Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Do you listen to any book-related podcasts? Do you follow any book-related blogs or newsletters? If so, which ones?

Thanks to Pam for this question! I'm happy to receive suggestions from anyone for topics.

I would probably listen to podcasts if there was no such thing as audiobooks. They are all I listen to now. I don't follow blogs, but I do get multiple newsletters by email. BookRiot and Literary Hub and CrimeReads are daily, as is Book Bub, which is notice of sales on ebooks. I get emails from a couple of local bookstores. And I get a newsletter from The Austen Connection, all about Jane Austen and her books. Also I get book columns from the NY Times and Washington Post.

I love Marissa Meyer’s Happy Writer podcast. I started it on Spotify just to see what it was like and kept listening because I loved hearing about writer stories and lives. She does a lot of ya writers and I order some of the books I missed.

I follow a lot of newsletters from the big 4 since they have different books for different age groups.

I don't listen to podcasts regularly, although I will occasionally listen to an author's podcast.

I follow Ilona Andrews blog and that's about it.

If you listen to other podcasts than literary, feel free to mention them to.

I listen to quite a few podcasts. I started off years ago with Anne Bogel’s What Should I Read Next? and added ones (Strong Sense of Place and Overdue) that she promoted by having their podcasters on her show. Some other literary ones I listen to: The Bookcase, Novel Pairings, Our Opinions are Correct (with SF authors Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz), The Red Hot Chilli Writers (with British Asian mystery writers Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjees), and NYT’s The Book Review. Vaseem and Abir are a little obnoxious but some of their conversations are interesting. I recently found The Doof! Cast. They review 1 book each month and other media on the other weeks. Looks like their focus is mostly sci-fi with some fantasy and a few classics.

For non-literary podcasts, I like Aaron Mahnke productions, including Lore, Unobscured, Grim & Mild Presents, and Cabinet of Curiosities. Lore reminds me of the X-Files, with its topics. I also like the Duolingo Spanish podcast. Their episodes are all cultural topics and really interesting. The target audience is intermediate Spanish learners. They also have French and Portuguese. For news and current events, I like NYT’s Ezra Klein and Matter of Opinion.

No podcasts or blogs. I get book related newsletters from my local newspaper, a local bookstore, and a local author-events/author publicity business.

I listen to quite a few podcasts, which started when I was living in China and needed some tastes of home (Australia). The Book Shelf and the Book Show (ABC) both review recent fiction and interview authors. I also sometimes listen to BBC Books and Authors, and BBC Bookclub. I read blogs from several Australian authors, and get emails from local bookshops with info about books and author visits

For non literary pod casts I listen to Bailey Sarian’s murder, mystery & makeup. I use the YouTube version of it because she puts them up there first before podcasting them.

She also has a dark history one too. That is both on YouTube and Spotify.

Curiously, I get on better with podcasts than I do with audiobooks. Something about the format triggers my 'listening to the radio' mode rather than my 'I could read this faster than you are speaking' mode, for lack of a better way to explain it. I still don't listen to much, and I haven't found anything new since I stalled out on The Magnus Archives. Of course, Welcome to Night Vale reigns supreme.

I prefer listening to podcasts (or music) over audiobooks. I don't listen to any literary podcasts and I don't know why. It has honestly never occurred to me.

I'm a true crime girl, so I listen to Morbid pretty often. Sometimes I listen to Last Podcast on the Left if they have a topic that interests me, but I find them a bit annoying to be honest.

Like Pam above, I like listening to Aaron Mahnke's pods. I really like Unobscured where he does a deep dive into one specific topic (season 1 was the Salem witch trials and I was obsessed).

I also like shorter, sillier podcasts to listen to while I'm on the treadmill and for that I like The Midnight Library (the host is a witch and her helper is a werewolf), and Myths and Legends where Jason Weiser talks about...myths and legends from various cultures but puts a more modern spin on them. Hijinks ensue.

Along the same lines as Unobscured, I love In the Dark from The New Yorker. They take a recent-ish criminal case where some things were...sketchy and take their own look into the evidence. It's fantastic.

I don't listen to podcasts or read blogs. I'd rather listen to or read books.

Amanda wrote: "I prefer listening to podcasts (or music) over audiobooks. I don't listen to any literary podcasts and I don't know why. It has honestly never occurred to me.

I'm a true crime girl, so I listen to..."

Then you might like MM&M. She's all about true crime.

I usually listen to podcasts at night, especially if I wake up at 3am and can’t fall back asleep! I have to listen to non-violent topics, which is perfect for literary podcasts. It’s easy sometimes to fall back asleep listening to them. Some health related podcasts I like are Hidden Brain and Chasing Life with Dr Sanjay Gupta. Dr Gupta’s latest episode is The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown of the Menopausal Brain. Some of us might find this episode interesting.

I suspect that I would fall deeply down the rabbit hole of podcasts if I started listening, especially true crime. So I've never let myself.

I don't follow blogs, either. I do check out Book Page newsletter or Audio File newsletter if I want to find something I might not have seen here on Goodreads.

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Curiously, I get on better with podcasts than I do with audiobooks. Something about the format triggers my 'listening to the radio' mode rather than my 'I could read this faster than you are speaki..."
haha I get the I can read faster than you speak feeling. I do love audiobooks though and just speed them up - I still read faster (and sometimes have fun reading a book whislt playing the audio on mute and see how much quicker i finish the chapter :P)

I listen to a whole host of podcasts. One non-literary one I really love is called The Imperfects - Australian based - and one of the hosts is the founder of The Resilience project. The point of it is mental health, vulnerabilty, peoples imperfections - really great listen.

The literary ones i listen to are:
*Stories behind the story
*Two Girls One Book - although this one can be a bit spoilery
*Literary Anything (my local libraries podcast)
*the Shameless Bookclub

But to be honest, I don't really want recommendations for new books - my TBR is big enough already and I get enough from here....so often I just use these as easy listening when trying to get to slee :P

Bec wrote: "I listen to a whole host of podcasts. One non-literary one I really love is called The Imperfects - Australian based - and one of the hosts is the founder of The Resilience project. The point of it..."
Bec - The Imperfects sounds good! I'll have to check that one out and the others you mentioned. I'm like you that I'm generally not looking for book recommendations. I do like to get recommendations from Strong Sense of Place, though. I also like to listen to ones where they're discussing books I've read. If I haven't read the book, sometimes there are too many spoilers. Anne Bogel is one podcaster who tends to tell too much of the book. I don't like her podcast as much as I used to.

I don't like listening to podcasts but I do get a lot of newsletters from different book sites, many of them are naturally Swedish but I do subscribe to several British and US newsletters as well.

I listen to a few lit podcasts: Book Riot’s All the Books and Read or Dead; What Should I Read Next (just started listening to this one), Book Talk etc., and Currently Reading,
Non bookish: I’ve listened to a few true crime serial podcasts and regularly listen to Wondery’s This is Actually Happening. It’s very well done.

Ann - I forgot about Book Riot’s podcasts! I sometimes listen to All the Books. I didn’t realize that Book Riot has at least 14 different literary podcasts including ones specific to SFF, non-fiction, YA, kids lit, mystery & thrillers, and romance! I’ll have to check out some of these other ones.

I don't follow blogs — I guess I'd rather read books. Also it's the short format. I don't care for magazines either, and only rarely short stories or essays.

Literary podcasts are part of what got me through the pandemic. One of them I started listening to about a year and a half after they began, so I was listening to "backlist" episodes. I kept feeling bad for the hosts because they had NO idea that the pandemic was coming their way, and I was encouraging them to be sure to go out and enjoy bookstores and libraries while they could! This podcast is the Currently Reading Podcast. They did a terrific job helping independent bookstores during lockdown by 1) calling up bookstores and asking them just to ship them any 5 books that they would recommend, and the more importantly, 2) getting lists of recommended books from different independent bookstore each week and sharing this list with listeners who would then be encouraged to place orders for the books from this bookstore!

Another podcast I really enjoyed from this time is the Strong Sense of Place Podcast. The is made by a wonderful couple from the US who have traveled a lot and now live in Prague. It was a great way to armchair travel when that was all that was available. I love their enthusiasm :)

I still listen to both of these podcasts. I've also found a new one I really like that is part of the Book Riot family called First Edition. They do several things through the month, the part I really enjoy is the first week of the month when they do a "bracket" competition (like March Madness in basketball) and rate/compare ten upcoming releases for the month. I don't believe they have actually read any of them, but rate them based on premise and reputation/experience of the author. I believe they never include debut authors, except for non-fiction.

There are others I listen to occasionally, but these are my 3 favorite. I also listed a lot to the From the Front Porch Podcast during the pandemic. I really enjoyed that too, and I'm not sure why I dropped off from that. I need to get back to it!