The Book Pile
A podcast where comedians tell you about books so you never have to read! (Now including fiction!) Kellen does standup; Dave writes ads; together they highlight lessons from the world’s best books--and some of the worst. New episode every Monday!
Episodes
214 episodes
Re-Issue: Excellent Advice for Living, by Kevin Kelly
SUMMARY: Enjoy a digitally-remastered edit of one of our favorite episodes, where the author shares exactly what the book is called. Plus, Dave tells a story about being accidentally cool at a wedding, and Dave disagrees with a brilliant pla...
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Season 1
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Episode 215
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30:50
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
SUMMARY: What if Pride and Prejudice were spooky? What if Mr. Darcy were less handsome, but also more abominable? What if instead of four sisters, Lizzie had no parents and a best friend who dies of tuberculosis? If you love Jane Austen, you...
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Season 1
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Episode 214
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33:51
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
SUMMARY: The typical human lifespan is in the neighborhood of 4,000 weeks. That is an extremely precious, finite, and dwindling amount of life. It gives all of us urgent reason to (while we still can) take advantage of the Taco Bell 5 Dollar...
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Season 1
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Episode 213
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26:16
How to Read 100 Books This Year
SUMMARY: Whether you want to read 100 books this year, or even just 87, Kellen has some tips for how to succeed--and he's strategically waited 3 weeks into January so that he could get a head start before you.WATCH KELLEN'S NEW...
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Season 1
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Episode 212
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16:00
Everybody Lies, by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
SUMMARY: To celebrate this book about dishonesty, we’re gonna test how well you know Kellen and Dave with a game of two truths and a lie. You ready? See if you know us well enough to pass the quiz.1. Statement 2 is false.2. Statement...
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Season 1
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Episode 211
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24:55
Our Favorite Books of 2024!
SUMMARY: Our best books this year had everything: Murder! Therapy! Lyndon B. Johnson! The three elements of good literature. Come join us as we review our favorite books of the year. Happy New Year, and thanks for listening to The Book Pile!...
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Season 1
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Episode 210
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38:11
Re-Issue: A Christmas Carol (with an EVEN NEWER introduction for 2024!)
Rediscover this gem of a Book Pile episode (#114) that we dug up from 2022 (now with an even newer intro full of public-domain Christmas music!) Listen to Dave whisper laugh! Hear Kellen disagree with Dave's habit of walking out of mov...
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Season 1
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Episode 209
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21:48
Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke
SUMMARY: We live in a society inundated by endless sources of entertainment and cheap dopamine. In today’s book, Anna Lembke discusses how we can respond to such dangers, like, for instance, a pool table. Friend, either you're closing your e...
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Season 1
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Episode 208
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29:04
Kellen Crams to Get His 100 Books Read by The End of The Year!
SUMMARY: Kellen is behind on his reading, and he needs your help! (Sounds like a Saturday morning PBS cartoon...). Kellen gives a rundown of most of the books he's read so far this year; also he has an idea for a very classy author name; and...
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Season 1
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Episode 207
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22:51
A 2nd LOOK AT: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets!
SUMMARY: It's been 3 years so we gave this book "another go" as they say in non-American English speaking countries, like Wizard Land. Today we cover the second Harry Potter, which managed to improve on the original, and is also – no o...
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Season 1
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Episode 206
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39:22
Re-Issue: The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
SUMMARY: When you hear a story, do you lose interest after like 5 minutes? Then you will LOVE short stories, a new thing we invented. Today’s book is a short story collection by Ray Bradbury, who realized that anything counts as sci-fi if yo...
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Season 1
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Episode 205
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24:04
THE ROAST OF: The Spy Who Loved Me, by Ian Fleming
SUMMARY: This is a James Bond book without James Bond, a love story without love, and a spy story without spying. The only person who’s unaware of all this is the author, Ian Fleming, AKA the only person feminists beg to please write fewer f...
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Season 1
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Episode 204
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25:09
Yes Please, by Amy Poehler
SUMMARY: Dave and Kellen take another dive into the great Amy Poehler's (SNL, Baby Momma, Parks and Recreation) memoir. Also Dave is terrible at comforting people and Kellen rants about actors' a...
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Season 1
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Episode 202
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31:43
Range, by David Epstein
SUMMARY: Do you ever make a books podcast, and start with your favorite books? But unfortunately, your first episodes are also when you’re the worst at podcasting? So years later you revisit those books to do a better job? That’s what this i...
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Season 1
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Episode 201
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27:06
11/22/63 by Stephen King, OUR 200th EPISODE!
SUMMARY: The events from the date of today's book title are part of a long-running joke on the podcast, so we thought it would be funny to cover this novel for our 200th episode...-If you want to read 11/22/63 ...
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Season 1
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Episode 200
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30:51
Re-Issue: The Art of War, by Sun Tzu
SUMMARY: Enjoy this throwback episode from September 2022 when we covered the oldest book on the podcast thus far (though the book with the oldest people is probably still Twilight...). Learn the value of surprise as K...
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Season 1
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24:56
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever WITH GUEST Dallas Jenkins
SUMMARY: An Americana small-town Christmas pageant gets hijacked by kids from the other side of the tracks, but it all works out (or this would be a very different genre). Kellen is joined by Dallas Jenkins who directed and co-wrote the movi...
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Season 1
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Episode 203
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33:30
THE LIVE ROAST OF Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday, by Alan Dean Foster
SUMMARY: Today we cover a Transformers book that is “more than meets the eye." Unless your eye looked at the book and was like, “It seems bad,” in which case, yeah, it’s pretty much what met your eye. Thanks to everyone who joined us for thi...
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Season 1
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Episode 199
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25:23
The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin, with GUEST Zoltan Kaszas!
Zoltan Kaszas joins the podcast to discuss unshaven music guru Rick Rubin's humble and surprisingly deep book about making art (the "surprisingly" is just based shallowly on Rick Rubin's looks).-Listen to the audio album...
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Season 1
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Episode 198
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39:24
Re-Issue: THE ROAST OF The Da Vinci Code
What's better than uncovering the mysteries of history? MAKING UP history so that it fits into a clue-based adventure!-Listen to the audio album of Kellen's new 30-minute comedy special "Negative Comments"! Available by joinin...
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Season 1
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Episode 197
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32:19
THE ROAST OF: The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne
Look. It’s just possibly the worst book we’ve ever read. This is the maddest you’ll ever hear us.-Listen to the audio album of Kellen's new 30-minute comedy special "Negative Comments"! Available by joining The Book Pile's Pat...
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Season 1
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Episode 196
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37:47
The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft
-Listen to the audio album of Kellen's new 30-minute comedy special "Negative Comments"! Available by joining The Book Pile's Patreon at:https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPileSUMMARY: Look, we know. The internet has made an A...
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Season 1
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Episode 194
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30:32
Re-Issue: Goodnight Moon with guest Chad Daniels
With a new intro where we announce a live episode recording in Los Angeles (on 9/6/24)!With a new, smoother overall edit to our conversation, today we revisit an episode from 2022 where we break down Goodnight Moon
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Season 1
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Episode 193
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33:23
Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World, by Matt Parker
Math is boring unless it ends in a disaster, right? Maybe? Well it doesn't matter how YOU feel about it, bad things happen and math is always to blame.This book proves it (even if it's not what the author intended).*JOIN OUR PATR...
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Season 1
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Episode 192
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15:22
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown
Have you considered letting the pressure off yourself to be someone you're not in order to feel truer belonging and inner peace? Brown encourages authenticity (*unless you're a big dumb jerk, then you should pretend to be a smart nice person...
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Season 1
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Episode 191
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27:11