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\n \u201cI think that literature is serious, if not more serious, than nonfiction. You learn just as much. I think that the world is lacking in empathy and that guys can benefit from literature.\u201d
\n Photo: Berlin Flores\/Block Party\n <\/p>\n
Comedian Anthony Jeselnik<\/a> has been quietly building a reputation as a go-to source for book recommendations for years. It began in 2015 with the launch of his show on the NFL Podcast Network. During the podcast, he and his friend Gregg Rosenthal included weekly recommendations segments, which tended to focus on books. \u201cIt almost became a competition between us to see who would have the cooler recommendation,\u201d Jeselnik says. They often included timeless books (\u201cWe would recommend Lolita or something\u201d), but over time, Jeselnik has become more interested in debut authors and books of the moment. \u201cI compare it to watching Saturday Night Live live as opposed to on DVR,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s just something to it. It\u2019s a conversation starter.\u201d<\/p>\n When his podcast went on indefinite hiatus last year, Jeselnik wanted to keep recommending books, especially ones that might appeal to a more male, more literary audience open to reading fiction. Every week in 2025, he\u2019s read a new book and featured a \u201cNew Book Tuesday\u201d post on his Instagram to promote whatever he\u2019d chosen. \u201cI\u2019d be reading brand-new authors, and commenters would say, \u2018It\u2019s cool \u2014 this guy he\u2019s talking about works in a bookstore, and it\u2019s his first novel,\u2019\u201d Jeselnik says. \u201cI enjoyed that sort of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeselnik is planning to turn his casual engagement with this kind of coverage into a more formal book club in 2026, with monthly picks he hopes will encourage more of his audience to get into reading. \u201cI just wish more people would pick up books and not look down on them,\u201d he says. \u201cEspecially when people are hating on television! They\u2019re hating eight years between seasons. Pick up a novel. There are good ones out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Your list has so much voice and personality to it, and I was curious why you wanted to start by declaring that you don\u2019t want to be a book critic. I don\u2019t want to be a book critic because I don\u2019t want to knock anything. I only gave two bad reviews this year, and I said, \u201cThis didn\u2019t work for me.\u201d I\u2019m trying to promote new work, not tell you it was bad. Like, there was a book called The Slip that just didn\u2019t work for me, but I thought about that book for the rest of the year. I kept thinking, What does that mean? Is that now a successful book because I thought about it more than some of these others on the New York Times best-of-the-year list?<\/p>\n I think this is the last time I\u2019m going to read a new book every week. If an exciting new book comes out, I\u2019m excited to read that right away, but having to put myself in that box of having to read a new one every week was tough because every week, there\u2019s not always something that you\u2019re excited about, especially as a guy. The publishing industry is geared towards women \u2014\u00a0and rightly so; women are buying these books. But it was sometimes tough trying to find the one new book that would speak to me at all. For the most part, I picked well.<\/p>\n In the introduction to your best novels list<\/a>, you say you choose what to read based on authors you like or based on the description written by the publisher. So when you\u2019re looking at marketing copy to choose what to read, what do you notice that suggests a book is mostly for women versus something that might appeal to you more? When does a pitch for a book suggest \u201cThis one\u2019s for boys\u201d? One of my favorites of last year was The Safekeep about a lesbian romance. It\u2019s one of the best books of the year. I wouldn\u2019t say that\u2019s a book for guys, but I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s a book for women either in the way that the women\u2019s marketplace is a lot of romantic fantasy and romantic mystery \u2014 more of those buzzwords that make me stay away from a book.<\/p>\n Tell me about the book club you\u2019re starting.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got a list of 12 books of the month, but that might change if something new comes out. I would like to get into that book-influencer space, where it\u2019s, on the first of the month, \u201cHere\u2019s what we\u2019re reading,\u201d and then you can ask questions at the end of the month, and I\u2019ll answer your questions, talk about why I love this book, and just try to give a reading list for guys. And it\u2019s okay to put down a book and say, \u201cI don\u2019t like this.\u201d Pick up something else. Just keep trying.<\/p>\n My first book in January is going to be The Getaway by Jim Thompson. It\u2019s an action book that\u2019s been made into a movie several times. The end of it is almost supernatural; it almost turns into a horror novel. And if you\u2019re a fan of mine, I think you can get into this book. It\u2019s 250 pages. It\u2019s easy to read. They called Jim Thompson the \u201cdime-store Dostoevsky,\u201d and I think if a guy\u2019s willing to give that a chance, they\u2019ll be into that. My second book is a Vonnegut that I think says more about podcasting today than it does about World War II. TV is getting worse, movies are getting worse, and I think books become more of a viable entertainment option for people as things become more corporate and bland.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the mechanism for this book club \u2014 a newsletter, a Discord?\u00a0 I do not know if this book club will be successful. It might get 500 views, and no one cares, and they make fun of me. But that\u2019s okay. I\u2019m picking timeless novels that I think a guy can get through without being embarrassed, a book that you can read on the subway and no one\u2019s making fun of you for it.<\/p>\n I saw John Mulaney started doing some book-club Instagram posts recently.\u00a0 But I\u2019m happy more people are doing it. I don\u2019t know how seriously Mulaney is taking it. It seems like it was just a post up on Instagram, and his social-media person was like, \u201cYou should try this!\u201d Great. I hope there are a million comedian book clubs. But I\u2019d like to go a bit deeper than just holding up a book and saying, \u201cThis month we\u2019re reading this,\u201d and then never mentioning it again.<\/p>\n You\u2019d like people to be able to email you and get into some conversation about the books?\u00a0 You don\u2019t like live chats?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what kind of questions I\u2019m going to get because I\u2019ve removed myself from the podcast scene. I\u2019m still doing stand-up, obviously, and going back on tour, but I think I might just be getting emails about the Riyadh Comedy Festival<\/a>. And that\u2019s okay, as long as people are reading the book. I might get no emails! I\u2019m ready for no emails and just getting sadder and sadder as I go through, but I think people want to hear what I have to say, and this is the only avenue, unless you buy a ticket to come see a show. I don\u2019t know \u2014 this could just last a year, but I\u2019m giving it a shot.<\/p>\n Do you miss the podcast? It\u2019s been about a year since you stopped recording, I think. The last time we talked<\/a> was around the election last year, when comedy podcasting felt like it was in a particularly heightened, fraught place.\u00a0 These guys, even the most successful ones \u2026 seeing Theo Von tell people he\u2019s actively trying to not take his own life at the end of a comedy special<\/a> was just gutting to me. And he\u2019s the most successful guy there is. What is the point of it if it leads you to that? That was a horrible moment to watch. And again, he\u2019s the most successful guy. Why are you doing this to yourselves? Why are you eating your own tail? I\u2019m glad to be out of it.<\/p>\n Do you see recommending books as a way of connecting with your audience in the same way that stand-up is a way to share who you are and what you care about?\u00a0 What are the things you\u2019ve enjoyed this year in culture beyond books?\u00a0 Otherwise, I loved I Think You Should Leave, but I couldn\u2019t get into The Chair Company<\/a>. And I\u2019m enjoying the hell out of Pluribus<\/a> right now.<\/p>\n I was thinking about Pluribus while looking at your list because the protagonist in that show writes exactly the kinds of romantasy books you try to avoid. And she\u2019s so unhappy with them.\u00a0 How\u2019s your dog, Rummy, doing?\u00a0 Congrats on your house! It\u2019s been so nice catching up.\u00a0 One last question for you: What do you think about Bill Burr\u2019s year? I think he\u2019s taken the biggest hit out of this Riyadh Comedy Festival thing.<\/p>\n Oh, I have been really surprised by how much he\u2019s kept talking about it<\/a>.\u00a0
A book critic is trying to talk to the world at large and has a different responsibility than I do. I tend to like everything I read because I enjoy reading. I walk out of movies thinking, I liked sitting there for two hours. And then the next day, I\u2019m like, Actually, that was a terrible movie. But in the moment, I like it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s almost about what it doesn\u2019t say. A lot of them are not a book for women, but they are a book about a woman rediscovering life after divorce. No thank you. Or there\u2019s a whole genre of women solving mysteries where I was able to say, \u201cNo thank you.\u201d But a lot of the books I\u2019ve recommended are by female authors, and I would not say that my list is just books for guys. But they don\u2019t hit that Lifetime Movie of the Week vibe.<\/p>\n
Yes. I\u2019m going to start a book club next year, Jeselnik Book Club, and the goal is to try to get guys to read literature. I feel like people say, \u201cI do like to read, but I read serious books,\u201d and that drives me crazy. I think that literature is serious, if not more serious, than nonfiction. You learn just as much. I think that the world is lacking in empathy and that guys can benefit from literature.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll see. A lot of the successful book clubs are ways to make money. With the Reese Witherspoon book club, which has been so successful, she buys the rights and she makes the movie. I don\u2019t want to do that. If a corporation wants to come and sponsor me, great. I just want to get people to read. So it might be an Instagram post, a YouTube video, and then, at the end of the month, a video of questions people have emailed that I\u2019m going to answer.<\/p>\n
I got so many messages because I\u2019ve been doing New Book Tuesday to set up this book club, and my publicist saw the Mulaney posts and was like, \u201cUh-oh!\u201d It\u2019s fine. His first one<\/a> was the first book I picked up in January, Playworld, that I\u2019ve forgotten every single thing about. It\u2019s been on some lists, and I couldn\u2019t tell you a single thing about the book. That\u2019s another thing: It\u2019s okay to forget everything you\u2019ve just read. It\u2019s hard to remember things. I could barely give descriptions of a lot of the books in my top ten.<\/p>\n
If I make myself available to the readers or members of the club, maybe that helps engagement, and they\u2019ll have an email address they can email questions or comments, and I\u2019ll answer that. Whatever I can do to get people to read without being in a live chat would be good.<\/p>\n
No, no, I think that would just turn into pure chaos and insults and people who haven\u2019t read the book.<\/p>\n
I miss it a little bit. I still talk to Gregg all the time, and we\u2019ve talked about bringing it back once the Super Bowl\u2019s over, but the idea of having that job \u2026 I mean, I know you\u2019ve listened to the podcast, and by the end of that podcast, I was angry to be doing the podcast. I would show up and catch up, walk in totally fine, hang out with the producer, and then the cameras would start rolling and I would be pissed. And I haven\u2019t followed the podcast world since I pulled the plug. I\u2019ve tried to stay away from it.<\/p>\n
I was disgusted, as most people were, with embracing the election. Those people were at the goddamn inauguration, and then they now have to backtrack and say, \u201cThis isn\u2019t what I voted for.\u201d It is just embarrassing, and I\u2019m glad I don\u2019t have \u201cpodcaster\u201d in my bio now. That is important to me.<\/p>\n
I think books are more like outsider art. When you\u2019re reading, it\u2019s in your imagination, and no two people will have the same response or the same experience with a book. You have the same inciting event, but everyone takes something different from the book, especially books I like that usually have a gut-punch ending. I don\u2019t even want to get that deep into a conversation, but it is fun to recommend things. After reading Among Friends by Hal Ebbott, which was about a friend sexually assaulting his best friend\u2019s daughter, recommending that to Gregg was a deep thrill for me. And then him reading it and being like, \u201cFuck you\u201d \u2014 that was a fun conversation.<\/p>\n
I loved One Battle After Another<\/a>, like everybody else, and I\u2019m fascinated by the discourse around it, where you could almost tell who\u2019s racist by how they reacted to that movie. Eddington<\/a>, the only movie I saw in a theater twice this year. I love Ari Aster but really, really loved that one. I thought Sinners<\/a> was incredible, and I felt that way because of the mid-credits scene. I think it changes the whole movie. I thought the new Final Destination<\/a> movie was the best one they\u2019ve made. It\u2019s got a great sense of humor about itself, and it nails the tone. I watched Alien: Earth<\/a>, and I enjoyed it, even though it was bad.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I\u2019ve watched it with friends and they\u2019re like, \u201cYou\u2019re not laughing! There\u2019s jokes! This is a funny show!\u201d I\u2019m as mad as she is. I feel very connected to that character, and I\u2019m furious as I\u2019m watching that other people aren\u2019t more like her.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s great. I bought a house that I\u2019m about to move into, and I have to get his nails trimmed. It\u2019s a nightmare \u2014 he has to get medicated so we can trim his paws. But he just turned six yesterday, and I have poured all of my money into making that backyard coyote-proof so he\u2019ll have a yard to run around in and be safe.<\/p>\n
Absolutely. And thank you for leaving Alex Edelman off your top comedy specials of last year<\/a>. I really appreciated that.<\/p>\n
I was shocked to see his name on it. I got offered this thing way in the beginning, and I just saw the name and the rules and was like, \u201cNo, absolutely not.\u201d I was not thinking this would be a real thing; I was thinking, This isn\u2019t going to happen. Who would say yes to this? And then I saw the announcement and realized, Everyone said yes to this.<\/p>\n