A new podcast series is launching about the books that have shaped our lives

Remarque’s war novel became essential reading for an art historian, György Dragomán’s Főzőskönyv for a young chef, and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series for a space physician and a futurist. But why do certain books stay with us for decades, and what do we take from their characters and ideas and bring into our own lives? Dr. Petra Aczél, a communications researcher and university professor, asks guests from various fields about this in Libri Talent’s new podcast, Hősök könyve. In the eight-episode series produced in collaboration with Brain Barr, the heroes of our time—well-known individuals who set an example in their professions—reveal which book changed the way they see the world.

“Everyone needs a ‘real’ one. And not just emotionally, but in the realm of thought as well. That’s how a book can also be the ‘real’ one in our lives,” says Petra Aczél, the series’ host. Following the conversations in Hősök könyve – könyvek hőse, a question may arise in all of us: Is there a book that has changed the way we think? Is it a story whose characters we still remember years later, or a thought that has quietly become part of the way we make decisions and think about people, work, or even the future?

This is the premise behind *The Book of Heroes*—a new podcast produced jointly by *Heroes of Books*, Libri Talent, and Brain Bar. The conversations are neither traditional book reviews nor literary analyses. Each guest brings along a book that has had a defining impact on their life, and the conversation is about much more than just that one book: it explores how we become lifelong guests in the wonderful world of books. At the same time, it highlights that it does matter whether we read in the evening or in the morning, with a bookmark or a dog-ear, in paperback or hardcover; whether we have our own reading habits and traditions; and how we will view books 50 or 100 years from now.

Looking for the person behind the book

The discussions will be moderated by Dr. Petra Aczél, a communications researcher and professor at Széchenyi University, whose research interests include rhetoric and new media, as well as artificial intelligence and future-oriented skills. In Hősök könyve, she explores what a book—chosen as a defining read in one’s life—reveals about a person, and how a story can continue to live on in a reader’s thoughts, decisions, and worldview.

The series thus explores reading in an age when more content than ever before is competing for our attention, and when artificial intelligence is already capable of creating stories and texts on its own. The question, therefore, is no longer just what we read, but also what a book can add to our lives that we might not necessarily get elsewhere.

“No two people have read the same book, even if the cover bears the same title. An art historian takes away from Remarque the question of how we can view another era without the lens of our own; Asimov’s Foundation has become an argument in favor of deep reading for a futurist. All serious reading is a fruitful interaction: the author constructs a world, and the reader, without seeking permission, moves into it, rearranges it, and inhabits it for decades. In Hősök könyve, we’re curious about these private universes—that point where shared culture ends and a person’s own story begins. “If anything, this is the joy of being a bookseller: we hand out identical copies, and yet everyone goes home with a different book,” said Ákos Zulik, Deputy CEO for Strategy and Operations at Libri-Bookline.

Remarque to an art historian, Dragomán to a chef

The first guest on the series is Péter Fertőszögi, an art historian, artistic director of BÁV, and head of its appraiser training program, who has spent his entire life working among works of art and books. He chose Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front as his most influential read.

In the interview, he also explains why he doesn’t consider himself a collector despite having spent his entire life surrounded by works of art, how meticulous he is when it comes to keeping his books in order, why he always chooses the most beautiful copy—even at the bookstore— and why he believes it’s important not to automatically judge the past through the eyes of a 21st-century person, but rather to try to understand the era in which a work was created.

Petra Tischler, a private chef and organic gardener, reveals a completely different kind of relationship between a book and its reader. She chose György Dragomán’s Főzőskönyv, which for her was not merely a source of technical guidance but also a genuine human adventure. For her, reading and cooking go hand in hand. She discusses why she considers reading indispensable for chefs above a certain professional level, and how books can shape not only their way of thinking but also their relationship to the profession. What’s more, as one of the highlights of his profession, he also talks about how inspiring it is when a professional recipe is woven into a story with humor, elevating it to a lasting human value.

Books weave destinies together

Eleni Korani, co-owner of the Ernst Gallery, a dedicated curator of Hungarian fine art, and an internationally recognized art dealer, tells an incredible story about how her personal and family history became intertwined with a moment and a location in the life of Raoul Wallenberg. This realization came from an excellently written biography, the Hungarian launch of which she was invited to attend but did not go to. Better late than never… This conversation proves that there are no coincidences, and that a well-written book is not merely an experience, but a true wellspring for understanding an era, with all the diversity of human destinies it contains.

One competitive advantage of the future could be deep reading

Dr. Árpád Rab, a futurist and senior research fellow at the Institute for Information Society Research at the National University of Public Service, brought along his Isaac Asimov Foundation series.

His story—some details of which we are hearing from him for the first time—has been closely intertwined with books since his childhood. His father would occasionally give him sort of “tests” to see if he had actually read the works they would later discuss. In Hősök könyve, he discusses how a shared reading experience can bring people together, whether a text written by artificial intelligence can still be recognized as such, and what happens to reading in the age of AI.

According to Árpád Rab, deep reading could be an important competitive advantage in the future, precisely because it requires the kind of sustained attention and immersion that we may need more and more in an increasingly fast-paced information environment.

From a Danish musician to an ethologist

Other guests on the eight-part series will include, among others, Hungary’s first female space physician, Dr. Vivien Klaudia Nagy; world-renowned behavioral researcher and Academy of Sciences member Ádám Miklósi; and Frederik Cornelius, a Danish musician and influencer who has made Hungary his home. An interview with Cornelius conducted at the Brain Bar festival in September, in which the young musician talks about how an unexpected encounter connected him to Hungarian culture, and why Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi became the book he most enjoys recommending to others.

Hősök könyve does not seek to answer the question of which books everyone should read. Rather, it explores how a person and a story find each other, and what happens when a book does not end on its last page but continues to resonate within the reader.

The first episode of Hősök könyve will be released on Wednesday, October 7, at 5:00 p.m. on the Brain Bar podcast channel. After that, new episodes of the eight-part podcast series, a collaboration between Libri Talent and Brain Bar, will be released weekly on Wednesdays at 5:00 p.m.