if on a winter's night a traveler by italo calvino

our next second-person novel is if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino, which features an all-time great first chapter. before we talk about the novel, though, we simply must talk about the season 5 trailer for “you.” we then talk about incarnations of the text’s “gimmick” in other mediums, whether this is a “horny book for dudes,” and how long a postmodern text can exist before its schtick becomes tiring. we lament a second person element lost in the english language, talk about the text’s charlie kaufman-esque elements, and admire its prescience around generative ai. shreds talks about the oulipo gathering. we ask: what do you want in a bookstore? rip david lynch.

reading list for season thirteen
interior chinatown by charles yu
if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino
bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney
suicide by édouard levé
the malady of death by marguerite duras
how like a god by rex stout
the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida
the night circus by erin morgenstern
a man asleep by georges perec
open water by caleb azumah nelson