If you love reading, listening to book podcasts can be a great way to spend your spare time. Whether you choose to follow along with a conversation about a book you've enjoyed, an author interview or an author reading, book-based audio content makes for pleasant entertainment at home or on the road. And as reading is often a solitary activity, podcasts can offer a much-needed sense of connection and help stoke your excitement about reading or discussing books with others.
But with the podcast still being a relatively new listening format, and one that's detached from traditional media, it can be tough to know where to start. So we've put together a list for you of some of the best book podcasts out there.
Between the Covers
Between the Covers, brought to you by the publisher Tin House, specializes in long-form, in-depth writer interviews of a quality you'll likely be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. Host David Naimon has welcomed many notable authors and poets to the show to discuss their latest work and their perspectives on writing and literature, including Elaine Castillo, Morgan Talty, Rabih Alameddine, Percival Everett, Natalie Diaz and Jenny Offill.
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LARB Radio Hour
On this podcast produced by the
Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB), hosts Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher and Eric Newman speak with a variety of authors of recent releases. Past guests include Sabrina Imbler, Torrey Peters, Raquel Gutiérrez and Douglas Stuart.
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Well-Read Black Girl
Described as "the literary kickback you never knew you needed,"
Well-Read Black Girl is a podcast hosted by Glory Edim that features friendly and thoughtful author interviews, mostly with Black women writers. Past episodes have included talks with Jacqueline Woodson, Brit Bennett, Tayari Jones and Deesha Philyaw.
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The Writer's Voice
The Writer's Voice is hosted by
New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman, and focuses on authors reading their own stories. It's a simple approach that covers a lot of ground. Past episodes feature Louise Erdrich, Joan Silber, Bryan Washington and Lauren Groff.
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The New Yorker's Fiction Podcast
In addition to
The Writer's Voice,
The New Yorker has a fiction podcast (also hosted by Deborah Treisman) where writers read and discuss work by other authors that has been published in the magazine. Previous episodes cover Gish Jen reading Grace Paley, Elif Batuman reading Sylvia Townsend Warner, Susan Choi reading Jennifer Egan and Ben Okri reading Franz Kafka.
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Literary Friction
Literary Friction is a show broadcast out of London that's available in podcast form to listen to anytime. Hosts Carrie Plitt and Octavia Bright structure discussions with author-guests around particular themes. Past guests have included Yiyun Li, Honorée Fannone Jeffers and Elizabeth Strout.
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Books and Boba
Books and Boba, hosted by Marvin Yueh and Reera Yoo, highlights books by authors of Asian descent through interviews with Asian American writers as well as writers with Asian backgrounds located elsewhere, and discussion of translated books from Asian authors. Past episodes have featured Iris Yamashita, Tracey Lien and Ocean Vuong.
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VS
In this podcast available on the Poetry Foundation website, hosts Ajanaé Dawkins and Brittany Rogers talk to a variety of contemporary poets about their own work as well as the work of other poets (living and dead). Past guests include Destiny O. Birdsong, Tommy Pico, Eduardo C. Corral and Ada Limón.
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London Review Bookshop Podcast
The London Review Bookshop puts out a podcast featuring authors in conversation with other authors. Episodes cover Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah in conversation with Kamila Shamsie, Mary Gaitskill in conversation with Octavia Bright (who is an author in addition to hosting the
Literary Friction podcast) and Morgan Parker in conversation with Rachel Long.
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