{"id":1297,"date":"2013-01-27T15:25:29","date_gmt":"2013-01-27T23:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/?p=1297"},"modified":"2013-01-27T15:25:29","modified_gmt":"2013-01-27T23:25:29","slug":"podthoughts-bookclub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/?p=1297","title":{"rendered":"Podthoughts: Bookclub"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/center><\/p>\n

Vital stats:<\/strong>
\nFormat: moderated conversations between an author and an audience
\nEpisode duration: ~30m (except when Douglas Adams<\/a> comes on
\nFrequency: monthly<\/p>\n

Despite having grown up in America, I\u2019ve cultivated an overwhelmingly British, or at least British Empire, roster of favorite writers: Anthony Lane, Geoff Dyer, Pico Iyer, Clive James, Ian Buruma, Jan Morris \u2014 the list keeps unfurling, mostly on the other side of the Atlantic. (Even those who seem potentially American, like Douglas Coupland, usually turn out to come from fish-nor-fowl places like Canada.) Sometimes I\u2019ll find my own readers \u2014 those, in any case, who\u2019ve never heard me on a podcast \u2014 surprised at my lack of an English accent. (Not that they can then get a fix on the oddly placeless one I do have.) Should I put my attraction to U.K. letters down to my failure to master American English, or did too much time spent among all these Brits \u2014 natives, transplants, sons of former possessions \u2014 cause that failure? Either way, a reader like me can\u2019t help but feast upon a show like BBC Radio 4\u2019s Bookclub<\/em><\/a> [RSS<\/a>] [iTunes<\/a>], which offers a robust archive of discussions with many of these very writers.<\/p>\n

James<\/a> and Morris<\/a> turn up, anyway, as does Coupland<\/a>. So, too, do an array of British men and women of letters whom I\u2019ve barely read yet have always relished hearing speak: a Martin Amis<\/a>, say, or a David Mitchell<\/a>, or a Stephen Fry<\/a>. Ironically, my serious reading career began when, as a youngster, I got into crime novelist Elmore Leonard and, a bit later, political humorist P.J. O\u2019Rourke, two names I imagine strike reading Brits as among the most American wordsmiths alive. Leonard got his start with Westerns and went on to chronicle the sunnily sordid lives of wisecracking Florida lowlifes; P.J. O\u2019Rourke dares simultaneously to have a functioning wit and<\/em> vote Republican. They discuss these matters and others with Bookclub<\/em> host James Naughtie and select audiences of twenty or so readers on their respective<\/a> episodes<\/a> or the program. Though most certainly of<\/em> Britain, the broadcast hardly limits itself to<\/em> Britain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole thing at Maximum Fun<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vital stats: Format: moderated conversations between an author and an audience Episode duration: ~30m (except when Douglas Adams comes on Frequency: monthly Despite having grown up in America, I\u2019ve cultivated an overwhelmingly British, or at least British Empire, roster of favorite writers: Anthony Lane, Geoff Dyer, Pico Iyer, Clive James, Ian Buruma, Jan Morris \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podthoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1297"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1300,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297\/revisions\/1300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}