
Hardcore Literature
Welcome to your new favourite book club. If you enjoy deep dives into the greatest books ever written, you will love Hardcore Literature. Provocative poems, evocative epics, and life-changing literary analyses. We don’t just read the great books - we live them. Together we’ll suck the marrow out of Shakespeare, Homer, and Tolstoy. We’ll relish the most moving art ever committed to the page and stage from every age. Join us on the reading adventure of a lifetime.
Latest episodes

16 snips
Jun 4, 2023 • 1h
Ep 67 - How to Create a Powerful Daily Reading Practice
If you're enjoying the Hardcore Literature Show, there are two ways you can show your support and ensure it continues: 1. Please leave a quick review on iTunes. 2. Join in the fun over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club: patreon.com/hardcoreliterature Thank you so much. Happy listening and reading! - Benjamin Timestamps: 0:00 a powerful morning reading practice 2:00 on staying consistent with your habits 7:00 how I structure readings of scripture 8:00 my meditative reading of Moby Dick 9:00 reading imaginative literature scripturally 10:00 speed-reading vs subvocalisation 11:00 on rereading resonant passages 12:00 theatre of the mind & simple contemplation 13:00 imagination, empathy, applying the senses 14:00 threefold present & eternity in the text 16:00 mindfulness in our everyday lives 17:00 future as string of present moments 19:00 good material for the reading practice 20:00 from Aurelius to Rilke & Tolstoy 22:00 how the practice differs from reading 24:00 how Virginia Woolf read great literature 25:00 why I love reading difficult books 26:00 reading as conversation & act of love 27:00 the ease and joy of the daily practice 28:00 the four steps of my reading practice 32:00 practice walkthrough with Tolstoy 33:00 Tolstoy's Wisdom: Passage One 39:00 Tolstoy's Wisdom: Passage Two 45:00 Tolstoy's Wisdom: Passage Three 48:00 Tolstoy's Wisdom: Passage Four 52:00 Tolstoy's Wisdom: Passage Five 56:00 Tolstoy's Wisdom: Passage Six 59:00 let us know about your practice

33 snips
Apr 26, 2023 • 1h 54min
Ep 66 - The Bookish Q&A Show (Coffee with Hardcore Literature)
If you're enjoying the Hardcore Literature Show, there are two ways you can show your support and ensure it continues: 1. Please leave a quick review on iTunes. 2. Join in the fun over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club: patreon.com/hardcoreliterature Thank you so much. Happy listening and reading! - Benjamin Timestamps: 0:00 expressing my gratitude for you 3:31 how to find meaning in our lives? 20:44 advice on keeping a commonplace book? 27:00 your thoughts on French Literature? 32:37 your favourite films and shows? 40:42 entry recommendations for big classics? 45:20 your process for making connections? 51:30 a master plan behind the syllabus? 53:15 can you riff on Tolstoy’s sense of love? 58:35 how to love someone for who they are? 1:03:40 character names in Shakespeare? 1:06:05 three writers you would have coffee with? 1:07:48 what is your literary guilty pleasure? 1:09:00 what is the greatest decade ever for novels? 1:11:00 what podcasts do you enjoy listening to? 1:13:17 are you concerned about artificial intelligence? 1:19:30 a difficult dilemma: rereads or new reads? 1:22:10 what are your favourite Japanese works? 1:24:20 interest in a behind-the-scenes show 1:25:00 tell us more about Shakespeare’s audience? 1:30:59 supposedly great books that are overrated? 1:33:16 how to deal with feelings of overwhelm? 1:39:10 do books appeal to different temperaments? 1:41:47 your elevator pitch for getting into literature? 1:46:55 what are the essential book club lectures? 1:52:30 recommendations for book club newcomers 1:53:00 talking about the questions for the next show

20 snips
Apr 22, 2023 • 1h 2min
Ep 65 - How to Possess Poetry by Memory
If you're enjoying the Hardcore Literature Show, there are two ways you can show your support and ensure it continues: 1. Please leave a quick review on iTunes. 2. Join in the fun over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club: patreon.com/hardcoreliterature Thank you so much. Happy listening and reading! - Benjamin

Apr 3, 2023 • 1h 7min
Ep 64 - How to Approach a Special Author Project
If you're enjoying the Hardcore Literature Show, there are two ways you can show your support and ensure it continues: 1. Please leave a quick review on iTunes. 2. Join in the fun over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club: patreon.com/hardcoreliterature Thank you so much. Happy listening and reading! - Benjamin

25 snips
Mar 22, 2023 • 1h 27min
Ep 63 - Reflecting on Life, Literature & Reading the Great Books
If you're enjoying the Hardcore Literature Show, there are two ways you can show your support and ensure it continues: 1. Please leave a quick review on iTunes. 2. Join in the fun over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club: patreon.com/hardcoreliterature Thank you so much. Happy listening and reading! - Benjamin

Mar 20, 2023 • 60min
Ep 62 - Prometheus Bound (Aeschylus)
If you're enjoying the Hardcore Literature Show, there are two ways you can show your support and ensure it continues: 1. Please leave a quick review on iTunes. 2. Join in the fun over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club: patreon.com/hardcoreliterature Thank you so much. Happy listening and reading! - Benjamin

19 snips
Feb 25, 2023 • 1h 17min
Ep 61 - How Much Land Does A Man Need? (Tolstoy)
If you're enjoying the Hardcore Literature Show, there are two ways you can show your support and ensure it continues: 1. Please leave a quick review on iTunes. 2. Join in the fun over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club: patreon.com/hardcoreliterature Thank you so much. Happy listening and reading! - Benjamin

10 snips
Feb 22, 2023 • 1h 48min
Ep 60 - The Tragedy of Macbeth (Shakespeare)
Dear Lovers of Great Literature — Thank you so much for listening to the show. If you would like more Shakespeare discussions, we have a library of lectures, guided readings, and bookish content at the Hardcore Literature Book Club at Patreon.com/HardcoreLiterature We are currently reading through the complete works of Shakespeare over the course of the year, and the discussion is incredibly rich and exciting. In our back catalogue, we also have a deep dive lecture series into twelve specially curated masterpieces from William Shakespeare. This includes banquets of blood like Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, and sparkling comedies like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, and Much Ado About Nothing. In addition to Shakespeare, we have extensive lectures for writers like Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Cervantes, Jane Austen, Cormac McCarthy, Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, and many more. Across the course of 2023, we are journeying through War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov, Orlando, The Count of Monte Cristo, Invisible Man, The Lord of the Rings, the short stories of Alice Munro, Jane Eyre, Paradise Lost, Gravity’s Rainbow, and much more. You will be warmly welcomed to our little literary oasis! Happy reading, and have a lovely day. - Benjamin

7 snips
Feb 14, 2023 • 42min
Ep 59 - The Book of Job (Reading the Bible as Great Literature)
If you're enjoying the Hardcore Literature Show, there are two ways you can show your support and ensure it continues: 1. Please leave a quick review on iTunes. 2. Join in the fun over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club: patreon.com/hardcoreliterature Thank you so much. Happy listening and reading! - Benjamin

13 snips
Jan 29, 2023 • 1h 8min
Ep 58 - How to Make 2023 Your Greatest Reading Year (and Lessons from the Great Books)
If you're enjoying the Hardcore Literature Show, there are two ways you can show your support and ensure it continues: 1. Please leave a quick review on iTunes. 2. Join in the fun over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club: patreon.com/hardcoreliterature Thank you so much. Happy listening and reading! - Benjamin