Summary: Do audiobooks count as reading (redux), Literary elitism and self-congratulations, Dept. of Speculation and The Martian. Levels of Engagement Kristy in St. Louis disagrees with our opinions that listening to an audiobook counts as reading. She wants to know how listening is any different from watching a movie based on a book. Michael and I talk about our views. What do you think? (http://booksonthenightstand.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/audiobooks.jpg)Audiobook of the week (06:00) (http://covers.audiobooks.com/images/covers/full/9780804164740.jpg) One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak, read by Novak and a cast of narrators including Emma Thompson, Rainn Wilson, Mindy Kaling, Lena Dunham, Katy Perry, and a bunch of other people, is my pick for this week’s Audiobooks.com Audiobook of the Week. Special thanks to Audiobooks.com for sponsoring this episode of Books on the Nightstand. Audiobooks.com allows you to listen to over 40,000 audiobooks, instantly, wherever you are, and the first one is free. Download or stream any book directly to your Apple or Android device. Sign up for a free 30-day trial and free audiobook download by going to www.audiobooks.com/freebook (http://www.audiobooks.com/freebook) The Psychology of Literary Opinion (09:09): The discussion that Michael and I had when recording this episode is impossibly to summarize. We started with a discussion about two articles we read, and then it evolved into a philosophical discussion on the psychology behind recommending books, and a host of other rather disjointed thoughts. If you listen (and please do), we'd love to hear your thoughts. Our topic was sparked by an article in Salon written by Laura Miller titled "Is the Literary World Elitist? (http://www.salon.com/2014/02/07/is_the_literary_world_elitist/)". It got us thinking. Miller references a piece by author Eleanor Catton (http://metromag.co.nz/metro-archive/eleanor-catton-on-literature-and-elitism/) (The Luminaries). Catton's piece was a reaction to a reader's complaint that a Paris Review article used an unfamiliar word (crepuscular) and was therefore "elitist." Catton asks: " If a reader doesn’t understand a poem, who is at fault — the poem, the poet or the reader?" Miller's article points out that the person who complained about the unfamiliar word was not angry that the article was elitist, but was rather frustrated because it made the reader feel ignorant. Miller's take on "literary insecurity" also includes those who put down popular fiction, even though they haven't read it. We also wonder (aloud) why people review books on sites like Goodreads. Is it to help others, or for our own validation? I hope our discussion makes sense. Honestly, it was very fun to talk about these topics and I enjoyed it while we were recording. Two books we can't wait for you to read (24:11): (https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1367929545l/17402288.jpg) (https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1377707689l/18007564.jpg) Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation is a read-in-one-sitting powerhouse of a novel, full of emotion and gorgeousness. It's a look at a woman who is suffering a crisis in her marriage, written in the form of letters that read like journal entries. This isn't an easy book to describe, but it's a novel that works on many different levels and is quite unique in style. Michael has been dying to talk about The Martian and today's his chance. Andy Weir has written a book that Michael describes as "Robinson Crusoe on Mars," or "Apollo 13 meets Castaway," and that "the pages turn themselves." Full of scientific detail, it's the story of a man who is left for dead on Mars, waiting for the next mission which is not scheduled for four more years. It's set slightly in the future, but will appeal even to readers who don't read science fiction.
