Three Percent Podcast

This week's podcast (which was actually recorded weeks ago) features Ryan Chapman of The Penguin Press, who came on with us to discuss the fun marketing campaign Penguin put on to celebrate the release of the ebook versions of all of Thomas Pynchon's books. As usual the conversation swerves from that to discussing American literature in general, the Euro Cup (SPAIN!) and sundry odds and ends, such...

In this week's podcast, Tom and I talk about BookExpo America and its parties, in particular the rocking one that took place at the New Directions offices. I also rant (a bit) about why I didn't get to go to Cape Town to present my speech, " The Long Term Is the Only Race Worth Winning ." There's also a bit of baseball talk related to a bet that the two of us made, and we throw out ideas for a few...

In this week's podcast, Tom and I talk about two related subjects: a  New Yorker article about the translation of the first line of Camus' The Stranger , and the PEN World Voices panel about "Reviewing Translations." There are also some digressions, mostly involving me apologizing for all sorts of things (offending people, swearing, being silly, etc.), and baseball. Naturally. This is a public epi...

This week's podcast is a special Eurovision edition featuring resident Eurovision expert, Kaija Straumanis. We go through a bunch of the videos/songs participating in this year's competition and make fun of almost everything while also trying to come to understand why Eurovision is so compelling in its bizarreness. To follow along with our comments, I highly recommend watching the videos below as...

Tom and I were on fire during this week's podcast, talking about the PEN World Voices Festival and some interesting questions we were asked in an interview for the Picador Book Room Tumblr . While talking about PEN WV, what is learned about a location from reading a book set there, what's lost and/or gained in translation, we (meaning mostly me) tear into a number of things.  This is a public epis...

(My initial plan was to create a title for this podcast that was actually an acrostic spelling out "Oulipo." The best I came up with was "Our Unique Lab Instigating Poetic Opportunities," which is decent, self-referential, and strange, but not perfect. Unfortunately, drinking didn't help me improve upon that, so . . .)    This week's podcast features a special discussion with Daniel Levin Becker,...

This week we completely avoid talking about Amazon and the Department of Justice to focus on genre books in translation. Tom's a big noir/thriller fan, so we talk about a number of those, but we also discuss some works of science-fiction, including XYZ . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.sub...

This week Tom and I welcomed Jeff Waxman of University of Chicago Press and 57th Street Books to the podcast to talk about different approaches to marketing different "types" of translations, such as contemporary translations vs. classic works vs. new translations vs. reprints vs. . . . It's an interesting conversation (isn't it always?) with the conversation ranging from the influence of reviews,...

In this week's podcast, we talk about the future of book reviewing, focusing on a few central questions: who reads book reviews? (A: definitely not my students), what is the function of the book review in today's world?, is there a website/app that would be the ideal book review platform? We also digress into sports talk (as we do), with Tom explaining how he just found out about the new MLB playo...

With the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament getting underway this afternoon (I refuse to acknowledge the "First Four" games), Tom and I thought this would be a good time to talk about the fact that we both picked the exact same Final Four (Kentucky, Missouri, UNC, and Ohio State) and that The Morning News's Tournament of Books  is made up of a lot of mediocre books.    We also talk about the idea of...

To celebrate tonight's announcements of the National Book Critic Circle Award winners, Tom and I decided to go through all six categories (fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, biography, criticism, and poetry) and pick out who we thought would win. Seeing that neither of us has read many of the finalists, this makes for some pretty fun times and some great digressions, like about how we're both ove...

In this week's podcast, Chad and Tom welcome Ed Nawotka, editor of Publishing Perspectives, to unpack the Best Translated Book Award fiction longlist that was announced this week. (Also, Harry Potter, the Oscars, and other fun miscellany all make random appearances.) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threeperce...