Annotated
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
National Novel Writing Month
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How a gimmick to write more became one of the biggest literary events online. This episode is sponsored by: Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky I’m ...
The Baby-Sitters Club
03 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The affirming, surprising, and most of all lasting legacy of The Baby-Sitters Club. This episode is sponsored by: The Ventriloquists by E.R. Ramzipoo...
The Dream of a Universal Language
05 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What if the whole world spoke the same language? How would it work? Who would be interested in speaking it? In this episode, the dream, the reality, a...
The Life-Changing Magic of Reading a Book
01 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes people refer to a book they really liked as "life-changing." But what if you read a book, and it really did change your life in a big way? I...
#26: You Are Not Alone
03 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the story of the interrupted literary career of Freido Lampe, and how his story reveals the underpinnings of the Nazi obsession with ...
#25: Books Behind Bars, Part 2
29 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In a follow-up to our last episode, an extended conversation with Chris Wilson about what reading while in prison can do. See omnystudio.com/listener...
#24: Books Behind Bars, Part 1
06 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There are few places books can be put to better use than in prisons. So why is it so hard to get books into the hands of people in jail? In this episo...
#23: The Prophet
09 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How Khalil Gibran's The Prophet became a quiet cultural powerhouse. Follow Annotated on Instagram! This episode is sponsored by: Voices: The Final Ho...
#22: Drag Queen Story Hour
06 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, a look at how Drag Queen Story Hour became a public library phenomenon. Follow Annotated on Instagram! This episode is sponsored by:...
#21: Viral
04 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, three stories about books, or parts of books, going viral. This episode is sponsored by: The Read Harder Journal The Lost Girls of ...
#20: The Very Model of A Modern Major Bookstore
08 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Independent bookstores are doing well. Amazon is now the most valuable company in the world. But what of Barnes & Noble and the big chain bookstore? I...
#19: Interlude: Grady Hendrix on ULYSSES
02 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As part of Book Riot's Recommended podcast series, Grady Hendrix talked about what makes Ulysses his favorite book. We present it as an interlude as a...
#18: Edna Ferber
06 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we profile the most famous American writer you probably never heard of--Edna Ferber. This episode is sponsored by: Penguin Random H...
#17: Is Reading Endangered?
01 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
People don't read as much as they used to. At least that's what people say. But is it true? And if they are reading less, why does it matter? Or does ...
#16: The Patron Saint of Libraries
02 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The story of how Andrew Carnegie transformed the public library in America. This episode is sponsored by: Vampires Like It Hot by Lynsay Sands A Blad...
#15: Touch of Genius
02 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The story of how Louis Braille brought reading to the blind. Follow Annotated on Instagram! This episode is sponsored by: TBR The Dutch Wife by Ellen...
#14: Used
17 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, a large used book collection and distribution company suddenly went out of business, leaving a hole in the local used book ecosystem. In t...
#13: La Cote Basque, 1965
12 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 1975, Truman Capote published a short story in Esquire magazine that led a New York socialite to commit suicide and the fallout effectively ended C...
#12: Democracy by the Book
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last fall, a woman with no prior political experience decided to run for city commission in her small college-town. So she went to the library, checke...
#11: The Nobel Crisis
15 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In a shocking development, the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature will not be awarded. In this episode, we explore what happened, how it happened, and wh...
#10: The Original Gone Girl
30 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The story of the strange 11-day disappearance of Agatha Christie: what did happen, what didn't happen, and what might have happened. This episode is ...
#9: How to Hack the New York Times Bestseller List
16 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last summer, an unknown book came out of nowhere to debut at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for Young Adult books. Its short time at the top...
#8: The Dictionary War
02 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the story of Merriam-Webster's Third Edition, and fight about language it caused. This episode is sponsored by: TryAudiobooks I Was ...
#7: Saving Shakespeare
19 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this first episode of season 2 of Annotated, the story of how Shakespeare was saved for posterity by two of his friends and a cagey publisher. This...
#6: Love, Punctuation, and the Oxford Comma
14 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, an investigation of the Oxford comma that starts, improbably, with a love story. This episode is sponsored by: The Lost City of the ...
#5: The 17-Year-Old Who Invented Science Fiction
24 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the story of how a 17-year-old named Mary Godwin came to write Frankenstein and in doing so write the first great work of science fic...
#4: The United States V. One Book Called "Ulysses"
10 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the story of how an unlikely cast of characters brought James Joyce's Ulysses to America, got it legalized, and changed how we unde...
#3: The World's Most Glamorous Librarian
27 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode: the life of Belle da Costa Greene, the most glamorous and influential librarian in early 20th Century America, who kept a life-long s...
#2: How Did Independent Bookstores Avoid Going Extinct?
13 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we look at the remarkable turnaround in independent bookstores in the U.S. After thousands closed from 1995 to 2008, over the last de...
#1: Is It 1984 Yet?
29 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this inaugural episode, we consider the resurgence of interest in George Orwell's 1984, and the story of how 1984 came to be in the first place. ...
Annotated Ep. #0: Introducing Annotated
21 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
This is a teaser/preview of the first episode of Annotated, Book Riot's new audio documentary series about books, reading, and language. Episode 1 wi...