On this episode of CodEx Machina, Bethany and Laura lead you through a day in the life of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025. Listen to our highlights (which include a booth dedicated to the history of a 14th century Korean book printed with moveable type – almost a century before our good friend Gutenberg did his ol’ printing thang) as we walk you through the sights and activities of the fair.

Millicent Weber https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/persons/millicent-weber/

Ylva Verlag https://ylva-verlag.de/

More about Jikji: https://www.bnf.fr/en/jikji-treasure-world-printing

The Hof https://www.buchmesse.de/timetable/session/hof-live-ai-and-battle-reality

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Intro music by Leonardo Granados

In this episode, we talk to Andrea Reyes Elizondo, a PhD candidate at the University of Leiden, about her research in the history of reading, which focuses on influences on reading in various social groups in New Spain in the eighteenth century. We discuss the answer to “what is reading” then vs. now, and how it relates heavily on access to resources, connections to power and positions in society, and how сritical understanding complex texts is to literacy.

We continue to talk about readers during the Inquisition in New Spain, and Andrea provides us with a few cases of readers who push back against power.

And of course, we ask Andrea what she is currently reading!

Also: Are Bethany, Natalia, and Laura trying to proselytize people into the cult of Book Studies? You have to listen to find this out and so much more!

Some of the books mentioned are:

Proust and the Squid by Maryann Wolf

The AI Con by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna

Pixel by Krisztina Tóth

Andrea Reyes Elizondo is a self-funded PhD candidate at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS).

Reyes Elizondo researches the history of reading under the supervision of Prof. Paul Hoftijzer and Prof. Adriaan van der Weel. Her dissertation focuses on reconstructing the possibilities of reading for various groups in a society by looking into the context of this cultural technique and the elements that influence it: education, occupation, sociality ofconsumption, culture, and the legal and political system thatregulated the access to texts. Her geographical area of research is New Spain during the eighteenth century. She has written several blog posts about the different aspects of reading: sonority, imagery, speed, approved texts, and distance.She has also written about the ethical considerations fordifferentiating textual from media interpretation when studying past periods, and on the challenges andopportunities for book historical research in Mexico's notarialarchive.

Reyes Elizondo is also a researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University where she works on projects related to scientific integrity and openscience, and where she coordinates the focal area ResearchEvaluation & Culture.

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Intro music by Leonardo Granados

In this episode, we dive into Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel — a sharp, thought-provoking novel that blends imagination with unsettling realism.

Join us as we unpack our impressions of the book and explore how its vision of AI, capitalism, and power imbalance mirrors our own world. From questions of who controls technology to what it means to be human in a data-driven age, this conversation looks at the future through the lens of literature — and asks whether it’s really as distant as it seems.

Tune in to reflect, question, and maybe even dream a little differently.

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Intro music by Leonardo Granados

This week, Dr. Jennifer Gouck joins us to unpack one of the most pressing issues in American literary culture today — book bans. What exactly are book challenges? Who’s behind them? And what might these bans mean for readers, educators, and publishers in today’s political and cultural climate?

Join us as we dig into the complex world of censorship, libraries, and the fight to keep stories accessible — and, as always, to remind everyone to read more books!

Resources and works mentioned:
📘 Unbecoming — Seema Yasmin (Simon & Schuster link)
📗 Banned Together — Edited by Ashley Hope Pérez, illustrated by Debbie Fong
🎥 Banned Together Documentary
📖 Forever... by Judy Blume (Wikipedia)
📚 WWU Münster — Banned Books Project
📸 Instagram post 1
📸 Instagram post 2
📖 Ex Marks the Spot — Goodreads
📖 Direbound — Goodreads

Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠YouTube ⁠⁠⁠and ⁠⁠⁠TikTok  ⁠⁠⁠for more pictures and videos of all things books that we discuss in the podcast!

Intro music by Leonardo Granados

Let's talk about banned books!

On this episode we discuss a novel Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (1970) by Judy Blume. It is a story of an 11 year-old-girl and her experiences with physical and spiritual changes, which is what led to the book being banned in some schools in the United States since its publication.

This is episode 6 in our Strange Land Book Club series.

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Intro music by Leonardo Granados

In this episode, Natalia, Bethany and Laura continue their discussion with Christina Neuwirth. We ask questions about their research of gender inequality in the Scottish literary scene, the culmination of which is the Quine Report, a public document that outlines the data used in their research, along with relevant insights.

Findings include datapoints such as “from 1919-2024, 12 Scottish literary prizes were won by men nearly twice as often as women” and “Scotland-based publishers published male authors 50% more than female authors in the years 2017-2019.”

https://quinereport.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-quine-report

https://quinereport.com/

Imagine you come to work one day and find your office flooded. Author Christina Neuwirth joins us in this discussion to disclose some secrets of their writing process and talk about writing, reading, and hydrating in the office!This is episode 5 in our Strange Land Book Club series.

Find Christina here.

Books mentioned: The Distance of the Moon by Italo Calvino

The Distance of the Moon read by Liev Schreiber

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

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Intro music by Leonardo Granados

Chief editors of TXT Celine Kock and Lena Ryzhova joined us today to discuss their upcoming publication. On this episode we discussed what it's like to work on the journal and why community of memories is the topic for this years publication.

Visit this site to learn more about TXT!

Books mentioned:

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail BulgakovThe Enola Holmes Mysteries by Nancy Springer

A Sherlock Holmes Adventure Series by Bonnie McBird

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

Dua Lipa's book club https://www.service95.com/tag/book-club

Follow us on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok  for more pictures and videos of all things books that we discuss in the podcast!

Intro music by Leonardo Granados

How high are you ready to climb to knock on heaven's door?

On this episode Laura, Natalia and Bethany discuss Ted Chiang's short story The Tower of Babylon (1990).

This is episode 4 of our Strange Land Book Club series.

Time stamps:

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Intro music by Leonardo Granados

On this episode, Bethany and Laura discuss their experiences at the 2025 Thessaloniki Book Fair. Highlights include: a panel discussing the challenges of translating gender and queerness into smaller languages AND a visit to the Estonian booth, where they are celebrating 500 years since the first book was printed in the Estonian language.

We include a short interview with Priit-Hendrik Kaldma, a scholar and translator who works on Estonian-Greek-Estonian translations. On Making Book History, we discuss the Unbound fiasco and the difficulty of being an author in today’s world.

Links:

Thessaloniki Book Fair

https://www.thessalonikibookfair.gr/

500 Years of EstonianBooks

https://www.erm.ee/en/do-you-know-this-story

Our favorite translations:

Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World by Irene Vallejo

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Glennkill by Leonie Swann