The Bookening

AVENGERS SPOILERS AT ABOUT 20:00 Our heroes are prepping for a big discussion of The Odyssey. It turns out their old nemesis (?) C.S. Lewis had lots to say about epic poetry, so they begin there. Also they answer a listener query about their Remains of the Day episode. A certain important Pastor who is a Master of Reading is notably absent from this episode, but we promise this will NOT become a thing.

03:00 Donor Shout-out

Well. It's come to this. It would be a pleasure to burn ... HBO's terrible movie of Fahrenheit 451. It was really bad. And our heroes recorded an episode detailing all the ways that it stunk. Then ... the episode had technical problems. So (because schedules were tight) we recorded this slightly shortened redo. Sorry, it couldn't be longer, but frankly ... it got what it deserved.

Our heroes thought it would be fun to review the new Fahrenheit 451 HBO movie, which is something they will do, assuming it's not too HBOy. But in order to justify doing that, they had to review the book, which they didn't particularly have fond memories of. But it may or may not have held up better than they remembered. Listen!

Help Jake build a mechanical hound!

00:00 Sundry matters

Our heroes very much liked this book, and in this episode they talk about it, contrasting it with some of the other, lesser children's books they've read.

00:00 The show begins

Jake's children need shoes!

This is kind of a weird episode, as Jake is MIA, and Nathan and Brandon have an extended discussion of what constitutes good style, using E. B. White's classic Elements of Style as a jumping off point. So that's pretty much what happens. If you're the sort of person who wonders where our heroes get off saying Ready Player One has BAD style, this is the episode for you!!!! No table of contents, but our heroes talk about style and they start talking about style pretty quickly by their standards, and donor shout-outs are at the very end.

Due to some horrible computer error, all the chapter markers got wiped out, so no chapter markers for this one. Sorry about that. But suffice to say, our heroes really like Charlotte's Web, and Brandon starts doing context for it about five minutes into the episode, and our heroes use that as jumping pad for lots of interesting things, and then the episode is done. Thanks for listening! :)

Buy our heroes a more reliable computer!

Help Brandon pay his gambling debts!

Hey. It's a movie review of a movie that our heroes surprisingly (to them at least) didn't like all that much. Here are the things that happen:

00:00 The show begins

Buy Nathan socks!

In this episode, our heroes continue to discuss Remains of the Day. It's a pretty great book. Our heroes have wise insights and stuff. Here is your table of contents:

00:00 The episode begins

Don't let Jake and Brandon's kids go hungry!

In this episode our heroes discuss Remains of the Day and decide it is even better than Close Reads. Sorry, Close Reads! :)

00:00 General Awesomeness

Make sure our heroes can afford to go to crummy movies for years to come!

This is a podcast in which our heroes review the film Ready Player One. One of them liked it, one of them was ambivalent, and one was almost as grumpy about it as he was about the book.