Have we lost the art of reading?
Nov 14, 2025•20 min
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Episode description
No disrespect, but...when President Trump threw a Great Gatsby-themed party for Halloween, it kind of missed the point of the book. And, it's not just Trump. A quick search online, and you'll see a lot of people increasingly misinterpreting other famous books.
Are people just bad at reading? Are we just laying our own biases on top of classic texts? Or is something else going on?
Andrew Limbong, host of NPR's Book of the Day, and writer-critic Princess Weekes join Brittany to dissect novel interpretations of literary fiction. They look at what these re-interpretations say about our current moment: from what we want from a book to how books lose meaning online.
(0:00) Why 'The Great Gatsby' gets misread
(6:07) How 'Lord of the Rings' became a Christian Nationalist text
(12:46) Literary Interpretation vs. Media Literacy
(16:34) The rise of BookTok
(19:28) The consequence of missing the point of a book
Follow Brittany Luse on Instagram: @bmluse
For handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.
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Are people just bad at reading? Are we just laying our own biases on top of classic texts? Or is something else going on?
Andrew Limbong, host of NPR's Book of the Day, and writer-critic Princess Weekes join Brittany to dissect novel interpretations of literary fiction. They look at what these re-interpretations say about our current moment: from what we want from a book to how books lose meaning online.
(0:00) Why 'The Great Gatsby' gets misread
(6:07) How 'Lord of the Rings' became a Christian Nationalist text
(12:46) Literary Interpretation vs. Media Literacy
(16:34) The rise of BookTok
(19:28) The consequence of missing the point of a book
Follow Brittany Luse on Instagram: @bmluse
For handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
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