So Many Damn Books

Christopher and Drew hang out and chat about books, which is to be expected. Having just celebrated Halloween, they get into what they did to celebrate the holiday, scary reads, and Drew has an October Country update as well as a life update about new employment. Also, Christopher finds a long lost book title.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ruth Ozeki steps on into the Damn Library Hyperverse to shine. We talk about her latest opus, The Book of Form and Emptiness, and how books are magical, and accessing her teenage self, and an unexpected turn of narrative luck with snowglobes, along with many other things. Plus she brings us Walter Benjamin's essay, "Unpacking My Library" and we talk about what book collecting means to all of us.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alexandra Kleeman is back in the Damn Library! For the third time! This visit, she's brought along her new novel, Something New Under the Sun! We are thrilled to discuss the menace of water that doesn't taste right, online forums, and what she'd write if she could add to it, and so much more, including André Gide's Marshlands, which renders a writer's life in relatable terms.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christopher and Drew talk about getting rid of books, and trying to be more in the present, and the logic of owning a lot of books. Also, a digression into Gary Paulsen's work.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this one, we had two producers of the new McSweeney's issue into the Damn Library hyper-verse: Julie Shapiro from Radiotopia and Claire Boyle from McSweeney's. We talk all about this "box of stuff" they produced - from how it feels to curate the 64th edition of this storied literary magazine, to putting audio together, to collaboration, and more. Plus, Christopher and Drew get to talk about some of the stuff they've loved that McSweeney's has done over the years. Y'all oughta listen up and listen good.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbThis week's sponsor: Right now, we’re offering listeners of this program a free 60-day trial. Go to try.scribd.com/SMDB for your free trial.for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mona Awad joins the guys in the zooming Damn Library to talk her new novel, All's Well, which means talk about Shakespeare, and destiny, and magic happening, and chronic pain - all the fun stuff. Then she brought Sara Gran's Come Closer and everyone got to be possessed by the demon that is Sara Gran's writing style. Can you hear that scratching too?contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)This week's sponsor: Right now, we’re offering listeners of this program a free 60-day trial. Go to try.scribd.com/SMDB for your free trial.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Meredith Westgate sets the Damn Library Hyperspace glittering, talking with us about The Shimmering State. The trio of us get into the fabric of memory, the joy of the unreliable narrator, how the book is a litmus test for if you like Los Angeles, and also a bit about adapting her own work for the screen. Plus, she brings us Tim Krabbé'sThe Vanishing (also known as The Golden Egg) and everybody gets to be unsettled.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christopher and Drew are joined in the zoom hysperspace universe with writing duo Laura Blackett & Eve Gleichman, creators of the inventive rom-com thriller, The Very Nice Box. They all get into how Gleichman and Blackett's partnership started, the joys of creating a sideways satire, and the desire to create warmth in the pages even as the book becomes a thriller. Then, they sink their chompers into Kristen Arnett's With Teeth, and how it makes you feel on the edge of a panic attack the whole time.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rosecrans Baldwin drops into the Damn Library's online zoom space to chat all about Los Angeles, the subject of his new book, Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles. We get into many of the things that make up Los Angeles, how it's different from Paris, and how the book's structure was inspired by Wittgenstein. He also brings along Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul: Memories and the City, and we all talk about melancholy before we talk about hot tubs and granola bars. Get right in, the water's fine.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christopher and Drew finally conquer Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley novels, talking (and mildly spoiling) all five of the novels concerning Highsmith's most famous creation. They get into why he's a charming character, and also why reading all five in a row might be needlessly punishing. Plus, a lot of Dune by Frank Herbert talk at the end! Books! You can talk about them a lot!for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Loan Le is hanging in Zoom Hyperspace with the guys, and since she's a triple threat (writer, editor, reader) there is tons to cover. First, the pleasures of the food writing in A Pho Love Story, and writing teenagers on the brink. Then, what it's like to go from professionally editing books to writing and back again. And finally, with her reader hat on, she brought John Searles' Help for the Haunted, and we talk slippery time and why Loan believes in ghosts.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When A.E. Osworth drops into the Damn Library to talk about their novel We Are Watching Eliza Bright, that means we get to really talk about the Internet, since that's where their novel is largely set. This is also how we talk about video games, and epistolary novels, and the process of getting a couple different choruses on the page. Plus, we talk about Patricia Lockwood's No One is Talking About This, another Internet novel, getting very into the megabytes of how these two books treat their online spheres.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spring has sprung and we're in the mood for adventure, so we asked K.M. Szpara to join us in the Damn Library for as close to an adventure as we can get these days: chatting about adventure novels! We talk about Kellan's new novel First, Become Ashes, and BDSM, and cults -- and then everybody geeks the hell out about Jurassic Park, because it's worth a re-read (or three, or seven). Isn't comfort reading nice?contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) countdown timer by Rainbow Timers Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Herein, Christopher and Drew discuss how video games and assigned reading can help get the reading going, possible reading themed architectural additions to Drew's house, and how Spring reading is here! Plus some fun recommendations from Patreon listeners!contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's March again, which has a different meaning this year but it also still means that it's TOURNAMENT OF BOOKS TIME! With a ca-caw to you, and to you too, the guys do a bit of prognostication that will almost certainly prove to be wrong. But what's a sports-adjacent literary experience without a little bit of ridiculous superstition to go with it?PS if you don't know about the ToB, check out the primer at TheMorningNews.org!contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It happens to all of us, at one point or another, and there's no shame in admitting it: Christopher's in a reading slump. So the guys talk about it, about the latest pandemic wall, about finding joy whenever and wherever a person can. It's a reading snapshot, but sometimes that means there isn't any reading! There isn't even a regular cocktail this time, which you know means we're getting down to Business.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Thank you to this episode's sponsors:Get 25% off your first two orders on Literati Kids at literati.com/smdb.Mulholland Books presents Joe Ide's new thriller, Smoke Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jenny Offill, author of Weather (now out in paperback) joins the Damn Library through the internet tubes. Christopher makes a second drink for the book (after he and his wife Sarah discussed it during one of the early pandemic eps), there's talk of How Things Have Changed and the writing process, and Jenny sends us to warmer climes with her book club pick: Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea!contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The guys get caffeinated, distantly, with Mateo Askaripour to talk about his fantastic debut novel, Black Buck. They chat about telling your own story even if someone else is telling a similar one, about weaving life into art, and about how fiction is more fun than non-fiction. Plus, an out-of-print classic for Book Club that deserves to be brought back: Sam Greenlee's The Spook Who Sat by the Door. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/SMDB. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guess who zooms in this time? It's George Saunders himself, certified MacArthur Genius, launching his new book about writing and Russian short story masters, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life. Christopher and Drew ask him about what teaching taught him about writing, how he keeps the world fresh, and what he'd like to do if he weren't a writer, along with what a master Tolstoy was. Na Zdorovie!contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/SMDB. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christopher and Drew hash out their agreed upon top 5 of the year, and then throw out two additional titles each. Lists are weird.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) This episode is sponsored by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the new Faraway Collection; and Betterhelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/somanydamnbooks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.