Three Percent Podcast

In honor of two recent John Barth reissues—The Sot-Weed Factor and Chimera, both Dalkey Archive Essentials—John Domini (The Archeology of a Good Ràgu, The Color Inside a Melon, and this appreciation of Barth, among other works) and Max Besora (author of the intro to Sot-Weed Factor along with the very much Barth inspired The Adventures and Misadventures of the Extraordinary and Admirable Joan Orpí, Conquistador and Founder of New Catalonia) joined Chad W. Post to talk about these two titles and Barth's overall impact on the literary scene. It's a long, interesting conversation with a Spanish superfan and a former student of Barths. Well worth the listen!

The music on this episode is "Say It Isn't So" by The Sot Weed Factor. (Who knew this existed??)

If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, and other places. And follow Open Letter and Chad W. Post on Twitter/X for more info about upcoming episodes and guests.

Chad and Brian kick off the new season in near hysterics over the first little chunk of Gilbert Sorrentino's Mulligan Stew. From talking about the rejection letters—and near batshit reader's report—prefacing the book, to all the bad writing about the "flawless blue" sky, to the ever-changing dialog tags in Anthony Lamont's detective novel, to the New York Yankees, this episode is a hodgepodge of jokes and observations, and instant love for this wondrous, wooly masterpiece.

This week's music is "American" by FM Belfast.

You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts!

Tune in next week as Chad and Brian cover up to page 148 (new edition; 124 in the older ones).

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

The "flawless blue sky" image associated with this post is copyrighted by .martin.

Brian returns to help breakdown the ending to Rodrigo Fresán's "Part Triptych." Is it earned? Is it sincere?? Is this all a Jacob's Ladder scenario??? Chad and Brian debate that along with concepts of time in fiction, the Karmas, the wetness of Latvian meat, Melvill and Mulligan Stew. Fun is had as this long, amazing Fresán journey comes to a close . . .

This week's music is "Big Sky" by The Kinks—a throwback to TMR season one.

Stay tuned for the Mulligan Stew schedule, which will drop this weekend. And get the book now!

You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off.

You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts!

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

For the first time in the history of the Two Month Review, Chad had to go it alone. He stuck in there, didn't get too crazy, and covered the last chunk of Part II of The Remembered Part. Illness, heartbreak, mental anguish, suicide, Ella, and a mission. It's all in this episode.

This week's music is "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)" by Concrete Blonde

Next week we'll be covering pages 644-700 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off.

You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts!

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Veeeeekingdor!!!!! This week's episode is pretty wild, with stories of Riga FC, stoic faces, Fresán's visit to the University of Rochester, Kurt Vonnegut, Andrei The Untranslated (follow his blog!, support his Patreon!), the purpose of book readings and the most uncomfortable ones, time and fiction, and much more!

And visit Three Percent on Tuesday to find out what book we'll be reading in season twenty!!

This week's music is "Malachi" by Grouplove.

Next week we'll be covering pages 563-643 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off.

You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts!

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Well, we did it: One whole episode just about baseball and books about baseball and baseball memories and anything else baseball. Caitlin Luce Baker of Island Books, James Crossley of Madison Books, and Dan Wells of Biblioasis join Chad W. Post from Open Letter to pick their "all-time favorite" books about baseball. 

This week's music is "The Yips" and "Eraseable Man" by The Baseball Project.

Caitlin's Picks:

The Cultural History of Baseball by Jonathan Fraser Light

The Brothers K by David James Duncan

Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues  by Jim Bouton

The Physics of Baseball by Robert K. Adair

Alan Nathan's blog, The Physics of Baseball

The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham by Ron Shelton

Away Games: The Life and Times of a Latin Ballplayer by Marcos Bretón and José Luis Villegas

Lords of the Realm by John Helyar

Dan's Picks:

Keystone Kids by John R. Tunis

Fail Better: Why Baseball Matters by Mark Kingwell

1934: The Chatham Coloured All-Stars’ Barrier-Breaking Year by Heidi LM Jacobs

James's Picks:

All of Roger Angell

A False Spring & A Nice Tuesday by Pat Jordan

The Utility of Boredom by Andrew Forbes

The Celebrant by Eric Rolfe Greenberg

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball by Donald Hall

Chad's Picks:

Baseball Genius by Derek Jeter

The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover

The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch that Changed My Life by Rick Ankiel

Believeniks!: 2005: The Year We Wrote a Book About the Mets by Ivan Felt and Harris Conklin

If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, and other places. And follow Open Letter and Chad W. Post on Twitter(?????) for more info about upcoming episodes and guests.

Former TMR guest Patrick Smith returns to discuss his reread of the first two volumes of the trilogy, how Fresán's writing inspires him, hanging on to flights of prose, all of the wind in this book, what it means to fall, dogs, and much much more. It's a comprehensive, deep look into what it takes to be a good reader, Ricardo Piglia's "The Last Reader" and the paradoxes at the center of this novel.

This week's music is "These Things Will Come to Be" by DJ Seinfeld, all for the outro bit of telephones and missing missed connections..

Next week we'll be covering pages 422-490 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off.

You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts!

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Chad and Kaija break down the final bit of the first part of the third volume in Fresán's trilogy (phew), revisit the "is this difficult to read?" discussion, and talk about the articles about Fresán in the new issue of Latin American Literature Today. And at the very, very end, Chad makes a startling admission.

This week's music is "Life Worth Missing" by Car Seat Headrest.

Next week we'll be covering pages 355-421 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off.

You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts!

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Separated by 10 hours—like podcasting jet lag?—Chad and Brian work through some observations and rants (specifically about a shitty NY Times list of the best American books between 1981 and 2006, which consists almost entirely of Philip Roth and John Updike and only two books by women), about this section of The Remembered Part. Chad argues for being willing to be confused while reading and they discuss whether or not Fresán's works are confusing. There's also the usual amount of banter and bullshit, and zero words wasted on the Cardinals.

This week's music is "Right Thing" by Bayonne.

Next week we'll be covering pages 281-354 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off.

You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts!

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

From Nobel Prize favorites to Proust to competitive cliques on the mountain, this week's episodes is almost as sprawling as the ex-writer's airplane thoughts. Bit more plot dropped into this section of Fresán/Vanderhyden's book, but there's also a lot about IKEA, his death and rebirth, his insincerity, and his loathsome success.

This week's music is "Adore Adore Adore" by Sprints.

Next week we'll be covering pages 204-281 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off.

You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts!

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

The large image associated with this post is from @bartlebytaco with the captions: "proust volume 2 down. this book went on for fucking ever" and "1000 pages into proust, still don't know if time is good or not."