how to win the lottery: a book club podcast

the next book in our second-person module is suicide by édouard levé, which kicks off a mini-module of shorter writing that is also european as hell. after discussing a gem of a film we discovered on the criterion channel, we talk about suicide‘s up-ending afterward and the manipulation found within the text. we discuss suicide as the defining moment in anyone’s life who dies that way and why it’s hard to reflect on what happens within the book. we explore how (and why) first-person is found more in this book than in our other books this module, the wildly different alt cover, and how the extensive poetry that ends the text reads in french. we talk about wanting to learn more about translators and the act of translation. egg does a great job of articulating thoughts about this text.

reading list for season thirteen

interior chinatown by charles yu

if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino

bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney

suicide by édouard levé

the malady of death by marguerite duras

how like a god by rex stout

the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida

the night circus by erin morgenstern

a man asleep by georges perec

open water by caleb azumah nelson

welcome back to the penn badgley module. today’s episode is the most “normal” book we’ve read in a while: bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney. we talk about the novel’s deadpan humor, whether it feels tied to the 1980s, and how the main character ends the book while still sort of spiraling. we explore the current irony of a plot about fact-checking and computers making life easier, the arc to cocaine as a drug in the united states, and a time where t.g.i. friday’s was a cool place to hang out. we wonder if there’s a jay mcinerney connected universe and we revisit shreds’s shared bennington literary universe. we discuss how the second-person perspective villainizes amanda, the amount that bret easton ellis seems to take from this writing, and the weird miscasting in the film adaptation. shreds champions a specific element of kevin smith’s movies.

reading list for season thirteen

interior chinatown by charles yu

if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino

bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney

suicide by édouard levé

the malady of death by marguerite duras

how like a god by rex stout

the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida

the night circus by erin morgenstern

a man asleep by georges perec

open water by caleb azumah nelson

our next second-person novel is if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino, which features an all-time great first chapter. before we talk about the novel, though, we simply must talk about the season 5 trailer for “you.” we then talk about incarnations of the text’s “gimmick” in other mediums, whether this is a “horny book for dudes,” and how long a postmodern text can exist before its schtick becomes tiring. we lament a second person element lost in the english language, talk about the text’s charlie kaufman-esque elements, and admire its prescience around generative ai. shreds talks about the oulipo gathering. we ask: what do you want in a bookstore? rip david lynch.

reading list for season thirteen

interior chinatown by charles yu

if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino

bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney

suicide by édouard levé

the malady of death by marguerite duras

how like a god by rex stout

the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida

the night circus by erin morgenstern

a man asleep by georges perec

open water by caleb azumah nelson

our second-person module kicks off with interior chinatown by charles yu, which gives us literary whiplash both in terms of difficulty and perspective. we talk about the type of racism that charles yu captures in the book (and the type we “expected” to find), the way he takes down hollywood in the novel (and the similar representations we’ve seen on tv), and the strengths of the novel (as well as its limitations). we briefly discuss the limited series on hulu (which was a surprise to both of us) and what “chinatown” usually signifies in stories like this. shreds makes a request to make the book longer.

reading list for season thirteen

interior chinatown by charles yu

if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino

bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney

suicide by édouard levé

the malady of death by marguerite duras

how like a god by rex stout

the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida

the night circus by erin morgenstern

a man asleep by georges perec

open water by caleb azumah nelson

it’s time for another season of lottery pod, and today’s theme reveal is news to everyone, including joey. (well, not everyone. shreds knows. he made it.) we discuss the theme as structure (rather than content), the inspiration for this theme, and the only book most people know that fit this theme. we talk about our goal of aiming for something less depressing, shreds teases modules that he created but abandoned, and we wonder if this module annoy us. we discuss the potential benefits and drawbacks of writing in this style.

reading list for season thirteen

interior chinatown by charles yu

if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino

bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney

suicide by édouard levé

the malady of death by marguerite duras

how like a god by rex stout

the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida

the night circus by erin morgenstern

a man asleep by georges perec

open water by caleb azumah nelson

after covering four of his novels — 300,000,000, aannex, void corporation, and uxa.gov — we talk to blake butler about his work. note: there are spoilers in this conversation (at least as much as you can spoil blake’s work.) we ask him about what he focuses on when he reads, his double book launch, and whether his nonfiction writing helps inform his fiction writing. we learn how miles davis inspired his editing process, the benefits of setting things in the distant future, and how much he thinks about the design on the page while writing. we explore adapting his text to other mediums (and channeling other mediums through the novel as an art form), how he aims to make his readers feel yucky, and how much he shares about his in-progress writing with other writers. blake talks about how he tries to capture america in his writing. we ask a new question in our author-driven module. we pick up some more stone cold nba locks. blake talks about all-you-can-eat buffets.

reading list for season twelve

300,000,000 by blake butler

aannex by blake butler

void corporation by blake butler

uxa.gov by blake butler

the final book in our blake butler module is uxa.gov, which may be his hardest-to-understand book we’ve covered. we talk about why we thought it would be more approachable, as well as why we should know better by now. we discuss the premise and whether it feels or reads like a film being described, the importance of font choice in the printing, and the value of the violence that blake creates in his books. we try to figure out if “chain smoking” four of blake’s books in a row the right way to read them as we also reflect on the books we covered this module. we tear down the business of star ratings. shreds explores whether reactions to body horror are universal. (stay tuned for our next episode, releasing in one week, where we talk to blake butler about all four of the novels we read this module.)

reading list for season twelve

300,000,000 by blake butler

aannex by blake butler

void corporation by blake butler

uxa.gov by blake butler

our blake butler module continues with a slight swerve and schedule pivot as we discuss void corporation (formerly titled alice knott). we talk about the text’s new foreword from blake, the approachability of this novel (especially in comparison to his other work), and the benefits of having read more of blake’s other novels to compare to this text. we discuss the way this novel portrays the media, the idea of things not being there (or of being removed), and the many associations tied to the name alice. like blake, we take down the golden age of tv. we ask: what does art mean? joey busts out a barcode scanner. egg and shreds talk about being physically moved by art. we wonder: does this book encourage bad behavior at museums? (our module concludes next episode with uxa.gov, followed by an interview with blake butler after that.)

reading list for season twelve

300,000,000 by blake butler

aannex by blake butler

void corporation by blake butler

uxa.gov by blake butler

our blake butler module continues with aannex, which apocalypse party describes as “a post-joycean neo-slipstream sci-fi cult dream encyclopedia composed as algorithmic code compiled in-soul.” we talk about how we viewed the novel while reading it, and we unpack what “difficult” means with regards to this specific text. shreds poses some questions: “what would happen if i skipped 10 pages? what if i started in the middle?” we talk about mike corrao’s design (and how it’s akin to driving in traffic), the found footage-y feeling of the text and how the narrative creates false digital worlds. we explore the way blake manipulates language, ask if the text supposed to be unlocked, and connect/relate aannex to 300,000,000. what would stephen king think of this novel? who’s the real monster: dr. frankenstein or the creature? we hear stories from our old pal neve about sailing around the world and encountering whales.

reading list for season twelve

300,000,000 by blake butler

aannex by blake butler

uxa.gov by blake butler

void corporation by blake butler

we’re kicking off our blake butler module with 300,000,000: a novel that proves there’s still room to push the medium forward. we discuss whether or not this novel qualifies as horror (especially considering the queasy nature of its violence, how much of the text should be taken as literal (and how much of the unconscious is literal), and the text’s embodiment of a meme (in the literal sense). we talk about language being used to wash over us in a way that isn’t representative of what’s real or unreal in the text and whether we understand this book (and whether or not that matters). shreds rails against bad and lazy reviews. joey may have accidentally read this book in the way that blake intended. the egg has an interesting read of the narrative. joey confesses that shreds has likely broken and re-shaped him into a new type of reader.

reading list for season twelve

300,000,000 by blake butler

aannex by blake butler

uxa.gov by blake butler

void corporation by blake butler