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Books on the Nightstand published our final episode in July 2016. This is a place for listeners to find old episodes. 

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  2. BOTNS #42: Books for the VERY Occasional Reader

BOTNS #42: Books for the VERY Occasional Reader

Sep 2, 2009

If last week's podcast was about literary confessions, this week's is about true confessions: I only read one book for the Beowulf on the Beach Reading Challenge. I finished Moby Dick last week. Damn, that book nearly sent me down with the Pequod. I'm glad that I read it, and I know I wouldn't have picked it up if it hadn't been for the reading challenge. I guess that's the whole point! Tanya posted on our Goodreads group that she read 4 books for the challenge. Way to go, Tanya!

Ann admits to not even cracking open War and Peace (not that she ever promised to...), and to only making it 8 segments into the DailyLit version of The Moonstone. However, she swears 2010 will be a War and Peace year! How did all of you do on the challenge? Leave your comments here, on our voicemail line or on Goodreads or Facebook. We'd love to know!
                                     
Mark Bertils, one of the earliest BOTNS fans and supporters sent us an audio message posing an interesting question: What do you recommend to someone who only reads one book a year - someone who likely hasn't read a book since the last one you recommended to them? Ann and I broke our recommendations up into three categories: Literary Fiction (Bridge of Sighs, The Road, Any Human Heart), Fiction (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society) and Non-Fiction (The Devil in the White City, anything by Jon Krakauer or Bill Bryson, The Lost City of Z, Born to Run). Mark was also kind enough to also send us an answer to his own question and he recommends The Black Swan, a book about dealing with the unpredictable events in life.
                                    
In a nice bit of serendipity, Ann and I both chose books about writers for the last segment's Two Books We Can't Wait to Read. They're also both second books by authors whose first books we loved. Ann recommends Beg, Borrow, Steal, Michael Greenberg's memoir about being a writer in New York, trying to make ends meet. I'm currently reading The Cry of the Sloth, by Sam Savage, an epistolary novel about Andrew Whittaker, put-upon literary journal editor, landlord and aspiring novelist.

Full details of the books discussed are at our blog: www.booksonthenightstand.com

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