Podcast review: Book Shambles S07E01

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I have recently come across the Book Shambles podcast while listening to Podcast Radio Hour on BBC Radio 4.

 In the words of Josie Long, it is a podcast where the presenters get to "meet mainly authors and poets but also just people we are interested in and people we like and we just ask them about books that they love and about what got them into reading, what they are reading now...".

 I was hooked before she could even finish the sentence and this morning I listened to one of their episodes. 

 I would normally start from either the very first or the very last episode and work my way up or down from there. This year, however, I would like to be less structured (not that there is anything wrong with structure!) and I purely picked an episode based on something that caught my interest.

 The episode in question if the first of the 7th season (gosh, I have a lot to catch up on!) and has Jeff Garlin as guest. In the introduction, books about trees are mentioned... and that's what made me listen to it. Now, I am not a tree expert but I do find them fascinating. Dame Judi Dench's documentary My passion for trees was on television recently and it was rather magnificent. But I digress!

 To listen to the podcast, all you have to do is click on the link below, which also very usefully lists all books mentioned during the episode:

I particularly enjoyed the way that the conversation has books as a starting point but it takes a life of its own and goes off on tangents only to then being brought back to where it all began... to books. It doesn't feel forced... it's exactly like listening to friends talking.

 I also loved the passion you can hear in Garlin's voice when he talks about books - and I hope very much that his children will learn to appreciate reading more as they grow up. I don't have children yet and I can't imagine how I would take a rejection of books from their part. It would be heartbreaking! Have you been in that situation? What is your advice?

 ***

 Added to my wish list:

 The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger - I know, it's a classic! Please don't judge!

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