October ‘23 Recap

episode SUMMARY:

In this episode of the Books for Men podcast, Douglas Vigliotti expresses gratitude to listeners and encourages them to continue supporting the show. He also announced that interviews with other writers will be returning in 2024. Vigliotti then provides a summary of the books discussed in October 2023, including Chronicles by Bob Dylan, I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron, Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski, and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. He highlights the significance and themes of each book and encourages listeners to listen to the corresponding episodes for more in-depth discussions. Vigliotti concludes by reminding listeners to share the podcast, offering additional resources such as full transcripts and a monthly newsletter on the website, and reminding listeners they can connect with him on Instagram @douglasvigliotti.

Listen to the episode:

*Subscribe to The Books for Men Newsletter, a monthly round-up of every episode with full book and author info, all the best quotes, and newsletter-only book recommendations!

READ THE TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do so as always, to start off the recap episodes, I always just like to send a big thank you to everybody who listens to the show and more importantly, to those who continue to spread awareness about the show. And you could do so in so many different ways, whether it's simply just liking or rating or subscribing on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on that goes a long way and helping more people find the show or taking it even a step further and verbalizing your support to a friend or a family member, this is something that you hear me say on every single episode. And yes, I record it every time, and so in a way, I'm sick of hearing myself say it, but it's worth it for me because without you and without that support, then we would have no listeners and that wouldn't be cool.

(01:00)

So continue to support the show. I appreciate it immensely. One other thing that I did want to mention because usually this is something I say at the end of the episodes, so in case you tune out if you want to connect with me, you could do so @douglasvigliotti on Instagram. It's the only social media that I have and it's probably the best way for you to connect with me. Lastly, before I jump into the recap for the month of October, I just want to make an announcement. It's sort of an update, something I'm looking forward to sharing with you. And that is in 2024, I am going to be bringing back interviews, so conversations with other writers, both fiction and nonfiction. I'm really looking forward to doing that. Again, I just don't know exactly how I'm going to go about it.

(01:48)

I think I want to do it a little bit differently than I used to do it with my old show. It's not what it seems. So there are just some process-oriented things that I need to get together and also some logistical items. Nothing too daunting of course, but just some decisions that need to get made on my end. And they will. So you can expect that in 2024, I will keep you updated, obviously as we move along and things get closer. Nonetheless, it is something to be excited about for next year. I am so I hope you are as well. Alright, so October, was a really busy and full month. I was actually traveling during the month of October, and so it was also interesting in that regard because I did a lot of cramming to get these episodes done. I think it goes without saying that I am happy I did because each of these books represents something special, and you should definitely go back and listen to the episodes if you are so inclined to do so.

(02:48)

But I guess that would be a good place for me to share what the first book of the month was. And that was Chronicles by none other than Bob Dylan. It is a memoir from the author himself, the most influential singer-songwriter of our time. There's no single artist who has shaped modern music more than Dylan. So if that isn't reason alone to read this book, then I don't know what is. One of the things that became pretty apparent when I was building the newsletter for the month was how many quotes I had from Bob Dylan in my notes, and not just from this book, but from his other book, The Modern Philosophy of Song, which was a recommendation on a past newsletter earlier this year. But I don't want to digress. Why I brought that up was just to say there will be a lot of quotes in the newsletter this month for Dylan.

(03:39)

So it was hard for me to decide which ones to include and which ones to not include. This was even more of a challenge this month because it was such a full month with four books as opposed to three. So there were already more quotes in the newsletter. Anyway, let's move on to the second nonfiction book for the month, which was, I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron. And it was an essay collection about everything in life really, that the iconic filmmaker hasn't yet forgotten. And of course, the foundation for this book is that she was sick and dying when she wrote it. And so she passed away a year or two after the book came out, which makes it very deep. But at the same time, in true Nora Ephron fashion, it's lighthearted and funny and I really can't recommend it enough. The ending of this book has impacted me in so many ways.

(04:27)

And if you want to know more about that ending or about the book, then go back and listen to the episode. Or like she says, “On some level, my life has been wasted on me. After all, if I can't remember it, who can?” Okay, so now this leads us to the two works of fiction for the month. And they're both by somewhat controversial authors, or at least ones that depending on who you are, might rub you the wrong way. But as I was so adamant about in both of their episodes, there is so much to appreciate and even to their most staunch of critics warrants a second look, at least in my eyes. So the first book was Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski, which is a semi-autobiographical novel about growing up a young boy in LA during the Great Depression. I have already mentioned, love him or hate him, this is a really special story.

(05:13)

It'll make you want to laugh and cry all at the same time. And there's probably nobody who is a bigger defender of the writer than Bukowski. And I mean that in the most romantic notion possible. Somebody who tirelessly sits down at a typewriter and types, that is actually his only definition of a writer if you look deeper into his work. And like Dylan, he also has countless amounts of quotes. It was hard for me to select the ones that I wanted to share with you. Perhaps my favorite is one that comes from his book on writing, or not his book on writing, but someone put together this book on everything that Bukowski has said on the subject matter. As I already mentioned, he kind of is known for being crude and upfront, and just…

(05:56)

I don't know, not leaving much up to the imagination, especially when it comes to females and male and female relationships, especially of the sexual nature, of course. So you can imagine he has his detractors because at times some of the things that he has said probably didn't age so well anyway, he would often do poetry readings because he was more of a poet than a pro. This Ham on Rye is his best novel, something that I mentioned in the episode. But after one of his readings, he said, “A couple professors came up and grinned at me for being an ass. It made them feel better. They felt now as if they had a chance at the typewriter.” And to me, this is just quintessential Bukowski for understanding how he thinks he's both railing against the establishment as well as defending the writer.

(06:43)

Not to say that professors don't, obviously, this is his opinion and his perspective, but he's making the statement with that line saying, look, the most important thing is sitting down and writing, not talking about writing, not analyzing somebody else's writing. It's writing. And to me, that is what Bukowski represents and why I have such an appreciation for him. And finally, this brings us to the last episode of the month, which was Vladimir Nabokov, the book was called Lolita, and it was first published in 1955. It's a classic novel about a middle-aged man's perverted obsession with a young girl. It's really a book that will challenge you in a lot of ways, but perhaps there is no better stylist ever than Nabokov. And I talk about that quite a bit in the episode. And by stylist, I mean the way that he writes and how he writes to me, there's just nobody who does it quite like him.

(07:37)

And despite what you might feel about the story itself, which I will admit is extremely hard to read at times, I mean, look, there's no way around it. You're reading about a sick, twisted, older man's pining for a very young girl. But it says a lot about society. There are a lot of great themes that this book will address and questions for you to think about. I often say, and I said this in the episode, friction is good. So when you feel a little bit of unease, don't pull away from it. Push through because that means you're making a breakthrough. You're learning something new. And just like Nabokov says in the book, “I need you, the reader, to imagine us, for we don't really exist if you don't.” So I'll leave you on that little note. It is pretty profound. Think about it. It is applicable in a multitude of ways.

(08:24)

That is something that you will get a lot of in that book. If you do choose to read it like any of these books, if you are interested in them, go back and listen to the episodes. I go a little bit deeper and I will say for the last two especially, leave morality out of it. Morality does not belong in our art needs to depict everything. And so if we only allow certain ideological perspectives into the space of art, whether it be through books or music or movies, then we are cutting off our best attempt to learn about humanity and the totality of humanity. In my eyes, the sciences cannot address humanity like the arts can. They can address a lot of things, but they cannot address humanity in the way that art can. Alright, so on that note, I feel like this is a good place to end and I did want to remind you as I led this off to please share this with a friend or a family member and support it in any of the various ways that you can digitally, like liking, rating, subscribing, following, as well as if you're interested, you can get full transcripts for all of these episodes at BooksforMen.org where you can also sign up for the newsletter, which is a monthly roundup of every episode complete with full book and author information, all the best quotes. And as I mentioned, this month’s will feature a lot of quotes as well as newsletter-only book recommendations. So again, if you're interested, just head over to BooksforMen.org.