Book Club from Hell

Jack has an upcoming novel called 'Audience Capture', out October 2026 through Bonfire Books! Preorder now! https://bonfirebooks.org/product/audience-capture-by-jack-cuthbertson-pre-order/Mark Brandon Read, better known by his nom du crime 'Chopper', was an Australian celebrity criminal. His portfolio of misdeeds includes robbing drug dealers and pimps, shooting a few people, holding a county court judge hostage with a sawn-off shotgun and demanding the immediate release of a friend from prison, having his ears cut off while incarcerated, and melting people's toes with a blowtorch. Of artistic interest are the fifteen books he published during his life, selling over half a million copies, and a rap album, Interview with a Madman. Today's episode is on his first book, From the Inside: Chopper 1, a (notionally) true account of his crimes and the philosophy underpinning them, written by John Silvester and Andrew Rule on the basis of over 300 letters sent by Chopper to Silvester while Uncle Chop Chop was in Pentridge Prison.Capitalisimo, not being an Australian, and, therefore, unqualified to talk about Chopper Read, sat this one out. I was joined by Russell Walter, a real-life friend and the man behind the Russel Walter Substack, the Chudstack Review podcast (delightful name!) and an upcoming novel which he was wanting to call Mein Kampf 2, before deciding to call it Man Against Time. I'm disappointed in him, but also know the power of forgiveness.Russell on Substack: https://substack.com/@rwalterRussell on YouTube: youtube.com/@russellwalter5145VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONJack has an upcoming novel called 'Audience Capture', out October 2026 through Bonfire Books! Preorder now! https://bonfirebooks.org/product/audience-capture-by-jack-cuthbertson-pre-order/Contact: [email protected]: https://ko-fi.com/bookclubfromhellOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Capitalisimo on X: @thecapitalisimoArt by moog

I WILL BE READING AT PSEUDO-EVENT 3 IN NEW YORK ON SEPTEMBER 26TH! PLEASE COME ALONG AND SAY HELLO!More information: https://redroomnyc.com/event/pseudo-event-3-private-curtain/Sorry for the long gap between uploads here, have had a few problems in non-podcast life which meant that recording and uploading new episodes has had to (still has to) take a back seat.Sodomy Punish'd is based on a diary found by English sailors on the island of Ascension in 1726. The story goes that these sailors found an abandoned tent on this island, in which was a diary written by a Dutch sailor. This man had been marooned on Ascension after he was found guilty of sodomy. The marooning was never meant to be a death sentence, just a way to scare the lad into enjoying vaginal sex, as ships often stopped off at Ascension to hunt sea turtles. However, this Dutch sodomite had a remarkable run of bad luck: no ships stopped by while he was marooned, and there was a drought on the island. He died, leaving behind his diary, found by sailors of the ship the James and Mary, who published it as soon as they returned to London.VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONContact: [email protected] has an upcoming novel called 'Audience Capture', out October 2026 through Bonfire Books! Preorder now! https://bonfirebooks.org/product/audience-capture-by-jack-cuthbertson-pre-order/Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/bookclubfromhellOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Capitalisimo on X: @thecapitalisimoArt by moog

Christian/Christine Weston Chandler is a human feedback loop. Autistic and obsessed with documenting his own life and obsessions - video games, anime, the search for a boyfriend-free girl, etc - he has uploaded countless hours of rambling autobiography onto the internet. This, in turn, has attracted a group of people dedicated to assembling and examining the output of Chris Chan. Now for the feedback loop: Chris noticed that he was getting attention, and certain followers weren't happy to be passive observers. The experience of being observed by a diffuse cloud of anonymous and pseudonymous people - some trolls, some benevolent, some neutral - led to a behavioural doom spiral ending (for now) in Chris' imprisonment and release for having sex with his demented mother (which was, naturally, documented).Neither Capitalisimo nor I are CWC scholars. Rather than offer the thousandth account of this poor man's life, we elected to read his most consequential artistic work, the Sonichu comic book series, and analyse it as a standalone piece of literature. The result? Confusion, disorientation. I had a splitting headache after a few hours of reading.Chris Chan's deep lore (cognitohazard): https://sonichu.com/cwcki/Main_PageVERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONContact: [email protected] has an upcoming novel called 'Audience Capture', out October 2026 through Bonfire Books! Preorder now! https://bonfirebooks.org/product/audience-capture-by-jack-cuthbertson-pre-order/Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/bookclubfromhellOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Capitalisimo on X: @thecapitalisimoArt by moog

Pierce is a just-released novel by John Jay Stancliff, and you should buy it. Following multiple generations of the Collier family, it is a tightly-paced examination of our contingent place in the world, our inevitable mistakes in forming something fixed in such contingency, and the burden of subsequent generations to repeat our mistakes. It also includes some of the tensest depictions of combat I've come across, family drama, romantic drama, and construction. A lot of construction. Honey from the lion's mouth.  Come for the carpentry jargon, stay for the military jargon! Buy Pierce: https://farthestheaven.com/products/pierceBuy Fedbook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRC7Z2Q9/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0Henry Vaughan's review of Stancliff's body of work: https://substack.com/@thenewblast/note/p-210993530?r=46jdh0&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=webNew Oz Cunts event at Bar Lingo, Thornbury, Melbourne on August 21st, starting 6pm! No tickets, just show up!VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONContact: [email protected] has an upcoming novel called 'Audience Capture', out October 2026 through Bonfire Books! Preorder now! https://bonfirebooks.org/product/audience-capture-by-jack-cuthbertson-pre-order/Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/bookclubfromhellOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Capitalisimo on X: @thecapitalisimoArt by moog

The Columbine High School massacre occurred on April 20th, 1999, in Columbine, Colorado. Perpetrated by high school seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, it occupies a strange, mimetic place in our culture. Aesthetically inspired by media such as Natural Born Killers, Doom II and Duke Nukem 3d, it went on to provide a template for subsequent mass casualty attacks on soft targets, such as Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech. Harris and Klebold both wrote diaries, so, naturally, we read them. I felt quite unclean after this one.VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONContact: [email protected] has an upcoming novel called 'Audience Capture', out October 2026 through Bonfire Books! Preorder now! https://bonfirebooks.org/product/audience-capture-by-jack-cuthbertson-pre-order/Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/bookclubfromhellOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Capitalisimo on X: @thecapitalisimoArt by moog