This episode we’re discussing the dreaded Did Not Finish! We talk about why we don’t finish books, specific titles we didn’t finish, why not finishing books can be good, what “finishing” a book even means, how you “finish” a cross-media property, and returning to books we stopped reading. Plus: Speedrunning books!
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In this episode
Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards
Books We Did Not Finish Reading
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
- “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.
Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.”
- American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, translated by Reg Keeland
- Moby-Dick or, the Whale by Herman Melville
Other Media We Mentioned (and may have finished!)
- The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
- Highlander (film) (Wikipedia)
- Nart Sagas from the Caucasus: Myths and Legends from the Circassians, Abazas, Abkhaz, and Ubykhs by John Colarusso
- Overwatch (video game) (Wikipedia)
- Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wikipedia)
- Spyro the Dragon (Wikipedia)
- Later Alligator
- Final Fantasy VII (Wikipedia)
- Grand Theft Auto (Wikipedia)
- World of Warcraft (Wikipedia)
- Steven Universe (Wikipedia)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Wikipedia)
- Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins
- Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
- Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (Wikipedia)
- Everyday Madness: On Grief, Anger, Loss and Love by Lisa Appignanesi
- Nightrunner Series by Lynn Flewelling
- Tamír Triad Series by Lynn Flewelling
- Fables, Vol. 2: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and James Jean
Links, Articles, and Things
Questions
- Have you ever read a Highlander novel?
- Will you join us in reading “book twos” in 2022?
20 Religious Fiction by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors
Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.
This retroactive genre list is for our episode on Religious Fiction. As discussed in that episode, Religious Fiction may mean something very different to different readers. The books in this list are fiction with prominent religious or spiritual themes, but vary quite a bit in tone and include a wide range of perspectives.
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Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email! No book speedruns on our YouTube channel, but you can watch Matthew (and others) playthrough visual novels!
Join us again on Tuesday, June 1st we’ll be discussing the genre of Crime Fiction!
Then it’s almost time for our annual “We all read the same book” episode. So on Tuesday, June 15th we’ll each suggest and talk about one title and you’ll get to vote for which one we’ll read.
