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Hardcore Literature

Ep 66 - The Bookish Q&A Show (Coffee with Hardcore Literature)

Hardcore Literature

Benjamin McEvoy

Books, Education, Courses, Arts

4.8 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2023

⏱️ 114 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you're enjoying the Hardcore Literature Show, there are two ways you can show your support and ensure it continues:

1. Please leave a quick review on iTunes.

2. Join in the fun over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club: patreon.com/hardcoreliterature

Thank you so much. Happy listening and reading!

- Benjamin

Timestamps:
  • 0:00 expressing my gratitude for you
  • 3:31 how to find meaning in our lives?
  • 20:44 advice on keeping a commonplace book?
  • 27:00 your thoughts on French Literature?
  • 32:37 your favourite films and shows?
  • 40:42 entry recommendations for big classics?
  • 45:20 your process for making connections?
  • 51:30 a master plan behind the syllabus?
  • 53:15 can you riff on Tolstoy's sense of love?
  • 58:35 how to love someone for who they are?
  • 1:03:40 character names in Shakespeare?
  • 1:06:05 three writers you would have coffee with?
  • 1:07:48 what is your literary guilty pleasure?
  • 1:09:00 what is the greatest decade ever for novels?
  • 1:11:00 what podcasts do you enjoy listening to?
  • 1:13:17 are you concerned about artificial intelligence?
  • 1:19:30 a difficult dilemma: rereads or new reads?
  • 1:22:10 what are your favourite Japanese works?
  • 1:24:20 interest in a behind-the-scenes show
  • 1:25:00 tell us more about Shakespeare's audience?
  • 1:30:59 supposedly great books that are overrated?
  • 1:33:16 how to deal with feelings of overwhelm?
  • 1:39:10 do books appeal to different temperaments?
  • 1:41:47 your elevator pitch for getting into literature?
  • 1:46:55 what are the essential book club lectures?
  • 1:52:30 recommendations for book club newcomers
  • 1:53:00 talking about the questions for the next show

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome back to Hardcore Literature, your favourite book club.

0:04.0

Deep dives into the greatest books ever written.

0:06.0

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

0:12.0

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

0:15.0

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

0:20.0

We'll relish the most moving art ever committed to the page and stage from every age.

0:24.6

Join us and me, your host, Benjamin McAvoy, on the reading adventure of a lifetime with Hardcore Literature.

0:33.6

Hello and welcome back to Hardcore Literature. I hope you're keeping well and I hope your reading is going well.

0:42.5

Today we have a little bit of a special show because it recently came to my attention that this podcast is one of the top book podcasts in the entire world, which has absolutely blown me away.

0:57.5

I've been working on this show for years now, so it's really moved me to see it rubbing shoulders

1:04.2

in the charts with some really big established names.

1:08.6

And so I wanted to do a little something to celebrate that. And I also wanted to

1:12.6

take a moment to say a huge thank you to you. Thank you for listening. And thank you so much for sharing

1:20.0

your love of literature with me. Because that's what we're doing with these discussions. We're sharing

1:26.7

our mutual love of great books,

1:28.9

and we're keeping literature alive. So today I'm putting this month's Q&A show here on the podcast.

1:37.2

Every month at the Hardcore Literature Book Club at patreon.com forward slash hardcore literature.

1:43.2

I take questions from book club readers and sit down

1:48.2

with a cup of coffee and we have a good chat about books. Usually I'm in front of the camera

1:54.5

for these shows. The last 20 plus episodes have been filmed. So it's a bit funny to be doing this one talking into the microphone,

2:03.1

but as usual, we have tons of superb questions from book club members.

2:09.0

The questions put to me are always so nuanced and varied,

...

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