It's the first episode of the Spring 2026 Season, and John and Ben are blasting off to the moon of Annares to discuss "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin. We discuss this classic of science fiction with a little help from "To Read 'The Dispossessed'" by Samuel Delany. Topics of conversation include John & Ben's relationship with Le Guin's work, her anthropological lens, and portrayals of gender & sexuality in science fiction.

As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation!

We'll be back in two weeks with a paired episode focusing on Samuel Delany's "Trouble on Triton"!

John and Ben cruise down the California highway to the end of this season of The Infinite Library as they read Joan Didion's "Play It As It Lays". Topics of conversation include the portrayal of California in literature, mimesis, and Didion's place as a literary "cool girl".

As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation!

Another year comes to a close and, as is tradition, John and Ben get together to tell you about their favorite books they read in 2025.

Happy (almost) New Year! We're closing out our Thomas Pynchon mini-revue with his latest novel, "Shadow Ticket". Along for the ride is friend of the pod, author TJ Martinson! Topics of discussion include Pynchon's relationship to pop culture, the use of alternate history in literature, and whether Pynchon offers us as readers an 'out' to our present circumstances.

As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation!

Check out TJ's books here!

This week, we jump forward over 50 years into Thomas Pychon's career (and over all his most read books) to discuss 2013's "Bleeding Edge"! Along for the ride through Y2K is friend of the pod, Dan.

Topics of discussion include reading the 2010s through the 2000s, the role of technology and espionage in Pynchon's works, and 9/11.

As always, we hope you enjoy the conversations.

This week, we start our mini-revue of the works of Thomas Pynchon with his first novel: "V." We discuss our individual relationships with Pynchon's writing, his place in the larger world of contemporary literature, and what we liked and disliked about this strange first novel of his.

As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation!

This week, we conclude our discussion of John Pistelli's "Major Arcana". We hope you enjoy another two-parter!

We accidentally did another two parter, but we had a lot of thoughts about "Major Arcana" by John Pistelli.

As always, we hope that you enjoy our conversation!

The conclusion to our discussion on "The Return of the King", featuring Nate from Gamers with Glasses.

As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation.

This week on The Infinite Library, we answer Gondor's call for aid and discuss "The Return of the King" with Nate Schmidt of Gamers with Glasses. We've been there and we're nearly ready to go back again, so please join us to discuss the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings!

As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation.