how to win the lottery: a book club p...
a book club, like oprah’s if oprah were two suburban guys from new jersey, or reese witherspoon’s if reese were two suburban guys from new jersey, except without the engine of fame that those two huge stars provide. but come on: oprah is not going to answer your emails. (trust us, we know.) every two weeks, a new book microscoped and surgeried by benevolent despot joey lewandowski and disgraced college professor "shreds"... with your help! here's a guarantee: every episode ends with an arrestable crime. will it be something boring like credit card fraud or something sexy like a casino heist? listen to find out.
1
memory by donald e. westlake
"what could he lose? for the next few days, he would follow any vagrant notion that came into his head, for who knew where such a notion might lead?"
54 min
2
speedboat by renata adler
"my own mind is a tenement. some elevators work. there are orange peels and muggings in the halls. squatters and double locks on some floors, a few flowered window boxes, half-dressed bachelors cooling on the outside fire steps; plaster falls."
43 min
3
eileen by ottessa moshfegh
"i was like joan of arc, or hamlet, but born into the wrong life—the life of a nobody, a waif, invisible. there’s no better way to say it: i was not myself back then. i was someone else. i was eileen."
56 min
4
underworld by don delillo
"the game doesn’t change the way you sleep or wash your face or chew your food. it changes nothing but your life."
82 min
5
the zone of interest by martin amis
"no one knows themselves. who are you? you don’t know. then you come to the zone of interest, and it tells you who you are."
74 min
6
season five theme and reading list
we're going to the movies. and also not.
34 min
7
a confederacy of dunces by john kennedy toole
"a policeman was a policeman. it was always best to ignore them unless they bothered you."
57 min
8
all the king's men by robert penn warren
"all knowledge that’s worth anything is maybe paid for by blood. maybe that’s the only way you can tell that a certain piece of knowledge is worth anything – it has cost some blood."
51 min
9
the moviegoer by walker percy
"the fact is i am quite happy in a movie, even a bad movie. other people, so i have read, treasure memorable moments in their lives: the time one climbed the parthenon at sunrise, the summer night one met a lonely girl in central park and achieved with her a sweet and natural relationship, as they say in books. i too once met a girl in central park, but it is not much to remember. what i remember is the time john wayne killed three men with a carbine as he was falling to the dusty street in stagecoach, and the time the kitten found orson welles in the doorway in the third man."
62 min
10
season four theme and reading list
suck shit, sufjan stevens. (#1)
15 min
11
fake accounts by lauren oyler
"but the problem was not attention span or gluttony; the problem was that i didn’t actually believe the knowledge i acquired online was useless. i sought it out purposefully, defensively, as if it would one day become vitally important, provide the clue to some threatening mystery of my social or professional life."
53 min
12
we had to remove this post by hanna bervoets
"i let her pull me into a hug, and i spent the rest of the day thinking about the letter, which meant that at work i just sat there with a silly smile on my face as i watched a video of a man in red coveralls being shot in the back by an invisible assailant in the distance."
70 min
13
neuromancer by william gibson
"the sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
68 min
14
things have gotten worse since we last spoke by...
"what have you done today to deserve your eyes?"
60 min
15
allie rowbottom interview (author of aesthetica)
we talk to allie rowbottom, author of aesthetica, about botox, emojis, and lana del rey.
54 min
16
aesthetica by allie rowbottom
"i reach for my phone again, lift it to scan my retina and unlock the screen; i don't bother using face recognition, it never works for me."
53 min
17
no one is talking about this by patricia lockwood
"can’t learn? she googled late at night. can’t learn since losing my virginity?"
43 min
18
snow crash by neal stephenson
"you can’t get hurt by looking at a bitmap. or can you?"
80 min
19
17776 by jon bois
"don't talk shit about the lottery. the lottery rules."
39 min
20
megan boyle interview (author of liveblog)
we talk to megan boyle, author of liveblog, about autofiction, returning to the liveblog format, and the quadrant.
71 min
21
liveblog by megan boyle
trout : that's the fish.
68 min
22
the novelist by jordan castro
"the cumulative amount of time i spent unintentionally scrolling through feeds, looking at things i was more thrust into than shows, was unfathomable."
69 min
23
fernando sdrigotti interview (author of shitstorm)
we talk to fernando sdrigotti, author of shitstorm, about "the algorithm," the evolution of twitter, and wagatha christie.
57 min
24
shitstorm by fernando sdrigotti
"another shitstorm and i can’t even and i can’t begin to and here i fixed your headline and thread and a lot of clapping between words in uppercase. there’s always a lot of clapping."
37 min
25
b.r. yeager interview (author of amygdalatropolis)
we talk to b.r. yeager, author of amygdalatropolis, about transgressive fiction, edia connole, and how to pronounce gif.
51 min