Book Spider

Xi Draconis Books
  • 4.3 (7)
  • BOOKS
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Book Spider (previously known as The God Setebos) is a book-of-the-week podcast primarily covering novels, with the occasional detour into nonfiction, literary criticism, poetry, and music. We pride ourselves in running a smart podcast for the discerning listener, and we strive for the highest level of intellectual rigor.  Our mascot, the book spider, sits in its cold corner, gathering its web of text, looking at the world with its calm, chilly eyes.

  1. 5D AGO

    Pynchon's "Inherent Vice" and Paul Thomas Anderson's film adaptation: A most delightful multimodal pair

    In which the boys discuss Pynchon's delightful drug-haze California novel, Inherent Vice, and Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation to film. Both are good hangs. And honestly, perhaps uniquely, are better for being read and watched together than on their own.

    1h 8m

  2. JAN 22

    Two Say Nay, One Says Yea to Ian McEwan's Atonement

    In this episode, the Spiders discuss the devastating Atonement, by Ian McEwan.

    1h 6m

  3. JAN 4

    The perils of satire in the newsletters of Sam Kriss and Naomi Kanakia

    In which the Spiders discuss two email newsletters hybridizing fiction and nonfiction, Sam Kriss's "The law that can be named is not the true law" and Naomi Kanakia's "Lonely Island Adventures," two pieces whose uncertain mingling of fact and invention may either bolster or undermine their points and their readability.

    51 min

  4. 12/29/2025

    Disappointment with Patricia Lockwood's "Will there ever be another you?"

    In which we discuss the hangout novel/non-novel (should be a memoir? a collection of lyric essays?), and the intense fall-off from her masterpiece, "No one is talking about this."

    51 min

  5. 12/03/2025

    Orwell's Acerbic Ambivalence: A Discussion of Homage to Catalonia

    In this episode, the Spiders chat about Homage to Catalonia, Orwell's journalistic account of the Spanish Civil War. This memoir may in fact be his best work.

    1h 22m

  6. 11/16/2025

    Are Naked Lunch and The Shrouds the secret twins of the Cronenberg filmography? (Plus Violet Lucca's Clinical Trials)

    The Spiders briefly discuss Clinical Trials, Violet Lucca's scholarly analysis of David Cronenberg's filmography, focusing primarily on the downsides of theory-oriented analysis, then go into more depth on the relationship between Cronenberg's new film The Shrouds and his earlier work Naked Lunch.

    1h 22m

  7. 11/12/2025

    On Shakespeare's "Macbeth," and the Polanski and Cohen Film Treatments

    In which we debate whether Polanski's grounded interpretation is better than Joel Cohen's hallucinatory interpretation, but ultimately circle back to the original play and the undying ritual of embodying, ingesting, and interpreting it.

    1h 10m

  8. 10/16/2025

    Post Office, Charles Bukowski's Terrible Debut Novel

    In this episode, the Spiders discuss Post Office, the first novel of infamous womanizing, drunkard poet Charles Bukowski. While it shows some promise in a few areas, it is, overall, pretty bad.

    1 hr
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4.3
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

Book Spider (previously known as The God Setebos) is a book-of-the-week podcast primarily covering novels, with the occasional detour into nonfiction, literary criticism, poetry, and music. We pride ourselves in running a smart podcast for the discerning listener, and we strive for the highest level of intellectual rigor.  Our mascot, the book spider, sits in its cold corner, gathering its web of text, looking at the world with its calm, chilly eyes.

Information

  • Creator
    Xi Draconis Books
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    135
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Book Spider

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