First Edition

BookRiot.com co-founder Jeff O'Neal explores the wide bookish world. Interviews, lists, rankings, retrospectives, recommendations, and much more, featuring people who know and love books.

21 Books I’ve Got My Eye on This Month (April 2025)

Jeff talks about 21 books coming out this month that caught his eye.

Writing the Big One with Emma Pattee, Author of TILT

Jeff talks to Emma Pattee about her debut novel, Tilt

Making Phosphorus Interesting: WHITE LIGHT and How to Make a Microhistory

Jeff is joined by Jack Lohmann, author of the new book White Light: The Elemental Role of Phosphorus-in Our Cells, in Our Food, and in Our World

The Reading Life of Stephen Graham Jones

Jeff talks to Stephen Graham Jones about his reading life.

How Hollywood Shaped Joan Didion with Alissa Wilkinson

Alissa Wilkinson joins Jeff to talk about her new book, We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine.

A Gift from the Internet, Murder Ballads, and Liking Your Writing with Amal El-Mohtar

Jeff talks to Amal El-Mohtar about This is How You Lose the Time War getting one of greatest bookish gifts ever bestowed by the internet before talking about her new book, The River Has Roots.

10 Notecards with Scaachi Koul

Saachi Koul joins Jeff to talk about her new book, Sucker Punch with a new little format for First Edition called "10 Notecards With..." Jeff has picked out 10 things from the new book--words, ideas, stories, etc--written them on notecards, and then has Saachi pick them in a random (at least at the start order). Turned out to be a lot of fun, so expect to hear more of these.

How to Talk About New Books for 500 Episodes

Liberty Hardy joins Jeff to talk about 500 episodes of talking about new books and variety of other (mostly) shared interests.

Book Collecting, Bibliomemoir, and JANE AUSTEN’S BOOKSHELF with Rebecca Romney

Rebecca Romney joins Jeff to talk about her new book, Jane Austen's Bookshelf. They talk about personal book collecting, rediscovering literary history for yourself, a few of the writers Austen admired, and more. Jane Austen's Bookshelf is out now.

BIBLIOPHOBIA with Sarah Chihaya

Sarah Chihaya joins Jeff to talk about her new memoir, Bibliophobia. They talk life-ruining books, the enormous weight of all the books that are out there and how we cannot read them all, and other less-talked about parts of the reading life.