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Book Spider

Xi Draconis Books

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.

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22 episodes
Avg 1 hr 3 min
English

Episodes 22

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S4 · E97
Saturday · 1 hr 15 min
S4 Ep97: Inconsistent Return on Authorial Indulgence, with JG Ballard's "The Atrocity Exhibition"
In which we discuss the mixed success of JG Ballard's super experimental, multi-modal and even multi-generational work, "The Atrocity Exhibition."
S4 · E96
September 1 · 1 hr 4 min
S4 Ep96: John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath: Maybe It's Sanctimonious, but It's Still a Masterpiece
In this episode, the Book Spider hosts discuss The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. Hans thinks it's sanctimonious, but Patrick and Chris don't really care, because it's awesome all the same.
S4 · E94
August 31 · 1 hr 1 min
S4 Ep94: Yesteryear misunderstands and misuses the tools of fiction
In which the Spiders are really quite unimpressed by Caro Claire Burke's enormously successful debut novel Yesteryear.
S4 · E95
August 23 · 57 min
S4 Ep95: "The Trial" by Kafka - Find the David Wyllie Translation!
In which we discuss Kafka's prophetic qualities and the importance of finding a good translation. The translation we recommend in this instance is that by David Wyllie (hint: search for the Dover thrift edition).
S4 · E93
July 19 · 57 min
S4 Ep93: Michel de Montaigne's Antiquated Essays
In this episode, the Spiders discuss the essays of Montaigne, with mixed feelings.
S4 · E92
June 21 · 47 min
S4 Ep92: John Updike's Couples is a work of cold, amoral beauty
In which the Spiders ponder Couples, by the now-underappreciated John Updike, a breathtakingly wrought and shockingly lovely work that evinces a now-alien disinterest in judging its characters.
S4 · E91
June 9 · 1 hr 10 min
S4 Ep91: Pure and Bureaucratic Horror - Part 3 of Bolanyo's "2666"
In which we close our discussion of one of Bolanyo's masterpiece.
S4 · E90
May 19 · 53 min
S4 Ep90: Ritual Narrative Intermedio this side of the Heart of Darkness; Part 2 of "2666"
In which we discuss the lesser discussed parts of this giant, shaggy novel, and stop just before the door to Hell.
S4 · E89
April 28 · 1 hr 3 min
S4 Ep89: The Mundanity of True Human Horror: Section 1 of Roberto Bolaño's Opus, "2666"
In which we discuss The Part About the Critics, section 1 of Roberto Bolaño's posthumous masterpiece, "2666."
S4 · E88
April 14 · 57 min
S4 Ep88: A Journal of the Plague Year: An Interesting Historical Artifact
In this episode, the Spiders discuss A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe. While interesting as an historical artifact, the novel leaves at least one of the Spiders bored.
S4 · E87
April 5 · 53 min
S4 Ep87: The hollowness of surface satisfactions in Latronico's perfectly adequate Perfection
In which the Spiders take on Vincenzo Latronico's Perfection, a perfectly satisfactory novel which perhaps doesn't give them the sense of mystery and intrigue that some readers have experienced.
S4 · E86
March 23 · 51 min
S4 Ep86: The Catharsis of Chaotic, Perpetual Suffering in Phil Tippet's "Mad God"
In which we discuss the brutal, hilarious, and deeply moving stop motion film, "Mad God," in development for 30 years and finally released in 2024.
S4 · E85
March 18 · 1 hr 15 min
S4 Ep85: What Even Is Genre Anyway?: Discussing U. K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness
In this episode, the Book Spider hosts ask what genre and literary fiction are, and they wonder about the quality of a sci-fi book like The Left Hand of Darkness.
S4 · E84
March 8 · 1 hr 1 min
S4 Ep84: Bleak House, Coming up for Air, and the demise of the English literary tradition
In which the Spiders discuss Charles Dickens's unwieldy, uneven Bleak House, how it may or may not be emblematic of the larger decline of literate culture, and whether we're sure we'd miss it.
S4 · E83
February 24 · 1 hr 22 min
S4 Ep83: kew. rhone. and the uses of obscure art
In which Hans gets a little upset about Chris and Patrick's responses to the album kew. rhone. by John Greaves, Peter Blegvad and Lisa Hermans.
S4 · E82
February 8 · 1 hr 7 min
S4 Ep82: 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.
S4 · E81
January 22 · 1 hr 6 min
S4 Ep81: Two Say Nay, One Says Yea to Ian McEwan's Atonement
In this episode, the Spiders discuss the devastating Atonement, by Ian McEwan.
S4 · E80
January 4 · 50 min
S4 Ep80: 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.
S4 · E79
Dec 29, 2025 · 50 min
S4 Ep79: 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."
S4 · E78
Dec 3, 2025 · 1 hr 21 min
S4 Ep78: 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.

Showing 1–20 of 22 episodes