Podcast Corner: Tubridy in his element on books show
David Walliams and Ryan Tubridy on The Bookshelf podcast.
Ryan Tubridy’s podcast, The Bookshelf, has been running for a month, the five episodes so far featuring an impressive, though uninspired, list of guests: David Walliams, Cecelia Ahern, John Boyne, Vogue Williams, and Paul Howard.
Almost a year after his final episode as Late Late Show host, Tubridy sounds relaxed and in his element, the show built around a straight template of discussing a book from your childhood, one that made you cry, and the book that changed your life, with a bonus of what the guest would call their autobiography. Simple but effective.
As Vogue tells Tubridy during their conversation: “I’m so glad you started this podcast, it’s so nice to sit and talk about books.” Tubridy explains that the show’s ethos is that it’s not for book snobs but rather simply to recommend a read for all types of people.
Vogue is interesting and funny in explaining that she is obsessed with death and has gone through a phase of reading about the topic since the birth of her children.
Tubridy’s experience is evident as his gentle probing prompts her to explain that she gets sad seeing old people out and about, fearing they must all be worried about death.
Howard, meanwhile, has 23 Ross O’Carroll-Kelly tales to his name, on top of various sports, music, and history books. He’s great from the off, pointing out how Tubridy gave a relatively favourable review to the first ROCK book in the Sunday Tribune around the turn of the century.
Tubridy, who has taken his radio personality to the UK following the RTÉ pay controversy of summer 2023, might have arched an eyebrow at Howard telling him: “My books only sell in Ireland, the trick is to become internationally popular.”
He reveals how ROCK doesn’t translate well - a Russian version fell down not due to the language barrier, but because the Russians couldn’t get their head around a rugby player being a hero among their peer group.
So Ross became a basketball star. The cover, meanwhile, featured a cottage on the west of Ireland with a rainbow behind it. Not quite the south Dublin caricature that Howard has mastered.
Another relatively new books podcast, Rachel O’Neill and Áine O’Connell also have a template: What book do you think everyone should read and why?
Guests so far include Patrick Freyne (chatting about The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), Sophie White (on Stephen King’s The Breathing Method), and Mark O’Connell (The Adversary by Emmanuel Carreré), three varied and accomplished writers.
Digressions abound and the episodes clock in around the hour mark - a little of Tubridy’s knowhow to move things along might have helped here, but it’s a fun listen nonetheless.
