So Many Damn Books

Christopher and Drew hang out and talk what they got up to for the holiday, open their annual presents to one another, and talk about why Goodreads is probably fine, amongst other bookish subjects.visit somanydamnbooks.com for book lists and recipes!support us on patreon! patreon.com/smdbThis episode is sponsored by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the new Faraway Collection Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Instead of doing a big holiday episode and taking a break, the guys decide to celebrate by putting out some little tidbits to keep everyone company through these darkest, shortest days! First up: Stocking Stuffers from the Public Domain! Drew reads A.A. Milne's request for a standardization of Christmas gifts and Christopher dives into a mini history of Christmas tree innovations.It's a hoot and a half.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.

Emily Temple drops into the Damn Library via webcam, and we all chat about calendars, and the dreams of being a writer as well as the dream of online book recommendation, and knowing you'll rewrite your first draft. Of course we also discuss her novel The Lightness, and how summer camps are kind of proto-cults, and how you end up putting everything into your debut, because of course there will be more. Plus, she brought us the anti-beach read Kōbō Abe's The Woman in the Dunes, and we can still taste the sand.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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s the big 1-5-0 and since it also happens to be the holiday season, we opened the phone-lines to some of our Patreon supporters to help recommend some books for their wishlists or to pick up for their loved ones! Imagine Christopher and Drew in a big ol’ telethon studio, with phones ringing off the hook and the number flashing across the bottom of the screen… except they’re in their respective homes, doing this on Zoom.Feat. appearances by Patrons Moti, Jacob, Bonnie, Erin, Chris, Lee, Charlie, Veronika and Michael! Our thanks to them for joining and to all of our listeners.We are glad we made 150 of these, and we are excited to make more!contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One Story managing editor, creative writing teacher, and writer of her own work: Lena Valencia wears many hats. She zooms on in to the Damn Library and Drew and Christopher pick her brain on writing scary things, what makes a good One Story submission, and how she tries to listen to the advice she gives her students. And we talk about her recent publications in Catapult's Tiny Nightmares and Epiphany lit mag. Plus, we discuss Megan Cummins' If the Body Allows It, and the underground world of the university/small press ecosystem. Hooray for short stories!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 discuss House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski at 20 years, Drew returning to the house and Christopher there for the first time. Plus, the pleasures of ergodic fiction, 3-D fiction, discussions of the Internet and how it fails us, and horror films and horror novels. It's spooky season, and the episode is bigger on the inside.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.

Rumaan Alam zooms around into the online void paradox that is the Damn Library to talk about his new novel, Leave the World Behind. Grocery shopping, writing a glue trap, personal detail, hypertext, and careful language choices, all populate a very far-ranging conversation that veers from teeth to AirBnB foibles. Plus, Rumaan brought Want by Lynn Steger Strong along, and we talk about why it's like a ripe fruit, and that opens up even further avenues, like literary friendships and books as dreams.Get ready to hear a podcast about reading!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 prognosticate and pontificate about the Super Rooster. Drew might have a scoop. Christopher just won't read Wolf Hall. Listen, and then let us know your predictions!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.

A zoom session with Raven Leilani gets us into all sorts of things, from candles to disco to painting to amorality, and how you have to come to the page as though you don't think anyone will read it. Also nail polish. And so much more. Plus, Raven brought us New People by Danzy Senna, which was tense and surprising and similarly casual about breaking and entering. Let's go.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.

Megha Majumdar zooms from her library into the virtual Damn Library so that we can all talk about her bestseller, A Burning. We talk about what makes an Amaro, juggling three character's POVs, the life of an editor/writer, and the context of things online, as well as parallels of hope. Plus, we discuss the urgent message of Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship by Anjan Sundaram, and why any of us write. Zoom, there it is.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 why people might not want to read classics and books from "Best of the Year" lists, and hope folks can learn to trust their reading instincts. Plus, some talk of blueberries, education, difficult sci-fi, and a tiny ode to Aimee Bender. Zoomin' on up.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Hotel Hiouchi(https://soundcloud.com/hotelhiouchi)  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lindsay Ellis zooms on in to the Damn Library with her recently-NYT-best-selling Axiom's End! We talk ~around~ the plot of her novel, the joys of writing about 2007, who would be allowed to adapt it as a musical, and more. Plus, we talk about the second book in Orson Scott Card's Ender Saga, what to do with authors who turn out to be bad people, and how sometimes you have to write a first book before you can get to the second.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 Zoomin' Damn Library welcomes the good friends and co-hosts of Call Your Girlfriend, Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman, who are both now newly minted authors of Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close. So of course we talk friendship, and how the scientific studies weren't quite there like they thought it would be, and how you write a book together, and about being honest about the hard stuff. Plus, we get to talk about how great Octavia Butler is, and how prescient Parable of the Sower is. Listen up!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 Damn Zoom Library hosts Quan Barry, author of the malevolently delightful 80s high school sports movie of a novel, WE RIDE UPON STICKS. She talks about how her witchcraft is home-brewed, how she juggled eleven characters' voices, and how being a poet helped her focus the timing of the book. Plus, she brings Kei Miller's AUGUSTOWN about which everyone gushes! Also the inside scoop on being an awards judge! Oh oh, it's magic!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.

Drew and Christopher chat with Hilary Leichter in three different Damn Libraries for another first of its kind digital episode - our first Zoom guest! We discuss Hilary's novel TEMPORARY which leads to talk about things like gig work, her love of pirates, and how the book started as a short story. Plus, pandemic stuff and how the police need to be defunded, as well as some love for the modern fairy tale constructions of Sabrina Orah Mark's WILD MILK. 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.

Drew won the annual Tournament of Books bet and chose Ali Smith for this year's "backlist" episode, so the guys read THE ACCIDENTAL in a nod to this fall's SuperRooster Tournament of ToB Champions. It's still pandemic times, too.(NB: This episode was recorded in late May, just before police brutality protests went national. SMDB proudly stands with the protestors and we believe black lives matter.)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.

Drew and Christopher actually talk at one another in this one. The very first episode of So Many Damn Books where Christopher and Drew aren't actually in a Damn Library together. The resulting episode is probably the closest to what it's actually like to hang out with them when the microphones are off. How books are providing comfort, project reading, Stephen King, audiobooks, and culling shelves all get touched on, along with lots of other bookish subjects.Stay safe, we love you.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.

Drew and his wife Dani are sheltering in place, so it's their turn to record an episode (without Christopher) about their happy history exchanging gifts on St. Jordi Day, and their relationship in books. Drew shares the story of how Lauren Groff bless/cursed them at a book signing, they discuss how their senses of humor aren't always aligned on the page, and they get into their lives as members of an in-person book club too. Nice.Stay safe and stay home and stay sane, all. We love you.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 read a little something from the public domain, by Christopher Morley and Mark Twain, respectively, then recommend a couple of things.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.

Nozlee Samadzadeh hosted Christopher and Drew for her "Zoom After Hours" discussion of The Morning News' 2020 Tournament of Books, and it was such a nice time that we are putting it out for all of you to listen to. They discuss that final, get into the tournament's history, Andrew Womack shows up for some surprising Super Rooster Tournament Revelations, and other commentariat join in the fray. It's a good time. Take care, everyone!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.