Bookish Podcasts

I love hitting play on podcasts when I am in the gym in the morning!  The personalities that I love listening to become like my workout buddies and make my treadmill experience quite enjoyable.  I know that making lists of podcasts for bookish interests is not anything new.  Book Riot did an excellent list of podcasts for readers last December. Smart Bitches Trashy Books compiled a great list of podcasts geared towards romance readers.  However as someone who has been listening to a lot of different podcasts I want to weigh in on some of my absolute favorites.

By the Book   I can’t stand to miss a single episode of this particular podcast. Kristen and Jolenta read and follow self help books and then come back and report on them. I know that I wrote up an entry on my blog when I first discovered the show. The comedy on this show and the ongoing commentary on how self help is often geared towards people in privilege is what keeps me coming back to it. I do read self help books from time to time but sometimes I’ve gotten a lot more out of listening to this show than actually reading the book they are discussing. I personally find view self help books more like other people’s memoirs that might be useful for certain issues. This show seems to be the cliff notes version to the books that they discuss with a reality show spin

Lore  Has to be my other favorite but for different reasons. Aaron Meinke dives into obscure aspects of history that usually has some kind of creepy spin on this. This appeal to the part of me that likes learning different aspects of history and loves horror books. I love that he takes an approach where he just wants to tell the story!

Annotated This is a Book Riot podcast that digs into different aspects of the history and business of the book industry. The most recent episode that I listened to as of writing this article is on how braille got started as a literary tool for the blind. I’ve also listened to episodes on independent bookstores, 1984 and about one of the wealthiest librarians.I also love that the episodes are between 20-25 minutes long because it allows me to listen to more than one podcast during my workout.

Fictional Ever wanted to read more of the classics but found the stories to be a little outdated or too long to read? Aaron Meinke tells stories that are in the public domain in modern language and in the duration of time that you would listen to a podcast. There are some of them like Dracula or Count of Monte Cristo that are broken into several episodes.  While I am the type of person who does not mind trying to read the older classics sometimes I am pressed for time and this is more entertaining than just reading a wikipedia summary and keeps me entertained while I am doing my workout.

            SFF Yeah Another Book Riot podcast that discusses various science fiction and fantasy books. Honestly while I was originally excited to find their romance podcast When in Romance however while I liked some of the content they were exploring after awhile the personalities just were not the kind of personalities that I could stand to listen to every week. So I had a whole to fill in my podcasts. When I discovered that Book Riot had a podcast that discussed things related to Stranger Things, Star Trek, NK Jesmin, I was HOOKED.

Smart Podcast Trashy Books--I am new to listening to this particular podcast. However I just love the Smart Bitches Trashy Books blog for coverage on romance novels and women’s roles in fiction. So I had to start listening to this particular podcast.

Derry Connection For as awesome as I think Stephen King is I do not think I have given him enough of a shout out on my blog.  I was so excited to find this particular podcast because it has discussions of things that are dear to my heart, like the new IT movie and the Castle Rock TV show.

10 Minute Writers Workshop This podcast no longer has current episodes but they are still accessible. Its compiled of different writers talking about their writing habits. I turn to it more as a source of inspiration for my own writing practice. However serious readers will likely take interest in this as well because they are very short interviews with successful writers in a wide variety of genres.

Business Wars  Of all of my podcasts that do not relate directly to reading this one covers the most topics that have related to aspects of the entertainment industry that I really enjoy.  Their series on Netflix versus Blockbuster was fascinating, the story of Pulitzer versus Hearst had a high interest to me, hearing about DC versus Marvel comics was a lot of fun.  Even the topics that do not relate to reading as much directly are told in a very entertaining, engaging way. But then I have always been fascinated by the history of different companies so that is another geeky interest of mine.

Usually when I look for podcasts I like things that are moderately up to date. I can get kind of overwhelmed if I feel like there are a lot of episodes of a show that I have not listened to as a result I sometimes prefer podcasts that I can catch up with in a few hours if I made the new discovery. Also since these are my exercise buddies I am not afraid to turn a new podcast off if the personalities just rub me the wrong way.  If its a topic that I am interested in I can get a lot out of doing some of my own reading. However when I find podcasts with content and personalities that I love it makes my morning go a lot faster. Its’ a good sign if I want to increase my workout time to listen to more podcasts!