Folgen
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I love this book.
I love Susanna Crossman for recommending it.
And I love you, my bookish friend. Because why not?
Indeed, I’m filled with book love to have discovered both Susanna and John’s work recently and it’s a pleasure to feature them both on the podcast.
When Susanna recommended reading John D’Agata’s About A Mountain, I’d never heard of it. To my shame, I’d never heard of John D’Agata.
If you find yourself in the same situation… listen to this episode and then go buy About A Mountain.
But before you confirm your order or hand over your shillings to the bookseller, add a copy of Susanna’s fascinating memoir Home Is Where We Start too—it’s great. Susanna’s own story will amaze you as much as the story of Yucca Mountain will.
Yup. We’re piling on the non-fiction in this episode, so strap in and get ready to have some serious insight inserted into your ears as I welcome you to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.
As you may well know by now, in each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
If you enjoy the show and would like to help us (and get your hands on a coveted Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge), you can become a supporter of the library by upgrading your subscription.
But either way, please do like and share the show—it all helps.
As I say, in this episode, my very special guest is the brilliant Susanna Crossman discussing her pick for the library, the 2010 essay About A Mountain by John D’Agata.
About Susanna
Susanna Crossman grew up in an international utopian community in England during the 1970s and 80s. Now based in France, she works internationally as a writer, clinical art therapist, and lecturer. Her recent writing has been featured in Aeon, the Paris Review, and Berfois. She is a published novelist in French and regularly collaborates with artists. She lives with her partner and three daughters.
About John
John D'Agata is an American essayist. He is the author or editor of six books of nonfiction, including The Next American Essay (2003), The Lost Origins of the Essay (2009) and The Making of the American Essay—all part of the trilogy of essay anthologies called "A New History of the Essay". He also wrote The Lifespan of a Fact, Halls of Fame, and About a Mountain. D'Agata has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Howard Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation. He is the M.F. Carpenter Professor of Writing in the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
* Order About A Mountain by John D’Agata and Susanna’s fascinating book Home Is Where We Start from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
* You can watch snippets of an interview with John D’Agata discussing About A Mountain here.
* Find Susanna on Instagram here.
* Find Glenn on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. The library is free—like all libraries should be. But if you’d like to support the library, you can make a small monthly donation by becoming a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge). All donations go back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My writing has been published in online literary journals Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I am currently working on my first novel. I write about books and interview other writers and creatives here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands.
Get full access to The Library of Lazy Thinking at lazythinking.substack.com/subscribe -
At just 176 loosely-fonted pages and ostensibly about a woman who has a holiday romance with a grizzly, you might think the appropriately titled Bear sounds somewhat “throwaway.”
A bit weird. A bit surreal. Even a bit pervy.
You probably wouldn’t think it serious literature.
But there you’d be wrong.
The book works on several levels, raising thought-provoking questions about male violence, patriarchy, and colonialism. It ain’t throwaway, my friend. It’s a potential classic.
Thankfully, I had the excellent author, translator, and publisher, Jen Calleja, to guide me through the myriad interpretations of this strange and only recently rediscovered novel.
Indeed, welcome to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.
In each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
If you enjoy the show and would like to help us (and get your hands on a coveted Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge), you can become a supporter of the library by upgrading your subscription.
But either way, please do like and share the show—it all helps.
In this episode, my very special guest is, as I say, the brilliant Jen Calleja discussing her pick for the library, the 1976 novel Bear by Marian Engel.
About Jen
Jen Calleja is the author of Goblinhood: Goblin as a Mode, Vehicle, Dust Sucker, I’m Afraid That’s All We’ve Got Time For, and Serious Justice. She is a literary translator from German and has translated the work of authors such as Wim Wenders, Marion Poschmann, Gregor Hens, and Michelle Steinbeck (who was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize). She is also a publisher at Praspar Press. You can find out more about Jen by visiting her own website at JenCalleja.com.
About Marian
Marian Engel was a Canadian novelist and a founding member of the Writers' Union of Canada. Her most famous and controversial novel was Bear (1976), a tale of erotic love between an archivist and a bear.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
* Order Bear by Marian Engel and Jen’s own most recent book Goblinhood: Goblin as a Mode from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
* You can read the New Yorker article we mention in the episode by Claire Cameron here.
* You can watch an interview with Marian Engel discussing Bear here.
* Find Jen on Instagram here.
* Find Glenn on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. The library is free—like all libraries should be. But if you’d like to support the library, you can make a small monthly donation by becoming a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge). All donations go back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My writing has been published in online literary journals Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I am currently working on my first novel. I write about books and interview other writers and creatives here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands.
Get full access to The Library of Lazy Thinking at lazythinking.substack.com/subscribe -
Fehlende Folgen?
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Strap in.
We’re leaving the known world behind to explore the strange ecstatic visions of a little-known but hugely influential French writer, a fascinating chap called Gérard de Nerval.
We’re going to the edge of perception… and we’re going to peek over it.
Will we return changed? Enlightened? Alive?
Who knows?
Welcome to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.
In each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
If you enjoy the show and would like to help us (and get your hands on a coveted Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge), you can become a supporter of the library by upgrading your subscription.
But either way, please do like and share the show—it all helps.
In this episode, my very special guest (and someone I’ve wanted to get on the show since its inception) is the brilliant Rob Doyle discussing his pick for the library, the 1855 novella Aurélia by Gérard de Nerval.
About Rob
Rob Doyle was born in Dublin. His first novel, Here Are the Young Men, was chosen as a book of the year by the Sunday Times, Irish Times, and Independent, and was among Hot Press magazine’s ‘20 Greatest Irish Novels 1916-2016’. Doyle adapted it for film with director Eoin Macken. Doyle also has a published collection of short stories: This is the Ritual. He is the editor of the anthology The Other Irish Tradition and In This Skull Hotel Where I Never Sleep. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Vice, TLS, Dublin Review, and many other publications, and he writes regularly for the Irish Times. His most recent book Threshold was published in 2020, followed by Autobibliography in 2021.
About Gérard
Gérard de Nerval was a French essayist, poet, translator, and travel writer. He was a major figure during the era of French romanticism, and is best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collection Les Filles du feu (The Daughters of Fire), which included the novella Sylvie and the poem "El Desdichado". Through his translations, Nerval played a major role in introducing French readers to the works of German Romantic authors, including Klopstock, Schiller, Bürger, and Goethe. His later work merged poetry and journalism in a fictional context and influenced Marcel Proust. His last novella, Aurélia (ou le rêve et la vie), influenced André Breton and Surrealism.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
* Order Gérard de Nerval’s Selected Writings and Rob’s Threshold from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
* Find Rob on Instagram here.
* Find Glenn Fisher on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. The library is free—like all libraries should be. But if you’d like to support the library, you can make a small monthly donation by becoming a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge). All donations go back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My writing has been published in online literary journals Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I am currently working on my first novel. I write about books and interview other writers and creatives here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands.
Get full access to The Library of Lazy Thinking at lazythinking.substack.com/subscribe -
Sometimes the best place to begin a story is at the end.
Sometimes, a whole story is about an end.
(That certainly seems to be the case with Lydia Davis’ only novel, The End of the Story.)
But sometimes, the end is not an end at all and is in fact the beginning of a new story.
It’s a confusing business.
Thankfully, we have the brilliant novelist and writer Olivia Sudjic on hand to help determine if we’re at the end, the beginning, or lost wandering somewhere in between.
Welcome to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.
In each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
If you enjoy the show and would like to help us (and get your hands on a coveted Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark), you can become a supporter of the library by upgrading your subscription.
But either way, please do like and share the show—it all helps.
As I say, in this sixth episode of the show, my very special guest is the superb Olivia Sudjic discussing her pick for the library, the 1995 novel The End of the Story by Lydia Davis.
Enjoy.
About Olivia
Olivia Sudjic is the author of Sympathy, which was a finalist for the Salerno European Book Award and the Collyer Bristow Prize, and Exposure, a non-fiction work named an Irish Times, Evening Standard, and White Review Book of the Year for 2018. Her second novel, Asylum Road, was published in 2021 and shortlisted for the Encore Award and the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize. In 2023, she was named on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list, compiled every 10 years since 1983, identifying the 20 most significant British novelists aged under 40.
About Lydia
Lydia Davis is the author of one novel and seven short story collections, one of which was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award. She is the acclaimed translator of an edition of Swann’s Way, published by Penguin Press, and her translation of Madame Bovary was published by Viking in the US and the UK in 2010. She was awarded the Man Booker International Prize in May 2013.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
* Order The End of the Story and Olivia’s novels Sympathy and Ayslum Road from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
* An interesting video of Lydia talking about shaping messy material can be watched here.
* Find Olivia Sudjic on Instagram here.
* Find Glenn Fisher on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. The library is free—like all libraries should be. But if you’d like to support the library, you can make a small monthly donation by becoming a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark). All donations go back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My writing has been published in online literary journals Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I’m currently working on my first novel. I write about books and interview other writers and creatives here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands.
Get full access to The Library of Lazy Thinking at lazythinking.substack.com/subscribe -
Getting into someone’s mind is a dangerous business.
Consider poor Kylie Minogue who, as far as I know, has never managed to get an unnamed “Boy” out of her own. She’s tried, but she just can’t—he’s now literally all she ever thinks about.
Given the clear risks, I was worried about reading Eimear McBride’s The Lesser Bohemians, a book that attempts to get into the mind of an 18-year-old Irish girl who falls in love with an older man in 90s London.
Thankfully, I had the brilliant Rebecca Watson to guide me. She’s an expert in the process (as her first novel little scratch proves).
Indeed, welcome to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.
In each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
If you enjoy the show and would like to help us (and get your hands on a coveted Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge), you can become a supporter of the library by upgrading your subscription.
But either way, please do like and share the show—it all helps.
As I say, in this fifth episode, my very special guest is celebrated author Rebecca Watson. She discusses her pick for the library, the 2016 novel The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride.
About Rebecca
Rebecca Watson is a novelist. Her first book, little scratch (2021), was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize and adapted into a play with sell-out runs at Hampstead Theatre and New Diorama. Watson was chosen as one of the Observer's 10 best debut novelists of 2021 and as a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice. Her second novel, I Will Crash, was published in July 2024 to critical acclaim, with the Observer hailing her as a 'one-of-a-kind storyteller'. Her non-fiction has been published widely, including in the Guardian, the TLS, Granta, and British Vogue. In 2022, she presented a documentary for BBC Radio 4—where her short stories have also aired.
About Eimear
Eimear McBride grew up in the west of Ireland and trained at Drama Centre London. Her first novel A Girl is a Half-formed Thing took nine years to find a publisher and subsequently received a number of awards, including the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, and the Goldsmiths Prize. Her second novel The Lesser Bohemians won the 2017 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award. In 2017 she was awarded the inaugural Creative Fellowship of the Beckett Research Centre, University of Reading. In a 2018 Times Literary Supplement poll of 200 critics, academics, and fiction writers, McBride was named one of the ten best British and Irish novelists writing today.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
* Order The Lesser Bohemian’s and Rebecca’s latest novel I Will Crash from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
* A good interview with Eimar McBride can be found on YouTube here.
* The episode about My Phantoms with special guest Aidan Cottrell-Boyce can be found here.
* Find Rebecca Watson on Instagram here.
* Find Glenn Fisher on Instagram here.
* Find The Library of Lazy Thinking on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. The library is free—like all libraries should be. But if you’d like to support the library, you can make a small monthly donation by becoming a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark). All donations go back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My writing has been published in online literary journals Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I write about books and interview other writers and creatives here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean too. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands.
Get full access to The Library of Lazy Thinking at lazythinking.substack.com/subscribe -
Do we all go through a Will Self phase?
Maybe.
But only one writer I know turned their enjoyment of Will Self into a brilliant, mildly mind-bending, and wholly entertaining detective-ish novel.
Enter Sam Mills.
And welcome to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.
In each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
If you enjoy the show and would like to help us (and get your hands on a coveted Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark), you can become a supporter of the library.
But either way, please do like and share the show—it all helps.
In this episode, my very special guest is the wonderful Sam Mills discussing her pick for the library: The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino.
(We had some audio problems on this one—with the recording missing some frequencies, but hopefully, you’ll be able to listen and enjoy Sam’s thoughts.)
About Sam
Sam Mills graduated from Oxford University with a degree in English Language and Literature. She is the author of 3 young adult novels published by Faber & Faber, including the award-winning Blackout. Her debut novel for adults, The Quiddity of Will Self (Corsair, 2012) was described by The Sunday Times as 'an ingenious, energetic read' and The Guardian as 'an extraordinary novel of orgiastic obsession.' In 2020, Fourth Estate published her memoir about being a carer, The Fragments of my Father, which was shortlisted for the Barbellion Prize. Her most recent novel, The Watermark, was published by Granta in 2024. Sam has written for a number of publications, including The Guardian, The Independent, 3am Magazine, and The London Magazine. She is the co-founder of indie press Dodo Ink and lives in London looking after her father and cat.
About Italo
Italo Calvino was an Italian writer and journalist. His best-known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952–1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If on a winter's night a traveler (1979). Admired in Britain, Australia, and the United States, Calvino was the most translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death. He is buried in the garden cemetery of Castiglione della Pescaia in Tuscany.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
* Order The Complete Cosmicomics and Sam’s book The Watermark from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
* Find Sam Mills on Instagram here.
* Find Glenn Fisher on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. The library is free—like all libraries should be. But if you’d like to support the library, you can make a small monthly donation by becoming a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark). All donations go back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My writing has been published in online literary journals Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I write about books and interview other writers and creatives here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands.
Get full access to The Library of Lazy Thinking at lazythinking.substack.com/subscribe -
As the frontman of the band Fat White Family, you might know Lias Saoudi as an exciting, confrontational, and spanx-wearing rock phenomenon.
You might also know him as a great writer, as evidenced by Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure, which he co-authored with Adelle Stripe (news on the Stripe front coming soon).
But you probably don’t know him as a Warhammer-collecting, duck-eating, mortality-fearing handbag model.
Today, that all changes.
Welcome to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.
In each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
If you enjoy the show and would like to help us (and get your hands on a coveted Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark), you can become a supporter of the library by upgrading your subscription.
But either way, please do like and share the show—it all helps.
In this third episode, my very special guest is indeed the brilliant Lias Saoudi discussing his pick for the library, the 2016 memoir White Sands by Geoff Dyer.
About Lias
Lias Saoudi is a writer, artist, and musician, and the frontman of Fat White Family. Born to a British mother and Algerian father, he grew up in the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, before moving to London and gaining a Fine Art degree from Slade School of Art. During the first UK lockdown, Lias began contributing a series of unflinching autobiographical pieces entitled Life Beyond the Neutral Zone to the online cultural hub, The Social Gathering. He has published in The New Frontier: Reflections From the Irish Border—an anthology of new writing from some of Ireland’s greatest contemporary authors marking the centenary of partition. He is also the debut guest editor of Ambit Pop, a new annual issue of the venerable quarterly arts magazine. His first book, Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure, co-written with Adelle Stripe, is described by Miranda Sawyer in The Observer as “the story of a band that’s always on the brink: of stardom, of madness, of brilliance, of disgrace”. It was published by White Rabbit Books in 2022.
About Geoff
Geoff Dyer is the author of Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi and three previous novels, as well as nine non-fiction books. Dyer has won the Somerset Maugham Prize, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, a Lannan Literary Award, the International Center of Photography’s 2006 Infinity Award for writing on photography, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ E.M. Forster Award. In 2009 he was named GQ’s Writer of the Year. He won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2012 and was a finalist in 1998. In 2015 he received a Windham Campbell Prize for non-fiction. His books have been translated into twenty-four languages. He currently lives in Los Angeles where he is Writer in Residence at the University of Southern California.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
* Order White Sands and Lias’s book (with Adelle Stripe) Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
* The Hyundai advert starring Lias and narrated by Rob Doyle.
* The official video for the excellent song Feet by Fat White Family.
* Find Lias Saoudi on Instagram here.
* Find Glenn Fisher on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. The library is free—like all libraries should be. But if you’d like to support the library, you can make a small monthly donation by becoming a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark). All donations go back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My writing has been published in Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I write about books and interview other writers and creatives here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands.
Get full access to The Library of Lazy Thinking at lazythinking.substack.com/subscribe -
Sexy frogmen are sneaking around and clowns are being run over in Belfast.
What’s going on?
Well, you’re about to find out.
Welcome to Episode Two of The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.
In each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
If you enjoy the show and would like to help us (and get your hands on a coveted Library of Lazy Thinking Bookmark), you can become a supporter of the library by upgrading your subscription.
But either way, please do like and share the show—it all helps.
In this episode, my very special guest is the wonderful Wendy Erskine discussing her pick for the library: Mrs Caliban by Rachel Ingalls.
It was such a pleasure talking to Wendy and I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as I enjoyed recording it.
About Wendy
Wendy Erskine lives in Belfast. Her debut collection, Sweet Home, was published by The Stinging Fly Press in Sept 2018 and Picador in 2019, and has been translated into Italian and Arabic and optioned for TV. It won the 2020 Butler Literary Award, was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize 2019, and was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2019. The story 'Inakeen' was longlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Prize 2019. Sweet Home was Book of the Year in the Guardian, The White Review, Observer, New Statesman, and TLS. Wendy's second collection of stories, Dance Move, was published in February 2022. Her work has been published in The Stinging Fly, Winter Papers, Female Lines: New Writing from Northern Ireland, and Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber) and read on BBC Radio 4.
About Rachel
Rachel Ingalls was born in Boston in 1940. She spent time in Germany before studying at Radcliffe College and moved to England in 1965, where she lived for the rest of her life. Her debut novel, Theft (1970), won the Authors’ Club First Novel Award, and her novella Mrs Caliban (1982) was named one of the 20 best American novels since World War Two by the British Book Marketing Council. Over half a century, Ingalls wrote 11 story collections and novellas—all published by Faber—to great acclaim but remains relatively unknown. She died in 2019 after a revival of interest in her work.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
* Order Mrs Caliban and Wendy’s book Dance Move from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
* Read about and see images from a play that imagined what Larry might look like here.
* Watch the OG “frogman” perform Needle in the Hay by Elliot Smith here.
* Find Wendy Erskine on Instagram here.
* Find Glenn Fisher on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. The library is free—like all libraries should be. But if you’d like to support the library, you can make a small monthly donation by becoming a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark). All donations go back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My fiction has been published in Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I write about books and interview other writers and creatives here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands.
Get full access to The Library of Lazy Thinking at lazythinking.substack.com/subscribe -
It’s here.
And you came.
Hurrah!
Imagine me, standing at an elaborate entrance to a grand hall, wearing a tuxedo, bowing deeply, and welcoming you to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast.
I’ll be your host, Glenn Fisher (though I’m going to change into something more casual now).
So—what’s it all about?
In short, it’s a new series of book-based wonder-chat.
In each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
(You know, I thought this orange leotard and neon cravat would be more casual. I’m not so sure.)
If you enjoy the show and would like to help us (and get your hands on a coveted Library of Lazy Thinking Bookmark), you can become a supporter of the library by upgrading your subscription.
But either way, please do like and share the show—it all helps.
In this first episode, my very special guest is the author of The End of Nightwork, the wonderful Aidan Cottrell-Boyce. We roam far and wide around his excellent pick for the library, the 2021 novel My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley.
You can listen here on Substack, or you can find the podcast on platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
But wherever you choose to listen…
I do hope you enjoy our book-based wonder-chat.
About Aidan
Aidan Cottrell-Boyce was born in Liverpool in 1987. He completed his PhD at the Divinity Faculty of the University of Cambridge in 2018. During his doctoral studies, he ran as a Parliamentary candidate for the Green Party. He is the author of two academic books: Jewish Christians in Puritan England (2020) and Israelism in Modern Britain (2021). His short fiction has appeared in The White Review. He currently works as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at St Mary's University in London. His first novel, The End of Nightwork, was published by Granta in January 2023 and he was chosen as one of the Observer's best debut novelists of 2023.
About Gwendoline
Gwendolyn Riley was born in London in 1979. She is the author of My Phantoms, which was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize; of First Love, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Gordon Burn Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for fiction; and of Cold Water, Sick Notes, Joshua Spassky, and Opposed Positions. She has also won a Betty Trask Award and a Somerset Maugham Award and has been shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. In 2018, The Times Literary Supplement named her as one of the twenty best British and Irish novelists working today.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
* Order My Phantoms and Aidan’s book The End of Night Work from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
* The Chekhov quote about presenting problems correctly here.
* Watch the interview with Gwendoline Riley I mentioned here.
* Find Aidan Cottrell-Boyce on Instagram here.
* Find Glenn Fisher on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. The library is free—like all libraries should be. But if you’d like to support the library, you can make a small monthly donation by becoming a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark). All donations go back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My fiction has been published in Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika and Litro Magazine. I write about books and interview other writers and creatives here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands.
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