It’s Book Week

Hello dear friends.

To celebrate our favorite week of the year, book week, we sat down with some of our favorite legends to talk about their favorite books, what makes reading important to them, and how reading is changing — for better or for worse.

You can listen to them all below — or head on over to Omny.fm, iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud or wherever you usually get your podcasts from to catch up.

Day 1: Amelia Lush

First up for Book Week, it’s Amelia Lush, Manager and Children’s Specialist at Better Read Than Dead in Newtown (where we buy our books and you should too). We talk Harriet the Spy and why it was such a groundbreaking book, why Harry Potter is the series that just won’t quit, and what the next big thing in YA is.

Day 2: Pierce Wilcox

Continuing our journey through Book week, we’re joined by friend of the show Pierce Wilcox, chatting love, loss and the guiding hand of good books — particularly Pierce’s favorite, The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman.

We also took the opportunity to let Pierce defend his dubious position as a Fan of Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer.

Day 3: Courtney Fry

Next up on our Book Week extravaganza, it’s Courtney Fry. Courtney is a journalist for Pedestrian and joined us to chat about Paul Jenning’s ‘Unreal Ultimate Collection’, aka a kid’s introduction to Australian gothic. Hear about cow dung custard, faces falling off and more. Plus, how do you get kids to read when there’s so much content in the world?

Day 4: Joshua Broccoli

The hits start coming and they don’t stop coming. This ep, we’re joined by librarian Joshua Broccoli. Come for the nice chat about Josh’s fave book Animorphs (Tobias 4eva), stay for the stories about discovering bodily fluids (or just bodies) in the book return chute.

Day 5: Niki Aken

Today, Niki Aken joins us for Book Week. Niki is an award-winning scriptwriter, script editor and producer, previously working on shows like Underbelly, Anzac Girls and Janet King and more recently, Chosen. We talk about Australian stories on TV and in books, the growth of voice and diversity in those stories, and Niki’s problematic fav — Playing Beatie Bow.

(This is also our first episode with a guest out of the studio — so we hope the audio is still a treat)

Day 6: James Bradley

This episode was not-so-silently invaded by James Bradley, author of The Silent Invasion (see what we did there?), Wrack and Clade, among others. We talk about apocalypses and dystopias through the ages, Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea, and why Australian writers shouldn’t be ashamed of setting their books in Australia (even if it is in Brisbane).

Day 7: Melina Marchetta

Our last guest for Book Week is your favorite and ours, Melina Marchetta, author of Australian classics including Looking For Alibrandi, Saving Francesca, and On The Jellicoe Road. We chat to Melina about the changes in childrens’ reading behaviours, the importance of diverse stories, how your characters grow up with your readers and a tease of her next book.

Day 8: Alex & Alex

In our final book week episode, Alex & Alex talk about the books they loved as kids, grief and death in YA, what got them into reading, and spend a long time talking about Harry Potter even though Alex promised she wouldn’t.

She promised.

Genrelisation is recorded at Pleb City Studios and edited by Tim Shorten. We get our books from Better Read Than Dead, and you should too. Artwork by Jet Dominic. Our theme is taken from Loft in Space by Cull. Your hosts are Alex Söderlund and Alex Watts. See you online and off, real soon.