Anita and Scott C. Bourgeois know how much people love their book clubs, and they also know how precious time is. That’s why the Edmonton couple started The Read-Along podcast, a relaxed yet relentless chapter-by-chapter audio review now in its fourth year. It is once again up for a Canadian Podcasting Award for Outstanding Arts Series.
The Read-Along, found at readalongpod.blogspot.com takes one book and digests it fully, but at a pace that can suit anyone’s schedule. That strategy has already made it a big winner with its modest followers.
The concept was to offer the same analysis and discussion that you would get out of a book club in easily manageable portions.
“Meeting once a month to discuss an entire novel might seem very intimidating, especially in COVID times now when meeting in person at all is ill-advised,” Scott explained.
“A few years back, admittedly before COVID, we hit upon an idea to do a podcast that was going through a book chapter by chapter. You only have to read a chapter a week and then we discuss the chapter we just read, and then at the end of it, we would do the full book-club experience and we go over the entire novel.”
“I like to describe it as a really low-commitment book club,” Anita said.
With its jaunty ragtime piano theme jingle by Kevin MacLeod, each weekly episode begins with Anita welcoming you to the “mini book club for your ears.” Their current project is Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed, which marks the first time they’ve undertaken a book by an Edmonton author. They started it on April 2, so episode 185 – released on May 14 – focused on chapter seven.
“You don't have to read a whole book in a month; you only have to read a chapter a week, and you can listen to the podcast at your convenience whenever you want,” Anita said.
The production is part of the Alberta Podcast Network, as is Scott’s other podcast, I Have Some Notes, a film critique series with co-hosts Gregg Beever and Liam Creswick, where they take a mediocre movie and try to make it better.
Scott, a former St. Albert Catholic High School student, is an old hand at podcasting: he also co-hosted the ultra-local talk show The Unknown Studio, and wrote and produced the ENnie award-winning tabletop role-playing game podcast called Numenera: The Signal, and hosted the comedy podcast What About ...? (currently on extended hiatus).
He considered this a way to spend more time with Anita and share more of their mutual love of books and book clubs.
Anita, on the other hand, relies perhaps on Scott's wealth of experience in podcast production, though she isn't short on enthusiasm.
"Well, he did talk me into it, but it really didn't take much," she admitted. "I am an avid podcast listener. I like the idea of talk radio on-demand on any subject I want. It's pretty great. It's what I listen to most of my work day. Sometimes what I do is very boring so it's nice to keep my brain stimulated by listening to something fascinating. Scott and I had always thrown around podcast ideas ... and the one we liked the most that we thought we could do was The Read-Along. So we did."
This is the second year in a row that The Read-Along has been nominated. There are dozens of podcasts that are up for the 2021 awards in a whopping 30 categories, with the results set to be announced in June. You can follow along with The Read-Along by joining its Goodreads Group or tracking it via all of the major social media channels.
