Tim Ehrenberg has been waiting all summer for a rainy November day—the kind of weather that makes you want to spend the day inside on a comfortable chair, sipping a coffee and flipping through one of the books that have been collecting dust on your shelf for months. For Ehrenberg, the voracious reader behind N Magazine’s Need to Read column for the past 10 years, there’s a whole stack of books on that shelf he’s been meaning to read. There’s a quote for this type of reading: “It’s not hoarding if it’s books.”

Ehrenberg has not only been reading thousands of books over the years—he’s also amassed a loyal following of bookworms who have come to know him as the go-to guy when it comes to book recommendations. In addition to writing the Need to Read column, Ehrenberg co-hosts the Books, Beach, & Beyond podcast with Elin Hilderbrand, serves as the president of the Nantucket Book Foundation, and has interviewed dozens of bestselling authors at literary festivals, book talks and publishing events around the world. This year alone, he’s participated in an event with Oprah Winfrey for her Oprah’s Book Club segment; interviewed The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown in Prague on the release of his first thriller in eight years; moderated the inaugural Read with Jenna Book Festival with The Today Show’s Jenna Bush Hager in Nashville; interviewed nine authors at the inaugural Aspen Literary Festival in Colorado; hosted authors John Grisham, Gayle King and Lily King on the Books, Beach, & Beyond podcast; and to top it all off, interviewed a host of authors at the Nantucket Book Festival, including Carl Hiaasen, Wally Lamb and Ocean Vuong.

After all of that, Ehrenberg is still taking it all in. The saying that if you love what you do, you don’t work a day in your life—at least for Ehrenberg—is true. “Everyone knows I love books—it’s no surprise,” he said. “But books have become so much more about the people surrounding them than just objects on a bookshelf. It’s the characters I fall in love with and the authors. I read so differently now. I read like I’m having a conversation with the writer, and that’s because I might interview them at some point. When I’m reading, I’m immersing myself in their world in a really personal way as opposed to just reading their book.”

Ehrenberg has lost track of how many books he’s read. As for what he’s going to read next, he has a list of books he’s anticipating for 2026, a list he’s just starting to tackle after what turned out to be a wild ride of a summer. “The limit does not exist for how many books I read in a year,” he said. The limit also does not exist for his career. “If you asked me just months ago, I didn’t know about the Aspen Literary Festival and I didn’t know about the Dan Brown visit. This year, it’s like I’m not even making plans but just enjoying the ride, and I really appreciate it.”

“No matter what, I know I’m going into a year that will have a lot of great books,” he added about 2026. “Even if no experiences further than that happen, I still have the experience of the book, and I think that is always going to be enough for me.”

Left: Tim Ehrenberg at the inaugural Aspen Literary Festival. Right: Ehrenberg with bestselling author Dan Brown in Prague.