ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD!

Wait, what? I mean . . . I’m here to talk about Thursday TBR!

Anyone who has listened to the podcast, Welcome to Night Vale, will likely know that there is also a book by the same name. In fact, there is a second book now available related to the Night Vale universe, titled It Devours!, but I don’t own that one (yet).

I actually ordered my copy of Welcome to Night Vale when it first came out, and didn’t even realize there was a podcast by the same name. I don’t listen to podcasts, okay? To this day, Welcome to Night Vale is the only podcast I have ever downloaded and listened to. I am the worst, I know.

The book was delivered to my office at the time, and one of my colleagues freaked out. She was so excited that I was also a fan of Night Vale, but I was like, “Girl, this book literally just came out, what are you talking about?” She was not impressed, and immediately sent me the first episode of the podcast. After listening to Cecil explain that the dog park was off-limits due to the hooded figures, I was hooked.

To be fair, I was hooked on Night Vale before listening to the podcast, because the book’s description had me too excited. For those who aren’t familiar with it, here’s an excerpt:

Welcome to Night Vale . . . a friendly desert community somewhere in the American Southwest, where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while its citizens pretend to sleep. It’s a town like any other town, with a city hall, a bowling alley, a diner, a supermarket, and a community radio station reporting all the news that’s not allowed to be heard. In this ordinary little town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are commonplace parts of everyday life, the lives of two women, with two mysteries, are about to converge.

Sounds awesome, right? My friend told me to listen to to the podcast, up until they mention the book, before reading it. This was a few years ago, and I still haven’t started reading the book. And no, it’s not because I ended up disliking the podcast. In fact, I love it!

Welcome to Night Vale is unlike anything I’ve heard before. It’s truly amazing. The only issue is that I hardly have time to listen to podcasts. I don’t have a long commute to work, and am really bad at listening to things while working. This is also why I’ve never listened to an audio book; I find it incredibly difficult to focus on listening while doing another task. As a result, the only time I listen to Night Vale is when I’m doing chores, and chore time tends to also be “charge your phone” time, which is where I have the podcasts downloaded. I know: yet again, I am the worst.

I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of listening to Welcome to Night Vale, but I am slowly chipping away at it. Every episode is always somehow better than the last, and I’m constantly looking forward to hearing what stories Cecil has next. One day I will catch up, and when that time comes, I will read Welcome to Night Vale.

Last week I spoke about American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. Is there a book you own that you haven’t read yet? Let me know!