Start Here: Welcome to Zero to Well-Read!

Hi, I'm Jeff O'Neill from Book Riot. And I'm Rebecca Shinsky. This is Zero to Well-Read. It's a podcast about all the books people talk about like everybody's read them, even though most of us haven't. We've been talking about books on the internet for almost 15 years together, and in that time we've heard from a lot of readers who feel like they missed the window. The books they were supposed to read in high school, the classics that kept coming up in conversation, the prize winners they always meant to get to. That feeling of being on the outside of a book you're supposed to know is exactly why we made this show. Each episode we take on one of those titles and we give you everything you need. The context, the history, the cultural moment it came from, and our honest takes on how it holds up. We cover a lot of ground. The canonical classics, your Shakespeare's, your Bronte's, your Great American novels, the 20th century heavyweights that reshaped what fiction could do. The award winners that dominated the conversation for a year and then somehow slipped away. It's not all old, serious books. We also love a cult favorite with an obsessive fandom and a surprisingly complicated legacy. The genre books that turned out to be more interesting than their reputation would have you believe and the viral sensations that made 50 million people suddenly carry about a story. We've done the Great Gatsby. We've done Twilight, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie, The Secret History, and Judy Bloom. Books that will be taught in universities forever, and books that sparked major pop culture moments. And the thing they all have in common is that people talk about them like they're shared cultural touchstones, but not everybody has actually read them, and that's why we're here. We're not gatekeepers. We're not here to make you feel bad that you haven't read something. We genuinely love these books, even the ones we have complicated feelings about. And we love talking about them with people who are curious and ready to explore. So every episode is part literary deep dive, part cultural history, part two friends who have strong opinions and the occasional hot take. We'll tell you what's great. What's overrated. What's weirder than you expected, which is all of them, and why any of it still matters. So if you've ever wanted to walk into a conversation about books feeling like you really belong there, if you like book club and you miss English class, this is the show for you. New episodes drop every Tuesday. Subscribe to Zero to Well Read wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're not sure where to start, don't worry, we'll tell you exactly what you need to know.