So Many Damn Books

After reading Ian Parker's "A Suspense Novelist’s Trail of Deceptions" piece from the New Yorker, Christopher and Drew get into unreliable narrators and what they hold (or are purported to hold). Drew talks about his love of midlist thrillers, and Christopher supposes that every narrator is an unreliable narrator. There's a fair amount of love for Robin Sloan and his love of silly URLs, too. Plus, ya know. More.

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Hotel Hiouchi

Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchiSoundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi

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Charlie Jane Anders teleports into the Damn Library for a very sci-fi episode around her new novel, The City in the Middle of the Night. Anders talks tidally locked planets, the gargantuan effort it took to write her new novel, being accurate vs. writing a good story, and things to buy when you're about to go on book tour. Plus, she brought an Ursula K. Le Guin novel, Five Ways to Forgiveness, and everyone gets to talking about the seductive world of writing sci-fi, and how Le Guin is a master. Also, there's more than that!

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Hotel Hiouchi

Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchi

Soundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Karen Thompson Walker drops in to dream a little dream with Christopher and Drew in the dreamy Damn Library to discuss her new novel, The Dreamers. They discuss outbreak fiction, writing about college, and what-if scenarios, as well as Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, which prompts a discussion of writing about sci-fi premises through non sci-fi means. And so much more!

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Hotel Hiouchi

Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchiSoundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christopher and Drew decide on their shared 4 favorite reads of the year, and add in one personal pick. But they don't stop there! They mention a couple 2018 reads that are next up on their lists, a favorite read in 2018 but not published in 2018, and ya know, more of those silly types of list categories. It's good to be back.

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Hotel Hiouchi

Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchiSoundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christopher and Drew give gifts, and then talk about the gifts that So Many Damn Books is giving to non-profits, and finish up with some good gift books to get other people in these last few shopping days. Merry merry!

contribute to the patreon: patreon.com/smdb

music: Dan Lerch - O Tannenbaum

Chris Hayes - Deck the Halls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMz1ukOyyo8

Millstones - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Electrohouse Remix)

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Jonathan Lethem drops into the Damn Library and the guys are damn excited to have him. They talk about Lethem's new one, The Feral Detective, of course, but they also talk about his work as a whole, and how his books are in conversation with each other, along with a tangent into timeliness and how lucky he feels. Then they get into Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book, a classic unclassifiable Japanese work, began in the year 990. Translation conversation, and what a "pillow book" is, ensues. One for the ages!

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) 

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It's a celebration of stories in translation (both linguistically and narratively), indie bookstores, and bourbon on the latest SMDB when Preti Taneja joins the guys in the Damn Library. Her debut novel, We That Are Young, provokes conversation about India and King Lear while her book-club-pick Frankenstein in Baghdad gets the room talking about translation. Plus, Drew mentions spooky reading! Again!

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

All the way from Iceland, Sjón joins the guys in a Damn Library annex, aka the FSG offices. The conversation ranges from ghosts to unicorns, from golems to Frankensteins, from self-representation to translation, as they discuss the maximalist, fabulist fable Codex:1962. They also talk Christian Kracht's The Dead, the light and the dark, and the wisdom/folly of using historical figures, amongst other subjects.

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For their 100th episode extravaganza, Drew and Christopher put together a list of their 100 most beloved/most meaningful/most important books, contributing 50 each. Listen as they go through (some of) them. They also try a couple new segment ideas! Stay tuned through the whole thing for a very exciting announcement...

tote: http://www.somanydamnbooks.com/totes/smdb-tote

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Drew and Christopher host HarperCollins' senior art director for a chat about book cover design, the hipness of text, trends in design, and more, plus how everyone has a Murakami phase, and some surprising things about the behind the scenes of book making. Also, they discuss The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, the idiocy of war, and who should play Švejk in a movie. 

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.