The Bookening

What's happening with our podcasts? (+The Buried Giant)

10 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Hello. It's us. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Memory. Identity. Barbra Streisand. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Proust Preview

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We haven't got our actual podcast recorded yet but here's a taste of why you should read along. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The 39 Steps

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An ordinary (kind of) man caught in extraordinary circumstances! A race against time to expose a dangerous spy ring! Long walks through Scotland! It's...

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mysterious intelligent rats??? Please don't refer to our podcasters like that! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tolstoy is a great writer. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a novella about a middle-aged man named Ivan Ilyich. Yep, he dies. It's sad, moving, thoughtful...

Dominic by William Steig

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Check out the Kickstarter for our friend's non-woke children's book, The Rainbow Knight.The Bookening talks about a charming kid's book by the quirky ...

Jane Austen's Emma (Redux)

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Emma" by Jane Austen is considered a great novel due to its sharp wit, complex characters, and insightful commentary on societal norms and human natu...

Jesus' Son

04 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A salesman who shared his liquor and steered while sleeping... A Cherokee filled with bourbon. A VW no more than a bubble of hashish fumes, captained ...

Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ho ho ho! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

All the Pretty Horses

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

All the pretty horses ... where do they all come from? All the pretty horses? Where do they all belong?Did you know Cormac McCarthy was born in Rhode ...

Romeo and Juliet

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For some reason this is our Spooky October episode. Love is ... frightening? Or we dumbly mixed up the Stephen King episode and this one in release or...

The Green Mile

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Green Mile by Stephen King. It’s a book we review.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Bonus: Sherlock Holmes

12 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and ...

What happened to Brandon?

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nathan checks in with an update on when you can expect the next full episode and a very interesting story about trying to schedule with Brandon. But b...

Moby Dick

06 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Revenge, madness, whale blubber, etc. The Bookening discusses one of the best books they've ever discussed. And probably the great American novel. Her...

A Tale of Two Cities

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"If it had not borne Mr. Dickens's name, it would in all probability have hardly met with a single reader; and if it has any popularity at all, it mus...

A Farewell to Arms/The Stranger

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The senselessness of life. The meaninglessness of death. Those moments where you murder someone in cold blood for no particular reason. Hope you like ...

Fathers and Sons

06 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Bookening is divided over one of the great (?) Russian novels!Here's a link to that great piece on Tolstoy and Turgenev's relationship. ★ Sup...

Bridge to Terabithia/The Little Prince

07 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Two children's books that we had STRONG feelings about! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Pride and Prejudice Redux

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Happy Valentine's Day! It's been six years. Can you believe it? Time for The Bookening to return to the book that started it all. Will our opinions ha...

State of the Show/2022 Booklist/Ender's Game Trial

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How is the Bookening moving forward after a 2021 that wasn't what we wanted? What are we reading in 2022? Was Ender's Game a good novel? The answers t...

Ender's Pre-game

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Next week (Lord willing) Jake and Brandon will face off in the epic trial of Ender's Game. This week Jake prepares. ★ Support this podcast on Pat...

Ender's Game Context

08 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ender's Game on, Bro! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

A Room with a View, Part 2

01 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster. Will our heroes decide this book is romantic wish fulfillment? Or just really good?  ★ Support this podcast...

A Room with a View, Part 1

24 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In which our heroes discuss E. M. Forster, a gay guy who lived his mom until she died at 90. But also wrote some great novels! ★ Support this pod...

28 books to give this Christmas (even for really difficult people)

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What do a great Russian novel, an iconic horror story, and some classic regency romance all have in common? They all appear on our list of books to bu...

Gender inclusive language and other threats to modern literary style

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

3 fetters that hold back 21st century style.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hamlet, Part 4

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

ANOTHER EPISODE ABOUT HAMLET! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Call of Cthulhu

27 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

You didn't think we'd leave you hanging for Halloween did you? It's one of the most influential supernatural stories of the twentieth century, "The Ca...

Hamlet, Part 3

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Hamlet! We keep discussing it! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hamlet, Part 2

13 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A classic episode of The Bookening in which eventually we talk about Hamlet.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hamlet, Part 1

06 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Some much needed context on William Shakespeare's Hamlet.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hamlet: Prelude

29 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Oh the rapture.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Rebecca, Part 2

22 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is one of those books never quite joins the canon, but also will never die. It's the quintessential modern gothic novel, featuring a lot of sexua...

Rebecca, Part 1

15 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Of all the Daphne du Mauriers, Daphne du Maurier was the Daphne du Maurieriest. That's the lesson from today's sterling episode of The Bookening.  ...

The Book of the Dun Cow, Part 2

08 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Is Walter Wangerin's The Book of the Dun Cow a good book? What does it have to say about sin, depravity, judgement, and the anger that we sometimes fe...

The Book of the Dun Cow, Part 1

01 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Walter Wangerin passed away not too long ago, so what better time to talk about his life and the writing of The Book of the Dun Cow? Answer: THERE IS ...

The Book of the Dun Cow (Prelude)

25 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Our heroes begin to review the first book that was actually written in their current hometown, as Nathan and Jake discuss at length in this episode of...

Howl's Moving Castle, Part 2

18 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Is Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones one of the great fantasy novels you've never read? Does its wit and consideration of human nature bear co...

Howl's Moving Castle, Part 1

11 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Move aside, Miyazaki! The Bookening is talking about the awesome Diana Wynne Jones novel that is Howl's Moving Castle. If you haven't read it, what ar...

Watership Down, Part 4

04 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's part 4 of our Watership Down discussion. Yay! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Watership Down, Part 3

28 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What makes Watership Down the perfect adventure story? ALL THREE MEMBERS OF THE BOOKENING are finally together to tell you all about it, in this CLASS...

State of the Show!

21 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

IS THIS THE END OF THE BOOKENING??!??!? ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

John Updike, Norman Mailer, David Foster Wallace, Dennis Johnson: A tangent

14 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

John Updike, Norman Mailer, David Foster Wallace, Dennis Johnson ... these are the people we talk about today for some reason.  ★ Support this p...

A Watership sidebar on anthropomorphic animal stories

07 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Bookening talks anthropomorphic animal stories. Hopefully we'll have all 3 of us to finally LITIGATE Watership Down next week.  ★ Support th...

Watership Down, Part 2: Great Watership Down Podcast

30 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In which a whole bunch of thoughts about Watership Down by Richard Adams are spilled into a microphone. Bonus ep with Nathan and Brandon coming late...

Watership Down, Part 1

23 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Did we actually like this book? Our first episode on Watership Down by Richard Adams. Context. What else do you need to know?  ★ Support this po...

The once and future King Arthur podcast

16 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In which our heroes come up with a new Patreon motivator that's pretty exciting, talk about King Arthur stuff that happened after Sir Thomas Mallory, ...

Audiobooks!

09 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

You asked for it! And Brandon's son ran over his internet cable. We have all the luck lately. But Nathan and Jake are talking audiobooks, baby!  ★...

Nathan stinks

02 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Nathan lost the episode. He stinks.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Le Morte d'Arthur, Part 1

26 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

SOME MUCH NEEDED CONTEXT FOR LA MORTE D'ARTHUR!! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

19 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dark magic is always lurking at the edges of Christendom, trying to get in. That's one of the themes of the King Arthur stories, and the ways it plays...

King Arthur, Part 1

12 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Was King Arthur a real dude? How has the Arthurian romance come down to us? Which cultures has it drawn from, and what has it picked up along the way?...

12 books that will make you rich

05 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

King Arthur next week we promise! Brandon had something come up, so Jake and Nathan talk about twelve books that will make you rich.  ★ Support ...

Eventually we talk about 'Invisible Man'

28 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We were tired. It was late. We had an hour of tech trouble before we could get going. Is this the greatest episode of all time????! Probably not. But...

Invisible Man, Part 3

21 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's time to finally litigate it. Is Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison the great American novel? Or at least a great American novel? Should people read i...

Invisible Man, Part 2

14 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Did Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man predict everything that's happened regarding race in the last few years? Also, is Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man the ...

Invisible Man, Part 1

07 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Conservatives reject a lot of great twentieth century art by people of color for one simple reason. The Bookening discusses all this and more as Brand...

Klara and the Sun

31 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In many ways, Klara and the Sun repeats all of Kazuo Ishiguro's favorite themes. But it differs in one crucial and very interesting way. Any guesses w...

Should I read a bad book for class?

24 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Should you read a bad book or short story for your college class? The Bookening considers the age old question, in this VERY SPECIAL EPISODE (ONE OF T...

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Part 2

17 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What makes a good children's book? Simplicity? Empathy? Revenge? Our heroes sort out all kinds of deep questions as they review Charlie and the Chocol...

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Part 1

10 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Roald Dahl ... children's author, fighter pilot, spy ... misogynist? Racist? Or does the internet like to blow these things out of proportion? In any ...

Jane Austen Redux of Awesomeness

03 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Austen wrote six novels and we are discussing them all. Which one is the best? Who is the best villain? Best heroine? Best hero? What do you thin...

Northanger Abbey, Part 2

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Modern teenagers are no less in a fantasy world than Catherine Moreland in Northanger Abbey. That's one of the many amazing insights in this podcast. ...

Northanger Abbey, Part 1

17 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We're talkin' Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, y'all, and the life of its author. And solving some mysteries about Jane Austen along the way. Or, at l...

The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3

10 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What did we LIKE about The Brothers Karamazov? Can our heroes mount a defense of the novel? Or will they just pat it and the head and say "well, not...

The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2

03 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dostoevsky has ruined souls. Or at the very least, he's the sort of writer that ruined souls are attracted to. That's the contention of this episode, ...

The Brothers Karamazov, Part 1

27 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The word "broken" gets tossed around a lot these days, but Dostoevsky was truly a broken man. Our contextual Texan tells the story of his life, among ...

Ready Player You

20 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is an important update on the show. We're announcing our next Patreon goal, which is one very near and dear to our hearts, and one that we hope y...

Redux 2020, Part 2

13 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

2020. It was such a great year that our show is still remembering it, talking about the best scenes, biggest surprises and best books they read in 202...

Redux 2020, Part 1

06 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Who was the best hero of the year? Who was the best heroine? Who was the best supporting character? Probably one of the sandworms from Dune, right? Pr...

Christmas with Brandon

23 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What is the best Christmas passage in literature? Nathan attempts to determine this crucial piece of information, in discussion with famed Irish poet,...

Booklist 2021

16 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

2020 was a pretty great year here at The Bookening. We haven't been paying a ton of attention to what's going on in the outside world, but we assume e...

Dune, Part 2

09 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Brandon provides some much-needed context on Frank Herbert and Dune, and Nathan and Jake make their arguments for why this novel is pretty okay, if yo...

Dune, Part 1

02 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Fear is the mind-killer. Or is it this novel? One of our fearless trio might want to argue that. But two of us really liked it. WHO CAN THAT BE? AND W...

Help us out this Giving Tuesday

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This Giving Tuesday support great works of awesomeness like the Bookening RIGHT HERE! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Thanksgiving + Support Brandon's Poetry

25 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

BRANDON IS AN IRISH POET. Happy Thanksgiving. In today's minisode, Nathan discusses Thanksgiving with newly published Irish poet, Brandon.  ★ Su...

1984, Part 3

18 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Is it true that women make the best party members? What did Orwell get wrong about sexual politics and the politics of sex? Is the character of Julia ...

1984, Part 2

11 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Was George Orwell a great prophet, or even a good one? Did he see the future of society accurately, or not so much? Those are the very issues that The...

1984, Part 1

04 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen..."This is the episode in which we provide much needed context for George ...

When the Fleet was in at Mobile (Patricia Highsmith)

28 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Patricia Highsmith was "the queen of unease," a Hitchcockian writer not of horror, but suspense and disquietude. Our heroes round out Spooktober discu...

Singing My Sister Down (Margo Lanagan)

27 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Today we're talking about a bizarre piece of weird fiction, one of the most popular ones from the last twenty years. Not gory, not grisly exactly, but...

The Girl with the Hungry Eyes (Fritz Leiber)

21 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

"All right, I’ll tell you why the Girl gives me the creeps. Why I can’t stand to go downtown and see themob slavering up at her on the tower, with...

The Packerhaus Method (Gene Wolfe)

20 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

'"Perhaps you've heard of the Packerhaus Method," she said. "Perhaps you've heard of it?"'Spooktober continues with a discussion of a very weird short...

The Tell-tale Heart

14 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

"TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not dest...

October Spooky Stories Intro

13 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This month, we will be reading five tales of terror (one each Tuesday and Wednesday, until the end of October), and in this mini-sode we introduce the...

Literary theory 2: Structuralism, Deconstruction, and more, hooray!

07 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Want to be able to define structuralism, deconstruction, semiotics, New Criticism, New Historicism, and more?  Than this is the episode for you! We'r...

Teaching literature, Part 2

30 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do you make a kid love literature? Are some of them just not cut out for it? What sorts of things should students be looking for in a book or poem...

Teaching literature, Part 1

23 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

SORRY FOR THE AUDIO QUALITY. IT IS EXPLAINED IN THE EPISODE. In this impromptu episode, we talk about what separates a good teacher from a bad one, an...

Literary theory: the good, the bad, and the incomprehensible (Part 1)

16 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In our new mini-series, learn to throw around words like "deconstruction", "post-colonialism", "semiotics", etc. with the best of them. Terms like th...

The Return of the King, Part 2

09 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In which we conclude our discussion of The Lord of the Rings by talking about Book 6, the final part of The Return of the King and of the series as a ...

The Return of the King, Part 1

02 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Is book 5 of Lord of the Rings actually the worst of the lot (on a gradation of greatness, obviously)? Our heroes argue about that, and revise some of...

Never Let Me Go, Part 2

26 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Our heroes dig into one of the great novels of the 21st century. Or is it? Listen to find out.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Never Let Me Go, Part 1

19 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Are you ready for Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguru, one of the novels that appears on everyone's list of the best of the 21st century (usually in 1st...

The Hollow Crown: War of the Roses, Part 3

12 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Did Shakespeare actually have a relatively small vocabulary? Yes he did, and we talk about why that matters in our third episode on the The War of the...

The Hollow Crown: War of the Roses, Part 2

10 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What exactly was the War of the Roses? Who was on what side? Why? What happened? The Bookening attempts to make sense of all this complicated English ...

The Hollow Crown: War of the Roses, Part 1

29 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What is it that makes Shakespeare so darn great? It's time for The Bookening to discuss the immortal bard again! So our heroes are talking about Willi...

Was Tolkien a racist?

22 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Was J.R.R. Tolkien a racist? The answer is not a simple yes or no. So the Bookening is devoting an entire episode to the issue. Listen to it. It's Tho...

The Two Towers, Part 3

15 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Who is the greatest monster in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien? What makes a good monster anyway? What does Gollum have to teach us about addiction? Is ...