For Philip Roth, retirement means hanging with Stephen Colbert

Philip Roth has declared his retirement from writing and even from giving interviews. While for many retirement means departing for Florida and its early-bird specials, Roth is doing something different: appearing on “The Colbert Report.”

Roth will appear on Stephen Colbert’s show in July to be part of the cOlbert Book Club, the Associated Press reports (noting that cOlbert has a big “O” like Oprah, another famous book club host). Colbert’s spokesman says the entire episode will be devoted to the 81-year-old author.

Will they be able to discuss all his works? Roth began his career with the 1959 collection “Goodbye, Columbus” and ended it (if he is to be believed) with the novel “Nemesis” in 2010, publishing more than two dozen books along the way.

His notable books include “Portnoy’s Complaint,” “Letting Go,” “The Plot Against America,” and the Zuckerman novels, which include “The Ghost Writer,” “Zuckerman Unbound,” “American Pastoral” and “The Human Stain.”

If Roth were to bring his awards along, discussing just them might take the entire episode. He’s won two National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, the Prix Medicis Etranger, the Man Booker International and a National Medal of the Arts, and many more.

It may be the last installment of the cOlbert Book Club, which has also sat down with Maurice Sendak and discussed J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye.” So its host can take over David Letterman’s late-night spot on CBS, “The Colbert Report” will close down at the end of 2014.