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The Bookening

Literature

3 guys—a pastor, a scholar, and their gleeful provocateur—discuss the great books. We take God and literature seriously—but the second one not overly so.

Location:

United States

Description:

3 guys—a pastor, a scholar, and their gleeful provocateur—discuss the great books. We take God and literature seriously—but the second one not overly so.

Language:

English


Episodes

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

3/21/2024
Memory. Identity. Barbra Streisand. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:01:43:36

Proust Preview

3/14/2024
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 ★

Duration:00:12:13

The 39 Steps

2/7/2024
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 John Buchan's immortal (?), classic (?): The 39 Steps. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:01:22:29

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

1/3/2024
Mysterious intelligent rats??? Please don't refer to our podcasters like that! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:01:39:37

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

12/4/2023
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, ironic, true to life, etc. And unlike some other Tolstoy books we could name, it's short. Worth your time. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:01:18:34

Dominic by William Steig

11/15/2023
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 children's author (and longtime New Yorker illustrator) William Steig. We talk about some of his early books of "symbolic pictures" too—too dark to be kid's stuff. You have been forewarned! You can check out The Agony in the Kindergarten here, or About People here. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:01:42:55

Anna Karenina Redux (Part 1)

7/12/2023
We're back, baby! Sorry for the delay. Thanks for your patience. We're offering some much needed context on one of the best books we've ever done, Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:01:34:57

Vive Le Bookening

4/10/2023
It's an update! With atrocious audio! Basic message: "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!" ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:00:12:35

Jane Austen's Emma (Redux)

2/1/2023
"Emma" by Jane Austen is considered a great novel due to its sharp wit, complex characters, and insightful commentary on societal norms and human nature. Austen's writing is known for its irony, subtle humor, and ability to draw readers into the world of her characters. The novel also explores themes of class, romance, self-delusion, and the dangers of interfering in the lives of others. Additionally, the novel's protagonist Emma Woodhouse is a strong, independent woman whose flaws and mistakes make her relatable and endearing to readers. The above description was definitely NOT written by a Chatbot. We loved talking about "Emma" again. Is it Jane Austen's best work? Is Mr Knightley a g-word for shaping the character of a 13 year old girl until she's old enough to marry? Other questions! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:02:36:54

Jesus' Son

1/4/2023
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 by a college student. And a family from Marshalltown who head-onned and killed forever a man driving west out of Bethany, Missouri.. ..I rose up sopping wet from sleeping under the pouring rain, and something less than conscious, thanks to the first three of the people I've already named- the salesman and the Indian and the student--all of whom had given me drugs. At the head of the entrance ramp I waited without hope of a ride. What was the point, even, of rolling up my sleeping bag when I was too wet to be let into anybody's car? I draped it around me like a cape. The downpour raked the asphalt and gurgled in the ruts. My thoughts zoomed pitifully. The travelling salesman had fed me pills that made the linings of my veins feel scraped out. My jaw ached. I knew every raindrop by its name. I sensed everything before it happened. I knew a certain Oldsmobile would stop for me even before it glowed, and by the sweet voices of the family inside it I knew we'd have an accident in the storm. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:01:42:53

Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger

12/16/2022
Ho ho ho! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:01:12:28

Tolkien's Christmas Book + Booklist 2023

12/7/2022
Our heroes talk about Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien, asking such questions as "did you know there was a Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien?" They also announce their booklist for 2023, baby! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:00:34:56

All the Pretty Horses

11/2/2022
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 Island? He had to work to sort of figure out how to become a southern western gothic writer, or whatever he is. Anyway, The Bookening talks about All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:01:32:47

Romeo and Juliet

10/5/2022
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 order? Who can tell? ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:01:54:08

The Green Mile

9/7/2022
The Green Mile by Stephen King. It’s a book we review. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:01:54:59

Bonus: Sherlock Holmes

8/11/2022
“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 I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world.” The audio quality is not all there in this one. So think of it more as a bonus episode. You'll get giant Romeo and Juliet and Green Miles episodes very soon. They are already recorded. But we're talking about the world's greatest consulting detective in this one! Will Nathan be a snob again??? ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:01:07:51

What happened to Brandon?

8/3/2022
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 believe me, if you don't like episodes that aren't just about books, this is NOT the episode for you. You have been warned. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:00:28:43

Moby Dick

7/6/2022
Revenge, madness, whale blubber, etc. The Bookening discusses one of the best books they've ever discussed. And probably the great American novel. Herman Melville's Moby Dick. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:03:07:29

A Tale of Two Cities

5/31/2022
"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 must derive it from the circumstance that it stands in the same relation to his other books as salad dressing stands in towards a complete salad. It is a bottle of the sauce in which Pickwick and Nicholas Nickleby were dressed, and to which they owed much of their popularity; and though it has stood open on the sideboard for a very long time, and has lost a good deal of its original flavour, the philosophic inquirer who is willing to go through the penance of tasting it will be, to a certain extent, repaid. He will have an opportunity of studying in its elements a system of cookery which procured for its ingenious inventor unparalleled popularity, and enabled him to infect the literature of his country with a disease which manifests itself in such repulsive symptoms that it has gone far to invert the familiar doctrines of the Latin Grammar about ingenuous arts, and to substitute for them the conviction that the principal results of a persistent devotion to literature are an incurable vulgarity of mind and of taste, and intolerable arrogance of temper." --from an original review of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Don't worry, our heroes talk about it. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:02:02:25

A Farewell to Arms/The Stranger

5/4/2022
The senselessness of life. The meaninglessness of death. Those moments where you murder someone in cold blood for no particular reason. Hope you like existential stuff. Because Ernest Heminway and Albert Camus sure do, as we talk about in this mega-stuft episode of none other than ..... THE BOOKENING. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Duration:02:06:31