As someone who studied English lit, I really like this podcast! I like that Andrew and Craig summarize and give their thoughts on each book while also providing background info on each author/sharing info about film adaptations/etc. They also choose a wide range of books/genres to discuss, and include more recent publications in their catalog along with some classics. It feels like I’m sitting in on a bookclub between friends! They also publish their monthly reading schedule on the Overdue website so listeners can read along with them. Definitely recommend if you’re looking for a fun book podcast isn’t too analysis-heavy.

If you’re into deep, at length high-brow analysis then perhaps this isn’t for you. But for me, this is the perfect blend of listening to a friend (or friendly acquaintance) talk about a book they read and why it did or didn’t resonate with them. The structure of (usually) one person reading the book while the other asks questions makes for a great experience as a listener who always has similar questions they would ask of someone explaining a book they haven’t read. Thanks for all the years of laughs Craig and Andrew!

These gentlemen do a great job when the discussion is focused on the book. They lose their appeal when they spend an inordinate amount of time disparaging the author. So much of the Ender’s Game episode was the hosts expressing their contempt and disdain for Orson Scott Card. To say they disagreed with the author’s politics and move on would have sufficed. Instead they pronounced Card a bad person and encouraged readers to not financially support him. At the time of listening, I did not realize that the episode was released in 2017, a time before wokeness’s peak and eventual retreat. Everything about the culture then would have pushed the hosts to make moral judgments without restraint. So while the vitriol is understandable in that light, it doesn’t make for good podcasting. At the end of the episode the hosts laugh that they will get a bunch of one-star reviews, which gave me the idea to rate and review; but, since I am nicer than they were, I am giving them a two-star review!

Only play this podcast if you enjoy lip smacking, voice grinding, and snarky up speak with no point.

7 minutes of ads before the show even starts is a bit much. Also they spend way too much time on the plot and not much on review or analysis. The hosts are likeable and I find them funny so not all bad

I totally don’t get the format of this show. So I was intrigued to see your review of the god of small things. So let me get this straight, only one person explains it? Are all your podcasts like this? So bizarre. Too much chatter just get to the review.

Do these guys read? I’m certain I had a better comprehension of literature in elementary school than these adults. Their take on The Sound and the Fury is a prime example of their foolishness. Every time I forget why I unsubscribed, I listen to an episode and quickly remember.

I was looking for a podcast that covered books, especially major novels from history, etc. They are very detailed and do some background info. Overall the content is good, although their plot summaries are dragged out wayyyyyyyyy too long. However, the hosts are constantly trying to be funny by being purposefully wrong about things or by making totally unsupportable comparisons to modern culture. For example, they spent the entire Wolf Hall episode referring to Thomas Cromwell as "Tommy Crommy". That sort of thing. In the Madame Bovary episode they deliberately mispronounce Proust as Prowst and Foucault as FoeCult. And then dwell on it for like 3 minutes. They constantly interrupt their summaries to go off on tangents and laugh at their own jokes. The summaries and background info often have the tone / feel of a college student reading out of notes and trying to stretch to meet a minimum required time. They end up spending so much time on that that sometimes they don't get to actual interesting discussions of the book. But then sometimes they will have an interesting conversation and make good points. Really they could fix their issues by just being a little more professional. I can easily see how you could err the other direction - being too stuffy, serious, pretentious. But the humor isn't even good. And it drags out the time the podcast takes, drip feeding the material you're actually there for. The only reason I continue to listen is the paucity of decent book podcasts.

Great podcast! Very informative and informative. The lip smacking is going to possibly make me leave, but please keep making them just drink some water. I’m sorry 😬

With the variety of books they cover, their skill to recognize otherwise overlooked undertones in a story, and their dedication to celebrating reading, I'll never stop recommending this podcast to everyone I know.

Did you guys just start Warriors because I haven’t been trying to find the book Warriors the place of no stars so yeah if you are starting them, please give me a shout out please and thank you

Found this when I looking for material on Thomas Pynchon and I am so glad I did. The discussion of Gravity’s Rainbow was really interesting and pleasant and as someone who had already read the book it helped me understand more of the nuances and broad strokes of the book. Great work, gang! I’m a subscriber 🙂

But I like these two in particular

So glad I found these guys (via the American Psycho crossover with Too Scary, Didn’t Watch). Would never have thought a podcast about two guys reading classic (and not-so-classic) books could be so funny!

Omg I was surprised. I thought this would be suuuuper boring. Gee but how I love this podcast

Painfully uninformed and unintelligent. In the “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” episode, one of the hosts says a character’s age is unclear…it’s literally the second sentence of the book.

I absolutely love to hear other people recap stories I’ve seen/heard/read so when I found Overdue through Too Scary;Didn’t Watch, I was stoked to find something new to binge! I’ve really enjoyed hearing the guys’ takes on books I’ve read & books my partner has read & told me about. They cover the plot without excessive spoilers so I’m finding myself wanting to re-read some of these. Thanks so much for filling this gap in my listening!

I'm here because of TSDW and just want to say that while I didn't enjoy American Psycho, The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis is one of the best books I've ever read!! Give it a shot. Will be listening to more episodes ☺️

I really appreciate the background about the authors and the honest reviews of the books. Even when I don’t care about the book, listening to the hosts make each other laugh is enough to make me keep listening.

Going through and listening to all the shows on things I read. Then reading all the books they’ve covered. Love hanging out with these guys.

Didn’t get any info or insights. Long episodes without much to say. Those forced laughters don’t make the podcast any more interesting.

The Princess Bride episode was everything I enjoy about Overdue. Thank you for the laughter.

I’ve been listening to the podcast since 2014 and it’s my favorite. There’s a lot of one star reviews on here complaining about the digressions and that the hosts joke too much. Listen, they aren’t here to summarize every single plot point, they aren’t trying to be high-brow literary and they aren’t trying to make you feel smart for listening to them. They are giving high level overviews of a very wide catalog of work and they have a good time doing it which makes it fun to listen to. The hosts are charming and insightful and put out a fantastic podcast.

In your 2019 episode on The Unbearable Lightness of Being, you guys talked for awhile about Tomas and his trip to Cambodia; even joking about his womanizing and how he might be there for the women….problem is, he never went to Cambodia. It was Franz. I adore the show, but this does happen on occasion (wasn’t just a name slip because you talked about the character being there for awhile.). But again….keep the good work. It is an enjoyable show.

I do love the show. The catalogue of texts they’ve covered is ROBUST and pretty diverse. And I truly appreciate their personalities. They make the analysis and conversation very fun. My one gripe, and this is a peeve of mine in general with audio production, the hosts’ mouth noises can be too much. The mics pick up way too much of each crackle and pop of their mouths and it makes my skin crawl. Other than that, love listening to them!

I'm a writer and love to read. This podcast is great fun but there is great information too! Andrew and Craig just make my day—they are honest and funny and challenge and expand your thoughts about books you may have already read. Have been listening from the beginning and so grateful they are still enjoying doing this!

I just listened to their review of ‘The Maltese Falcon’, and man did they miss the mark. First, the kind of bagged on it for being filled with hard-boiled detective tropes while completely ignoring the fact that Hammett along Chandler largely invented those ‘tropes’. The weren’t tropes while they were being invented. Second they said couldn’t figure out why people were interested in the Falcon and said the book wasn’t clear either. The book is pretty clear on the appeal - a sold gold statue covered in jewels would be worth a fortune in Depression era America. Not sure why these guys found that so hard to understand.

One of my favorite podcasts around! So much fun and full of interesting information, as well as insights about an incredibly wide-range of books. Everything from Garfield Comics to Jane Austin. It’s the least highbrow podcast on books ever. I love it! ❤️

This is one of the worst podcasts that I have ever encountered. These 2 hosts are inarticulate, uneducated, and add virtually NOTHING of value to the experience of reading a book. They’re offensive, glib, and often intellectually incoherent. A great disservice was done to each of the books (and their authors) in the case of the 3 episodes that I listened to. Indeed, the essence of each book was substantially misrepresented. A total waste of time and effort.

I don’t get it! I though this could be a great podcast to gain some information from, but I feel like it’s just weird how the hosts spend plenty of time talking about their trips and honeymoon and not about the book :/ such a waste of time

A lot of the reviews here seem to be complaining that this is not a literary podcast. Spoiler alert: it is not a literary podcast. Happily, though, it IS a book podcast. One of the hosts reads the book and tells the other one about it. They switch off regularly. What I especially like about this podcast is that the chemistry of the two hosts comes through. They are longtime friends and have seen each other through ups and downs in life. You don’t have to have a similar background to them to understand how nice it is to chat about books with somebody you have so much history with. They cover a nice range of genres and authors. I have found myself truly enjoying episodes about books that I am never ever going to actually read, like Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Overall, it’s a lovely way to feel a sense of camaraderie and to learn about books that you may or may not ever have time to read.

Disappointing that this podcast has thrown out their own rule for purposefully not being political. It’s exhausting and unnecessary. We get it. We don’t need any more content of being saying how bad things are, we understand and don’t need to be reminded. No longer supporting on patreon.

Reliably not-so-serious podcast that has the same flow as a casual book club. Tangents, funny stories, questions, grumblings, Craig breaking into song from musical theatre. . . they aren’t trying to be high brow. One of the most important takeaways for me is the discussion about how some books - classics or bestsellers - aren’t necessarily good! There is a whole cannon that people are supposed to revere, and questioning that without an air of superiority is refreshing. If you’re unsure, try an episode with Unfriendly Black Hotties or other guests. The episode about Maus is thoughtful. The funniest episode I’ve heard so far is A Walk to Remember. Or any of the horny holiday episides. 😂

I told my podcast listening adult son’s about “Chinwag” … y’all have such a wild and wide topic range of discussions … I’m learning stuff - nothing earth shattering, but mostly things and topics I never thought would float thru my consciousness or stuff I frankly just don’t believe in … I find you the antidote to the daily darkness that is a rabid toxic misinformation orange media cancor … thank you for my new spark of “what’s next” interest and thank you for great conversations!

I was an avid reader as a teenager. Sadly it’s been YEARS since I read a whole book as an adult. My life is just so busy with work. I finally finished a book again tonight thanks to this podcast. I can’t believe it. Thank you for lighting that spark again. I almost teared up when I reached the last page.

would like a discussion of these books without the host guys giggling throughout, and without it leaning toward reducing the books to their tv or film condensed versions. Turns them into pop culture reductions, reducing them to the simplest explanations, or a hustle culture quick take. Would appreciate a do over--not sure both hosts actually ever read the books or just the wiki or reddit style synopsis and online reviews, with way too much about the business/public take. the hosts talk like caricatures of surfer dudes who went to biz college.

This isnt the literary podcast I’m looking for. Not very deep, feels like their forcing these assignments on one another and neither enjoys the actual books. They sort of just share the plot, giggle about it, and move on.

One of my absolute favorite podcasts - so reliable but always interesting and surprising in new and lovely ways. A perfect Monday morning podcast that brightens my week and makes me think!

10 minutes of giggling and boring chatter

I was excited to find this podcast about books as I listen to others about movies/shows that I watch. In the episode I listened to only the guest had read the book so it wasn’t really a discussion, they just asked questions and made fun of plot points. Why would you host a pod about a book and not have read the book? Waste of everyone’s time.

There is too much unrelated talk. The whole podcast can be done in half an hour. The hosts jump from one topic to another topic.

Disappointing for anyone actually interested in literature - but if you are into two friends goofing off you will enjoy! They seem like nice guys- this just isn’t a worthwhile literature podcast

Tried to listen to the episode on Comac McCarthys The Crossing. I’ll say this. These two guys love themselves and think they are funny. They know nothing about literature. Additionally if you have to warn me about the word Indian I’ve already dismissed your take. This is pure drivel.

This is the worst podcast I’ve ever heard. This is just two want to be comedians, who are not funny in the word, peace episode they try to joke around about everything except the book. No discussion of it whatsoever. Just their little rips on Cliff Notes and how smart they are. Easily the worst podcast I’ve ever heard.

Always worth listening to, I have listened to episodes about books I never intend to read because I love Andrew and Craigs banter. I don’t always agree with their opinions but if we all liked the same stuff, life would be pretty boring.

Clown show

They sound very awkward reading the book. Plus, they is WAY too much laughing! Sure laughing is fun and good for you but it’s overdone. And you don’t really read the book you just talk about. Sorry if I’m wrong, but just my opinion.

Andrew had a better understanding of Kunderas the unbearable lightness of being before disagreeing and dismissing it. I was listening to this to get a better understanding of the book but he he kept objecting to things that were just Craig doing his best to interpret what he read. Which I liked hearing but it kept getting dismissed. Anyway maybe just not the podcast I was looking for. Good podcast otherwise

Just try it, what else are you gonna listen to? Serial again? I mean sure do that, but try this one too. You’ll probably laugh and read (or not waste your time reading) a book (thats not) meant for you.

I’m sorry but this is bad. It sounds like they are reading an awkward script for the first time. This was not a discussion between two people analyzing a book. I will admit I listened to ONE episode, but the weird giggling drove me insane. It was like two teenagers talking about nothing. I am not sure these people have even read the books! I think someone summarizes it for them with their “quippy” lines and that is all they read. I apologize if I am wrong, that is just how it comes across.