Shelf Destruct

We sat down with Adam Ross, author of Playworld, to talk about taking ten years to write a novel, stealing from your own life without quite writing a memoir, growing up feral in 1980s New York, and why maybe not everything needs to be “content.” Along the way: child acting, literary success, jiu-jitsu, AI, DND, Odysseus, Goodreads psychos, and the idea of becoming a “life artist." This was a...

Remember this book from your high school summer reading list? America’s (most hated? favorite?) teenage menace returns with all the swearing, depression, phonies, and moral panic one could need. We read it and give our thoughts. YouTube → https://youtu.be/BKGiWNwVPgQ Apple Podcasts → https://tinyurl.com/apple-shelf-destruct Follow us → IG: @shelfdestructpod | TT: @shelfdestructpod About Shelf Dest...

Part 2 chopped us up. Someone get my bike. And my finger. YouTube → https://youtu.be/MQuzsixARi0 Apple Podcasts → https://tinyurl.com/apple-shelf-destruct Follow us → IG: @shelfdestructpod | TT: @shelfdestructpod About Shelf Destruct A podcast where three guys ruin literature by talking about it too much. Each week, we read a classic, drink something questionable, and pretend we know what we’re ta...

We read Part 1 of Playworld by Adam Ross. It’s adolescence, just with a script no one bothered to explain. YouTube → https://youtu.be/4TRdmRH73lgApple Podcasts → https://tinyurl.com/apple-shelf-destructFollow us → IG: @shelfdestructpod | TT: @shelfdestructpodAbout Shelf DestructA podcast where three guys ruin literature by talking about it too much. Each week, we read a classic, drink something qu...

In this episode of Shelf Destruct, we start where we’re supposed to: with No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. What begins as a drug deal gone wrong in the Texas desert quickly becomes something colder and stranger. We talk Moss, Bell, Chigurh, and whether that coin flip is philosophy, fate, or just a man pretending he has rules. YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@ShelfDestructPod Apple Podc...

We dive into James Joyce’s The Dead , the final and most devastating story in Dubliners . What starts as a warm, boozy holiday gathering slowly turns into one of the coldest realizations in modern literature. A family party. Polite arguments. Long goodbyes. Snow falling softly over Ireland. And then that final left turn.  If you’ve ever looked back on your life and felt time speeding past you, The...

We read Ernest Hemingway’s A Clean, Well-Lighted Place , a short story about insomnia, loneliness, and hanging around after closing time because going home feels worse. In six pages, Hemingway gives us a whole lot to think about. Just how we like it. If you’ve ever stayed up too late staring at the ceiling, welcome: You’re in the right café. YouTube → https://youtu.be/16vrQzgbMzs Apple Podcasts →...

Does Mother Night the movie hold up? We watched Vonnegut’s 1996 adaptation so you don’t have to (but maybe you should). In this episode, the Shelf Destruct boys break down the weirdness of Nick Nolte as a Nazi propagandist, the surprisingly great cast (hello, Alan Arkin), and why translating Vonnegut to film can be TOUGH. What did the movie get right? What did it miss? Was Mother Night too serious...

In this episode of Shelf Destruct , we dive deep into Part 2 of Albert Camus’ The Stranger — the part where things get courtroom-dramatic, existentially messy, and a little emotional, honestly. Get ready. → Watch on Conversation on Pt. 1 → Watch on YouTube Follow us → IG: @shelfdestructpod | TT: @shelfdestructpod About Shelf Destruct A podcast where three guys ruin literature by talking about it t...

We read Part 1 of Camus’ The Stranger: funerals, why the sunlight in this book feels like a weapon, and what it means to live in an absurd world. YouTube Follow us → IG: @shelfdestructpod | TT: @shelfdestructpod About Shelf Destruct A podcast where three guys ruin literature by talking about it too much. Each week, we read a classic, drink something questionable, and pretend we know what we’re tal...

We read Mother Night , Vonnegut’s novel about a playwright who becomes a Nazi to fight Nazis and then goes through an identity crisis. The kind of book that laughs while it stabs. We are what we pretend to be, so we must be very careful what we post. Watch on YouTube Follow us → IG: @shelfdestructpod | TT: @shelfdestructpod About Shelf Destruct A podcast where three guys ruin literature by talking...

We read Tolstoy’s cheerful little story about dying slowly and realizing that nothing you’ve ever done matters. It’s 120 pages of dread and denial. What do you mean? Of course, we still recommend it. YouTube Apple Podcasts Follow us → IG: @shelfdestructpod | TT: @shelfdestructpod About Shelf Destruct A podcast where three guys ruin literature by talking about it too much. Each week, we read a clas...

Welcome to Shelf Destruct . Up first: campfire steaks, beach beers, and way too much talk about Kurt Vonnegut. We get into why Moby Dick almost killed our book club and why we’re dragging you into Tolstoy next. It's just three guys trying to read their way out of the algorithm. Listen on Apple Podcasts Watch on YouTube Follow us → IG: @shelfdestructpod | TT: @shelfdestructpod Get 'The Deat...