On being Annotated

I get a lot of bookish email, by design, and yesterday evening I found one from Book Riot talking about their podcast, Annotated.  Since I’m relatively new to podcasts (yeah, I know, I know) I hadn’t been aware of it before, so of course I followed it.  And last night I listened to the first two in the list.

The first, Is it 1984 Yet?, is a discussion of why Orwell’s most famous work has suddenly had a resurgence of popularity. Since it was podcast in mid-2017, not long after the concept of “alternative facts” was introduced into the American parlance, I suspect most of you can guess why Americans are flocking to read the classic novel of totalitarianism now.

The podcast talked about Orwell’s experiences of political oppression, and his recognition that no one side of an argument has a lock on truth. Too many people take 1984 to be a wholly anti-Communist novel, but the truth is that it’s broader than that in spite of common opinion. It’s really about the dangers of unquestioned authority and ideology no matter what the source. In addition to making me put a 1984 re-read on my list, it made me want to read Orwell’s earlier non-fiction.

The second podcast, How Did Independent Bookstores Avoid Going Extinct?, discusses the recent resurgence of independent booksellers after a long decline, brought about by the appearance of not only Amazon.com, but other big chains like Barnes and Noble, and Borders. I’m not going to recount the reasons why indies are returning to the marketplace, you can hear that in the podcast, but the discussion is fascinating in terms of the place of bookstores and book cultures in communities.  Find your local independent booksellers here.

You can get Annotated through iTunes, or via a good podcast app. If you love books, reading, and book culture, I think you’ll be pleased with what it offers.

Jessica and Luke stand guard over my books.