Welcome back to Hardcore Literature, your favourite book club.

Deep dives into the greatest books ever written.

Provocative poems, evocative epics, and life-changing literary analyses.

We don't just read the great books. We live them.

Together we'll suck the marrow out of Shakespeare, Homer, Tolstoy and many more.

We'll relish the most moving art ever committed

to the page and stage from every age. Join us and me, your host, Benjamin McAvoy, on the

reading adventure of a lifetime with hardcore literature. Hello and welcome back to hardcore literature.

How are you doing today? Wherever I find you, I hope you're doing well and I hope you're enjoying your books. My reading at the moment is bringing me such fulfillment, such fun, joy and wisdom that I decided to do a bit of an informal chatty show today. The last three shows

were a bit full on requiring intense research and summoning of cognitive powers. We talked about

the Bhagavad Gita, extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds and how to read world literature or translated

works of literature. So today, I'd like to invite you to have a coffee, a tea, a nice drink,

or take this show on a walk or however you like to consume it. And we're talking about the books

that are bringing me joy at the moment.

We're talking about Halloween reading plans, reading Shakespeare's tragedies in a compressed

time frame, serialized fiction, deep rereading and teaching the great books, the poetry

that inspired many of you, Proust, the latest Hemingway documentary, the Booker Prize, and the

book club schedule for next year. If you've been enjoying the shows, please leave a positive review

for hardcore literature over at iTunes, because that tells me to keep making more. And if you'd like to

support the show and get access to over 100 exclusive posts at time of recording, long-form

videos and audios on the great books, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Servantes, Austin, Freud,

and many more, then please check out patreon.com forward slash hardcore literature. So, what am I reading

...