Latest “Burning Books” Is Available Now

[AgentPete]

You may know (or may not, if you’re a new member) that Litopia produces several different podcasts… one of them, BURNING BOOKS, is an idiosyncratic but absorbing look at classic writing, ancient and modern. It’s an intelligent but accessible show, and it may just uncover a few hiterto-hidden gems for your reading delight. The latest show has just been posted:

I Pity the Poor Immigrant by Zachary Lazar

You can subscribe in iTunes or in any other podcast software.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

You can find it on Twitter too, and the presenter, Eric Beck Rubin, is a fellow writer and published novelist.

 

[Barbara]

Jolly good. That'll give me something to do while I wait for the flu to pass.

 

[AgentPete]

Out of interest, I'm showing below an anlysis of Burning Books most popular shows. Nabokov and Oz really dominate all the others... wonder what else can be learnt from this data...

 

[Deleted member 604]

Jolly good. That'll give me something to do while I wait for the flu to pass.

Get Better soon B

 

[AgentPete]

Very hard to read, raw data is below:

The Luzhin Defense – Vladimir Nabokov 13597
A Tale of Love and Darkness – Amos Oz 6031
My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante 3009
My Name is Asher Lev – Chaim Potok 2637
A Star Called Henry – Roddy Doyle 2360
Regeneration – Pat Barker 1919
Frost - Thomas Bernhard 1880
Three Deaths – Josip Novakovich 1880
Some Do Not . . . – Ford Madox Ford 1859
The Sportswriter – Richard Ford 1825
The Adversary – Emmanuel Carrère 1789
School of Velocity – Eric Beck Rubin 1783
Latecomers – Anita Brookner 1739
River of Smoke – Amitav Ghosh 1739
Netanya by Dror Burstein 1728
Little Man, What Now? – Hans Fallada 1719
Dancing Arabs by Sayed Kashua 1705
Morality Play – Barry Unsworth 1644
The Scapegoat – Sophia Nikolaidou 1627
Almost Dead by Assaf Gavron 1624
Human Parts by Orly Castel-Bloom 1585
Master Georgie – Beryl Bainbridge 1268

 

[Deleted member 604]

And Pete stop giggling

 

[AgentPete]

OK, might as well go the whole hog for the data freaks, here's the spreadsheet, change the file extension from .txt to .csv and you're away...

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Out of interest, I'm showing below an anlysis of Burning Books most popular shows. Nabokov and Oz really dominate all the others... wonder what else can be learnt from this data...

It's a very literary rather than commercial selection of titles.

 

[AgentPete]

And Pete stop giggling

Ah, but then I'd have to stop laughing, too...

 

[AgentPete]

It's a very literary rather than commercial selection of titles.

Yes, very interesting how much that affects downloads, isn't it?

 

[Deleted member 604]

We can't have that, can we

 

[Barbara]

Get Better soon B

Thanks Alix. Not fun this bug, but I'm back at work regardless, coughing on everyone.

 

[Deleted member 604]

thought you were a little quiet on the chatroom, not your usually happy self.
Bless you its sucks that we all have bills to pay, isn't it.
MPS wages go up, Health Care professions like ourselves have not had a decent pay rise for ages, takes the donkey really.

 

[Barbara]

thought you were a little quiet on the chatroom, not your usually happy self.
Bless you its sucks that we all have bills to pay, isn't it.
MPS wages go up, Health Care professions like ourselves have not had a decent pay rise for ages, takes the donkey really.

@RainbowNerdAlix. Pay rise?? I'm self-employed, so no pay rise unless I decide to charge more which I did in January; the first time in 10 years.
I wasn't fully up to to worksy today, but if I don't work, I don't earn. Of course, I'd rather write. I'm really keen on my new novel. I'm only one para in, but I keep getting sidetracked with stuff beyond my control.

 

[Deleted member 604]

It can't be helped we all have commitments.
Make sure to make time for you. Work hard, play harder.
Before long you get so stressed and bogged down by work, your immune system goes to whack.
And your picking up all sorts and the Flu is a right stubborn bugger.
I go to a mindfulness and mediation class every Tuesday morning, does me the world a good.
Great for my creative space and to get those artistic juices going.
You don't need to be physically writing, making mental notes/ideas works too but your got to be 100% and well enough.

 

[Deleted member 604]

Yes, very interesting how much that affects downloads, isn't it?

Giggling lol

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Yes, very interesting how much that affects downloads, isn't it?

It does seem to, or at least, it doesn't seem to get too many 'bites' in-house. The presentation is lucid, interesting and accessible, if you know the book.
Not obscure but somehow rarefied. I need specs. Reaches for her magnifying glass. Those 2 top titles are such a massive break in the pattern.