Comedian Anthony Jeselnik is gaining attention for his unconventional approach to promoting literature through his increasingly popular Jeselnik Book Club. Known primarily for his stand-up comedy, Jeselnik created the book club as a way to maintain an online presence while touring, moving away from podcasting toward something more natural to his interests.

Jeselnik’s reading selections are marked by brevity and passion. He often chooses books around 250 pages, aiming to encourage men—whom he sees as less likely to engage with fiction—to incorporate more reading into their lives. Jeselnik believes that many men perceive fiction as a frivolous activity and attributes this to social conditioning and a lack of effective marketing. He noted the challenge of competing with pervasive digital distractions and expressed hope that declining literary engagement is a temporary trend. “Reading should be sold to men like lifting weights for your brain,” he said.

Jeselnik’s literary taste ranges widely, encompassing authors such as Jim Thompson and Jenny Offill. He also keeps a well-read collection of Bret Easton Ellis’s “Glamorama,” possessing multiple copies in various languages, a testament to his lasting admiration for the novel. Among his favorite recent reads is “Chain-Gang All-Stars” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, a book Jeselnik praised highly enough to be asked to write a foreword for a new edition. He also highlighted several books that elicited genuine laughter, including “Antkind” by Charlie Kaufman and “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller. However, Jeselnik expressed little patience for certain humorists, singling out David Sedaris as someone whose work he does not enjoy.

Jeselnik’s ideal reading environment involves uninterrupted solitude: sitting on a dark airplane with a Kindle and noise-cancelling earplugs as the world around him sleeps. The book club’s unofficial motto, “You don’t shoot dogs in Jeselnik Book Club,” signals a departure from more sentimental literary groups, setting a tone that aligns with Jeselnik’s comedic style.

In addition to fostering his book club, Jeselnik maintains a personal tradition of sharing his top novels annually and often recommending titles on his former podcast, signaling a longstanding commitment to literature alongside his comedy career. When asked about assembling a literary dinner party, Jeselnik named Rachel Cusk, Joan Didion, and Emily St. John Mandel—three authors he imagines would create an engaging, if contentious, gathering.

Through Jeselnik Book Club, Jeselnik continues to challenge perceptions of literary culture and promote reading as an accessible, enjoyable activity, particularly among audiences who may not traditionally engage with fiction.