This week on Required Reading, we encounter pure evil and fix-to-make a stupid decision. We talk No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy with Matt Romano. Since it is Academy Awards Month, we beg the question, is there a hero here and is this one of the best book adaptation ever?

This week on Required Reading, in honor of the upcoming Academy Awards, we are covering another book! Well, this one was adapted into a movie that won Best Picture and was a fairly accurate version of the text, so there! The full episode will drop on the 15th, but to get you in the mood,Read More

This week, we attempt to grasp The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien, but spend so much time with book 1, we decide to come back next week for book 2! So, come with us as we extol the virtues of scaring your relatives, going to taverns, andRead More

k, in order to prepare for the The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, Lucas Farach will read a section of Book 1, Chapter 2, for you. Please enjoy and join us next week for The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.

This month we complete the book exchange with my selection for Mike Burns, the classic of Gonzo journalism Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and we learn seven things: “1) Never trust a cop in a raincoat.2) Beware of enthusiasm and of love, both are temporary and quick to sway.3) If asked if you careRead More

In honor of the upcoming episode on Fear in Loathing in Las Vegas, we have a selection from chapter one being read by our very own Olivia Kincaid. The music is “Actionable” by Bensound used under the creative commons license. Find all his music on https://www.bensound.com/

To get everyone in the mood for the episode on the play and the new Coen movie, the Tragedy of Macbeth, we have Denzel Washington performing the “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” soliloquy. Enjoy, Nic

In honor of the new movie by Joel Coen and starring Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, and Kathryn Hunter, we are covering the Tragedy of Macbeth. This is a crossover with the Myopia Movies podcast. Panel: Dr. Nic Hoffmann, Mike Carroll, and Betsy Holcomb

This week we unwrap the first of our gift exchange books, the Mike Burns select Kindred by Octavia Butler. Time travel? History? Fantastic! Enjoy this back to form episode after Hoffmann’s parental leave! Panel: Dr. Nic Hoffmann and Mike Burns

Happy New Year from Required Reading! This week we dive into one of the classics of feminist literature. The Bell Jar is dark and funny. It is about feminism, depression, and a woman making her way in the world. It is an incredible work needing to be picked up and read again. Compassionate and complexRead More