“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.”
Photo: Berlin Flores/Block Party
Comedian Anthony Jeselnik 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. “It almost became a competition between us to see who would have the cooler recommendation,” Jeselnik says. They often included timeless books (“We would recommend Lolita or something”), but over time, Jeselnik has become more interested in debut authors and books of the moment. “I compare it to watching Saturday Night Live live as opposed to on DVR,” he says. “There’s just something to it. It’s a conversation starter.”
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’s read a new book and featured a “New Book Tuesday” post on his Instagram to promote whatever he’d chosen. “I’d be reading brand-new authors, and commenters would say, ‘It’s cool — this guy he’s talking about works in a bookstore, and it’s his first novel,’” Jeselnik says. “I enjoyed that sort of thing.”
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. “I just wish more people would pick up books and not look down on them,” he says. “Especially when people are hating on television! They’re hating eight years between seasons. Pick up a novel. There are good ones out there.”
Your list has so much voice and personality to it, and I was curious why you wanted to start by declaring that you don’t want to be a book critic.
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’m like, Actually, that was a terrible movie. But in the moment, I like it.
I don’t want to be a book critic because I don’t want to knock anything. I only gave two bad reviews this year, and I said, “This didn’t work for me.” I’m trying to promote new work, not tell you it was bad. Like, there was a book called The Slip that just didn’t 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?
I think this is the last time I’m going to read a new book every week. If an exciting new book comes out, I’m 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’s not always something that you’re excited about, especially as a guy. The publishing industry is geared towards women — and 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.
In the introduction to your best novels list, you say you choose what to read based on authors you like or based on the description written by the publisher. So when you’re 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 “This one’s for boys”?
It’s almost about what it doesn’t 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’s a whole genre of women solving mysteries where I was able to say, “No thank you.” But a lot of the books I’ve recommended are by female authors, and I would not say that my list is just books for guys. But they don’t hit that Lifetime Movie of the Week vibe.
One of my favorites of last year was The Safekeep about a lesbian romance. It’s one of the best books of the year. I wouldn’t say that’s a book for guys, but I wouldn’t say it’s a book for women either in the way that the women’s marketplace is a lot of romantic fantasy and romantic mystery — more of those buzzwords that make me stay away from a book.
Tell me about the book club you’re starting.
Yes. I’m 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, “I do like to read, but I read serious books,” 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.
I’ve 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’s, on the first of the month, “Here’s what we’re reading,” and then you can ask questions at the end of the month, and I’ll answer your questions, talk about why I love this book, and just try to give a reading list for guys. And it’s okay to put down a book and say, “I don’t like this.” Pick up something else. Just keep trying.
My first book in January is going to be The Getaway by Jim Thompson. It’s an action book that’s been made into a movie several times. The end of it is almost supernatural; it almost turns into a horror novel. And if you’re a fan of mine, I think you can get into this book. It’s 250 pages. It’s easy to read. They called Jim Thompson the “dime-store Dostoevsky,” and I think if a guy’s willing to give that a chance, they’ll 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.
What’s the mechanism for this book club — a newsletter, a Discord?
We’ll 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’t 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’m going to answer.
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’s okay. I’m 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’s making fun of you for it.
I saw John Mulaney started doing some book-club Instagram posts recently.
I got so many messages because I’ve been doing New Book Tuesday to set up this book club, and my publicist saw the Mulaney posts and was like, “Uh-oh!” It’s fine. His first one was the first book I picked up in January, Playworld, that I’ve forgotten every single thing about. It’s been on some lists, and I couldn’t tell you a single thing about the book. That’s another thing: It’s okay to forget everything you’ve just read. It’s hard to remember things. I could barely give descriptions of a lot of the books in my top ten.
But I’m happy more people are doing it. I don’t 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, “You should try this!” Great. I hope there are a million comedian book clubs. But I’d like to go a bit deeper than just holding up a book and saying, “This month we’re reading this,” and then never mentioning it again.
You’d like people to be able to email you and get into some conversation about the books?
If I make myself available to the readers or members of the club, maybe that helps engagement, and they’ll have an email address they can email questions or comments, and I’ll answer that. Whatever I can do to get people to read without being in a live chat would be good.
You don’t like live chats?
No, no, I think that would just turn into pure chaos and insults and people who haven’t read the book.
I don’t know what kind of questions I’m going to get because I’ve removed myself from the podcast scene. I’m still doing stand-up, obviously, and going back on tour, but I think I might just be getting emails about the Riyadh Comedy Festival. And that’s okay, as long as people are reading the book. I might get no emails! I’m 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’t know — this could just last a year, but I’m giving it a shot.
Do you miss the podcast? It’s been about a year since you stopped recording, I think.
I miss it a little bit. I still talk to Gregg all the time, and we’ve talked about bringing it back once the Super Bowl’s over, but the idea of having that job … I mean, I know you’ve 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’t followed the podcast world since I pulled the plug. I’ve tried to stay away from it.
The last time we talked was around the election last year, when comedy podcasting felt like it was in a particularly heightened, fraught place.
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, “This isn’t what I voted for.” It is just embarrassing, and I’m glad I don’t have “podcaster” in my bio now. That is important to me.
These guys, even the most successful ones … seeing Theo Von tell people he’s actively trying to not take his own life at the end of a comedy special was just gutting to me. And he’s 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’s the most successful guy. Why are you doing this to yourselves? Why are you eating your own tail? I’m glad to be out of it.
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?
I think books are more like outsider art. When you’re reading, it’s 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’t 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’s daughter, recommending that to Gregg was a deep thrill for me. And then him reading it and being like, “Fuck you” — that was a fun conversation.
What are the things you’ve enjoyed this year in culture beyond books?
I loved One Battle After Another, like everybody else, and I’m fascinated by the discourse around it, where you could almost tell who’s racist by how they reacted to that movie. Eddington, the only movie I saw in a theater twice this year. I love Ari Aster but really, really loved that one. I thought Sinners 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 movie was the best one they’ve made. It’s got a great sense of humor about itself, and it nails the tone. I watched Alien: Earth, and I enjoyed it, even though it was bad.
Otherwise, I loved I Think You Should Leave, but I couldn’t get into The Chair Company. And I’m enjoying the hell out of Pluribus right now.
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’s so unhappy with them.
Yeah, I’ve watched it with friends and they’re like, “You’re not laughing! There’s jokes! This is a funny show!” I’m as mad as she is. I feel very connected to that character, and I’m furious as I’m watching that other people aren’t more like her.
How’s your dog, Rummy, doing?
He’s great. I bought a house that I’m about to move into, and I have to get his nails trimmed. It’s a nightmare — 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’ll have a yard to run around in and be safe.
Congrats on your house! It’s been so nice catching up.
Absolutely. And thank you for leaving Alex Edelman off your top comedy specials of last year. I really appreciated that.
One last question for you: What do you think about Bill Burr’s year? I think he’s taken the biggest hit out of this Riyadh Comedy Festival thing.
Oh, I have been really surprised by how much he’s kept talking about it.
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, “No, absolutely not.” I was not thinking this would be a real thing; I was thinking, This isn’t going to happen. Who would say yes to this? And then I saw the announcement and realized, Everyone said yes to this.
Everyone seems embarrassed, but Burr is doubling, tripling down. Whereas when Pete Davidson was just like, “I said I’d go, and I saw the money,” then people leave him alone. But with Burr, it is insane to me that he would be so dumb. It’s just shocking that he didn’t know what would come for him. And then to be fighting with everyone, screaming at Marc Maron publicly, it’s just wild to me. I haven’t talked with him at all, but I’ve just been stunned. He’s the one name that stuns me. No one’s like, “Oh, Kevin Hart, wow!”
And it wasn’t just defensive. He came out and was like, “They’re just like us! They’ve got the Timberland and the Applebee’s.” He was doing as much PR for them after the fact as he possibly could. Which was like … what did you think the money was for? It wasn’t just for the event.
How much money did they offer you to do it?
It was a lot of money. I want to say it was around $350,000. And listen, I bought a house. I could’ve used it. But it doesn’t matter if it was $350 million; I couldn’t have done it. Comedy is so capitalistic, and I think the people that have podcasts just didn’t want to miss out on that money on the table, and then they didn’t realize how big a thing it was going to be. And it’s a lot of money but not that much money, you know? Not enough that you couldn’t make it up in two shows. For Burr, it seems like he’s trying to set up going back — like an annual “once a year I perform there” part of his tour that is repulsive.
I thought that two weeks later, no one would care, but when I mention the Riyadh Comedy Festival onstage, people go nuts. They love that as a punch line; they want your opinion. I don’t think that’s going away anytime soon. People who have no idea about the journalist killed just want to hear about this stupid cash grab. I wonder how long it lasts, and I’ll be surprised if Burr’s next special isn’t addressing most of it.
