Episode 31: ”The Intimidators” (Books We’re Afraid To Take On)

Readers around the world... admit it. We all have them. Those big, complicated, intimidating books that glare at us from our shelves, almost with an air of defiance, just daring us to take them down, dust them off, and you know... actually READ them. But for whatever reason, we haven't been able to get up the guts to do so... well, welcome to episode 31 of the Book XChange podcast, wherein America's favorite twin book nerds accept the challenge... not to read these books, you understand! Let's not get hasty. Merely to discuss those books that have to this point intimidated us enough to keep gathering dust on our shelves, rather than actually be cracked open. Why are Jude and John reluctant to take on some books, and which ones continue to deter them? Which ones have YOU yet to crack open? Come on, you know there's a list. We're sharing ours this time around, and trying to convince each other (or deter each other, as the case may be) to answer the call. This episode was brought to you by the color... YELLOW. BOOKS DISCUSSED/MENTIONED/RECOMMENDED IN THIS EPISODE What Jude is currently reading/plans to read next: 'Chronicles,' Bob Dylan - 'Extraterrestrial,' Avi Loeb - What John is currently reading/plans to read next: 'The Tree of Man,' Patrick White - 'Machines in the Head: Selected Stories,' Anna Kavan - Books/Writers discussed in this episode: The 'Game of Thrones' series, George R. R. Martin - The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer - The work of Jane Austen and Henry James - 'War and Peace,' Leo Tolstoy - 'The Silmarillion,' J. R. R. Tolkien - 'City of God,' Augustine of Hippo - 'The Gulag Archipelago,' Alexander Solzhenitsyn - 'Bleak House,' Charles Dickens - The work of William T. Vollman - 'My Struggle,' Karl Ove Knaussgard - Planned next episode of the Book XChange podcast: Roughly aligning with the 4th of July weekend in the U.S., the Book XChange brothers will talk about books that somehow deal with freedom and independence - not just from the American perspective, but as a human ideal.