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Eddie Hood
Well, we did it. It is the 100th episode of the Read well podcast. I started the show a couple years ago now and have really enjoyed talking about the importance of reading deeply and how to help sort of us build a habit around the books that we love so that we can get into them deeper. And I want to start by thanking all of you for supporting me in this journey. It's been wonderful to build a community. And the point of this episode today, it's a very exciting announcement. Many of you have been thinking about whether or not you are interested in joining the book club that I host. Every Tuesday night. We get together online and we read really important books that sort of help you stretch the mind and make you think a little deeper, and it's a whole lot of fun. If you've been on the fence about whether or not to join, this episode is for you. I'm going to go over the announcement of all of our books we'll be reading in season three of the Readwell Podcast Book Club as a celebration for the 100th episode. It let's get into it. Welcome to this week's episode of the Read well podcast. My name is Eddie Hood and I'm your host where I believe it's more important to read well than to be well read. So grab your favorite book, open up your notes, and let's get ready to learn something fascinating. All right, welcome back. My name is Eddie Hood and I'm the host of the Read well podcast. Now again, I'm going to be going over every book of season three of my book club. And if you've been interested in doing this, it's only a couple bucks a month. It's about $9 a month. That covers the cost of software, meeting spaces and so on so that we can get together online and discuss these books. It does not include the cost of the books, though, so you'll need to get these books on your own or you can get them through my bookstore. I do stock all of these online and if you get them all at the same time, you actually get a discount right now. So I will put a link down below to Edgewater Bookstore, where you can get each one of these. Now, the first book we're going to be reading, which starts in June, is the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I've got the Centennial edition here by Penguin, which is really, really lovely. It feels weathered, but it's very durable. And if you've ever read Steinbeck before, he is this author that just makes you completely lose yourself in the moment. And the Grapes of Wrath is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest American novels of all time, depending on who you ask. And Steinbeck was really struggling with trying to capture the problems he saw in economy as he lived in and around California and what have you, and just saw the Depression kicking in and people being taken advantage of by their government. And so he tried to collapse that whole thing down into a novel about the Joad family as they have to sort of get rid of their farm or they're kicked off their farm and have to move across the country to try and find work in a very impoverished way. So it's a beautiful story about family, about how government affects us, about how our response to society is influenced by so many things. It's just a great book. We're going to be reading this at 15 pages a day as a group, so go ahead and get a copy of this and we will begin that in June. That's book number one. I should be pointing out really quickly that I like to read books in the book club that have a philosophical question around them. So, again, for the Grapes of Wrath, that question is really resolving around how do we interface with the government and what is our responsibility as citizens and what is the government's responsibility to us as citizens? So, yeah, it's a. It's a wonderful book. And book number two that we're going to be going into is the Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell. This is an interesting book because Campbell was this guy who taught the concept of myth and how we have used story and myth as human beings to help us make sense of the things we don't understand. This book is interesting because it's actually a conversation with Bill Moyers, and it's. It goes back and forth. It's. It's like almost reading a script or a. A play. It's got their name. It'll say Moyers. He'll make a comment, and then Campbell will make a comment and so on. But they're going through the different concepts of myth and story. So he talks about everything from the hero's adventure to sacrifice and how we came up with those ideas, myths in the modern world, and how we use these stories even today to make sense of things. Despite our sense of understanding, scientific advancement and so on, we still very much rely on myth to help us get through the unknown parts of life. So, yeah, the Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell. For the Power of Myth. We're going to be reading that at 10 pages a day. Once we get into that one. And again, that is available@edgewater bookstore.com. that's book number two. I'm very excited for book number three. All of these books actually are really, really great. We spent a lot of time trying to find the very best books that we could read as a group. And book number three will be the Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. This is a book that is a dystopian book that really attacks the concept of social engineering. It's the idea that through consumerism and construct, if you're willing to give up your individuality for the return of the government, promising a stable society, is that something that you're willing to do? Are you willing to give up your freedom, your individuality, in order to know that you live in a stable society, something that you can apparently trust and be controlled with? So a brave new world is this look at how all of those components come together. It is a fictional book, and it is just a really, really powerful look at how we sort of have to make choices as a people and how we have to keep our antennas up when it comes to how we interface with, again, the government. So got a couple government books here this week. We try not to get political in the readable podcast book club. That's not the point of this, but the point is to begin thinking critically about that. So, yes, 15 pages a day, I believe. Yeah, we'll be reading this book at 15 pages a day, and it's going to be absolutely lovely. The fourth book was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. It's a smaller book, a shorter book, but it's absolutely beautiful in the way that it's written and in the purpose of it. It's called the Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. And this is the story of Stevens, an English butler who has committed his life to the service of his master, other people. And he finds value in that. And this book looks at the question of how we manufacture value for our own lives. And as Stevens sort of explores and tries to break out of what he knows and figure out who he is, it's a look at how we return to what we know, what makes us comfortable. It's a look at dealing with things that make us uncomfortable, different relationships and so on. And it's a beautiful way to tell the story of wanting to be important, wanting to feel like your life means something, whether it is being lived for yourself, or, in the case of Steven Sabutler, whether you're living your life for another person, trying to make that a beautiful experience. So we will be reading this book, the Remains of the day, 15 pages a day. This one's going to be starting in. It looks like January. We'll be reading this from January to the beginning of February 2026. The remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. Starting in March of 2026, we're going to be moving into a nonfiction book called An Immense World by Ed Young. This is a book that I definitely would not have chosen on my own. This is a suggestion from members of the book club and that's one of the benefits of being in our book club. It is not my decision alone. We come up with these books together as we explore our interests together. And one of the members of the book club suggested this book, An Immense World by Ed Young. And it is the idea that the animals, all of the different species of animals have come to live their lives in such a way that they are at a higher intelligence that we probably give them credit for. And they have the ability to communicate, to build tribes, to experience life at a much higher level than just eat, sleep and, and, and try to survive kind of thing. So it is an argument for how animals live in and sense the world around us and how there's. Than just trying to get through the day. Okay, so the beautiful book here, we're going to be reading this one at 10 pages a day again starting in March of 2026. An immense world by Ed Young. Ooh, I love this next author. If you like science fiction at all, Octavia Butler. She is gritty and to the point and really drives some important questions home. But this is a unique book of hers and I think quite a beautiful book cover that we were able to pick up at Edgewater. It's called Kindred. The book is Kindred and it's about a woman who. Let's see, her name. Yes. She's 26 year old, her name is Dana, and she vanishes from her home. I have not read this one yet, but I'm very excited to. And when she vanishes, she actually ends up in the past in the antebellum south. And she has become a slave. And so she, she moves back and forward, I believe, from, from historical slave experiences to common day experiences. And it's the struggle of this woman trying to make sense of, of what it means to come from slavery. So, yes, Kindred is a book that should read pretty quickly. And it's, it's going to be a fictional experience. I think the goal here when Octavia wrote this. I can't speak for her, but definitely my hope in reading books like this are to get a better sense of what other cultures go through and what other people experience in life. And Kindred is a great way to do that. So this is the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, sixth book of our season three book club. And we're going to be reading this at 15 pages a day. This one will begin in May and get us through part of June 2026. Octavia Butler's Kindred, book number seven, is a nonfiction book that examines the ethical side of medicine as it relates to people getting older and aging. It's written by Atul Gawand. I believe I pronounce it right. It's called Being Mortal, and the subtitle here is Medicine and what Matters in the End. I love books like this because one, it's approaching a very ethical question, a philosophical question of how should we be allowed to experience the end of our lives? Should we be forced to prolong them even if we don't want to? Should medicine play a part in that? Should we always be taking pills to get through the day? Where does medicine come in as a helping aid versus a deterrent to living well? So I'm looking forward to that. The back here, a little bit of it I just want to read says modern medicine has transformed the dangers of birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But when it comes to the inescapable realities of aging and death, what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should do. So, yes, I'm quite excited for this one. I, I, I spent a lot of time thinking about the end of my life and what that's going to be like and, and the choices that all make. And so I like to read books like this that sort of give me a little more information to dig through. Being Mortal by Atul Gawand will be reading this at 10 pages a day, and this will be taking place. It looks like August 2026 is where we'll be at in this book. The eighth book of our season three book club is coming from one of my top three authors ever. James Baldwin was an author who wrote about really difficult things. He was a gay man that had to move from America to Paris. And not only that, he was a black man. And at the time he was writing, both of those topics were quite derisive for people. And so he had to move to Paris to, in order to secure his safety so that he could write honestly, but also just the weight of The American society at the time was so oppressive against being black and being gay that he just couldn't. Couldn't exist here and write freely. And the fact that he took his life. He didn't take his life. But what I'm trying to say is the fact that he spent his life writing about these very difficult things in such an honest and beautiful way is very inspiring. I think every writer has the call to point out the difficulties of being human, the beautiful parts about being human, and so on. And Baldwin just did that really, really well. We're going to be reading Giovanni's Room, which is actually quite a. An interesting pick for a book club, but I'm excited to read this one. It is a short book. This one comes in at roughly 169 pages. Not roughly exactly, but Giovanni's Room is a story of a young man who is an American who moves to Paris, and he is trying to find himself and figure out what life means. He has a girl that he's about to get married to, but in his heart he's actually homosexual. And he's trying to sort of wrestle with that experience and figure out how to be true to himself. And as he makes decisions for and against that true version of himself, you see the fallout of what actually happens, good and bad. So Giovanni's Room is. Is somewhat of a heartbreaking novel. Beautifully written, though, and I absolutely love this story. We'll be reading this one at 15 pages a day, and this will be taking place in September of 2026. Okay, we're coming into the end here. We have three more books to go, and the ninth book of the year is going to be a story by Ursula K. Le Guin called the Dispossessed. Now, this is a story that is just really held up over time. It is definitely philosophical in nature. And the concept here is that we're looking at how different societies of people create beliefs, whether they're true or false about each other, and what happens when those beliefs are broken down and people experience the truth of the other society. This is a story about a physicist who comes from a world that is not. Now, I haven't read this yet, so I'm. I'm quite excited to read it. But after reading all of the reviews and what have you, it's the story of this guy named Chevek. He's an anarchist, and he comes from this world that is basically built on principles of anarchy. And things are not going so well in this world. And their belief is that everybody despises them. Things aren't going to go so. And he needs to get to another planet in order to find, I believe, resources or help from the other people before his planet comes to its demise. But doing so would be quite dangerous. He makes the trip anyway, and when he gets to the other societies, finds him to actually be quite good and insightful and intelligent and helpful and so on. And his prejudices are broken down as he meets these people. But then he has to find a way to build this relationship. And as he does, conflicts ensnare and things happen. And it's just, it's this book is considered one of the sort of pillars of science fiction and is something I'm quite looking forward to. Ursula K. Le Guin's the Dispossessed we'll be reading this one at 15 pages a day starting in December of 2026. The 10th book we're going to be reading this year in the book club is the Picture of Dorian Griffin Gray. I actually really like this copy that I got from Edgewater, and I'm excited about this one because first of all, it's a story that probably most of you have heard of, but many of you actually haven't read. I haven't read this yet and I've wanted to for many years. Here's the concept, though. It's a story about a young man who trades his soul for eternal beauty. Really, it's about this, this boy who commissions a picture to be painted of himself. And the goal is to value beauty over anything else. And it's a bit of a polemic against why beauty fades and why the things that you think are important don't stick around. And maybe you should latch onto more valuable things. So we'll be reading the Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, and that will be read at 15 pages a day. And we'll be starting that in. It looks like April of 2020. Now the last book of the season is going to be Homer's the Odyssey. This is the connected book with the Iliad. And the Odyssey is a gigantic epic poem about this hero named Odysseus as he as he leaves the Trojan War and he heads home, but along the way encounters all sorts of monsters and obstacles and what have you. It's a book about loyalty and sacrifice and so many things. This book is one of the foundational stories or texts of Western literature. So many of our ideas, beliefs and myths come from some books like the Odyssey. And so we felt it would be a great book to end our season on. We are going to be reading the Robert Fagel's translation. There are some newer translations coming out that are getting a lot of praise, but this one is the traditional one that really has lasted the test of time. It's very easy to read and the quality of this book is really, really nice. It's nice to hold in the hands. It's going to last forever. So, yeah, this is the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition that we're going to be reading from. The Odyssey by Homer, as translated by Robert Faggles. All right, that's it for the 100th episode of the Readable Podcast. Now, if you're interested in joining me with the book club and reading through these books together, we read them at a pretty decent, I would say decent, but slow pace so that you can really get as much out of them as possible. And we discuss these every Tuesday night live in a. In a zoom meeting with a whole bunch of other great readers. If that is of interest to you. You can go to the readwellpodcast.com and just click on Book link up at the top. And from there you can learn how to join. You can see the schedule of the books and when we're gonna be reading them. And then if you go to edgewaterbookstore.com, my online bookstore, you can buy all of these there or you can get them all in one big shot and actually save, I believe, 10% right now. So that's definitely doable as well. I wanna thank you all for your support here in the community and for helping me get to the 100th episode. It has been such a pleasure and I look forward to the next 100 with you. And as always, remember to read slowly, take notes and apply the ideas. I'll see you next time. If you'd like to take your reading to the next level, then head on over to thereadwellpodcast.com there you'll find daily posts on how to read well. You'll also get access to all of my book notes and tools for becoming a better reader. And as always, don't forget to read slowly, take notes and apply the ideas. Thank you for listening to the Read well podcast.