Books of Some Substance
Join hosts David Southard and Nathan Sharp as they explore the books that shape our world. Whether you're a lifelong book lover or just starting your reading journey, join along to discover literature that has the power to inspire, challenge, and transform our lives.
Episodes
José Donoso's The Obscene Bird of Night is one of the most difficult, disturbing, and rewarding novels in Latin American literature.
In this episode, we get into the fractured identities, grotesque transformations, and decaying aristocracy at the heart of this surreal gothic masterpiece.
We ask: Why does this book have such a formidable reputation? What's actually happening in those disorienting, dreamlike passages? And what do we ...
Murder, faith, redemption, justice, morality, and a reckoning with one's beliefs about the world! This is The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
In this episode of the Books of Some Substance podcast, we (Nathan Sharp and David Southard) discuss the second half of the novel, looking at the novel's interplay of belief systems and reality, moral questions, and philosophical insights. We cover the characters' journeys, personal...
In this episode of The Books of Some Substance podcast, Nathan and David get into the first half of Fyodor Dostoevsky's masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov (Books 1-6; Parts 1 and 2).
From the novel's dense, philosophical style and its stark contrast to modern life, to deep dives into themes like love, free will, human suffering, redemption, and the role of faith in a crumbling society, Nathan and David explore what makes this 19th...
In this episode of the Books of Some Substance podcast, hosts Nathan Sharp and David Southard reunite with our old friend Eric Heiman (whose life and experiences connect closely to the novel on this episode) to discuss the intricate and poignant novel Light Years by James Salter.
We get into the unique lyrical and unadorned narrative style of the book, the mysteries of life, the contrast between perceived and real lives, the pursu...
Exploring 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Join hosts David Southard and Nathan Sharp in the Books of Some Substance podcast as they kick off Season 3 with an in-depth discussion on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's seminal Latin American novel, '100 Years of Solitude.' This episode covers the novel's ambitious narrative, magical realism, and deeply complex characters like Jose Arcadio Buendía and Colonel Aureliano...
Season Three: Family
The Books of Some Substance Podcast's third season is underway! David and Nathan are here to announce the season's theme of family and introduce the lineup of books they'll be reading and discussing.
The season opens with '100 Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, followed by 'Light Years' by James Salter, 'The Brothers Karamazov' by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 'The Obscene Bird of Night' by Jose Donoso, 'To the...
In this episode, David and Nathan look back over season two, tracing the connections, marking the distinctions, and reframing their understanding/awareness of how control works in each and every book discussed this season.
Revisiting: The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector, Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee, Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann, The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles, and Tropic o...
In this episode, David and Nathan delve into Henry Miller's controversial and groundbreaking novel "Tropic of Cancer."
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Come explore existential despair, the hell of isolation, and the mad dash into oblivion with Nathan and David.
On this episode, your hosts have an in-depth discussion on Paul Bowles' 1949 novel The Sheltering Sky - a novel of stark prose and philosophical depth that follows Port and Kit Moresby, an American couple traveling in post-WWII North Africa.
Nathan and David delve into the themes of finiteness, the pursuit of oblivion, sel...
Welcome to our episode on the novel Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann. David and Nathan wind their conversation through the disorienting pages of this incredible novel.
We explore its unique form and style, ponder its structure, and discuss how these creative decisions add to the overarching sense of strangeness and mystery that permeates the narrative. In this episode, we contemplate and ponder:
- Is Malina even real? Or perhaps he's...
Nathan and David continue their exploration of control with Waiting for Barbarians, a 1980 novel by South African writer J.M. Coetzee. Empire! Torture! Manipulation! Control! Quite the book, and quite the episode.
Our second episode on Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, and again David is joined by Seth from W.A.S.T.E. Mailing List. Seth is here to nimbly unravel some of the meaning of this insane and insanely good novel, and he does an excellent job. But no matter what they tend to get lost along the way, as any analysis of the book will be "not a disentanglement from, but a progressive knotting into."
Join them as they knot into the bren...
In our first of two episodes on Thomas Pynchon's 1973 masterpiece Gravity's Rainbow, David is joined, once again, by Seth from W.A.S.T.E. Mailing List to talk about one of his favorite ways to approach the novel.
Seth brings an invaluable depth of knowledge and r...
Welcome all and sundry to the first episode of Season 2: Control.
Join us, David and Nathan, as we start this new season dancing to the beautifully strange rhythms of Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star.
In between quoting and praising this novella, we discuss narrative techniques, metaphysical implications, symbolic deaths, co-existing interpretations, and a fall from grace.
Listen in, tag us online to discuss the book, and...
With the 100th episode behind us, and with Nick off exploring the world of dance music, David and Nathan have decided to try some new things. We're going into video (as you can see). We're going seasonal. And we will have a new website, logo, slogan, and much more coming soon. Each new episode will come out on the first Wednesday of every month.
Season 2 - CONTROL
Nov. 1 - THE HOUR OF THE STAR by Clarice Lispector
Dec. 6 - GRAVITY...
On this, our 100th episode, we answered some of your questions from our B.O.S.S. voicemail. Sadly we could not get to them all, but we talked about memory, books worth reading a 1,000 times, and childhood books.
Sadly, we also said farewell to our founding father, Nick, who started this whole wild ride of a podcast and book club. He'll be out there, far from the internet, but still reading good books, still living a life of (some)...
Our 100th episode is coming up. And we want you to call in and leave us a message, ask us a question, read a quote, file a complaint, suggest a book, or leave a cool noise (like a ghost or a fart or a ghost fart or something like that...).
This episode will also, sadly, be Nick's final episode. Our founding father and the first heavy reader is hanging up the mic for other things. So call and say something nice to the man.
Call:
33...
On this episode, David is joined by reader and writer Derek Maine to discuss Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming by everyone's favorite pessimistic, long-winded, Hungraian doom master László Krasznahorkai. By everyone, we mean ours. He's a favorite here at BOSS.
And we are happy to be joined by Derek Maine, author of CHARACTERS, published by Expat Press in 2022.
Join the two of them as they talk fear, form, apocalyptic shizz, and the fa...
David, Eric, and Nick read Jon Fosse's Melancholy I-II, a mid-90s Norwegian novel in two parts that explores the connections between art, death, and the divine. Also discussed in this episode: what exactly is "the divine."
For fans of cyclic long sentences and also cyclic short sentences, Melancholy I-II is perhaps a slightly lesser known Fosse work to English-speaking audiences, but it makes a very conv...
David is joined by Ross Benjamin, translator of Franz Kafka's Diaries in its most authentic form to date. Listen in as they discuss Benjamin's start in the field of translation, his love for Kafka's craftsmanship and humor, and why a new edition of Kafka's diaries needed to be released.
Benjamin's translation is available now via Schocken Books and is a must for any Kafka fan (re...
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