The Infinite Library

John and Ben are back from their summer vacation and ready to get back to work on a new project: reading the collected works of Michael Chabon! We discuss our favorite beach reads from the break, why we’re interested in exploring Chabon as an author, and then dig in and talk about “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh”. As always, we hope you enjoy our conversation.

Summer Books!

Works Referenced

John and Ben are still luxuriating on their summer vacation, but a little while back they invited the illustrious Phil Ford of the Weird Studies podcast into the Library to discuss P.G. Wodehouse's "Right Ho, Jeeves". We discuss humor in literature, the idea of being "well-read", and the changing nature of genre fiction through history. We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Works Referenced

This week, John and Ben are discussing "Telluria" by Vladimir Sorokin, translated by Max Lawton. As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation!

Works Referenced:

This week, John and Ben are joined by Ben's friend Sam to discuss one of the great works of scifi-horror: Peter Watts' "Blindsight"! Topics of discussion include "metal science fiction", AI, the nature of intelligence, and (of course) the Gothic.

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

Texts Mentioned this Episode

This week, we're joined by fantasy/science fiction author Molly Tanzer to discuss the Jirel of Joiry stories by C.L. Moore. Topics of discussion include H.P. Lovecraft, Sword & Sorcery as a genre, and Molly's upcoming project: "Jirel and the Mirror of Truth"!

We hope you enjoy our conversation!

Links:

- New Edge Sword & Sorcery: https://newedgeswordandsorcery.com/

- Preorder "120 Murders": https://houseofgamut.com/120-murders-pre-order/

Hey Bookheads, apologies for the unscheduled hiatus over the last couple of weeks. To make it up to you, we've got a frosty cool episode discussing "The Ice Palace" by Tarjei Vesaas with Kate Marshall. Topics of discussion include the novella as a form, the bewitching power of nature, and the social utility of magical thinking. As always, we hope you enjoy the discussion.

You can check out Kate's excellent book, "Novels by Aliens: Weird Tales and the Twenty-First Century" here: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo206058572.html

Biff! Bang! Pow! In this week's thrilling installment of The Infinite Library, your Leading Lads of Literature enlist the aid of an Amazing Ally -- Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook podcast -- to discuss the first comic book: "City of Glass" by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli! As always, we hope you enjoy our conversation!

Note: We apologize dearly for the episode being late. We hope you can forgive us!

In celebration of National Crime Fiction Month, John and Ben discuss one of the greatest fat guys in the history of literature: Nero Wolfe.

As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation.

On this week's episode of The Infinite Library, we're treading the old boards and discussing our first play: Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit". We talk about sex, death, and how movies aren't sending their best. We hope you enjoy our discussion as always.