The Infinite Library

This week, we have two Bens! Ben's friend Ben Rosenzweig joins us to discuss "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge" by Rainer Maria Rilke. We discuss our personal relationships with Rilke's work, love and death, and...

We begin our Summer 2026 series on "The Tunnel" by William Gass. Topics of conversation include, literary Big Boys, Gass' problematizing of academic humanism, and The Fasicism of the Heart. As always, we hope that you...

We're back and it's Pride! As is tradition, John has made Ben read a big gay book, in this case Anne Rice's classic "Interview with the Vampire". Before we discuss the book, we do a brief debrief on last season and Woke...

We close out this season by discussing "Rakesfall" by Vajra Chandrasekera. This might be one of the toughest books to have a straightforward conversation about that we've done, but we hope our chit chat is still...

This week, John and Ben discuss Xiaolu Guo's "A Concise-Chinese Dictionary for Lovers". Topics of conversation include the Guo's use of film references, use of non-standard English in fiction, and the arc of modern...

This week, we're wrapping up our Modernist mini-season by reading "Three Lives" by Gertrude Stein. We discuss our relationships with Stein and other Lost Generation writers, Stein's tactile language, and why something...

Our modernism mini-season starts with a conversation about "Dunfords Travels Everywheres" by William Melvin Kelley. Topics of conversation include the differences between modernism and post-modernism, the way Kelley...

This week we continue our exploration of the Gen X Horror guys by reading "Wormwood" by Poppy Z. Brite. As always, we hope that you enjoy our conversation!

This week, John and Ben are joined by friend of the pod, Kara, to discuss Stephen Graham Jones' love letter to the Slasher genre: "My Heart is a Chainsaw". Topics of conversation include SGJ's background, the slasher's...

Friend-of-the-Pod Claire is back in the stacks to discuss the grandmommy of the Romantasy genre: "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas. Topics of discussion include the genealogy of Romantasy as a genre, the...

What do you do if you live in the Electric Psychadelic Pussycat Swinger's Club, but you're the one cat too un-groovy to find it shagadelic? This is the vital question at the heart of Samuel R. Delany's "Trouble on...

It's the first episode of the Spring 2026 Season, and John and Ben are blasting off to the moon of Annares to discuss "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin. We discuss this classic of science fiction with a little...

John and Ben cruise down the California highway to the end of this season of The Infinite Library as they read Joan Didion's "Play It As It Lays". Topics of conversation include the portrayal of California in...

Another year comes to a close and, as is tradition, John and Ben get together to tell you about their favorite books they read in 2025.

Happy (almost) New Year! We're closing out our Thomas Pynchon mini-revue with his latest novel, "Shadow Ticket". Along for the ride is friend of the pod, author TJ Martinson! Topics of discussion include Pynchon's...