This Book Is No Joke
The Librarian Is In
The New York Public Library
4.7 • 595 Ratings
🗓️ 6 September 2018
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Which books do you wish you'd read in high school? Frank and Gwen offer up some ideas and then move on to city novels with urban themes and a picture book about a dog who tries to be a fork. Plus: what to do if you can't get enough of the Queer Eye guys.
Book Recommendations
"NYT: If You Could Add One Book to the High School Curriculum, What Would It Be?"
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
Bull by David Elliott
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
The City and the City by China Miéville
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Non-Book Recommendations
Short videos of the Queer Eye guys on YouTube, such as 9 Things They've Never Done Before (in which Jonathan and Tan bedazzle a tie), a round of Never Have I Ever, and a bizarre social-media compliment battle.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, everyone. |
| 0:10.4 | Welcome to The Librarian is in the New York Public Library's podcast about books, culture, and what to read next. |
| 0:16.1 | I'm Gwen. |
| 0:16.7 | And I'm Gwen's friend. |
| 0:18.7 | Frank. |
| 0:19.7 | I'm Gwen's friend, Frank. |
| 0:20.6 | We got a delightful comment where someone said that she had a co-worker. |
| 0:27.9 | Right, who was her frank. |
| 0:29.5 | She said in a tweet, my co-worker is the frank to my Gwen. |
| 0:34.5 | And I was like, we've become like monolithic, meme, tropes, things. |
| 0:39.3 | I love it. |
| 0:40.3 | I hope every Gwen gets her Frank. |
| 0:42.3 | That would make me happy. |
| 0:43.3 | And every Frank or Gwen. |
| 0:44.3 | Yeah. |
| 0:45.3 | His Gwen. |
| 0:46.3 | Or their Gwen. |
| 0:47.3 | It's like the laws of library science, like Rang and Ethan. |
| 0:50.3 | Every book it's reader and every, every Gwen it's Frank. That's perfect. Hmm. I don't know if I wish a Frank on anyone. I do. I wish a Frank for everyone. All right. Well, you can. I don't know if I can push myself that way. But we have a little bit of news. We do. Dund, dintin, dint, dint, dint, dint, dint, dint, dint, d'n, d'n, d'n, d'n, d'n, this just in. |
| 1:12.1 | Walter Craghite over here. |
| 1:13.1 | We have a, is it today? |
| 1:16.2 | It's today. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New York Public Library, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The New York Public Library and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.