Books of Some Substance

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Books of Some Substance

Since 2014, the Books of Some Substance Podcast has been seeking out the books that matter.

05/17/2023

Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer's work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book. The reader's recognition in himself of what the book says is the proof of the book’s truth.

Marcel Proust
Time Regained

🎙️The B.O.S.S. Proust pilgrimage is complete with Time Regained. This, the final of 6 volumes in Marcel Proust’s masterpiece In Search of Lost Time, is the most readable of the series. It is the most directly philosophical and is overflowing with quotable passages. Join Nathan, David, and Nick in episode 96 as we discover how time for Proust is regained.

04/14/2023

The first version of the novel by Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, written in the United States, is rejected by editors; the second version, rewritten in Canada, is forgotten in a bar in Mexico; Lowry loses the third version in a fire at his house

Henri Lefebvre
The Missing Pieces

🎙️ What do Spinoza’s Treatise on a Rainbow, the end of Kerouac's original manuscript for On the Road, and the picture, The Beautiful Gardener, by Max Ernst have in common? Hint: you won't be able to find copies of them anywhere. Join your host Nick and guest Tom Comitta, author of The Nature Book, in a discussion of Lefebvre's unconventional 88 page catalog of lost cultural artifacts.

03/23/2023

Every family has its joys and its horrors, but however great they may be, it's hard for an outsider's eye to see them; they are a secret.

Anton Chekhov
Difficult People

🎙️👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Tune in to Episode 94 of the Books of Some Substance podcast for a special discussion on the middling physician and esteemed playwright and short-story author Anton Chekhov. Nick is joined by guest Bob Blaisdell, Professor of English at the City University of New York’s Kingsborough College and author of a new work on Anton Chekhov titled Chekhov Becomes Chekhov: The Emergence of a Literary Genius.

02/28/2023

The only true voyage, the only bath in the Fountain of Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to see the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred universes that each of them sees, that each of them is.

Marcel Proust
The Captive & The Fugitive

🎙️This is one of my favorite quotes from The Captive & The Fugitive. Check out episode 93 for more from the penultimate volume(s) of Marcel Proust’s great work.

08/13/2022

After the cowardly stabbing of Salman Rushdie on Friday, 33 years after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering his murder, it is a good time to revisit the author’s 1000 Days speech from 1991 in which he defends his work and his belief in the importance of freedom of speech.

https://www.wnyc.org/story/239518-one-thousand-days-salman-rushdie-columbia-1991/

06/07/2022

David, Eric, and Nick spend a beautiful Saturday doing what they love: wading into the tides of the irrational, crushing systems in which we have existed, currently exist, and will continue to exist. In other words: Discussing Franz Kafka!

Three of Kafka’s short works provide more than enough to chew on, whether it is The Judgment and its quick turn from mundane to surreal, A Country Doctor and its full-blown phantasmagoria, or In the Penal Colony and its melding of mental and bodily anguish. Kafka’s brand of malaise hits just as hard now as it presumably did one hundred years ago — and as it presumably will one hundred years from now.

So grab yourself a spot out in the sun, mix up a nice Mai Tai, and listen in as we discuss humanity’s unavoidable contract with the daily absurd.

Link in bio or wherever you get your podcasts.

05/01/2022

No more searching is necessary. It’s time. It’s time to read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, that is. And we here at Books of Some Substance will be doing just that, starting off with this episode on the first volume, Swann’s Way.

Listen in as David, Nick, and Nathan begin this long journey by attempting to summarize the actual events in the book (likely to be a recurring challenge); by scratching the surface of the concepts of remembering via the senses, attempting to slow down the passage of time, and the tension between the world of the material vs. the world of idea; and by simply getting lost in passage after passage of beautiful prose.

If you enjoy this episode, know that there will be five more on their way. We’ll be releasing a Proust episode every two months as we continue reading this masterpiece. If you’ve always had In Search of Lost Time on your to-read pile, now is as good of time as any to dig in and join us. Come for the madeleines, stay for the memories.

Listen via link in bio or wherever you get your podcasts.

04/12/2022

My great-grandfather was born in the year eighteen thirty, and in eighteen forty-eight he was a drummer in the army, and as a drummer boy he took part in the fighting on Charles Bridge. The students dug out cobble-stones from the paving there to throw at the soldiers, and they hit Great-grandfather on the knee and crippled him for life. From that time on he was granted this disability pension, one gold piece every day, and every day he spent it on a bottle of rum and two packets of to***co, but instead of sitting quietly at home to do his drinking and smoking, he went off limping about the streets and the field paths, taking a special delight in turning up wherever there were people slaving away at some hard labor. And there he’d grin and gloat over those workers, and drink this rum of his, and smoke his to***co, and what with one thing and another, never a year passed without Great-grandfather Luke getting beaten up somewhere, and Grandfather having to wheel him home in the wheelbarrow.

But Great-grandfather only bobbed up as fresh as ever and soon was off again bragging about who was the better off everywhere he went, until somebody beat him up again in the same unchristian way. Until the fall of Austria put a stop to this disability pension he’d been drawing for seventy years. Until his allowance under the republic dwindled so much that it wouldn’t run to his bottle of rum and his two packets of to***co any longer.

But even then, never a year passed without somebody beating Great-grandfather Luke unconscious, because he still went on dragging himself around the district flaunting those seventy years when he’d had his bottle of rum and his to***co every day. Until the year nineteen thirty-five Great-grandfather did his bragging in front of some quarrymen whose stone quarry had just been closed down on them, and they beat him up so badly that he died. The doctor said he might very well have been with us a good twenty years yet. That was why there was no other family that stuck in the town’s gullet like ours did.

Bohumil Hrabal
Closely Watched Trains

🎙️ Listen to our review of Hrabal's darkly comedic war story wherever you listen to your podcasts.

03/10/2022

David, Nick, and Nathan dive into Bohumil Hrabal’s short novel Closely Watched Trains in this latest episode of the podcast. One part coming of age tale, one part (somewhat) epic tale of resistance, and one part celebration of life’s beautiful banality, this compact work will have you simultaneously smirking and wincing as Hrabal somehow weaves the lightness of youth in with the darkness of living under N**i occupation in World War II. Grab a copy, give it a quick read, maybe even watch the brilliant Jiří Menzel film adaptation, and listen in for the discussion.
Link in bio and/or wherever you get your podcasts.

05/03/2021

On the most recent episode of the podcast, Nick sits down for a short but sweet chat with singer-songwriter and poet Valerie June about some poetry by the mystic and spiritual poet Hafiz.

The two also discuss lyrics, music, perspective, time, and a little Townes Van Zandt.

Valerie has just released her new record, The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers, and a new collection of poetry, Maps for the Modern World. The two complement each other extremely well and just might be the medicine you need for all that ails you.

Link in bio + available wherever you listen to podcasts.

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David, Eric, and Nick spend a beautiful Saturday doing what they love: wading into the tides of the irrational, crushing systems in which we have existed, currently exist, and will continue to exist. In other words: Discussing Franz Kafka! Three of Kafka’s short works provide more than enough to chew on, whether it is The Judgment and its quick turn from mundane to surreal, A Country Doctor and its full-blown phantasmagoria, or In the Penal Colony and its melding of mental and bodily anguish. Kafka’s brand of malaise hits just as hard now as it presumably did one hundred years ago — and as it presumably will one hundred years from now. So grab yourself a spot out in the sun, mix up a nice Mai Tai, and listen in as we discuss humanity’s unavoidable contract with the daily absurd. Link in bio or wherever you get your podcasts.

No more searching is necessary. It’s time. It’s time to read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, that is. And we here at Books of Some Substance will be doing just that, starting off with this episode on the first volume, Swann’s Way. Listen in as David, Nick, and Nathan begin this long journey by attempting to summarize the actual events in the book (likely to be a recurring challenge); by scratching the surface of the concepts of remembering via the senses, attempting to slow down the passage of time, and the tension between the world of the material vs. the world of idea; and by simply getting lost in passage after passage of beautiful prose. If you enjoy this episode, know that there will be five more on their way. We’ll be releasing a Proust episode every two months as we continue reading this masterpiece. If you’ve always had In Search of Lost Time on your to-read pile, now is as good of time as any to dig in and join us. Come for the madeleines, stay for the memories. Listen via link in bio or wherever you get your podcasts.

David, Nick, and Nathan dive into Bohumil Hrabal’s short novel Closely Watched Trains in this latest episode of the podcast. One part coming of age tale, one part (somewhat) epic tale of resistance, and one part celebration of life’s beautiful banality, this compact work will have you simultaneously smirking and wincing as Hrabal somehow weaves the lightness of youth in with the darkness of living under Nazi occupation in World War II. Grab a copy, give it a quick read, maybe even watch the brilliant Jiří Menzel film adaptation, and listen in for the discussion. . . . Link in bio and/or wherever you get your podcasts.