Episode 200 - Library Fiction

Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast

It’s episode 200, which means it’s (finally) time for us to discuss Library Fiction! We talk about the stereotypes and tropes of library fiction, unacknowledged work of library workers,and more. Plus: we talk way more about our actual jobs than we usually do.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

• Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges
• The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence
• Ex Libris: Stories of Librarians, Libraries, and Lore by Paula Guran (below are direct links to many of the stories from this collection)
  • In the House of the Seven Librarians by Ellen Klages
  • In Libres by Elizabeth Bear
  • Those Who Watch by Ruthanna Emrys
  • Paper Cuts Scissors by Holly Black
  • Summer Reading by Ken Liu
  • Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
  • With Tales in Their Teeth, From the Mountain They Came by A.C. Wise
  • The Librarian’s Dilemma by E. Saxey
  • The Green Book by Amal El-Mohtar
  • A Woman's Best Friend by Robert Reed
  • If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Xia Jia, translated by Ken Liu
  • The Sigma Structure Symphony by Gregory Benford
  • The Fort Moxie Branch by Jack McDevitt
  • The Last Librarian: Or a Short Account of the End of the World by Edoardo Albert
• How Can I Help You by Laura Sims
• Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
• Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMullen

Other Media We Mentioned

• The Library of Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
• The Empty Crown by Rosemary Edghill
• Meghan meant The Abortion by Richard Brautigan (not Trout Fishing in America)
• The Midnight Library by Kazuno Kohara
• The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
• Bookhunter by Jason Shiga
• Unshelved by Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes
• Library Comic by Gene Ambaum and Willow Payne
• Welcome to Night Vale
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
  • Episode 134 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
• Abbott Elementary
• Pounded In The Butt By My Handsome Sentient Library Card Who Seems Otherworldly But In Reality Is Just A Natural Part Of The Priceless Resources Our Library System Provides by Chuck Tingle
• My Librarian Is A Beautiful Lesbian Ice Cream Cone And She Tastes Amazing by Chuck Tingle
• Party Girl
• Public Enemy - Fight the Power

Fictional Librarians

• 50 Fictional Librarians, Ranked
• Rupert Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
• Barbara Gordon (DC Comics)
• The Librarian (Discworld)
• Lucien (The Sandman)
• Evelyn Carnahan (The Mummy)
• Marian Paroo (The Music Man)
• Librarians (Welcome to Night Vale)
  • “While their description is never fully given, minor details of their physical characteristics have been described:”
    • yellow, gnarled teeth
    • sharp claws and pincers
    • Wings
    • Tentacles
    • thousands of spiny legs
    • rattles (that make noise when they move)
    • thoraxes

Links, Articles, and Things

• Two-Fisted Library Stories zines
• North Boulder Library is ready to open (there’s a slide in image 6!)

15 Librarian & Library Fiction by POC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

• The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
• What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts
• Cora's Kitchen by Kimberly Garrett Brown
• The Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez
• The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
• The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu
• The Library of Fates by Aditi Khorana
• The Plotters by Kim Un-Su
• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
• The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe
• Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
• The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
• The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenjé
• The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
• Bookhunter by Jason Shiga

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Join us again on Tuesday, October 1st we’ll be getting ready for spooky season with the Weird West! (That’s Supernatural Horror Westerns)

Then on Tuesday, October 15th it’s time for our “We All Read the Same Book” episode as we discuss A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher.