Latest / The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast / Episode 100: Questions, Answers, Books

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Episode 100: Questions, Answers, Books · The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast

0:12
SPEAKER_00: This is the Mooks and the Gripes podcast.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Hello, everybody.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: This is Trevor.
0:17
And having a frabjous day,
0:18
calloo-callay,
0:19
it's Paul,
0:20
chortling in his joy.
0:21
SPEAKER_02: Paul, how are you doing?
0:23
SPEAKER_02: I am chortling away over here.
0:24
SPEAKER_02: I am so excited for today's episode.
0:26
SPEAKER_02: It's going to be a lot of fun.
0:27
SPEAKER_02: Doing great.
0:28
SPEAKER_02: How are you doing?
0:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing great, yeah.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: A hundred episodes.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: A hundred episodes.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: You know,
0:33
SPEAKER_00: I've done other podcasts in the past,
0:35
SPEAKER_00: like the Eclipse Viewer,
0:37
SPEAKER_00: where we covered the entire line of Criterion's Eclipse series.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: We were limited by how many releases they had.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: So I think we got like 60, 65, and then we were completely done.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, there wasn't any more to do.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: This is my first time ever celebrating a milestone like this.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: That's so exciting.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: And we...
0:57
SPEAKER_00: will only stop when we have covered every book, right?
1:00
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: Or I'm dead.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: That's another thing that could happen.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: I think,
1:09
SPEAKER_02: unfortunately,
1:10
SPEAKER_02: hopefully that'll be far away,
1:12
but I think that would be much more likely than us finishing
1:14
all the books as one
1:15
SPEAKER_02: of us.
1:16
SPEAKER_02: Not quite making it, shall we say.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, but I also think we can maybe give some of that space
1:22
SPEAKER_00: to our good friends at One Bright Book who do cover all the books.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's in their tagline.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to hold ourselves to that.
1:33
SPEAKER_02: They set a very high standard by making that their tagline.
1:36
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I agree with you.
1:37
SPEAKER_02: We'll stick to whichever books we want to cover.
1:39
SPEAKER_02: They have to cover all of them.
1:40
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: Well,
1:43
we are very excited because we got a whole bunch of questions
1:46
from all of you listeners,
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SPEAKER_00: and we thought we would spend this episode answering them.
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SPEAKER_00: Most of them,
1:55
SPEAKER_00: all of them,
1:57
SPEAKER_00: are book-related,
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SPEAKER_00: which doesn't surprise me at all,
1:59
SPEAKER_00: though we didn't put any parameters around it.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: I get...
2:04
SPEAKER_00: that that's what we're all here for is to talk about books.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: And so,
2:08
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:08
SPEAKER_00: but,
2:08
but Paul and I might pepper in a few other types of questions
2:12
for each other that
2:13
SPEAKER_00: stray a little bit away from that.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: We'll have to see.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't, no promises, right?
2:17
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to cover all the questions or all the books anymore.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: We're changing it up.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: We're changing it up.
2:23
SPEAKER_02: Did you ever,
2:24
SPEAKER_02: you remember there used to be those teen magazines back in the eighties,
2:26
SPEAKER_02: like tiger beat magazine and all those,
2:28
SPEAKER_02: like where they would ask all the,
2:29
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:29
SPEAKER_02: Alyssa Milano and,
2:31
SPEAKER_02: whoever, uh, Kirk Cameron, all these questions.
2:33
I think we should sprinkle in a few of those kinds,
2:35
you know,
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favorite color.
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SPEAKER_00: You are better prepared for this than I am.
2:41
I did not go back to my,
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to my box of teeny box magazines from the eighties.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I should have done it.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: I should have done well.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: I will lean heavily on you.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: I might just be like, here's my answer.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: And what about you, Paul?
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: That's fair.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: The old deflection.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: But we are going to put this into two parts on this episode.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: One episode, but kind of breaking it up into two parts.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: Because in the middle, we have a giveaway.
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SPEAKER_00: We chose,
3:11
SPEAKER_00: we didn't choose,
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SPEAKER_00: a random number generator chose from the people who sent us questions or,
3:18
SPEAKER_00: you know,
3:19
SPEAKER_00: congratulations,
3:20
SPEAKER_00: here's something I learned from the podcast notes.
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And we will draw five winners and get in touch with them to
3:27
send them a book of
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SPEAKER_00: their choice,
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either from our giveaway pile or from something that they've
3:35
been looking at for a
3:36
SPEAKER_00: long time.
3:36
So we'll get there at about halfway point in the show,
3:39
somewhere around there.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: If you sent in a question or something like that,
3:43
SPEAKER_00: pay very close attention,
3:45
SPEAKER_00: though I'll probably reach out to you as well.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be fun.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: All right.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: All right.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: Well,
3:54
SPEAKER_00: I thought we should start with a smaller question,
3:57
SPEAKER_00: potentially,
3:58
SPEAKER_00: to help get the conversation flowing,
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SPEAKER_00: help my brain get going this morning.
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SPEAKER_00: Right.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: We'll see how this goes.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this will be one of the tougher ones.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: But from Little Book Bell,
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SPEAKER_00: we got the question,
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SPEAKER_00: if you could have dinner with one author,
4:15
SPEAKER_00: dead or alive,
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SPEAKER_00: who would it be?
4:20
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, that's a tough one.
4:21
SPEAKER_02: I think there's several approaches you could take to this one.
4:26
SPEAKER_02: I like it, not just a simple answer.
4:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:28
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
4:28
would you go with someone that you admire as an artist or who
4:31
is like an all-timer,
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SPEAKER_02: you know,
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SPEAKER_02: a Jane Austen or a Herman Melville kind of person?
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Because I think that would be amazing,
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but I could also see it being a little awkward.
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SPEAKER_02: There would be some cultural differences,
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SPEAKER_02: maybe some social mores that have changed over the years.
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SPEAKER_00: So I was thinking... Urban Melville is a jerk.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: And Jane Austen would be like judging which forks I use or whatever.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: He slurped his soup and Jane Austen was very judgy.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
4:59
SPEAKER_02: Well,
5:00
and then I was thinking it would be fun to just have somebody
5:03
you enjoyed spending
5:04
SPEAKER_02: time with.
5:04
So obviously we've had several authors just on as guests that I
5:08
would love to sit
5:09
SPEAKER_02: and have dinner with.
5:10
SPEAKER_02: So that was another way my mind went.
5:11
But in the end,
5:12
I was tempted to say David Sedaris,
5:14
but for the same reason as Jane Austen.
5:17
SPEAKER_02: I was like,
5:17
SPEAKER_02: ooh,
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that might be kind of scary because I'd end up in one of his
5:20
books or something.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: Next book would be about Paul.
5:22
SPEAKER_02: Exactly, which would be really boring.
5:24
So I decided I'd go with George Saunders just because not only
5:29
is he a great author
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SPEAKER_02: who I love,
5:32
SPEAKER_02: but I met him very briefly one time at a book signing.
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SPEAKER_02: And then just everything that I've ever heard and read about him,
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SPEAKER_02: he's just a genuinely kind and interesting guy.
5:40
So I think as far as a dinner companion,
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I think he would be a great choice.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: So that's who I went with after much debate.
5:46
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a great answer.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: And similar thought process for me.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: Like, there are a lot of authors that would be almost like, I don't know.
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SPEAKER_00: So when I go to museums with my parents,
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SPEAKER_00: I haven't been to one in a long time,
6:00
SPEAKER_00: but you know,
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SPEAKER_00: my dad will sit and stare at something for a half an hour.
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For my mom,
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it's enough to walk in the room and say she's seen it and then leave.
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SPEAKER_00: Like the Mona Lisa, there it is.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm done.
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SPEAKER_00: She wants to have seen him.
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SPEAKER_00: Nothing against my mom.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'm that way.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I stepped foot in that state.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: Let's go now kind of thing or whatever.
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And I kind of feel like a lot of the dead authors would be like
6:28
that for me.
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SPEAKER_00: It would be like, oh, it's cool.
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SPEAKER_00: I sat down and had dinner with Shakespeare.
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00: But I don't think I would get along with so many of them.
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I don't think it would be a pleasant dinner for the reason that
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I want to sit down
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SPEAKER_00: and have dinner similar to our podcast.
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SPEAKER_00: You know, I love sitting down and having good food and good conversation.
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SPEAKER_00: And sure, some of them, I'm sure it would happen.
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SPEAKER_00: But you're right, the awkwardness, all the differences.
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SPEAKER_00: But also, I just don't think I would get along with very many of them.
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SPEAKER_00: That's a good point.
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SPEAKER_00: So I didn't choose a dead author.
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SPEAKER_00: And my brain naturally went to similar to you,
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someone that I think I could have a good conversation with and
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that we have.
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SPEAKER_00: So I thought of Mark Haber would be fun because he's in Berlin.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: First off, that's another benefit.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Not when we release this, unfortunately.
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SPEAKER_00: His time there will be over.
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SPEAKER_00: And welcome back.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: But that,
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SPEAKER_00: you know,
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SPEAKER_00: going to Berlin and having dinner with him,
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SPEAKER_00: there's some extra bonuses there as well as just the absolute certainty.
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SPEAKER_00: It would be a lot of fun.
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But because that was easy,
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because I have had a conversation with Mark and so I know it.
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I went with someone that I don't know,
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I've never met and who has no idea who I am.
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But that I think because she runs a bookstore and talks about
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books a lot on her Instagram page,
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SPEAKER_00: I would have a really good time.
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SPEAKER_00: Even if I just sat there the whole time,
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SPEAKER_00: I would still look back and say,
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SPEAKER_00: that was a lovely evening.
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SPEAKER_00: And so I chose Ann Patchett.
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SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's perfect.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that.
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SPEAKER_00: I did think of Louise Erdrich, but I don't see her talking.
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You know,
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Ann Patchett,
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I finally went with her because every Friday she goes...
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SPEAKER_00: It's Ann Patchett, Parnassus Books, and it's Friday.
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SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't read this book, it's new to you.
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SPEAKER_00: And she'll talk about new books or old books with that enthusiasm.
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SPEAKER_00: Apparently, the book she's working on right now
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SPEAKER_00: has at least some inspiration from Evelyn was a handful of dust.
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SPEAKER_00: So she talked about a handful of dust on one of her episodes or,
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SPEAKER_00: you know,
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SPEAKER_00: one of her reels,
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SPEAKER_00: whatever it is,
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SPEAKER_00: tick tocks.
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SPEAKER_00: And it was just so fun.
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SPEAKER_00: So I thought, Oh, I could say at the very least in that conversation.
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SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that book.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:44
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
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SPEAKER_02: You have some common ground.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
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She could carry the load of the conversation,
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but I could at least,
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you know,
8:51
participate.
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SPEAKER_00: And I just, I think she is pretty delightful on online.
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SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: So that's where I went.
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I've been to her bookstore a couple of times and every time I'm
9:01
sure like most people,
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SPEAKER_02: I'm kind of looking around to see if I see her so far.
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SPEAKER_02: No luck, but yeah, she would be wonderful to chat with.
9:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
9:08
SPEAKER_02: That's a great choice.
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SPEAKER_02: I love it.
9:09
SPEAKER_02: And maybe she'd bring her a little pup too.
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SPEAKER_02: She always has her little dog and those videos.
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You and I have kind of talked about this question in the
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reverse before too.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: Like there are authors that I admire and love their work,
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SPEAKER_00: but I don't want to have a dinner with them.
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SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:23
SPEAKER_02: Philip Roth, for example.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:25
I just,
9:25
I mean,
9:25
maybe it would be fine,
9:26
but I just,
9:27
I don't think it would.
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SPEAKER_00: I think he would end up despising me for some reason or another,
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SPEAKER_00: you know,
9:33
SPEAKER_00: maybe similar judginess.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: Like I'd feel analyzed the whole time and probably unfairly or fairly.
9:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:41
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
9:41
SPEAKER_02: yeah,
9:42
SPEAKER_02: a lot of artists of all types,
9:44
SPEAKER_02: you know,
9:44
SPEAKER_02: writers and visual artists and other things are known for,
9:48
many of them are known for having a cantankerous side or an
9:51
eccentric side.
9:52
So I think we were both smart to kind of filter through that
9:56
and think of like,
9:57
SPEAKER_02: who would I actually genuinely want to sit down and chat with?
9:59
SPEAKER_02: Because I think that would make it a lot more fun.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: And we could be wrong.
10:03
Maybe George Saunders is so delightful when he's lecturing or
10:07
in a talk show setting.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: But when you sit him down for dinner, man.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: I know.
10:14
SPEAKER_02: It's always the fear,
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the whole never meet your idols thing would definitely play
10:18
into this because it
10:19
SPEAKER_02: could be devastating.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: All right.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, that was one of our easier questions of the many that we got.
10:27
We might not get through all of these,
10:28
Paul,
10:29
but let's keep chipping away.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep chipping away.
10:31
SPEAKER_02: Do you want to read the next one?
10:32
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
10:33
SPEAKER_02: Our next one comes from World Serious and they say,
10:37
would you consider spending a year reading books by authors
10:40
you've never read?
10:42
SPEAKER_02: So Trevor, do you want to kick us off on that one?
10:44
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is yes.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: And as I sat and thought about this,
10:49
SPEAKER_00: I thought it might be,
10:51
SPEAKER_00: you know,
10:52
SPEAKER_00: if one of my favorite authors came out with a book that year.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: But when I look back on my reading logs, I'm not too far from this.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah, there's
11:04
SPEAKER_00: probably going to be a new Brandon Sanderson book that comes out,
11:07
SPEAKER_00: but I could skip that one in a year.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: But yeah,
11:10
SPEAKER_00: ultimately,
11:10
SPEAKER_00: yes,
11:11
I love getting to know new authors and often prioritize that
11:16
over a favorite
11:17
SPEAKER_00: author's new book in some ways.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: I might buy the new author's new book,
11:21
SPEAKER_00: but they tend to not be the ones that I immediately sit down and read.
11:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
11:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:27
Do you happen to have like some in your mind,
11:29
like if you were to take on a project like this?
11:32
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you don't, it's fine.
11:33
SPEAKER_02: But I was thinking about this too.
11:35
SPEAKER_02: And I agree with you.
11:36
SPEAKER_02: I would do this in a second.
11:38
It would probably come with a few painful moments throughout
11:41
the year where,
11:42
SPEAKER_02: like you said,
11:42
SPEAKER_02: there was like
11:43
And,
11:43
you know,
11:44
oh,
11:44
John Darnielle has a new one out and I have to wait till next year.
11:47
SPEAKER_02: But I was thinking just off the top of my head,
11:49
SPEAKER_02: there was so many authors that I have never read that I'm always like,
11:52
SPEAKER_02: I got to get to that person.
11:54
A few that came to mind,
11:55
Thomas Pinchon,
11:56
you know,
11:56
William T.
11:57
Volman,
11:58
Emile Zola.
11:59
SPEAKER_02: I have that all of those books and I've not yet read a word from him.
12:02
SPEAKER_02: Anne Quinn, you know, Alexis Wright, Elias Corey.
12:05
SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's so many as I was just off the top of my head.
12:08
Thinking that right there,
12:10
the list I just made would fill a good six months if I wanted
12:15
it to.
12:17
For me,
12:17
I didn't think about this so much in terms of authors as publishers.
12:21
I could easily find enough reading material of new authors from
12:26
all the publishers
12:27
SPEAKER_00: that you and I have already talked about.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: And there are plenty of them that I've like,
12:30
SPEAKER_00: oh,
12:30
SPEAKER_00: I'd really like to read that,
12:32
SPEAKER_00: get to know that book.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: or that author.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: And I haven't done it yet.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, Archipelago has tons.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, geez.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:38
Uh,
12:39
Charco press has so many that I'm like,
12:41
Oh,
12:41
I,
12:42
I just want to read,
12:44
um,
12:44
more of those.
12:45
Or,
12:45
you know,
12:45
of course,
12:46
NYRB classics has,
12:47
has a bunch,
12:48
um,
12:49
Dalkey archive.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: So many that I haven't read.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: Um,
12:53
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's another thing, though.
12:54
What if you do this and you start the year,
12:58
but Charcoal Press has a few books by Selva Almada.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Can you read all of them in that year?
13:02
SPEAKER_00: Is that a new author, or does she all of a sudden become not new to you?
13:07
SPEAKER_00: Is this all 52 weeks, every book you pick up?
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Or is it, if I haven't read them before 2025...
13:16
SPEAKER_00: They're still new to me.
13:18
SPEAKER_02: That's a good question.
13:19
SPEAKER_02: I think World Series will have to weigh in on that.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I guess.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: What are the parameters of this question?
13:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I would.
13:27
SPEAKER_02: I guess it depends.
13:28
I mean,
13:28
if you're going by the strict rule of it by authors you've
13:31
never read.
13:33
SPEAKER_02: I guess the first time you read a book that eliminates that person.
13:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:38
SPEAKER_02: So that's a very good, very good point.
13:40
SPEAKER_02: Either way, I think I could easily do it.
13:44
SPEAKER_02: Whether or not I would, I don't know.
13:45
SPEAKER_02: Cause I've,
13:46
SPEAKER_02: it reminds me of other projects I've talked about where it's like,
13:49
it would be fun to spend like half a year or a whole year only
13:52
reading books that I
13:53
SPEAKER_02: haven't read from one publisher,
13:55
SPEAKER_02: for example.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: So that's the next part.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: You and I are on the same, same line.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: Would I consider it?
14:01
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: Would I do it?
14:03
SPEAKER_00: Would I make it a goal?
14:04
SPEAKER_00: No.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't want that kind of restriction.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: It's not that I think those things are bad for people,
14:12
SPEAKER_00: but I've learned that for me,
14:14
I start to buck up against it and it becomes more of a problem
14:19
for me than
14:20
SPEAKER_00: something that I...
14:23
SPEAKER_00: Me right now might say, oh, that's a great idea.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: But me in October doesn't want to do what me right now said to do.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't do it.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't set it up.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: It might happen naturally, but I would not commit to it.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: Consider it.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a great thing to consider and to maybe even lean into.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, but make it something that I just will do.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: No, I wouldn't do that.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:52
SPEAKER_02: No, I was going to say the same thing.
14:53
SPEAKER_02: I think both of us tend to be pretty flexible on these things.
14:57
SPEAKER_02: And so I could see myself saying this year,
14:59
I want to focus on reading more authors that I've never read
15:02
before and make it like,
15:03
SPEAKER_02: you know,
15:03
SPEAKER_02: a focus of my year,
15:05
SPEAKER_02: but not making it only.
15:06
SPEAKER_02: I can definitely see that.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: I think,
15:08
SPEAKER_02: you know,
15:08
SPEAKER_02: I was listening,
15:09
SPEAKER_02: speaking of our friends over at One Bright Book,
15:11
I was listening to their latest episode the other day and it
15:14
was Frances who said
15:16
she struggles sometimes with group reads for that very same
15:19
reason that she starts
15:20
SPEAKER_02: to feel,
15:21
SPEAKER_02: you know,
15:21
SPEAKER_02: the rebel inside of her kick in where it's like,
15:23
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to read this many pages,
15:25
SPEAKER_02: this,
15:25
SPEAKER_02: you know.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: And so I do think
15:29
SPEAKER_02: For all of us,
15:30
there's probably those moments where you have to balance some
15:34
of these fun projects
15:35
with knowing yourself and what you would actually be willing
15:37
and able to do.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: My goal is to read and enjoy it genuinely.
15:46
And things can get in the way of that sometimes,
15:48
even the things that will be good for us.
15:50
I have learned how to balance some of that and to not be so
15:53
worried about that,
15:54
SPEAKER_00: which has made it so that maybe my inner rebel doesn't kick in.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, exactly.
15:59
SPEAKER_02: It's an interesting question, though.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: I really like that one.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: All right,
16:05
SPEAKER_00: the next one is a pretty easy one to answer,
16:08
SPEAKER_00: but it does have a little bit of a strange answer.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: It says,
16:11
SPEAKER_00: this is from Dora on Blue Sky,
16:15
SPEAKER_00: and Dora has asked,
16:16
SPEAKER_00: since I'm not by any means caught up on the archive,
16:19
SPEAKER_00: have you ever discussed the works of Anita Bruckner?
16:24
And she's probably popped up a time or two when we're talking
16:28
about other things,
16:30
SPEAKER_00: but we have not discussed them.
16:33
Sorry,
16:34
I'll ask you the next question,
16:35
but here's my answer to this one,
16:37
too.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if you know this,
16:38
SPEAKER_00: Paul,
16:39
but on our Patreon feed and maybe even on our Substack feed for
16:45
people who have who
16:47
SPEAKER_00: have contributed,
16:48
SPEAKER_00: who are Patreon supporters or Substack paid subscribers.
16:53
One of the episodes that you get is a bonus episode that is me
16:58
talking about Anita
16:58
SPEAKER_00: Bruckner from several years ago.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: It's about her first four books.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: It's called Anita Bruckner's Start in Life.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: And I had a great time putting that together.
17:07
And since I didn't have it out in the world anymore,
17:09
I thought that was a great place to put it.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: That said,
17:12
I have no problems if anybody's interested in trying to figure
17:16
out a way to get you
17:17
SPEAKER_00: a copy of it.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to
17:19
SPEAKER_00: to pay or anything like that,
17:21
SPEAKER_00: um,
17:21
SPEAKER_00: to,
17:21
SPEAKER_00: to get this,
17:22
SPEAKER_00: that was not meant to be always and only an exclusive,
17:26
SPEAKER_00: um,
17:27
SPEAKER_00: you know,
17:28
SPEAKER_00: episode.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: It was just a place that I could, I could put it.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: So did you know that?
17:31
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I definitely knew that.
17:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
17:33
SPEAKER_02: I remember that.
17:34
SPEAKER_02: And I remember when it first came out, um, I listened to it.
17:37
SPEAKER_02: I think you did a great job.
17:38
SPEAKER_02: It's really cool.
17:39
SPEAKER_02: Um,
17:40
Yeah,
17:40
I would highly encourage anyone who hasn't listened to it to
17:43
check it out.
17:43
SPEAKER_02: And yeah,
17:44
SPEAKER_02: she is one of our,
17:46
SPEAKER_02: you know,
17:46
SPEAKER_02: I don't know,
17:47
SPEAKER_02: one of our favorite authors,
17:48
SPEAKER_02: I think I feel safe saying.
17:50
SPEAKER_02: And like you said, I know she's come up here and there.
17:52
Like I remember on,
17:53
I think it was like the hotel episode,
17:56
hotel books,
17:57
hotel.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: I think maybe I talked about it even on that episode.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
18:03
SPEAKER_00: no,
18:03
SPEAKER_02: it's hard to remember over the whole course of,
18:05
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
18:05
SPEAKER_02: I know that we've brought up,
18:06
SPEAKER_02: I think,
18:08
SPEAKER_02: in maybe like favorite passages or favorite opening passages.
18:10
I'm pretty sure she came up for one of her books,
18:13
maybe a start in life or,
18:15
but anyway,
18:16
yeah.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've definitely touched on it.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: Potential too.
18:19
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that the one?
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think so.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: And we might've even talked about her on our spinster lit episode,
18:26
SPEAKER_00: you know,
18:26
SPEAKER_00: cause I know that like Jackie,
18:28
SPEAKER_00: who is our guest on the hotels books and you know,
18:32
SPEAKER_00: I think is a fan of Anita Bruckner.
18:34
and,
18:35
and had,
18:36
I,
18:37
again,
18:37
I can't remember if it was me or her who brought it up.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, but others that we, others of our guests have definitely been fans.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: Um,
18:46
SPEAKER_00: Bonnie may,
18:47
SPEAKER_00: we may have brought her up when we did our episode on Barbara,
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Barbara Pym,
18:50
SPEAKER_00: you know,
18:51
SPEAKER_00: so definitely someone who pops up,
18:52
SPEAKER_00: but we've never done a dedicated episode on her.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: I think she's in our shortlist.
18:57
SPEAKER_02: I was going to say for the future.
18:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely.
18:59
SPEAKER_02: That's a great question.
19:00
SPEAKER_02: She's amazing.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: So, all right.
19:03
Well,
19:03
I'll ask you the next one because,
19:05
you know,
19:05
it's a little bit different from that one.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: And it says, it's from Knowledge Lost.
19:09
It says,
19:10
if you had the finances to do anything,
19:13
bookish or otherwise,
19:15
what would your dream be?
19:18
SPEAKER_02: That is a big question, especially when you throw in the or otherwise.
19:21
SPEAKER_02: But I went bookish.
19:22
SPEAKER_02: And even then I had to kind of create two different caveats for this.
19:27
SPEAKER_02: So for me, it would either be traveling or...
19:31
SPEAKER_02: or starting a bookstore.
19:33
SPEAKER_02: If I had finances to do anything, I would do both.
19:37
SPEAKER_02: But so on the one hand,
19:39
SPEAKER_02: hitting great bookstores and literary destinations,
19:41
SPEAKER_02: we've talked about this before,
19:42
it would be so fun to just travel the world and divide it up
19:47
between bookstores,
19:48
SPEAKER_02: beautiful libraries,
19:50
hitting Bath and different areas that are mentioned in some of
19:54
our favorite books.
19:54
SPEAKER_02: So that would be one way that I would go.
19:57
But then I would definitely also be interested in just starting
20:00
an independent bookstore.
20:01
SPEAKER_02: And if money is not an option,
20:03
I know one of our things we've talked about is the realities of
20:06
running a bookstore
20:07
SPEAKER_02: versus the kind of idealized version.
20:09
SPEAKER_02: I think if money is not an option,
20:11
that wouldn't be as much of a deal because it wouldn't just be
20:14
you taking on all
20:16
SPEAKER_02: the brunts.
20:17
SPEAKER_02: every shift and everything.
20:18
So I think it would be a lot of fun to be able to just finance
20:22
a really amazing
20:23
SPEAKER_02: bookstore and hire people in the community who love books.
20:26
And I think it could really turn into like a fun place where
20:30
people could come and
20:31
SPEAKER_02: gather and you could stock it.
20:34
Again,
20:34
if money's not an option,
20:35
you can stock it with any obscure book you want to.
20:37
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't have to just be so focused on the bottom line.
20:41
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, two ways to go with that.
20:44
SPEAKER_02: But if money's not an option, I'm doing both.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Oh, man.
20:50
I mean,
20:50
people probably knew this already,
20:52
but we're pretty much in lockstep.
20:54
I often think about how if money weren't an issue and I but I,
20:59
you know,
20:59
it wasn't leaving.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: So on the travels and stuff.
21:02
Yeah,
21:02
I would love to have a bookstore for those community events,
21:06
for the fun of it.
21:07
I know,
21:08
and you know better than I do,
21:09
that's not all it's cracked up to be at times.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: You know,
21:12
running a business is a job and you're running a business and
21:15
the books can be,
21:17
SPEAKER_00: you know,
21:17
SPEAKER_00: what your business is about,
21:20
SPEAKER_00: but you've still got the business and all of that.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: So it...
21:24
SPEAKER_00: It would be a wake-up call, but you're right.
21:27
If I could just say,
21:27
hey,
21:27
here's my bookstore,
21:29
and I'm hiring you to run it.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: I get to come and go and enjoy all of the perks and all that,
21:36
SPEAKER_00: then I think that would be a lot of fun.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: But what I put down was literary tours with great food and great people.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: I think that would be so fun to be a tour guide.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Again,
21:51
knowing that the reason I'm glad that that he put money is not
21:58
an option or,
21:58
SPEAKER_00: you know,
21:59
finances aren't a consideration because it's not like I have
22:02
the idea that these
22:03
SPEAKER_00: would be lucrative moves.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: Just the fun things,
22:08
SPEAKER_00: you know,
22:08
SPEAKER_00: I would love to,
22:09
SPEAKER_00: I would love to go visit these places with,
22:11
SPEAKER_00: with small groups of people.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: I've done that kind of stuff in the past and, and always have enjoyed it.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: And I,
22:18
SPEAKER_00: I like leading a discussion or,
22:20
SPEAKER_00: you know,
22:20
SPEAKER_00: at least stoking a discussion,
22:22
SPEAKER_00: you know,
22:23
SPEAKER_00: maybe a dinner time about books and things like that.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, that would be something that I would love to do.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: And,
22:28
SPEAKER_00: and,
22:28
SPEAKER_00: and Paul and I have talked about that someday,
22:31
SPEAKER_00: you know,
22:32
SPEAKER_00: maybe hosting a,
22:33
SPEAKER_00: a literary tour,
22:34
SPEAKER_00: um,
22:35
go to England for a couple of weeks and hit some of these
22:39
places in a small but
22:42
SPEAKER_00: manageable group.
22:44
And that is something that we would love to make actually a
22:48
reality and not just a dream.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
22:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, now's the time where we mention our Patreon.
22:54
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm just kidding.
22:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, someday when we're rich and men of leisure.
23:00
SPEAKER_02: No, regardless of that, jokes aside, yeah, absolutely.
23:03
SPEAKER_02: That's something we have talked about relatively seriously.
23:07
SPEAKER_02: That is something that we would love to do someday.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: We've looked into it and looked at options and it's not imminent.
23:13
It's not like we're doing it this fall,
23:15
but we've tried to see what do we even need to know.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
23:20
SPEAKER_02: No, but good food and good people.
23:21
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's the selling point for me.
23:24
SPEAKER_02: That would be wonderful.
23:26
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
23:27
SPEAKER_02: All right.
23:27
SPEAKER_02: You ready for the next one?
23:29
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
23:29
SPEAKER_02: All right.
23:30
This one is from Toronto Book Nerd and they ask,
23:34
what was your favorite book as a child?
23:37
SPEAKER_00: So this one was tough for me.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: I sometimes don't... I mean, I remember my childhood.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: I had a great childhood.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: I am very grateful for that.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: I know that's not the case with everybody.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: But trying to figure out what my favorite book was, I read all the time.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: My mom and dad read all the time and read to me.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: But I think the book that,
23:57
SPEAKER_00: as a child,
23:59
SPEAKER_00: that inspired my imagination,
24:01
SPEAKER_00: like I'd go out and jump on the tramp or
24:03
SPEAKER_00: run around the neighborhood is Lord of the Rings.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: And I would have nightmares at night of the orcs coming down our street,
24:12
SPEAKER_00: you know,
24:12
SPEAKER_00: like to my house.
24:14
I'd look out my window and they're out there because part of
24:17
that was also the
24:19
SPEAKER_00: Ralph Bakshi adaptation of the Lord of the Rings.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: But I think that's what I would answer as a child.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember...
24:30
Most children's books that I read as a child and any one of
24:33
them being my favorite.
24:34
Most of that has actually come as,
24:36
you know,
24:37
all of my siblings are older than me.
24:38
And so they started having kids and some of that's me reading
24:42
to them and enjoying
24:43
SPEAKER_00: those books more as I grew up and now with my own kids.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Um,
24:49
SPEAKER_00: so I kind of maybe didn't go all the way to being a child,
24:53
but I was pretty young when I read these books and the movies
24:57
were definitely a big,
24:59
SPEAKER_00: um,
24:59
SPEAKER_00: a big influence on me.
25:01
And like the page,
25:02
like even the chill,
25:03
even these,
25:04
I did do some of them.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: I think the Hobbit is a children's book.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was just the Rankin Bass adaptation children's book,
25:11
SPEAKER_00: you know,
25:11
where it flipped the pages and you'd see the pictures that from
25:14
the cartoon,
25:15
SPEAKER_00: um,
25:16
Um,
25:16
all of that stuff that I remember and would say that that had a
25:19
big influence on me.
25:21
SPEAKER_02: No, I mean, I will echo that.
25:23
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if I was going to name just one, that would definitely be for me.
25:26
SPEAKER_02: I mean, not one, but the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.
25:29
SPEAKER_02: I mean, my dad read the Hobbit to me.
25:31
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure it was an abridged version,
25:32
SPEAKER_02: but he's,
25:33
SPEAKER_02: when I was three,
25:34
SPEAKER_02: three years old,
25:35
SPEAKER_02: he started reading it to me.
25:36
So it was very formative in my imagination,
25:39
my love of reading the way similar to you.
25:41
SPEAKER_02: I remember, um,
25:42
Being on car rides through the mountains in Colorado and
25:45
looking up at like an
25:46
Aspen forest on the side of the road and like imagining that
25:48
there were elves and
25:49
SPEAKER_02: hobbits and things.
25:50
SPEAKER_02: So same thing.
25:51
SPEAKER_02: And then the Rankin Bass, we had the record in our room.
25:55
SPEAKER_02: And so during like nap times or when we had to clean our room,
25:58
SPEAKER_02: we would have that playing where it would be.
26:00
You know,
26:00
the whole,
26:02
you know,
26:02
all the dialogue and the music and everything.
26:04
SPEAKER_02: So for sure,
26:05
that would be the one if I had to choose just the formative
26:08
book very early in my life,
26:11
SPEAKER_02: I would say.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Give me one quick second before you move on to the different one.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: So even with my kids,
26:16
SPEAKER_00: like I've read The Hobbit to them and they were pretty young,
26:19
SPEAKER_00: but also showed them the cartoon.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: And it was just the other day,
26:23
SPEAKER_00: um,
26:23
SPEAKER_00: that my youngest was like,
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Hey,
26:25
SPEAKER_00: whenever we listened to this,
26:27
SPEAKER_00: it reminds me of,
26:28
SPEAKER_00: um,
26:29
I think he said Panda Express or Chick-fil-A or something like
26:31
that because I took
26:32
SPEAKER_00: him to the movies once,
26:34
SPEAKER_00: but on our way,
26:34
SPEAKER_00: and we didn't even stop at one of these restaurants.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: We just did in the same area.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: But while we were doing that, um,
26:41
SPEAKER_00: I had on the, not the record, but the recording from the record.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: And they listened to that with me as we were doing that.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: And he was just telling me the other day, this always reminds me of that.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: And I thought that those are just fun little associations.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even know they were listening.
26:57
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
26:58
SPEAKER_02: That's why memories are so,
27:00
SPEAKER_02: and books and different things are just so unpredictable,
27:03
SPEAKER_02: but so powerful.
27:05
We've talked about our kids seeing some random book on the
27:08
bookshelf that we never
27:09
SPEAKER_02: even knew they noticed.
27:10
SPEAKER_02: And
27:11
SPEAKER_02: years later they mention it or different things like that.
27:13
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, you never know when those memories are being formed.
27:16
SPEAKER_02: But the only other one I was going to mention from early,
27:18
SPEAKER_02: early childhood is the books of Richard Scarry.
27:22
SPEAKER_02: Those were my very, very favorites.
27:25
I remember my grandma said apparently that I would have long
27:27
conversations with her
27:28
SPEAKER_02: at the age of two about Lily the Worm and Goldbug and everything.
27:33
SPEAKER_02: So specifically cars and trucks and things that go.
27:36
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
27:37
SPEAKER_02: What do people do all day?
27:38
SPEAKER_02: Those two
27:39
SPEAKER_02: I just remember it's kind of that it was before where's Waldo,
27:42
but it's those illustrations are so detailed and there's so
27:46
many like corners of
27:47
SPEAKER_02: the page where you can just spin and kind of get lost.
27:50
SPEAKER_02: And yeah.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: And plus I do have vivid memories of like being in the, in the van.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: And being handed that and being satisfied for however long.
27:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
27:59
SPEAKER_02: Just searching for Goldbug and the pages and just,
28:02
SPEAKER_02: yeah,
28:02
SPEAKER_02: I think there's a mixture of,
28:04
SPEAKER_02: he was so good at like,
28:05
SPEAKER_02: you know,
28:06
SPEAKER_02: what do people do all day?
28:07
SPEAKER_02: It's like kids seeing the world through like, what is going on?
28:09
SPEAKER_02: And he kind of gives this like,
28:11
SPEAKER_02: you know,
28:11
SPEAKER_02: obviously idealized version of it,
28:13
SPEAKER_02: but I think there's some of that fascination,
28:15
SPEAKER_02: but also just the illustrations themselves are amazing.
28:18
The little apple cars and corn cob cars and all those funny
28:21
things he had.
28:22
SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
28:22
SPEAKER_02: Those were another one.
28:23
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't answer this question without mentioning Richard's scary.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
28:28
And for people curious,
28:30
like we may sometimes bring up old episodes on this.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: We did,
28:33
we did a literary travels episode that might help with some
28:37
additional information
28:38
SPEAKER_00: on the prior question.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: But on this one,
28:41
SPEAKER_00: one of our earliest episodes was our fantasy youth,
28:43
SPEAKER_00: you know,
28:43
SPEAKER_00: talking about our childhoods and,
28:45
SPEAKER_00: you know,
28:45
SPEAKER_00: the influence of fantasy books in particular on our reading and,
28:49
SPEAKER_00: At that age, you know, being children of the 80s.
28:51
And,
28:53
you know,
28:53
that's something that you can go and check out if you'd like to.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: But at any rate, that's just fun to remember and to think back on.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: It really is.
29:04
You need to get you a t-shirt if you haven't already of like
29:06
the pickle car or
29:07
SPEAKER_00: something like that.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: I've thought about that.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: I need to.
29:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, actually, I do have one.
29:11
SPEAKER_02: Now that I think about it, it's Lily the worm in his little apple car.
29:14
SPEAKER_02: My wife bought me and it says bookworm, which is pretty amazing.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: Oh, perfect.
29:20
SPEAKER_02: Maybe if we go on our literary tour to the UK,
29:24
SPEAKER_02: we'll both get like matching Richard's Gary tattoos or something.
29:27
Yeah.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: My wife would support that one, I'm sure.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: All right.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: What book has surprised you the most,
29:35
SPEAKER_00: either by being much better or much worse than you expected?
29:38
SPEAKER_00: That's from Bill Ryan, always with the...
29:41
SPEAKER_00: You know, the ones that I'm like, I don't know.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: I know.
29:45
SPEAKER_02: I thought he's always good at stirring the pot.
29:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this got me thinking, too.
29:50
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know.
29:51
SPEAKER_02: I think if I spent a lot of time doing research and thinking back,
29:55
SPEAKER_02: I could probably come up with some other answers.
29:56
But the ones that pop to mind immediately for me,
29:59
we'll see if these are controversial.
30:01
SPEAKER_02: I have a couple that are worse than I was expecting.
30:04
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of it was built on the hype of this first one,
30:07
SPEAKER_02: especially,
30:07
SPEAKER_02: which is House of Leaves by now I'm going to forget his name.
30:10
SPEAKER_02: Daniel Lewski is his last name.
30:13
SPEAKER_02: I don't remember his first name.
30:15
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, this book just has such a cult following.
30:18
And it was described as so terrifying and so avant-garde and so
30:22
weird and all these things.
30:24
SPEAKER_02: And,
30:24
SPEAKER_02: you know,
30:24
SPEAKER_02: like,
30:25
SPEAKER_02: I think there's certain words,
30:26
SPEAKER_02: it's like house and maybe leaves within where like in certain editions,
30:30
SPEAKER_02: that text is blue.
30:32
SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, it's, I'm all about that.
30:35
SPEAKER_02: experimentation.
30:36
SPEAKER_02: Obviously,
30:36
SPEAKER_02: a lot of the publishers that we love,
30:39
SPEAKER_02: you know,
30:39
SPEAKER_02: Dahlke and New Directions will do things,
30:41
SPEAKER_02: I guess,
30:42
SPEAKER_02: kind of in that universe.
30:43
SPEAKER_02: But to me, House of Leaves, there was a couple parts that held up.
30:46
SPEAKER_02: But overall, I felt like it was
30:48
SPEAKER_02: kind of Wizard of Oz situation,
30:50
SPEAKER_02: like a lot of distraction and noise,
30:52
SPEAKER_02: hiding the fact that there wasn't a whole lot else going on.
30:55
I felt like it was kind of just almost a smokescreen for a
30:58
mediocre idea that,
31:01
but I'm going to smash all the text together and make some
31:03
words blue and all this stuff.
31:05
SPEAKER_02: And so for me, that one just really did let me down.
31:07
SPEAKER_02: And then I'm going to see what you think of this one, Trevor.
31:10
SPEAKER_02: This is a little controversial.
31:12
SPEAKER_02: I might get some people to unsubscribe here, but
31:14
a book that you and I spent a lot of time reading very recently,
31:17
The Savage Detectives.
31:21
SPEAKER_02: I would say,
31:22
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if worse is the right word,
31:24
but that one was pretty disappointing to me just based on how
31:27
much I've loved other
31:28
SPEAKER_02: stuff by Bolaño,
31:29
SPEAKER_02: 2666 in particular,
31:31
and the fact that this one was often mentioned right in
31:35
lockstep with Badis'
31:36
SPEAKER_02: all-time classics.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: I...
31:38
SPEAKER_02: Didn't love it.
31:39
SPEAKER_02: And so I thought about that when I was thinking of,
31:42
SPEAKER_02: again,
31:42
SPEAKER_02: worst may not be the right word,
31:43
SPEAKER_02: but books that maybe disappointed you based on what you were expecting.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Paul wants to start over at ground zero with episode 101.
31:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: New subscribers, new premise.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
31:57
I just angered between those two,
31:59
probably a decent number of our listeners.
32:01
SPEAKER_02: But hey, I'm trying to be honest here.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: And,
32:04
SPEAKER_00: and,
32:05
SPEAKER_00: you know,
32:05
SPEAKER_00: we're very much,
32:06
SPEAKER_00: we're,
32:08
SPEAKER_00: we are different people,
32:09
SPEAKER_00: everybody,
32:09
SPEAKER_00: you know,
32:10
SPEAKER_00: but we just have similar tastes,
32:11
SPEAKER_00: similar answers to a lot of these.
32:14
And I also didn't love the Savage Detectives as much as I
32:17
thought that I would.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: I would,
32:18
SPEAKER_00: I would,
32:18
SPEAKER_00: I didn't think about that as an answer to Bill's question,
32:21
SPEAKER_00: but it is an answer to Bill's question.
32:23
It surprised me that I,
32:25
throughout it,
32:25
I kept thinking,
32:26
when am I going to get,
32:28
SPEAKER_00: That, oh, there it is.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: And,
32:31
SPEAKER_00: you know,
32:31
SPEAKER_00: maybe every once in a while it would come a little bit,
32:33
SPEAKER_00: but I didn't love it nearly as much as I'd hoped.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know how much of it was me.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: I've been tempted to listen to it,
32:39
SPEAKER_00: you know,
32:40
SPEAKER_00: go back and listen to it to see if that,
32:42
SPEAKER_00: you know,
32:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: But that's a good answer to the question for me, too.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: We did do an episode on reading hype.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: that you may have even brought up House of Leaves on that episode.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: Probably.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: But I thought that this might be a good chance,
32:59
SPEAKER_00: like this time,
33:01
SPEAKER_00: to answer a few of our other questions that are kind of related.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: Because we also got from Jack's paperbacks,
33:08
SPEAKER_00: what is the most overrated book of the last 10 years?
33:13
And this is where you're going to punch me in the face if you
33:18
were next to me.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: I simply cannot.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: And I brought this up before.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: So maybe you've controlled the rage.
33:27
SPEAKER_02: I think more I've just cried.
33:28
SPEAKER_02: I've cried my eyes out enough.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: You have no emotion left.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: I don't like Lincoln and the Bardo by George Saunders.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: I still think it's me.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: I still think there's a way for me to get into that book.
33:42
But I've read it three times now because I felt that because I
33:47
love George Saunders
33:49
SPEAKER_00: and I love the premise for that book.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: I just haven't gotten.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: I do still think it's where I'm at in life and not so much the book.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: So that might be an answer for both of those to me.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: And and honestly, here we get to the next question.
34:07
Name the book on which your tastes have diverged the most from
34:09
Laurie Feathers.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: I'd probably say that one.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: The 10th or not 10th of December.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: I do like that one.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: Lincoln and the Bardo.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: I can't think of another book where you and I have diverged so much.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: There might be some, but not ones that we care about as much.
34:28
SPEAKER_02: The only one I could think of for the diverging tastes.
34:31
SPEAKER_02: And this is,
34:31
SPEAKER_02: again,
34:32
SPEAKER_02: where I have to put a lot of caveats on it,
34:33
because this is not to say that I don't see the value of this
34:37
book or that I think
34:38
SPEAKER_02: it's
34:39
But one that you love,
34:40
and we've talked about this a little bit,
34:41
is Gilead.
34:42
SPEAKER_02: Oh, uh-huh.
34:43
SPEAKER_02: And I wouldn't say that we necessarily,
34:45
SPEAKER_02: like our tastes diverge,
34:46
SPEAKER_02: like I hate it,
34:47
SPEAKER_02: and I'm just,
34:47
SPEAKER_02: you know,
34:48
SPEAKER_02: you're crazy.
34:49
SPEAKER_02: I don't see why you'd like that.
34:50
SPEAKER_02: But for how much you love it versus it left me,
34:53
SPEAKER_02: and you said maybe some of the other people,
34:55
SPEAKER_02: I'm not alone in it.
34:57
the idea that for some people it maybe leaves them a little bit
35:00
more cold or at least,
35:01
SPEAKER_02: you know,
35:02
SPEAKER_02: not feeling quite as strongly about it as you do.
35:04
SPEAKER_02: So again,
35:05
SPEAKER_02: that's not to say,
35:07
SPEAKER_02: you know,
35:07
that I dislike it or don't see the value kind of like what you
35:10
were just saying
35:10
SPEAKER_02: with Lincoln and the Bardo.
35:11
SPEAKER_02: Like,
35:12
SPEAKER_02: I think it's a me thing,
35:13
SPEAKER_02: but I would say that that was the other one that came to mind for that.
35:18
SPEAKER_02: And then as far as just overrated, I did, I,
35:22
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
35:23
SPEAKER_02: The one that came to mind for me,
35:24
SPEAKER_02: again,
35:25
SPEAKER_02: I don't know that this one will be too spicy for people,
35:27
SPEAKER_02: but The Martian by Andy Weir.
35:30
SPEAKER_02: I really liked The Martian.
35:31
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
35:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
35:32
SPEAKER_02: I liked it.
35:33
SPEAKER_02: I guess for me, I liked it.
35:35
SPEAKER_02: I just didn't quite understand why it was like,
35:38
SPEAKER_02: you know,
35:38
SPEAKER_02: I think the movie contributed and stuff,
35:39
SPEAKER_02: but I'm like,
35:40
SPEAKER_02: I enjoyed it enough,
35:41
SPEAKER_02: but I'm like,
35:42
SPEAKER_02: man,
35:42
SPEAKER_02: if there's one more page about him plotting out potatoes in a field,
35:45
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to like throw this thing across the room.
35:47
SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
35:48
You know,
35:49
again,
35:49
it's not that I disliked it,
35:51
but I think...
35:51
I grew up in Idaho.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, hey, did you know there's so much in here about potatoes?
35:55
SPEAKER_02: That's true.
35:56
SPEAKER_02: I didn't think about that.
35:57
SPEAKER_02: I'm treading on some dangerous ground.
36:00
SPEAKER_02: And to be fair, I mean, potatoes, like there's nothing wrong.
36:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm the biggest potato fan in the world.
36:05
SPEAKER_02: But I think that book, I've talked about it with people at the bookstore.
36:08
SPEAKER_02: I think it's interesting because I do think it appeals to people with an
36:11
SPEAKER_02: engineering mind very strongly.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
36:14
um which i do not have and again it's not that i didn't enjoy
36:16
parts of that book
36:17
but as far as just the overall hype just how much people loved
36:20
it i've always been
36:20
kind of scratching my head like it was fine but um so anyway
36:24
yeah that was i'm
36:25
curious if you like the i didn't read his follow-up to it i
36:30
think it's called
36:30
SPEAKER_00: artemis but i did read and really really did enjoy project hail mary and
36:35
yeah like that one has a fun that one was a lot more fun it
36:40
still has a lot of the
36:41
sciencey stuff but not nearly as much for just the just
36:46
science's sake yeah there's
36:48
some really fun plot elements and there's an alien it's it's a
36:52
i i really liked
36:53
project hail mary i would say that that's a lot better than the
36:56
martian but i i
36:57
SPEAKER_00: also liked the martian yeah
36:58
SPEAKER_02: Now the premise of that one of project Hail Mary,
37:01
SPEAKER_02: I've read about it and talked to people about it at the bookstore.
37:04
SPEAKER_02: And that one definitely does call to me.
37:06
SPEAKER_02: So I'm definitely going to try that one,
37:07
SPEAKER_02: but yeah,
37:08
SPEAKER_00: I tried to twice,
37:10
SPEAKER_00: both,
37:11
SPEAKER_00: you know,
37:11
SPEAKER_00: and,
37:12
SPEAKER_00: and I would recommend the audio book.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: I, um,
37:14
It's a great reader and the way that they play with some of the
37:18
audio elements
37:19
SPEAKER_00: really works well.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: So it's a good way to get through it.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, sorry, I cut you off.
37:23
SPEAKER_02: No, no.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: I was going to say... I'm really sorry.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: I keep cutting you off.
37:28
SPEAKER_02: All right.
37:28
SPEAKER_02: I see how it is.
37:29
SPEAKER_02: No,
37:29
SPEAKER_02: these...
37:30
SPEAKER_02: I think we both try...
37:31
SPEAKER_02: It's not that we avoid talking about books we don't like,
37:34
SPEAKER_02: but generally speaking,
37:35
SPEAKER_02: I think we are both drawn.
37:37
SPEAKER_02: It's more fun to talk about books you love.
37:38
SPEAKER_02: So this...
37:39
SPEAKER_02: It was good for me,
37:41
but it also made me a little uncomfortable because I don't tend
37:43
to be focusing on
37:46
SPEAKER_02: the negatives or the books that I think are overhyped,
37:47
SPEAKER_02: but it's fun to do.
37:49
SPEAKER_02: So did you have any come to mind that were much better than you expected?
37:53
SPEAKER_00: I know.
37:53
I was just going to say,
37:54
well,
37:54
we do have the other part of Bill's question.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: If we really believe that,
37:59
SPEAKER_00: we must have an answer for a book that was much better than you expected.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: I think the hard part for me here was than you expected.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
38:11
Because I usually do choose books that I think I'm going to really,
38:16
really enjoy.
38:17
And this is where I went finally with this part of it was
38:21
unless they're books that
38:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm reading for a book club.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
38:25
And then I'm like,
38:27
oh,
38:27
I don't necessarily want to read that,
38:28
but I will for the book club.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: And honestly,
38:32
I'm going to answer a book that I just brought up last week in
38:36
MFK Fisher's How to
38:38
SPEAKER_00: Cook a Wolf.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: I did not expect to really... I thought it might be interesting.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: I didn't expect to enjoy it nearly as much as I am.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to overhype it.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: It's not like it's a literary masterpiece and every page is a gem.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: It's just such a fascinating portrait of a time.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: and of a thought process and of a way to,
38:58
SPEAKER_00: you know,
39:00
a way to help address that we're all living in a horrible
39:05
situation and still can
39:08
SPEAKER_00: have a fun conversation or something like that.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about that just as, you know, even our podcast.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: And so I,
39:15
SPEAKER_00: I thought of that one because I totally didn't expect it,
39:20
SPEAKER_00: expect much from it and have gotten so much more from it.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: And yeah,
39:24
SPEAKER_00: as I mentioned to you, someone called out, not called out.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't think they were calling me out, but maybe.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: Backlisted pod did an episode on,
39:34
SPEAKER_00: on how to cook a wolf back at,
39:36
SPEAKER_00: you know,
39:37
SPEAKER_00: during the height of COVID.
39:39
SPEAKER_00: And I said in that, in our last episode that I'd never heard of it.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, I did listen to that episode.
39:46
SPEAKER_00: Like I went back in my podcatcher and there it is.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: And I've listened to it.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: So I clearly have listened to it.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: I just have to say,
39:55
SPEAKER_00: my memory isn't maybe what it used to be.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
39:59
SPEAKER_02: Well, that's fair.
39:59
SPEAKER_02: You and I were laughing about that a little bit offline talking about,
40:02
SPEAKER_02: you know,
40:02
SPEAKER_02: that's the joy of getting older is every book that you read.
40:05
SPEAKER_02: It's like you're reading it for the first time.
40:07
SPEAKER_02: So it's the same thing with some of these podcasts and things.
40:11
SPEAKER_02: No, that's a great answer.
40:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
40:13
SPEAKER_02: So I was thinking about what you were just saying.
40:15
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
40:16
SPEAKER_02: Better than I expected is kind of an interesting way to think of it.
40:19
SPEAKER_02: So the closest I could come up with,
40:21
SPEAKER_02: and I'm not sure this is exactly what Bill was looking for,
40:23
but a book that I expected to like because it comes from a
40:27
publisher that I trust blindly.
40:30
SPEAKER_02: But I think I just did not expect that it would end up on my top 10 list
40:34
SPEAKER_02: necessarily was It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne DeMarc.
40:38
SPEAKER_02: And it's not that I went into it thinking I wouldn't like it.
40:40
But just the tiny bit that I knew of like a quote unquote
40:43
zombie novel and just the
40:46
SPEAKER_02: fact that I'd never really heard
40:49
about the author,
40:50
I went into it with just,
40:51
you know,
40:52
I guess normal expectations.
40:54
I thought it would be another one that I really enjoyed and
40:56
would move on.
40:57
SPEAKER_02: And that book just blew me away.
40:58
SPEAKER_02: So I don't know if that's exactly right for this criteria,
41:01
but that was the closest I came up with because I could see
41:03
that one just being a
41:05
SPEAKER_02: book that I read over and over in my lifetime.
41:07
SPEAKER_02: And when I picked it up kind of sight unseen,
41:09
SPEAKER_02: I didn't obviously know or expect that to be the case.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a good answer too.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: I had a similar experience where I just started reading it,
41:16
SPEAKER_00: didn't know,
41:17
SPEAKER_00: didn't really know what was going on.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: I didn't necessarily have expectations,
41:20
SPEAKER_00: but definitely if I had,
41:21
they wouldn't have been that this is going to be one of the
41:23
best books I've read.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: Good call.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Well,
41:28
SPEAKER_00: since Lori asked the question of a book we diverged most,
41:31
SPEAKER_00: we can do,
41:32
SPEAKER_00: she did ask a follow-up question,
41:34
SPEAKER_00: which is also Trollope versus Dickens.
41:38
I'm not sure,
41:39
you know,
41:39
I mean,
41:39
does she mean in a fist fight or she's not too clear here.
41:43
I think she's trying to get us into a fist fight based on her
41:46
two questions because
41:47
the one was the book we diverged most on and then she picks
41:50
your darling Trollope
41:51
SPEAKER_02: and my darling Dickens.
41:52
I think that's how I took it is like she's trying to get things
41:55
riled up over here.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: She wants our show to have a little bit more violence in it.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: I think so.
42:01
SPEAKER_02: Correct me if I'm wrong, Laurie, but that's how I took it.
42:03
SPEAKER_02: Now, do you want me to kick off or I mean, I think we can just...
42:08
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
42:08
SPEAKER_02: if you say it,
42:10
SPEAKER_00: go ahead and say it,
42:11
SPEAKER_02: you know,
42:12
SPEAKER_02: if you'd asked me this a year ago,
42:13
SPEAKER_02: the answer would have been easy.
42:15
SPEAKER_02: Dickens hands down.
42:16
SPEAKER_02: No problem.
42:17
SPEAKER_02: I would still, I don't know.
42:20
SPEAKER_02: I think I would still lean slightly Dickens just for throughout my life.
42:25
SPEAKER_02: He's meant a lot to me.
42:26
SPEAKER_02: I still think some at his best,
42:28
SPEAKER_02: he's like as good as they come,
42:31
SPEAKER_02: but boy,
42:32
SPEAKER_02: the experiences I've had with Trollope over the last year,
42:35
SPEAKER_02: year and a half,
42:36
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
42:37
it's definitely a conversation worth having and not that we
42:39
have to like rank them.
42:40
I mean,
42:41
they're,
42:41
what I would answer is put your hands together,
42:43
read both.
42:44
SPEAKER_02: You know, they're, they're great.
42:45
SPEAKER_02: They have some similarities, but they're also very different.
42:48
SPEAKER_02: So obviously,
42:49
SPEAKER_02: you know,
42:49
SPEAKER_02: just for the sake of fun,
42:50
SPEAKER_02: I would still lean slightly Dickens,
42:53
SPEAKER_02: but my true answer is just like read them both widely,
42:57
SPEAKER_02: read everything they've written because they're both amazing.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would agree.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: It's tough because to me, they are quite different.
43:05
I know they're writing at the same time and they're both
43:06
dealing with society and
43:09
SPEAKER_00: various things,
43:09
SPEAKER_00: but Trollope is hyper-focused on the people as people.
43:17
And I think Dickens' people are more symbols and metaphors,
43:24
and I love that too.
43:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:25
I don't want to say caricatures because that can be a
43:30
derogatory term,
43:31
and I don't mean that.
43:32
SPEAKER_00: I think they're great.
43:33
I just read David Copperfield and absolutely loved so much of
43:38
that and how much he dealt with.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: They have horrible abuse at the start.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: It's heartbreaking.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: So I get different things from them.
43:51
I can't think of a scene in Trollope that has quite as much
43:55
atmospheric evocation
43:57
SPEAKER_00: as so many scenes in Dickens.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: But to me, that's why Dickens feel almost like Myths.
44:05
based in reality but more mythological and trollops feel like
44:09
i'm really reading
44:10
you know just a really good raconteur tell me about the day in
44:14
in this place and so
44:15
i love them both for different reasons and and couldn't really
44:20
say which one i you
44:22
know totally would depend on which mood i'm in i'm happy to say
44:25
that i once thought
44:26
that i was done with dickens that i kind of understood where he
44:28
was going with
44:29
SPEAKER_00: things and i'm like even if that were the case i was i mean
44:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, it wasn't the case.
44:34
SPEAKER_00: I was wrong.
44:34
SPEAKER_00: But even if that were the case now, I want to go there.
44:38
SPEAKER_00: I still want to go there with him.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: And with Trollope,
44:43
SPEAKER_00: I just love seeing old friends and running into the new,
44:48
SPEAKER_00: strange,
44:48
SPEAKER_00: new people who've moved into town.
44:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
44:51
SPEAKER_02: No, that's an amazing answer.
44:52
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
44:53
SPEAKER_02: You exactly spilled it out.
44:55
I love what you said about Dickens and kind of almost that
44:58
mythologizing aspect.
45:00
And there are certain characters like David Copperfield where I
45:04
would say that's
45:05
probably one of the closest ones I can think of off the top of
45:07
my head where he
45:08
SPEAKER_02: does delve a little more into him as a true person as he grows older.
45:12
SPEAKER_02: But like you said,
45:12
SPEAKER_02: so many of them are,
45:14
SPEAKER_02: like you said,
45:15
SPEAKER_02: it's not that they're cardboard cutouts or anything,
45:17
SPEAKER_02: but they do symbolize certain things or it's kind of the comic relief and
45:21
SPEAKER_02: he's so good at those things.
45:22
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, the more I've delved into Trollope, you're right.
45:26
He's so good at kind of small town and like the nuances of
45:32
society and different
45:33
SPEAKER_02: things like that.
45:34
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, some similarities, but like you said, very different.
45:37
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I don't know, both.
45:41
SPEAKER_02: I'd be curious.
45:41
SPEAKER_02: You'll have to let us know,
45:43
SPEAKER_02: Lori,
45:43
SPEAKER_02: if you have an answer to that,
45:45
SPEAKER_02: because we'll do the old turn it around.
45:46
SPEAKER_02: But like, I do think people have pretty strong opinions on this question.
45:50
SPEAKER_02: But I think
45:51
At least for you and I,
45:51
it's,
45:53
I don't know,
45:53
no reason to choose is my final answer.
45:55
SPEAKER_00: Good call.
45:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
45:57
SPEAKER_00: Good call.
45:57
Well,
45:58
let's do another kind of bundle of questions that all fall into
46:02
our reading habits.
46:03
SPEAKER_00: We did an episode,
46:04
SPEAKER_00: episode 66 on reading habits,
46:05
SPEAKER_00: which might get,
46:06
SPEAKER_00: you know,
46:07
SPEAKER_00: some of this might repeat just a little bit of that or add to that.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: But we got a few questions here that I think apply.
46:16
SPEAKER_00: So do you, I don't, I've lost track of who's asking who the questions.
46:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I can, but I can kind of summarize these.
46:24
SPEAKER_02: So we got one, how do you manage your time?
46:26
SPEAKER_02: You do so much for readers and also have a family and jobs.
46:29
SPEAKER_02: And that's from our friend, Wendy.
46:32
We have another one,
46:33
your reading habits,
46:34
how many hours a day,
46:35
how many books at the same time?
46:37
SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure I know how to pronounce this handle.
46:39
SPEAKER_02: Poesia Virtud?
46:42
SPEAKER_02: Poesia Virtud?
46:44
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there you go.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: Poesia Virtud.
46:47
SPEAKER_02: How many hours a day do you read and when?
46:49
SPEAKER_00: It's Spanish.
46:50
SPEAKER_00: It's Poesia y Virtud.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there you go.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
46:54
SPEAKER_02: No, I rely on you, as you know, for anything that's in Spanish.
46:58
SPEAKER_02: So, okay.
47:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
47:00
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you heard the last one.
47:01
SPEAKER_02: How many hours a day do you read and when in Bachu?
47:03
SPEAKER_02: And then I enjoy listening to your podcast.
47:06
SPEAKER_02: How have your reading habits evolved over the years?
47:08
SPEAKER_02: And that's lost and found in books.
47:10
So those are all,
47:12
like you said,
47:13
all kind of related around reading habits.
47:15
Do you want to kick off by addressing probably the overlying
47:19
theme is how do we
47:21
SPEAKER_02: read so much or how do we,
47:23
SPEAKER_02: when do we read those kinds of things?
47:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
47:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
47:27
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't,
47:28
SPEAKER_00: it's not always this way,
47:30
SPEAKER_00: but I read throughout the day,
47:33
SPEAKER_00: you know,
47:33
SPEAKER_00: in breaks and things.
47:35
I usually read a little bit in the morning before I really kick
47:39
off and start getting ready.
47:40
SPEAKER_00: I get up early enough that I'm able to do that.
47:44
SPEAKER_00: I like to read on my walks.
47:46
SPEAKER_00: And so I'll take a lunchtime break and go out and read.
47:50
SPEAKER_00: I listen to books when I'm commuting and
47:53
SPEAKER_00: Um,
47:54
I read on a walk usually in the evening and then I'll often
47:58
read at night,
47:59
SPEAKER_00: you know,
48:00
SPEAKER_00: when I'm getting ready for bed or whatever.
48:03
SPEAKER_00: Um,
48:05
there are people who think that I'm like negligent of my family
48:07
and I don't think
48:08
SPEAKER_00: that's the case.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: I rarely read when we're doing stuff or when they're doing stuff too,
48:14
SPEAKER_00: you know,
48:14
SPEAKER_00: but my kids have homework.
48:15
My wife works and also likes to read,
48:18
but we also do a lot of things together.
48:19
SPEAKER_00: We go, you know, have fun.
48:21
SPEAKER_00: We play games.
48:22
SPEAKER_00: We,
48:23
SPEAKER_00: We don't watch a lot of TV.
48:26
SPEAKER_00: That's probably a place where I would say if you want to read more,
48:31
SPEAKER_00: but you do like to watch TV,
48:33
SPEAKER_00: there's a give and take there.
48:36
SPEAKER_00: We don't watch a lot.
48:38
SPEAKER_00: But that's probably how it is.
48:41
But the ways that I've tried to manage it is I do have quite a
48:43
few books that I
48:44
SPEAKER_00: read at a time and just say,
48:46
SPEAKER_00: okay,
48:46
today I'm reading 10 pages from this book and that might be
48:49
what I read in the mornings.
48:50
SPEAKER_00: or the 10 pages from that book.
48:51
SPEAKER_00: And I can put it aside and compartmentalize a little bit.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: So for some people, I know that that's not a good way to read.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: For me, man, it works great.
48:59
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
49:00
Right now I'm reading five or six books every day and not a ton
49:05
out of any of them,
49:06
SPEAKER_00: but I'm keeping up and you get through books that way.
49:09
SPEAKER_00: And I just have really enjoyed it.
49:10
SPEAKER_00: I see connections between what I'm thinking about with them and
49:14
SPEAKER_00: Um,
49:14
SPEAKER_00: but yeah,
49:15
SPEAKER_00: I would say I'm,
49:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of always,
49:18
SPEAKER_00: and again,
49:18
SPEAKER_00: this is,
49:19
SPEAKER_00: this is not a good thing or a bad thing,
49:21
SPEAKER_00: but this is one thing I just love to do.
49:24
SPEAKER_00: And I don't need,
49:26
I don't need a dedicated hour where I sit down and read and
49:29
that's all that I do.
49:30
SPEAKER_00: I take it where I can and it does work for me.
49:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
49:35
SPEAKER_02: No, I love that answer.
49:36
SPEAKER_02: I think mine would be similar in many ways.
49:37
I remember Andy Miller from the back listed podcast has talked
49:41
about this because people,
49:42
would ask him every time when he used to post like his monthly
49:45
stack and people
49:46
SPEAKER_02: would always,
49:47
SPEAKER_02: I think usually kindly,
49:48
SPEAKER_02: but occasionally maybe a little snarkily ask like,
49:51
SPEAKER_02: don't you do anything else?
49:52
SPEAKER_00: Or how do you, you know, and he would have a family or a job.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
49:56
And he had a similar response of just,
49:58
if you want to read more,
49:59
read more.
49:59
SPEAKER_02: And,
50:00
SPEAKER_02: you know,
50:01
SPEAKER_02: some of that comes with different people have different responsibilities,
50:05
SPEAKER_02: certain jobs,
50:06
SPEAKER_02: you know,
50:06
SPEAKER_02: allow for more flexibility.
50:07
SPEAKER_02: I understand that.
50:08
SPEAKER_02: And I fully acknowledge that, but I do think
50:11
SPEAKER_02: To some degree, it's like you said, just managing to squeeze in.
50:15
SPEAKER_02: Anytime that I get a chance, I'm reading in some form.
50:18
SPEAKER_02: If it's an audio book while I'm driving somewhere,
50:22
SPEAKER_02: if it's an audio book while I'm taking a long walk,
50:25
SPEAKER_02: like you said,
50:25
SPEAKER_02: I will read throughout the day during lunch breaks or
50:28
SPEAKER_02: at night before we go to bed.
50:30
SPEAKER_02: Like you said, my wife is luckily a reader too.
50:33
I'm sure it would be more complicated if somebody had a partner
50:36
or a family where
50:36
SPEAKER_02: that wasn't the case,
50:37
SPEAKER_02: but you know,
50:38
SPEAKER_02: growing up,
50:39
SPEAKER_02: our boys were readers as well.
50:41
SPEAKER_02: So we would all read at the same time.
50:42
SPEAKER_02: So I think it's kind of a combo of those things.
50:46
SPEAKER_02: And I think another thing for me is we've talked about this too,
50:49
SPEAKER_02: is it's just something that I need to do and love to do.
50:54
SPEAKER_02: And so
50:55
SPEAKER_02: you know,
50:55
SPEAKER_02: some people might meditate or,
50:57
SPEAKER_02: you know,
50:58
SPEAKER_02: I don't know,
50:58
SPEAKER_02: different things that they might do to kind of center themselves.
51:01
SPEAKER_02: And for me, reading has always kind of played that role as well.
51:05
SPEAKER_02: And so I think that it's not just like,
51:08
it doesn't feel like it's a chore or something I need to set
51:11
time apart for.
51:12
It's like,
51:13
you don't think about,
51:14
I need to breathe today or I need to eat today.
51:17
SPEAKER_02: I just do it.
51:18
SPEAKER_02: And that's kind of how I feel about this.
51:19
SPEAKER_02: So
51:21
SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, that's kind of my first thought.
51:23
SPEAKER_02: Um,
51:23
as far as if you wanted to talk real briefly about how our
51:27
reading habits have
51:28
SPEAKER_02: evolved over the years,
51:29
I think you've been an influence on me as far as what you just
51:33
described of,
51:34
I think historically I've been a one or two books at a time
51:38
kind of person.
51:39
SPEAKER_02: And in the last few years,
51:41
I have started to dabble more and more with what you just
51:44
described of reading.
51:46
Like right now I'm reading a lot of big books all at the same
51:48
time and kind of
51:51
SPEAKER_02: It's different, but it's a lot of fun.
51:53
SPEAKER_02: I can see the value, like you said, of making connections.
51:55
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know,
51:57
SPEAKER_02: it's just my wife has always been that kind of a reader too,
51:59
where she would always have about six or seven books going at
52:01
the same time.
52:01
And I used to be like,
52:02
how can you do that and keep it all straight in your head?
52:04
SPEAKER_02: More and more,
52:05
SPEAKER_02: I do find myself enjoying that because among other reasons,
52:10
it's a way to get to a lot more books and have more going on at
52:13
the same time.
52:14
SPEAKER_02: So that's one thing that came to mind for me.
52:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
52:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
52:18
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think evolving habits is an interesting thing too.
52:22
SPEAKER_00: And like you said, a lot of it has to do with the quantity that I read.
52:28
I've always been someone who picks up a new book and is excited
52:32
to read it,
52:32
but I ran into trouble in the past of then not finishing them
52:36
because another new
52:37
SPEAKER_00: book would come out.
52:38
And I've talked about this before too,
52:40
but one of the best things that I've learned to do is...
52:47
SPEAKER_00: read a certain amount of a book each day and then feel good about it,
52:51
SPEAKER_00: put it down,
52:51
SPEAKER_00: but keep going with it.
52:54
SPEAKER_00: I used to feel like, oh, I'm reading that book
52:56
SPEAKER_00: oh man, I've got another 200, 300 pages, but this other book's out.
53:00
SPEAKER_00: And so it felt like I had to choose in a way.
53:03
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to choose anymore.
53:04
I can,
53:05
again,
53:06
read a chapter a day from each of them,
53:07
10 pages a day from each of them.
53:09
SPEAKER_00: And I have not felt like it has hurt my enjoyment of them.
53:15
SPEAKER_00: Now,
53:16
clearly if the book I'm reading is a thriller or a great crime
53:20
novel or something
53:21
SPEAKER_00: like that,
53:22
SPEAKER_00: I read those much faster than that.
53:24
But that has worked out great for some of these longer books
53:27
that I just want to
53:29
SPEAKER_00: finally get through that I,
53:31
SPEAKER_00: for years,
53:32
SPEAKER_00: kind of thought I needed to find a month that that's all I did.
53:35
SPEAKER_00: And I just, yeah, that's been the biggest change in my reading habits.
53:41
SPEAKER_00: And it was a lot from joining some of these read-alongs
53:45
where they do have,
53:45
which today we're reading 15 pages and learning,
53:48
oh,
53:49
that works for me.
53:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
53:50
SPEAKER_02: And like you said, it's amazing how it does eat up the book.
53:53
SPEAKER_02: Like not that this is like a production line or anything,
53:56
SPEAKER_02: but like it is pretty amazing to me how reading 10 or 15 pages a day,
54:01
SPEAKER_02: all of a sudden it's like,
54:02
SPEAKER_02: oh,
54:02
SPEAKER_02: geez,
54:03
SPEAKER_02: I'm almost done with this book.
54:04
SPEAKER_02: It does add up pretty quickly.
54:06
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to put words in your mouth,
54:07
but one other thing we've talked about with evolving reading
54:09
habits is just the
54:10
SPEAKER_02: idea of not always having to save
54:14
for a perfect time and just kind of going for it i mean we both
54:17
talked about that
54:18
and we've both i think grown into that even more um so i i just
54:22
wanted to mention
54:23
that briefly that if there's these books that you're saving for
54:26
someday and i still
54:27
do it all the time but like generally speaking it's it's kind
54:31
of fun to just kind
54:31
of remove that shackle and just make now that time and often
54:36
the book is powerful
54:37
enough that it creates this special moment on its own it
54:39
doesn't require a
54:41
SPEAKER_02: a beach or a vacation or whatever you have set in your mind,
54:44
SPEAKER_02: you know,
54:44
SPEAKER_02: a fireplace or something like that.
54:46
SPEAKER_02: It just does it on its own.
54:48
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
54:49
SPEAKER_00: Well,
54:50
SPEAKER_00: when you reminded me about David Copperfield,
54:51
SPEAKER_00: I went and pulled it off that night and,
54:54
SPEAKER_00: you know,
54:55
SPEAKER_00: started to dig into it.
54:56
SPEAKER_00: I also think I've never,
54:58
SPEAKER_00: I was never someone who planned,
55:00
SPEAKER_00: like I might have goals like,
55:01
SPEAKER_00: oh,
55:01
SPEAKER_00: this year I want to read X,
55:02
SPEAKER_00: Y,
55:03
SPEAKER_00: and Z.
55:04
SPEAKER_00: But now I don't necessarily make big goals like that so much as,
55:09
SPEAKER_00: In April,
55:11
when I'm done with this big book or book I've wanted to read
55:14
for a long time,
55:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do Swan's Way or The Magic Mountain or something like that.
55:21
SPEAKER_00: And I don't just have this vague,
55:25
SPEAKER_00: oh,
55:25
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to read that this year or I'd like to read that someday.
55:29
But starting to figure out a plan and realizing I can't read
55:31
them all right now,
55:32
SPEAKER_00: then that's okay.
55:33
SPEAKER_00: And maybe when April comes around, another book will be
55:37
SPEAKER_00: the book I want to read,
55:38
SPEAKER_00: but just kind of making those plans has,
55:40
SPEAKER_00: has helped me read more as well.
55:43
So,
55:44
but yeah,
55:44
speaking of getting through the books,
55:45
I'm almost done with Swan's way.
55:47
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
55:47
SPEAKER_00: I'll be finishing it next week.
55:49
SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
55:50
SPEAKER_00: Also by the time this episode's out, I will be done with Swan's way.
55:53
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
55:54
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's, I'm so glad to read that.
55:56
SPEAKER_02: And then I assume you jump straight in, right?
55:58
SPEAKER_02: You're, you're just going.
55:59
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
55:59
SPEAKER_00: We just keep going, keep going with the rest of them.
56:02
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
56:02
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
56:02
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
56:04
SPEAKER_00: All right.
56:04
SPEAKER_00: Well,
56:04
SPEAKER_00: our next,
56:05
SPEAKER_00: we did have another batch of questions,
56:07
SPEAKER_00: but I think we're about to get to our break point.
56:10
SPEAKER_00: So maybe I'll jump ahead to one more.
56:13
SPEAKER_00: And then I do have a question for you before we get to the break.
56:16
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, maybe you have a question for me.
56:18
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
56:19
SPEAKER_00: We'll see how that goes.
56:20
But let's move on to Jerry Faust's question of when and how did
56:25
you begin to read
56:27
SPEAKER_00: literature and translation regularly?
56:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
56:31
SPEAKER_02: It's a great question.
56:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
56:32
SPEAKER_02: this is going to sound strange since I'm talking to you,
56:36
SPEAKER_02: Trevor,
56:37
SPEAKER_02: but I mean,
56:37
SPEAKER_02: really,
56:38
SPEAKER_02: you are the influence for me.
56:40
SPEAKER_02: Your old podcast, our conversations over on Palimpsest.
56:45
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
56:45
SPEAKER_02: you really are the one who kind of opened up my eyes to...
56:48
SPEAKER_02: I think it was probably a lot of it through NYRB Classics.
56:52
SPEAKER_02: There were other ones.
56:53
I mean,
56:53
I remember on Palimpsest,
56:54
people used to talk about Haruki Murakami,
56:56
for example.
56:56
SPEAKER_02: He would come up a lot.
56:57
SPEAKER_02: And so I think that was the beginning.
56:59
SPEAKER_02: Or like Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
57:01
SPEAKER_02: I started to kind of get my world literature...
57:04
SPEAKER_02: mind expanded.
57:06
SPEAKER_02: But yeah,
57:06
your old podcast was always so good when you and your brother
57:09
would go through the
57:10
SPEAKER_02: catalog of all the different NYRB classic books that were coming out.
57:14
SPEAKER_02: And you would sometimes just say like,
57:15
SPEAKER_02: I don't know much about this one,
57:16
SPEAKER_02: but it sounds really good.
57:17
And it was just realizing,
57:19
I think it just started to expand my mind about
57:22
geez,
57:22
there are all these books and authors out there who I just
57:24
don't know about.
57:25
And so it was just maybe just a little bit of like the spark on
57:29
the kindling that I needed.
57:31
SPEAKER_02: So I think for me, that would have to be the reason.
57:34
SPEAKER_02: And one more person we mentioned a lot is John Self and he,
57:38
SPEAKER_02: his asylum blog,
57:40
SPEAKER_02: and then your blog and your podcast,
57:41
I think would be along with Palimpsest kind of all of that
57:45
happened around the same time.
57:46
SPEAKER_02: You know, it was probably over a course of
57:48
SPEAKER_02: five years or something like that.
57:49
SPEAKER_02: And it wasn't like one day I just started reading more,
57:52
but I think it was just this environment and seeing all these
57:55
really curious and
57:56
smart readers talking about all these books that I had never
57:59
heard about before,
58:00
SPEAKER_02: or that I was like,
58:01
SPEAKER_02: I didn't even know that this was,
58:03
SPEAKER_02: you know,
58:03
SPEAKER_02: a classic in this country and things like that.
58:06
SPEAKER_02: So I think that was kind of the beginning.
58:08
SPEAKER_02: And then since then, it's just been so much fun.
58:11
SPEAKER_02: It's been one of my favorite things over the last 15, 20 years.
58:17
SPEAKER_00: And my answer is probably kind of similar in something.
58:21
SPEAKER_00: I influenced myself.
58:22
SPEAKER_00: That's how powerful you are.
58:25
SPEAKER_00: But about that time period,
58:27
SPEAKER_00: 2007,
58:28
SPEAKER_00: 2008,
58:34
SPEAKER_00: 2009,
58:28
SPEAKER_00: is when I would say I started reading it deliberately.
58:34
SPEAKER_00: I mean,
58:35
SPEAKER_00: I'd read translated literature before,
58:37
SPEAKER_00: you know,
58:38
SPEAKER_00: 100 Years of Solitude and whatnot,
58:40
SPEAKER_00: but I kind of read them under the guise of world literature,
58:42
SPEAKER_00: which is totally fine.
58:43
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
58:44
SPEAKER_00: I'd read Dostoevsky.
58:45
SPEAKER_00: I'd read those things.
58:47
But I don't know if I was really looking for contemporary
58:49
literature in translation
58:51
SPEAKER_00: until around that same time,
58:54
SPEAKER_00: 15,
58:55
SPEAKER_00: 20 years ago.
58:56
SPEAKER_00: And I was reading...
58:59
SPEAKER_00: When I started my blog,
59:00
SPEAKER_00: The Mooks and the Gripes,
59:01
SPEAKER_00: in 2008,
59:02
SPEAKER_00: in July,
59:03
SPEAKER_00: some of my first books are...
59:05
SPEAKER_00: books in translation, Imre Kertesh, Stefan Zweig.
59:11
SPEAKER_00: And Kertesh was still alive at the time.
59:13
SPEAKER_00: So that would be somewhat contemporary.
59:15
But a lot of it was because I was in Borders and I loved,
59:18
there's Kaddish for an unborn child.
59:21
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh, that looks like an interesting book.
59:22
SPEAKER_00: So I pulled it down.
59:24
But when I started to do this more deliberately was when John
59:28
Self published a
59:30
SPEAKER_00: review of Cesar Aira's episode of The Life of a Landscape Painter.
59:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
59:35
SPEAKER_00: And I went to a bookstore that night and they had his book ghosts.
59:41
And so,
59:41
you know,
59:42
it's,
59:42
you know,
59:43
basically big enough to fit in my wallet itself,
59:45
the book.
59:46
SPEAKER_00: So I grabbed it and I did not steal it.
59:48
SPEAKER_00: I used my wallet to pay for it.
59:51
SPEAKER_00: I was like, that's not sounding good.
59:52
SPEAKER_00: It fit in my wallet.
59:55
SPEAKER_00: No.
59:55
SPEAKER_00: So I, I, I,
59:57
SPEAKER_00: And I went home and I read it.
59:59
SPEAKER_00: And New Directions,
1:00:01
SPEAKER_00: Laurie Callahan,
1:00:01
SPEAKER_00: who is the marketing director,
1:00:04
SPEAKER_00: reached out and said,
1:00:06
SPEAKER_00: hey,
1:00:06
SPEAKER_00: we loved your review.
1:00:08
SPEAKER_00: Do you want more?
1:00:10
SPEAKER_00: And that's where it really opened the door for me.
1:00:12
SPEAKER_00: And my blog became more about...
1:00:16
SPEAKER_00: not more about,
1:00:16
SPEAKER_00: but a lot more literature and translation,
1:00:19
SPEAKER_00: particularly new translations of newer authors,
1:00:23
SPEAKER_00: newer books and things like that is,
1:00:25
SPEAKER_00: is a lot because of that one moment.
1:00:29
SPEAKER_00: And then the,
1:00:31
SPEAKER_00: the Best Translated Book Award was starting up at that same time.
1:00:34
SPEAKER_00: And so I just started to recognize,
1:00:36
SPEAKER_00: holy cow,
1:00:37
SPEAKER_00: there are so many great books out there being written in translation.
1:00:41
SPEAKER_00: I love the work they're doing.
1:00:43
SPEAKER_00: I love these publishers.
1:00:45
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, that's same time period and same kind of...
1:00:53
SPEAKER_00: General start.
1:00:54
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, John.
1:00:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
1:00:56
SPEAKER_02: We talk about him a lot for a reason.
1:00:58
SPEAKER_02: He was so influential on both of our reading lives.
1:01:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:01:03
SPEAKER_02: And like you said,
1:01:04
SPEAKER_02: those authors,
1:01:05
SPEAKER_02: once you're in too,
1:01:07
and people who listen to our podcast know this already because
1:01:09
we talk about them
1:01:10
SPEAKER_02: all the time.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:01:11
it's come to the point now where people will ask me about like
1:01:13
my book buying
1:01:14
SPEAKER_02: habits and I still do seek out specific authors or new titles,
1:01:20
SPEAKER_02: but more and more I will,
1:01:22
if I'm browsing through something like the Boulder bookstore
1:01:24
and there's a huge
1:01:25
wall of books I'm scanning and I do have certain authors and
1:01:28
things I'm looking for,
1:01:29
SPEAKER_02: but I'm looking for those spines.
1:01:30
SPEAKER_02: I'm looking for those publishers that I love.
1:01:33
SPEAKER_02: And it's like, once you realize that this is something you love,
1:01:37
We're so lucky right now because these publishers are out there
1:01:39
curating this stuff
1:01:41
for us so well that it's like just sit back and just it's like
1:01:44
Homer with the donuts.
1:01:45
SPEAKER_02: Like they just keep coming to you.
1:01:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you simply can't read them all if you want to.
1:01:49
SPEAKER_00: There's so many riches out there.
1:01:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's amazing.
1:01:53
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:01:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll take a break here in a moment.
1:01:55
SPEAKER_00: But before we do.
1:01:57
SPEAKER_00: Question from me to you, Paul.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:02:00
SPEAKER_00: Who's your favorite Spice Girl?
1:02:01
SPEAKER_00: Just kidding.
1:02:02
SPEAKER_00: Just kidding.
1:02:03
SPEAKER_00: You can answer it if you want to.
1:02:05
SPEAKER_00: However,
1:02:05
the reason I bring that up is that my wife does a lot of stuff
1:02:09
at the library with
1:02:10
SPEAKER_00: kids and teens and all this.
1:02:12
SPEAKER_00: And that's always the question she asks to both.
1:02:15
SPEAKER_00: be a little quirky and funny and throw them off a little bit.
1:02:18
SPEAKER_00: Cause they simply don't care.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_00: They're like,
1:02:20
SPEAKER_00: when she starts to get enthusiastic about it,
1:02:22
SPEAKER_00: they,
1:02:23
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:02:23
SPEAKER_00: are like,
1:02:24
SPEAKER_00: who is this weirdo?
1:02:25
SPEAKER_00: And I love that.
1:02:26
SPEAKER_00: So I thought I'd,
1:02:27
SPEAKER_00: I'd jump in there,
1:02:28
SPEAKER_00: but,
1:02:28
SPEAKER_00: but to get us a little bit away from books,
1:02:32
SPEAKER_00: the ideal breakfast for you,
1:02:35
SPEAKER_00: give me,
1:02:36
SPEAKER_00: give me,
1:02:36
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:02:36
SPEAKER_00: it's a,
1:02:38
SPEAKER_00: it's a day when you don't have to worry about anything.
1:02:40
but it's breakfast time and you can have whatever you want and
1:02:44
sit down and read or,
1:02:45
SPEAKER_00: or,
1:02:46
SPEAKER_00: or talk to,
1:02:47
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:02:47
SPEAKER_00: your wife or something over breakfast.
1:02:49
SPEAKER_00: What, what, what is that breakfast?
1:02:50
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
1:02:51
SPEAKER_02: And actually I'm not like on a weekday, I'm not a big breakfast person.
1:02:54
SPEAKER_02: I really don't like,
1:02:55
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:02:56
SPEAKER_02: just grabbing a granola bar or,
1:02:57
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:02:57
SPEAKER_02: whatever,
1:02:58
SPEAKER_02: but like,
1:02:58
SPEAKER_02: I do love that what you just described.
1:03:01
SPEAKER_02: So for me, I'm all about the savory.
1:03:04
SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, I'm not opposed.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_02: I love pancakes and waffles and everything,
1:03:07
SPEAKER_02: but if I'm making the choice,
1:03:08
SPEAKER_02: it's going to be like a,
1:03:10
SPEAKER_02: an omelet with,
1:03:11
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:03:11
SPEAKER_02: like peppers and maybe like ham and then hash browns,
1:03:17
SPEAKER_02: coffee,
1:03:17
SPEAKER_00: a good Rocky mountain breakfast.
1:03:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm here.
1:03:19
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:03:20
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:03:21
SPEAKER_02: I'm a, I'm a person of, or a person of my upbringing, I guess.
1:03:25
SPEAKER_02: Cause yeah,
1:03:26
I think it's even around here and I don't know if this is the
1:03:28
way it's always known,
1:03:29
SPEAKER_02: but like a Denver,
1:03:30
SPEAKER_02: Denver omelet is what I just described.
1:03:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:03:32
SPEAKER_02: No, that would be my go-to for sure.
1:03:34
SPEAKER_02: I'm, I love that stuff.
1:03:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:03:37
SPEAKER_02: That would be my answer.
1:03:38
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
1:03:39
It's funny because I thought,
1:03:40
well,
1:03:40
if Paul turns around,
1:03:41
what would I say?
1:03:42
I mean,
1:03:43
again,
1:03:43
we are different people,
1:03:44
but I would also say,
1:03:46
in fact,
1:03:46
I had the words.
1:03:47
SPEAKER_00: I prefer the savory side of things.
1:03:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm fine with pancakes and waffles.
1:03:51
SPEAKER_00: Love them to an extent.
1:03:53
SPEAKER_00: But my ideal breakfast would be, you know.
1:03:56
SPEAKER_00: more of the savory stuff.
1:03:58
SPEAKER_00: And I love making omelets of different types.
1:04:01
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
1:04:01
SPEAKER_00: I love cooking eggs.
1:04:02
SPEAKER_00: So many different varieties of ways to cook eggs.
1:04:05
And I love trying them out and learning the,
1:04:07
you know,
1:04:07
how do I make this good French omelet?
1:04:09
SPEAKER_00: How do I make a Denver omelet?
1:04:11
SPEAKER_00: Why are they different?
1:04:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, how does it, how does this happen?
1:04:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I might put one of my all time favorites is eggs Benedict.
1:04:19
SPEAKER_00: Oh,
1:04:19
SPEAKER_00: Because you've got the egg,
1:04:22
SPEAKER_00: you've got the hollandaise sauce,
1:04:23
SPEAKER_00: you've got the ham,
1:04:25
SPEAKER_00: and you've got an English muffin toasted.
1:04:29
I love a good breakfast sandwich and that just seems to
1:04:31
encapsulate so much of what
1:04:33
SPEAKER_00: I love about him.
1:04:34
SPEAKER_00: But yeah,
1:04:35
SPEAKER_00: man,
1:04:35
SPEAKER_00: this,
1:04:35
SPEAKER_00: this just makes me want to go get a,
1:04:37
SPEAKER_00: even a biscuit with sausage and egg or something like that.
1:04:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't stop at restaurants.
1:04:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I, I probably would like an egg McMuffin most mornings.
1:04:47
SPEAKER_00: Like I would never grab a granola bar, like you were saying, but,
1:04:50
SPEAKER_00: but I'd probably grab an egg McMuffin in the morning and enjoy it.
1:04:53
SPEAKER_00: I just don't do that.
1:04:54
SPEAKER_00: I probably won't start,
1:04:55
SPEAKER_00: but,
1:04:56
SPEAKER_00: uh,
1:04:56
SPEAKER_00: yeah,
1:04:56
SPEAKER_00: but that's the kind of stuff that I,
1:04:58
SPEAKER_00: I would eat on a fast one,
1:04:59
SPEAKER_00: but if it's,
1:05:00
SPEAKER_00: if I've got more time,
1:05:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to make me some eggs Benedict.
1:05:03
SPEAKER_00: That's usually what my wife and I,
1:05:04
SPEAKER_00: I'll make it for her on Christmas morning or,
1:05:07
SPEAKER_00: or,
1:05:07
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:05:08
SPEAKER_00: other holidays and such.
1:05:09
SPEAKER_00: So that's a fun one.
1:05:11
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
1:05:11
SPEAKER_02: Just real fast.
1:05:13
SPEAKER_02: On a related note, we just went up to Boulder this last weekend.
1:05:15
SPEAKER_02: As regular listeners know,
1:05:17
SPEAKER_02: that's like my wife and I are go to probably four or five times a year.
1:05:21
We go up and hit the Boulder bookstore and we have various
1:05:24
restaurants that we love up there.
1:05:25
But one that is it's called the Village Cafe and it's just this
1:05:28
tiny little greasy spoon.
1:05:30
And I did literally have pretty much the exact breakfast that I
1:05:33
just described to you.
1:05:33
SPEAKER_02: It was very amazing.
1:05:35
SPEAKER_02: And when you're in Colorado and New Mexico in this area,
1:05:38
SPEAKER_02: you always got to throw some green chili on there,
1:05:40
SPEAKER_02: too.
1:05:42
it's another ame how many times have you and your wife when you
1:05:46
go to boulder have
1:05:48
replayed like the mork and mindy opening you know uh title yeah
1:05:53
exactly i mean we
1:05:54
talk about it fairly often because i've never done it but you
1:05:57
can find where it was
1:05:59
recorded it's one of the streets it has a lot of boulder is
1:06:02
laid out with um
1:06:05
SPEAKER_02: The streets are named after trees.
1:06:07
SPEAKER_02: And I can never remember which one it is,
1:06:08
SPEAKER_02: but yeah,
1:06:08
SPEAKER_02: you can go visit the Mork and Mindy house there in Boulder.
1:06:11
SPEAKER_00: I did not know that.
1:06:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
1:06:13
SPEAKER_00: When I come visit, is that one of our go-tos?
1:06:16
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
1:06:17
We may or may not hit the Boulder bookstore,
1:06:19
but we're going to go to Mork and Mindy's house.
1:06:22
SPEAKER_02: All right.
1:06:23
SPEAKER_02: Let me ask you one quick one.
1:06:24
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:06:25
Because I had a whole lightning round,
1:06:26
but I'm not going to do all of them right now.
1:06:28
SPEAKER_02: We may or may not do it later.
1:06:29
SPEAKER_02: A lot of them were food related though.
1:06:30
SPEAKER_02: And I'll just put in a quick plug that Trevor...
1:06:33
is a great cook and he sent me videos of him making this
1:06:36
amazing bacon that someday
1:06:37
if i ever visit i have to so just throwing that out there but
1:06:41
um okay what is
1:06:43
either your favorite album or the first album that you ever
1:06:46
bought when you were a
1:06:47
SPEAKER_00: kid oh like a music yeah music sorry sorry yep
1:06:52
SPEAKER_00: Or both.
1:06:54
SPEAKER_02: And I can start off to buy you a little time.
1:06:56
SPEAKER_02: My favorite album of all time will always be Disintegration by The Cure.
1:07:01
SPEAKER_02: I think it is perfect.
1:07:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm with Cartman from South Park on that.
1:07:05
SPEAKER_02: Best album ever or whatever.
1:07:07
SPEAKER_02: And then the first album I ever bought is
1:07:11
SPEAKER_02: It's a little more embarrassing.
1:07:12
SPEAKER_02: I bought the cassette of Paula Abdul.
1:07:15
SPEAKER_00: I think it was my friend bought that and we listened to it plenty.
1:07:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:07:21
I remember I was at a Walmart and I had my money saved up and
1:07:27
looking at the wall of cassettes.
1:07:28
And for some reason that was the one that called to me and I
1:07:30
did listen to it.
1:07:31
SPEAKER_02: So, yeah.
1:07:32
SPEAKER_02: Very different answers, but since we're being honest here.
1:07:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:07:35
SPEAKER_00: I do remember buying the cassette tape of MC Hammer.
1:07:39
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
1:07:41
SPEAKER_00: His first album that was really big.
1:07:44
SPEAKER_00: And I think then I also bought the single of too legit to quit.
1:07:48
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
1:07:49
SPEAKER_00: So that's probably when I started to buy,
1:07:51
SPEAKER_00: to buy my own things,
1:07:52
you know my sisters of course had like Debbie Gibson and
1:07:57
Whitney Houston and
1:07:59
SPEAKER_00: And all those, but those were theirs.
1:08:00
And,
1:08:00
you know,
1:08:01
while they're getting ready in the morning,
1:08:02
I heard plenty of that.
1:08:03
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:08:03
SPEAKER_02: But you were doing your hammer dance on them.
1:08:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:08:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:08:07
SPEAKER_00: I had my pants on,
1:08:08
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:08:10
or at least my pajama pants pulled down lower than they should
1:08:13
go to make it look
1:08:14
SPEAKER_00: like no,
1:08:15
SPEAKER_00: I actually don't think I ever quite got into it like that.
1:08:17
SPEAKER_00: I never did have hammer pants.
1:08:18
I never,
1:08:19
I just,
1:08:20
uh,
1:08:20
it probably a lot of it was that I,
1:08:22
I thought the beat was fun.
1:08:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
1:08:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:08:24
SPEAKER_00: and all my friends liked it.
1:08:26
SPEAKER_00: I didn't ever, I didn't follow that track.
1:08:28
SPEAKER_00: In fact,
1:08:28
SPEAKER_00: this will be,
1:08:29
this will be quite apparent that when I really started to buy
1:08:32
music was in the
1:08:33
SPEAKER_00: nineties with,
1:08:35
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:08:35
SPEAKER_00: alternative grunge.
1:08:36
SPEAKER_00: I, I would, I would go back to like one of my favorite albums was,
1:08:42
it is like Nirvana's unplugged MTV unplug album or the,
1:08:48
um,
1:08:49
you know,
1:08:49
their other live one.
1:08:50
SPEAKER_00: What is it live from?
1:08:51
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
1:08:52
SPEAKER_00: I know what you're talking about.
1:08:54
Oh,
1:08:55
it's been a while since I've listened to it,
1:08:57
but I sure did listen to it all the time.
1:08:59
Um,
1:09:00
those,
1:09:01
those probably,
1:09:03
and that time period when I really started to get into music,
1:09:06
um,
1:09:07
SPEAKER_00: And I haven't, you know, because it's so good, I have not kept up.
1:09:13
SPEAKER_00: Why would I?
1:09:14
SPEAKER_00: No.
1:09:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm the typical old person.
1:09:16
You know,
1:09:17
I still put this stuff on more than know anything about what's
1:09:22
coming out that's new.
1:09:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know.
1:09:25
SPEAKER_02: I do the same thing.
1:09:25
SPEAKER_02: I try not to.
1:09:26
And my wife is really good at introducing me to new music and
1:09:29
my kids try.
1:09:30
SPEAKER_02: Some of it.
1:09:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:09:32
She's not new anymore,
1:09:33
but Phoebe Bridgers was my poster child for like,
1:09:36
see,
1:09:36
I like new music.
1:09:37
SPEAKER_02: And now I'm like, oh, she's not that new anymore.
1:09:39
SPEAKER_02: But I do love Phoebe Bridgers and Boy Genius.
1:09:42
But I think the album you were thinking of is From the Muddy
1:09:44
Banks of the Wishka.
1:09:45
SPEAKER_00: Yep, that's it.
1:09:46
SPEAKER_02: Now, again, we are children of a very similar...
1:09:50
SPEAKER_02: Time.
1:09:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:09:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:09:52
SPEAKER_02: A lot of, a lot of grunge.
1:09:54
SPEAKER_00: I do have to throw in the Beatles too.
1:09:55
I mean,
1:09:56
if I've ever worn out,
1:09:58
you know,
1:09:59
even like CDs or whatever,
1:10:00
it'd be the Beatles.
1:10:01
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
1:10:02
SPEAKER_00: But they came a little bit after Nirvana in my, in my development.
1:10:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:10:08
SPEAKER_02: Nice.
1:10:08
SPEAKER_02: No, that's good stuff.
1:10:10
SPEAKER_02: Well, that's a great answer.
1:10:11
SPEAKER_00: Fun, fun.
1:10:13
All right,
1:10:13
well,
1:10:13
let's take a little bit of a break and draw some winners of our giveaway.
1:10:19
And then we'll come back to more of these questions and some
1:10:23
more fun questions
1:10:25
SPEAKER_00: from each other,
1:10:25
SPEAKER_00: too.
1:10:26
SPEAKER_00: Sounds good.
1:10:26
SPEAKER_00: We'll see you in a second.
1:10:37
SPEAKER_00: All right, Paul.
1:10:39
SPEAKER_00: So we have five lucky winners that we need to draw right now.
1:10:43
SPEAKER_00: And thanks, everybody, for submitting questions.
1:10:46
SPEAKER_00: Some of you also submitted books or authors or episodes that you enjoyed,
1:10:54
SPEAKER_00: books or authors that maybe you learned about from us,
1:10:56
SPEAKER_00: like Mark Haber,
1:10:58
SPEAKER_00: which was really fun to hear.
1:11:01
And we just really appreciate the feedback that we've always
1:11:04
gotten from our listeners.
1:11:06
SPEAKER_00: And we need to, as we've said before, do a better job of
1:11:11
integrating that into the show sometimes sometimes paul and i
1:11:13
can just get going
1:11:15
it's not paul's fault actually you know sometimes it is um but
1:11:21
we very much
1:11:22
appreciate it we love um the community that that we are a part
1:11:25
of here and so thank
1:11:28
you and this is our uh celebration we want to also you know
1:11:31
give back a little bit
1:11:32
SPEAKER_00: so we will reach out to these people
1:11:35
SPEAKER_00: And let them work with us to select a book to send their way.
1:11:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm excited.
1:11:42
SPEAKER_00: All right, Paul.
1:11:43
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to do the honors, pull the first name out of the hat?
1:11:48
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
1:11:48
SPEAKER_02: The first name that I see coming out of the hat is Corey Taylor.
1:11:52
SPEAKER_02: Congratulations, Corey.
1:11:54
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Corey.
1:11:57
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:11:58
SPEAKER_00: Next one, I will pull it out.
1:12:00
SPEAKER_00: It is
1:12:02
SPEAKER_00: Emily Craddock.
1:12:04
SPEAKER_00: Emily, congratulations.
1:12:06
SPEAKER_02: Ah, that's exciting.
1:12:08
SPEAKER_02: Next one.
1:12:09
SPEAKER_02: is lost and found in books, all one word.
1:12:12
SPEAKER_02: So I assume that's a handle.
1:12:14
SPEAKER_02: So lost and found in books.
1:12:16
SPEAKER_00: I hope it's not a handle.
1:12:18
SPEAKER_00: I hope that's what they're named by their parents.
1:12:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's just their first name.
1:12:23
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what their last name is.
1:12:26
SPEAKER_00: And our next one is similar, just a handle.
1:12:30
I probably could look these up,
1:12:31
but this is kind of how these were submitted to us.
1:12:34
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know if people wanted their names.
1:12:37
SPEAKER_00: put down there?
1:12:38
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
1:12:38
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
1:12:39
SPEAKER_00: Better safe than sorry.
1:12:40
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
1:12:41
SPEAKER_02: Our next one is Little Book Bell.
1:12:44
SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
1:12:45
SPEAKER_02: And rounding out our five, Thomas Liam.
1:12:49
SPEAKER_02: So congratulations, everybody.
1:12:50
SPEAKER_02: We can't wait to send a book your way.
1:12:53
SPEAKER_02: And I'll be very curious to see what everybody picks.
1:12:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that'll be fun.
1:12:57
SPEAKER_00: And we look forward to doing more giveaways.
1:13:02
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to figure out the best way to do those going forward.
1:13:06
SPEAKER_00: I've got a few ideas for some fun ways.
1:13:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:13:09
SPEAKER_00: So stay tuned.
1:13:27
SPEAKER_00: All right, Paul, you ready to get back to some of the questions?
1:13:31
SPEAKER_00: I am ready.
1:13:31
SPEAKER_00: This has been a lot of fun.
1:13:32
SPEAKER_00: Looking forward to it.
1:13:33
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:13:34
SPEAKER_00: Whose turn is it?
1:13:35
SPEAKER_00: I don't actually know.
1:13:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't either.
1:13:37
SPEAKER_00: I feel like maybe yours to read.
1:13:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:13:41
SPEAKER_00: We put a bundle here that are kind of focused on NYRB classics.
1:13:47
SPEAKER_00: So let's just start with the first one, which we got from G. Boxo.
1:13:52
SPEAKER_00: And it is Best NYRB.
1:13:56
SPEAKER_00: Question mark.
1:13:57
Then it does say the obvious ones like Stoner,
1:14:00
The Door,
1:14:00
Anatomy of Melancholy are disqualified.
1:14:03
SPEAKER_02: I know.
1:14:04
And the obvious one is where I had a little debate with myself
1:14:07
on this one,
1:14:07
SPEAKER_02: because to me,
1:14:08
SPEAKER_02: some of the ones that I think of as obvious,
1:14:10
SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure if they're obvious.
1:14:13
So we can have kind of...
1:14:14
They're obvious to maybe you and me or people we talk to a lot,
1:14:17
right?
1:14:17
SPEAKER_02: I know, exactly.
1:14:18
SPEAKER_02: And people are like, okay, I get it.
1:14:20
You think that one's great because you've talked about it a
1:14:23
million times.
1:14:23
SPEAKER_02: But I mean, I did make a list.
1:14:26
SPEAKER_02: I won't necessarily read them all,
1:14:28
but I thought we could maybe just turn this into a bit of a
1:14:30
discussion because...
1:14:31
SPEAKER_02: For me, okay, obviously The Peregrine by J.A.
1:14:33
SPEAKER_02: Baker would be at the very top or very near.
1:14:37
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if that one's obvious.
1:14:40
SPEAKER_02: A few other ones,
1:14:41
SPEAKER_02: The Mountain Lion by Gene Stafford,
1:14:42
SPEAKER_02: which I've gone on and on about,
1:14:43
SPEAKER_02: and you read within the last year.
1:14:45
SPEAKER_02: It was last year, NYRB Women 24.
1:14:48
that one just sticks with me it's one of my all-time favorites
1:14:51
one that i was my
1:14:52
wife just read this and it put it back on my radar and i don't
1:14:55
i probably have
1:14:56
talked about it i don't remember though is 20 000 streets under
1:14:59
the sky by patrick
1:15:00
hamilton have you actually haven't read i it's one of the first
1:15:04
ones i ever got
1:15:05
because palimpsest folks were fans and so i went and got it and
1:15:11
i'm just waiting
1:15:12
SPEAKER_02: for that oh man it is so good and in fact i
1:15:15
keep wondering,
1:15:16
I have several other books by Patrick Hamilton and I have not
1:15:19
read them.
1:15:19
SPEAKER_02: I don't know why,
1:15:20
SPEAKER_02: but yeah,
1:15:21
that one is one that people may or may not know and may not
1:15:24
hear as often from us.
1:15:26
SPEAKER_02: And then there's other ones that I think might be on yours,
1:15:28
but I'm just going to quickly touch on the Balkan trilogy by
1:15:30
Olivia Manning,
1:15:31
SPEAKER_02: which I read as part of a group read a few years ago.
1:15:34
SPEAKER_02: And that was absolutely amazing.
1:15:36
And then one more that I don't know that you'll bring up is The
1:15:39
Lonely Passion of
1:15:40
SPEAKER_02: Judith Hearn by Brian Moore,
1:15:42
SPEAKER_02: which I know we have talked about that before.
1:15:44
I think that is just one of the most sad and devastating and
1:15:48
beautiful books that I've read.
1:15:49
SPEAKER_02: So those are a few.
1:15:51
SPEAKER_02: I know I'm cheating.
1:15:51
SPEAKER_02: I didn't say, well, actually, the submitter didn't specify one best NYRP.
1:15:56
So,
1:15:57
you know,
1:15:57
this could take up our entire episode of us just ranting about
1:15:59
the best ones.
1:16:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
1:16:01
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say NYRBs.
1:16:03
SPEAKER_00: It's not plural, Paul.
1:16:04
SPEAKER_02: It's best NYRB.
1:16:05
SPEAKER_02: Too late.
1:16:06
SPEAKER_02: I already cheated.
1:16:07
SPEAKER_02: But if I had to pick, I guess, you know, oh boy.
1:16:10
SPEAKER_00: You said the Peregrine was at the top.
1:16:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that would have to be if I was backed into a corner.
1:16:15
But there's some other ones I didn't even mention in this
1:16:18
little section that could
1:16:19
SPEAKER_02: have also been on there that I think maybe you will.
1:16:20
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, how about you?
1:16:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, I did limit it to one.
1:16:25
SPEAKER_00: There may be some other ones that pop up in other answers later on.
1:16:28
SPEAKER_00: Now I feel bad.
1:16:30
SPEAKER_00: No, that's okay.
1:16:30
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to feel bad.
1:16:32
SPEAKER_00: That's what people want, right?
1:16:33
SPEAKER_00: They want you cheating because they want to hear a few.
1:16:38
SPEAKER_00: But I did try to narrow it down.
1:16:41
SPEAKER_00: And I have talked about this one,
1:16:42
SPEAKER_00: but it was back on our NYRB Classics episode,
1:16:45
SPEAKER_00: which was a long time ago.
1:16:47
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the author at the time was still alive.
1:16:51
SPEAKER_00: But he did die in January of 2023.
1:16:53
SPEAKER_00: And that is Ronald Blythe.
1:16:57
SPEAKER_00: I think Aikenfield...
1:16:59
SPEAKER_00: is an absolute masterpiece.
1:17:02
A book I didn't even have any knowledge of until they announced
1:17:08
that they were
1:17:08
SPEAKER_00: going to release it.
1:17:09
And I think it was John Self who,
1:17:11
when they did that,
1:17:12
said,
1:17:12
oh,
1:17:12
that is an absolute masterpiece.
1:17:14
SPEAKER_00: And so I was very excited to get it.
1:17:17
SPEAKER_00: And it did not disappoint.
1:17:18
SPEAKER_00: I love Aikenfield.
1:17:21
And I don't see it pop up very often when people are talking
1:17:26
NYRB classics.
1:17:27
SPEAKER_00: I probably should reread it.
1:17:29
and post about it some more myself because I read it when it
1:17:33
came out from them,
1:17:34
SPEAKER_00: which has already been probably 10 years.
1:17:37
SPEAKER_00: I can look up.
1:17:39
Give me some of your thoughts while I look up and see when
1:17:42
Aikenfield came out.
1:17:43
SPEAKER_02: No, that book is amazing.
1:17:44
SPEAKER_02: I read it based on either your blog or your recommendation.
1:17:47
SPEAKER_02: I don't remember, but yeah, it's absolutely amazing.
1:17:50
SPEAKER_02: And it's one,
1:17:50
SPEAKER_02: for some reason,
1:17:51
SPEAKER_02: when I'm thinking of the best NYRBs,
1:17:53
SPEAKER_02: even though it's clearly in there,
1:17:54
SPEAKER_02: I don't think of that one and I don't know why,
1:17:56
SPEAKER_02: but...
1:17:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
1:17:57
there are sections of that book about the bell ringing and the
1:18:00
bell making and all
1:18:01
SPEAKER_02: of that that I think about a lot.
1:18:04
SPEAKER_02: It's just so fascinating.
1:18:05
SPEAKER_02: All these tiny little, not tiny.
1:18:07
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's these people's lives.
1:18:09
But to us,
1:18:09
it seems like this obscure kind of trade and just to hear them
1:18:13
talk about it.
1:18:14
SPEAKER_02: And it's that book is so contemporary in so many ways.
1:18:18
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
1:18:19
It's such a fascinating insight into this little village and
1:18:22
these people's lives
1:18:23
SPEAKER_02: and that period of time.
1:18:24
SPEAKER_02: Now I'm so glad you mentioned that one.
1:18:25
SPEAKER_02: Cause like I said,
1:18:26
SPEAKER_02: for some reason,
1:18:27
SPEAKER_02: as much as I love it,
1:18:28
SPEAKER_02: it's one that kind of slips my mind sometimes.
1:18:32
SPEAKER_00: So I have here, I reviewed it in October of 2015.
1:18:35
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:18:36
SPEAKER_00: So it has been 10 years.
1:18:39
I don't know if I reviewed it like really close to its release
1:18:42
date from NYRB classics or not.
1:18:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:18:44
SPEAKER_00: The book itself is from the late sixties.
1:18:47
SPEAKER_00: And yeah,
1:18:49
SPEAKER_00: written when he was in his late 40s, early 50s.
1:18:52
SPEAKER_00: He lived to be 100.
1:18:53
SPEAKER_00: He died at 100.
1:18:54
SPEAKER_00: And on his way to 101 in 2023.
1:18:59
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, what a wonderful book about community.
1:19:05
SPEAKER_00: And again, we talk about those quiet lives.
1:19:08
SPEAKER_00: This is a fictional community.
1:19:11
SPEAKER_00: And he tells it almost like an oral history of this place.
1:19:15
SPEAKER_00: People talking about
1:19:16
their memories and maybe some of their conflicts or some of
1:19:19
their losses.
1:19:20
SPEAKER_00: It's just so, so good.
1:19:23
SPEAKER_00: I do need to reread it.
1:19:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
1:19:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you brought that one up.
1:19:27
SPEAKER_00: That's a great one.
1:19:29
SPEAKER_00: And the next one is very similar, right?
1:19:32
SPEAKER_00: The next one for every book,
1:19:33
SPEAKER_00: a picture also said,
1:19:34
SPEAKER_00: what is your absolute favorite NYRB classic book?
1:19:39
SPEAKER_00: You want to answer it again?
1:19:40
SPEAKER_00: Are you going to cheat and say, well, now let me talk about.
1:19:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I should.
1:19:43
SPEAKER_02: I did since they didn't say eliminate the obvious ones.
1:19:47
I did put the Peregrine slash Butcher's Crossing because I
1:19:50
think if I was going to
1:19:51
SPEAKER_02: rule out obvious ones,
1:19:53
SPEAKER_02: John Williams would have to be in that conversation.
1:19:56
SPEAKER_00: I did consider, um,
1:19:59
talking or putting on here like something like Augustus by John
1:20:02
Williams too
1:20:02
SPEAKER_00: because it's not one of his obvious ones.
1:20:05
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
1:20:06
SPEAKER_00: I see Stoner all the time.
1:20:07
SPEAKER_00: I see Butcher's Crossing a lot.
1:20:10
SPEAKER_00: I don't see Augustus very often.
1:20:15
SPEAKER_00: I think I have seen it, but not very often.
1:20:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it belongs right up there.
1:20:19
I don't know if it would be like a 1B to me,
1:20:21
but it's definitely in the conversation.
1:20:23
And then I always forget that other book that he wrote earlier
1:20:27
that you've read and
1:20:28
SPEAKER_02: has that really kind of creepy cover,
1:20:30
SPEAKER_02: something about night.
1:20:31
SPEAKER_00: Super creepy cover.
1:20:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:20:33
SPEAKER_00: Tender is the night.
1:20:35
SPEAKER_00: No, just kidding.
1:20:35
SPEAKER_00: I was going to say, I don't think that's quite it.
1:20:39
I am looking it up because right now I can't remember the,
1:20:41
it is something with the night.
1:20:43
SPEAKER_02: But that's one that based on what you've said and other people have said,
1:20:46
SPEAKER_02: like,
1:20:46
SPEAKER_02: even though it's probably not,
1:20:47
it is generally seems not to be in the same conversation as
1:20:51
those other three.
1:20:51
SPEAKER_02: A lot of people are like, but you should still read it.
1:20:53
SPEAKER_02: It's so good.
1:20:54
SPEAKER_02: So that's one I keep saving, but I need to read that one.
1:20:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:20:57
SPEAKER_00: That's nothing but the night.
1:20:59
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I did.
1:20:59
SPEAKER_00: I did like it.
1:21:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're only going to read,
1:21:03
SPEAKER_00: three,
1:21:04
SPEAKER_00: read the three that,
1:21:06
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:21:07
SPEAKER_00: he's,
1:21:07
SPEAKER_00: he's known for and that,
1:21:09
SPEAKER_00: well,
1:21:10
SPEAKER_00: the three he wrote,
1:21:10
SPEAKER_00: cause he kind of has repudiated his own,
1:21:13
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:21:14
SPEAKER_00: nothing but the night.
1:21:15
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't too proud of it.
1:21:17
SPEAKER_00: But the other three, I think he is very proud, you know, was proud of.
1:21:22
And,
1:21:23
you know,
1:21:23
they're,
1:21:23
they're each of them masterpieces in their own way.
1:21:25
SPEAKER_00: Nothing but the night's just a, a, an interesting story.
1:21:29
SPEAKER_00: and solid, I think, book.
1:21:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad that NYRB published it.
1:21:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I am too.
1:21:35
SPEAKER_02: Well, the second part of that question is not NYRB related.
1:21:38
SPEAKER_02: And it says, what's your favorite Charco Press book?
1:21:41
So I don't know if you came up with one,
1:21:45
but I was thinking Elena Knows by Claudia Pinheiro.
1:21:48
SPEAKER_02: If I had to pick one, that would be the one right now.
1:21:51
SPEAKER_02: but that was another tough call.
1:21:54
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, that one to me does stand out pretty strongly among the crowd.
1:21:57
Cause I just loved that book and everything she's written that
1:22:01
I've read has been amazing.
1:22:02
SPEAKER_02: But that one in particular, I think stands above the crowd for me.
1:22:05
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
1:22:07
SPEAKER_00: And I would,
1:22:07
SPEAKER_00: I would put not a river by Silva Almada,
1:22:10
SPEAKER_00: which was one of my top 10 books that I read last year.
1:22:14
SPEAKER_00: And I still think about it a lot.
1:22:17
SPEAKER_00: Very good.
1:22:17
SPEAKER_00: This is, you know, we've talked about it.
1:22:19
SPEAKER_00: Charco is,
1:22:21
SPEAKER_00: they're doing such unique to me.
1:22:24
You know,
1:22:24
I don't know about these authors other than they're publishing them.
1:22:28
SPEAKER_00: Not all, you know, Claudio Pinheiro.
1:22:30
Claudio Pinheiro,
1:22:31
she did publish other books in English before they did it.
1:22:36
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think I really knew about them.
1:22:38
One of them was even up for the 2016 Best Translated Book Award
1:22:41
when I was a judge,
1:22:42
SPEAKER_00: but I don't think it was a book assigned to me because I didn't read it.
1:22:48
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't really encounter her
1:22:51
SPEAKER_00: or many of these writers until Charco started publishing them.
1:22:56
SPEAKER_00: They're often younger, newer books, things like that.
1:23:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:23:03
SPEAKER_02: And then last year is a judge for the Republic of Consciousness Prize.
1:23:06
SPEAKER_02: I was lucky enough to get to read two Sherpas, which I absolutely loved.
1:23:09
And I even got to interview during kind of the celebration
1:23:12
party that they have for the prize.
1:23:15
SPEAKER_02: The author, Sebastian Martinez-Daniel, who was really great.
1:23:18
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, like you said, they just...
1:23:21
SPEAKER_02: These publishers,
1:23:22
SPEAKER_02: we're going to touch on this on a question,
1:23:23
SPEAKER_02: I think a little later,
1:23:24
SPEAKER_02: but they each have these superpowers that are just,
1:23:27
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:23:28
we're so lucky to have all these different people approaching
1:23:31
literature from
1:23:31
SPEAKER_02: different ways.
1:23:33
SPEAKER_00: Well,
1:23:34
SPEAKER_00: the last one we threw into this bucket was from our friend Kim,
1:23:37
SPEAKER_00: Reading Matters,
1:23:39
SPEAKER_00: who joined us last year for our author-focused,
1:23:43
SPEAKER_00: or not our author-focused,
1:23:44
SPEAKER_00: but the story of Lucy Galt.
1:23:48
I think of it as an author-focused,
1:23:49
because it was about William Trevor,
1:23:50
finally.
1:23:51
SPEAKER_00: I know, finally.
1:23:54
She asked,
1:23:54
since starting your podcast,
1:23:56
how many NYRP books have you acquired recently?
1:23:58
SPEAKER_02: Ooh,
1:23:59
and I assume this is maybe prompted from our bonus episode we
1:24:02
did where we did a
1:24:03
SPEAKER_02: quick kind of count and round up.
1:24:06
SPEAKER_02: Maybe not, but oh boy.
1:24:07
SPEAKER_02: I thought she was going to say since that episode,
1:24:09
SPEAKER_02: which was like,
1:24:10
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:24:10
SPEAKER_02: two months ago,
1:24:11
SPEAKER_02: how many have we acquired?
1:24:11
SPEAKER_02: And even that would probably be a few.
1:24:13
SPEAKER_02: Oh boy, I don't even know.
1:24:15
SPEAKER_02: I put dozens, if not a hundred.
1:24:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm probably in the same boat because again,
1:24:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm fortunate enough that they send me their,
1:24:23
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:24:23
SPEAKER_00: copies of their releases before they come out.
1:24:27
SPEAKER_00: And I think they do, you know, around 30 per year.
1:24:30
SPEAKER_00: How long we've been going here?
1:24:32
SPEAKER_00: Three years.
1:24:33
SPEAKER_00: You're in the hundreds, for sure.
1:24:35
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be 90 to 100 review copies.
1:24:39
And then I've bought,
1:24:41
you know,
1:24:42
another couple dozen probably in their sales.
1:24:45
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
1:24:45
SPEAKER_00: And getting things for NYRB women, you know.
1:24:48
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
1:24:49
SPEAKER_02: Even last weekend when we were up in Boulder, like I talked about, I...
1:24:53
SPEAKER_02: Out of the stack, I got like 10 books or something in Boulder.
1:24:56
SPEAKER_02: And I think like three of them were NYRB classics.
1:24:59
SPEAKER_02: Like we've said,
1:24:59
SPEAKER_02: half the time when I'm browsing,
1:25:01
SPEAKER_02: that's obviously one of the things I keep an eye out for.
1:25:03
SPEAKER_02: So yeah,
1:25:05
SPEAKER_02: many,
1:25:06
SPEAKER_02: many,
1:25:06
SPEAKER_02: they continue to,
1:25:08
I have almost a whole bookshelf filled with them that I love to
1:25:11
look at and browse
1:25:12
SPEAKER_02: through anytime me or my wife is kind of stuck on something to read.
1:25:16
SPEAKER_02: we both go to that shelf.
1:25:17
And what I love about their books is sometimes she'll pick one
1:25:21
off the shelf that
1:25:21
SPEAKER_02: I've never read and doesn't even necessarily catch my eye.
1:25:25
SPEAKER_02: And some of those have turned out to be some of her favorite reads.
1:25:27
SPEAKER_02: So it's really fun to, they just have such a great catalog.
1:25:31
SPEAKER_00: They do.
1:25:31
SPEAKER_00: And they're a publisher, I don't call.
1:25:34
SPEAKER_00: No.
1:25:36
SPEAKER_00: I don't either.
1:25:36
SPEAKER_00: I don't either.
1:25:38
SPEAKER_00: They come in and they stay.
1:25:41
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:25:42
SPEAKER_00: Next question is yours, I believe, to ask me.
1:25:47
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:25:47
SPEAKER_02: The next one up is from Jacob Block Official.
1:25:51
SPEAKER_02: And it says,
1:25:52
what's the favorite book you don't think you would have
1:25:55
otherwise read if not for
1:25:56
SPEAKER_02: the podcast?
1:25:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay,
1:26:00
SPEAKER_00: this one was a little bit tricky for me because I was like,
1:26:04
SPEAKER_00: what books have I read because of the podcast?
1:26:08
SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily very many.
1:26:09
We don't do very many episodes that we say we're reading this
1:26:15
one for this.
1:26:16
Mostly we're talking about categories and then bringing up what
1:26:19
we're reading currently.
1:26:22
SPEAKER_00: Certainly,
1:26:22
SPEAKER_00: and we'll get into this later,
1:26:24
SPEAKER_00: the podcast has influenced me and pushed me in certain directions.
1:26:33
SPEAKER_00: When would I have read David Copperfield if not for us chatting about it?
1:26:38
SPEAKER_00: And then eventually reading it last year.
1:26:42
However,
1:26:43
I did buy that because of you a few years before we started the podcast.
1:26:48
SPEAKER_00: So does that one count?
1:26:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
1:26:49
SPEAKER_00: So I finally said, well, what ones did I read because of the podcast?
1:26:53
And I thought that one that I would have always had the goal to
1:26:57
read but might not
1:26:58
SPEAKER_00: have gotten to was Willa Cather's A Lost Lady,
1:27:02
SPEAKER_00: which I loved.
1:27:03
SPEAKER_00: Loved, loved, loved, loved, loved.
1:27:05
SPEAKER_00: But I probably would have thought...
1:27:07
SPEAKER_00: Let's do other Willa Cather's first.
1:27:10
SPEAKER_00: No, someday I'll read all of her books.
1:27:12
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
1:27:13
SPEAKER_00: And then I might not have ever made that.
1:27:15
SPEAKER_02: No, that's a great choice.
1:27:16
SPEAKER_02: And I agree.
1:27:17
SPEAKER_02: That one was so good.
1:27:19
SPEAKER_02: And just like you said, it's so easy sometimes to overlook the,
1:27:23
SPEAKER_02: certain works by an author that aren't maybe their most prominent ones.
1:27:25
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I agree with you.
1:27:26
And I had the same thought process of if we're talking books
1:27:29
that you've influenced
1:27:30
SPEAKER_02: me to read through the podcast or that people,
1:27:32
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:27:33
SPEAKER_02: listeners and friends through the podcast have recommended,
1:27:35
SPEAKER_02: this could be even trickier,
1:27:37
but I decided to kind of narrow it down for this question to
1:27:39
the same thing
1:27:40
SPEAKER_02: directly influenced.
1:27:41
SPEAKER_02: And so the one I came up with was Hangs a Man by Shirley Jackson,
1:27:44
SPEAKER_02: which we read Halloween episode a while back.
1:27:48
SPEAKER_02: And
1:27:49
SPEAKER_02: that book was so weird and so fun.
1:27:51
SPEAKER_02: And again,
1:27:52
SPEAKER_02: like you were saying,
1:27:53
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:27:53
SPEAKER_02: obviously The Haunting of Hill House and some of her other ones,
1:27:56
like her short stories and things would obviously be ones that
1:28:00
I would get to and
1:28:01
SPEAKER_02: have gotten to.
1:28:02
SPEAKER_02: But that one, I hadn't really known much about it.
1:28:06
SPEAKER_02: And we had so much fun talking about that book.
1:28:08
SPEAKER_02: And it just goes in such weird directions.
1:28:11
SPEAKER_02: And it's but it's so well written, just like all of her other stuff.
1:28:14
SPEAKER_02: So
1:28:15
SPEAKER_02: And then if I can just cheat a little again and do an honorable mention,
1:28:18
SPEAKER_02: Dry Heart by Natalia Ginsberg.
1:28:20
I don't want to leave that one off the list because this was
1:28:24
such a neck and neck race.
1:28:25
SPEAKER_02: And the Dry Heart itself, the book was amazing.
1:28:28
And then the conversation we had with Mervé and Kim was so
1:28:32
insightful and fascinating to me.
1:28:33
So again,
1:28:35
I know I keep cheating,
1:28:36
but those two together were just books that...
1:28:39
I don't know that I would have gotten to them and definitely
1:28:42
not quite in such a
1:28:43
SPEAKER_02: timely manner if it wasn't for the podcast.
1:28:45
SPEAKER_02: And they're so good.
1:28:46
And some of my best memories about our podcast so far have been
1:28:50
some of those
1:28:50
SPEAKER_02: conversations around those books.
1:28:52
Yeah,
1:28:53
and I definitely thought of A Dry Heart,
1:28:55
but I had already read it before,
1:28:57
too.
1:28:58
SPEAKER_00: And even though I hadn't read The Story of Lucy Galt by William Trevor,
1:29:03
SPEAKER_00: that one is one I'm comfortable I would have read.
1:29:06
SPEAKER_00: So that one wasn't in the running either.
1:29:09
SPEAKER_00: No, our various book clubs that we've done have been batting 1,000.
1:29:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
1:29:34
SPEAKER_00: They don't disappear.
1:29:34
SPEAKER_00: You can scroll up forever.
1:29:36
SPEAKER_00: But there's no real good way to organize them.
1:29:40
And for similar reasons,
1:29:42
we've never really known how to do our read-alongs that we've done.
1:29:47
SPEAKER_00: Our summer books, the Savage Detectives that we read.
1:29:52
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
1:29:54
SPEAKER_00: I never thought, oh, we've got this.
1:29:57
SPEAKER_00: But I just learned about Discord,
1:30:01
SPEAKER_00: the website where you can set up different channels for things.
1:30:04
SPEAKER_00: And within those, we could have a channel that's like The Dry Heart.
1:30:09
SPEAKER_00: And we could have week one reading.
1:30:11
SPEAKER_00: Or on that one, it's a novella, so it would be maybe...
1:30:14
You know,
1:30:14
whatever,
1:30:15
however it was organized and you can break it up and it's organized.
1:30:19
People can only read the section they're on and not have to
1:30:22
feel like they need to
1:30:23
SPEAKER_00: read ahead or I got to completely get away from the conversation because.
1:30:29
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just streaming before they've gotten to it.
1:30:32
SPEAKER_00: And I love that idea of doing something.
1:30:35
SPEAKER_00: And my thoughts have been,
1:30:36
SPEAKER_00: we don't want to kind of paint ourselves into a corner,
1:30:41
SPEAKER_00: but I kind of thought a novella book club of once a quarter.
1:30:45
SPEAKER_00: I like that idea.
1:30:47
Might be kind of a fun thing that's not too disruptive,
1:30:51
as well as our summer book club.
1:30:54
And we could move those conversations specifically to a MOOCs
1:30:58
and the Gripes
1:30:58
SPEAKER_00: Discord server that I have already set up and invited Paul to,
1:31:03
SPEAKER_00: but he has not joined yet.
1:31:04
SPEAKER_00: Oh, let's see.
1:31:05
SPEAKER_00: I'm so technologically inept that I probably just... That's what it is.
1:31:10
SPEAKER_00: It's not like, nah, whatever, Trevor.
1:31:12
SPEAKER_02: No, I have a lot of my notifications turned off.
1:31:16
SPEAKER_02: That's what I'm going to say.
1:31:16
SPEAKER_02: No, it's true.
1:31:17
SPEAKER_02: No, I love that idea.
1:31:18
SPEAKER_02: All of yours, Trevor.
1:31:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
1:31:20
SPEAKER_02: Specifically from you.
1:31:22
SPEAKER_02: No, I mean, I would love that.
1:31:23
SPEAKER_02: I think, you know, anybody listening chime in.
1:31:26
SPEAKER_02: I think,
1:31:26
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:31:28
Trevor and I often will do things like we'd be happy just
1:31:29
sitting here chatting by ourselves,
1:31:31
SPEAKER_02: as we've said,
1:31:32
SPEAKER_02: but it's so fun to have everybody join in.
1:31:34
SPEAKER_02: So give us your feedback.
1:31:35
SPEAKER_02: I think that would be a great idea.
1:31:36
SPEAKER_02: That sounds like a lot of fun.
1:31:37
SPEAKER_02: And I love the novella idea because like we've said,
1:31:39
I know that we and many other people are always excited to read
1:31:43
new books,
1:31:44
SPEAKER_02: but there's also that,
1:31:45
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:31:45
SPEAKER_02: protectiveness of your reading schedule and your time.
1:31:47
And so,
1:31:48
you know,
1:31:49
I think a novella book club could be the perfect way to do it.
1:31:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
1:31:52
I really liked that idea because there are a lot of novellas
1:31:55
that I would love to
1:31:55
SPEAKER_00: read and maybe we could split it up over within a quarter and then
1:32:03
SPEAKER_00: Um,
1:32:03
SPEAKER_00: at the end of the quarter,
1:32:05
we have certain discussions for certain pages within it that
1:32:09
people can just go
1:32:10
SPEAKER_00: into those individual chapter or,
1:32:11
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:32:12
SPEAKER_00: um,
1:32:12
SPEAKER_00: channels,
1:32:13
SPEAKER_00: I guess is what they're called.
1:32:14
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, we'll explore this.
1:32:15
SPEAKER_00: I think,
1:32:16
SPEAKER_00: um,
1:32:16
SPEAKER_00: I think if Paul's on board,
1:32:18
SPEAKER_00: we might introduce this relatively soon or some variation of it,
1:32:22
SPEAKER_00: or,
1:32:22
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:32:23
in a few years we'll re-listen to this podcast or someone will
1:32:25
bring it up and
1:32:26
SPEAKER_00: we'll be like,
1:32:26
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
1:32:27
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
1:32:28
SPEAKER_00: We did want to do that.
1:32:29
SPEAKER_00: That would never happen.
1:32:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:32:32
Well,
1:32:32
I get to ask you the next question,
1:32:34
and I'm very curious if you remember the answer.
1:32:37
SPEAKER_00: This is from our friend Frances from One Break Book,
1:32:40
SPEAKER_00: and she asked,
1:32:41
SPEAKER_00: how did your unique opener,
1:32:42
SPEAKER_00: the always different ways you introduced Paul,
1:32:44
SPEAKER_00: come into being?
1:32:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
1:32:46
SPEAKER_02: I do remember,
1:32:47
SPEAKER_02: although I don't remember the name,
1:32:48
SPEAKER_02: but I know that it came from a movie podcast,
1:32:51
SPEAKER_02: if I'm not mistaken,
1:32:51
SPEAKER_02: that you listen to and love.
1:32:53
SPEAKER_02: Is that correct?
1:32:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:32:54
SPEAKER_02: Nope.
1:32:55
SPEAKER_02: Oh, see, I was wrong then.
1:32:58
SPEAKER_00: No, you're totally fine.
1:33:01
SPEAKER_00: You might be thinking of the movie podcast Film Spotting,
1:33:04
which I did bring up a lot at the start when we were talking
1:33:08
about how to do this.
1:33:10
SPEAKER_00: But that's not where the opening kind of idea came from.
1:33:13
SPEAKER_02: I'm glad she asked then because I was...
1:33:15
SPEAKER_00: You keep telling people that.
1:33:21
SPEAKER_00: At the time when we started,
1:33:24
SPEAKER_00: the first episodes don't do this,
1:33:26
but my wife and I were watching the BBC show Staged with David
1:33:32
Tennant and Michael Sheen.
1:33:34
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
1:33:36
SPEAKER_00: It's so funny.
1:33:38
SPEAKER_00: It's them on Zoom bickering about things during lockdown.
1:33:42
SPEAKER_00: They're bored.
1:33:45
SPEAKER_00: And they're trying to still do jobs.
1:33:47
SPEAKER_00: They're still trying to keep in touch.
1:33:50
SPEAKER_00: And they're competitive.
1:33:52
SPEAKER_00: And they've been asked to do like a play or something like that.
1:33:57
And so they're trying to figure out how do we...
1:34:00
What's the proper billing?
1:34:01
SPEAKER_00: David Tennant and Michael Sheen.
1:34:03
SPEAKER_00: Michael Sheen and David Tennant.
1:34:06
SPEAKER_00: And eventually it falls into David Tennant...
1:34:10
SPEAKER_00: notwithstanding Martin or Mark Michael Sheen,
1:34:13
SPEAKER_00: he,
1:34:13
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:34:14
SPEAKER_00: the things I say,
1:34:14
SPEAKER_00: Martin Sheen,
1:34:15
SPEAKER_00: there's a part where that's pretty funny about that too,
1:34:18
SPEAKER_00: actually,
1:34:20
but that's where it came from is they're like putting out those
1:34:22
different words,
1:34:23
SPEAKER_00: like,
1:34:25
SPEAKER_00: uh,
1:34:25
SPEAKER_00: Michael Sheen,
1:34:27
SPEAKER_00: nevertheless,
1:34:28
SPEAKER_00: David Tennant.
1:34:29
SPEAKER_00: And that just kind of spurred the idea.
1:34:31
SPEAKER_00: And then it's gone in different directions.
1:34:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, cause there are only so many of those kinds of conjunctive words.
1:34:37
SPEAKER_00: Um,
1:34:37
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
1:34:38
SPEAKER_00: But most of the time, I think about it a little bit.
1:34:42
SPEAKER_00: And I think it would be fun to put a list together,
1:34:44
SPEAKER_00: like maybe pull quotes from different books and all of that.
1:34:49
SPEAKER_00: But this is going to surprise people.
1:34:51
Most of the time I get here and I'm like,
1:34:52
oh,
1:34:53
I haven't thought about that.
1:34:56
SPEAKER_00: And then it comes out.
1:34:57
Hey,
1:34:57
I was going to say,
1:34:58
if that's the case,
1:34:58
you definitely do a nice job on your toes.
1:35:00
And it always keeps me on my toes because I never know exactly
1:35:03
how to respond.
1:35:04
SPEAKER_02: So it's a good way to, you know, it wakes me up.
1:35:06
SPEAKER_02: No good.
1:35:07
SPEAKER_02: It's like an improv exercise every time.
1:35:09
SPEAKER_00: I have to say,
1:35:10
SPEAKER_00: I've never asked you if you're okay with it,
1:35:13
SPEAKER_00: if I have your consent,
1:35:14
SPEAKER_00: or are you like,
1:35:16
SPEAKER_00: I wish he would just stop screwing around with my intro.
1:35:19
SPEAKER_02: I like it.
1:35:21
I often haven't had enough coffee yet to probably say anything witty,
1:35:24
but I love it.
1:35:25
SPEAKER_00: Oh, good.
1:35:25
SPEAKER_00: I am glad to hear that you enjoy it.
1:35:27
SPEAKER_00: Should we switch it up?
1:35:28
Are you going to be introducing episodes 101 to 200 and come up
1:35:32
with something?
1:35:33
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
1:35:34
SPEAKER_02: No, I think we're, I like our groove now.
1:35:35
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to get out of the groove.
1:35:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
1:35:39
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
1:35:40
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:35:41
Our next one I will ask,
1:35:42
and it says,
1:35:43
have you ever met an author in real life?
1:35:45
SPEAKER_02: Care to dish on how it went?
1:35:47
Bonus points for a negative or weird encounter without naming names,
1:35:50
of course.
1:35:50
SPEAKER_02: I'm not that diabolical.
1:35:52
SPEAKER_02: By somebody who won a book today, Emily Craddock.
1:35:57
SPEAKER_00: I have met some authors.
1:35:59
SPEAKER_00: It's not something I seek to do that often.
1:36:02
SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
1:36:04
SPEAKER_00: One of the more delightful ones I talked about last year, last April...
1:36:08
SPEAKER_00: I met Beth Brower, who does the M&M Lion books.
1:36:12
SPEAKER_00: And that was so much fun.
1:36:13
SPEAKER_00: In fact, my wife was putting on the author event.
1:36:18
SPEAKER_00: And I was there to both attend,
1:36:20
SPEAKER_00: because I would have gone anyway,
1:36:22
SPEAKER_00: but also to help and all of that.
1:36:25
But afterwards,
1:36:26
she had a massive line of people waiting to sign her books.
1:36:31
SPEAKER_00: And her husband is left...
1:36:34
Kind of wandering around and also trying to take things down
1:36:38
that they brought.
1:36:39
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, hey, let me help in any way that I can.
1:36:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm happy to help because he's like carrying books down to their car,
1:36:46
SPEAKER_00: up and down,
1:36:47
SPEAKER_00: up and down,
1:36:47
SPEAKER_00: up and down.
1:36:49
Finally,
1:36:49
when there were only a few left,
1:36:51
you know,
1:36:53
I wish I would have caught him sooner.
1:36:55
SPEAKER_00: But finally, I said, hey, let me help you if you would like.
1:37:00
SPEAKER_00: And I was able to talk to him, too.
1:37:02
SPEAKER_00: And that was a lot of fun.
1:37:04
SPEAKER_00: It was a good event.
1:37:05
SPEAKER_00: She is delightful to listen to as she is to read her books.
1:37:10
SPEAKER_00: That's one that definitely was a good experience.
1:37:13
SPEAKER_00: Most of them I go to, and I might go through the line and say hi.
1:37:18
I did that with Percival Everett,
1:37:21
and I think I posted on Instagram a picture.
1:37:24
SPEAKER_00: My friend took two pictures, one after the other.
1:37:28
And in one of them,
1:37:29
Percival Everett is smiling,
1:37:30
and the next one,
1:37:30
he looks so annoyed.
1:37:31
SPEAKER_00: And I'm serious.
1:37:32
SPEAKER_00: They're like 0.2 seconds apart, because I look the exact same.
1:37:38
SPEAKER_00: He's like, you have this tiny window to do this.
1:37:41
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
1:37:41
SPEAKER_00: Is he taking another one?
1:37:43
SPEAKER_00: That's so funny.
1:37:46
SPEAKER_00: In 2008, I met Joseph O'Neill, or maybe it was January of 2009.
1:37:50
SPEAKER_00: I remember now when he was kind of going the rounds for Netherland.
1:37:55
SPEAKER_00: He was in Barnes & Noble in Tribeca.
1:37:58
And my son was born in July of 2008,
1:38:02
the same time I was reading Netherland.
1:38:05
SPEAKER_00: And that book had come out and all of that.
1:38:08
SPEAKER_00: And we named that son Holland.
1:38:10
SPEAKER_00: Not related.
1:38:11
SPEAKER_00: We'd already come up.
1:38:13
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't like, hey, I like this book.
1:38:16
But I did tell him that in the line because I was with my son
1:38:20
and holding him.
1:38:22
SPEAKER_00: And so he signed my book, something along the lines of...
1:38:26
to trevor and holland so nice to be you know that that's really
1:38:31
the the the jolt of
1:38:32
it other than people the ones people have the ability to fully
1:38:36
listen to like mark
1:38:37
haber yeah um you know i and several authors i'm friends with
1:38:42
on twitter or you
1:38:43
know on social media but i don't really know them but it feels
1:38:46
like it's been
1:38:47
SPEAKER_00: really delightful you know things too
1:38:50
SPEAKER_02: No, I love that.
1:38:51
SPEAKER_02: Those are great.
1:38:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, mine are similar.
1:38:53
SPEAKER_02: Most of them have come, you know, at book signings and things.
1:38:56
SPEAKER_02: I've talked about,
1:38:57
SPEAKER_02: I think,
1:38:57
SPEAKER_02: some of them before,
1:38:58
but there's a group called the Lighthouse Workshop here in
1:39:01
Denver that does writing
1:39:03
SPEAKER_02: classes and things like that.
1:39:04
SPEAKER_02: And I've never taken classes there, but every summer they do something.
1:39:08
SPEAKER_02: It's called Summer Lit Fest.
1:39:10
And they have some pretty cool authors come and teach classes
1:39:14
during the week.
1:39:15
SPEAKER_02: But then to end the week is a celebration they have like them
1:39:18
SPEAKER_02: do readings and book signings.
1:39:20
SPEAKER_02: And it's really cool because it's relatively intimate.
1:39:22
SPEAKER_02: There's probably maybe 100 people there at the most.
1:39:26
And so I've had a chance to spend a little bit more time with
1:39:28
some authors through that.
1:39:30
So one that stood out to me was Min Jin Lee when she was there
1:39:35
talking about Pachinko.
1:39:36
SPEAKER_02: And I might have told you this before,
1:39:38
SPEAKER_02: but my son at the time was maybe like 13 or 14,
1:39:40
SPEAKER_02: and he had some big,
1:39:41
SPEAKER_02: giant,
1:39:42
SPEAKER_02: fat fantasy
1:39:44
book that he was toting around at this lit fest and so we
1:39:47
listened to her and i was
1:39:48
chatting with her a little bit and then she noticed he was
1:39:50
reading that book and
1:39:52
she like bent down and was talking to him about this book for
1:39:55
probably like two or
1:39:55
three minutes of just this i don't even remember what it was
1:39:58
but it was so kind and
1:39:59
and made his whole day and so that stands out to me a lot a
1:40:02
similar one um
1:40:05
SPEAKER_02: connected these two.
1:40:06
SPEAKER_02: So Helen McDonald, who wrote HS for Hawk was there and she was fabulous.
1:40:11
And there had been several authors where I was trying not to be
1:40:14
too stalkery,
1:40:15
SPEAKER_02: but I wanted to get my book signed afterwards.
1:40:16
SPEAKER_02: And a couple of them had kind of disappeared before I was able to.
1:40:20
SPEAKER_02: And so Helen McDonald was walking out the gate, um,
1:40:25
SPEAKER_02: leaving the property.
1:40:25
SPEAKER_02: And so I was kind of panicky and I was like, Oh, I'm just going to do it.
1:40:28
So I kind of like chased her down a little bit and turns out
1:40:32
she was just having a
1:40:33
SPEAKER_02: smoke break,
1:40:34
SPEAKER_02: but I thought she was leaving.
1:40:35
SPEAKER_02: And so she signed my book,
1:40:37
something like to Paul Wilson for having the bravery and
1:40:40
audacity to interrupt my
1:40:41
SPEAKER_02: smoke break or something like that.
1:40:42
SPEAKER_02: It was pretty funny.
1:40:43
SPEAKER_02: She was really nice.
1:40:44
SPEAKER_02: But on a related one, Rachel Cusk was also at that same one.
1:40:47
SPEAKER_02: And I didn't,
1:40:50
SPEAKER_02: I wasn't able to catch her.
1:40:51
And so a friend of mine worked for Lighthouse and she was there
1:40:55
later that week
1:40:55
SPEAKER_02: teaching a class,
1:40:57
SPEAKER_02: Rachel Cusk was.
1:40:57
SPEAKER_02: And so I asked my friend,
1:40:58
SPEAKER_02: would you mind if you get a chance,
1:41:00
SPEAKER_02: just if she's willing to have her sign the book.
1:41:03
SPEAKER_02: And so she did do that.
1:41:05
But she said she basically had to chase her down the hall
1:41:08
because it turns out,
1:41:08
SPEAKER_02: I guess,
1:41:09
SPEAKER_02: that according to my friend,
1:41:10
SPEAKER_02: Rachel Cusk does these classes and these readings,
1:41:12
SPEAKER_02: but she is incredibly introverted.
1:41:15
SPEAKER_02: And so I felt bad afterwards that my friend chased her down.
1:41:17
SPEAKER_02: But
1:41:18
I guess apparently Rachel Cusk would take breaks in between
1:41:21
these classes and just
1:41:22
SPEAKER_02: basically go stand in front of a brick wall and just chain smoke.
1:41:27
SPEAKER_02: Because I think she was so stressed out about the idea.
1:41:30
So none of those were negative,
1:41:32
I wouldn't say,
1:41:33
but they were all pretty positive for me.
1:41:37
SPEAKER_00: The only weird one that I've ever had...
1:41:40
SPEAKER_00: Is one that I've brought up on the podcast before,
1:41:42
SPEAKER_00: and it's the one where I was chatting with Elif Batuman on Twitter.
1:41:48
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
1:41:49
And Joyce Carol Oates chimed in,
1:41:52
calling us out for maybe being a little bit too...
1:41:55
SPEAKER_00: rude or dismissive about an author's work.
1:41:59
SPEAKER_00: And I think about that quite often.
1:42:02
SPEAKER_00: I bet both of them never thought about it again.
1:42:04
SPEAKER_00: I know.
1:42:05
SPEAKER_02: It is funny.
1:42:05
Social media is so interesting because it presents these
1:42:08
amazing opportunities to
1:42:09
SPEAKER_02: talk to people and meet people that you never otherwise would have.
1:42:11
SPEAKER_02: But every once in a while, it goes a little strange.
1:42:14
SPEAKER_02: I remember one time I was...
1:42:15
And Jericho Brown,
1:42:17
who I really like his poetry,
1:42:18
but I had written something.
1:42:19
SPEAKER_02: I didn't mean it snarky, but I said, like, I liked this.
1:42:22
SPEAKER_02: It was a little uneven or something about his collection.
1:42:24
SPEAKER_02: And he he liked it, liked my comment.
1:42:27
SPEAKER_02: And so I was just like, oh, that was so awkward.
1:42:29
SPEAKER_02: But I'm sure like,
1:42:30
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if he did it,
1:42:31
SPEAKER_02: like just being funny or if it was just he tended to like anything that.
1:42:35
Maybe he had a way to just find if his name was mentioned,
1:42:37
but I was like,
1:42:39
oh God.
1:42:40
SPEAKER_02: I wasn't meaning it to sound so snarkier,
1:42:43
SPEAKER_02: very uneven,
1:42:43
SPEAKER_02: like I could ever do anything remotely like that,
1:42:45
SPEAKER_02: but that was pretty funny.
1:42:48
And I would also,
1:42:49
after writing,
1:42:49
I might be leaving it,
1:42:50
but afterwards I'd be like...
1:42:52
SPEAKER_00: Like I know if it's uneven or not.
1:42:53
SPEAKER_00: I know.
1:42:54
SPEAKER_02: I only read it once.
1:42:55
SPEAKER_02: And being a poetry connoisseur like we've talked about.
1:42:58
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:42:59
SPEAKER_00: That happens on my blog sometimes where I'll post on a book.
1:43:03
SPEAKER_00: But more often than even that is on a New Yorker story.
1:43:09
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden the author swoops in,
1:43:10
SPEAKER_00: usually with some insights and graciously,
1:43:13
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:43:14
SPEAKER_00: that,
1:43:14
SPEAKER_00: hey,
1:43:14
SPEAKER_00: thanks for talking about my story.
1:43:17
SPEAKER_00: This is why I did that.
1:43:18
SPEAKER_00: Not even calling us out, but just like, yeah, you guys caught onto this.
1:43:22
SPEAKER_00: That's always been really kind of fun.
1:43:25
SPEAKER_00: That's really fun.
1:43:26
SPEAKER_00: But it's also really intimidating when you're like,
1:43:28
SPEAKER_00: oh,
1:43:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't actually want to make anyone like
1:43:33
feel bad because you put in so much more work and thought into
1:43:38
your book or story than I did.
1:43:40
SPEAKER_00: I know.
1:43:41
SPEAKER_00: No, it's true.
1:43:43
SPEAKER_02: It is.
1:43:44
SPEAKER_02: It's interesting.
1:43:45
SPEAKER_02: The internet is a crazy place,
1:43:46
SPEAKER_02: but it can lead to some of these really amazing connections,
1:43:50
SPEAKER_02: even if it's one comment or sometimes it can end up being a friendship.
1:43:53
SPEAKER_02: It's pretty cool.
1:43:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:43:56
SPEAKER_00: All right, Paul, from The Mona Fisa.
1:43:58
Which book would you say has had the most profound change on
1:44:02
you as a person?
1:44:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this one got me thinking.
1:44:06
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
1:44:06
SPEAKER_02: So Trevor,
1:44:07
SPEAKER_02: I've noticed when you talk about a lot of classics and books,
1:44:10
you're so good at like talking about how it has changed the way
1:44:14
you view humanity
1:44:15
SPEAKER_02: or like how you want to be as a person.
1:44:17
SPEAKER_02: And I love that.
1:44:19
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if I read that way, at least specifically for one book.
1:44:23
SPEAKER_02: What I was trying to think about was like,
1:44:27
SPEAKER_02: This may be a labored analogy,
1:44:28
SPEAKER_02: but some of these books,
1:44:29
SPEAKER_02: if it came through and changed you as a person,
1:44:31
SPEAKER_02: it might be a tsunami come through and just wipe you out.
1:44:34
And I was thinking of my reading life maybe more like waves on
1:44:37
a beach slowly
1:44:38
SPEAKER_02: lapping and eroding or changing a shoreline over time.
1:44:42
SPEAKER_02: Because it's not that books don't blow me away,
1:44:44
SPEAKER_02: but as far as just changing who I am as a person,
1:44:46
SPEAKER_02: I think it's more of a cumulative process for me where...
1:44:49
SPEAKER_02: Over time,
1:44:50
SPEAKER_02: learning about different people's lives or whatever the case may be,
1:44:53
SPEAKER_02: I think it shapes my ideas and shifts them.
1:44:57
But I don't know that I ever really have the experience where a
1:44:59
book comes along
1:45:00
SPEAKER_02: and I'm just like,
1:45:01
SPEAKER_02: tomorrow when I wake up,
1:45:02
SPEAKER_02: I feel different.
1:45:04
The closest I could come to are probably maybe the nature books
1:45:08
that I read a lot.
1:45:10
SPEAKER_02: Again,
1:45:10
I talk about the wild places by Robert McFarlane a lot or the
1:45:13
books of Terry
1:45:13
SPEAKER_02: Tempest Williams.
1:45:14
SPEAKER_02: But I think those would probably be the closest where they cumulatively,
1:45:19
but sometimes it's been like one passage has caused me to
1:45:21
really like stop and
1:45:23
SPEAKER_02: think about,
1:45:24
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:45:25
SPEAKER_02: I don't know,
1:45:25
like slowing down and just looking at a little micro
1:45:28
environment on one of my walks
1:45:31
SPEAKER_02: or something like that.
1:45:32
So I think that would probably be the closest I came to off the
1:45:36
top of my head.
1:45:37
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I'd be curious to hear what you say.
1:45:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't necessarily know if it's any different for me.
1:45:43
SPEAKER_00: I may talk about books changing the way I look around and view people.
1:45:49
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's because the story just did such a good job of showing some
1:45:56
SPEAKER_00: compassion to someone who was otherwise quiet.
1:45:59
SPEAKER_00: And I can kind of recognize that.
1:46:01
SPEAKER_00: This is someone...
1:46:04
SPEAKER_00: That might be my neighbor that I barely know.
1:46:05
SPEAKER_00: And here's this beautiful humanity.
1:46:10
SPEAKER_00: being portrayed and a beautiful way to do it.
1:46:14
SPEAKER_00: And so for me,
1:46:15
SPEAKER_00: the answer that I always fall into here won't be a surprise to you,
1:46:19
but it's like the stories of William Trevor and the stories of
1:46:23
Alice Munro because
1:46:26
they opened up so many quiet lives and therefore made me much
1:46:33
more aware of
1:46:35
SPEAKER_00: Of the quiet lives around me,
1:46:37
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:46:37
maybe helped me in some ways recognize even if it doesn't
1:46:42
always work that,
1:46:43
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:46:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm not the primary character in.
1:46:47
SPEAKER_00: the whole world around me.
1:46:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:46:49
SPEAKER_00: You know,
1:46:50
SPEAKER_00: that there's everyone is their own primary character and deserves that,
1:46:54
SPEAKER_00: that some of those attempts to understand and to be compassionate.
1:46:59
SPEAKER_00: And yeah,
1:46:59
SPEAKER_00: I know it's,
1:47:00
it's been a rough thing to try and reconcile my feelings for
1:47:06
the stories of Alice
1:47:07
SPEAKER_00: Munro with some of the revelations of this past year.
1:47:10
SPEAKER_00: Cause you do start to maybe put that person as like a,
1:47:17
SPEAKER_00: a guide,
1:47:18
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:47:18
SPEAKER_00: like William Trevor or what,
1:47:20
SPEAKER_00: but that's one of the reasons too,
1:47:21
going back to our earlier question on who would you like to
1:47:23
have dinner with?
1:47:25
SPEAKER_00: I,
1:47:25
SPEAKER_00: I don't know,
1:47:26
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:47:28
SPEAKER_00: I've,
1:47:28
SPEAKER_00: I've definitely read enough and learned enough that the,
1:47:31
SPEAKER_00: the books that touch me and the,
1:47:33
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:47:33
SPEAKER_00: doesn't necessarily mean the mind behind it would,
1:47:36
SPEAKER_00: would be a mind that I could ever connect with,
1:47:40
SPEAKER_00: even if they seem like they,
1:47:41
SPEAKER_00: um,
1:47:42
are open to those kinds of things right you know um but yeah
1:47:46
those those two and
1:47:48
and like i say a lot of it's because again maybe slowly but i
1:47:53
started to recognize
1:47:54
how they were affecting my abilities to to just stop and try to
1:48:02
get to know someone
1:48:03
SPEAKER_00: versus think i did know them yeah um
1:48:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a great answer.
1:48:09
SPEAKER_02: The Quiet Lives thing would definitely be like,
1:48:11
SPEAKER_02: again,
1:48:11
SPEAKER_02: I don't think it's one specific book,
1:48:12
SPEAKER_02: but in addition to the nature writing,
1:48:15
SPEAKER_02: that is definitely like we've talked about that before.
1:48:17
SPEAKER_02: And so many of the books we like,
1:48:18
SPEAKER_02: it's like you said,
1:48:20
SPEAKER_02: it's not some fantasy character battling dragons or,
1:48:22
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:48:23
SPEAKER_02: some extreme version of a character.
1:48:25
SPEAKER_02: Often the ones that blow me away are exactly what you described.
1:48:28
SPEAKER_02: And it's like I mentioned,
1:48:30
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:48:30
SPEAKER_02: the Judith Hearn book,
1:48:32
SPEAKER_02: for example,
1:48:33
SPEAKER_02: The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn or books like that where
1:48:36
SPEAKER_02: It's somebody who,
1:48:36
SPEAKER_02: if you walked by them on the street,
1:48:38
SPEAKER_02: you probably wouldn't even notice them,
1:48:39
but they have this whole inner life and this whole history and
1:48:42
memories and
1:48:43
SPEAKER_02: heartbreak and all these things.
1:48:44
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that's a great answer.
1:48:46
SPEAKER_00: And if I were first to pull out specific ones from each of them,
1:48:49
SPEAKER_00: like Alice Munro's Lives of Girls and Women,
1:48:52
SPEAKER_00: just,
1:48:53
SPEAKER_00: again,
1:48:54
SPEAKER_00: important for me.
1:48:56
SPEAKER_00: And for William Trevor, it's his story collection after Rain.
1:48:59
SPEAKER_00: And in particular, a story we've talked about, The Piano Tuner's Wives.
1:49:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:49:04
SPEAKER_00: Which, again, just beautifully done.
1:49:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh, man.
1:49:08
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
1:49:08
SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
1:49:09
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
1:49:10
SPEAKER_02: Hey, they asked.
1:49:11
SPEAKER_02: If they didn't want to rant, they wouldn't have asked.
1:49:15
SPEAKER_02: All right.
1:49:15
SPEAKER_02: Why don't you go on with the next one?
1:49:17
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:49:17
SPEAKER_02: So this one is from Ryan Cartwright and it says,
1:49:21
SPEAKER_02: is there a photo you've seen of your ideal heavenly home library,
1:49:24
SPEAKER_02: an author,
1:49:25
SPEAKER_02: rich folk,
1:49:26
SPEAKER_02: or stylish rando?
1:49:30
SPEAKER_00: We have once again talked about this,
1:49:32
SPEAKER_00: and I'm not going to remember who it was,
1:49:34
SPEAKER_00: but you will remember the incident.
1:49:39
This is when our friend Thomas at Hugglestock posted a video of
1:49:45
someone in their
1:49:46
flat in London going through their books and talking about how
1:49:51
his library is like
1:49:52
SPEAKER_00: a garden.
1:49:53
SPEAKER_00: Certain things grow in different places, and some places are quite wild.
1:49:58
And he pulls out like Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann and says,
1:50:01
I haven't read this one yet.
1:50:03
SPEAKER_00: Good.
1:50:04
SPEAKER_00: I still have that to look forward to.
1:50:06
SPEAKER_00: I just loved the perspective.
1:50:07
SPEAKER_00: I loved like it looked like it was a cold and maybe,
1:50:11
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:50:12
SPEAKER_00: getting close to the evening outside the window.
1:50:15
SPEAKER_00: And here's this, again, overgrown with books.
1:50:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:50:20
SPEAKER_00: library inside of just possibilities and memories.
1:50:24
SPEAKER_00: And yeah,
1:50:25
SPEAKER_00: I bet,
1:50:26
I bet he could make a video like that every single day and walk
1:50:29
around it and
1:50:29
SPEAKER_00: always have different things to talk about,
1:50:31
SPEAKER_00: like a garden,
1:50:32
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:50:32
SPEAKER_00: this plant,
1:50:33
SPEAKER_00: here's this,
1:50:34
SPEAKER_00: this is one I've been tending.
1:50:35
SPEAKER_00: Oh, this one surprises me.
1:50:37
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I didn't even know this one was growing.
1:50:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
1:50:40
SPEAKER_02: I love that one.
1:50:40
SPEAKER_02: I'm glad I hadn't forgotten about that,
1:50:42
SPEAKER_02: but I hadn't connected to this and that's a perfect answer.
1:50:44
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
1:50:45
SPEAKER_02: Like you said, it's like a little oasis, his library.
1:50:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:50:50
So the ones that came to mind for me,
1:50:52
there's I've talked about this one before.
1:50:53
SPEAKER_02: There's like a pretty popular video of Umberto Eco,
1:50:58
SPEAKER_02: where I think clearly the interviewer asks him for a specific book.
1:51:02
SPEAKER_02: That's my take on it,
1:51:03
SPEAKER_02: at least,
1:51:03
SPEAKER_02: because the camera is following him through his library,
1:51:06
SPEAKER_02: which was insane.
1:51:08
SPEAKER_02: 50,000 books.
1:51:09
SPEAKER_02: I looked it up.
1:51:10
And he's just walking through all these meandering halls and
1:51:14
turning right,
1:51:14
turning left.
1:51:15
SPEAKER_02: And he doesn't pause or think about it at all.
1:51:17
SPEAKER_02: He is like on a mission.
1:51:19
He goes,
1:51:20
it follows him for probably a good 30 seconds through these
1:51:22
hallways of books.
1:51:23
And then he goes straight to the shelf,
1:51:25
grabs this book down and turns around to show it to him.
1:51:27
SPEAKER_02: And I love his library.
1:51:29
SPEAKER_02: I love everything about that video.
1:51:30
SPEAKER_02: So that one would come to mind.
1:51:32
It's not just about quantity,
1:51:33
but another,
1:51:35
I saw a profile on Hanya Yanagihara a few years back.
1:51:39
SPEAKER_02: And it was talking about her living in a pretty small apartment.
1:51:42
SPEAKER_02: I think it was in Manhattan, but she has 12,000 books in there.
1:51:45
SPEAKER_02: And it's not necessarily the style of library that I would love,
1:51:50
but the idea of fitting lots of books into a relatively small
1:51:55
place and making that
1:51:55
SPEAKER_02: almost like the focal point of your house,
1:51:58
SPEAKER_02: because that's kind of
1:51:59
what we have,
1:52:00
like our house is not very big,
1:52:02
but it's just got books everywhere.
1:52:03
SPEAKER_02: And I personally love that.
1:52:05
SPEAKER_02: So those are two that popped to mind.
1:52:06
SPEAKER_02: And then I just wanted to give a shout out to our friend,
1:52:09
SPEAKER_02: Chris Villa,
1:52:10
SPEAKER_02: because every time I watch Leaf by Leaf,
1:52:12
SPEAKER_02: one of his videos and anybody who's seen them will agree probably.
1:52:16
SPEAKER_02: And if you haven't, go check it out.
1:52:17
SPEAKER_02: His library is just absolutely gorgeous.
1:52:20
SPEAKER_02: It's full of amazing books, but even just aesthetically, it's beautiful.
1:52:24
SPEAKER_02: And I, early on, he was doing some videos where they were almost like
1:52:29
SPEAKER_02: tours where he would go through each shelf and talk about books.
1:52:32
SPEAKER_02: And I believe he stopped doing that, or at least it's been a while.
1:52:35
SPEAKER_02: I kind of selfishly hope he starts doing that again,
1:52:37
SPEAKER_02: because I loved that,
1:52:39
SPEAKER_02: like not only this wall of beautiful books,
1:52:40
SPEAKER_02: but then zooming in on one shelf and talking about one particular book.
1:52:45
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, those would be three that came to mind for me.
1:52:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, and that opens up a few for me, too.
1:52:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking of like our friend, our friend's Simon.
1:52:55
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
1:52:56
SPEAKER_00: And the differences between their places.
1:52:59
SPEAKER_00: But I would love to visit them for many reasons someday.
1:53:02
SPEAKER_00: But like Simon Savage's bookshelves in his library that he,
1:53:06
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:53:06
SPEAKER_00: he films his YouTube videos in there.
1:53:08
SPEAKER_00: So beautiful.
1:53:09
Yeah,
1:53:10
I love the little,
1:53:11
the touches of color or of decor or knickknacks and things like that.
1:53:18
SPEAKER_00: And then I also think of Simon Thomas's a bunch of,
1:53:23
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:53:24
SPEAKER_00: secondhand gems and the way he stacks them and has them,
1:53:28
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:53:29
SPEAKER_00: I've only seen his a few times over the years,
1:53:32
SPEAKER_00: but yeah,
1:53:33
SPEAKER_00: I do love those.
1:53:35
And like I say,
1:53:36
I think of that fellas,
1:53:38
you know,
1:53:38
that London garden idea.
1:53:41
SPEAKER_00: I would love to go there.
1:53:42
SPEAKER_00: It's it turns out a library like that would not work for me personally.
1:53:46
SPEAKER_00: I do have to call or I get to where I just don't go in and look anymore.
1:53:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm not that my brain doesn't work that way.
1:53:53
SPEAKER_00: So I do have mine when I can,
1:53:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean,
1:53:56
SPEAKER_00: it gets out of hand,
1:53:58
SPEAKER_00: but Oh,
1:53:59
do I love when I have books off the floor and into their places
1:54:04
or into the cart
1:54:05
SPEAKER_00: that I have?
1:54:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:54:07
And that makes a big difference for me because then I feel like
1:54:10
I can go in and,
1:54:11
SPEAKER_00: And just bask.
1:54:13
SPEAKER_00: It's like the sun is finally no longer blocked.
1:54:17
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:54:18
SPEAKER_02: I get that.
1:54:18
SPEAKER_02: I think I have a little of both sides in me.
1:54:21
I do get that same joy when I do finally get everything up on
1:54:24
the shelf and organized.
1:54:25
But I think in a slightly different life,
1:54:29
I could definitely go the other way too.
1:54:31
SPEAKER_02: Because I do actually really like stacks.
1:54:34
SPEAKER_02: When people on Instagram are stackers instead of shelvers, I always...
1:54:39
SPEAKER_02: I'm drawn to that a little bit too.
1:54:41
SPEAKER_02: So I could go either way.
1:54:42
SPEAKER_02: I think just, like I said, our house is not that big.
1:54:44
SPEAKER_02: So to avoid being on an episode of hoarder someday,
1:54:47
I think it's just a necessity to make sure I kind of cull and
1:54:50
keep them on shelves.
1:54:51
SPEAKER_02: But I don't know.
1:54:53
In a different world,
1:54:54
I think I could have probably been more of a stacker.
1:54:58
SPEAKER_00: All right, well, let's go on to our next one.
1:55:00
SPEAKER_00: This is from Toronto Book Nerd.
1:55:03
SPEAKER_00: What fictional place would you visit if you could?
1:55:05
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about this in our fictional places episode.
1:55:08
Or maybe we weren't necessarily limited to ideal places or
1:55:13
places we wanted to see so much as...
1:55:16
SPEAKER_00: you know, various cool places.
1:55:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:55:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:55:20
SPEAKER_00: Did anything come to mind for you on this go around?
1:55:23
SPEAKER_02: I mean, nothing new.
1:55:24
I think this is kind of low hanging fruit and I feel like this
1:55:27
would probably be a
1:55:27
SPEAKER_02: lot of people's answers,
1:55:28
SPEAKER_02: but it's hard not to pick the Shire.
1:55:29
SPEAKER_02: I put Hobbiton.
1:55:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:55:31
I mean,
1:55:32
we probably,
1:55:33
we probably had this same conversation,
1:55:35
but I mean,
1:55:36
just,
1:55:37
I don't know.
1:55:37
SPEAKER_02: I was trying to think of something different, but I kept coming back.
1:55:39
SPEAKER_02: Like it's peaceful, a little lazy.
1:55:42
SPEAKER_02: There's always more food than you could ever possibly eat.
1:55:44
SPEAKER_02: I mean, what else could you really want?
1:55:46
Go smoke your pipe out on the front porch and just,
1:55:48
you know,
1:55:48
I don't know.
1:55:49
SPEAKER_02: It's like, I know it's just that that's my answer.
1:55:53
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what else to say.
1:55:54
Like just the whole parts about when they're talking about all
1:55:57
the barrels of
1:55:58
SPEAKER_02: pickles and all the ham on the sideboard.
1:56:00
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, their lagers are definitely always full, lots of beer.
1:56:05
SPEAKER_02: I mean, hey, sounds great to me.
1:56:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:56:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's, that's my answer.
1:56:11
SPEAKER_00: The thing that comes straight to mind to visit.
1:56:13
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I'd like want to live there full time,
1:56:16
SPEAKER_00: but yeah,
1:56:17
SPEAKER_00: I probably,
1:56:18
SPEAKER_00: if I had to pick someplace,
1:56:19
SPEAKER_00: that might be it.
1:56:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:56:21
SPEAKER_00: I like that.
1:56:22
SPEAKER_00: So, all right.
1:56:23
Our next one,
1:56:24
and I'll just jump into it because,
1:56:26
um,
1:56:26
uh,
1:56:28
that was a short one.
1:56:29
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:56:30
SPEAKER_00: So winds of homecoming asks how to choose from indie press,
1:56:34
SPEAKER_00: archipelago,
1:56:35
SPEAKER_00: coffee house,
1:56:35
SPEAKER_00: Dalkey,
1:56:36
SPEAKER_00: et cetera.
1:56:37
SPEAKER_00: What's your answer there, Paul?
1:56:39
SPEAKER_02: My answer is don't choose, support them all.
1:56:42
SPEAKER_02: But I know where this question is going.
1:56:45
SPEAKER_02: I think,
1:56:46
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
1:56:46
SPEAKER_02: seriously,
1:56:47
SPEAKER_02: that is my answer is to choose them all,
1:56:48
SPEAKER_02: support them all because they all provide so much,
1:56:52
SPEAKER_02: you know.
1:56:53
SPEAKER_02: So much for us.
1:56:55
SPEAKER_02: But they do each kind of have their own specialties, I guess.
1:56:59
SPEAKER_02: Their own personality.
1:57:01
SPEAKER_01: They do.
1:57:01
SPEAKER_02: And there are overlaps, I would say.
1:57:03
SPEAKER_02: Some of them blur together.
1:57:04
SPEAKER_02: But starting with Archipelago,
1:57:06
they're just so good at translating from all across the world
1:57:11
and really focusing.
1:57:12
And they do such a good job of celebrating the translator and
1:57:15
everything like that.
1:57:16
SPEAKER_02: But generally speaking, I think a lot of their stuff is...
1:57:20
bordering on more contemporary not always because they do bring
1:57:23
up plenty of
1:57:24
classics too but i would say they edge a little bit towards
1:57:27
that um but yeah i
1:57:29
think they they do such a nice job of like literary fiction
1:57:32
poetry non-fiction i
1:57:33
mean they they cross the line really well there um nyrb
1:57:38
classics is obviously just
1:57:41
the sheer size of their catalog and the variety um but they
1:57:45
often do find those on
1:57:47
SPEAKER_02: but not unburied.
1:57:47
SPEAKER_02: They find those buried gems and unbury them from sometimes,
1:57:52
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:57:52
SPEAKER_02: decades ago or even further back.
1:57:54
SPEAKER_02: So I think for them, it's,
1:57:56
SPEAKER_02: a wider swath in many ways,
1:57:58
SPEAKER_02: because it's not all translated,
1:57:59
but just that I think they're the most prominent example of a
1:58:03
publisher who goes
1:58:05
SPEAKER_02: back and finds things that have slipped under the waves,
1:58:07
SPEAKER_02: like we've said,
1:58:08
SPEAKER_02: and pulls them back out.
1:58:09
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, that would be a small breakdown for them.
1:58:13
SPEAKER_02: And then like Dahlke and New Directions,
1:58:16
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to lump them together,
1:58:17
SPEAKER_02: but I think they're both to varying degrees so good at the avant-garde,
1:58:21
SPEAKER_02: the weird,
1:58:21
SPEAKER_02: the strange,
1:58:23
SPEAKER_02: you know,
1:58:25
SPEAKER_02: So,
1:58:25
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
1:58:26
SPEAKER_02: I could go on and on about that,
1:58:27
but I think that's a long-winded beginning to saying they all
1:58:30
provide so many
1:58:31
SPEAKER_02: different things.
1:58:32
SPEAKER_02: It kind of depends on what you're looking for.
1:58:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:58:34
SPEAKER_02: What would you add?
1:58:37
SPEAKER_00: I it's, it's interesting.
1:58:39
SPEAKER_00: I read this not as how do you choose which one,
1:58:44
SPEAKER_00: but how do you choose from it within their catalogs?
1:58:47
SPEAKER_00: I think you're reading it correctly, but I could be wrong, you know?
1:58:51
Um,
1:58:51
but like when you,
1:58:52
when you encounter a new press,
1:58:54
let's answer it both ways.
1:58:55
SPEAKER_00: When you encounter it,
1:58:56
cause I think you're a hundred percent right on the way that
1:58:58
you answered it.
1:58:59
SPEAKER_00: I have nothing else to add.
1:59:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:59:00
SPEAKER_00: They all are different and everyone's going to want something different.
1:59:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah,
1:59:07
when you encounter a new press,
1:59:08
let's say,
1:59:09
Oh,
1:59:11
Trevor,
1:59:11
did you know about this archipelago?
1:59:13
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, I didn't.
1:59:14
SPEAKER_00: And I go and start looking at it.
1:59:16
SPEAKER_00: How do you start to make selections?
1:59:18
SPEAKER_00: I mean,
1:59:18
SPEAKER_00: honestly,
1:59:19
SPEAKER_00: it's like when you're in a bookstore that you don't,
1:59:21
SPEAKER_00: you don't have a specific thing.
1:59:23
You,
1:59:23
you go by look,
1:59:26
you go by feel,
1:59:27
you go by tone and you read a little bit about them.
1:59:30
SPEAKER_00: And yeah,
1:59:32
SPEAKER_00: That's where I was kind of taking it.
1:59:36
SPEAKER_00: And fortunately,
1:59:36
the other great way is if you have some podcasters who have
1:59:42
done some episodes on publishers,
1:59:45
SPEAKER_00: like Archipelago,
1:59:46
SPEAKER_00: Dahlke,
1:59:47
SPEAKER_00: New Directions,
1:59:47
SPEAKER_00: NYRB Classics,
1:59:49
SPEAKER_00: Open Letter,
1:59:51
those are,
1:59:52
those are great episodes,
1:59:54
you know,
1:59:54
great,
1:59:54
great resources,
1:59:55
generosity at its peak.
1:59:57
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
1:59:58
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
1:59:59
SPEAKER_02: That's funny.
1:59:59
SPEAKER_02: No, I mean, that's a, that's a really interesting question too.
2:00:02
And I have had such good luck with,
2:00:06
you know,
2:00:06
the social media,
2:00:06
there's so many negatives.
2:00:08
SPEAKER_02: It's easy to talk about that, but like the amount of joy and
2:00:15
SPEAKER_02: The hive mind, I guess, is what I always like.
2:00:17
SPEAKER_02: I was laughing again.
2:00:18
SPEAKER_02: I keep talking about Boulder,
2:00:18
SPEAKER_02: but last weekend I was,
2:00:20
SPEAKER_02: I came across a book and I didn't know much about it.
2:00:22
SPEAKER_02: And so I just was like, I'm going to just try this.
2:00:25
SPEAKER_02: And so on social media, I just asked a question about it.
2:00:27
SPEAKER_02: Like anybody read this within minutes,
2:00:31
SPEAKER_02: I got,
2:00:31
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:00:32
SPEAKER_02: a good half dozen or more really good answers.
2:00:35
SPEAKER_02: And so that's another thing is like, even with a press, I already know.
2:00:39
SPEAKER_02: And if it's a book, I don't know, or an author, I don't know.
2:00:42
it's amazing the amount of smart people out there that are
2:00:45
listeners or just in
2:00:46
SPEAKER_02: these bookish communities on Instagram and elsewhere.
2:00:48
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
2:00:49
I would also just say that don't be afraid to ask questions
2:00:53
because this is such a
2:00:54
SPEAKER_02: generous community,
2:00:55
SPEAKER_02: this bookish online community.
2:00:57
SPEAKER_02: And the amount of knowledge that's out there is just stunning to me.
2:01:00
SPEAKER_02: So that's another thing is if you don't know a press or an author, just,
2:01:05
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:01:05
SPEAKER_02: say what's,
2:01:06
what's the best book that I could get from here or give me some
2:01:08
recommendations and
2:01:09
SPEAKER_02: you'll be amazed how flooded you are with just amazing things.
2:01:12
SPEAKER_02: So that would be another thing I would say.
2:01:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:01:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, hopefully one of those two ways of answering the question helps.
2:01:19
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I think you're probably right, Paul.
2:01:21
SPEAKER_00: And maybe a way to look at it like this.
2:01:22
If you had enough money to get a subscription to one,
2:01:27
how would you choose?
2:01:29
SPEAKER_00: And I think your answer is perfect, though.
2:01:30
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have something else to add,
2:01:32
SPEAKER_00: but they do have different personalities,
2:01:36
SPEAKER_00: and I would recommend you swap them around.
2:01:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's exactly what I've done.
2:01:40
SPEAKER_00: Do a year with Archipelago.
2:01:42
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
2:01:43
SPEAKER_02: That's where I was going is...
2:01:44
SPEAKER_02: If anybody does have some interest in doing that,
2:01:47
SPEAKER_02: I would highly recommend doing that for four or five years,
2:01:49
SPEAKER_02: just rotate through them.
2:01:50
And then maybe you will find one that you find most valuable
2:01:53
and you can kind of
2:01:54
SPEAKER_02: just double down and do that.
2:01:56
SPEAKER_02: Obviously,
2:01:56
SPEAKER_02: if you can afford to do more than one,
2:01:58
SPEAKER_02: that would be a great thing too,
2:01:59
because it's a wonderful surprise to have those mailbox walks
2:02:03
that we've talked
2:02:03
SPEAKER_02: about and see those packages.
2:02:05
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, it's there's the subscriptions that these
2:02:09
SPEAKER_02: presses put out is a great way to get introduced to them.
2:02:11
SPEAKER_02: And we will continue to do some more publisher episodes.
2:02:14
It's been a little while,
2:02:15
but we have plans to do some more going forward.
2:02:17
So you can always go back and listen to some of our old ones or
2:02:20
look forward to
2:02:21
some new ones where we do our best to kind of just talk about
2:02:23
some of our favorites
2:02:24
SPEAKER_02: and why we love these presses.
2:02:27
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's do the next one.
2:02:28
SPEAKER_00: Man, Paul, we're not going to get through all of these.
2:02:31
SPEAKER_00: No, we're not.
2:02:32
SPEAKER_02: It's great.
2:02:33
SPEAKER_02: All right.
2:02:34
SPEAKER_02: Our next one is from Stuart, our friend Stuart.
2:02:37
And he says,
2:02:38
how has being a judge on a literary prize affected how you read now?
2:02:43
SPEAKER_00: Oh, affected how I read now.
2:02:45
SPEAKER_00: That's a really good question.
2:02:46
SPEAKER_00: Cause how did it affect me?
2:02:47
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't positive.
2:02:48
SPEAKER_00: I loved the experience.
2:02:49
I'm glad I did it when I was a reviewer or a,
2:02:53
a judge on the best translated book award.
2:02:56
SPEAKER_00: Um,
2:02:56
SPEAKER_00: that's been nearly 10 years ago now though,
2:02:59
SPEAKER_00: but I would,
2:02:59
SPEAKER_00: I went into a funk where I was like,
2:03:01
SPEAKER_00: I just don't even know what to read now.
2:03:02
I don't have a book that I just have to pick up the second I
2:03:06
finish another one.
2:03:08
SPEAKER_00: Um,
2:03:09
SPEAKER_00: To the point where I don't think I ever want to do it again,
2:03:11
SPEAKER_00: unless it's like a prize where they say,
2:03:13
SPEAKER_00: oh,
2:03:14
SPEAKER_00: and we put you up here,
2:03:16
SPEAKER_00: all expenses,
2:03:17
SPEAKER_00: you know.
2:03:18
SPEAKER_00: Right.
2:03:19
SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is, then maybe I'd be like, oh, okay.
2:03:22
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think they do that, any of them.
2:03:24
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
2:03:25
SPEAKER_00: So I probably will not ever say, yes, I'd love to be a judge again.
2:03:29
SPEAKER_00: But how does it affect how I read?
2:03:32
SPEAKER_00: Now,
2:03:32
I'm definitely more generous to book prize lists in terms of
2:03:40
not really worrying
2:03:42
SPEAKER_00: what the judges were thinking or criticizing the judges too much.
2:03:46
SPEAKER_00: And I don't really,
2:03:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean,
2:03:49
there are some book lists I still look at and we'll get books
2:03:52
from like the
2:03:53
SPEAKER_00: Republic of consciousness,
2:03:55
SPEAKER_00: uh,
2:03:55
SPEAKER_00: price for the U S like that's,
2:03:57
SPEAKER_00: that to me is turning into the next iteration of,
2:04:01
SPEAKER_00: and I know it's iterations,
2:04:02
SPEAKER_00: the wrong word,
2:04:03
SPEAKER_00: but like the best translated book award,
2:04:05
SPEAKER_00: but also isn't all just translated books,
2:04:08
SPEAKER_00: but just have them.
2:04:10
So that's the one that I'm like,
2:04:12
Oh,
2:04:12
I want to get all the books that are on this list now.
2:04:15
SPEAKER_00: Um,
2:04:15
SPEAKER_00: But I don't go to book prizes very often anymore.
2:04:22
SPEAKER_00: And part of it's,
2:04:23
SPEAKER_00: I think,
2:04:23
SPEAKER_00: because my experience on it was like,
2:04:24
SPEAKER_00: man,
2:04:25
SPEAKER_00: this is so,
2:04:27
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:04:29
SPEAKER_00: it's the wrong word,
2:04:30
SPEAKER_00: but maybe the right one too.
2:04:31
SPEAKER_00: A little bit arbitrary.
2:04:32
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
2:04:34
SPEAKER_00: What do I know?
2:04:36
SPEAKER_00: So I turned it into, here's some things that I like from this.
2:04:41
SPEAKER_00: I love book prizes still.
2:04:42
SPEAKER_00: I love the attention they bring to books.
2:04:43
SPEAKER_00: I love the discussions around them.
2:04:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
2:04:46
SPEAKER_00: but I don't get hung up on them as much as I used to,
2:04:48
SPEAKER_00: where they directed a lot of my reading at a time.
2:04:50
SPEAKER_00: But I think since I was a judge, they don't anymore.
2:04:53
SPEAKER_02: No, that's a great answer.
2:04:55
SPEAKER_02: Yours was, you know, 10 years ago.
2:04:57
SPEAKER_02: Is that right that you did that?
2:04:58
SPEAKER_02: So mine was much more recent, obviously, just last year.
2:05:00
And so in some ways,
2:05:01
I think it's probably fresher in my mind in some ways,
2:05:04
because.
2:05:06
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:05:06
a lot of this is still happening as I'm watching this year's
2:05:09
version of the
2:05:10
Republic of Consciousness Prize and the great judges that are
2:05:13
there and they've
2:05:13
SPEAKER_02: done such a great job with the long list.
2:05:15
And so I think for me,
2:05:17
this isn't necessarily how I read now,
2:05:18
although I think it's related.
2:05:20
SPEAKER_02: It made me realize
2:05:22
both how close-knit and collaborative a lot of these small
2:05:25
publishers and these
2:05:26
SPEAKER_02: prizes are,
2:05:27
SPEAKER_02: but also how fragile.
2:05:28
I think what it's made me realize is the importance of
2:05:32
supporting these books and these prizes.
2:05:35
SPEAKER_02: Because to your point,
2:05:36
SPEAKER_02: some of these tiny little publishers,
2:05:38
SPEAKER_02: if they make it onto the Republic of Consciousness Prize,
2:05:41
that might boost their sales beyond anything that they could
2:05:43
ever come up with.
2:05:45
And some of these,
2:05:45
they're publishing,
2:05:46
what,
2:05:47
three,
2:05:47
five,
2:05:47
six books a year.
2:05:49
SPEAKER_02: And they're on these shoestring budgets.
2:05:51
SPEAKER_02: And so the fact that I guess it's a two part question,
2:05:55
SPEAKER_02: both the fragility and the importance of supporting them,
2:05:59
but also like just how many books could be lost if you're not
2:06:03
paying attention.
2:06:04
So I think it's made me more of like,
2:06:06
yes,
2:06:06
we have these small press groups.
2:06:09
books that we love but there are smaller presses that maybe
2:06:13
don't even get the
2:06:13
attention that some of our favorites do and so it's don't
2:06:16
overlook some of these
2:06:17
tiny tiny tiny presses because a lot of them are doing amazing
2:06:20
things too so i
2:06:22
don't know if that's exactly how i read now but it's how i
2:06:24
approach reading now is
2:06:26
SPEAKER_02: just don't overlook any book that you see somebody recommending because
2:06:31
SPEAKER_02: even Logeman, which won last year.
2:06:33
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was from City Light Books.
2:06:35
SPEAKER_02: It's not tiny,
2:06:36
SPEAKER_02: tiny,
2:06:36
SPEAKER_02: but I mean,
2:06:37
I don't think that book ever would have crossed my radar if it
2:06:39
wasn't for that press.
2:06:40
SPEAKER_02: And it was absolutely stunning.
2:06:42
SPEAKER_02: So I think it's just that idea of,
2:06:44
SPEAKER_02: if anything,
2:06:44
pay even closer attention to some of these books that are
2:06:47
potentially hiding from you.
2:06:50
SPEAKER_00: There you are.
2:06:51
SPEAKER_00: And that was a good follow-up answer to
2:06:55
SPEAKER_00: how do you choose from indie presses?
2:06:57
SPEAKER_00: There's a prize right there that is specifically directed at that.
2:07:01
SPEAKER_00: That's a great one.
2:07:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
2:07:02
SPEAKER_00: All right.
2:07:04
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we should rapid fire a few of these.
2:07:06
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:07:07
SPEAKER_00: So here's from Jess at Chronicles of Jess.
2:07:15
SPEAKER_00: Which book do you most frequently recommend to people?
2:07:18
SPEAKER_02: Okay, it says book, so I'm going to try to be good.
2:07:22
SPEAKER_02: Train Dreams.
2:07:23
SPEAKER_02: Train Dreams?
2:07:24
SPEAKER_00: By Dennis Johnson.
2:07:25
SPEAKER_00: I would say, yeah, by Dennis Johnson.
2:07:27
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I talked over you.
2:07:27
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
2:07:29
SPEAKER_00: I would say So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell.
2:07:32
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
2:07:33
SPEAKER_00: So, all right.
2:07:35
SPEAKER_00: That's hard, isn't it?
2:07:36
SPEAKER_00: It is.
2:07:37
SPEAKER_00: I know.
2:07:37
SPEAKER_02: I want to keep talking, but we're going to try to move through a few.
2:07:42
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
2:07:42
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
2:07:42
SPEAKER_00: I already asked that one.
2:07:44
Is there a specific book that stands out as a read that most
2:07:46
made you want to write?
2:07:49
SPEAKER_00: I would say probably, but I don't know because I am not a writer.
2:07:55
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'm like, oh, I'd love to do this, but I don't know.
2:07:59
The ones that have definitely made me go,
2:08:01
I would love to be able to do that again.
2:08:03
SPEAKER_00: I'll go back to William Trevor.
2:08:05
Because I think that trying to follow his threads and see how
2:08:10
he's put together in
2:08:12
SPEAKER_00: such a short form,
2:08:14
SPEAKER_00: these masterful examinations of humanity is really impressive.
2:08:19
So those are the ones that make me go,
2:08:20
wouldn't that be cool to be able to do that?
2:08:22
SPEAKER_00: But that's about as far as I've ever gotten.
2:08:24
SPEAKER_02: Now,
2:08:25
SPEAKER_02: similar to you,
2:08:25
SPEAKER_02: the more I read,
2:08:26
SPEAKER_02: the less I probably want to write because I'm just like,
2:08:29
SPEAKER_02: geez,
2:08:29
there's some people out there that are doing things I could
2:08:31
never even consider.
2:08:32
SPEAKER_02: But yeah.
2:08:33
SPEAKER_02: On a practical level,
2:08:34
SPEAKER_02: at one point,
2:08:35
I think Stephen King's On Writing was the one that probably was
2:08:38
the closest.
2:08:39
SPEAKER_02: It's very Stephen King-y in that it's like fun,
2:08:43
SPEAKER_02: but also does have some very practical,
2:08:46
SPEAKER_02: but accessible writing tips.
2:08:48
SPEAKER_02: So I think most people know that book, but that's one.
2:08:51
SPEAKER_02: And just for the beauty of its sentences,
2:08:53
SPEAKER_02: Light Years by James Salter,
2:08:55
SPEAKER_02: again,
2:08:55
but that's also has one of those that almost had the opposite
2:08:57
effect of like,
2:08:58
SPEAKER_02: If he's out there doing this, like why even try?
2:09:01
So I think line for line,
2:09:03
that's one of the most beautiful books I've ever read.
2:09:06
SPEAKER_02: All right.
2:09:08
SPEAKER_02: Well, maybe you better ask me the next one.
2:09:11
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
2:09:11
SPEAKER_02: It says, why is your wife so cool?
2:09:13
Is it because she's a librarian or is she a librarian because
2:09:16
she's so cool?
2:09:19
SPEAKER_00: I think she's always been cool.
2:09:23
And so that's the right answer there is that it's not because
2:09:27
she's a librarian.
2:09:28
SPEAKER_00: It's just super cool that she is too.
2:09:29
SPEAKER_00: Like she keeps adding coolness to it all.
2:09:32
SPEAKER_02: That's a smart, smart answer.
2:09:35
SPEAKER_00: My wife is fun.
2:09:35
SPEAKER_00: I,
2:09:35
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:09:36
SPEAKER_00: we,
2:09:36
SPEAKER_00: we've always had a really good relationship,
2:09:39
SPEAKER_00: friendship wise,
2:09:41
SPEAKER_00: and just getting along,
2:09:42
SPEAKER_00: uh,
2:09:43
SPEAKER_00: talking about various things.
2:09:44
SPEAKER_00: She's fun and funny and outgoing in ways that I'm not.
2:09:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, and yet somehow puts up with, with that from me.
2:09:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah.
2:09:56
SPEAKER_00: What, what about you, Paul?
2:09:57
SPEAKER_00: I do want to ask you the question.
2:09:58
SPEAKER_00: Why is your wife so cool?
2:10:00
My wife is so cool because she crosses the line of she's good
2:10:04
at everything.
2:10:06
SPEAKER_02: She's an engineer and a programmer, but yet when I'm reading...
2:10:10
SPEAKER_02: like,
2:10:10
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:10:10
she's reading Patrick Hamilton and like sharing insights with
2:10:13
me that I'm like,
2:10:13
SPEAKER_02: geez,
2:10:14
SPEAKER_02: like I'm an English major and I never picked up on that.
2:10:16
So if I'm taking it specifically in the bookish direction,
2:10:19
that's why she's so cool.
2:10:20
She joined my book club at the independent bookstore and
2:10:24
bolstered the numbers up
2:10:25
SPEAKER_02: to five,
2:10:26
SPEAKER_02: which made me feel pretty awesome.
2:10:28
But just the insight she brings with like a biology background
2:10:32
and an engineering brain,
2:10:33
SPEAKER_02: the fact that she can like look at books differently than me is amazing.
2:10:37
SPEAKER_02: And then
2:10:37
SPEAKER_02: Same thing.
2:10:38
SPEAKER_02: She's just great to hang out with.
2:10:39
Like I talk a lot about how we go up to Boulder to the
2:10:42
bookstore and grab a beer.
2:10:43
I mean,
2:10:44
who wouldn't want that a buddy to just go hang out with
2:10:46
whenever you want to.
2:10:47
SPEAKER_02: So.
2:10:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
2:10:48
SPEAKER_00: sometimes I feel,
2:10:49
SPEAKER_00: it sounds like we're in the same boat,
2:10:50
SPEAKER_00: so I'm not talking about you,
2:10:51
but I do sometimes feel bad when I go out with other couples
2:10:56
and they just don't
2:10:57
SPEAKER_00: seem to be with their best friend.
2:11:00
SPEAKER_00: Sure they are.
2:11:00
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, but I'm like, man, I'm having so much fun with my wife.
2:11:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
2:11:07
SPEAKER_00: She's who I want to be with, you know, regardless of what we're doing.
2:11:10
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
2:11:11
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
2:11:12
SPEAKER_00: Well, she did ask another question that I'll pose to you then.
2:11:17
SPEAKER_00: So what book would we be surprised to learn you'd read?
2:11:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know.
2:11:23
This was a little tough because I would like to think that I'd
2:11:26
come across as
2:11:27
SPEAKER_02: somebody who would at least try anything.
2:11:30
But I guess the closest I could come up with was maybe Gone
2:11:33
Girl by Gillian.
2:11:35
SPEAKER_02: Is that Welsh?
2:11:36
SPEAKER_02: No, that's the artist.
2:11:38
SPEAKER_02: Gillian Flynn.
2:11:39
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
2:11:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
2:11:40
maybe that one because it's kind of outside of what I would
2:11:43
normally think that
2:11:44
SPEAKER_02: people would think I would read.
2:11:46
SPEAKER_02: But I really enjoyed it.
2:11:48
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
2:11:48
SPEAKER_02: it's just one of those,
2:11:49
SPEAKER_02: it's,
2:11:49
SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't do it all the time,
2:11:50
SPEAKER_02: but just for something completely different,
2:11:52
SPEAKER_02: that's very propulsive and a little bit of an airport read,
2:11:55
SPEAKER_02: but maybe still,
2:11:58
SPEAKER_02: in some ways,
2:12:00
SPEAKER_02: put into that bucket when it doesn't necessarily deserve it,
2:12:02
SPEAKER_02: which is probably true of a lot of books,
2:12:03
SPEAKER_02: because I think it was pretty smart and well written for the most part.
2:12:06
SPEAKER_02: So that would be my thought, maybe that one.
2:12:09
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes when we go on vacation,
2:12:11
SPEAKER_00: I do enjoy having a propulsive,
2:12:14
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:12:14
SPEAKER_00: just something that I hope is good.
2:12:17
SPEAKER_00: You know,
2:12:17
I don't want to choose something that I'm going to look back on
2:12:20
and be like,
2:12:21
SPEAKER_00: oh,
2:12:21
SPEAKER_00: right.
2:12:22
But,
2:12:22
you know,
2:12:23
like a few years ago,
2:12:23
I read Memory Man by David Baldacci on a vacation.
2:12:27
SPEAKER_00: It's just enjoyable.
2:12:28
You know,
2:12:28
it was fun to have something that I'm trying to kind of anxious
2:12:32
to see where it goes.
2:12:33
SPEAKER_00: And that's where I've read the, Oh, what's his name?
2:12:37
SPEAKER_00: The, the books that are about the really big kind of,
2:12:44
um loner tom cruise played him um and now there's a series on
2:12:50
amazon anyway people
2:12:53
know who i'm talking about i'm sure anyway yeah that's right
2:12:56
yeah creature um
2:12:57
that's where i read some of those too and they're just fun you
2:13:00
know you get through
2:13:01
a 600 page book in a day or two because it just is you know
2:13:04
it's just pulling you
2:13:05
along and then you're done with it and you can you can leave it
2:13:08
leave it along um
2:13:10
SPEAKER_00: However, that's not my actual answer.
2:13:13
SPEAKER_00: That was just talking about it from this.
2:13:15
SPEAKER_00: And weirdly, my wife must be listening to us because she just texted me.
2:13:20
I thought your answer would be Twilight,
2:13:23
which is what I typed and wrote down.
2:13:30
SPEAKER_00: She actually read it to me back when it came out or was coming out.
2:13:34
and i didn't read any of the other ones but you know i always
2:13:36
enjoy i i just i like
2:13:39
to to to see what else is going on out there it's yeah you know
2:13:43
and and it was fun
2:13:44
to have that she read it to me yeah um back then i i don't
2:13:48
remember all of my
2:13:50
feelings but i remember being excited to hear the next chapter
2:13:53
the next night or
2:13:54
SPEAKER_00: something like that um
2:13:56
SPEAKER_02: And are you team werewolf or team sparkly vampire?
2:13:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh, good.
2:13:59
SPEAKER_00: Good question.
2:14:00
SPEAKER_00: I have an answer for you.
2:14:01
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
2:14:02
SPEAKER_00: So,
2:14:02
SPEAKER_00: um,
2:14:03
SPEAKER_00: I've also,
2:14:03
I went to the movie house once with her to see one of the
2:14:07
movies that came out and
2:14:08
SPEAKER_00: it was,
2:14:09
SPEAKER_00: it was one where a part of it,
2:14:12
SPEAKER_00: they are up in the mountains and it's really cold.
2:14:17
SPEAKER_00: And the girl is like,
2:14:19
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:14:19
SPEAKER_00: shivering and,
2:14:20
SPEAKER_00: and the werewolf,
2:14:21
SPEAKER_00: Jacob,
2:14:23
SPEAKER_00: um,
2:14:24
SPEAKER_00: is like,
2:14:24
SPEAKER_00: well,
2:14:24
SPEAKER_00: I can help out with that.
2:14:25
SPEAKER_00: Um,
2:14:26
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not kidding, Paul.
2:14:28
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the coldest I've ever been in a movie house.
2:14:31
SPEAKER_00: It was in South Orange, New Jersey.
2:14:33
SPEAKER_00: It was so cold.
2:14:37
SPEAKER_00: And I remember turning to my wife and saying...
2:14:41
SPEAKER_00: I wish I could cuddle with Jacob right now.
2:14:46
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's amazing.
2:14:47
SPEAKER_00: I still, and I have no shame in that.
2:14:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:14:49
SPEAKER_00: So apparently I'm team Jacob.
2:14:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:14:53
SPEAKER_00: For the warmth anyway, at the very least.
2:14:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:14:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:14:56
SPEAKER_00: That was convincing though.
2:14:57
SPEAKER_00: That was as far as I needed to go.
2:14:59
SPEAKER_00: That's so funny.
2:15:00
SPEAKER_00: As far as I'm concerned, Edward has nothing to offer me.
2:15:04
SPEAKER_00: Hey, that was far better than the answer I was expecting.
2:15:08
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
2:15:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, she did ask another one.
2:15:11
SPEAKER_00: And let's do rapid fire here.
2:15:14
SPEAKER_00: Which character from Jane Austen are you most like?
2:15:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I didn't know how to answer this.
2:15:18
SPEAKER_02: So I asked my wife and I was very happy with her answer.
2:15:20
SPEAKER_02: She said, Mr. Knightley.
2:15:22
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's mine too.
2:15:23
SPEAKER_00: And my wife would agree.
2:15:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:15:25
SPEAKER_02: I was very happy.
2:15:26
SPEAKER_02: I just left it there.
2:15:27
SPEAKER_02: I had no follow-up questions.
2:15:30
SPEAKER_00: Not the weirdos from like Northanger Abbey.
2:15:33
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
2:15:33
SPEAKER_00: Cocky one.
2:15:34
SPEAKER_00: Not, not, not Mr. Bennett.
2:15:37
That's good that your wife doesn't think you're like,
2:15:39
I know that was like really good.
2:15:41
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't think you're Mr. Collins.
2:15:43
SPEAKER_00: I would say.
2:15:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:15:46
SPEAKER_00: And there are a lot of characters you don't want to be.
2:15:48
SPEAKER_00: And Mr. Knightley, let's be honest.
2:15:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, I know we're rapid firing it, but it's not like he's perfect.
2:15:52
SPEAKER_00: He's kind of a little bit of a judgy jerk.
2:15:55
SPEAKER_00: Right.
2:15:57
SPEAKER_00: Is that why she chose it, Paul?
2:15:58
SPEAKER_00: I didn't ask.
2:15:59
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I was afraid to go any further.
2:16:01
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
2:16:02
SPEAKER_02: I viewed it as like, you know, the nice steady guy.
2:16:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's how I took it.
2:16:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, me too.
2:16:07
SPEAKER_00: Me too.
2:16:08
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
2:16:08
SPEAKER_00: We don't even need to remind him of that aspect of Mr. Knightley.
2:16:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't think we should.
2:16:12
Yeah.
2:16:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:16:15
SPEAKER_00: All right.
2:16:16
SPEAKER_00: The next one, I'll ask you to just because I'm in the zone.
2:16:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:16:20
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you've got it pulled up.
2:16:22
So is there a country whose literature you have yet to explore
2:16:25
that beckons you?
2:16:26
SPEAKER_00: That's from Senichi.
2:16:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:16:27
SPEAKER_02: I love that question.
2:16:28
SPEAKER_02: A lot of these questions are making me realize,
2:16:30
SPEAKER_02: I guess I don't read in the way that some people read,
2:16:34
SPEAKER_02: because I know a lot of people will,
2:16:36
SPEAKER_02: for example,
2:16:36
plan to read around the world and they'll choose a country and
2:16:39
move their way methodically.
2:16:41
SPEAKER_02: I do not necessarily read that way.
2:16:43
SPEAKER_02: I just,
2:16:44
SPEAKER_02: again,
2:16:44
SPEAKER_02: we're spoiled with these publishers,
2:16:47
SPEAKER_02: but I just read based on what sounds good to me.
2:16:49
SPEAKER_02: So I...
2:16:51
Incidentally,
2:16:52
it happens to be from this country,
2:16:54
I guess is what I would often say.
2:16:55
SPEAKER_02: From the United States?
2:16:57
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
2:16:57
SPEAKER_02: From this country.
2:16:59
SPEAKER_02: From a particular country.
2:17:01
SPEAKER_03: I got you.
2:17:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm just being a smart aleck.
2:17:04
SPEAKER_02: Talking about Twilight does that to me.
2:17:06
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
2:17:06
SPEAKER_02: You're all fired up now.
2:17:08
SPEAKER_02: No, I mean, I guess I just usually read based on the books.
2:17:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:17:13
SPEAKER_02: I have read Indian literature,
2:17:14
but that would be a country that every time I read something
2:17:17
from that part of the
2:17:18
SPEAKER_02: world is so fascinating.
2:17:20
SPEAKER_02: So I think I would like to read more from that part of the world.
2:17:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I like that a lot.
2:17:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:17:28
SPEAKER_00: This was hard for me too,
2:17:30
SPEAKER_00: because probably the same as you,
2:17:33
SPEAKER_00: I don't necessarily maybe look at some countries.
2:17:36
SPEAKER_00: And this is where I'm like, oh, maybe I should do more of this.
2:17:39
It's because my answer might be more like,
2:17:42
I would like to read more Arabic literature.
2:17:44
SPEAKER_00: But I know there's a vast variety within that.
2:17:47
SPEAKER_00: And even that doesn't necessarily encompass everything that I would like.
2:17:51
SPEAKER_00: But I did narrow it down to Egyptian literature.
2:17:53
SPEAKER_00: I would like to read some more Egyptian literature.
2:17:56
SPEAKER_00: I've maybe read one or two books from Egypt.
2:17:59
SPEAKER_00: And I know there's a lot,
2:18:00
SPEAKER_00: but,
2:18:00
SPEAKER_00: but to be honest with you,
2:18:02
SPEAKER_00: there are a lot of,
2:18:03
SPEAKER_00: and this is where,
2:18:04
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:18:05
like archipelago comes in handy because they do publish a lot
2:18:07
more of these not,
2:18:10
SPEAKER_00: not exclusively,
2:18:11
SPEAKER_00: but there's just a lot of Arabic literature that I've not read.
2:18:15
SPEAKER_00: I would like to read more Persian literature because,
2:18:20
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:18:20
SPEAKER_00: again,
2:18:21
SPEAKER_00: it's just,
2:18:22
SPEAKER_00: I live in the Western United States.
2:18:25
SPEAKER_00: I used, I haven't updated it for a long time, but on my blog, I have it.
2:18:29
SPEAKER_00: broken out by language and yet my Spanish,
2:18:32
SPEAKER_00: not a problem,
2:18:33
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:18:33
SPEAKER_00: I've definitely gone through a lot of Spanish literature.
2:18:36
Um,
2:18:37
but even that,
2:18:38
you know,
2:18:38
I recognize this really big,
2:18:41
uh,
2:18:42
variety of what that means.
2:18:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, when you do look at it more from countries and all of that.
2:18:47
So I liked this more as an inspiration for me to,
2:18:51
to maybe look at things differently.
2:18:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I agree.
2:18:53
SPEAKER_02: That's I'm the same boat there for sure.
2:18:56
SPEAKER_02: All right, the next one.
2:18:58
SPEAKER_02: Our rapid fire is quickly falling apart, by the way.
2:19:01
SPEAKER_02: What are your all-time favorite nonfiction books?
2:19:04
SPEAKER_02: And I will emphasize there's an S at the end of that.
2:19:07
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here comes.
2:19:09
SPEAKER_00: I really like cozy nonfiction.
2:19:11
SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe what I would call it that typically.
2:19:14
So one of my favorites and one I read years ago that I often
2:19:17
think about still is
2:19:18
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester about the
2:19:23
writing of the Oxford
2:19:24
SPEAKER_00: English Dictionary.
2:19:24
SPEAKER_00: It's so fun.
2:19:26
SPEAKER_00: And he also wrote How the Irish Saved Civilization, which I enjoyed.
2:19:30
And then looking at some biographies,
2:19:32
Jean Strauss's Alice James biography is fantastic.
2:19:35
SPEAKER_00: And she has a new one out this year that I need to get my hands on.
2:19:39
SPEAKER_00: I really loved learning more about Alice James.
2:19:44
SPEAKER_00: And then probably one of my favorite,
2:19:47
SPEAKER_00: if I am narrowing it down,
2:19:50
SPEAKER_00: is Heather Clark's Sylvia Plath biography,
2:19:52
SPEAKER_00: Red Comet.
2:19:53
SPEAKER_00: I just adored so much about that book.
2:19:58
SPEAKER_00: And that
2:19:59
SPEAKER_00: That might be my answers to my all time favorite for many reasons.
2:20:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a great answer.
2:20:05
SPEAKER_02: That would be my answer to all time favorite biography for sure.
2:20:09
SPEAKER_02: And I didn't actually go in the biography direction,
2:20:12
SPEAKER_02: which now that I think about it,
2:20:13
SPEAKER_02: I could have added many more.
2:20:15
You know me,
2:20:15
I always,
2:20:16
when it comes to nonfiction,
2:20:18
think about nature writing for sure.
2:20:19
SPEAKER_02: So I've mentioned Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey before.
2:20:22
SPEAKER_02: That one is absolutely amazing.
2:20:25
SPEAKER_02: Everything by Robert McFarland,
2:20:26
SPEAKER_02: I guess I'll just cheat and say,
2:20:27
SPEAKER_02: but one that falls a little bit outside of what I usually read,
2:20:30
but was just a really powerful book was The Forever War by
2:20:34
Dexter Filkins.
2:20:35
SPEAKER_02: And it's all about America in the Middle East and
2:20:39
SPEAKER_02: It's not something that I would normally read,
2:20:41
but it is really good if anybody is interested in just trying
2:20:44
something maybe
2:20:45
SPEAKER_02: different than what you usually read that's super well-written.
2:20:48
SPEAKER_02: That one's really good.
2:20:50
SPEAKER_02: Of course,
2:20:50
SPEAKER_02: May Sarton,
2:20:51
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:20:51
SPEAKER_02: the Journal of Assaultitude,
2:20:53
SPEAKER_02: for example,
2:20:53
SPEAKER_02: would be another one.
2:20:54
SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of good memoir journals.
2:20:56
SPEAKER_00: NYRP Classics does a lot of good ones that I've,
2:20:59
SPEAKER_00: I've only started reading more of those because of Kim's NYRP Women 24,
2:21:03
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:21:06
SPEAKER_00: 23,
2:21:06
SPEAKER_00: 24,
2:21:06
SPEAKER_00: 25.
2:21:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
2:21:08
And just like Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman,
2:21:11
there's a lot in the like books about books.
2:21:14
SPEAKER_02: category that I think could fill in there.
2:21:15
SPEAKER_02: And then one more that is a rough read, but it's really good.
2:21:18
It's called Rising Dispatches from the New American Shore by
2:21:22
Elizabeth Rush.
2:21:22
SPEAKER_02: And it's about how climate change is impacting specific communities.
2:21:28
And it's talking about like a lot of these communities are
2:21:30
having to actually
2:21:31
SPEAKER_02: literally move or they're dissipating based on the rising water.
2:21:35
SPEAKER_02: So it's not uplifting, but it's really powerful.
2:21:38
SPEAKER_02: And one thing I've learned about
2:21:42
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if it's a shift in nonfiction.
2:21:43
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
2:21:44
SPEAKER_02: there's probably always been really wonderfully written nonfiction,
2:21:46
but anybody who thinks nonfiction is dry and dusty should check
2:21:50
out some of the
2:21:51
SPEAKER_02: stuff that's being put out these days.
2:21:52
SPEAKER_02: The whole narrative nonfiction movement,
2:21:55
SPEAKER_02: or I don't know if it's a movement,
2:21:56
SPEAKER_02: but you know what I mean?
2:21:56
SPEAKER_02: Like this new way of looking at nonfiction.
2:22:00
Some of these books are so compelling and incredible that they
2:22:03
blow away some of
2:22:04
SPEAKER_02: the stereotypes that I might've had about nonfiction in the past.
2:22:09
SPEAKER_00: Well,
2:22:09
and yesterday you reminded me how much I enjoy sometimes
2:22:12
looking at even nature
2:22:14
SPEAKER_00: writing from magazines.
2:22:15
I used to read a lot of that maybe 25 years ago in the 90s and
2:22:19
into the early 2000s.
2:22:20
SPEAKER_00: But you sent me an article from downeast.com.
2:22:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:22:25
SPEAKER_00: My final days on the Maine coast.
2:22:28
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I think of some of the longer...
2:22:32
nonfiction and i don't mean that i mean nonfiction such a broad
2:22:35
term i mean i know
2:22:36
the new yorker a lot of those are nonfiction you know they're
2:22:38
talking about certain
2:22:39
things or it's criticism but i even think of like ian frazier's
2:22:43
travels across
2:22:43
SPEAKER_00: siberia that he did a few years ago um david grand did one uh
2:22:49
SPEAKER_00: I mean,
2:22:50
SPEAKER_00: he's done a lot of essays and such,
2:22:51
SPEAKER_00: but one that was particularly for me,
2:22:55
SPEAKER_00: interesting in the New Yorker on Antarctica.
2:22:59
SPEAKER_00: And I love finding a good article in a magazine that eventually,
2:23:04
SPEAKER_00: usually they find themselves to a book,
2:23:06
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:23:06
SPEAKER_00: but yeah,
2:23:07
SPEAKER_00: I still haven't read the one you sent me yesterday.
2:23:09
SPEAKER_00: Did you finish it?
2:23:09
SPEAKER_00: I did.
2:23:10
SPEAKER_02: It's, it's beautiful.
2:23:13
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's sad because it's,
2:23:15
By the title,
2:23:16
you can guess it's about this guy who has stage four cancer.
2:23:19
SPEAKER_02: Joseph Monninger, I should say.
2:23:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you.
2:23:22
Because he actually has a book that I added to my library list
2:23:24
that I want to read.
2:23:26
SPEAKER_02: But it's all about what it says.
2:23:28
SPEAKER_02: Like he has stage four cancer.
2:23:29
He chooses to live in this very primitive cabin without running
2:23:33
water for his final
2:23:34
SPEAKER_02: days of his life.
2:23:35
SPEAKER_02: He just kind of goes up there and it's very...
2:23:38
SPEAKER_02: It's elegiac, but also really peaceful and beautiful.
2:23:41
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, if anybody's interested, it's really good.
2:23:44
SPEAKER_02: And I,
2:23:44
SPEAKER_02: like I said,
2:23:45
I plan to read more of his stuff because at the end it gives a
2:23:48
little bit of a
2:23:48
SPEAKER_02: short bio and talks about some of the other work he's done.
2:23:51
So I'm going to,
2:23:52
he's a really good writer,
2:23:53
was a good,
2:23:54
really good writer.
2:23:55
SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
2:23:56
SPEAKER_00: All right.
2:23:57
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's see if we can get it.
2:23:58
SPEAKER_00: Let's see if we can reign it in again.
2:24:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:24:01
SPEAKER_00: We'll try it.
2:24:02
SPEAKER_00: Don Levy.
2:24:03
SPEAKER_00: I think it's my turn.
2:24:04
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's yours.
2:24:05
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, sorry.
2:24:08
SPEAKER_00: I get anxious.
2:24:09
SPEAKER_00: What was the first book that turned you into readers?
2:24:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think honestly, if I'm answering this, I was just born this way.
2:24:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:24:18
My mom says I would pick books over toys from the time I was a baby,
2:24:22
a toddler,
2:24:23
like kids.
2:24:25
SPEAKER_02: if we were at a store or if just around the house,
2:24:27
SPEAKER_02: I would always bring her a book rather than a toy.
2:24:30
So I think it was just probably modeling for my parents and
2:24:33
things too,
2:24:33
obviously.
2:24:34
SPEAKER_02: But as far as the formative reading experiences,
2:24:37
SPEAKER_02: I remember of like independent reading,
2:24:38
SPEAKER_02: we've talked about the Hobbit,
2:24:39
SPEAKER_02: but like the choose your own adventure books,
2:24:41
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:24:42
SPEAKER_02: they're kind of silly,
2:24:42
but those were so fun at a certain age where the red fern grows
2:24:46
was one of those
2:24:47
devastating experiences that I think a lot of young readers
2:24:50
have to go through
2:24:50
SPEAKER_02: where
2:24:51
the first book that makes you cry,
2:24:52
but also makes you realize how powerful literature could be.
2:24:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:24:57
SPEAKER_02: I mean, those would be two or three that came to mind for me.
2:25:01
SPEAKER_02: I mean, Little House on the Prairie.
2:25:03
I remember my second or third grade teacher reading that to us
2:25:07
and just watching
2:25:07
SPEAKER_02: her turn the pages.
2:25:08
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
2:25:09
SPEAKER_02: Something about that just made me so fascinated and like want to,
2:25:14
it just made me realize like you can open up any book and
2:25:16
there's this whole world
2:25:17
SPEAKER_02: inside of there.
2:25:18
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, that's,
2:25:21
There was no one book,
2:25:22
but I think,
2:25:22
like I said,
2:25:22
it was kind of born into me.
2:25:24
And then it was like a series of very formative experiences
2:25:27
that kind of bolstered
2:25:28
SPEAKER_02: it further,
2:25:29
SPEAKER_02: I think.
2:25:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:25:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:25:31
SPEAKER_00: No, good, good answer.
2:25:32
SPEAKER_00: I might be similar.
2:25:33
SPEAKER_00: I put, you know, I've been a reader since I can remember.
2:25:38
So I looked at the question,
2:25:39
maybe tried to spin it just a little bit and look at it.
2:25:44
SPEAKER_00: What,
2:25:45
what are some books that made me want to be like an English
2:25:48
major or really dig in,
2:25:50
SPEAKER_00: not just,
2:25:51
SPEAKER_00: not just read supplementary,
2:25:52
SPEAKER_00: which I would have been doing anyway,
2:25:54
SPEAKER_00: but what ones maybe go,
2:25:55
SPEAKER_00: no,
2:25:56
SPEAKER_00: this is what I want to do in many ways.
2:25:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:25:58
And I would say probably things like The Count of Monte Cristo
2:26:02
that I read as a teenager,
2:26:05
SPEAKER_00: probably Dante's Inferno,
2:26:07
and realizing the power that can happen when you do stuff like
2:26:10
that with a class.
2:26:12
SPEAKER_00: The Count of Monte Cristo I read by myself.
2:26:14
SPEAKER_00: And so there's that kind of personal, just all immersive experience.
2:26:18
SPEAKER_00: But The Inferno I read with a class and thought,
2:26:21
SPEAKER_00: oh,
2:26:22
there's actually a lot more to this than just reading and
2:26:24
seeing what you get out
2:26:25
SPEAKER_00: of it.
2:26:25
SPEAKER_00: There can be all this other fun stuff.
2:26:28
SPEAKER_00: conversation and insights and all of that.
2:26:31
SPEAKER_00: And then even To Kill a Mockingbird, I would put as one of those books.
2:26:37
SPEAKER_00: So I look at the classes that I took until I finally said,
2:26:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of done taking just an English class on the side of like,
2:26:46
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:26:47
SPEAKER_00: being a business major,
2:26:49
SPEAKER_00: a journalism major,
2:26:50
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:26:50
SPEAKER_00: two paths that I kind of was,
2:26:52
SPEAKER_00: had gone at several,
2:26:53
SPEAKER_00: at different times to where,
2:26:55
SPEAKER_00: no,
2:26:55
SPEAKER_00: this is what I want to do.
2:26:57
SPEAKER_00: I want to become an English major.
2:26:59
And,
2:27:00
you know,
2:27:00
eventually led to me getting a master's in English and,
2:27:03
and,
2:27:03
and all of that.
2:27:05
SPEAKER_00: And then I,
2:27:07
SPEAKER_00: doing other things,
2:27:08
SPEAKER_00: realizing I wanted to get back to that,
2:27:09
which is why I started the blog and found people online because
2:27:12
I just love the
2:27:13
SPEAKER_00: conversations around these things too.
2:27:16
SPEAKER_02: I love that answer.
2:27:16
SPEAKER_02: That's a great approach to it.
2:27:17
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
2:27:18
SPEAKER_02: if I can tag onto that a little bit,
2:27:21
SPEAKER_02: when I got into college,
2:27:22
SPEAKER_02: like you said,
2:27:22
SPEAKER_02: reading the Odyssey with
2:27:24
professor who knew so much about it and could add this nuance
2:27:28
was one of the most
2:27:30
oh man yeah and then I we had one of our very earliest episodes
2:27:33
we had Dr.
2:27:34
Joan Ray who was my English professor and she was a specialist
2:27:39
in Jane Austen she
2:27:41
is a specialist in Jane Austen and she was president of the
2:27:44
North American Jane
2:27:45
SPEAKER_02: Austen Society and
2:27:46
SPEAKER_02: Her passion and excitement for Jane Austen,
2:27:48
SPEAKER_02: I would take these seminars that were semester long with her.
2:27:51
That was just talk about opening up classics and making you
2:27:55
realize how many layers
2:27:57
SPEAKER_02: and how much nuance there was.
2:27:59
Yeah,
2:28:00
that would be one of the singular experiences of my life that
2:28:04
turned me into a reader too.
2:28:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I like that approach that you took.
2:28:09
SPEAKER_02: All right.
2:28:10
SPEAKER_02: All right.
2:28:10
SPEAKER_02: I think it's your turn.
2:28:11
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
2:28:12
What do you think of celebrities,
2:28:13
actors,
2:28:14
et cetera,
2:28:14
hosting book clubs or influencing books?
2:28:17
SPEAKER_02: And that's from Jane Austen V. Karin Yazilar from Turkey.
2:28:22
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, thank you.
2:28:22
SPEAKER_02: That's an exciting comment.
2:28:25
SPEAKER_02: I do want to read more Turkish literature too.
2:28:26
SPEAKER_00: I do too.
2:28:27
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
2:28:30
SPEAKER_00: So I admit I don't follow this very often.
2:28:34
So I have very little experience and consequently very little
2:28:38
nuanced thought.
2:28:40
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, I can see it being both ways.
2:28:42
SPEAKER_00: Good for those books.
2:28:45
SPEAKER_00: Way to go.
2:28:46
And that might be where I land because I don't know if there's
2:28:50
a lot of bad.
2:28:52
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know Oprah does this and Reese Witherspoon.
2:28:56
SPEAKER_02: And now Jenna Bush.
2:28:57
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know.
2:28:58
SPEAKER_02: A lot of people.
2:29:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:29:00
SPEAKER_00: And so my thoughts are, it's probably good.
2:29:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there are a lot of dumb things that are brought into that too.
2:29:10
And some of the politicking of what books to read and what's
2:29:12
worthy and what isn't.
2:29:15
SPEAKER_00: But yeah,
2:29:15
I don't have deep thoughts on it because it's not something
2:29:18
that I participate in
2:29:19
SPEAKER_00: or have ever looked at at all.
2:29:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm similar.
2:29:23
SPEAKER_02: I would say they're not for me,
2:29:24
SPEAKER_02: but on the other hand,
2:29:25
SPEAKER_02: I'm all for anything that encourages reading.
2:29:30
having worked at the bookstore now for a while,
2:29:32
I see the power that this has.
2:29:34
And I think one of the things I think it does do is bring
2:29:37
people who maybe weren't
2:29:39
SPEAKER_02: necessarily readers to,
2:29:41
SPEAKER_02: it gives them a chance to try a book.
2:29:43
And sometimes it takes off and they end up reading a bunch of
2:29:46
other stuff.
2:29:46
SPEAKER_02: Because like you said,
2:29:47
SPEAKER_02: to me,
2:29:48
SPEAKER_02: a lot of the books that are chosen aren't necessarily,
2:29:50
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:29:50
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
2:29:50
SPEAKER_02: it's not all like the finest literature in the world or anything,
2:29:52
SPEAKER_02: but all it takes is to get that spark of love for reading.
2:29:56
SPEAKER_02: And maybe that's what works for some people is something like this.
2:29:59
SPEAKER_02: I will say, I wish they would maybe go outside of
2:30:04
SPEAKER_02: their comfort zones or push people to try some new things.
2:30:07
SPEAKER_02: And I think that does occasionally happen.
2:30:10
SPEAKER_02: I remember clear back in the 90s,
2:30:12
SPEAKER_02: I guess it was,
2:30:12
SPEAKER_02: or maybe early 2000s in Borders,
2:30:15
SPEAKER_02: I picked up East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
2:30:18
SPEAKER_02: I didn't pick it up because it was an Oprah pick,
2:30:20
but it was on a prominent display that obviously was because
2:30:24
she had picked it.
2:30:25
SPEAKER_02: And of course, I knew about it being an English major.
2:30:27
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't that I didn't
2:30:28
know him or anything like that but i remember specifically
2:30:31
seeing that and like it
2:30:32
was in those beautiful kind of cream colored editions they were
2:30:35
putting i know when
2:30:36
you're talking yeah and so i grabbed it and ended up reading it
2:30:38
and at that time i
2:30:39
absolutely loved that book so i do think you know there's a lot
2:30:43
of power that they
2:30:44
wield and i do think like i said if nothing else it's just
2:30:48
getting books that into
2:30:50
people's hands and in front of their faces that otherwise
2:30:52
wouldn't be there
2:30:53
SPEAKER_00: How has BookTok influenced your bookstore?
2:30:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, quite a bit, I would say.
2:31:02
SPEAKER_00: I've been surprised.
2:31:04
SPEAKER_00: My wife will talk about that even at the library here.
2:31:06
SPEAKER_00: And I tend to look at that and think,
2:31:07
SPEAKER_00: oh,
2:31:08
SPEAKER_00: that probably doesn't filter down or this far,
2:31:10
SPEAKER_00: but or in my community.
2:31:12
SPEAKER_00: But she says it's a big thing.
2:31:15
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
2:31:15
the most obvious example would be the whole romantic-y thing
2:31:20
with the ACOTAR,
2:31:22
SPEAKER_02: the Court of Thorns and Roses and Fourth Wing and all this.
2:31:25
I've had a whole education about this stuff that I didn't even
2:31:28
know what an ACOTAR
2:31:29
SPEAKER_02: was when I started working there.
2:31:30
SPEAKER_02: And now...
2:31:31
SPEAKER_02: I have no idea what you're talking about.
2:31:34
SPEAKER_00: I know the other, the like court of those I've heard of.
2:31:38
SPEAKER_02: That's the abbreviation, a court of thorns and roses.
2:31:40
SPEAKER_02: And no, that's what I mean.
2:31:42
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know that.
2:31:43
SPEAKER_02: And people would come in asking and I'm like, I don't know what that is.
2:31:47
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
2:31:48
SPEAKER_02: again,
2:31:48
SPEAKER_02: it's not for me,
2:31:49
SPEAKER_02: but at the same time,
2:31:49
SPEAKER_02: you see these people,
2:31:51
SPEAKER_02: they come in and they are so fired up about this stuff.
2:31:54
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times I've talked to them and
2:31:57
SPEAKER_02: Many of the people who start that,
2:31:59
SPEAKER_02: they branch off into other fantasy and that's kind of their gateway.
2:32:03
SPEAKER_02: So I don't know.
2:32:05
Again,
2:32:05
it's not for me,
2:32:06
but that's the joy of books is there's something for everyone,
2:32:10
you know?
2:32:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, and even just again, why do we do this?
2:32:14
We love sitting and having these experiences and then sharing
2:32:17
them with each other.
2:32:18
SPEAKER_00: And they're doing that.
2:32:20
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
2:32:20
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
2:32:21
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
2:32:22
SPEAKER_02: A lady came in and she had these two books that were like,
2:32:25
SPEAKER_02: I don't remember which ones in that series,
2:32:26
SPEAKER_02: but she was doing a side by side read.
2:32:29
SPEAKER_02: Apparently,
2:32:30
you read the first three chapters of this one and then you
2:32:32
switch over and read the
2:32:32
SPEAKER_02: first three chapters of this one and going back and forth.
2:32:34
And she was just telling me all about it for like 20 minutes
2:32:36
because apparently it...
2:32:38
SPEAKER_02: brings all these relationships that you wouldn't otherwise have.
2:32:40
SPEAKER_02: And again, to me, like I will never read those books.
2:32:43
That's just not something I'm interested in,
2:32:45
but I could listen to somebody talk about that.
2:32:47
Just the enthusiasm and the passion is so fun and addictive and
2:32:53
encouraging to me.
2:32:54
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I don't know.
2:32:55
SPEAKER_02: Like I said,
2:32:56
I think it's just nice that the book world is a big place and I
2:33:00
think there's
2:33:00
SPEAKER_02: something for everybody.
2:33:01
Well,
2:33:02
and these things can probably help make sure a bookstore is successful.
2:33:08
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
2:33:08
SPEAKER_00: Or it can stay afloat too.
2:33:10
SPEAKER_02: That's a big part of it too, for sure.
2:33:11
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
2:33:13
SPEAKER_00: There might be downsides again.
2:33:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't know all of them.
2:33:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there are,
2:33:16
SPEAKER_00: but the ultimately I do think there's the good of it all that helps,
2:33:23
SPEAKER_00: helps this stuff go on.
2:33:24
SPEAKER_00: Even though some things are pushed out,
2:33:25
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:33:26
SPEAKER_00: like you said,
2:33:27
SPEAKER_00: it can sometimes be a little bit myopic.
2:33:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:33:30
SPEAKER_00: But yeah.
2:33:32
SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
2:33:33
SPEAKER_00: All right.
2:33:33
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
2:33:34
SPEAKER_00: Next, next one.
2:33:36
SPEAKER_02: All right.
2:33:36
What's your favorite book you haven't talked about on the show
2:33:39
yet from NZ friend 33.
2:33:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:33:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I've talked about this on the show or not,
2:33:44
SPEAKER_00: but I'm going to say Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day,
2:33:48
SPEAKER_00: which I have a chance to reread this year for our library book club.
2:33:52
SPEAKER_00: I love that book.
2:33:53
SPEAKER_02: That's a great choice.
2:33:55
SPEAKER_02: I am going to go...
2:33:56
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if I've talked about this either,
2:33:57
SPEAKER_02: but Mrs.
2:33:58
SPEAKER_02: Bridge by Evan S.
2:33:59
SPEAKER_02: Connell.
2:34:01
Yeah,
2:34:02
I can just...
2:34:03
Yeah,
2:34:03
it's just another quiet life book that's just...
2:34:07
SPEAKER_02: It has a companion,
2:34:08
SPEAKER_02: Mr.
2:34:08
SPEAKER_02: Bridge,
2:34:08
SPEAKER_02: that's also really good,
2:34:09
SPEAKER_02: but I think Mrs.
2:34:10
SPEAKER_02: Bridge is just absolutely stunning.
2:34:13
SPEAKER_00: Have you seen,
2:34:14
SPEAKER_00: do you have the newer,
2:34:16
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:34:17
SPEAKER_00: the Penguin Classics editions,
2:34:19
SPEAKER_00: modern classics from the UK?
2:34:22
SPEAKER_02: No, I don't.
2:34:23
SPEAKER_02: I should check them out.
2:34:24
SPEAKER_02: I have some... Don't, don't.
2:34:26
SPEAKER_00: Oh, don't.
2:34:27
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:34:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you will, I mean, unless you want to immediately drop...
2:34:31
you know,
2:34:31
however much it costs to get those from Blackwell's,
2:34:33
which yeah,
2:34:34
do it.
2:34:35
SPEAKER_00: I think you'll, I think you'll want them.
2:34:36
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:34:37
Maybe you should win a couple of books today for being a good,
2:34:40
a good,
2:34:40
a good podcaster.
2:34:42
SPEAKER_00: Congratulations, Paul.
2:34:44
SPEAKER_00: Here you go.
2:34:45
SPEAKER_00: Look at them and let me know.
2:34:46
SPEAKER_00: I'd be happy to get, make sure you have them.
2:34:48
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you don't want them, but they're so cool looking.
2:34:52
SPEAKER_00: Those are so good.
2:34:53
SPEAKER_00: I love those books.
2:34:54
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
2:34:55
SPEAKER_00: All right.
2:34:55
SPEAKER_00: Do we have to go on though?
2:34:56
SPEAKER_00: We have to, we're getting close, getting close.
2:35:00
SPEAKER_00: You're up.
2:35:02
SPEAKER_00: No, it's me, isn't it?
2:35:05
SPEAKER_00: I just can't keep track.
2:35:07
SPEAKER_00: If you could go to any bookstore in the world, which one would it be?
2:35:09
SPEAKER_00: I will refer people to our bookstore episode.
2:35:13
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
2:35:13
SPEAKER_02: But do you have an answer on this?
2:35:15
SPEAKER_02: My quick answer is a pretty obvious one.
2:35:17
SPEAKER_02: Shakespeare and Company in Paris.
2:35:19
SPEAKER_02: That's my pinnacle.
2:35:21
SPEAKER_02: If I could go to any one, that's the one.
2:35:23
SPEAKER_02: Someday I'm going to make it.
2:35:24
SPEAKER_00: Let's go together.
2:35:25
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:35:25
SPEAKER_00: That would be a blast.
2:35:26
SPEAKER_00: I'll put that.
2:35:27
SPEAKER_00: I did put yours.
2:35:28
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to go and visit you at your bookstore show up one day.
2:35:31
SPEAKER_00: That would be amazing.
2:35:32
SPEAKER_00: I think that would be so much fun.
2:35:34
I don't know if you've ever told people what the name of your
2:35:36
bookstore is.
2:35:37
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to?
2:35:38
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
2:35:38
SPEAKER_02: It's called Spell Books and it's in downtown Littleton, Colorado.
2:35:42
SPEAKER_02: It's a tiny little store on a little, like a main street, right?
2:35:46
SPEAKER_02: In kind of a suburb of Denver.
2:35:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:35:48
SPEAKER_02: It's a fun little place.
2:35:50
SPEAKER_00: All right.
2:35:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll keep jumping in here.
2:35:54
SPEAKER_00: It might still be your turn.
2:35:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
2:35:56
SPEAKER_00: No, you're fine.
2:35:57
SPEAKER_00: Outside of reading, what are you watching and or listening to right now?
2:36:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a great question.
2:36:02
I have been watching a lot of,
2:36:04
for obvious reasons,
2:36:05
David Lynch adjacent stuff.
2:36:07
SPEAKER_02: I haven't necessarily yet.
2:36:08
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to go back and watch some of his movies again.
2:36:11
But I've watched a couple of documentaries recently on the
2:36:13
Criterion channel,
2:36:15
SPEAKER_02: The Art of Life and then Lynch slash Oz.
2:36:19
SPEAKER_02: Have you seen either one of those?
2:36:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've seen both of them.
2:36:22
SPEAKER_02: They're both really good, just very different from one another.
2:36:25
SPEAKER_02: But the art of life is kind of his origin story a little bit.
2:36:29
And a lot of it is just him talking in front of a microphone
2:36:33
while they're showing
2:36:33
SPEAKER_02: different footage of him doing his art.
2:36:37
SPEAKER_02: And I am just so fascinated by him as a person.
2:36:41
SPEAKER_02: I don't necessarily, if I'm being honest, love his art.
2:36:45
SPEAKER_02: like his physical media that he creates,
2:36:47
SPEAKER_02: but I could watch him do it and talk about it all day long.
2:36:50
Cause just the process of him like twisting wires and like
2:36:55
putty and like painting
2:36:56
SPEAKER_02: and everything.
2:36:56
It's just so fascinating to me,
2:36:58
his mind,
2:36:58
he's just such an interesting guy.
2:37:00
And then Lynch slash Oz will be kind of the equivalent of what
2:37:03
our podcast does to readers.
2:37:04
It does the same thing with films where it's talking about
2:37:08
direct or indirect
2:37:09
SPEAKER_02: influences of different movies and
2:37:11
on him or his influence on other people and obviously one of
2:37:14
the big focuses is The
2:37:16
Wizard of Oz which was one of his you know inspirations
2:37:19
throughout his life so both
2:37:21
of those are absolutely wonderful and then I did mention one
2:37:25
movie that I watched
2:37:26
SPEAKER_02: recently that I would
2:37:28
recommend above all others is a little pain um with jesse
2:37:32
eisenberg and um kieran
2:37:35
kolkin kolkin yeah oh my god that movie was so good so if i was
2:37:40
going to recommend
2:37:41
just one film it's absolutely amazing it's these two cousins
2:37:45
who go back to visit
2:37:47
poland and they have their family has a background you know
2:37:50
obviously with
2:37:52
SPEAKER_02: a lot of the Holocaust, they were of Jewish descent.
2:37:55
SPEAKER_02: So it does touch on that,
2:37:57
but also their relationship is just so realistic and beautiful
2:38:00
and painful.
2:38:01
SPEAKER_02: I thought it was, it just blew me away.
2:38:03
SPEAKER_02: So.
2:38:04
SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen that one yet, but I've got it on my list.
2:38:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:38:07
SPEAKER_00: Thanks to you.
2:38:08
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I, I, yeah.
2:38:10
SPEAKER_00: Well,
2:38:11
SPEAKER_00: I,
2:38:12
SPEAKER_00: I was telling you just,
2:38:13
SPEAKER_00: uh,
2:38:13
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:38:13
SPEAKER_00: earlier in the episode,
2:38:15
SPEAKER_00: I,
2:38:15
SPEAKER_00: we don't watch a ton of,
2:38:16
SPEAKER_00: of things.
2:38:18
SPEAKER_00: Um,
2:38:19
SPEAKER_00: I like to,
2:38:19
SPEAKER_00: uh,
2:38:20
SPEAKER_00: but just kind of where things are,
2:38:22
SPEAKER_00: but,
2:38:24
SPEAKER_00: um,
2:38:24
SPEAKER_00: we did watch the new Wallace and Gromit.
2:38:27
SPEAKER_00: Oh,
2:38:28
SPEAKER_00: cartoon with our family a week or two ago or three, I don't know.
2:38:32
SPEAKER_00: I love it so much.
2:38:34
SPEAKER_00: Did you watch it?
2:38:34
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
2:38:35
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I loved it too.
2:38:37
I was so nervous because it's been so long since they've come
2:38:39
out with one and I
2:38:40
SPEAKER_02: was like,
2:38:40
SPEAKER_02: oh,
2:38:40
SPEAKER_02: please don't.
2:38:41
SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, I don't know, but...
2:38:44
SPEAKER_00: I liked it better than the last one that came out with the veggie.
2:38:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the chicken penguin is just too classic of a character.
2:38:55
SPEAKER_00: I love that they brought him back.
2:38:57
SPEAKER_00: I know.
2:38:57
SPEAKER_00: It's so fun.
2:38:58
SPEAKER_00: It is.
2:38:59
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing.
2:38:59
SPEAKER_02: That's a great one.
2:39:00
SPEAKER_00: So I recommend that.
2:39:01
And then I did,
2:39:02
in preparation for Nosferatu,
2:39:04
I hadn't seen Robert Eggers' The Northman.
2:39:07
SPEAKER_00: And so I watched that incredibly violent, strange Viking tale that...
2:39:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what else to say about it.
2:39:17
SPEAKER_00: It's just what it is.
2:39:19
SPEAKER_00: Have you seen any of his movies?
2:39:20
SPEAKER_00: Like The Lighthouse or The Witch?
2:39:23
SPEAKER_02: The Witch is one of my all-time favorites.
2:39:25
SPEAKER_02: I love The Lighthouse.
2:39:27
SPEAKER_02: Northman.
2:39:28
SPEAKER_02: Is that what it is?
2:39:28
SPEAKER_02: The Northman?
2:39:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:39:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
2:39:31
I was just looking for that the other day to figure out where
2:39:32
it was streaming
2:39:33
SPEAKER_02: because I need to watch that one.
2:39:34
SPEAKER_02: But then my wife and I did go see Nosferatu in the theater.
2:39:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I...
2:39:39
SPEAKER_02: Love.
2:39:40
He kind of reminds me of a lot of the authors we talk about
2:39:42
where even if I don't
2:39:43
SPEAKER_02: love every individual work,
2:39:45
just what he's doing and the way he's doing it and how he's
2:39:48
taking risks and trying
2:39:50
SPEAKER_02: crazy things.
2:39:51
I would watch anything that he puts out just to support him and
2:39:54
also just because
2:39:55
SPEAKER_02: you get something out of it.
2:39:56
SPEAKER_00: Well,
2:39:57
SPEAKER_00: and he apparently is planning...
2:39:59
SPEAKER_00: There are a couple movies I keep hearing that he's working on.
2:40:01
One is like a Labyrinth sequel or something like that,
2:40:05
which is like,
2:40:07
is that for real?
2:40:08
SPEAKER_00: Is that real news?
2:40:08
SPEAKER_00: But the other one is a werewolf tale set back in like the medieval times.
2:40:12
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh, okay, that sounds exactly like his wheelhouse.
2:40:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, especially because we know now how you feel about werewolves.
2:40:19
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
2:40:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
2:40:24
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
2:40:27
he's amazing I love everything that he does the witch to me is
2:40:30
just that was one of
2:40:32
the best movie experiences of my entire life and so I will have
2:40:36
a soft spot for him
2:40:38
forever yeah based on that but yeah all right well my turn I
2:40:44
guess from Corey
2:40:45
SPEAKER_02: Taylor 11 what is the book that you each have the most copies of
2:40:50
I didn't go through and look to see,
2:40:53
but I think it's probably Dante's Inferno.
2:40:56
SPEAKER_00: They have four of it.
2:40:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:40:59
I've had a lot of copies of like War and Peace from various
2:41:02
translations and the like,
2:41:04
but...
2:41:05
SPEAKER_00: I think I've gotten rid of many of them over the years too.
2:41:08
SPEAKER_00: So I think Dante's Inferno,
2:41:10
SPEAKER_00: where I do have a section,
2:41:12
SPEAKER_00: or it could be the Odyssey or the Iliad as well.
2:41:15
SPEAKER_00: Those are the ones that just because of school,
2:41:17
but also then subsequent editions over the years that have come
2:41:20
out that I want,
2:41:21
SPEAKER_00: that I tend to keep them.
2:41:24
SPEAKER_02: No, those, those are great choices.
2:41:26
SPEAKER_02: I,
2:41:27
SPEAKER_02: if I was thinking of just the one,
2:41:29
SPEAKER_02: it's gotta be the Lord of the Rings because I have ones that I've had,
2:41:31
SPEAKER_02: like I inherited from my dad,
2:41:35
the ugly ones we've talked about that I bought with my own
2:41:38
money when I was 13 that
2:41:39
SPEAKER_02: are just so hideous,
2:41:40
SPEAKER_02: but I've kept them just out of nostalgia.
2:41:42
SPEAKER_02: And then I've since, you know, acquired a few nicer additions.
2:41:45
SPEAKER_02: So that would be it.
2:41:46
But I have a growing number of Moby Dick,
2:41:49
Middlemarch and Magic Mountain,
2:41:51
all of those things.
2:41:53
SPEAKER_02: I just can't help when I see sometimes like with magic mountain,
2:41:56
SPEAKER_02: it's based on different translators or just,
2:41:59
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:42:00
SPEAKER_02: library of America comes out with one or whatever.
2:42:02
SPEAKER_02: And then with Moby Dick,
2:42:03
SPEAKER_02: it's just,
2:42:04
SPEAKER_02: I love it so much that I can't pass by a beautiful copy of it.
2:42:08
SPEAKER_02: I'm not usually like that,
2:42:09
SPEAKER_02: but when it comes to like your very favorite books,
2:42:11
SPEAKER_02: I'm okay with acquiring for the sake of acquiring.
2:42:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:42:15
We have several like pride and prejudice and at least two
2:42:19
middle marches in our,
2:42:21
in our house.
2:42:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:42:23
SPEAKER_00: Um,
2:42:24
SPEAKER_00: and if we did something like a,
2:42:26
SPEAKER_00: if I,
2:42:27
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:42:27
SPEAKER_00: I know you're planning on rereading Moby Dick and I said,
2:42:29
SPEAKER_00: I might join you.
2:42:31
I would actually,
2:42:31
I've been eyeing,
2:42:32
you know,
2:42:32
what do I want to read it in?
2:42:34
SPEAKER_00: And I think I'd go with the every man's libraries.
2:42:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know.
2:42:38
SPEAKER_02: I read it the first time in an Easton press,
2:42:39
SPEAKER_02: like one of their nice leather bound ones,
2:42:41
SPEAKER_02: but then I've since bought,
2:42:42
SPEAKER_02: um,
2:42:43
SPEAKER_02: several more copies that maybe are more reading copies,
2:42:47
SPEAKER_02: so to speak.
2:42:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:42:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:42:49
SPEAKER_00: And my first time I read it was, I don't know if,
2:42:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to think of who the,
2:42:55
SPEAKER_00: it's those really little,
2:42:56
SPEAKER_00: it might've been in every man's library,
2:42:58
SPEAKER_00: but they're smaller ones.
2:43:00
Like the almost pocket size only in Moby Dick's case,
2:43:03
it's also quite thick.
2:43:05
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
2:43:05
SPEAKER_00: That's not over, is it?
2:43:07
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not Dover.
2:43:09
um they i'll look but i i actually think it might be a certain
2:43:13
line of the every
2:43:15
man's library i mean there's your like the four by like index
2:43:17
cards yeah um i
2:43:20
wonder if we could even read those now you know in our 20s
2:43:22
right good good point
2:43:25
SPEAKER_00: good point that's why i gotta i gotta upgrade the size of that's right
2:43:30
SPEAKER_00: All right.
2:43:31
Well,
2:43:31
what is a reading memory that you've had that's closely tied to
2:43:34
a specific place?
2:43:35
SPEAKER_00: And then we're getting close.
2:43:36
SPEAKER_00: We got to end this.
2:43:37
SPEAKER_00: We got one more, I think, after this.
2:43:39
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a couple random ones from each other.
2:43:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:43:42
SPEAKER_02: We have talked about our fantasy pasts.
2:43:44
And one of the best memories I have of my entire life is we
2:43:48
would go every summer
2:43:49
SPEAKER_02: to this lake with my grandparents and my dad.
2:43:51
SPEAKER_02: And we would
2:43:53
SPEAKER_02: stay in this cabin by the lake.
2:43:54
SPEAKER_02: And then we would take my grandpa's boat out on the lake and troll,
2:43:57
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:43:57
SPEAKER_02: fishing where you do the real slow,
2:43:59
you throw the line out and you just drive it like two miles an
2:44:01
hour and it just
2:44:03
SPEAKER_02: goes along.
2:44:03
SPEAKER_02: And I feel like we never caught anything,
2:44:05
SPEAKER_02: but I would just sit there with the Dragonlance books,
2:44:09
SPEAKER_02: those kind of mass market fantasy books.
2:44:12
SPEAKER_02: And I just remember the smells and the sun coming down and just,
2:44:17
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:44:17
SPEAKER_02: the putter of the engine and
2:44:19
SPEAKER_02: Just reading those.
2:44:20
SPEAKER_02: And it's one of my best memories, period.
2:44:22
SPEAKER_02: But especially reading memories, it was so peaceful.
2:44:25
And just,
2:44:27
yeah,
2:44:27
it's like nostalgia mixed with just a love of reading,
2:44:32
you know,
2:44:32
combined.
2:44:33
It's yeah,
2:44:34
that would definitely be the one that stands out to me the most.
2:44:37
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love it.
2:44:41
SPEAKER_00: I do have several of these, I think.
2:44:43
SPEAKER_00: But I went with a very vivid one that I don't think I've shared before.
2:44:47
SPEAKER_00: And it was the first time that I...
2:44:50
SPEAKER_00: I didn't read the whole book in this setting,
2:44:51
SPEAKER_00: but I bought Wuthering Heights at the Bronte Parsonage in Yorkshire.
2:44:58
SPEAKER_00: And then later that night, I was at a hotel room somewhere around there.
2:45:03
SPEAKER_00: And it was just me.
2:45:05
SPEAKER_00: And I was alone.
2:45:06
SPEAKER_00: My room was small,
2:45:08
SPEAKER_00: but it did have a relatively large window,
2:45:11
SPEAKER_00: like old looking window with panes and all of that.
2:45:13
SPEAKER_00: It was, it wasn't a hotel.
2:45:14
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like a, you know, best Western or anything like that.
2:45:17
SPEAKER_00: It was, it was like a B and B or something like that.
2:45:20
And I'm sitting there reading and I get to the part at the
2:45:22
start where Mr.
2:45:23
SPEAKER_00: Lockwood is,
2:45:24
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:45:25
in the room reading Kathy's diary and then sees her ghost out
2:45:30
the window and
2:45:31
SPEAKER_00: And then everything that comes with the window and the glass and the,
2:45:34
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:45:35
SPEAKER_00: the shards of glass.
2:45:37
And I remember reading that and looking up at the window and
2:45:39
just thinking.
2:45:41
SPEAKER_00: where am I at?
2:45:42
SPEAKER_00: This is too, too weird.
2:45:44
SPEAKER_00: And it was like the perfect day.
2:45:45
Like the moors,
2:45:46
we went out for a walk on the moors and the crows were out and
2:45:49
it was overcast.
2:45:50
SPEAKER_00: And there I am that night just in the right place.
2:45:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, the right time for that.
2:45:55
SPEAKER_00: Again,
2:45:56
SPEAKER_00: it took me a while to finish the book and,
2:45:57
SPEAKER_00: but that's where I read the opening,
2:45:59
SPEAKER_00: um,
2:46:00
SPEAKER_00: bit of Wuthering Heights was in that setting.
2:46:02
SPEAKER_00: I wish I could remember what, where it was, you know, the specific, uh,
2:46:07
building or you know b&b or whatever i don't know might be
2:46:11
better to just have it
2:46:12
as a memory yeah exactly and who knows it is better in my in my
2:46:16
memory because i'm
2:46:17
sure that i've manipulated it and somehow changed the window to
2:46:21
something a little
2:46:22
bit different from what it may have been but yeah that was one
2:46:25
of those kind of
2:46:25
SPEAKER_00: eerie creepy but this is really cool experiences
2:46:30
uh from 2001 it was in uh may of 2001 when that happened oh
2:46:35
very cool yeah mine's
2:46:36
probably from 1987 ish 88 something like that maybe nice i love
2:46:43
that nice all right
2:46:46
last one of from from these and maybe we can do other things as
2:46:49
we go forward with
2:46:50
the show but yeah all right the last one is how did the podcast
2:46:55
change you as a
2:46:56
SPEAKER_02: reader and as a person from our good friend norah
2:47:00
Oh,
2:47:01
this is a really good question and a really good one,
2:47:04
I think,
2:47:05
to Anton.
2:47:09
SPEAKER_00: And I have been thinking about it,
2:47:11
SPEAKER_00: but even as I'm sitting here,
2:47:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm like,
2:47:12
I don't know if I can do justice for what it's meant for me and
2:47:17
put into words that
2:47:20
SPEAKER_00: I've really enjoyed...
2:47:23
you know getting to know you better you know we've we've talked
2:47:26
and chatted and all
2:47:27
that online for years but man it's so it's so nice to have this
2:47:33
setting where we
2:47:34
can sit down and chat more in depth and we talk a lot during
2:47:37
the week now you know
2:47:39
SPEAKER_00: offline but on you know our
2:47:41
SPEAKER_00: through texts or Marco Polo or whatever.
2:47:44
SPEAKER_00: And so that friendship has meant a lot to me.
2:47:47
And the fact that it's rooted in books and a shared love of
2:47:52
that and enthusiasm,
2:47:54
SPEAKER_00: but I think also in a general view of...
2:48:00
making these positive experiences for people,
2:48:02
it just means an awful lot to me.
2:48:08
SPEAKER_00: And I've already talked about the ways that I've changed as a reader,
2:48:11
like really being able to focus on maybe finally reading some
2:48:17
of the books I've
2:48:17
SPEAKER_00: always wanted to,
2:48:18
that I think someday I'll just have that perfect time to sit
2:48:20
down and read that I
2:48:24
SPEAKER_00: wasn't ever getting to.
2:48:26
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:48:27
SPEAKER_00: that has come through you sitting down at the very start and saying,
2:48:31
SPEAKER_00: I think in December,
2:48:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read,
2:48:33
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:48:35
SPEAKER_00: at that time it was Don Quixote.
2:48:37
And I remember thinking,
2:48:38
you have that in mind,
2:48:39
like,
2:48:39
why don't you start it today?
2:48:40
SPEAKER_00: Not,
2:48:40
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't trying to question you,
2:48:42
SPEAKER_00: but more,
2:48:42
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking that's,
2:48:44
SPEAKER_00: I need to maybe change the way I look at that because I often think,
2:48:47
SPEAKER_00: what am I going to read next or today?
2:48:49
SPEAKER_00: And I don't make way for the plans and kind of have that anticipation.
2:48:53
SPEAKER_00: So that has been something I've changed.
2:48:55
SPEAKER_00: And then again, just the approach to being able to read those books.
2:48:59
SPEAKER_00: You have said it very well in the past and even on this episode,
2:49:04
SPEAKER_00: looking for those perfect moments to read a book.
2:49:07
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that doesn't happen.
2:49:10
And maybe our memories of that being the case in the past are
2:49:13
false because it
2:49:15
SPEAKER_00: wasn't an ideal time to sit down and read,
2:49:16
SPEAKER_00: but we did it and it made it.
2:49:19
SPEAKER_00: a great time to read.
2:49:20
SPEAKER_00: Like the book became its own separate piece and place in our,
2:49:24
in our minds and in our memories where really life was crazy
2:49:29
and things were going
2:49:30
SPEAKER_00: on and stresses,
2:49:31
SPEAKER_00: but you know,
2:49:32
SPEAKER_00: the book created that great place for us.
2:49:36
SPEAKER_00: And so real recognizing that and finally just saying it's time now,
2:49:40
SPEAKER_00: those are the ways I think of as,
2:49:42
SPEAKER_00: as it changing me.
2:49:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:49:45
SPEAKER_02: No, I love that.
2:49:46
SPEAKER_02: I will just echo what you said.
2:49:47
I mean,
2:49:48
first and foremost,
2:49:49
the conversations and the friendship has been the standout for me.
2:49:52
It's been one of my favorite things about the last few years
2:49:56
and to the point
2:49:57
SPEAKER_02: people can probably...
2:49:59
SPEAKER_02: pick up on this,
2:49:59
SPEAKER_02: but like half the time,
2:50:01
SPEAKER_02: as much as we talk on here,
2:50:02
SPEAKER_02: either before or after,
2:50:03
SPEAKER_02: like even when we're not recording,
2:50:05
SPEAKER_02: we'll end up blabbering for a long time after and then texting.
2:50:08
SPEAKER_02: And so it's just been so fun.
2:50:09
SPEAKER_02: Just the friendship and the enthusiasm,
2:50:11
SPEAKER_02: like you said,
2:50:12
SPEAKER_02: rooted in books,
2:50:13
but then spreading out into so many other parts of life has
2:50:16
been absolutely amazing.
2:50:17
And I would extend that to so many of the people that we've
2:50:19
connected with,
2:50:20
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:50:21
SPEAKER_02: some of them we knew before and some we didn't.
2:50:24
SPEAKER_02: Just realizing how many kind,
2:50:27
SPEAKER_02: smart people are out there in the world has been so nice,
2:50:31
SPEAKER_02: you know,
2:50:33
SPEAKER_02: for years now.
2:50:34
We've just been exposed to all of you and your support and your
2:50:38
kind thoughts and your
2:50:39
SPEAKER_02: brilliant recommendations has been amazing to me.
2:50:41
SPEAKER_02: And I mean,
2:50:43
SPEAKER_02: this is pretty obvious,
2:50:44
SPEAKER_02: but the podcast has exploded my TBR,
2:50:47
SPEAKER_02: but also my passion to read.
2:50:49
SPEAKER_02: Like every time we close out one of these episodes,
2:50:52
SPEAKER_02: I'm just like going to my shelves,
2:50:53
SPEAKER_02: pulling down books,
2:50:54
SPEAKER_02: like so excited to read.
2:50:56
SPEAKER_02: Um, and,
2:50:58
SPEAKER_02: man, I just can't say how valuable that's been to me.
2:51:01
SPEAKER_02: Just the joy and the hope that this has given me,
2:51:04
the conversations and the friends and just the love of reading
2:51:09
that continues to
2:51:10
SPEAKER_02: blossom and grow.
2:51:11
SPEAKER_02: It's just been so much fun.
2:51:12
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, life-changing.
2:51:14
SPEAKER_02: I don't think that's hyperbole.
2:51:16
SPEAKER_00: Me either.
2:51:17
SPEAKER_00: And thanks to all of you.
2:51:18
SPEAKER_00: I like how you put it.
2:51:20
SPEAKER_00: So many kind,
2:51:21
SPEAKER_00: generous people out there who have reached out,
2:51:25
SPEAKER_00: who have become our friends,
2:51:26
SPEAKER_00: who,
2:51:27
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:51:29
SPEAKER_00: it's just it's it's so great because people often are like,
2:51:34
SPEAKER_00: oh,
2:51:34
SPEAKER_00: we really like the podcast.
2:51:36
SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
2:51:36
SPEAKER_00: It's very comforting and we like to listen to it.
2:51:39
SPEAKER_00: On a stressful day, it helps.
2:51:43
SPEAKER_00: And I would say that's how we feel about your reaching out as well.
2:51:48
SPEAKER_00: It's just, I don't know.
2:51:50
We all need that kind of stuff all the time,
2:51:53
regardless of what's going on everywhere.
2:51:55
But I think even,
2:51:56
especially these days,
2:51:58
it's just nice to know that,
2:51:59
hey...
2:52:00
SPEAKER_00: They're wonderful people all over the place.
2:52:03
SPEAKER_00: And we get to the benefit of getting to know you a little bit.
2:52:07
SPEAKER_00: So thank you all.
2:52:08
If anybody's ever on the fence about reaching out and think
2:52:11
that maybe we don't
2:52:11
SPEAKER_02: want to hear from somebody or that we're busy or whatever,
2:52:13
SPEAKER_02: please,
2:52:13
SPEAKER_02: please,
2:52:14
SPEAKER_02: please,
2:52:14
SPEAKER_02: always,
2:52:14
SPEAKER_02: we love to hear from you.
2:52:15
Never hesitate to send us a comment and we will do our best to
2:52:20
reach out to you too
2:52:22
SPEAKER_02: because it's,
2:52:23
SPEAKER_02: yeah,
2:52:23
SPEAKER_02: we couldn't do it without all of you and we really appreciate you.
2:52:26
Yeah,
2:52:26
it makes me feel bad because sometimes I do know that we're
2:52:28
slow to get back to people.
2:52:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, and oftentimes it isn't, and I need to do better at this.
2:52:34
SPEAKER_00: It's not because I'm like,
2:52:35
SPEAKER_00: oh,
2:52:35
SPEAKER_00: it's,
2:52:36
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:52:36
SPEAKER_00: whatever,
2:52:36
SPEAKER_00: because I want to actually sit down and compose a decent reply.
2:52:41
SPEAKER_00: Um,
2:52:43
SPEAKER_00: cause otherwise it feels dismissive,
2:52:45
SPEAKER_00: but I think it's even worse if I plan for that time and then don't do it.
2:52:49
SPEAKER_00: I got to make it right.
2:52:50
SPEAKER_00: I got to just sit down and do it.
2:52:51
SPEAKER_00: So I need to do better at that, but yeah, always happy to, to interact.
2:52:56
SPEAKER_00: And it means, it means a lot.
2:52:59
Well,
2:52:59
maybe we should save some of our other questions for another episode.
2:53:03
SPEAKER_00: That's probably a pretty good place to end.
2:53:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.
2:53:06
SPEAKER_02: I think we can sprinkle some.
2:53:07
SPEAKER_02: This has been so much fun.
2:53:08
SPEAKER_02: Maybe we can start sprinkling some of these in from time to time.
2:53:11
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I agree.
2:53:12
SPEAKER_02: I think that's the perfect place to end this one.
2:53:15
Other than,
2:53:15
if you don't mind,
2:53:16
I do have one other quick question for you.
2:53:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:53:19
SPEAKER_00: I know you're reading a lot of books and big books.
2:53:24
SPEAKER_00: What's the next one that you have kind of on your plate that you're like,
2:53:28
SPEAKER_00: when this is over,
2:53:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm starting X.
2:53:31
SPEAKER_00: Like today?
2:53:31
SPEAKER_02: Or do you mean when this next?
2:53:33
SPEAKER_00: No, kind of the next phase.
2:53:35
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, we're doing Middlemarch and Lies and Sorcery.
2:53:39
SPEAKER_00: Is there another one that you've got on your, like, horizon list?
2:53:43
SPEAKER_00: Again,
2:53:44
I know we start different books here and there and smaller
2:53:47
books or even big books,
2:53:48
SPEAKER_00: but what's the next one that you're like,
2:53:50
SPEAKER_00: when these are over,
2:53:51
SPEAKER_00: that's what I'm going to jump into.
2:53:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a good question.
2:53:56
SPEAKER_02: There's so many that are competing right now.
2:53:58
SPEAKER_02: This one's not set in stone,
2:53:59
SPEAKER_02: but I've mentioned this one,
2:54:00
SPEAKER_02: I think maybe clear back to our bucket list books.
2:54:07
SPEAKER_02: Somebody posted the other day about John McPhee.
2:54:10
SPEAKER_02: The Annals of the Former World,
2:54:12
SPEAKER_02: that collection of his that is these nonfiction essays about geology,
2:54:17
SPEAKER_02: but written by an English major.
2:54:20
SPEAKER_02: And he's just known for some of his beautiful nonfiction writing.
2:54:24
I think it might be time for me to finally at least start
2:54:28
chipping away at those
2:54:28
SPEAKER_02: and mixing them in with some other ones.
2:54:30
SPEAKER_02: So yeah,
2:54:31
SPEAKER_02: I just recently moved that one off of its kind of,
2:54:33
we've talked about how they can kind of blend in on your
2:54:35
bookshelves and you forget
2:54:36
SPEAKER_02: about them.
2:54:36
SPEAKER_02: I've moved it.
2:54:37
SPEAKER_02: So that's always an important step for me to kind of get it out there.
2:54:41
SPEAKER_02: So that would be the one I think,
2:54:43
SPEAKER_02: obviously like lots of little ones might jump ahead of it,
2:54:46
SPEAKER_02: but that's the next big one that I'm kind of eyeing right now.
2:54:48
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
2:54:50
SPEAKER_00: So I also brought this up,
2:54:52
SPEAKER_00: but I'm just setting it in stone a little bit more,
2:54:54
SPEAKER_00: and it is,
2:54:55
SPEAKER_00: and I can't wait.
2:54:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm really excited.
2:54:57
SPEAKER_00: But the Magic Mountain.
2:54:59
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
2:54:59
SPEAKER_00: Finally.
2:55:00
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
2:55:01
SPEAKER_00: I don't know when,
2:55:01
SPEAKER_00: because I know we finish...
2:55:04
SPEAKER_00: When is maybe the wrong thing,
2:55:06
SPEAKER_00: but we finish Lies and Sorcery here in another couple weeks.
2:55:09
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
2:55:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'll be done, but not done with, you know, Proust.
2:55:13
SPEAKER_00: I got that all year.
2:55:15
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, middle March is, is its own long read.
2:55:21
SPEAKER_00: And then I've got Daniel Deronda to finish up George Elliott.
2:55:25
SPEAKER_00: Um,
2:55:25
SPEAKER_00: so I'm trying to figure out what's the right space,
2:55:27
but once I'm kind of through this thing where I've got all
2:55:30
those books every day,
2:55:32
SPEAKER_00: which I'm very much enjoying,
2:55:33
SPEAKER_00: um,
2:55:34
SPEAKER_00: as I've said before,
2:55:34
SPEAKER_00: uh,
2:55:35
SPEAKER_00: it's the magic mountain.
2:55:36
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
2:55:38
SPEAKER_00: That's a great choice.
2:55:40
SPEAKER_00: I hope I like it.
2:55:42
SPEAKER_00: I do too.
2:55:42
SPEAKER_00: I've heard good things about it.
2:55:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:55:44
SPEAKER_02: I don't know who you heard that from.
2:55:47
SPEAKER_00: All right.
2:55:47
SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks everybody so much.
2:55:49
SPEAKER_00: It's so fun to come on and celebrate a little bit.
2:55:52
We're back to our more regular and more reasonably,
2:55:56
potentially,
2:55:59
what's the word?
2:56:00
SPEAKER_00: A reasonable length of an episode next time.
2:56:02
SPEAKER_00: But it was nice to indulge and celebrate.
2:56:04
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go have some birthday cake now and blow out some candles.
2:56:07
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
2:56:09
SPEAKER_02: So fun.
2:56:10
SPEAKER_00: All right.
2:56:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks, Paul.
2:56:12
SPEAKER_00: We'll see you in a couple of weeks.
2:56:13
SPEAKER_00: All right.
2:56:14
SPEAKER_00: See you later.
2:56:16
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2:56:20
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2:56:22
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2:56:36
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