place called General Dexterity, which is in San Francisco. It's a robotics company, and it's growing. really, really fast