Audrey Lazaro discusses Mellville’s 1853 story, “Bartleby the Scrivener,” one of the top three bits of scrivener fiction ever.

John McCoy with Audrey Lazaro

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No, I won’t make a Bangles joke. Erin Gambrill discusses Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s The Egypt Game (1967).

John McCoy with Erin Gambrill

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Bambi’s not so cute in this gritty new reboot. Glenn Fleishman discusses Felix Salten’s 1923 parable about what goes on in the woods. Also we talk a lot about copyright.

John McCoy with Glenn Fleishman

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Climb ev’ry mountain—except these mountains, they’re nuts. Phil Gonzales discusses H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness,” written in 1931 and published in 1936.

John McCoy with Phil Gonzales

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To begin at the beginning: David Loehr is back in the slow, black, crowblack, podcast-bobbing sea to discuss Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood (1954).

John McCoy with David J. Loehr

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New Year’s is a time for optimism, but instead Christy Admiraal discusses Sylvia Plath’s 1963 roman à clef, the Bell Jar. Also, John totally gets the dates wrong for this book’s complicated publishing history.

John McCoy with Christy Admiraal

The book was first published in the UK 1963 under a pseudonym, then in 1967 in the UK under Plath’s name, and then in 1971 in the US.

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But I sold my Zune to buy you this podcast! Marina and John discuss hair, watches, and O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.”

John McCoy with Marina McCoy

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It’s turkey time / once again / Dan and Rob / dive right in / we discuss / Buma-Shave!

John McCoy with Dan McCoy and Rob McCoy

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Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—a podcast, for example, where Bill O’Donnell discusses Jerome K. Jerome’s very silly Three Men in a Boat (1889).

John McCoy with Bill O'Donnell

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Grab on to your happy thought and join Shannon Campe in discussing James Barrie’s complicated children’s novel Peter Pan (1911), originally called Peter and Wendy.

John McCoy with Shannon Campe

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