The Buying of Lot 37
From the authors of the New York Times bestselling novels It Devours! and Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a collection of episodes from Season Three of their hit podcast, featuring an introduction by the authors, a foreword by Dessa, behind-the-scenes commentary, and original illustrations. In June of 2012, the creators of Welcome to Night Vale began airing twice-monthly podcasts, hoping to be heard by anyone outside their close circles. They never had any idea just how much the podcast would take off, and by the anniversary show a year later, the fanbase had wildly exploded, vaulting the podcast into the #1 spot on iTunes. Since then, its popularity has grown by epic proportions, hitting more than 100 million downloads, and Night Vale has expanded to a successful live multi-cast international touring stage show and two New York Times bestselling novels (Welcome to Night Vale and It Devours!), and a new podcast network Night Vale Presents. Now the second two seasons are available as books, offering a valuable reference guide to past episodes. The Buying of Lot 37 brings Season Three of the podcast to book form. With foreword by recording artist and author Dessa, introductions by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, insightful behind-the-scenes commentary by cast members and supporters, and beautiful illustrations by series artist Jessica Hayworth accompanying each episode, this book is both an entertaining reading experience and an absolute must-have for any fan of the podcast.
Series
Featured Series
4 primary booksWelcome to Night Vale Episodes
Welcome to Night Vale Episodes is a 4-book series with 4 primary works first released in 2016 with contributions by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
Totally get why serial radio shows were a thing back in the day. For all the book-related and non-fiction podcasts I listen to, a scripted, performed fictional one wasn't anything I tried before, but I really loved this.
So happy this book, randomly keyword picked in honour of my 37th birthday in January, ended up inspiring me to try out a world that heretofore was simply cryptic fan references I saw on Tumblr.
Might seem weird to start with this volume, which covers episodes 50 to 70, but it was a lovely sample and narrative arc, and I am most definitely going to start from the beginning and continue on with this podcast now! It's honestly got enough joyful random in it that I feel like you could start anywhere, and it does do tidbits of referencing recaps, no doubt a hold over from those long serialized radio broadcasts.
I'm sad that the live tour performance was not recorded for the podcast, aside from bonus excerpt, but that makes the book valuable for including the full transcript of that performance as well.
I enjoyed the behind the scenes introductions to episodes the book provides, (especially episode 54 & 64) not so much the incredibly, fittingly creepy illustrations accompanying the transcripts of each episode, but I gotta say, having this book introduce me to the Welcome to Night Vale podcast, I would ask, why would you ever read it when you could listen to it?! Most episodes include a segment called ‘weather' that is a different musician performing a song each time, plus various background effects and music and professionals acting out their lines, so much more immersive. We'll call this one 2/3rds - 3/4s audio book with some behind the scenes print add ons.
That being said, I loved the writing, and will definitely be picking up the other books that make up parts of the Night Vale universe.
General vibes are: surreal random cozy sci fi horror social commentary satire all at once.
