Weekend Reads #56: Podcasts

Weekend Reads is a weekly discussion on a variety of topics. At the end of the post, I’ll include what I plan to read on the weekend.

This weekend’s topic:

Podcasts

I’ve wanted to discuss podcasts for a while now because I’d love to get recommendations for new ones to listen to. I mostly listen to podcasts while at work because parts of my job are monotonous so it’s good to have something else occupy my attention so I don’t get bored and totally zone out (or doze off). I enjoy listening to podcasts about books, reading, and writing, but wouldn’t mind those that touch on sociological issues or psychological topics.

If you have any recommendations, please share.

I think I’ll make a page on here listing all the podcasts I listen to. Here are the ones I often tune in to.

Book Riot

All The Books is a great podcast for book recommendations. Each week, Rebecca and Liberty discuss a selection of new book releases they recently read.

Get Booked features custom book recommendations, which I think is pretty cool. I listened to the “Coming of Age, Plus Magic” episode recently and learned of a few books I’ve never heard of before.

Slate Audio Book Club

I love listening to Slate’s critics discuss books they recently read. They usually read a new release. I so enjoyed their discussion of Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel that it motivated me to read the book. There are a lot of spoilers in their discussions so if you’d rather avoid them, it’s best to read the book first before listening. It is a much more fulfilling experience to do so but I think I’ve managed to do that only once. They will be discussing Emma Cline’s The Girls in September. I wonder if I can read it in time for the podcast.

BBC

When I just started listening to podcasts, I was stuck on BBC for a long time. I enjoy listening to their author discussions, where writers share the inspiration behind their books, their writing routine, and sometimes expound on characters or certain events in their books. I tune in to:

Open Book and A Good Read, two different podcasts but both can be found here. I prefer A Good Read, though, because it’s fun to hear Harriett Gilbert and other speakers talk about a book they recently read. It’s usually Gilbert and two others and each choose a book for them all to read, like a book club, and then they discuss it.

World Book Club is hosted by Harriett Gilbert, who invites authors to discuss their books with an audience. I love this one! I’ve discovered so many new authors and great books because of this podcast. I was elated to find a discussion on Jane Eyre there while I was reading the book, and I placed Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Tan Twan Eng’s The Garden of Evening Mists on my TBR after listening to their episodes. Other episodes I enjoyed are ones with John Grisham, Romesh Gunesekera, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Khaled Hosseini, and Philip Pullman.

Bookclub podcast with James Naughtie is also great. It’s similar to the World Book Club podcast but seems to expand to authors from different genres where the World Book Club seems to focus mostly on literary authors. The episode when Emma Donoghue visits to discuss her book Room convinced me to get her book (haven’t read it yet). I also like the episodes with Khaled Hosseini, Donna Tartt, Audrey Niffenegger, Philippa Gregory, Art Spiegelman, and China Mieville.

Nerdist

The Nerdist Podcast is always fun. They interview professionals in the entertainment industry, mostly actors, writers, comedians, and directors in the movie industry. The best ones I listened to were the episodes with Sir Patrick Stewart (dude is hilarious!), Stan Lee (he cracked me up too), and Jon Ronson, who discussed his book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed.

The Writer’s Panel is also great. They mostly interview writers of TV shows, but every once in a while I see a novelist in there. My favorite episodes were with Joe Hill and Danny Strong (writer, executive producer, and co-creator of the TV show Empire).

And since getting into comics, I started listening to the Nerdist Comics Panel, where they interview comic book writers and illustrators and even actors. So far, I think I’ve only listened to an interview with Brian K. Vaughan (Saga writer and creator), which was great.

Longform

I love Longform. The website features great nonfiction articles from around the web. They also have a podcast, where they interview journalists. They talk about their writing/working process and also recent stories they’ve worked on. My favorite interviews were with Cheryl Strayed, Malcolm Gladwell (the most recent one), Elizabeth Gilbert, Adrian Chen, Chip Kidd, Ta-Nehisi Coates (both interviews), and Jazmine Hughes.

This is already quite long so I’ll stop here. I’ll do another Weekend Reads entry in the future about the other podcasts I listen to. I have a large selection. But please, recommend more to me especially if it’s about books and reading and totally nerding out about comics. 😀

What I’m reading this weekend:

Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb

I’m buddy reading this with Emily at Embuhlee liest. So far I’m enjoying it though I sometimes cringe when I think of Fitz’s condition. I can’t wait to see how the trilogy wraps up.

When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain: History’s Unknown Chapters by Giles Milton

This is a short history book about certain moments in the past that aren’t well known. For instance, I did not know that Hitler took that many drugs or that he had serious bowel problems. The chapter on Hiroo Onoda, a soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army who was deployed to the Philippines during World War II, was a little funny to me because Onoda kept on fighting a guerrilla war in the rainforests of the Philippines for 29 years after the war because he refused to believe it had ended.

Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future by Lauren Redniss

An illustrated nonfiction book about weather. I’m enjoying it so far. Redniss gives us stories about people and places and talks about how weather affects them. I’ve learned so much already and I love the bright illustrations.

What are you reading this weekend?