nerdgasm
Harry Poddercast Extravaganza
An announcement for those of you who don’t listen to every episode because you’re avoiding spoilers, books outside your genre, us, etc… July 2013 is going to be our Harry Potter fanboy/girl extreme geekout nerdgasm theater month (still working on an official title). The plan is this: We’re going to read all seven Harry Potter books and post episodes as we finish the books, posting just over our usual one per week episode rate. We know that a lot of our friends and listeners (let’s be honest, basically the same group of people) are big fans of that series, so we’re also looking for guests for these shows.
Here’s what you DON’T have to do.
Be some kind of an expert on literature, magic, publishing, or anything in between. I mean, come one, have you actually listened to us?
Here’s what you DO have to do.
If you want to be a guest for a particular book, contact us through our website, e-mail, twitter, or phone (if you have those numbers already, I’m not posting them here). There’s not necessarily a per episode limit, but we’ve already finished the first book, so letting us know sooner rather than later is a good idea.
Also, please read (or more likely, re-read) the book you want to discuss with us. We know you’ve read them a hundred times already. Refresh your memory. We only discuss the current book in a series, not the series as a whole.
To the last point, I lied a little bit. We are going to discuss the series as a whole after we post the seventh episode. We’re going to do a bonus whole series breakdown as an eighth episode where everything is up for grabs, including movies, fandom, and any other related material. The overview episode will be a roundtable discussion with as many people as can make it.
If you want to participate in this final episode, we ask that you have either: 1) Read the whole series at least twice, or 2) Have read it for the first time recently, let’s say having finished it in the last six months. Ish.
So that’s the plan. Please join us for some Harry Potter vanity fan project fun. And please feel free to participate in recording episodes, especially the finale. We hope to hear from you soon!
Doomsday Book
Novel Ideas returns with Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, a novel by one of the most well regarded authors you’ve probably never heard of. Connie Willis is a Grand Master of science fiction and one of the most decorated science fiction authors in the history of the genre. This book is her classic tale of time travel and plague. But mostly plague. In this episode we discuss the many fantastic characters, our lack of desire to live in the middle ages, and morality as it relates to cultural context. We also lament the death of every character (more or less), the death of a beloved family pet, and worry about happened to that poor cow. There will also be history nerdgasms and quite a bit of broadcast professionalism on display.
The music bump is “Messe de Notre Dame” by Guillaume de Machaut, a contemporary of the novel’s 14th century time line who also happens to share the name of an often referenced character who never actually shows up in the book.
Novel Ideas 