1. http://firesidebookchat.podbean.com/
2. The Fireside Book Chat, Sports Pages by Arnold Adoff
3. This podcast is hosted by a teacher, "Mr. Zog" who talks to his students about the books they are reading. The students review the books by the teacher asking questions about it. The audience is teens and even younger children. This is obvious in the opening music, the introduction and the way the teacher talks to the students. It reminded me of the type of shows Nickelodeon used to show when I was younger. The show is only about 5 minutes long, which is good, since it's meant for teens--it'll keep their attention.
I do want to do a book review podcast, but I don't want it to be like this one. I probably won't interview anyone; it'll just be me. My main problem with this podcast was that it didn't give that much information about the books. I listened to a few of the podcasts and it didn't give much more of a review than, "I don't like poems" or "I liked this book because I like sports." Even though the audience was teens, even as a teen that podcast wouldn't have helped me any.
4. Taking into consideration I would like my podcast to be aimed at a college/adult audience, what types of things would you like to see in a book review?
Book Review Podcast
A Podcast book review should either make its listener want to read the book or avoid it, although you would most likely be writing a positive review. No matter if the review is good or bad, I think it should include just enough plot summary to give the listener an idea of what you’re talking about without giving away the ending. It should discuss the book’s major themes and characters, and describe its intended audience. This would be an opinionated podcast, so I also think it would be ideal for you to share your personal experiance in reading the book with your listeners.
Book Chat
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In a book review, I would want to hear the person give specific reasons why they liked or disliked the book without giving up the ending. The Fireside Book Chat gave no real reasons why they choose the book or why they liked it. They said that they picked the book because they liked sports, but then they only rated it a 4 because they did not like poetry. I feel like this is pretty basic information and does little to help me decide whether I want to read this book or not. I would want a book review to give me a good sense of what the book is going to be about and not just other people's opinions.
Fireside comment
In a book review aimed at college students/adults I would like to hear more about underlying themes in the book. It seems this podcast talks about surface level things, I would want to go beyond just liking or disliking the book. Also, it is always interesting to hear how others relate to the book and the personal experience they could bring to a discussion. As long as you go beyond simply talking about liking or disliking the book I think it will be an interesting podcast.
Fireside Book Chat
I think the idea of having a book review podcast is a good idea. As long as it is short enough and gets to the point, I think it would be worth listening to. I think if it was too long than peoples attention would not keep and they wouldn't listen till the end.
In a book review podcast for college/adult audiences I would like to see guests share their opinions on the book. I also think that it shouldn't be terribly long, as stated above.