Episode 63: The iPad, Dante’s Hell And Ribena Berry Nipples

Posted by Donny on Feb 26, 2010 in Episodes | 3 comments

Bookbabble Episode 63: The iPad, Dante’s Hell And Ribena Berry Nipples
Recorded 8 Feb 2010
Babblers: Gem, Lone, Marcel, Bjorn and Donny

Synopsis:

The crew welcomes a visit from our favourite English farmer (Gem) as they discuss the recently announced iPad, and all the jokes that come with it.  Also, Marcel brings our attention to Electronic Arts’s new Dante’s Inferno, based on Dante’s classic of the same name.  Is having a half-naked monk killing monsters in the depths of hell a brilliant idea?  Also, Terry Pratchett and euthanasia, and find out what the Odyssey has in common with scantily-clad berries.

Show Length: 1:28:36

Mentioned

• The Death Of Bunny Munro, Nick Cave
• The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno, Dante Alighieri
• Romance of Three Kingdoms, Lo Kuan-Chung
• The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, Franz Kafka
• Journey to the West: The Monkey King’s Amazing Adventures, Wu Cheng’en
• Roadside Picnic, Arkady & Boris Strugatski

Links

• Ribena Advert
• The Apple ‘iPad’
• The Onion – Steve Jobs with the iPad
• iPad vs Stone
• Willy Vlautin’s Northline, which has an accompanying soundtrack
• Marcel’s favourite pro-silent music advocate
• Shigekuni – Welcome to Hell
• Terry Pratchett: my case for a euthanasia tribunal

Download the show here.

Episode 62: JD Salinger’s dead? Again?

Posted by Donny on Feb 12, 2010 in Episodes | 2 comments

Bookbabble Episode 62: JD Salinger’s dead? Again?
Recorded 31 Jan 2010
Babblers: Lone, Marcel

Synopsis:

Marcel and Lone get together for a duet, where they discuss the process of writing reviews.   As reviewers themselves, they compare notes on how reviews are done, the research put in, and influences.  Also discussed are JD Salinger, on his recent passing, and one of Lone’s true loves: Virginia Woolf.

Show Length: 52:36 mins

Download the show here.

Episode 58: Another Year, Another Show

Posted by Donny on Feb 7, 2010 in Episodes | 0 comments

Bookbabble Episode 58: Another Year, Another Show
Recorded 4 Jan 2010
Babblers: Bjorn, Gem, Lone, Lars, Marcel, Donny

Synopsis:

Gem and Lars return for this first show for the year, where we touched on quite a lot of things, surprisingly.  Music, films and of course, books.  This show was a little slow in going, but there are Michael Jackson jokes in there!

Show Length: 1:45:24 mins

Download the show here.

Bookbabble Snippet: Bjorn’s Auster Smackdown Prelude

Posted by Donny on Feb 6, 2010 in Episodes | 0 comments

This is a snippet of Bjorn and Donny’s short conversation after the recording of Episode 61.  Lamenting yet another postponement to our planned Paul Auster Smackdown show, Bjorn shares his thoughts on Auster’s work.  Sort of like a prelude to the smackdown, if you will.

Length: 10:08 mins

Download it here.

Episode 61: The Ebook Babble

Posted by Donny on Feb 6, 2010 in Episodes | 0 comments

Bookbabble Episode 61: The Ebook Babble
Recorded 25 Jan 2010
Babblers: Bjorn, Donny with guest Umapagan Ampikaipakan

Synopsis:

The guys talk about Apple’s impending announcement of their supposed tablet device (which we now know as the Apple iPad) and its supposed killer ebook-reader features, and the ebook industry in general.  Bjorn taps into his experience in the ebook industry for this one.

Note: This show was recorded several days before the announcement by Apple on Jan 27 2010.  Also, this is another episode where we jumped in without introductions at the start.

Show Length: 52:51 mins

Links

• Digital Magazines: Bonnier Mag+ Prototype
• NYT: There’s More to Publishing Than Meets the Screen

Download the show here.

Bookbabble Episode 57: 2009’s Great and Not So Great Reads

Posted by Donny on Dec 24, 2009 in Episodes | 0 comments

Bookbabble Episode 57: 2009’s Great and Not So Great Reads

Recorded 14 Dec 2009
Babblers: Bjorn, Renee, Marcel, Donny

Synopsis:

The group discusses their best reads of the year, plus some not-so-great reads as well.  Also, what books best defined the past decade, given all that has happened in the past 10 years?  Plus, Renee treats us to a wonderful rendition of bad sex prose, courtesy of this year’s winner of Literary Review’s 2009 bad sex in fiction award.

Show Length: 1:41:42 mins

Mentioned

• The Kindly Ones, Jonathan Littell
• Swann’s Way: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 1, Marcel Proust
• My Uncle Oswald, Roald Dahl
• Doctor Glas, Hjalmar Söderberg
• Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon
• Code of the Woosters, PG Wodehouse
• 2666, Roberto Bolaño
• Atemschaukel, Herta Müller
• The Land of Green Plums, Herta Müller
• The Passport, Herta Müller
• Landscape Painted with Tea, Milorad Pavic
• Song of Lawino & Song of Okol, Okot p’Bitek
• Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga
• The Restless Supermarket, Ivan Vladislavic
• Reine Pokou, Véronique Tadjo
• Sleepwalking Land, Mia Couto
• Leo Africanus, Amin Maalouf
• Replay, Ken Grimwood
• The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
• Naked, David Sedaris
• The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy
• The Death of Bunny Munro, Nick Cave
• The Walking Dead Vol1: The Days Gone By, Robert Kirkman
• Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
• No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy
• The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perotta
• Left Behind, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
• Against The Day, Thomas Pynchon
• The collector of worlds, Ilya Troyanov
• When Gravity Fails, George Alec Effinger
• Colson Whitehead

Links

• Bad sex award goes to Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones (Literary Review)
• Véronique Tadjo
• “Den danske oversættelse af Atemschaukel udkommer på Gyldendal medio 2010.”
• Bjorn’s Review of Tom Perotta’s The Abstinence Teacher (forum)
• Shigekuni: Field Work: Ilija Trojanow’s “Der Weltensammler”
• Shigekuni: Gotham City: Colson Whitehead’s ”The Intuitionist”
• Shigekuni: Rotter: Colson Whitehead’s “Apex Hides The Hurt”

Download the show here.