A Novel Adventure

BOOK SYNOPSIS

A loveable woodland romp, with many of the best scenes featuring a roly-poly toad.

 

 

POD SYNOPSIS

Bad subplots, colonialism and the animal class system: it’s the last episode in this season of ANA, which means the last chapter of WormWorld — possibly ever. After all this time, Josh finally gets to read his dream type of novel (‘it’s got animals in it. That works for me’), but the book gets a mixed reception — as do JRoy’s late Xmas presents, which he very kindly brought along (thanks again mate). Skip to 56 mins for the final chapter of WormWorld: ‘I’ve Got a Six Pack, a Six Pack of Lagers’.

BOOK SYNOPSIS

A group of people lose their minds with boredom in the mind-numbingly tedious Yorkshire countryside.

 

POD SYNOPSIS

A lack of ghosts and too many olden days-y words: it's our second crack at Emily Brontë's gothic ghost tale, and Josh still doesn't like it. Stay tuned for the boys' favourite ghosts, chapter 5 of WormWorld, and a fair bit of Kate Bush.

BOOK SYNOPSIS

Patrick Bateman works on Wall Street in an unspecified, important but seemingly pointless job and spends his days in restaurants and bars with other men in similarly vague and successful jobs – half of whom don’t seem to know who he is. It's a life he seems to resent but he makes no attempt to escape it. At night he is the psycho from the book's title: a man who obsessively humiliates, rapes and dismembers women and anyone who he takes a dislike to. The violence is described in horrific detail but in the same bored tones Bateman talks about his expensive meals in wealthy downtown New York.

 

 

POD SYNOPSIS 

Is this the most divisive book we've covered? It certainly felt like it. It's also our most plagiaristic show to date, including a section on the pod's favourite murders which is in no way related to or affiliated with another (much less successful) podcast. There's also chat about tapeworms, star signs and Josh Crompton's daily morning routine in Haringey (set to some music we definitely own the rights to). It all adds up to one of our longest and best episodes to date. And features Josh's magnum opus pun in chapter 4 of WormWorld: 'Go Fourth and Prosper' (it's better than that).  That comes in around 1.18 if you can't wait.

BOOK SYNOPSIS

You probably know it, but just in case... A man named Victor Frankenstein makes the unwise decision to PLAY GOD, creating a creature out of bit and pieces from a slaughterhouse using some questionable science. After successfully animating the monster – who’s never named in the book – Victor is so repulsed by his creation that he gets ill and shuns it. Then, tragedy ensues, as the sentient creature tries to comes to terms with his place in the world and seeks revenge against its maker.

 

POD SYNOPSIS

The pod goes global: guest Holly extends our reach all the way to Australia, and also brings along a truckload of fascinating trivia about teenage Goth Queen, Mary Shelley. Facts that are arguably more interesting than the novel itself... Then, the guys take issue with some of the science and plotholes in the text – and even have a go at rewriting bits of it themselves. Then later on, as inevitable as death, taxes and student loan repayments, we have chapter three of Wormworld: 'The Third and the Punch Bowl'. Skip to about the hour mark if you can't wait for that.

BOOK SYNOPSIS

It's The Great Gatsby.

 

(I forgot to write one.) 

 

POD SYNOPSIS

It's a (long) pod about The Great Gatsby. In a bumper 1h20+ episode, we talk villains, David Cameron, elevator music, Owl Eyes and Black Mirror. And try not to use the phrase 'American Dream'. In our quest to sound vaguely intelligent, we're heavily aided by special guest Rhiannon, who elevates the show to a whole new intellectual plane and educates us on the merits of Fitzgerald's writing (or was it Zelda's???). Then we bring the level spectacularly crashing down by asking Rhiannon to read out the second chapter of Josh's debut fantasy novel Wormworld, titled 'The Tricky Second Chapter'. That starts at about 1hr03 and features a song about food. So skip to/skip as you wish.

JACK'S BOOK SYNOPSIS

There is an everyday man. I think he’s called Arthur. And some guy appears in the pub and tells Arthur the world is going to get blown up. For some reason I was envisaged the second man as Harrison Ford the whole time. Anyway he drags this everyday man into space against his wishes after his house gets destroyed, then they fly all around doing things with ray guns and space ships and stuff. There are some scary aliens called zargons. They’re the baddies who blew up Earth. At some point an of emperor of the universe shows up. I think he’s called Zoidberg. And then near the end there are lots of mice and this super computer and the computer says the meaning of life is 42. Oh, and Arthur is on a planet with as robot for a while. 

 

 

JACK'S POD SYNOPSIS

We're back with the new season that nobody asked for. I can honestly say this book confused me more than anything I've ever read, which isn't to say I didn't enjoy it. But that synopsis above is my genuine attempt to recollect what happened. And it's pretty embarrassing. Anyway after 10 minutes of back-on-air introductory waffle (sorry about that), the boys rip me to shreds for a bit before we get to what this book is actually about (apparently). Add in some Kraftwerk, curved tellies and a rejigged streamlined structure and you have A Novel Adventure: Chapter 2. Also JOSH HAS STARTED WRITING A FANTASY NOVEL AND READS OUT OUT THE FIRST CHAPTER (TITLED 'WORMWORLD') ON AIR. Enjoy.

JOSH’S BOOK SYNPOSIS

Three ghosts terrify an old grouchy pensioner into buying a big chunk of poultry. 

 

 

 

JACK’S POD SYNPOSIS

Shouting at poles, Fleetwood Mac and The Ghost of the Dad Bod: it’s A Novel Adventure, The Christmas Special (kind of). Over plates of turkey/nut roast, the boys get stuck into Charles Dickens’ festive novella and contemplate the meaning of Christmas and also the word 'didactic'. Josh forgets our Twitter handle. Oli has a confession. And we play a series of semi-festive games, two of which are absolutely nothing like Never Mind The Buzzcocks. Happy Christmas from the ANA team!

JOSH’S BOOK SYNPOSIS

Man infatuated with child uses Jedi mind tricks to kill mother, then travels around the USA with the girl for some reason. He eventually loses her to a bloke who is more paedo-y than him and murders the man as a result. But written very nicely.

 

 

JACK’S POD SYNOPSIS

Recorded while JRoy was wandering around the UK looking at castles, episode six features special guest Meg as well as Josh's longest game to date and a fair amount of sound problems (largely sorted, don't worry). Lolita, Meg's favourite book, is a brilliant, delicate and controversial work, so naturally we spend a good deal of the show talking about goblins, butterflies, hummus, book covers and electronic superstore Maplin. Thankfully, Oli is on hand as ever to provide a semblance of credibility with some killer points about Nabokov's reason for writing Lolita and the delicate balance of teaching this enigmatic novel.

JOSH'S BOOK SYNOPSIS:

 

A tale of an everyday hobbit, whose house was invaded by loads of small hairy men and an older but equally hairy magician, who guilt trip him into going on an adventure to retrieve their gold from a dragon. The party destroys the lives and murders a tonne of different people, including villagers, spiders, trolls and goblins to get their gold back. Also there is a man who transforms into a bear who is a total badass and I wish I was him.

 

 

JACK'S POD SYNOPSIS:

 

A tale of an everyday hero, whose house was invaded by two small hairless men – and a larger but equally hairless man, who guilt trip him into reading a silly children’s adventure book to prove a point to the large one’s parents. After a bit of show and tell, Josh trashes ‘moon runes’, Oli backs Balding and JRoy reluctantly concedes that maybe this book isn’t for everyone.

JRoy is gallivanting around the UK looking at castles, so in his absence we’ve decided to scoop some old material out of the ANA vault: the third show we ever recorded, J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye (feat. a new intro from Jack and Josh).

 

Now we’re very aware that it sounds, in Josh’s words, like it was ‘recorded on an etch-a-sketch’, but it was also the birth of the ‘literatree’, which is worth a listen in itself. Elsewhere Oli and Josh have a squabble about plot and Oli rages against the term ‘unreliable narrator’, while everyone attempts to answer the big question: Is Holden Caulfield (to quote Josh) ‘a bit of a shit’?

 

Normal service will resume in a couple of weeks. The pod is going on an adventure...