Podcasts are breeding like rabbits these days, and luckily for us booknerds, that includes bookish podcasts — and some of them have pretty novel concepts behind them, too. These book podcasts were all launched in 2018 –maybe you’ll find a new favourite among them.
How do you talk about books you don’t enjoy? Alexis De Weese hosts a show with an original premise — authors discuss bad reviews they’ve had, how they’ve dealt with them, and what they’ve learned from them. If you’re a fan of Jimmy Kimmel’s “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets” segment or enjoy shaking your head at outlandish Yelp reviews, this podcast might be for you.
He Read She Read
In this podcast, married couple Curtis and Chelsea talk about what they’re reading and learning. They answer listener questions about their reading lives, give book recommendations, take nostalgic detours, and once a month they discuss a specific book they’ve both read.
Metro Book Chat
Run by the UK’s Metro Newspaper, Metro Book Chat brings us author interviews, rapid book reviews, book news updates, and exclusive readings — as well as lots of giveaways of signed books and other goodies.
My Life in Books
This five-week podcast series hosted by British newspaper The Telegraph features interviews with some of Britain’s favourite novelists, in which they each talk about the four books that mean the most to them. No word yet on a second season, but I imagine there’s a reasonably high probability of one…
Novel Predictions
Each month, Kales or Alyson picks a book that she likes (or loves), which the other hasn’t read. The newbie reader will try to predict what happens after the first five chapters. In the following episode, when both of them have read the book in question, Alyson and Kales then review the book or how right or wrong they were about it.
Sentimental Garbage
This podcast is brand new, with the first full episode coming out in December, and it celebrates chick lit and the so-called guilty pleasures which you’re kind of done feeling guilty about. It’s hosted by the Irish writer Caroline O’Donoghue, author of the much loved Promising Young Women, and she’ll be talking to some of her favourite women about the books they love, as well as to some of the authors of these books, like Marian Keyes and Helen Fielding.
The Slowdown
Want a little more poetry in your life? Every day, you can have it in a five-minute, bite-sized chunk, thanks to this podcast from American Public Media, the Library of Congress, and the Poetry Foundation, which offers you the chance to feel reality in a vivid new way.
The SSR Podcast
In each episode, Alli invites a guest onto the show to discuss an old school kids’ or YA classic and talk about it with a kind-of grown-up perspective. They obsess over heartthrobs, relive the frustrations of middle school, and say the occasional WTF to a beloved author.
The Stacks Podcast
Every other week, Traci Thomas discusses all things bookish with a guest, and in the subsequent episode, she discusses a specific book with the same guest — books like Exit West, The Bluest Eye, or Motherhood, which she talked about with Jo Piazza, author of Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win.
The Stories That Changed My Life
This one bills itself as a “books podcast for the non-bookish”, which just means no previous knowledge of any particular book is required. In each episode, guests share stories from both life and literature that have inspired or shaped them in some way.
You’re Booked
British journalist Daisy Buchanan, author of How to Be a Grown Up and the forthcoming The Sisterhood, snoops around the bookshelves of beloved authors like Nina Stibbe, Nikesh Shukla, and Dolly Alderton. With intelligence and irreverence, she uses what she finds as a springboard to talk about their reading habits and their lives and histories more broadly.
If you’d like more podcast recommendations, check out these previous Book Riot posts:
15 Excellent Bookish Podcasts Launched in 2017
Recommended Podcasts About Libraries and Librarians
The 10 Best Story Podcasts
Buzz Feed also has a great list of 31 Great Podcasts For Every Time of Book Lover.
Give a new book podcast a try and let us know what you think!
