Latest / Mixed Perspectives Podcast / Every Nerd Starts Somewhere - Sci-fi and Fantasy Discussion | Ep 1
Transcript
- speaker-0: wife doesn't really care about my nerdiness and so so he just needs someone to talk to. speaker-1: This is really just therapy, honestly, for It's incredible. Like it's absolutely incredible. We read that same book though in this novels class and she was able to pull out things that I had no idea were in speaker-0: Really is. It's cheaper. And essentially reading is looking at a page and hallucinating, but it's a a good non-drug way to do it. Hello everyone. Welcome to our podcast. I am Aaron. And ⁓ if you can't tell, we look totally different and we are totally not brothers, but we are in the heart and actually legally speaking. ⁓ we are glad you are here. We are doing this podcast mostly to reach out to our fellow nerds, enthusiasts who like movies or books or TV shows. A lot of we're gonna probably focus more on books. ⁓ but you know, we just love all sorts of nerdiness, and we are super glad you are here on this. speaker-1: My name's Emmanuel. speaker-0: crazy journey that we call life and being nerdy. So speaker-1: Welcome. So dear listener and viewer, ⁓ you may be wondering why I listen to these people I've never heard of, seen before, and may never hear again. And the answer is, I don't know, maybe you shouldn't, but maybe you'll like it. We're brothers. ⁓ Aaron is considerably younger than I am. You can't tell it in our face because Christine's keen. But so the other thing I think that's important to bring up is that we are both writers and creators. So it's not just we're not gonna just talking about nerd stuff, but we will also be talking about creating said nerd stuff, which if that's interesting to you, then you should stick around and listen. ⁓ it'll be so this this podcast, honestly, we're starting it because we love genre, but we also love talking about the creation of things. So Aaron write is writing all the time. I am a director and a writer. and so often it's Aaron's comes to me with an idea and we'll riff on it. ⁓ we're all have an idea and we'll riff on it. And we live about six hours away from each other. So often those Things are only happening when I come and visit, ⁓ or my family comes and visits his family and our wives get mad 'cause we're just talking about stuff that only us care about. So we're hoping there's an audience for other people who also care about said things. speaker-0: It's a hundred percent accurate. Whenever we're over Thanksgiving or anything, we're we're nerding out and then they're like, Can you just stop? And it's like so really we just decided, Hey, how about we find our own people and even if we never see them in person, someone will care. And so here we are, and here you are. So we appreciate it. speaker-1: So Aaron, what do you what else do you want to get out from this podcast? speaker-0: Mostly I just like the the collaboration and stuff. ⁓ I believe like we're gonna ask maybe some questions to like you guys put in the comments or whatever what you whether your favorite books or the genres. Another thing that I always find is like I follow a lot of book booktubers, ⁓ you know, and I like their opinions and everything. But then there's a lot of books that like I listen to or read and then no one ever talks about ⁓ and they don't get enough love. So maybe some of the hidden gems if you were. ⁓ I'm looking forward to doing that. And then just like, you know. Making a community of of fellow nerds. Because like you know, as as my bro just said, and we live six hours away, my wife doesn't really care about my nerdiness and ⁓ so so he just needs someone to talk to. And maybe if you guys will be the those people, the the community and if you feel like, you know, you're a little bit left out and you're the only nerd in your, you know, group, well, come on in, have fun with you guys, so it'll be fun. It's really speaker-1: This is really just therapy, honestly, for ⁓ speaker-0: It really is. It's cheaper. speaker-1: All right, let's start let's talk about Aaron. What was your what was your introduction to story? Nerdum. So okay, so let's define nerdum since we're we're jumping into this. ⁓ and I think more accurately it's probably better to say, let's talk about why genre. What is genre? Because I think there's a when you talk about nerd that could be anything, but specifically what we'll probably be talking a lot on this podcast about is, you know, stuff that's connected to science fiction and or fantasy. ⁓ And those are two very, very, very broad terms for these genres that can contain any type of story. But that's the stuff that I love. I know it's the stuff that Aaron loves. It's the stuff we'll be talking a lot about. ⁓ but I think it'd be interesting to hear, Erin, what your introduction to like why why genre? Why do you love it? So speaker-0: So I mean, the sci fantasy world, ⁓ mostly growing up, I mean, our mother, she read these Redwall series that are just like if you've ever seen ⁓ you should totally get ⁓ If have kids, yeah, they're like middle school, late elementary school, perfect age group for it. They're like, you know, mid evil kind of, but they're like animals and badgers and mice and stuff. And ⁓ she would do like all these voices 'cause she went to ⁓ university and did theater. So she's she has those voices. And so I remember like, you know, some of my core memories of or laying in bed and she reading those. So I think that kinda helped. ⁓ and then also I was nine when the Lord of Rings movies came out. And so that really like I think that was probably the biggest eye opener. Cause like, you know, I'd I'd read. ⁓ but it you know, it was one of those like when you're that young, your books that you're like given weren't like ones that like caught on to me. ⁓ I never got in like the Harry Potter or any of that jazz. But then like when it came to like Lord of Rings and stuff, and so I mean Lord of Rings was super dense. So I couldn't do that. But the Hobbit was like, you I was like, ⁓ this is pretty fun. ⁓ So I think probably that, Lord of Rings, and then like and watching the movies I think really hooked me 'cause I'm a visual person. And then I'm like, wow, this is cool. And then ⁓ just I'm glad I was in the generation I am now where like I had to go through the the sludge of like, no, the eighties fantasy, which is fun. I mean it's it's nice in its own right. But I had the but like arguably the one of the most best trilogies of all time to grow up and ⁓ that was a perfect segue into the world of fantasy and amazing and Star Wars. I mean, obviously there's that. ⁓ so that's really both. speaker-1: We're talking about trilogies like the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean. speaker-1: For a second I thought you were talking about the eighty I'm like the L L Lord of the Rings was written way before the eighties. There's but I see what you're saying. The movies were early two thousand. speaker-0: The movies were yeah. I mean obviously he's from speaker-1: He w fought in World War One. speaker-0: So was nineteen fifteens and so I think the first the Hobbit the H yeah, came out in speaker-1: thirties and then the Lord of the Rings came out in the fifties. ⁓ I don't know that because I saw it and I I have it around the house all the time. But yeah, it's pretty amazing. Yeah, you know, I I often will look at the books that I have and just see when they were published. I just find that fascinating. speaker-0: I've doing that for Dr. Seuss recently. I have a Doctor Seuss book. I've I've been reading it to my oldest and ⁓ the same one that mom had. So it was like nineteen like sixty, nineteen fifty five or something like that. ⁓ like written. Like it was for Deanne, like our aunt, and then it's like my mom's and so her name's in it. So read reading it to my daughters is cool. It's a good little thing. Anyway, so same question to you, what it got you into the genre? 'Cause you didn't have Lord of Rings until you're older. speaker-1: Well yeah, I mean that's a good question. ⁓ so our dad loved Star Wars. And so when it comes to science fiction, I mean honestly, I don't have a memory of the first time watching Star Wars. That's how early how young I was. I do remember, and I don't even know, you maybe you have you may have been one. Maybe you I may not have even been born. The first time I watched Return of the Jedi. But I do rem I still I do remember the battle. Where all the ships fly in to defeat the Death Star, the second Death Star. And just it's still to me one of my favorite movie moments. Like that that scene where the end battle scene in space is still one of the most epic things I've ever seen. ⁓ So I grew up watching Star Wars and then dad was always reading Lord of the Rings. I don't know if you remember this, but he always was always reading it. Like always reading it. He would try to read it once a year. ⁓ so I remember always seeing the cover and asking about it. It was the standard, you know, growing up. you read books in school and because you're half to read them in school, you don't really care about them. But I remember distinctly raiding dad's ⁓ bookshelf and picking up the Fellowship of the Ring, starting to read it and realizing it's like I was about a half a chapter in I'm like, I feel like this is a pre a sequel to another book. So then because it's somehow the the Hobbit's referred to like Bilbo's referred to and like, well there should be another story. So then I found the Hobbit. I still have that version of the Hobbit. It's like it's all falling apart and stuff. And I read The Hobbit, ⁓ and just being like totally just sucked in. And at the same time, at that time, I was starting to get into writing. So basically I would I read The Hobbit and then I read The Lord of the Rings and I would start writing. And I was also playing Warcraft too. For some of you viewers who are of a certain age, you don't remember this game 'cause it came out in like ninety seven, nineteen ninety seven, maybe. But now it's World of Warcraft. It used to be just called Warcraft. It was a real time strategy game. Loosely it's he has elves and orcs and you know dwarves and it's it's it's Lord of the Rings inspired, but it's different. But so I was writing a s I would I would basically write stories that were set in like this world where it was like a combination of Lord of the Rings and then Warcraft. And then I remember discovering Dune, ⁓ probably sixth or seventh grade, and also in dad's library. He had a bunch of sci fi. And just being totally sucked into that world. So that was kind of my probably my first foray into science fiction like writing. There was also a bunch of Star Wars books at the time. This was before way before Disney bought Star Wars. And so there was this whole world that I got into that. ⁓ so it's kind of a which I think is probably the case. I feel like Dune and The Hobbit are kind of gateway drugs into this genre when it comes to science fiction fantasy for a lot of people. ⁓ and I am this part of that that that generation. ⁓ But then the Red Wall, I'm glad you brought that up. I actually forgot about Redwall. I used to read a ton of that in middle school. Like I was always reading Red Wall. speaker-0: Legit. 'Cause it's like kitty, but then it's also like I mean, I can remember one of the badgers like biting the neck of a rat and killing him. So I mean it's it's also not like super kidding. Which is like, you this is a perfect fine line. Whereas it's like that's the thing with like a lot of books, is like even when I was younger, I always like it wasn't that I was mature, it was just one of those and I I'm also like a a boy, so that could be too, but it's one of those like stop like you know, stop using like welter weights and like actually like, you know, show me the the good stuff, you know. So I I was saying to say is like, you know, they a l ⁓ some of the kid books like too kiddie. And so I think the Red Wall series was a perfect at least for me as a boy again, like I I wanted like the action and stuff. But then there's also like the there's the fun witty fantasy of also being a kid. Which that author actually, when he was a kid, he would write like he was told to write like a short story and ⁓ he he turned it in and his teacher didn't believe him and actually spanked him 'cause she thought he thought he was lying. Mm-hmm. Can you imagine being that guy? Like being that teacher later on. That's like like speaking Tolkien and then like realize they're like, ⁓ what did I just do? You know, like it's it's pretty funny. So yeah. ⁓ speaker-1: Yeah, I'm trying to get ⁓ so I have three boys. ⁓ my oldest is eleven as at the record time of the recording this podcast. I'm trying to get him to read the Redwall series because it was ⁓ we went to the library a couple weeks ago. There it was big and I'm like, ⁓ my gosh. ⁓ he loves he loves all things science fiction and fantasy, et cetera. But speaker-0: An Animorphs. Animorphs was another one. If that speaker-1: Animorph. I never read that one. That was after my I know I never didn't do it. speaker-0: Yeah. I it was it was all in the nineties. ⁓ for those listeners who don't know what anamorphs are, it's like a group of late ⁓ so you're like they're like middle school or like early high school and they there's an alien crash ship and then they this alien comes out and he's kind of like a mentor, ⁓ but like alien wise, and he gives them this this box that makes them able to take any DNA of anything and morph into it for at least two hours, and if you don't morph out, then you're stuck there. And ⁓ the series is like it's sci-fi, but it's really good. And I actually like I got like a free audible thing for ⁓ like one like one month you can get for a dollar and you can like listen to like, you know, for a while. And I'm like, I haven't listened to the Animorphs or Reddit in a long time. So I went back and like and I'm like, it still holds up. I mean, minus the fact of like they use quarters and VACRs and stuff. But I mean like the actual story is still like it's enjoyable, regardless of how old like how old you are. So that's a great series too, if you're looking into things for your middle school elementary kids to read. Or you want to. speaker-1: Yeah, so then it comes to why why do you write, Aaron? What's what's what there's a thing, you know, obviously you can consume nerd things, but then why why create it yourself? speaker-0: I mean again it really started with Lord of Rings and then I was like, I don't know, maybe it was one of those like, I wanna be in charge now. I'm Captain Now kind of thing. And I I remember the first book I wrote. It was so bad. This one this one I had an idea of like so a lot of times when I write, I'll I'll see something, whether it's like it used to be like if I see something on a movie or a game or something, now it's like, you if I have I'm looking for something, I'll look on Pinterest or something. ⁓ but like with me, I'm a visual person, so I can see like one thing or one line of something and like, ⁓ that's a great idea. Like I don't know if you know this, but like Brandon Sanderson, when he he saw Darth Moore fighting Obi Wan and he point to like the droid on the ground and he threw it in that their fight and it exploded. That came up with the Mistborn series because he's like, ⁓ how would that work? And then like the whole part just came from that spark of inspiration of Darth Moore. And so, like, and that's kind of how it was with me. So with Lord of Rings, I was like, these elves are freaking awesome. Like, what if I do something with them? And and then when my first one was like, I I had, you know, orcs and elves. And then I saw like some blue skinned thing on the game. I don't even know what game it was. ⁓ and I was like, ⁓ that's cool. And I just threw everything in there. And then eventually I just kept on going. I don't even know if I knew you wrote. Or maybe I did know you wrote and I just wanted to be like you. I don't recall. ⁓ like I don't I don't remember. 'Cause I mean like aga again, dear listeners, he's seven years older than I am. And so when I was like still being a kid, he was like, I don't know, being a nerd in the corner reading Dune or something and talking about the spice. I'm like, What are you talking about? speaker-1: That's probably 'cause I got into drugs or something at the time. No. speaker-0: Yeah, you Mahadeeb. So ⁓ I just thought you were talking about tongues or something. So yeah ⁓ speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, so ⁓ let me think. So I 'cause I started writing I remember I had ⁓ like a legal pad and I was trying to write a sequel to R Return of the King. So I wanted to I wanted to write a story that took place after Aragorn s ascends the throne and basically he sends out a party to explore past the Sea of Rune. That was gonna be So I I wrote it. Yeah, it was like Fun. It was like a fanfiction. Yeah, that was my first thing I remember writing as like speaker-0: Like a fanfiction. speaker-1: on paper. I also used to I had this story, man, I was probably elementary school. And it was this very mid it was basically a Star Wars ripoff, but I would play with him with Legos, ⁓ where I had this character. I think his name was Luke, and then there was this bad guy. I remember his name. Yeah. Well I think his name was Sauron, which is close, you know, close to Sauron. Yeah, it's so clever. speaker-0: Vader? Super clever. Very unique. speaker-1: But he it was I remember in middle school I tried to write it as like actually a story. So I was yeah, middle school I think for me is when I started actually like just playing around with writing just as like a creative outlet, I guess. But I didn't really get serious about writing until a senior year of high school. I took ⁓ I think it's a the in high it was think it was just called novels. It was like a very general term. It was one of those classes where power of story in that like deeper level of story was unlocked for me for the first time really. Because there's you read something, especially when you're younger, you read things at a surface level. So like you never at least for me, maybe this is not everyone, this probably isn't everyone, but so for example, one of the books I used to love and I still love it, ⁓ was Watership Down. It's what inspired it's the book that inspired Brian Jox. So every time you would read the back of Brian Jox's Red Ball series, It's say in the in the spirit of Watership Down, so eventually I like, ⁓ I need to read what what is this Watership Down? It's nothing like Redwall, but it's follows rabbits. ⁓ that can you know, it's like they can talk if they have this whole society, they go on this adventure. speaker-0: There's this speaker-1: And it's it's incredible. Like it's absolutely incredible. But I just enjoyed it as a story. We read that same book though in this novels class, and she was able to pull out things that I had no idea were in there. He's talking about society, talking about art, talking about like different types of government, using this simple story, and it was this unlock for me of like, ⁓ stories are more than just entertainment. Stories are something way deeper. ⁓ so after that class, I remember that summer, so this would have been after graduated high school. I worked at Walmart as a cart pusher. ⁓ and this is before Walmart had like the automated cart pushing machines where you just slap things that you literally would just collect the carts. This is before I for some reason they didn't give me a headset. So I could just be out in the parking lot for hours. Just like speaker-0: They also like cut down your hours and you didn't know and you just showed up too, didn't speaker-1: I didn't yeah, I I I was forty hours a week. and at some point they changed my hours to not be forty hours a week, but I didn't know. I didn't sh actually check the board, I just kept showing up and they kept paying me. So but that's not what this conversation story is about. But while out doing that, I was just thinking about stories I wanted to tell. And that's when I started writing my first book, which I never actually had a name found a name for it. It was called like something rift, something, something. ⁓ Yeah, but that's kind of what That class has inspired me to like to become a writer. Like th the realizing that I had all these stories in me and I really wanted to get them out and like as like ⁓ people opposed to just a fun thing I did in the side, as like a thing or the ex Nilo of it, the from nothing of it, like that starts with writing. It just has to start with writing. For just the way that human humans are. Like eat movies, you have to start with a script. ⁓ anything that you could want to put out in the world has to start with the writing. So I remember after that class, I'm like, I'm gonna start writing. And I remember I wrote I think I wrote eighty pages that summer. Nice. ⁓ I didn't realize how hard writing is. speaker-0: Well that's what's right, it's finishing. Finishing is where it is. speaker-1: Very difficult 'cause I kinda just was meandering and didn't really wasn't going anywhere and then had to start studying s like what is story shape and form and all the things. But speaker-0: Yeah, I mean I don't remember really figuring out the whole form thing. 'Cause I remember I remember I w I would write a lot of stories and I wrote another one I got into like I got into anime in middle school, ⁓ with one of my buddies. And ⁓ before that I never got into it. Like, ⁓ I was too young for like the Dragon Ball Z and stuff. Like I never saw it on TV. I like you guys I think watched it, but I never did. ⁓ and then my my friend got me into Naruto and then like I mean ⁓ I we 'cause we had a buddy that ⁓ who gave me like all these D V Ds of them. And they had like the subtitles and I I watched so much that like I would dream in subtitles in Japanese. Like I'd have to read what was happening. And that's how much how much I watched. And ⁓ so like and that gave me a really good idea. And then around that same time was Avatar Last Airbender came out. And like and like I just like that was like my formative. And so I just combined both of those. ⁓ my first book that I I wrote that was I think like the more mature actual like I know what I'm doing now book. ⁓ was that kind of mashup. And then I'm st I'm still I finally finished the first one because I've I've redone it like multiple times. Cause at first it was just like a Naruto knockoff. And then it was like a Naruto Avatar knockoff. And then finally I made it where it's like it's my own thing. It just gives like homage to that kind of thing. But like yeah with with it comes with the stories, like knowing how story structure and stuff is, I never got that until I was reading like part of that book. And I remember like, you know I didn't know how long word like I didn't know what word count was. I thought you know it just pages. And then I remember like you mentioning something about word count. And I'm like, Where where's my word count? And in my mind I was like a a third or maybe a fourth done with the book and I was already at like a hundred thousand words or something. And I was like, ⁓ man So I had to like I scratched it all and I just restarted and stuff. ⁓ so that's that's something for sure. I guess what what what's important for you? Like what's the main thing for writing stories or your takeaway of like, why why is it like kind of like music is like humanity, like we need music. It brings us to a location. What do you think about reading? Not even this isn't necessarily about fantasy, ⁓ but just reading in general. Why do you think that we should do it? Why do you think that people who haven't done it should do it? speaker-1: You've heard of books but never consume. ⁓ there are, and I don't understand why. I mean, I guess I guess I kind of get it. I could see, you know, if you're dyslexic, for example, ⁓ I could see reading being difficult. I think because you read you listen to a lot of books. I don't do the audiobook thing, but you do, and I ⁓ some some of our friends are very big in audiobooks. ⁓ so I do personally prefer reading, especially as a writer, because often I will speaker-0: There's lot of people like that. speaker-1: reread. If I'm re especially if I'm reading something that's just phenomenal, I'll actually stop, I'll reread it, I'll reread I'll read it. And then I'll actually take I'll actually rewrite it in my Evernote or I'll take a picture of it. Usually I'll rewrite it because I want to know what the the words like how they feel when you write them. But as just a normal person, I think consume I don't like the word consuming because you don't consume a story. But there is something there's something called narrative transportation where when you stories are humanity's way of not e not just connecting with ourselves but cut connecting with each other. So and I think fiction specifically lets us tie into you can write a story that's super niche. And so there's this ⁓ I don't know, the Hobbit, for example. It's about a Hobbit, an imaginary creature who goes on this adventure. It's one of the most famous books of all time. Like, why is that? Why, why, what is that appealing thing? And there's something about, I don't want to say the hero's journey because it's an oversimplification of the idea, but There's something about a book and a story that's that takes all of life's busyness, and this is what story does in general. It takes all the stuff that happens in life and gives meaning to it. And so I think the written form of story is probably the purest version of story in my mind, because especially books, because you can really sit with the character, you can really or the writer can really take you inside the mind that is something that you can't do on a movie. can't do in a theater on a theater stage play. Movies and theater are are great ways of telling stories in different ways. But I think when it comes to reading why read, I think that's why. It's like you can go you can go to a place, you can find empathy, you can find sympathy, ⁓ you can connect to your fellow man. Just in a way that I think is helpful for society, especially in today's era where everyone's so like me, me, me, me, me. And I think it'll just it just makes life more fun. I don't know. There's just something about books. ⁓ And I get some people just don't like reading, like and that's I think that's okay. But I think there's other ways of consuming said stories, like whether it's auto audio audible books, audio, audible, is that audible? speaker-0: Yeah, and may and maybe we will do a whole podcast just about that. But I mean like that's the thing too where it's like, ⁓ if you haven't read, well I mean, if you're listening to us you probably have. but if you know someone who is in need, ⁓ like this is one thing, like I have I have a few friends and our brother. Like our we have we have three well, technically, under the eyes of the Lord, we have eight brothers, but like we have there's three of us that are full brothers. And ⁓ our other brother never reads. He's the only one of us that can spell, but he can't read the s he's speaker-1: I don't understand what that's about at all. I can't spell. I'm such a bad person. speaker-0: It's because we're s ⁓ no, I'm terrible. I want to say we're so creative, we think about other ways to spell a word. You know, there's there's more than one way to sing a cat. I spell beautiful wrong so often that my autocorrect is just like I I can't trust it anymore. Because it it just corrects to the wrong thing. So it's rough. ⁓ but like the thing is like I remember hearing a quote where it's like if you have the ability to read and you don't, you're just as bad as someone who can't read. ⁓ and it's true. 'Cause I mean, like, 'cause there's a lot like I mean we're in a age of society, and like in the middle evil ages, the only people who were able to read were like the the clerics or like if you're a noble. And like and now we have so much inf granted, yes, we have so much information now in this day and age, blah, blah, blah. Everyone knows that. But like we have I mean, usually ninety percent, at least of Americans, know how to read. And like not using that to explore into different things that not about yourself or different, you know, totally whether it's history, whether it's ⁓ self help books, whether it's fantasy or something, just learning to improve yourself. I mean it's a way to improve yourself. ⁓ but it's also a way to do it where it's like it does stuff for your brain because like you know you can always passively hear things. And that works as well. Cause I mean like what what Emmanuel said, like I I listen to probably like I do most of my reading like all Audible because like right now I have like little kids. ⁓ I have like a I have a one year old and a four year old and ⁓ just physically holding a book is near impossible. Like I just can't. Like I I'll they'll grab it and all this stuff. So like I just listen to audible. And I find, like, for me, I just it's just as good. ⁓ and I I I always is good at multitasking anyway. So it's like some people zone out, but I remember physically holding a book and zoning out. I'm like, I have no idea what the heck I just read. So it's more of like a discipline. But at the same time, reading it it brings you into a new world. It brings you into a new perspective. And like, you know, it's the same same thing too, where it's like whether it's history or whatever, like, you know, if you don't know the things of the past, you're doing the repeat it. And the same thing when it comes to stories, it's like one of those like there's so much wisdom And insights of things that like a little hobbit can teach you about friendship and through adversity and stuff. And like, you know, even the corrupt like poor golem, you know, he wanted to be better and then he's gonna go and stuff. Like all that is stuff in real life that we see with people with addictions or people who never had real friends and stuff. And it's just like a way to connect people and not be in your own little world, like literally. I mean, it and essentially reading is looking at a page and hallucinating. But it's a a good non drug way to do it. You know? It's it's one of those like you get to you get to be into a new world and stuff. So if you never read, which again, I doubt it, but if you know a friend who's in need, give ⁓ give ⁓ something that like you know they would like. I mean the Hobbit is awesome. But like whether they're like just there's a niche for everyone, whether your history, whether it's cooking, whether it's whatever, parenting, there's always something. I think the whole like, I don't like to read is like that excuse. One, it just bugs me 'cause it's one of those like it's because you just don't. It's just one of those things where it's like, you know, saying like, you know, I don't like to run or I don't like to eat healthy, or I don't like to I don't know, not scroll endlessly on my phone. It's one of those like well, you can, you just have to have discipline for it, you know. That's the same thing with anything anything important. Anything important in life, you have to have discipline. If you want to be married, that takes a lot of self sacrifice and it takes discipline. So it's the same thing with reading. It's just like and reading is fun, you know. So I don't know, I kinda ramble around. Yes. It can be the best or worst thing in speaker-1: Yeah, I mean I think with reading. Yeah, I I think p so much of it is finding something you like. Like I liked the idea of reading when I was younger. I know if that's true. I because I didn't discover probably wasn't until middle school that I started reading. Like I didn't think I liked reading. ⁓ so I think so my I have three sons, ⁓ eleven, nine, and six, almost seven. By the time this is published, he'll be seven. But my middle son, he's still trying to figure out that thing he likes. So we're been and it's been so he default like well don't like reading. I don't like because my oldest son reads all the time, like nonstop. ⁓ yeah, it's great. It really is. ⁓ but I think it's created this thing where Eli, like, because his older brother is reading all the time, it's like, well maybe I just don't I'm not a good reader because I don't really like reading. It's like, well I think, you know, I think part of it is the process of reading. There's actually some people just like reading. Like and there's a difference between 'Cause you can take in a story different ways. E my oldest la just likes reading. And I was like that too when I was in middle school. I just read all the time. You probably remember me just reading all the time. but I think it's once Eli finds he likes he's finding like, ⁓ I like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Like that's it's silly. It's kinda has like illustrations. It's a have you ever seen Diary of a Wimpy Kid? It's like a speaker-0: No, it I I actually literally was just at like Borders yesterday and I saw I'm like, I never actually read it but I know it's speaker-1: Yeah, like but that was my oldest. He star he read all those and really liked them. And now Eli is like, ⁓ this is like it's a great it's a great gateway type of story where it's part illustration. Also like part comic book, part novel. It's really clever. It's written from a kid's perspective. It's very funny. He's starting to like that. So it's like, okay. So I think part of it, I think a lot of us, especially if you were forced quote unquote into reading when you're in school, there's something about being told to read that just creates this Some of like pr from a personality standpoint can create an automatic pushback and then I think that's partly probably why a lot of people don't like reading. 'Cause that's they were told to read and they didn't really ever find that story that really speaker-0: Or they'd give ⁓ like the Odyssey, you know, like something super speaker-1: It's really hard to connect with or yeah, like yeah, there's and there's so many reasons. I mean, so for example, I didn't really appreciate until that novels class I told you about, I didn't really appreciate r good stories, like real literature. I just didn't appreciate it. So we were supposed to read Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. I want to say junior year going into senior year of high school. And I was in a celebrated English class at the time, and I actually they wanted us to read over summer and I didn't want to read it and like I didn't appreciate it. So I just dropped out of don't ever do this, readers and listeners, but ⁓ I just didn't take that. I didn't continue taking accelerated English. Accelerated English? Is that what they called it? It sounds like a silly silly title, but honors English, maybe? I think it's honors English. So I just didn't read it over the summer, and then I just didn't take that class. I didn't continue to it in the honors program in senior year high school, which now I regret because now I'm reading Steinbeck and just like speaker-0: Maybe maybe I'm single. speaker-1: ⁓ my god, he is as a writer, I'm reading East of Eden right now. It's probably the best novel ever written. Like it's yeah, it's it's set in the twenties, I think, nineteen twenties, during the Dust Bowl era. And we can have a whole we can have a whole conversation about writing. The difference between writing and storytelling, I think, is very important. Because I was told I guess I'll but I'm the long way to say because I was told to read that book and didn't appreciate it, I didn't read it and thought, Well, I don't like literature. But I think if I had somehow come across it or been able to been told about it in a different way as like a writer, hey, as a writer, you should read this book 'cause it'll help you become a better writer. I would have been like all about it. So ⁓ anyway, I mean, talk about we'll we'll have many episodes to talk about this episode. Yeah. speaker-0: We'll probably yeah probably wrap this one up. ⁓ so call to action. If you if you know someone who is in need of reading, f find something. F one, find their interest. Find their like the main thing is if you're looking for a book type of a series or anything, like think about what you enjoy. What do you like watching? And then I guarantee you there's a book that's similar to it. And ⁓ like probably a lot of books, I movies that you do watch, they're probably are based off of a of a book. speaker-1: Best kept secret in Hollywood is almost everything almost I'd say eighty percent of the movies and the shows that you watch were either a book or a graphic novel or a s like a ser like a novella ⁓ that were adapted into a visual form because Hollywood doesn't like really like take risks, especially in the past twenty years, and so it just adapts things that already have a little bit of an audience. So what Aaron's saying is true. I you already like it. Yeah. speaker-0: So that's your homework. That's your homework, guys. Just ⁓ find someone. And if you're if you're haven't read something in a while, find something of your interest and then do it. And like our uncle, he he reads all the time, but he doesn't read fantasy. He only reads historic stuff. ⁓ and it's cool. I mean he has a lot of nerdy stuff. I like to talk about I like history, so doing that stuff. But I also like going into the world of Star Wars, so that's one of those things. So ⁓ so yeah, ⁓ appreciate you guys listening to our first podcast. Hope we didn't ramble on too long. Like and share and put in your comments of like What are some of the books that started you guys? You know, what are what are the ones that really kicked you off into whatever? And whatever genre, whether it's, you know, Mancy or whatever. ⁓ just put some interests and we'll have some polite conversations in there. Romanticy I'm sure there is a romancy with Mancy. I'm gonna make a book just about Mancy's romanticy, just because you said that. speaker-1: Romance Romanticy. Nancy. speaker-0: Yeah. So yeah. ⁓ so do that. Thank you for listening to Two Bros Just Talk. Have a good one. Keep reading, guys.