Latest / Bookies' Favourite / On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated byBarbara J. Haveland | Review | International Booker Prize 2025

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On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated byBarbara J. Haveland | Review | International Booker Prize 2025 · Bookies' Favourite

0:11
Hello, hello and welcome to our 4th book review for the Booker
0:18
International 2025 shortlist. This episode we will be
0:23
discussing on the calculation of Volume 1 by Salvage Bala.
0:31
I think it's salvage Bala. Does that know what I said?
0:35
No. Salvage Bala Bala Bala Bala
0:42
Bala. Make Bala money.
0:46
That's what she was named after. Yeah, she's, I believe it's
0:50
translated from the original Ulster Scots.
0:52
This book has been translated from Danish by Barbara J
0:57
Havlund. This book is the first in
1:00
septology. They've been self published by
1:05
Bali. Just think.
1:08
Bala money. Every time Bala money.
1:11
And it has been published by Faber.
1:14
I am Aaron and I have not finished this book.
1:19
This is this is the second book in the shortlist so far that I
1:26
have not finished before we record.
1:28
I will have them all finished before a winner is announced so
1:33
I can make a complete decision on who I think shut and will
1:37
win. But for this recording, I have
1:41
about 70 pages left. I have been assured by everyone
1:45
that it doesn't really matter that I haven't finished it
1:48
because there's not really a resolution to this story, and I
1:53
guess that's because it's part of this septology.
1:57
I will say, I think I think there's a character like
2:02
finally, like completion, like there's an art completion in a
2:04
way, but there's no plot. I'm Colin.
2:08
I am a fiend for time loops. There's a time loop.
2:12
Sign me. Well, not in reality.
2:14
I would not like to be stuck in time, but I love time loops in
2:17
literature. And I actually think, I hate to
2:20
say it, my expectations, I think for this one were a little bit
2:23
high because of that excitement for the time loop.
2:26
So I kind of, I enjoyed this book and I think it has some
2:30
really meaningful, thoughtful things to say.
2:33
And I like it because it's a bit lighter than the others in terms
2:35
of like heaviness of topics. But yeah, I think All in all, I
2:42
kind of felt like I was stuck in a repetitive cycle with this
2:45
book and I kind of wanted to break that myself.
2:48
Hi, I'm Lucy. And yeah, I understand what
2:52
you're saying, Colin, but I kind of think I slightly disagree.
2:55
But I had really, really high hopes for this book because I
2:58
love a literary twist on something like this, like that
3:01
kind of time story. Also love magical realism and I
3:05
think this is definitely like in there with magical realism and
3:09
it's the type of story I really like.
3:11
I so yeah, the bar was set so high for this book, but I don't
3:15
feel like it disappointed me. I think that books like this,
3:19
for me, it's like all about the journey.
3:21
It's like you feel there's almost like a dreamlike quality
3:24
and like a freedom that she has through like how she interacts
3:29
with the world and stuff and I really enjoyed that.
3:32
Have to say at times I found the writing movie slightly boring
3:36
just with the repetitive nature of it, but I, I didn't, it
3:40
didn't bother me too much because I was like so like
3:43
putting myself into her world and being like, what, what would
3:46
I do if I was in a similar situation?
3:49
And that's what I found myself like thinking about a lot.
3:52
But I, I do have to say the second reading of it I did find
3:55
difficult because I was like, I know what's going to happen
3:59
here. It was tougher than the other
4:00
books to reread, which I. Wasn't expecting.
4:04
But I do think I still do think I rate this very high because I
4:08
really enjoyed the experience of reading it.
4:10
Hi, I'm Hannah and I'm coming to you today from the lovely city
4:15
of Bristol. I really enjoyed this book.
4:19
I just found it like such an easy read compared to last week.
4:24
Last week when I was trying to get through the book I was
4:26
almost falling asleep the right and I just was.
4:29
I do not enjoy this week. I flew through this book like I
4:34
spend my I Love Lucy shaking her head there.
4:37
Had the hair on a leopard skin hat.
4:39
But that's all news, Lucy. Any opportunity to slag it off?
4:42
I'm not appreciating it. Well, this book I really
4:47
enjoyed, but I love that we've all picked up on that part of it
4:50
where it was so repetitive and it felt like, oh, it's going on
4:54
and on. But when you think about the
4:56
novel as a whole, there's a reason why it's like quite
4:59
repetitive. So I'm excited to see what
5:01
everyone thinks this week. So this book is basically a time
5:05
loop and where our protagonist Tara Stelter Stelter Stelter
5:13
Stelter and where Tara Stelter has woken up on the 18th of
5:19
November and she just keeps waking up on the 18th of
5:25
November. It never becomes the 19th and no
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one else seems to remember this. No one else is stuck in this
5:32
time loop us aside from Tara. And to start us off, we do have
5:38
a message on the thoughts of Amy Kent Mueller, who is at Mythic
5:45
Reader on Instagram. I originally thought it was my
5:49
thick reader, but I, I think it makes more sense if if she's
5:53
Mythic reader. So let's let's take a listen and
5:59
see what what Amy thought. On the Calculation of volume,
6:03
Book 1 is the first book in A7 part series that is being slowly
6:07
translated from Danish into English.
6:10
And it's the kind of thing that makes me wish that I could read
6:13
Danish, because I really wish I could just read the whole series
6:16
and know what happens. But alas, I'm having to wait for
6:19
the English translations of each one.
6:21
And that kind of shows you how much I love this book, because I
6:24
just want to know what happens next.
6:27
This book though, follows Tara as she realises that the 18th
6:30
November is repeating for her, but no one else seems to notice,
6:34
so she begins to write a diary to keep track of the days.
6:38
This book is unlike really anything I've read before.
6:41
It's so beautifully written and it's so meditative and it's a
6:45
story about the movement of time, the relationships in our
6:48
lives and the marks that we leave on the world.
6:51
It's a book that's really easy to read but so deep with meaning
6:55
that it just lingers with you after you close the pages.
6:59
It's so worthy of being on the shortlist because it's just one
7:04
that you don't forget and it makes you use things a little
7:07
differently. Like, after I read it, I did
7:09
really think about my day and I thought about the people in my
7:13
day and all the different things that make up a day.
7:16
And I think that shows a book that really is written well,
7:20
that makes you rethink things. Umm, I'd love to read a little
7:24
quote from you, the book, if that's alright.
7:26
That just really stuck with me. It seems so odd to me now how 1
7:33
can be so unsettled by the improbable when we know that our
7:37
entire existence is founded on free concurrences and improbable
7:40
coincidences. That we wouldn't be here at all
7:43
if it weren't for these curious twists of fate.
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That there are human beings on what we call our planet, that we
7:49
can move around on a rotating sphere in a vast universe full
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of inconceivably large bodies compromised of elements so small
7:57
that the mind simply cannot comprehend how small and how
8:00
many they are. That in this unfathomable
8:03
vastness, these infinitesimal elements are still able to hold
8:07
themselves together, though we manage to stay afloat, though
8:10
exist at all, though each of us have come into being as only one
8:14
of the untold possibilities. The unthinkable is something we
8:17
carry with us always has already happened.
8:19
We are improbable. We have emerged from a cloud of
8:22
unbelievable coincidences. Isn't that just gorgeous?
8:28
I could literally go on reading this book and just share how
8:30
beautiful it is. But I know the podcast will
8:34
hopefully talk about how much they loved it.
8:36
And yeah, I'm so glad this is on the shortlist and that other
8:41
people will read it because of it.
8:42
It's just one of those books you want to gift everyone because
8:46
it's just so thoughtful, so well written, got a great character
8:51
that you just want to follow. And yeah, it makes you think,
8:55
which I think is a great thing in a book.
8:57
So yeah, that's my thoughts on the calculation of volume.
9:00
Book one. That's lovely.
9:02
Yeah, yeah, I really love that. I love to.
9:04
Tell how passionate she is, yeah.
9:06
It was my favorite thing is what she's reading out these really
9:08
nice quotes. And it made me think back to
9:11
like when we were chatting earlier in the week and I sent
9:14
in the quote, a ghost paint upright, pure pissing spirit.
9:18
What sort of a world is this? And I love that That's the thing
9:21
that I pulled out of the book. And she was saying these lovely,
9:25
thoughtful things, the. Fact that this is a septology, I
9:32
was hoping that by the end of this book that story would be
9:37
completed. Finding out that a book in a
9:41
series was added to the shortlist, I was kind of dubious
9:44
to begin with, because if we have to read an entire
9:47
collection of books to understand a complete story, I
9:53
don't know if one book can do that.
9:56
Well, I think that it's it's a it's a great sandal in book.
10:00
I think it would be absolutely fine if someone told me that it
10:03
didn't have a, a second one. I don't think that there's a
10:07
need to like and I think this is probably what the book is about.
10:10
We, I'm assuming by the end of the 7th book, we are going to be
10:13
no closer to understanding why she's in the scenario that she's
10:17
in. It's about she is she's in that
10:20
scenario and she's getting used to it and what what the days are
10:23
like. And I think, like Amy said, it's
10:26
kind of there's a real beauty to like how her, how she perceives
10:30
the day and how like it, it makes you think about your day
10:35
and it makes you think about like, oh, who do I see?
10:37
Who do I like? Because I mean, obviously we
10:40
don't repeat any of our days, but like you don't think enough
10:45
about that one day and you don't think enough.
10:47
And it's like your perception. I, I thought it was a really, it
10:52
is that I, so I love this style of book.
10:54
Like I absolutely love it. I, I do not want to know any
10:58
more about what the time loop means.
11:00
I don't want to know any consensus.
11:01
I don't care like it doesn't. It doesn't really bother me that
11:04
much by really. I thought it was a really good
11:07
stand alone book. I've read the second one.
11:10
I think the second one's very maybe prefer it slightly, but
11:16
but then actually, so I read the first one and then I read the
11:19
second one straight after and then not that long after that I
11:22
read the first one again. So I'm kind of in a weird
11:25
position with them all. You are time loop and lose,
11:28
yeah. I am, I really am.
11:30
I am currently in November 18th. Like I very, but like I feel
11:36
like this one's more introspective and the second one
11:39
is more adventurous and which is kind of, which is an interesting
11:43
kind of aspect because I spent a lot of the time in the first one
11:46
going being like, I would have done things differently and
11:50
thinking about that. And then it's like the second
11:52
one, I feel like she does more things that I would do.
11:54
I think that if I read the first one on on its own, I still would
11:58
have rated it as highly as I do read it, and I think it could be
12:03
100% as as Amy was saying, it deserves to be in the shortlist.
12:07
I. Thought it 100% did.
12:09
It's so much better than a lot of the other books.
12:11
I can't like it's much better than perfection.
12:13
It's much better I think than under the eye.
12:15
I'm I know I'm slagging them off but like.
12:18
Yeah, I I think, I think what you were saying, like with with
12:23
time loop stories, a lot of the time the point of them is people
12:26
trying to find somewhere to break.
12:28
There's like the story is the plot is them breaking this
12:30
because they want to get back to their normal life, like they
12:33
want the time to continue. But in this book, it's obviously
12:37
it's taking that literary slant and it's more about, like you
12:39
said, finding the importance of a of a day and even the
12:42
importance of a year. Like I look back and I'm like,
12:45
how is it already, you know, May from last year?
12:49
And I think back to like where I was last May and it's like,
12:51
feels like a day has passed pretty much in that time.
12:55
But then you look at it on the wider scale, just like this
12:57
diary that that the Cara character Tara is writing.
13:01
You look at it in like, like I journal my my year and I always
13:04
feel like a yearly retrospective or a monthly retrospective
13:07
because I think it's so important to have a grasp of
13:10
time passing and knowing like things that have happened.
13:14
And I think this book has really good meditations on.
13:16
I get those introspective thoughts of what is in a day,
13:19
but also the mundaneity of life and how we're always or days are
13:23
so similar to to last week. Like we go to work and we
13:27
probably eat the same all these different things.
13:29
And sure, you have things that spice, but the, the most that
13:33
the part of living is, is just, is living, You know, it's, it's
13:38
not about like looking forward to, uh, something in the future
13:41
or looking forward or, and like sitting with something in the
13:44
past. It is about the present, really.
13:45
It made me really think about if you were stuck in a day and I'm
13:51
like, what if it was one of those really mundane days where
13:53
I didn't do absolutely anything and I was stuck in that?
13:56
And then it made me think, should I be doing more with my
13:58
day like in life itself like? Yeah, You see, I think she takes
14:03
it. She's quite calm as a character.
14:05
I mean, maybe, maybe the first few days it was like chaos.
14:08
But like, I think that's the thing that sets her apart as
14:11
well. Like she kind of like, to me,
14:13
this is a Horror Story. Like, like she almost has
14:15
touches of horror throughout where she realizes she's aging
14:18
and other people aren't aging. And like, what does that mean?
14:21
Like does she see her life disappear and these other, you
14:24
know, these other people around her don't like that's
14:27
horrifying. And she's on her own like
14:28
completely. But she kind of in a way, it
14:31
doesn't seem to affect her like in in the horrific, terrifying
14:36
way that I think would like affect me.
14:39
I that's my favorite thing about these kind of books that like
14:42
magical realism feel of it where it's like this horrifically
14:47
weird scenario has happened, but all the characters are just
14:50
like, get on with it. And I love that there's
14:53
something about that, like not panicking because I don't like
14:57
in any shape or form. It's like my biggest fear.
15:00
I really hate it. So I love the idea that like,
15:03
she just takes it as it is and just goes along with it.
15:06
And then like, I would like to think that that's what I would
15:09
do. Oh, I definitely would.
15:11
I would be like. You would spiral, Hannah I.
15:15
Spiral on a daily basis so I've I was stuck in the same day.
15:17
Oh God, multiply that by 365 actually.
15:21
But there's so much freedom. No idea though, of like because
15:25
she's living with someone and having to wake up every day and
15:28
tell the same story. What's it like?
15:30
What's that movie called? Is it like 51st dates or
15:32
something? Yeah, it's like that's.
15:34
So much. But see, this is where I think I
15:38
would differ from her. I would just immediately leave
15:40
my house. Yeah, One thing that you had
15:43
mentioned, Colin, about how it's almost like a Horror Story of
15:46
points. To me it felt like a ghost story
15:50
and where at some point she was living in a house inhabited by
15:55
someone she could not see and someone that she could not
15:57
interact with for fear of having to explain her entire experience
16:04
to her husband Thomas again and again.
16:08
And then there's parts where the ghost story elements flip, where
16:13
she becomes the ghost and she is following him but he has no idea
16:18
that she's there. And she's kind of like always
16:21
there over his shoulder and because she knows exactly where
16:24
he's going to be, but she remains out of sight.
16:27
Metaphor throughout it is the idea that he's a ghost and she's
16:31
a monster and that was something that I thought was really
16:34
interesting and yeah, the idea that she.
16:40
I think it's kind of hinted that like he's kind of a ghost and
16:44
he's in this infinite world where everything is replenished
16:47
and everything is goes back to normal, whereas she's like a
16:51
monster in a very finite world. And like, I think that there's a
16:55
lot of this stuff. I don't know if this is maybe me
16:58
going too far, but I thought it was a lot of it was about like
17:01
the environment and like climate change and like overconsumption
17:06
because she's like, OK, yeah. See her consumption.
17:09
She can see everything. That's.
17:11
My favorite part, like can't we talk with this?
17:14
But yeah, I. Guess yeah, I think that's like
17:17
a very clear because I was kind of thinking what is the what is
17:20
the reason they've put this on on the the shortlist and I got a
17:24
very clear like, no, we can't see.
17:28
We are like that. We, we think we're like a ghost
17:30
like Thomas and we think that everything's replenished.
17:34
Everything just happens. Everything goes wrong in a
17:36
circle. We never confront our
17:38
overconsumption at any point in our lives because everything is
17:42
done for us by someone else and it's all of our rubbish is just
17:44
swept somewhere else. Whereas she she's, she knows
17:48
she's a monster. She can't get away from the fact
17:51
that she's just constantly overconsuming.
17:54
And I think there's like a point in it where she gets this green
17:57
notebook when she's buying her telescope and she kind of when
18:02
she like looks into the sky, she feels like less of a monster.
18:05
She feels smaller. She's like, I'm a small monster.
18:08
And I think that that's kind of like we, when we look at bigger
18:11
things, we feel like we're really small and we are not
18:14
actually doing that much damage to the environment.
18:15
We're not over consuming. But then she's got this notebook
18:19
to write about her new life as this small monster and she's not
18:23
she's buying things from bigger shops and she's not making as
18:25
big a dent into the world. But then that that notebook
18:28
vanishes the next day. And I feel like that was, I
18:31
don't know if this is a bit of a stretch, but it was like a kind
18:33
of this time loop is not letting her lie about to herself about
18:36
like her overconsumption. I think one of my favorite parts
18:39
of the book is like the two elements of one is that they
18:43
keep going to the shop to buy food and then all of a sudden
18:47
they have to stop buying like a certain chocolate or coffee or
18:49
whatever because it's not there anymore.
18:52
And then the other part is that they're growing.
18:55
Is it lakes? And there's a bag of onions And
18:59
it's like when she when she takes from it, then it's gone
19:02
forever. But if he takes it, it's not.
19:05
And it's thought I love that. Just thought it was such a great
19:08
idea because it's that kind of thing where they're split in
19:12
those two different worlds that notice of if I take this, it's
19:16
gone forever. And then she has to really think
19:18
about what she wants, you know, and make those conscious
19:21
choices. I just thought there's one of my
19:23
favorite parts of the book. It but it is so strange because
19:27
like obviously time loops and and any time loop I've ever
19:30
experienced, everything is completely reset to 0, you know?
19:33
You've experienced a time loop. Sorry.
19:35
And stories. No, no, yeah, this is me, me
19:39
outing my my time loop experience.
19:41
Oh God, it was rough. It was rough.
19:43
No, but like in any of the are you?
19:45
Trying to call out salvage to be like you.
19:48
You don't. You did this to me.
19:50
This is not accurate. Anyone.
19:52
I've experienced this. She's just.
19:55
I don't think she's ever been not.
19:56
Relatable. Not relatable.
19:58
Yeah, yeah, no, I am any any timely stories?
20:02
Sorry, I have experienced they you know, everything is reset to
20:06
0 like it's, you know, there's none of this that the food stays
20:09
gone. It's everything goes back to its
20:12
place. And I think like I was kind of
20:14
like, why, why is why is salvage this or salvage this decided to
20:20
to. Do you know, include this as
20:22
like kind of a, a plot device and like what you said, like
20:26
what you were both saying there about the like environmental
20:29
destruction and our place in the world and how we're affecting
20:32
the like works? Like I can, I can see that.
20:34
And I mean, like, maybe she didn't intend to do this, but
20:37
the whole thing of the notebook disappearing and like that
20:39
accountability I think is like a really good way to approach it
20:42
because we don't, like you said, we don't have a collection of
20:47
thoughts and like a daily basis of what we're doing.
20:49
Like it is just, you know, resupplied constantly.
20:52
Is it a comment on how we might perceive that everyone around us
20:59
is almost like an NPC and they are just living their life on
21:04
what to us seems like repeat and they don't seem conscious of
21:10
what's happening while we experience ourselves as
21:13
conscious and we experience ourselves as almost being
21:17
enlightened and having free will.
21:19
She sees Thomas and she has to explain almost like he's a bit
21:22
of a dummy. Like I have to explain all of
21:24
this all over again. These things are being consumed
21:27
or there are changes happening in the time loops, maybe
21:33
represent like, oh, maybe it's not a time loop.
21:35
Maybe it's just the mundanity of life and the repetitiveness of
21:40
life that we experience. Yeah.
21:41
I mean, I think that's a good point.
21:43
Like that we are the main characters are for our own
21:48
stories. And like, yeah, is that what
21:50
she's trying to get at that we can't again, kind of like
21:54
leopard skin hat we can know the mind of another.
21:56
We can know the life of another person.
21:57
Like you. You only see, like if you hang
21:59
out with a friend, you only see them for that period of time.
22:01
Did you see them? Like, I'd love to do this.
22:03
It's a weird thing where try to imagine people talking to other
22:06
people when I'm not there and like trying to see because
22:09
people think that sounds weird. But like couples I know, for
22:13
example, I try to imagine how they act when there's no one
22:16
else around and it's just them are are even small things like I
22:20
will try to imagine people making like porridge and things
22:23
like this. It's very strange.
22:25
I'm just, I, I, I love, I would love to be on a fly, on a fly on
22:29
the wall just to watch people like I think I am.
22:32
I love looking people's windows. I love any of that kind of stuff
22:35
because I just love seeing these snippets of people's lives and
22:39
like, it makes you feel like your life, you're like, I'll
22:43
just remarkably on the bus and I'll be like, oh, there's so
22:45
many people in the city and they all have like, you know, their
22:48
own lives. They like, and we never
22:50
crisscross. I'm like, do you know?
22:53
But it's just, it's just interesting that everyone's life
22:55
is mundane but special in its own way.
22:57
This is so fascinating. I feel like I might be your
23:00
exact opposite. I have no optic permanence when
23:03
it comes to other people a minute they're not.
23:07
I think there might be something wrong with me, but I do not have
23:10
no interest in what any like. I don't.
23:12
It just never comes up in my head.
23:14
Like I'm never thinking what's calling up to right now.
23:17
Never always thinking what's going up to.
23:20
Yeah, constant thoughts. He's like, I'm like, oh, he's
23:24
sad because he's not hanging out with me.
23:25
Yeah, that's normal. You know, when she starts living
23:29
in the, like, guest room and like, it's almost weird because
23:34
part of me is like, oh, he's right there.
23:36
Why don't you just reach out and, like, talk to him?
23:38
But I'm like, oh, she'd have to explain over and over and over
23:41
again, like, why? But it's the there's a
23:45
particular point where she like, talks about like she knows like
23:49
when a bird is going to chirp or like when it's going to rain.
23:53
And I think at one point that would drive me absolutely insane
23:56
because I would know like every minute of the day and the noise
23:59
that's going to happen. But she just takes it all in her
24:02
stride, almost like she goes to those, like, peaks and blows of
24:05
being really, like, angry, depressed, OK, like.
24:11
Yeah, but I think that's the whole thing of like, it's her
24:13
life in a way. She's also starts to raise
24:15
herself like, from her own life because it seems like, I don't
24:20
know, I was getting the vibes, maybe this is too heavy to put
24:22
into it, but I was getting the, the like, you know, vibes that
24:25
this is her mental. Like, it's an analogy for mental
24:27
illness. And like that people, you know,
24:31
remove themselves because they think they're a burden or that
24:34
they they don't want to explain their thoughts constantly to
24:37
these people and have them understand.
24:38
Like, like, it's just like a depressive cycle where it's like
24:40
every day feels the exact same and sort of thing.
24:44
And like, yeah. And at a point, you just don't,
24:47
you just don't want to talk about it anymore.
24:49
You don't want to like, put that on people, you know.
24:51
And I, I don't know if that's what she was going with here,
24:53
but I couldn't help but read it that she, like, Tara, is
24:56
removing herself from like her husband's life, obviously,
24:59
because she's like, you know, she's gone through these days so
25:03
frequent, frequently. I felt like she spends too much
25:07
time trying to explain to him. I think if it was me, I don't
25:11
even think I'd do that. I don't.
25:13
I think I'd do it once and then that would be me.
25:15
I would. I would hate that.
25:17
That was just live it. Yeah.
25:19
The story that was when it was like at its most anxious and at
25:22
the end when she's trying to explain to the Parisian couple
25:26
about it and they don't believe her.
25:28
And it's like that for me is just like the anxiety of that.
25:31
And I constantly be thinking that I'd be like, no one's going
25:34
to believe me. And then like they're I don't
25:37
even know if I would explain it to the people in my life.
25:40
I think I'd just run away. I think that would be my like
25:43
way of dealing with it. I don't yeah, it's I don't
25:47
unders that was yeah, my main thing where I was like, I know I
25:49
wouldn't be like her. I know I wouldn't like spend 100
25:52
and SO days explaining every morning, yeah.
25:57
Well, what what would you do if you were in this situation?
26:00
Because I did find myself thinking, why is she just sat in
26:05
the same place in the room for day after day after day and it
26:11
took so long for her to actually start experimenting.
26:16
Like the the two of them staying up after midnight to see at what
26:21
point everything happens that happened on like, I don't know,
26:24
day 80 or something. I'm like that would have been
26:27
like my day one or day two thing like trying to see at what point
26:32
the the day restarts itself. I mean, I think if if I was in a
26:36
tablet like this, like I, I kind of agree with this.
26:38
I do think she almost over does it like, but I think the whole
26:41
point is that she loves him and I like he is the most important
26:44
thing to her. He is her life, so it's so hard
26:47
for her to she wants him to understand.
26:49
I mean, I think he was too understanding if someone was
26:51
saying that to me, but I think if I was in this kind of thing,
26:55
I would be doing life differently.
26:57
I think I would take every day and just, you know, throw a
26:59
curveball like a wrench into something like go and I don't
27:03
know re re at a shop, because you know, it's not going to
27:06
matter. You know, the next day do do all
27:08
these things. It's kind of like the Invisible
27:10
Man, like if no one's going to to stop you, why not like try
27:15
these things? Yeah, she's obviously a good
27:16
person. Yeah.
27:21
What happens if she gets pregnant?
27:23
Because they're definitely providing multiple opportunities
27:26
for her to get pregnant, I think.
27:28
She would just be pregnant. I think she would just nine
27:31
months later, she'd have a baby. Thomas would be none the wiser.
27:34
But I I definitely think, yeah, like, 'cause her body's come
27:39
like her. Her body's been normal.
27:41
But but the baby would. Would the baby be in the time
27:44
loop? Would the baby be aging like
27:46
her? Yeah, I think the baby would age
27:48
like her. Yeah.
27:49
Or not to get too dark. She couldn't get pregnant.
27:54
Yeah, because it just keeps resetting.
27:56
Yeah, I think it would because I think her body's changing and I
27:58
think that the. Yeah.
27:59
She seems like the only one. As part of the her body would.
28:05
Or maybe when it's born it just resets every day so it's like a
28:09
beating. Every day, our novel.
28:14
Like a better go about, you know, the column is saying like,
28:18
oh, he was in the town. Look, he would do whatever he
28:20
kind of wanted. It makes me laugh because Tara
28:23
is like when she's looking at the apartments or like houses,
28:26
she's almost like, oh, I can't go there because, like, there's
28:28
neighbors at that house. And I'm like, but it's going to
28:31
reset every day. Like it doesn't matter.
28:35
I feel like she doesn't want the awkwardness of the conversation.
28:38
She doesn't want the awkwardness of them, like calling the place
28:40
and her just being like, well, I'm stuck in a time.
28:42
Look, guys, I can't help it, you know, because I do, I do kind of
28:46
get why she does that. It's like I would she I start
28:49
isolating herself more and more and I I would, I think I would
28:52
have started isolating myself quicker than she did.
28:55
I I just think I wouldn't I would just go off somewhere else
29:00
and my life somewhere else. But I suppose her the minute you
29:03
do that, you're like saying I'm never going to get back to
29:06
normal. So I spoke to real me who didn't
29:11
wouldn't necessarily know that this is isn't going to end.
29:14
Maybe me thinking it's going to end every other day.
29:18
I would stay home and I would maybe not rob as many shops as
29:22
Colin would and maybe kind of keep it.
29:25
Just a handful. Yeah, yeah, because what happens
29:27
if like that's the day that decides to be November the 18th
29:31
is the day that I failed to 20 people, you know, and I was
29:36
wondering is like, if she kills someone like they're dead,
29:39
surely I but I didn't. I didn't go back.
29:41
I think they reset too. I well.
29:43
I. Don't know.
29:44
No, no, I I don't think so. Because if you think about it,
29:47
whenever she takes Thomas downstairs and they're like
29:50
sitting, eating eggs, fried eggs, he his mind resets but his
29:54
body doesn't set. His body does it, yeah.
29:57
He's like sitting there and he like wakes up like in that
29:59
moment. Yeah, hasn't eaten the eggs.
30:03
True, but does he not have the like feeling of it in his mind?
30:08
No, he's like he, he's really hungry.
30:11
Yeah, so he does reset, but his space doesn't reset.
30:15
Like, it's not like. But also, I think it's one of
30:18
those things where you don't know if they had done that
30:20
again, he might have been full of the eggs because there are
30:25
inconsistencies where she buys the books one day of the time
30:29
loop and she has to go again to buy the books.
30:32
But then after that, the books are always there.
30:34
And it's just one of those things that's like, why are some
30:38
things maintaining from loop to loop but other things constantly
30:43
reset And like you don't know what's going to reset and what's
30:46
going to be the same? I think at times, though, she's
30:49
almost an unreliable narrator with what is resetting and what
30:52
isn't resetting because a lot of the times she kind of look like
30:55
there's a pot that's rolling about in the garden and she
30:59
resets it. She's like, I think I reset this
31:01
before and it didn't, It didn't properly reset.
31:04
It went after rolling about in the garden.
31:06
And you're kind of like, does she actually remember this?
31:09
She seems like she's not a reliable narrator, but she's
31:11
quite honest about the fact that she's unreliable in some.
31:14
Yeah, in some respect, so. But like you would, you would
31:17
forget yourself, like she is trying to track it, obviously,
31:19
but these Diaries, but you would be like, like you would begin to
31:24
rethink, like, you know, you would begin to be like, no, but
31:28
I did do this thing. I didn't do this thing.
31:29
It's a paranoia of it in a way. You're like, did that change or
31:32
did it not change because she's looking bad for those things
31:34
like clues in a way to help her like try to break this loop or
31:37
whatever, or to understand this loop and why she's in it.
31:40
But like, that's not, as you know, simple as her just like
31:44
writing this down, like the minutiae she would get confused
31:47
with. You know, do we want to dive
31:49
into theories about what is actually happening at the time
31:51
loop? I don't think I have any.
31:54
Yeah. Oh, OK, well then maybe I'm I'm
31:58
the odd one out here. But, and one of my theories was
32:03
that she died in some way on this day or something happened
32:10
and now she's just, she's not cursed, but this is the
32:15
afterlife of her reliving the same day over and over again.
32:18
And she can never advance beyond this point.
32:20
I don't know what would have killed her.
32:23
We know that she burned her hand and got injured that way, but
32:29
that's not necessarily something that's going to kill you.
32:32
I I, so she, she thinks about that in the book.
32:35
I don't know if you're, if you remember that bit, but she's,
32:38
she kind of is like she thinks about whether or not it's a
32:40
dream and that she's going to wake up in Paris.
32:42
And then she kind of has thoughts about is she, is she,
32:45
or is she not dead? And then she, she doesn't want
32:47
to think about that. So she doesn't really dwell on
32:49
it. I would be really annoyed if on
32:52
the 7th book it was like, Oh, she's dead.
32:55
I would be furious. I'd be like, I actually I would
32:58
think that there's no way of making this time loop have like
33:01
an actual scientific like any reason.
33:05
I think that if she goes down that route of explaining it,
33:09
that will wreck the books. In my opinion.
33:11
I really don't. I don't need.
33:13
I don't need an explanation. I don't think you could give any
33:16
justifiable reason why this time loop is happening that I will be
33:19
satisfied with. Do you think there's any
33:22
significance to the day like sorry, the day of like the 18th
33:26
of November? Because it's like why is it that
33:29
day that the time look kind of begins?
33:32
I couldn't think of any really reason.
33:35
I, yeah, I, I don't think they're, I think it's just a
33:38
normal Monday and day. I think though I don't know if
33:41
this is for Paris, but see if I got into a time loop in Belfast
33:46
on the 18th of November I would furious.
33:49
Yeah. Like I would be like, why in
33:53
November? Like I can't even.
33:56
I think I definitely have that seasonal affective disorder.
33:59
Yeah, idea. I would be on the first plane to
34:03
Spain. Yeah, that's point like to talk
34:07
about was like imagine being struck in one season for
34:10
forever. So in the second book, not to
34:12
like spoil it or anything, but it's seasonal.
34:15
So she's trying to track, she's trying to trace through the
34:18
seasons and create her own seasons.
34:20
So she's like the Norway going to like Norway.
34:24
Yeah, England. She was the England for spring,
34:29
which baffled me. And then she's like going to
34:34
Spain or somewhere for for summer.
34:37
But I was like, I would not be trying to recreate the December
34:41
and autumn months. I would just be like, get me to
34:44
the summer right now. I do not want to be thinking
34:48
about. But I think the whole thing is
34:50
for her, like she is trying to like there's in the last like
34:54
quarter of the book, I would say she begins to track the year and
34:57
she's like, oh, it feels like October like, and she's trying
35:00
because she's seen things on the anniversary.
35:02
There's going to be something she has to do, something
35:04
different on the final day or she has to like, figure it out
35:07
and then she'll break the loop. I mean, the final day comes
35:10
along and we assume nothing happens.
35:12
What do we think about like the other characters in the book?
35:15
What characters? There's no one else except Tara
35:17
in this book. They're all just plotted
35:19
devices. They're literally things for
35:20
Tara to bounce off of. That's my I think that's my
35:23
biggest problem with this book. Thomas, like her husband, is
35:27
lifeless. Like he is just this person who
35:29
nods, says, goes along with what she's saying.
35:32
It's like, Oh yeah, I believe you.
35:33
And maybe that's love. Maybe he genuinely wants to
35:35
believe her. But I think he he just lacks all
35:39
sense of personality and and he just becomes like a plot device.
35:45
I think though, her relationship with Tom, it's like a lot of a
35:49
lot of the back story is just not talked about and there's
35:51
slightly more back story for her life comes up in the second
35:54
book, but it's only because it appears in the narrow like it it
35:57
becomes relevant. So I think that we got a big
36:00
sense of how her relationship is with Thomas, just just like
36:02
glimpses of like things she says.
36:05
But I feel like the as the distance is growing, it's almost
36:09
important for him not to be a fully flesh tight character
36:13
because I think that that gap is forming.
36:16
And it's like she can't think like she's writing this down,
36:19
but she can't be thinking about him as a fully formed human
36:23
being because like she goes in to calling him the person in the
36:26
house. And then sometimes she says
36:28
Thomas, sometimes she's like that person that's walking
36:31
aboard like he's a ghost and that he doesn't exist.
36:33
I think that's kind of part of it is the fact that he doesn't
36:38
have agency. I do also think the same problem
36:41
goes with Tara though I think Tara isn't what I'm missing from
36:46
a lot of these books. Like Fanny felt like a person,
36:47
like a character. They allow the other characters
36:50
in these books to me a lot of the time feel like they are they
36:53
are personalists. They are, you know, they're
36:56
just, there's not much to them. And I think that like Tara isn't
37:00
really treated that much different.
37:01
She gets a little more because like we're seeing her point of
37:03
view and how she views things. But again, she's not doing much.
37:06
Like she's just existing. And I think this is a point
37:09
though, is like Tara is just a normal person.
37:12
There's nothing special about her.
37:13
She's just stuck in this there. And most people, there's nothing
37:16
like we're special because we are ourselves.
37:19
But but we are just living our lives and the mundanity of that,
37:22
the mundanity of who we are as people too.
37:24
You know it it. I think Tara is purposefully
37:28
mundane because this book is about mundanity.
37:32
I find the book quite Zen. I'm not entirely sure what Zen
37:36
means, but I find it really like, I don't know if you guys
37:40
have ever seen this, a famous American TV show called The
37:43
Simpsons. There is a everything in my life
37:46
I can bring back to The Simpsons, but there's this this
37:49
scene that always reminds me of like books like this.
37:51
But it's like Lisa's trying to teach Bart to become a better,
37:55
like, golfer. It's like an early season, but
37:59
she, she's trying to teach him to get into like a Zen space.
38:02
And she says that, you know, if a tree falls in the wood and
38:05
there's no one there, does anybody hear it?
38:07
And then Bart's head just kind of goes all weird because he's
38:11
like thinking about this in a deeper way.
38:13
I feel like my head goes like, well, I'm like Bart when I read
38:16
books like. This.
38:17
I agree with you but this book was like a really calming read
38:20
for me. Even though it almost makes you
38:24
think that you should be panicked because you're in a
38:25
time loop, but the way she goes about it makes me feel like, oh,
38:30
it's OK. Like things will be OK.
38:33
Maybe there's a reassurance to knowing that everything will
38:37
like whatever you do doesn't matter, and that everything will
38:41
always be OK in the. End.
38:44
I don't know if this is a worrying thing about me, but I
38:47
just from the minute I started reading I was like, that sounds
38:50
amazing like. Oh, no, no.
38:53
I obviously wouldn't want to be trapped in it forever, but like
38:57
I would love it. I'd just be going about the
38:59
place spending money. I wouldn't.
39:02
And also, this is the worst part of this.
39:03
I would not be thinking about the environment like she is
39:05
thinking about how much I'd be like, I'll go to the next city,
39:09
I'll take all their resources. I would not be thinking like.
39:13
Ruin the planet. Which is worrying about me as a
39:16
person, but I was like, I would love it.
39:19
Like there's a part of me that's like, I'm not going to be
39:22
thinking about that. Like this is probably the the
39:24
longevity of this novel in my head is I'm going to be thinking
39:27
about that all the time. Like what would I do if I was
39:30
stuck in that? Like what kind of things could I
39:32
do? Like how much fun I have like
39:34
I'll be great. Which again, you guys are all
39:38
saying about like important relationships and like things
39:41
that and it's really making me worry about like.
39:44
Because. Because I think she lacks like
39:47
that. Like if you made a new friend,
39:48
you would never be able to go past the point of being a new
39:52
friend if like it's not the same as like those long held like
39:56
relationships with people. And I think she's missing that.
39:58
That's probably why she clings to Tom or Thomas.
40:00
Sorry. As well, there'd be such a poor
40:03
imbalance and she does discuss this kind of early on in a
40:05
relationship with Tom as that distance is forming between
40:08
them. It's like she she has something
40:11
over him and you would definitely have something over
40:13
someone you'd never met because you've had multiple interactions
40:16
with them. You know more about them and you
40:19
know more about that. It's kind of weird.
40:21
It's kind of creepy, but there's something like weird or
40:24
insidious about it. Even if she wasn't doing it like
40:27
nefariously, it still comes across as like something
40:30
manipulative. Yeah.
40:31
If Tara was to, like, pass away in the guest room, which he'd
40:36
like, just always be there because is it Thomas, isn't it?
40:41
Yeah. We'll just be going about the
40:42
same routine over and over again.
40:44
Or can she die Or like because she's in a town?
40:47
Like does that mean she can never die?
40:49
I think she can't die and she'd her body as it ages will
40:52
probably just rot and he'll smell her.
40:54
Love it. Yeah.
40:56
Remove it, Forget about her. Thomas will keep coming in and
41:00
finding her for for fresh for the first time in a worse off
41:04
state. No, I think he'll he'll find her
41:06
once and he'll call the put the ambulance, get everything
41:10
removed. And.
41:12
The next day he will never know anything happen to her if she's
41:15
in Paris. No, no, no, no, that that that
41:17
wouldn't be the case. Well, sorry and.
41:21
Wow. No, no, I'm just thinking
41:24
because as soon as the body's taken, the body still is going
41:27
to exist. So it's going to be at the
41:28
morgue. So the next when the day
41:30
restarts, they're probably going to be like, where'd this body
41:34
come? From yeah, but Thomas isn't.
41:37
I know, I know, Thomas isn't, but depending on if there's like
41:41
A tag attached to her body or something they might then
41:44
contact him. And yeah, and then eventually
41:48
they'll be like, we find it or something.
41:49
Probably barrier. I read something that she'd was
41:52
thinking of Ulysses by James Joyce when she was writing.
41:56
Kind of the idea of this is there's so much to a day.
41:59
You can write so much about a day.
42:01
And that's she obviously is taking a very different spin on
42:05
it, but. Yeah, I think, I think like with
42:09
the title and like now that you brought it up on the calculation
42:12
volume, I mean, I was really confused.
42:15
I'm like, what's going on here? I think my theory on like the
42:18
title is that she is like calculating her own volume of
42:21
space in time, you know, like where she is in her life, all of
42:24
this sort of stuff. And I actually quite like the
42:28
title for that. Like it is a bit ambiguous and
42:30
it's kind of like. You know, it's a great title.
42:34
It isn't. It's memorable.
42:36
And yeah, it is like that kind of nod to how much time and
42:41
space that she's she's taken up in the world.
42:44
It kind of felt to me like if you are stuck in a rut, if
42:47
you're stuck in the cycle of mundanity and you're fed up,
42:51
like you reach a point where you're like, I'm going to change
42:53
things and, and mix it up. And it kind of felt like, you
42:56
know, my remove the time loop. And if this was just her a year
42:59
of her life and she was like felt it was mundane and nothing
43:03
was happening. It kind of give me that sort of
43:05
impression of like, like it's more relatable in a way.
43:08
Like you reach a point where you're like, no, I can't do this
43:11
anymore. I need to mix it up.
43:13
Time loop or no time loop. And I really like that this
43:14
book, if you remove the time loop, you could still have all
43:17
those themes, you know, on a yearly basis, like, like, you
43:23
know, going through 365 days and not just the 18th of November.
43:27
Something that I found interesting was she talks at the
43:31
start about the fact that distance is something that her
43:36
and Thomas like, it doesn't enhance their relationship.
43:39
Like so you know, that kind of absence makes the heart grow
43:42
fonder. She's like that's the opposite
43:44
for her and Thomas and that they that distance doesn't isn't
43:48
helpful for their relationship. But yet when there starts to be
43:51
a slight difference early, she feels like it's like the this is
43:56
on a quote from her, the first flush of love, like she feels
43:59
like it's the beginning of a relationship again.
44:01
So it obviously is like there there is something to the
44:03
distance. There is something to the fact
44:06
that maybe a bit of distance has helped, but then obviously it
44:10
becomes too much. And when the days get more and
44:13
there's like 100 and so days between them, she just stops it.
44:17
And there's kind of a lovely way that that the way it was written
44:21
where she's like trying to keep the sensation of like swimming
44:26
through the days going in her head.
44:28
I really enjoyed that. I don't even know what it meant
44:31
and I don't really know if I understood it, but it was really
44:33
beautiful. The idea that you can like hold
44:35
a state of mind in your head and keep it going throughout the
44:38
day. I thought it was really nice way
44:40
of writing about something that like, I don't know if that's a
44:43
possibility for me to do, but like it was an interesting kind
44:46
of concept. Kind of made me think when I was
44:48
reading it of I Am Legend by Richard Masseson.
44:52
Because the whole point of like, the book is like, this person is
44:56
isolated from society, whereas she is isolated from like, I
45:00
mean, for fear of like, you know, vampires or whatever.
45:02
But in this, it's like she is isolated not because she's been
45:08
exiled or, or, you know, there's some horrific thing on the
45:12
outside. It's that these people just
45:13
don't understand her and aren't experiencing the same thing.
45:17
And like, obviously one is, you know, very, very different from
45:21
the other. But I remember having the
45:23
similar feeling of like, if I was on my own in this kind of
45:29
world and the outside world is scary in this way, Like what?
45:33
What would make me, you know, chase out like improving it or
45:38
making the life better, Do you know?
45:39
That's so interesting because I have read that book.
45:42
I really like it. It's a really enjoyable book,
45:43
but it's not one that I thought of when I was reading this, but
45:46
I think definitely you can. There's there's so many
45:49
parallels I was going to talk about.
45:52
There is this is literally one of my favorite books ever and
45:56
right here called the Wall by Marlene Hoss offer.
46:00
I don't know if that's how to pronounce that and but basically
46:04
it was written in the, I think late 60s, early 70s, can't
46:07
remember which one. And it's about a woman who is
46:09
staying in the Austrian Alps with her cousin.
46:12
And her cousin and his wife go down for a drink in the village.
46:15
And she wakes up the next morning and they're not there in
46:18
in the house with her in this like Austrian chalet.
46:21
And she goes to try and find them in the town and she comes
46:25
across an invisible wall. In front of her.
46:29
Everything on the other side of the wall is dead.
46:31
So there's like a cow in one part of the field that's alive
46:33
and then she can see the other cow is dead.
46:36
And so she just has to exist like it's it's a it's a lot
46:41
worse for her because she has no access to shops.
46:43
She has no access to anything. So she has to really use the
46:46
seasons and like work out and she only has a certain amount of
46:49
paper. So it's like all this book is
46:52
the amount of paper she has to write things down.
46:54
And it's like. It is brilliant if you're going
46:57
to read a book. I feel if you enjoyed on
47:00
calculation of volume, you need to read this book.
47:02
Right, it's on the list. I feel like this was written
47:06
with like fears of like Cold War, the idea that like
47:10
everybody could be poisoned. And I felt like this is kind of
47:13
like the almost the environmental version of that,
47:15
like for climate change. And they'll both, I think have a
47:19
kind of environmental. Because I think the whole thing
47:23
is like in the in I Am Legend, he feels like he's the last
47:28
person alive in terms of like in the world.
47:30
And in this case, she also is not the last person alive, but
47:34
she's the last person to know this this reality or to, to know
47:38
this thing. So in a way, she is completely
47:40
isolated from everyone else. It's it's like wrong calculation
47:44
of volume where you don't really feel the the horror of it at
47:47
times you do because there's really sad things that happen
47:50
because she has loads of animals.
47:51
That's how she's getting by. And so like obviously things
47:54
will always go well for them. And but I honestly, I think
47:58
it's, it's definitely, I'm sorry to say this, but it's definitely
48:02
better than on calculation of volume.
48:03
I think it's probably one of my mistake taught.
48:06
It's top 2 for my favorite books.
48:09
Brilliant. Like unbelievable.
48:12
So good. I think it's really interesting
48:14
that she seems to be the the figure that wherever she is, or
48:20
this is at least the impression that I get, wherever she is,
48:24
things remain consistent, but where she's not, things reset.
48:30
So obviously when she takes Thomas downstairs and they eat
48:35
eggs and then the time resets, he doesn't teleport back up to
48:39
bed. But what about everyone else who
48:44
has flown to another country during this day?
48:48
Like they're going to have to teleport back to where they were
48:52
24 hours previous. But if she witnesses them being
48:58
in a location, I don't think she's going to see them
49:00
disappear and teleport back. I think that they will remain
49:04
where they are. So as long as she's present and
49:07
sees them, I think things remain consistent.
49:10
Yeah, it kind of feels like a simulator kind of idea and that
49:14
like, if we're all living in simulation, like is she, you
49:17
know, the one inconsistency in this and the world is being
49:19
built around her like The Truman Show, like is this, you know,
49:22
all the reality? And so I know it's not, but it's
49:26
that kind of idea of like this world is built for her and in a
49:30
way, and like everything resets. Like if a tree falls in the
49:33
woods, you know, that's the second time that's come off
49:35
today but doesn't make a sound. I was thinking this like, you
49:41
know, if she got a midnight boat going to go.
49:44
Away. Does the boat just vanish and
49:47
she's just in the middle of the sea?
49:49
You know, because like, I think I would have that very real
49:53
fear. And this is maybe a bit of a
49:55
spoiler. I don't know.
49:57
I'll just say it anyway. But she has this real worry when
50:00
she's traveling about in her seasons, she has to ask the
50:05
hotels were someone staying in the room before me, like because
50:11
she stays in a hotel the next morning she's going to wake up
50:15
someone like like So she has to like ask it in a weird way.
50:20
She has to be like just what? Like she says, I think she says,
50:23
oh, I've got really bad allergies and I can't be like
50:26
has to be cleaned to help be cleaned a certain way and
50:28
someone no one can be in the night before.
50:31
I think that that is really interesting.
50:33
And again, this is where you get into the intricacies of rules
50:37
established and time loops. But I do like that this one
50:42
doesn't spell out the rules. So we're not trying to find the
50:48
inconsistencies. And it's OK for there to be
50:51
inconsistencies because none of it's understood by Tara, so
50:57
there's no point in even trying to explain it.
50:59
Do people like the writing style of this one, say compared to
51:02
last week or? Yes.
51:05
I think it's so much more conventional and just easy to
51:09
follow. When we have her as the narrator
51:13
telling her story, I think it's so much more easy to follow
51:16
because we're actually put into her boots and we feel how she
51:21
feels. I I disagree, I think I
51:24
preferred the writing. I know I I was really like
51:27
jumping in last week, but I preferred the writing of
51:31
leopards can have mostly because I felt like there was actual
51:34
character and hard in that. This one, I think kind of bored
51:37
me in a way because it feels like you have a unique voice.
51:40
It's a point of view, you know, story.
51:43
Like we could have got so much more from Tara, but again, she
51:45
is just this person. And the style I think also
51:48
copies that. It's a very clean, very simple
51:50
style where is at least the narrator and the last one give
51:53
us like some sense of life and and like personality.
51:57
I thought that the writing in a Lepreton hat was pretty perfect.
52:01
There were some bits that I was like, that is just so beautiful.
52:03
What's been written there is just so like, it means so much.
52:07
It's trying to really convey an emotion or really trying to like
52:11
write in such a eloquent way, something that people, you know,
52:15
human truths and things like that.
52:17
This one, I really like the writing because it did give me
52:21
that kind of like Zen kind of feeling, but it is very it's
52:23
very clean. It's very basic, which is nice.
52:27
It's easy to read, but I find it times, especially in the second
52:31
reader was a wee bit like I think that the writing is
52:33
probably where I would say there's there's room for room
52:36
for improvement. Sorry, sold that.
52:40
All of it. I can't pronounce your name.
52:42
I would like to describe what Colin would rename the book just
52:45
before. Thank you.
52:47
Yeah. So I mean, I've already said I
52:48
like the the title like on the calculation of value.
52:52
So I mean, I feel like this is an unnecessary retitling of this
52:55
book, but something that I think maybe just kind of suits the
52:58
better would be something like the Life and Times of Tara
53:01
Shelter. I think because it again
53:04
establishes that she is something special in this world.
53:07
It follows her life if also follows time and like her place
53:11
in this time. And I think in a way, like if I
53:15
heard that and knew that that was a seven part story, I think
53:17
I would be more like, OK, I can I can follow this.
53:20
Clearly every part is going to be a different part of her life
53:23
or a different time. Do you know of her life?
53:25
And I think it loses a little bit of that mystery of like a
53:29
title, but I think it's a bit more cohesive.
53:32
We we can start with Lucy. What would you give this book
53:37
out of five and do you expect this to to be a potential
53:41
winner? I definitely think this is a
53:44
potential winner. I think it's 100% deserves to be
53:47
in the shortlist. I think it's an excellent book.
53:49
I really enjoyed it. It was one of my absolute
53:51
favourites from the longlist as well.
53:53
Would have been on my shortlist, I think.
53:57
On my reread of Leopard Skin Hot, I have to say I think I put
54:01
Leopard Skin Hot ahead of this slightly and just because of the
54:05
writing, purely because of the writing.
54:06
And it's definitely a four 4.5 for me.
54:11
And I don't really want to go in and do a 4.25 and wreck
54:15
everything for everyone. I don't know how anyone feels
54:17
about this, but I think maybe for for 4.5 somewhere,
54:23
everything there, maybe I should round it up to a 4.5 because I
54:27
think it was like I really loved the experience of reading it and
54:30
I really enjoyed it And it's it'll be down there as like one
54:34
of like a really good book I've read this year. 4.25
54:38
provisionally. You're you're messing with me
54:42
here. I don't even go for point fives
54:44
and now you're going for the .2 fives.
54:48
But I Colin what? What are your thoughts?
54:51
I think again, I'm going to come across here as being like super
54:54
critical and maybe a bit of a harsh marker.
54:58
While I like the book and I think I like the idea of the the
55:02
repetitive structure of lives and like finding your place in
55:05
that and like a join that I think the lifelessness again of
55:10
these characters and just the the whole thing.
55:14
I think I was a bit disappointed by it.
55:15
I think you could, you know, when I hear time live, I get
55:19
excited and I think maybe the expectations kind of led to me
55:22
not having as good a time with it.
55:25
I found a bit of a slog as some I think most people haven't.
55:29
I was reading and I was like pushing through.
55:31
I would give this a three out of five.
55:34
I think Under the Eye of the Big Bird is still like the top book
55:39
for me, and I didn't think that that was going to be the case,
55:42
but I think there's just a lot more in it.
55:44
It's saying a lot more and I just kind of kind of like
55:48
enjoyed it a lot more than than this book.
55:51
I would give it a 3.53 point five, Yeah, out of five.
55:58
I really, really enjoyed it. Like last week, like I said, I
56:01
was falling asleep trying to get through the chapters and it
56:04
wasn't because like the book wasn't good.
56:07
I just couldn't. I don't know there, I really
56:09
struggled with that one. Whereas this one, like if the
56:12
weather's been really nice this week and I was taking my book
56:14
during lunch and just sitting outside, you know, at work and
56:18
like reading through it and I felt like so much easier.
56:21
And I loved the different like themes and like especially the
56:25
one about like the food and that like I just like, I can't stop
56:29
thinking about that. And I really love it because
56:31
when I was going to the supermarket, I'm like, imagine I
56:33
could never buy like my favorite like soup or something again,
56:36
like but umm. Yeah, I think.
56:40
Every time we're going to rate these, I always think I rated
56:42
under the eye the big bird too harsh now, like I think I would
56:45
rate that one higher, but this has been kind of my favorite so
56:49
far. So 3.5 it is.
56:52
I would say that I'm in agreement with Colin.
56:56
Uh, this is a three out of five for me.
56:59
I do like the idea of a time loop, but for me this wasn't
57:06
executed as well as it potentially could have been.
57:10
Obviously a lot of the time loops lean into sci-fi and are a
57:15
lot more heavy on that on those elements, while this is a bit
57:19
more mundane life and how would you experience a time loop as a
57:24
regular person? Which I think is a really
57:27
interesting twist, but Tara isn't elevated to the point of
57:33
being an interesting character. And you could look at something
57:39
like the a 24 film Everything Everywhere All at Once, where we
57:44
have a mundane life character who is thrown into a multiverse
57:52
and she becomes extremely interesting and extremely
57:55
complex. And we see how she the mundanity
58:01
of life can have excitement for her when these philosophical
58:07
elements are are thrown at her. Tara doesn't rise to those
58:12
heights. And maybe she will eventually
58:15
over the the next six books. We do have Amy's thoughts on who
58:23
she thinks is going to potentially win the shortlist.
58:28
So who do I hope to win the International Booker Prize this
58:32
year? Well, I think it's no surprise
58:34
that I would say on the calculation of volume Book 1.
58:38
I haven't, to be fair, read the others.
58:40
And I feel like I should. But I just love this one so much
58:45
and I would love it to win because I think it would be such
58:47
a great winner and one that lots of people would love to read and
58:51
just be quite a universal book. I think it would work really
58:54
well and I would love for more readers to find this book.
58:58
And if it won, that would happen.
59:00
So I guess that's my answer. And I hope that on the
59:04
Calculation volume, Book One wins the International Book
59:06
Prize. Evie is 1 and done like that's
59:10
it. She doesn't need to read no
59:11
more. She's like their winner.
59:13
Yeah, she knows. Do you know what?
59:16
Evie's right. Fair play here.
59:18
She's just like, right? I've read it.
59:20
Done. I think she could be right
59:22
though, I think. She's like, I know a good thing
59:24
when I see it. If there's any listeners out
59:27
there and you want to get involved, please e-mail us on
59:30
our Boogies favoritebookclub@gmail.com.
59:34
No. Who's that right?
59:36
The e-mail is bookiesfavoritebookclub@gmail.com.
59:40
Oh, I got it. I think you did get it.
59:42
Love it. So all you have to do is go to
59:45
the description in this episode and it's right there.
59:48
As soon as you tap on it, it will populate an e-mail.
59:51
So you can e-mail us directly. The rest of our socials are
59:55
there as well. We're on Instagram, Twitter,
59:57
Facebook, and we have Goodreads. Lucy.
1:00:01
We do have Goodreads, it's the bookies favorite book club and
1:00:04
we do reviews every week along with the episodes being
1:00:08
released. Next week we're going to be
1:00:11
reading Small Boats by Vincent Delacroix.
1:00:15
So TuneIn, it's going to be a juicy episode.
1:00:18
I think we'll have lots to talk about.