Latest / The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast / Episode 140: A Change of Scenery: Where Have We Been?

Transcript

Episode 140: A Change of Scenery: Where Have We Been? · The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Mookse and the Gripes podcast.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, everybody.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: This is Trevor and blinking with bleary eyes as he comes out of the tunnel of
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: the last month's darkness.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Paul, Paul, how are you doing today?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: I am excited.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm happy to be here.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like you said, I feel like I've been in hibernation.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I do need a little bit of a wake up call here.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, no, maybe not hibernation because we've both been very busy.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, it's it's been a long time and it's very great to be back with you.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we've been doing this podcast for five years now without ever really taking a break.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: We've been very, very regular in our episode uploads, except for the last two episodes.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: We did not get them recorded in advance of a period of time we knew would be busy.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so we were silent the last two regularly scheduled episodes.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: We hope people will forgive us.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: We are back and have no intentions of doing that anytime soon again.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: It just time caught up with us.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: We both had things where we really didn't have any other option.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, unfortunately, but we'll get into some of the details.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: It was all good things.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, like you said, it's I was thinking about that.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's pretty remarkable that we've been able to kind of maintain our cadence for five years now.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: We've literally never missed an episode.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: So like you said, hopefully people will understand.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: We've had a few people reach out and say, you guys okay?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: Where are you?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: But we didn't mean to alarm anyone, but it was just one of those things that happens.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: But we're glad to be back on the horse.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it has been good things, as you say.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's been very nice to hear from some people asking.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think many people may have known because I did say on the Discord that,
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: hey, I'll just say, I have been moving over the past few weeks.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: We bought a new place at the start of September and are selling our old place.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so it really has been wall to wall moving and trying to get things prepared
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: and trying to get things cleaned up and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so that has been very disruptive.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm going to say it, Paul, you were the bigger problem.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm always the bigger problem.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, because you were pretty much in, you know, even if I, I mean, who knows?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: If you had been around, maybe it would have been me.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I like to blame this one on you because even had I been available...
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: You would not have been.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: I would not.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: You can tell people why.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Some people who follow me on social media may already know this,
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: but yeah, my wife and I decided to just pick up roots and head out of the country.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: So for our 25th anniversary, we went over and spent a couple of weeks in London and Paris.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I was just not available at all.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: But boy.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: I do not feel bad about that at all.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: We can talk about that a little bit more, but man, it was absolutely amazing.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: It exceeded my expectations,
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: which I tried to keep moderate, but I'm sure were very high in the first place.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, it was even more magical than I was envisioning.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: So it was great.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we thought with this episode,
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: we would do a quick catch up, talk about a few things coming up, etc.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: If you'll forgive us again and give us just this warm up, I guess, a warm up act.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: The break has allowed...
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Allowed me to kind of stop and think a little bit more about the future episodes,
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: which we've done quite a bit.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've kept our episodes regular,
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: but the summer, as people know, has been very busy for both of us.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: We did a few walking episodes just to get things out.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it was kind of it was still fun.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope people still enjoyed it.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: At the same time,
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: I felt like we were more reactive to, oh, we got to record an episode coming up.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And we didn't really want it to be that way.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's why we didn't record.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: And just a quick, hey,
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: we're going out of town,
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: you know, episode, because it's like, this is for different purposes than that.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the break has allowed me to kind of sit back and say,
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: okay, what are some episodes we want to do coming up?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: How can we better prepare for them so
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: that it doesn't feel like we're always just sitting down and rambling on?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's still what we're going to do.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: I was going to say, wait a minute, I didn't get that at all.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: We just hope that we have a little bit more direction as we ramble on.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Not that we haven't.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we've planned these episodes that came out over the past several months,
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: but it just felt a little bit more, you know, oh, yeah, we're recording this week.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: What do we want to do?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it's been nice to say, OK, a couple of weeks off.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: I've missed it.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: It has not been a break where I've been like, huh, I could get used to this new normal.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually been a break where I'm like, I cannot wait to get back to normal.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, same here.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's another thing that we've done over the five years
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: of this is we've always been really good about planning ahead
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: and we've had spreadsheets and thought ahead and we've had a bunch
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: of ideas percolating and schedules.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: And like you said,
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: just over the last little bit,
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: I think life has caught up with us a little bit where we weren't able to do as much
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: of that as we'd liked.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so, yeah,
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: like you said,
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: it's been kind of nice to get a little bit of a moment to pause,
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: even though we've both been busy and take a breath and kind of just get excited
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: about Digging back in and getting a little more organized.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I think it's going to be a good thing in the long run, for sure.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And not a better time for me to do this than in the early fall,
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: as we look toward fall reading and these lovely,
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: lovely fall evenings, hopefully with a book in hand, a little bit more peace.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: I can't wait for that to happen.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Paul's seeing my current office.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: The shelves are gone.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: The shelves are gone.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's very surreal to see you because,
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know,
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: listeners,
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: usually when I'm sitting here talking to Trevor to his left and my right looking
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: at him, there's just this wall of beautiful books.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I will say you've already got a pared down version, but I see some books hiding out there.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not completely depressing, but I miss seeing all the old friends up there.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm looking forward to it.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: I know you have big plans for your current space in that regard.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my big plans are to make it like my old space.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I already have the plans to go and get the shelving that I want to build them in.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I just don't know exactly when it will happen.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because the new house, we love it.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're so excited to be here.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: But there are multiple places where we are like,
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: we need to change this to suit how we want to live in it.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the worst things is that we have a gas dryer and they have no gas hookup
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: in their laundry room.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or I guess you should say in our laundry room.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's been our house for almost a month now.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I have been looking forward to this weekend and When I get to install a gas line
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: into our new house.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: So the books you've been reading are like how-to books instead of literature.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Not even close.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Not even close.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: I have a father-in-law who's very handy.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, good.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: He came over and I showed him where the manifold was for the gas.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: I showed him where the laundry room is.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: I said, it doesn't look like it's that hard.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's only going to be like 16 feet of gas line.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: Everything's accessible pretty much.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's just that I don't really know what I'm doing and he does.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been, I said, tell me what to get and I'll get it and let's get to work.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think he's just so excited like I am.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm sure.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's probably exactly what he wanted to do.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: No, but I thought the what have we been reading segment could be pretty grim
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: if it was just like instruction manuals for the, you know, whatever.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even know what a good dryer name would be.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, that would be a little tough on listeners, I imagine.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: It would be.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: But soon we'll get the shelves back in.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Soon things like that will be back to normal.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And let's maybe initiate a little bit of normalcy back into the episode.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: Paul, what have you been reading?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I have had a, despite being so busy, had a great little reading stretch.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: As part of the trip,
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: I was trying to think of some books that would be a little bit location appropriate.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so again, kind of looking forward to one of our upcoming episodes with Elizabeth Taylor.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: I did bring along an Elizabeth Taylor book that I got to read in London
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: and surrounding areas,
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: which was Palladian,
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: which I won't give away too much since we'll be talking about all those,
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: but She just is so consistently good.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: And every one of her books is obviously very different from one another.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: But just the level,
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: the quality and the enjoyment that I get out of reading her books is always
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: the same.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: So that was fun.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: I also, Dahlke Archive recently,
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: as part of their essentials line that they're doing,
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: they brought back into print a book that we did last night for our book club,
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: which is called Ava.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's by Carol Masso.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: And that was just a really fascinating book.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: It was very, I guess, experimental.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: That's the word I kept using for the book club.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's very fragmented and almost poetic in a lot of ways.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: And the idea is that she's 39 years old and she is on her deathbed.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: She's Dying of cancer and we're spending time on her last day on earth kind of in her mind.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's kind of like there are other books that came up
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: during our discussion last night,
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: like Penelope Lively's Moon Tiger or like Tinker,
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: where there's some deathbed kind of scenes that you're involved with.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: But this one was really unique and it actually went over really well with almost all
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: of our book club.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: We all really enjoyed it.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: I would highly recommend it for anyone out there who It maybe has a little bit
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: in common with like The Waves by Virginia Woolf and
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: that you're not always exactly sure what's happening,
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: but you kind of just keep reading and there's this pattern that starts to form
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: where you pick up a little bit more each time that you turn a page.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I've been reading that.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: That was really good.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then the other thing that I was going to mention is one that...
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: Our friend Mark Haber recommended to you and I, Trevor,
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: a while back,
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: and I picked it up,
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: but I saved it for my time in Paris because I knew it was very Parisian.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the book River Work by Lisa Robertson, which came out recently by Coach House Books.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: And like I said,
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: I know Mark sent you and I a text about it probably a couple months ago
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: and was just raving about it.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then he has since written a piece that got published.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: I don't remember what website it was published on at the moment, but kind of raving about it.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: But I can totally see I'm about halfway through exactly what he loves about this book.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's fascinating.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'll just read a little bit off the back.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: It says, a river can be a ruin or a fiction.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: Lucy Frost is an insomniac cleaning woman who writes in a notebook at night.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: She documents several disappearances, all in Paris.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: The Bivre River,
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: undergrounded in 1912,
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: for centuries the core of Paris's textile industries,
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: her great aunt,
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: who in her youth researched the Absent River and who vanished,
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: leaving her papers to her niece,
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: and the river's laundresses, among France's earliest labor and ecological activists.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Continuing her aunt's abandoned project,
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Lucy plunders the defunct River's story from the literature
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: that preserved its winding path.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Rousseau, Chateaubriand, Hugo, and Rabelis have bearings to her voice.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: What arises in her night writings is a disquieting meditation on age, failure, and maintenance.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: So again, just even reading those names, it's very French, but...
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: Names like Shadowbriand, I know.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: Do your heart good, Trevor.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, this book, I think you would love it, Trevor.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you've had a chance to pick it up yet after Mark's recommendations,
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: but I'm looking forward to hopefully finishing that this weekend.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's just, it's beautiful.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's one of those kind of magpie books we talk about
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: where she's dropping references left and right to all kinds of,
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: you know, Literary figures, books, music, history, all kinds of stuff.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: And it's one of those delightful books that's very quiet about record keeping
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: and aging, but also, you know, all the things that we love.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: So definitely very good.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Very good book.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love it.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Those are all other than the Elizabeth Taylor ones that I have not read.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think you'd like both of those very much.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: But, you know,
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: I know that you probably are the last thing you need is more things brought
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: into your house.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: But once the dust settles.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, that's what I'm trying to do today is get my books back here.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: They are still half, maybe a little more than half are still at the old house.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: I noticed you seemed a little shaky like you were going
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: through some withdrawal symptoms and I figured that might be wrong.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I had to get them over here safe and sound so that I can go and look at them
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: from time to time.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Paul, one you didn't bring up that I'm curious about, Life and Fate?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, that's true.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Possibly Grossman's Life and Fate.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: We read that over this past quarter, you know, quote unquote together.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Not that we had like a specific reading plan or anything like that,
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: but it's just part of our year of reading big NYRB classics that we started
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: with Bo Marzo in January.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then we read Effingers in April and then Life and Fate in July.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Did you did you get through it?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: I did get through it, yeah.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: And ended up loving it in the end.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: I think you and I talked on one of our walking episodes about struggles is not
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: the right word,
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: but I know that you had kind of talked about the kind of the fragmented narration,
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: for lack of a better word, how it would kind of jump from person to person.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes that would maybe create a little bit of disruption in the flow
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: that you were experiencing.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I definitely agree with that.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: I think,
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: like we said at that time,
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: I would say it was way less disruptive to me than it was in Effingers,
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: where a similar thing happened, where I felt like it was super choppy.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I mean,
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: Life and Fate,
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'd heard about it for so long as being one of the all-timer,
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: you know, NYRB classics that people loved.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I can completely see why.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: There were passages in that book that just absolutely blew me away.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know,
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: there were some horrific things that happened in there,
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: but it was done in such a way that I felt like it was just Oh, incredibly powerful.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: You know,
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: some of the scenes that took place on like in the concentration camps or in
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: the trains that were leading to some of those camps were just so tough to read,
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: but I thought it was so human and it really puts you in to the mind and the body
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: of those people who were experiencing that.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: So like that was an example, but I think.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: The book did that for a number of different things,
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: warfare and some of the politicians,
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: but also the everyday lives of the people that were impacted by the war.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I thought it was quite amazing.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: What did you end up making of it?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great book.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I had had a better experience with it.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: More like yours, I did find many passages very powerful.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I did like the overall story.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I liked the perspectives.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly,
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: it was also quite horrific because a lot of what he's talking about with
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: the authoritarianism,
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: And fascism and the press and all this is just like, what are we doing today?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's like he could definitely be writing that about some of the positions
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: that people are having and some of the policies being pushed forward today.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: I still just, I never felt connected to the people or the story in a way that I wanted to.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I put a lot of that on me.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a...
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: A thing that I think that the book fails in that way.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: I never quite connected to it.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I could sense that the whole time.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Almost from page 50,
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: I was like,
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I'm not in lockstep with these characters yet the way that I would like
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: to be.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I never tried to force it, but I tried various things to help.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: I started doing supplemental readings to just say,
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: yeah, I better get to know them a little bit better.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I'm missing things.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it still just never quite came together that way.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: I would say it was much better for me in episodes.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: The letters, some of those were just heartbreaking.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of great pieces that to me just...
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: I never quite knew what I was going to get in the day.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: That was my experience with it.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Not a bad experience, just not what I maybe hoped for based on the love everybody has for it.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: And that in and of itself may have been the problem.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: No, that is definitely a complication that we've talked about is just expectations.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: And as much as you try,
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: like I was kind of joking about with the trip that we took,
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: like you try to tamp that down because it can lead to the opposite happening.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: But that obviously happens with books too.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: So no, I think that's a very fair assessment.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: I can totally see where you're coming from and That's been the fun thing about,
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: I like that we're kind of delving into these big ones is like some
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: of them are exceeding what we thought.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: Some of them may not be exactly what we thought,
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: but it's nice to just be able to kind of start to grapple with some of these big
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: and sometimes messy books and just,
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: you know, have conversations and figure out what's going on.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think at some point down the road, I'll probably...
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I will definitely someday get to Stalingrad.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know that it'll be anytime soon,
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: but I'll be curious,
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: like you were talking about earlier,
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: if that would impact our views on this and potentially lend
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: a little bit more background that would be useful.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think so.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because again,
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: a lot of what I would read about where I'm like,
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't feel like I have the emotional connection to this character that
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: the book assumes I do.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of that is because...
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was in Stalingrad.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: But I knew that.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so definitely it was like, okay.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: And people warned me.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: People told me, don't do this this way.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: But we did.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we did.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: We should have just tried to read both in three months, right?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's what we should have done.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we should have done, yeah.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: I see no problems with that.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: It probably wouldn't have worked these three months for me.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's for sure.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: It did in September,
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: which is where we're still at,
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: but especially at the end of August and early September,
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: that was the book I was reading because I wasn't having time for other things,
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: but I kept reading it every day and definitely was something that I looked forward
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: to every day.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: But what am I reading now?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's a question.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe sadly, but it's a few books that haven't come out yet.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: For example, well,
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: this one has come out in the UK,
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: but it's recently been pushed back a couple of months in the US.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: This is Anita Bruckner, Art and Life by Hermione Lee, the biography.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: It was recently pushed back to be published November 17th here in the US by Knopf.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm loving this so much because I love Anita Bruckner.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: I love her work.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: I can't necessarily say.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like there's like, oh, this thing that I'm learning about her is just changing my life.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: There's just something comforting about delving into the life of an author
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: whose books have meant so much to me.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: And Hermione Lee is very good at portraying all of that.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: So a little more on this will come later,
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: closer to its publication date, because that was just recently pushed back.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: Real fast.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: Before you go on to your next one,
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: I was just going to say,
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: it's funny that you say that because I didn't realize that it had been pushed back.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: But when I was in the UK,
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: I was in a bookstore that you specifically recommended to me,
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: which turned out to be probably my favorite of the whole trip, John Sando.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: Just an absolutely amazing bookstore.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: And down in their basement area where they have some of their poetry
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_02: and different things,
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: there was like a palette of the Hermione Lee biography of Anita Booker.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there was probably like 50 or 60 copies of them.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: I did not pick up one.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: Now I'm like, oh, I should have because you should have picked up two.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: I should have.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: What happened?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: No, I mean, yeah, as everybody saw who follows me, I came back with just a couple of books.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know that a giant hardback biography would have been the best choice,
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: but it didn't stop me from picking up, you know, a bunch of other ones.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Nope, all good.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can't wait.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Then John Sandow,
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: that's where I picked up several of the Penguin White Anita Bruckners
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: that I didn't have.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, they must have been like, there's someone out there who just loves Anita Bruckner.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get a bunch of these.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you better go back and pick them up.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'll have them ship that pallet directly to your house, all of them.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I could divvy that thing out.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'd be sending that like I was a Bible salesman.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'll go door to door.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'll get people on the Gospel of Anita Bruckner.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Give me the chance.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: I like that.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Other authors that I love that I'm reading currently,
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yi Yun-li has a new book coming out next month called Music Against the Night.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a historical novel about a musician,
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: John Field in Dublin and about his kind of estranged wife who I love the writing.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Lee's writing has always been one of my favorites.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's just got this quality of clarity.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: While still being complex and nuanced, if that makes sense.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's still a lot going on and it's still expressing very unique things
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: that make me stop and think while somehow being, you know, clear and lovely.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I mean,
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: just the opening chapter alone dealing with, she has found out that he has died.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: a few weeks afterwards and they've been estranged for a long time and kind
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: of going back and forth.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's very good.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that comes out October 13th here in the U.S.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know this until I was looking it up for this episode to record it.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I noticed that a lot of places it's called Music Against the Night,
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: a novel, and then in parentheses, The Nocturne Trilogy.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: I have not read anything about the book from others,
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: so I didn't know that this is the first part of a trilogy that she is writing.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of an exciting thing for me.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's really exciting.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: I've never read any of her fiction.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: I talked about it a little while back that I did read her heartbreaking memoir,
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: Things in Nature Merely Grow.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I listened to that, but then I ended up buying it.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think I was at Ann Patchett's bookstore in Nashville, actually, that I picked it up.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: Based on just that,
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: I can only imagine how good her fiction must be because the writing in
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: that is next level.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: She's so good.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: They're starting to re-release a lot of her older books in paperback
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: in these really lovely editions.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them are books I don't have anymore.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm probably going to have them again soon and maybe do a little bit of
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: a reread of some of them.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, they've got these new lovely paperbacks that just came out like a few weeks ago.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then more come out like in January to kind of keep it going.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what the plan is, you know, the long term plan.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, that's a good way to dip in to these lovely additions.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: The other book that I'm reading right now that I'm almost,
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a little bit more than halfway through it.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know anybody else who's reading it yet because it comes out in next March.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: But as soon as I got my hands on it, I dove in.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: This is Percival Everett's upcoming book, Serious Music.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, look at you.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: Show off.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they- I got an early, early copy.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: They did this with James too.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: They have their arcs, but they also have their preview arcs.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what they are in the industry, what they're called, but it's like the...
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: It still looks like an arc in many ways,
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: but with a different cover, more with text and all of that.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that they also then will send out arcs that look more like the book later on.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I was able to do that with James, which I loved.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Serious music is very interesting.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: It is historical as well.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: And also about music, musicians.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, Ewan Lee, Percival Everett, here we go.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah,
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: Serious Music is about a Black soldier in World War I who is also a musician
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: and kind of that story there.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I'm about halfway through it.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: He's currently in France.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's very, you know,
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's Percival Everett-ish, I guess is the way to say it, where it's a bit absurd.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's very heartbreaking.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: It seems to try not to be overly poetic or sentimental about things.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the most bizarre things will happen and you're left to just sit there
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: and realize that it's happened.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I'm really enjoying this one as well.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: So those three...
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Books have been my constant companions over the past week or so as we've been moving
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: and have been loving it.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: My wife did pick me up the latest Richard Osman book.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's the We Solve Murders sequel, and it's called We Chase Shadows.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I started that one last night and have gotten two or three chapters into it.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: And it's always nice to be back in that world as well.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm a little bit worried that I won't be able to keep the steam going for that one.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'll be honest, I didn't love We Solve Murders.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I remember you said it wasn't as good as the other stuff that...
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I am so happy with the other three books I brought up that I'm reading
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: that I can see it often being like,
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: oh, I'll read some of that Richard Osman book later on.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: I want to keep reading Hermione Lee or I want to keep reading Percival Everett
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: or something like that.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm a little bit worried that I might lose the steam to keep all four
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: of them moving the way that I would normally like to.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: But I did enjoy the first three chapters of We Chase Shadows.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe it'll pull me into that series finally.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: But here's another confession.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: I did immediately turn to the very end where he kind of gives his thanks
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: and gratitude and blah, blah, blah, blah,
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: blah to see if at the end he says,
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: next year we'll be back with another Thursday Murder Club novel
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: because that's what I really want.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it does.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, 2027 will be another Thursday Murder Club book year, apparently.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's exciting.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: At least that's what he's saying.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's in print.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: That means it has to be true.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: It won't change at all.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: The way he's publishing, I'm sure he's got a plan and we'll get her done.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and just to add to all of that,
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: we have another week or so,
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: but then we'll be kicking into our final big NWRB classic for
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: the fourth quarter too.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: So as if we didn't have enough on our plates.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go into that because I want to get into our catching up, but also we've got something...
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Or should we save that?
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because we've got two things coming up in the next week.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: We also have the Novella Discord book group.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so let's talk about that and our big NYRB Classics thing here in a few minutes.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because we've talked about my move.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't wait to get back to like doing Instagram posts and reels.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's just been, I just haven't had, like almost every week I'm like, okay, I can do this.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: I can sit down and plan one and do it.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't been able to.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's too much in my brain.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's the weirdest thing where I'm like, no, I just don't have it.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: And rather than force it, I've just been floating along.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: But I am excited to get back to that.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: Fall usually inspires me.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, so with that, there'll be a little bit more activity on my end after the move.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: But...
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: You've been doing something much more cool in your journey,
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: and I want you to be able to share some of the highlights,
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: some of the books you got, some of the reading inspiration you got done over there.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm assuming you'd like to go back someday now to revisit and all that.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's a safe assumption.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: In fact,
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: if I could figure out a way to have never left,
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: I think that they had to basically drag me to the airport,
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: like my Throwing a big tantrum, my arms were wrapped around the desk leg.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, my wife and I both, we loved it.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: It was just,
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: you know, being,
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: I'd never been across the pond and I'd heard you and so many other people talk
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: about it,
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: reading as widely as we do,
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: reading a lot of international fiction,
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: watching so many films,
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: like you have this mythos built up in your head about those areas.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: And like I said, I was trying to be careful because I was afraid if anything that I might like
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: We
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: didn't get a lot of reading time in, only because we were just doing stuff all the time.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: London, we're going to talk a little bit more about that later, so I won't go too far into it.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: New York City is an amazing bookstore town.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: But when I went to London,
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: I was just like,
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: I could not believe just the sheer number of not only bookstores,
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: but just excellent, excellent bookstores that are there.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, even your chains,
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: your waterstones and your foils are just next level as far as just the curation and
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: the presentation.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: I was just blown away by that.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: And then so many good indies,
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: you know, that luckily you and others had put me onto the track of a lot of those.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, I mean,
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of jokingly was like, well,
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm only going to pick up like one or two books per bookstore and that'll kind
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: of keep things regulated.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: But then when you go to, you know, 15 or 20 bookstores, that stack grows and grows on you.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I mean, it just incredible, incredible bookstore town.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: I know quite a few of our listeners have mentioned to me that they've also been
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: to John Sandow, which was the one that you recommended to me.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: And you said you stayed right there when you were in London.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: Is that right?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like in that neighborhood is where you stay.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like maybe a three minute walk from my room to John Sandow.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: It was awesome.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just a beautiful bookstore and the selection there was amazing.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I mean,
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: I won't go through every single book that I bought while I was across But yeah,
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: I did manage to pick up an Anita Bruckner in a nice British edition and
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: an Elizabeth Taylor.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_02: There was a couple by an author that I've been wanting to read for a long time
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: and you can get him through Blackstones and stuff,
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: but I don't think he's readily available in the US from what I can tell.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: And that's John Cowper Poiss.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: Is that how you say
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: his last name?
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know about that, but yeah.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I kept seeing him In the months leading up to that.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so I kind of had that on my radar when I was over there.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to get that.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: There's those lovely like British Penguin editions of his.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I got a Glastonbury Romance and Wolf Solent.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm looking forward to those.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: You did inspire me, Trevor, with your everyman Dickens thing.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was like, well...
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_02: When we were in London, there was a lot of Dickens stuff, as you'd expect.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: So we went to the Dickens Museum,
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: which for those who've been there, they know it's in one of his former homes.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: And there's just some amazing stuff there,
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_02: like his writing desk and,
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know,
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: like the collar he was wearing when he collapsed before he died and like things like
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: that.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_02: His copy of Shakespeare and...
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: Robinson Crusoe.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: So it was just an amazing experience to see that.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: And then we went to a pub called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever been to that one?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: I've been to that one.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: Such a cool.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's so Dickensian and,
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: it's a lot of places in London claim to be his former haunts,
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: but I think, you know, I would like to believe it was true.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_02: And they had a little plaque where it was like,
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: this was Charles Dickens' favorite seat to sit in.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so I like got some pictures to So anyway,
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: all that just to say it was a very Charles Dickens themed time.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so I grabbed Bleak House.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: I thought I would just start with one of my favorites in
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: the Everyman Classics Edition while I was over there.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_02: And you've inspired me.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to just collect them all.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to do the Pokemon thing and collect them all.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I got the first one down while I was over there.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm rambling, though, so I don't want to keep going.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: But I'll also just mention, we took a quick excursion to Bath.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: We took the train over to Bath.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I was so happy because I got to go to Persephone Books, which I'd always wanted to go to.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: It was in London.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: And now, as many people know, it's in Bath.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: That is just a gorgeous, gorgeous store in a gorgeous, gorgeous setting.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I picked up several of their books, but I thought it was fitting.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: One of the ones I picked up during my fortnight in September.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yes.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_02: You've been to Persephone in both London and Bath or just in London?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: No, just in Bath.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: I had not gone until last year when we were there and they've been in Bath for a few years now.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, same store last year, but I had never been to their London place.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: Wasn't the store and bath just idyllic and beautiful?
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: You turn the corner, walk up the street, and there it was.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: I remember I sent you a Marco Polo from it where I'm like,
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: look, Paul, I'm about to turn a corner because I've been following it on my map.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I think it's coming up.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: Fortunately, it was.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: Or I would have had to just delete that.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: No, you're right.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: I should have remembered because I do remember that.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: And the people on there, the women that work there are just so – everything you would hope.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_02: They were just so –
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like,
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: I've read some of your books before and love them,
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: but I would love some of your personal recommendations.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: And they were just walking me all around the store.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_02: And there was a woman who was sitting back behind the counter
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_02: and she was just like hand wrapping all of the different books that they were going
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: to send.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm just like, oh, this is just ridiculously idyllic.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, I mean, that was kind of a quick break.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: Summary of the London bath thing.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then we went to Paris and, you know, same thing.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a ridiculously literate city.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: My wife jokes that our suitcases and bookshelves were spared a little bit
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: because many of the bookstores are obviously French.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_02: There's no shortage of really good English bookstores there too,
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_02: but that kept me in check a little bit more,
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_02: but got to see some really cool,
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: just like,
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_02: Gravestones and in Crips and things of a lot of really cool,
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: like literary figures,
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: you know, like Dumas and Victor Hugo and Guy de Maupassant and Lost Track.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, all kinds.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: So just very, very literary book filled trip.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: Everything I could have ever hoped it would be.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: It was amazing.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's excellent.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: So fun to hear,
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: so fun to reminisce,
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: even though I wasn't with you,
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: you know, just to think about the places and also be excited for your experiences.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: It is a good thing.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the episodes that we're going to do,
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think our next episode is somewhat inspired by this.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to do an episode focused on London books and books set in London.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason is, like you said, London has a mythos.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: For those of us who hadn't been there before, you learn about London through...
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: All kinds of different types of books, fantasy, romance, thrillers, political things.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: There's all types of London.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's the Dickensian London, the Victorian London, the 1940s London.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: And somehow when I've gone,
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: and also the Shakespearean London,
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: like the medieval, somehow when I've gone, Each of those is there.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't feel like Disneyland where it's like,
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: oh, there's that corner that they've gussied up to give a feel for that.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, no,
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: I feel now like I'm in medieval London the way I've imagined it,
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: like in my wildest dream.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: Even the fantasy stuff.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Harry Potter-y kind of things.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, well, this is possible here.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: So we're going to be talking about that.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't want to give it all away,
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: but it's so funny that you say that because that's exactly the conversation my wife
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: and I had several times.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: I was like,
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: we'd turn a corner and our jaws would drop and I would be like,
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: this looks like what Disney World is trying to... Or like Epcot... No, what is it?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_02: What they're trying to recreate with Harry Potter World.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like this street is what they're trying to replicate.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: And yet it's here and it's real and it doesn't feel,
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: like you said, it's not gussied up to be that.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_02: It is that.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: It was just, it's crazy.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one upcoming episode.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: Here in a minute, we'll talk about another one.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, yeah.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to derail you, Paul.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, no.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I could go on and on forever.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I mean, I think that that's...
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: Paris was just,
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_02: we got to go down and do the Paris Catacombs,
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_02: which if anybody ever gets a chance to do that is just an unreal experience with,
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's 6 million bodies total that are interred down there,
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: but it's in a very,
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know,
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: it's really hard to describe,
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: but those who have seen,
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_02: who have been there or who've seen footage,
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_02: it's just like, Row after row after row of like femurs.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's like skulls kind of interspersed,
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_02: but it's artistic, but it's also very reverent.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I think I didn't know what to expect.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd heard people say that when they came out of it,
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_02: they felt kind of peaceful and maybe like just a shared common humanity,
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: even though these are anonymous bones.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_02: And there's so many, I mean, you're walking for like
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so I didn't know if it would be creepy or if it would be like mind numbing.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I think what came out of it was just like a very,
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: like I said, a very shared common humanity and kind of a piece.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: It was really beautifully done.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_02: So that was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_02: You'll be happy to know that I also picked up a book that I bought for you back
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_02: for Around Christmas time, the paintings in Proust while I was in France.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, this is the perfect time.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I got that when we were something I didn't mention until just now.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'd always said that at the top of my literary bucket list as far
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: as bookstores was Shakespeare and Company.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I did finally manage to make it, which was so cool.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_02: Really fun.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's busy and very touristy,
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_02: of course, but it was really cool because we went back a second time.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_02: And we went upstairs to kind of the reading room area that they have set aside
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_02: where it's like there's some rules posted about like this is a kind of an oasis in
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: the city for readers and writers.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: Please respect it.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_02: No phones, that kind of thing.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so my wife and I just went up there and sat for probably like 20 or 30 minutes.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: And there was only a couple other people up there.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: And despite how busy...
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: Paris is, and that bookstore in particular is very busy downstairs.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_02: Up there, it was amazing.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: It was just a very, like the walls are lined with books.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_02: And there's just the desk where so many writers have written things.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a little daybed over on the side where they can kind of stay.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, Notre Dame is like out the window and just sitting there.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: It was very surreal.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: So like I said, so much of this trip just felt dreamlike.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_02: It was kind of hard.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_02: I had to kind of pinch myself to go.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: Realized that I was actually there.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: And that was definitely one of those moments that was a highlight too.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's inspired me.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: It'll keep feeding things, you know?
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: It is fun to
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: be there, but I will say it can be depressing to get back to reality.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: At the same time,
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: I have found that those memories and those places that I just love Do continue
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: to sustain me and make me happy even when I'm not there.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: They give color and things to my life wherever I'm at.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_02: No, I can totally see that.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: And that's a great way to look at it.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's funny.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_02: I've told my wife, because we've been back now for basically a week.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_02: And my dreams since we got back have been different.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's really interesting.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to...
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_02: I hope that it's permanent because I know that real life has a way of,
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_02: you know, emails and meetings and things chip away at that.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_02: But it's been really interesting the way that it's kind
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: of just I really do think taking that much time away
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: and being around beautiful things and things you love.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's amazing what I can do.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_02: I've had lots of dreams about just like architecture and buildings
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: and different things because we saw so many cathedrals and beautiful spaces.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just amazing what it's a good reminder of what all I think like it's easy
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_02: to kind of like see it on Instagram,
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: like the most beautiful bookstores in London or like the greatest cathedrals
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_02: in Europe or something.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_02: And like you scan through it and that's fine.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: But like going there and just spending some time and kind of just letting it wash over you.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's been really interesting to see the way that it's kind of like I said,
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_02: I don't I would like to think it would be permanent and I would like to cling to it
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_02: as long as I can.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: But just the way your brain is kind of rewired for a while.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_02: And like you said, I think through memories and stuff, probably it is permanent in some ways.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah,
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: it's one of those where life changing sounds a little corny,
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_02: but I think these kind of experiences really can be.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know,
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: when we talk about this stuff,
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: and again,
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_01: this is not like in the works or something that we know when we'll be able to do it,
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: but I do think we will make it work someday to do a Mookse and Gripes,
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_01: you know, British tour of some type.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: Where we get to go over together, but maybe figure out a way to make it a group thing.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_01: And go visit Winchester and Chawton for Jane Austen.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: Go up to Yorkshire and to the Bronte Parsonage.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_01: Go to Canterbury.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_01: Go to the Lake District and see Wordsworth and that realm over there.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: Spend some time in London.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: Got that as a dream someday when we're able to figure out the logistics of it,
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_01: both in terms of how to do it and how to integrate that into life,
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: into the flow of our normal everyday jobs and life and all of that.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: No, that would be amazing.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: We got to do it.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_01: We got to make it happen.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think we'll be able to do you mentioned one thing I would be remiss
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_02: if I didn't mention is while we were in Bath,
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: we got to sit I'm spacing on the name of it right now,
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: but it's one of the two big main tea rooms that they do.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so we had tea, high tea in Bath.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I think it's in Mansfield Park in one of Jane Austen's other books.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's the tea room that's explicitly mentioned.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_02: And again,
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm spacing on the name of it right now,
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_02: but I was kind of asking the waiter,
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_02: what's kind of the mythos or the history around Jane Austen in this room
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: in particular?
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_02: And he's like, well,
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_02: we've never been able to definitively say that she was here in this space, but...
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_02: It is featured prominently in several of her books,
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_02: and it's described in such detail that basically nobody could have probably gone
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_02: or written that well about it without having been here.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_02: So there's that.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_02: And then he said they also have the records of people
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_02: who have taken tea there dating back like 300 years or something crazy like that.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: And he said there's several different entries of guests with the last name Austin,
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_02: where the first name is obscured.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's several other records where there's the first name Jane with
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_02: the last name obscured.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so he's like,
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: we can't confirm that she's been here, but basically, yeah, she's been here.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, we tracked down the exact table that the Austin person would book every time.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so he showed me where it was.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so I went back there.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's near the back of the room.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I took a picture from that perspective.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just kind of imagining that Oh, that is fun.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was really cool.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_01: Does it make you want to read some more Jane Austen?
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's the problem.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: All of this made me want to read a lot of everything.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was like, oh, Thomas Hardy's grave.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_02: I really need to read more Thomas Hardy.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, Charles Dickens' favorite pub.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_02: I really need to go back and reread all those.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, Jane Austen.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I mean, I don't know that I've...
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_02: Settled on any particular plan yet, but it was just getting the paintings in Proust.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was just like, ah, maybe it's about time to do that.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah,
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: as you would expect,
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: it was whatever I was in front of at the moment was calling to me.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah,
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_02: I've really been enjoying that River Work book that I mentioned just
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: because it's cool now that I've been in some of those places just
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: to That's what I can already see shifting is like reading a book set in Paris.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: Even if you're not in Paris at the moment,
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_02: it's kind of nice because you have a little bit better idea of what they're talking
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_02: about.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_02: So that's been fun too.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's move on and talk about some upcoming reading plans.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_01: While you're trying to figure out what to read, here's some things that are to read.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: So as you already mentioned,
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: we do have here in another week a We'll be starting our last quarter of 2026
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: at big NYRB Classic.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_01: And we have chosen to read A Fortunate Man by Henrik Pontopidan.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to say his name in better fluency with Danish.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_01: This was translated from the Danish by Paul Larkin.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_01: And came out, was it last year?
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was last year.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_01: From NYRE Classics.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_01: Pontopidan won the Nobel Prize in Literature way back, almost at the start, 1917.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_01: And
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_01: They published a couple of his books.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they published a couple of books by him,
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_01: but in the one,
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_01: The White Bear,
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_01: it actually came with a few more of his books, or at least one, right?
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's one.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_01: The White Bear.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_01: Was there one other?
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was just the two.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_02: Because I did read those, and yeah, they whetted my appetite.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: It made me very exciting to read this big chunkster by him.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: So a fortunate man.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard really good things about it and it is a big one.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of the big over 800 pages one.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's not quite 900, but somewhere in the middle there.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: At this point in the year, we
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_02: just scoff at that.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they didn't even get the four digits of the page numbers like child's play.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_01: We'll make it through it.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_01: By Christmas time,
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_01: we'll be stronger from toting it around like we have been all year,
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: but we'll also probably be finishing up with this book.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, I keep interrupting you.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_02: You said toting it around.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_02: While I was in Paris, I have to send you this picture, Trevor.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_02: We were walking down the busy streets of Paris and my wife nudges me and she points
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_02: over right next to me.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_02: There was this guy that was walking right down the middle of the street,
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_02: weaving in and out of people, dodging potholes, reading.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_02: He had the book open right in front of him.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, it's Parisian Trevor.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_02: You have a soulmate across in Paris somewhere who right now is,
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_02: well, maybe not right now because it's 9 p.m. there.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I thought that was so funny.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_02: So you reminded me.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_02: I feel it.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_02: I feel it.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's one of my favorite things to do is read and walk.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: And yes,
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_01: a lot of times I can do it on my phone or whatever,
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_01: but I still love carrying around my book if I can.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_01: I will admit that These big ones, I have not been toting them around while I go on my walks.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's fair.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but it did my heart good.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_02: There was lots of readers out in public too.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_02: That was another thing I noticed in both of those cities,
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_02: just such literate cities where cafes and buses and on the tube
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_02: and everywhere there was just people reading physical books.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_02: So that was very, it felt like you were among your people.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_01: Hell, it's so nice.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_02: It is.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: But this next book, I absolutely will be able to read and tote it around.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's very short.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_01: This is for the Novella Book Club on Discord.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_01: We've been doing one of these every quarter as well.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_01: We probably should stagger these so that we're not always starting at the same time.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it works this way.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_01: But this is the last quarter's book is going
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_01: to be Catherine Mansfield's Prelude is what it's called.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes it's collected in some of her short story collections, but it is relatively long.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_01: this particular edition that I'm holding here for you is
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: the Pushkin Press Classics edition called Strange Bliss,
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_01: which is essential stories, but I've seen it in others of her collections too.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_01: In this one, which, you know, these pages are relatively small, but still kind of dense.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, this is probably how big it is for most of them.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_01: It runs about 80 pages.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_01: So a novella for sure and several sections.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I love Catherine Mansfield's work, but I have not ever read Prelude before.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what we're reading starting here also in early October.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm excited about that too.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_02: I've only read a few of her stories, so this will be a relatively fresh jump in for me.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know much about what to expect, to be honest with you.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'll see.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about it over on the Discord.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_01: I guess in another upcoming read for me,
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_01: I know you're not doing this project necessarily,
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: but the next book in my Muriel Spark read-a-thon is going to be one of my favorites
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_01: of the past.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's a reread of The Driver's Seat.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be entering the 1970s with Muriel Spark.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_01: This is going to be book 10 for October.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_01: One book every month until we're done at 22 books.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_01: This is book 10, The Public, or not The Public Image, The Driver's Seat.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_01: We just finished The Public Image,
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_01: which was also a reread for me and probably was my least favorite of her books
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: when I first
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_02: read it.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_01: I loved it this time.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_01: I had a great time with it.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_01: Part of me was like, did I just not get it?
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then I read my review.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, no, I got it.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_01: I just didn't get into it.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I just, you know, I don't know.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_01: So funny how that happens.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's like when you reread Life and Fate, maybe it'll be the same thing someday.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's just the wrong time.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe sometimes.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I think sometimes I do need to process things and then a reread is a great way
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_01: to go back in and actually stop with the thing as I was hoping for or kind
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: of thought I would get and be much more like,
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_01: well, here's what it is and then delighted by all the surprises.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah,
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'll admit there's a part of me that's like I probably ought to reread War and Peace
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_01: because that also just wasn't my favorite reading project of the last several years.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think you should read War and Peace and Life and Fate back to back and throw
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_02: in Stalingrad in the middle.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I did that with War and Peace and the Brothers Karamazov, which was a reread.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was a reread of The Brothers Karamazov when I started War and Peace.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_01: I started them both the same day a few years ago.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I did love that experience.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_01: Loved it, loved it, loved it.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't think I'm going to do it with War and Peace and Life and Fate.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_01: That I just don't think will be the way that I,
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_01: if I ever get back to those two, that will not be the way I do it.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_02: I will say though that I,
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_02: even though we've been reading a lot of big books this year,
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_02: I am definitely,
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_02: as we head into the fall and winter,
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_02: we talk about this every year, um,
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_02: The call of some big books and maybe some big classics
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_02: in particular is definitely calling out to me.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_01: A fortunate man isn't going to do it for you.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_01: I know, that's the thing.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_01: It probably will, but who knows?
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm the same way.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's almost an ancillary project that fits into my other parts of my reading.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_02: Not that we want to jump too far ahead in the year,
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_02: but really quickly, I wanted to see if you might have gotten a package.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_02: I got a fun package that I wanted to mention real fast from our friend Brad Bigelow,
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_02: who does Recovered Books, that great series.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_02: And did you happen to get anything that looked like this in the mail?
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_01: Nope, I haven't gotten that one.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_02: You may or may not.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_02: But it's a book that he...
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_02: Published.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_02: And the reason I mentioned it is just as we get towards the end of the year,
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_02: it's something that I'm thinking I might pick up towards the holidays.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's called Season's Greetings.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's by Herbert Clyde Lewis.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I won't read the whole thing,
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_02: but it says it captures the mood of New York City and its people,
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_02: their humor, fantasy, grudges and hopes.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_02: It follows five outsiders through Christmas Eve as they confront setbacks,
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_02: disappointments, accidents, opportunities and even God in the shape of an alley cat.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I just was thinking like as we start to look towards the end of the year, this one.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_02: And what's it called again?
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's called Seasons Greetings.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_01: Seasons Greetings.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I will be honest, I don't even know.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_02: He sent it my way and I don't know what the official pub date is.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's already been out.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_02: I was trying to look real fast and see.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'll have to do some research.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I can follow up, but I should have done that before I mentioned it.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_02: But just as we were starting to talk about Tipping into the fourth quarter
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_02: and heading towards the end of the year,
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_02: I thought I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that one
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_02: because it seems like it could be a really nice December read.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I do need to read a book that's like a holiday book for my library book club.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, there you go.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_02: It says it is scheduled for publication on November 29th.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, perfect.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_02: If that sounds appealing to anybody, I would definitely recommend.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_02: Boiler House Press is the ones who put those out.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_02: Brad always does such a good job of digging out some of those hidden gems.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_02: This sure sounds like it could be another one of them.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for bringing that one to my attention.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, I have lots of detours today.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_02: I have so many things to tell you, Trevor.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's been too long.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: It has been too
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_01: long.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_01: You got to get them all out because we're actually almost done here.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_01: I've got one more future episode to kind of introduce to people.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're signing off for a couple of weeks, but only for a couple of weeks.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_01: Only for a couple of weeks.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_01: We promise.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_01: Trust us.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we didn't warn anybody last time.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe people won't trust us ever again.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_02: I hope five years of consistency built up a little bit of resilience for people.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_01: A little bit of goodwill.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_01: I fully hope for it, but we'll see.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_01: Another upcoming episode that we're thinking about,
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_01: but it's an early days kind of shaping of it.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's something we talk about quite often.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got to figure out the best way to articulate it in kind of a new wrinkle or
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_01: a new nuance.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_01: But I was scrolling through Instagram the other day and my algorithm showed me
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_01: the scene at the end of Dead Poets Society.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_01: Where, you know, with the desks and Ethan Hawke standing on the desk, oh, Captain, my Captain.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, that movie, I loved it when I was a kid.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty sure that it played a role in my love for,
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_01: books and reading and the Academy and some of my spirited,
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_01: you know, contrariness when it comes to Just trying to do the practical thing.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_01: Even though I know those things are important,
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_01: there is a part of me that's always very much believed
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_01: that poetry is not merely ornamental to life.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_01: It is life, as they say in that.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think the movie has a lot of other interesting issues that You know,
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_01: when it deals with authority,
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_01: it'd be a great companion piece to like the Prime of Miss Jean Brody,
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_01: things like that.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_01: But I was thinking about that issue,
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_01: that idea of,
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_01: poetry or reading not being merely an incidental ornament to life, but life itself.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_01: And what does that actually mean?
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because it can't be...
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_01: In my mind, that a life would be worth living if that's all you did was read.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_01: Go into a room somewhere and simply read.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's not what that passage means to me, that that is life.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_01: That life is just reading all these things or that that would make up a good life.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_01: That would be not very much of a life to me.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_01: To have a lot of lives, you'd live a lot of different lives through other people, but...
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so I just kind of wanted to explore that idea of what does that mean
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_01: to have reading be life when we do live,
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_01: when we do go about and interact with other people,
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_01: when we do have jobs and dreams and trips to London or moving house or
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_01: the seasons coming and going.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_01: How does what we read become life to us in good ways and maybe bad ways
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_01: or just unthinking ways?
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why I thought, well,
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_01: we've kind of touched on many things this could be in
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_01: the past is we've already talked about why do we read fiction, for example.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we often talk about the reading life and how reading can help get away from some
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_01: of the other things going on,
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_01: not necessarily fully as an escape,
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_01: but as a way of Building in your time,
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_01: building in why going for a walk and reading,
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_01: for example, is so important to me and to my mental health.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_01: That is an important part of it.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_01: But I thought this could be slightly different from that to really kind of think
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_01: about how is it that when we read, it is life.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I love it.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's about as far as I got when I was presenting it to Paul the other day.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's about where I got to.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_01: So if listeners have any ideas, that'll probably be a few episodes down the line.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_02: But what does that mean?
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_02: And ever since you mentioned it to me, I've been picking at it.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_02: And luckily, I don't have to report back right now because I don't know that I've got it.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_02: But I think it's going to be an interesting thing to think about.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_02: And hopefully, we can kind of come up with some good...
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_02: Ways to approach it because it's a very complicated and interesting point.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_02: I really like it.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_01: Does it feel different to you than, or at least a new wrinkle to stuff we often talk about?
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I do think it does.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_02: At first I wasn't,
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_02: like when you first pitched it to me,
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_02: I was thinking like it seemed a little close to what we'd done,
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_02: but the more you kind of explain the nuances,
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_02: I definitely think it's a whole different wrinkle.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm sure it'll probably end up Incorporating some of those other thoughts
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_02: and conversations we've had, but I do.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's a different way to think about it.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_01: It felt like we don't have a theme when it comes to The Mooks and the Gripes,
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_01: but I do think whatever ways that we can have fun investigating reading
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_01: in our lives,
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_01: whatever that reading may be,
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_01: whatever books we like,
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_01: whatever types of books,
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_01: whatever phase of life we're in,
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that's the spirit that we often try to achieve.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_01: And this was This was a bit of that, I thought.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, for sure.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I also think picking at the edges of things and kind of like pushing
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_02: and exploring is something that I really enjoy about a lot of our conversations.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I think this is a great example of that too.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think I'll leave it at this.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_01: I fully believe that phrase still,
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_01: that sentiment,
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_01: because when I'm reading,
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_01: it does make me not, I mean, yes,
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_01: when I'm reading,
• 1:04:37
  SPEAKER_01: but I mean,
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_01: when I'm a reading person,
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_01: When I'm a reader, even when I'm not reading, I feel more alive.
• 1:04:47
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that might be a good way for people to kind of look forward
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_01: to this episode and maybe share some of your thoughts with us as we get closer
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_01: to it.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'd love to be able to articulate it better.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_01: And what better way to do that than to just say what other people have to say about it?
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's something we've been talking about.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_02: One of the things we've missed,
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_02: we've definitely still been interacting with people over the last month.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, we always have lots of great bookish conversations and friends online.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_02: Getting back into our episodes and starting to hear regularly from people
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_02: about specific books, ideas,
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_02: topics is something that I'm really looking forward to as we close out 2026 and head
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_02: into 2027.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's just getting back even more into our community and hearing from all of you
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_02: because as we've said so many times,
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_02: it's one of my favorite things about doing all this.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah,
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_02: that's a perfect prompt or any other of the things that we've said,
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_02: obviously reach out to us about anything,
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_02: but if you have any thoughts about that or anything,
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_02: Any London thoughts that you would want to share with us,
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_02: that would be great too because some of our listeners out there are lucky enough
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_02: to live in London.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they probably have some insider secrets we haven't even thought about.
• 1:05:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it'll be fun.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_01: As always, it'll be fun.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, for sure.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I have five more big boxes of books to unload before I go get the next five.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_01: I've just been kind of going back and forth.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I mentioned this.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_01: I only moved a half mile.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a massive move.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, so it's been able to be a little bit more gradual.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah,
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_01: this is one of the last things I have to move other than if you,
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_01: you know, help with some of the last bits of furniture.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you save the best for last few days.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_01: Half a mile.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm assuming you're not even using your car.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're just...
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just throw the five boxes of books on my back and go back and forth.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I figured.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_02: Why waste the gas, you know?
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'll tell you, I've been like, can I park even closer to the door?
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_01: I bet.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you will not have to go to the gym for quite a while probably.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_01: It has been one of those things where I'm like, this is exhausting in a way that's fun.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_02: I know that soon you will be able to settle down into your nice cozy new home
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_02: and have all your books out and that'll be a reward well worth all the work.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think so, too.
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we're gunning for.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Paul.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to talk with you again.
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk to you soon.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_01: And the listeners, we'll see you here in a couple of weeks.
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_01: Bye, everybody.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to the Mooks and the Gripes podcast.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_02: If you enjoyed the bookish banter, we have more than 100 past episodes for you to dive into.
• 1:07:34
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• 1:07:38
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• 1:07:41
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• 1:07:45
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• 1:07:49
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• 1:07:50
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• 1:07:51
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• 1:07:56
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• 1:07:59
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• 1:08:01
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• 1:08:04
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• 1:08:08
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• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_02: May you keep exploring great books until next time.