Books & Beer: Episode 1
The World According to Garp
(about 37 minutes)

Clarissa tries to convince Greg that The World According to Garp is a good novel, and that John Irving is a great author.

This is our first “real episode,” since episode 0 was recorded more as an experiment than anything. Please excuse my awkward attempted-segue from the last episode before we jump right into Garp.

If you have any ideas, suggestions, questions, books, etc. feel free to share them here or on twitter. We’ll settle down to a weekly/bi-weekly schedule here soon, but wanted to record this episode while the novel was fresh. I’m working on a podcast feed and proper archive, but for now you can use my earlier post about Episode 0.

Books mentioned

• The World According to Garp, A Widow for One Year, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Until I Find You by John Irving
• The Years of Lyndon Johnson including Master of the Senate and Means of Ascent by Robert A. Caro
• Inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Pages mentioned

• John Irving’s recurring themes

Books & Beer: Episode 0
Fiction vs. Non-Fiction

I convinced Clarissa to do a books podcast with me, so we set up the microphones and talked for about 45 minutes about books! I promise the next ones will be shorter, because this one kind of veered into larger discussions of why I like non-fiction more than fiction. Also, I accidentally drop the f-bomb once or twice so be aware.

Next episode I’ll grill Clarissa with why she likes fiction, and we’ll try to read the same book so we can both talk about it. We’ll try to do them every two weeks or so.

(We used the same table for our microphones and beer, so those are the thumping sounds you hear occasionally. Oops! Also, maybe a jingle next time?)

Books Discussed, Mentioned, or Disparaged

• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
• Franny and Zoey by JD Salinger
• The Known World by Edward P. Jones
• Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith
• The Years of Lyndon Johnson, including A Path to Power and Means of Ascent by Robert A. Caro
• Before the Storm and Nixonland by Rick Perlstein
• River of Shadows by Rebecca Solnit