Daniel Torday makes a triumphant return to talk about his new novel, BOOMER1. He and James chat about creating the world around the book, reinventing like Dylan, aspiring to anti-lyricism, and getting excited about liking stuff. They try to parse out a comic novel vs. a funny one and what constitutes satire. Plus, Emory Harkins discusses the mobile and now brick-and-mortar book store he co-founded and co-owns with Alexa Trembly, Twenty Stories.

Daniel Torday

Daniel and James Discuss:

David Crosby

THE RUMPUS

“Pretty Polly”

Fleet Foxes

Dirty Projectors

Dr. Dog

WXPM

“Superstitious” by Stevie Wonder

The Velvet Underground

PASTORALIA by George Saunders

MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS by Kelly Link

Junot Diaz

Karen Russell

David Foster Wallace

Flannery O’Connor

Bob Dylan

William Faulkner

THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow

SEIZE THE DAY by Saul Bellow

INFINITE JEST by David Foster Wallace

John Updike

Philip Roth

Netflix

TREE OF SMOKE by Denis Johnson

JESUS’ SON by Denis Johnson

TRAIN DREAMS

RED CALVARY by Isaac Babel

Twenty Stories Bookstore

FLORIDA by Christine Schutt

THE AGE OF WIRE AND STRING by Ben Marcus

Aleksandar Hemon

BLOOD MERIDIAN by Cormac McCarthy

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN by Cormac McCarthy

SUTTREE by Cormac McCarthy

James Joyce

ABSALOM, ABSALOM by William Faulkner

LIBRA by Don DeLillo

Dana Spiotta

Leonard Michaels

Grace Paley

Thomas Bernhard

Laszlo Krasznahorkai

Franz Kafka

Samuel Beckett

Jack Ruby

Lee Harvey Oswald

The Titanic

Occupy Wall Street

ORLANDO by Virginia Woolf

WE ARE LEGION

McSweeney’s

DAWN OF THE DEAD dir George A. Romero

David Remnick

Fyodor Dostoevsky

YOUR DUCK IS YOUR DUCK by Deborah Eisenberg

Lydia Davis

Dave Barry

Colson Whitehead

Rivka Galchen

OZARK

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT

Gary Shteyngart

John Mulaney

Pitchfork

Mike Nichols & Elaine May

Dave Chappelle

Chris Rock

THE SOPRANOS

Alfred Hitchcock

Chris Farley

Jane Goodall

Harold Bloom

Lewis Hyde

Yaddo

Best American Short Stories

The O. Henry Prize Stories

Mary Gaitskill

ESQUIRE

“Messiah” by George Friderick Handel

Chris Thile

The Ramones

TWENTY STORIES

Emory and James discuss:

ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac

FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS by Hunter S. Thompson

Alexa Trembly

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

DISQUIET

AMERICAN SHORT FICTION

TWO DOLLAR RADIO

CURBSIDE SPLENDOR

THE DEEPER THE WATER, THE UGLIER THE FISH by Katya Apekina

HALF OF A YELLOW SUN by Chimamanda Adichie

COMEMADRE by Roque Larraquy, translated by Heather Cleary

WHEN RAP SPOKE STRAIGHT TO GOD by Erica Dawson

JESUS’ SON by Denis Johnson

WHITE GIRLS by Hilton Als

something bright, then holes by Maggie Nelson