99% Invisible: 562- Breaking Down The Power Broker (with Conan O'Brien)

December 14, 2023 3:25 PM

The podcast 99% Invisible is reading The Power Broker next year. Let's do a readalong / listenalong! I know I've done this under the podcast and not the book, but the book weights three point five freaking pounds and I like the idea of discussing it in chunks. We could talk about the book and the podcast here.
posted by The corpse in the library (14 comments total)

I read The Power Broker one million years ago, for a class on the history of New York City. It's a page turner! If you haven't read it, don't be scared of its size.

I will say, though, as someone who has bought this book new, used, and as an audiobook: I sure wish I could read it on my Kindle and I would freaking give Caro the money for it if I could. But on the other hand, nobody is impressed when I publicly read a Kindle edition of a Big Important Book. If I sit at work reading The Power Broker during slow times, I am going to get some comments. And even more if I get that Baby Bjorn just for the book.

The first chunk we're reading is through page 88 in the paperback -- the introduction and parts I and II -- ending at "...Henry Mosokowitz's wife, Belle."
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:41 PM on December 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm looking forward to this. I always wanted to read the book, and this is a good excuse to get around to it.
posted by 2N2222 at 3:44 PM on December 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

Me too! I ordered the book as a birthday present for myself, now fingers crossed it arrives in time for me to get a bit of a head start.
posted by Karmeliet at 3:01 AM on December 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

The audiobook is good, for those who are considering it, other than how the reader pronounced "Poughkeepsie." He sounds like a calm and soothing Elliott Gould.
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:44 AM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm definitely up for this. Going to try to find a used copy somewhere.
posted by DowBits at 11:49 AM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Definitely interested. I read a chunk of the book a few years back but didn't finish it. Always meant to come back to it, and this is the perfect reason to. Looks like I can grab a copy at the public library come Monday.
posted by egregious theorem at 5:13 PM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

I originally read it like 20 years ago. Riveting. Would happily do a re-read with you all.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 10:48 AM on December 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

Here's the episode that sets it up (the FanFare one isn't correct).
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:02 PM on December 17, 2023

I don’t know if I can do this or not, it depends a bit on the schedule. Is there a deadline by which I need to have read the first chunk?
posted by Bella Donna at 2:52 PM on December 19, 2023

Well, the first episode comes out Jan 19th. But the episode linked on this page is an introduction to the project and says that you don't need to have read the book at all to listen to the podcast. There's two things going on here: an interesting topic for a book, and some amazing writing. Maybe at least read this intro-level article about Moses by then, if you're not going to be done with the book section?
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:48 PM on December 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

Ha! I was trying to get another social media site to do a readalong, too

I'm in. I haven't really been on metafilter for like three years, but maybe I can come back.
posted by dinty_moore at 11:16 AM on January 1 [3 favorites]

Heh, I'm re-watching all of Deep Space Nine and Voyager and reading the FanFares, so when you said you hadn't been active it threw me for a sec -- I see dinty_moore posting all the time!
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:01 PM on January 2 [3 favorites]

Aww, that's very sweet!
posted by dinty_moore at 5:36 PM on January 5 [2 favorites]

I highly recommend Turn Every Page if you want to really dork out about this all.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:09 PM on January 5 [1 favorite]