Hello everybody and welcome to books Unbound the podcast where we unbind books to get to their hearts with your ho hosts you gonna say your hearts it doesn’t matter it’s your hosts Ariel anden hello Yol I was gonna say Yola again Yola I haven’t uh failed an intro
In a while and you know what let’s keep it we’re not going to record that one n this is an authentic podcast with authentic people and authentic opinions there you go thank you thank you good night anyways that’s all for today and we’ll talk to you next
Week oh man okay okay okay okay okay we’re here we’re here we’re here and uh what can I say I was wearing a different dress like 10 minutes ago and then I remembered it was the dress I wore in last week’s episode I was like damn it I
Got to go up or people are going to think that I’m wearing the same or they’re going to think I’m an outfit repeater which I am an outfit repeater but it’s it’s it’s different when it’s your job right and also like if it was just spread out two episodes apart or
Something that’d be fine but like it’s kind of nice visually when you look at the episodes and you see the different outfits like you’re like oh yeah that was that episode or whatever I was like I got to go change that’s true I know sometimes I have to like look back
Through the episodes to be like okay can I wear this shirt again oh yeah it’s been like a month it’s all good okay how about you why did you choose that shirt today um I honestly I was I said to Kyle what should I wear and he
Said pick something from the left side of your closet and so I picked the dress yeah that’s actually cool actually that is a kind of a weird reason like I couldn’t decide so I just did that when you can’t decide make someone else decide for you that’s what I always say
So freaking true man oh that’s why I always get you to pick my books for me I have no decision making skills I I feel that I should update people on some stuff uh because last week’s episode I started with some kind of sad news about my dog and the truth
Is I don’t have a good update he’s still really sick um it’s depressing it’s rough I keep crying a lot but listen I I bring that up not for pity not for anything but just to say that like I get it I just get it like friends have dogs
And animals that get sick and it’s sad and here it’s my turn and soon it will be someone else’s turn we’re all in this horrible everyone that’s the sad thing about having pets is you it’s so freaking joyful to have them but yeah it always has to come to an end at some
Point and it sucks which I’ve been having I think I talked about this last week maybe but I’ve been having a whole existential time about it I’m like should we even own pets because I’m like this is so sad I don’t actually think that I can go through this again and I
Have to because I have two other animals I Eddie and Max dog and a cat and they’re eventually going to pass away and like I’m not saying Doug is definitely going to pass away right now but he it’s not looking good and so I’m like this is going to keep happening for
The next few years cuz they’re all older uh this is going to keep happening I’m like do I actually want to sign up for this again cuz my I have dreamt for a really long time of having a cat I’ve always wanted to have a cat and I had
Cats when I was a kid um and then all of them ran away which is really sad oh no um I think my parents told me they ran away probably uh you know they got eaten or killed by a car or something horrible happened to
Them but in my brain I was like oh they’re just on an adventure damn yeah if you don’t know that they they’ve died it’s a little bit easier to swall it’s kind of it’s kind of different right but um I’m like do I want to sign up for
This so I’ve been having literally giant debates with my boyfriend about like the nature of of life and death and and and literally like interrogating the concept of is it better to have loved and lost to than never to have loved oh my gosh I
Say yes I say yes Ariel it is worth it don’t give up hope I also like this is different but like it’s also freaked me out even more about having children I’m like imagine I I I can’t even imagine having a kid and they the scariest idea yeah that’s the scariest
Thing I’ve ever heard of I don’t think I I know I could handle it but I just mean like I don’t think I can handle it I don’t know if I want to handle it it’s just like wow anyway this a very existential time is happening over here
Yeah and to everyone who has pets I’m smooching them all on their head and I’m sorry that this is a bit of a downer for the beginning of these episodes but it’s just life we’re recording our lives secretly on these podcasts right and it’s just what’s happening the other good the good news
Is I don’t have rheumatoid arthritis God oh my God and did you ever find out what color blood is no you know what I didn’t look that up I should have um cuz I also hear blood like becomes a different color when it becomes oxygenated I I I don’t know how deeply I
Want to look at I don’t know if I want to have blood facts in my head because I I want to be that guy no um you’ll always bring it out at parties and stuff nobody needs that yeah so I think I’ve mentioned before on the podcast that I
Was diagnosed with ell Stow syndrome the cool one uh ell Stow syndrome all the cool kids have ell Stow syndrome that’s what I’ve heard uh when I was 22 and I was diagnosed with just general hypermobility when I was 12 so it’s like kind of it’s just been a thing that I’ve
Always had and it just means that all my joints are falling apart but I didn’t think it was rheumatoid arthritis and then I got a new joint hurting I talked to a nurse practitioner she was like I’m nervous you have rent toid arthritis I was like don’t say that to me what are
You talking about she’s like we should really get this checked immediately I was like great I love turning 30 it’s so fun yeah I’m like this is so cool um and my markers are elevated for it but not in the zone of I have it so I think
Basically I’m G I’m going to be calling with the nurse again in like a week or something I still haven’t got my X-ray back but um basically it was like I got a thing that was like you you you don’t it’s this is not an emergency this is
Like because it’s all done through this online portal because I don’t have a family doctor so it was just like you have an update and I went in it was like your markers are good there’s no need for a followup so now I just have to
Wait for the X-ray and then I’ll do a followup but I have a feeling I’m basically just going to have to check every few years if my markers have up again yeah but anyways that’s a big relief so that’s a relief my own medical woses are fine I’m going to live to see
Another day and it’s going to be not as painful a day as I thought it would be and Doug is still here and hopefully we’ll get better but if not I love that dog so that’s I he’s my favorite dog in the whole world Doug is the best dog in
The whole world he he’s so cool he’s like a little uh police chief that’s how I imagine yeah that’s a good way to describe him right he’s always like Brave ready he’s in charge and he’s like hey how are you doing over here and you’re like I’m good he’s like okay and
Then he goes to the next room he’s like how are you and you’re like I’m good he’s like okay awesome and he’s like on patrol all the time he’s very brave um he saved his brother a lot it’s such a weird thing with dogs like little dogs
Are usually braver than big dogs do you know what I mean like they just like big dogs are often actually more scared of stuff than little dogs are and so there’s been like three different occasions where Eddie has gotten attacked by another big dog and it’s
Doug who has saved the day like he goes in like you’re not going to mess with my brother and starts just like and then yeah my M has all these stories of Doug like saving the day so a that’s so sweet he’s the best and I just want him to be
Okay anyways this is a bummer well let me tell you what I’ve been up to nothing that exciting but I think you’ll be happy to hear this away from this yes you I’ll tell you all about what I did yesterday it’s like not that exciting but Kyle and I went
Swimming yeah where yeah at a swimming pool just like okay oh wow here’s how it all happened it couldn’t have been outside it’s freaking in February it’s very cold very cold but no um a couple of days ago Kyle just randomly said I kind of feel like swimming and I was
Like are are you serious because I love swimming like don’t mess around with me if you don’t want to go swimming and he’s like no let’s go swimming let’s just go tomorrow and so yesterday we went swim time for jokes no exactly I was like I really really love swimming
Like I could swim every day and be happy like it’s my favorite way to exercise I love the water um we’re both water signs I’m a Scorpio he’s a Pisces so we just we’re meant to be in water um what is Libra I don’t know I don’t think there’s
A third water sign I don’t know which what what it is but it can’t be Libra that would be crazy Libra sign would cool element seventh zodiac pardon we’ve opened up a c of worms here oh air it’s air do you know what that means is that good I have idea good one
Okay I don’t know anything about it I just know that I like water so I I agree with mine um yeah so we since we moved here we haven’t really explored the town very much as much as I would like we’ve kind of had a more chill year of just
Like living in our house but anyways so I was like we should see if there’s like a swimming pool around here and um recently on a walk we actually discovered an outdoor swimming pool and we were like well that’s interesting cool we’ll have to look into that in the
Summertime but there is a big Leisure Center that just has like an indoor pool with two hot tubs and a like a lazy river sauna uh Steam it’s got everything you could want it’s got a little oh it’s like a two-minute drive it’s so close like I could we could walk I’m so
Jealous yeah it’s it’s incredible so we went wow and we were like okay let’s just check this out we’ll just show up around like 5:00 you know might be not that busy cuz it’s dinner time and so we show up the person asks us like oh do
You have an account here and we were like No And so she made us like sign up and then she said okay have a good time and we were like huh we didn’t have to pay we just didn’t question it and we just went in so we’re not sure what the
Situation is we don’t know if it’s just free every Sunday evening or if yesterday was just a really lucky day um but we’re going to try again on Sunday we’re just going to go and see what happens um and so then we went in and um
I had to pay $2 for a locker and I was like okay it was free so $2 is a little steep but it’s worth it but then after we were done swi I got it back hell yeah I couldn’t believe it I couldn’t believe
It it was too good to be true so was it the ones where you put it in and then you twist a little key and the key comes out yeah I had to like twist a key but also lift up like a locking mechanism to
Kind of like like I had to do both at the same time and then it it released the key and then when I came back I I turned the key and I got kind of scared cuz it wouldn’t open I was like uhoh but then I realized I had to lift the
Locking mechanism um and then yeah then the coin just like popped back out into a little little thing so that’s all in all it was very good it was nice to like get some exercise but also just to swim I haven’t gone swimmming since the summertime I I only went swimming Once
In The Summertime too and it was in a lake which was awesome it was awesome I love swimming that is awesome but I just always forget to do it um and I’m yeah I’m just glad it was free cuz normally it would be like $13 for us to both swim
Each time at this pool so expensive I hope it’s free every time or maybe we we can sign up for something that’s why I love my local pool cuz if you recall it’s $2 a swim and I’m just like that is so insanely worth it like it’s insane that that is a thing
But like it’s a community pool in a rural community in the middle of nowhere they’re just happy for anyone to come swim yeah they’re like you’re here oh my God open the pool give me your $2 that sounds so NE I’m so glad that you unlocked that cuz
That’s what it’s like right it’s like a video game where you’re unlocking parts of the map you didn’t realize you had or whatever that’s so cool exactly and it was actually the pool was very close to the parking lot where I roller skated for the first time so it’s like
Everything’s kind of connected I’m still on the hunt for a good roller skating spot although I guess while we’re on the topic we also have been going for lots of walks lately and I dis well we together discovered a park that has tennis courts and also pickle ball
Courts the fences are locked and closed but the pickle ball court has a very low fence so I’m thinking I could hop that fence and roller skate in there cuz it looks smooth it looks really smooth in there so I haven’t done it yet cuz it’s
Been kind of rainy um but it’s on it’s on my docket for the spring I’m going to go roller skate around those pickleball courts that’s so sick yeah um kind of related to this Connor very excitingly got a Bonus at work this has never happened to Connor before I’ve never ALS
I’ve also never gotten I pretend I get a Christmas bonus every year because YouTube pays creators more at Christmas we have a better AdSense thing and it’s not because of us and they’re not being nice it’s just that advertisers pay more during Christmas because it’s like the
Christmas rush or whatever and so we YouTubers just happen to make a bit more money Christmas so I always pretend I get a Christmas bonus but I don’t actually it’s I’m doing the same amount of work or whatever but Connor this year got a Christmas bonus and we were like
Oh my God this is so exciting and he just found this out it’s like delayed or whatever but he just found this out like a week ago and then it just got confirmed uh yesterday or something and we were talking in the car we were like
What are you going to spend your bonus on and I was like I really think you’ve got to like a remove the tax B put some money away from savings C he always donates 10% to charity so like you do all that but then you’re going to have
Some money left over and I really think you have to do something that’s truly fun cuz that’s the point of a bonus that’s the point of a bonus it’s money you weren’t relying on and you get to like enjoy it and I was like what could
What would you buy and I I I don’t know what I expected Connor to say but he said a kayak and whoa that it I know that you guys don’t know Connor at all but that’s the least Connor I was like what what he’s like what if I got a
Kayak and then while you were swimming cuz Conor really hates swimming which is why I thought he wouldn’t want a kayak while you were swimming I could kayak around you and I was like that sounds like my dreaming my dreams are coming true that sounds incredible what color I know I was like
What color would it be he’s like red it would be red I was like yeah yeah so now I really want him to get a red kayak that’s perfect I I want him to get a kayak too if he gets kayak send me a picture I will I will honestly this
Makes me want to get a kayak as well cuz there are lots of situations where like we could kayak together to a spot and then I swim or or we could just like right now we could both go kaying even though it’s February so we probably wouldn’t but we could go kayaking right
Now you’re not it’s not going to be cold but I wouldn’t be able to swim so I’m like maybe we should both buy kayaks I love this dream this is so cool that’s a good idea and yeah that’s something we’ve talked about too like Kyle would
Really like kayaks and I I also would really like a kayak it’s funny I actually kind of think of Connor when I think of kayaks cuz remember when we came out and visited you in BC Kyle and Connor and CJ we’re all like kayaking around and stuff while we were just
Laying on a on a dock we were just laying on that dock that was a perfect moment yeah that was it felt like something out of a ya novel it did it was just like warm and happy and sunny and friend Shippy and beautiful it was awesome no I really remember that and
That’s what Connor said he was like I cuz my dad was like I told I told my dad about this I was like Connor wants to go to kayak and my dad was like Connor have you done much kayaking before and Connor was like well we did kayaking in Lake
Country when we lived in BC yeah and and and my dad was like oh yeah you’re totally right and he was like I love doing that that was really fun and I was like I didn’t realize it made such a big impression on you I love this which
Should definitely do that because I feel like Connor and I have had a hard time I don’t I don’t think actually I think you and Kyle aren’t this way but Connor and I have had a hard time finding like a sporty thing that we both like to do
Together I know that you like go on Hikes together and different stuff like that but it’s like kind of been tricky we never find something that we both like so I’m like the idea that we could both go kayaking or just like you kayak ey swim yeah that’s perfect so fun yeah
Kyle often wants to throw around a baseball and I’m like I don’t really want to do that a I’m not really a big fan of that anymore I’d rather swim awesome there was a time when I was when I was a kid my parents put us in baseball cuz my dad really likes
Baseball and so like CJ and I were in te- ball or something like we were kids um but then but then my dad and my mom joined a baseball team what I know so they were on like a co-ed adults like you know over 40 uh baseball team and it
Was so much fun like I remember they had so much I should encourage them to do that again that’s cute there’s something there’s something really nice about that idea just like a family going out and doing the same sport even if it’s not all together I don’t know that’s really
Wholesome I know God I really did have a wholesome childhood I’m like that’s that’s adorable it’s Saturday time for baseball everyone get your little shirts all right let’s uh let’s talk about books baby we’re going to start with a book haul because I have books to haul and
Railing kind of doesn’t but she sort of does so I wanted to participate so I I made my own version of a book haul yeah rine did the kindest thing and it was this sort of a coincidence you had slowly over the weeks and months collected some things to send me and I
Think it just got to a Tipping Point and then I got engaged and you were like okay it’s time to send this time yeah and it was a coincidence in that like I was having this last week is just insanely a rough week and then I got
This package from rine and I was like I needed this I’m so glad the timing worked out like that the timing worked out so well so there were a couple of goodies in the bag which were really cool including these handmade Crow shade little uh coasters that I’m obsessed
With they’re so perfect raen y um so loving those and I I forgot to bring it down but a little B bandana I’ll have to wear that in a future app yes oh my gosh we should both wear our bandanas it’s a matching one to the one that I made that
I showed in an earlier episode so cute so cute I love it and I I wore for the rest of the day yesterday doesn’t it feel fun to wear a bandana I love it it is fun and Connor just kept saying you look so cute and I was like I know I
Feel cute I feel like I’m like Cottage C I feel like you were born to wear that bandana like it just it’s just perfect for you it’s so happy and then there was also a little wax melting kit which is so fun like for stamping letters and
Stuff I love that but of course there was also books so I want to show the books that railen sent me they’re all awesome there is a controversy though and I didn’t know if I was going to tell you about this controversy but I’ve decided I will tell you about the
Controversy because I think it’s really funny so the first one uh they’re in no order but the first one I’ll show is at the altar matrimonial Tales by Lucy mod Montgomery this is obviously so sweet because you guys know how much I love Lucy mod Montgomery and railen you said
You bought this a few months ago and wanted to wait until I was engaged yes yeah I found that and I was like this is the perfect engagement present for Ariel I’ve been hanging on to it I don’t even know how many months but I’ve had it a
Long time now I think that’s so funny cuz I had that CAT ornament sitting in my shelf or my desk for over a year I was like that’s going to go to rail right I also bought that book like before I even knew that there was a possibility of you getting engaged like
I just knew it might happen so I thought it wow you felt it in your bones I love that you wrote Ariel congrats on getting engaged I found this book months ago and I’m so glad I can finally give it to you love raen 2024 um so people may not know Lucy mom
Montgomery was really prolific when it comes to short stories she wrote so many short stories and they are all in a bunch of different bind ups I don’t really understand if there I’ve never seen like a full bindup of all her short stories or like collections of volumes or
Whatever they’re all in like these are the orphan tales and these are the countryside tales and these are and it’s just like a little bit of a mess but I love this it’s perfect so I really want to read this cuz uh here I am getting married matrimonial Tales it’s perfect
What are they doing on they’re being matrimonial on the cover here she’s peeling an apple and he’s hungry that’s what they’re doing that’s that’s what it’s all about that’s married for you uh then she sent me Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fanny flag this is
Really fun because I talked to railen about this book Because at our was it our 100th episode no no 150th we did something I forget what it was for a special episode we were or Christmas or birthday or something we were like let’s buy each other books that have to do
With the um with one of our past episodes one of our past 100 episodes it was 200 It episode 200 and so I had written a little short list of things like memes jokes inside jokes and one of them was that we had this episode where
We talked about being in our 80s on a porch reading together this was like a dream we have and so I was like okay what is a book about two old ladies on a porch and this was the only one that kind of came close to that but it seemed
Quite long and it wasn’t exactly that like one of the characters is like 20 years 30 years older than the other character so I was like and it’s not perfect and I ended up going with a different book but you then found this in a thrift shop I think and yeah I
Found two copies at a book sale and I was like do you still need this cuz we talked about it and boom now we both own it it’s perfect and I didn’t realize until just now it’s blurbed by Harper Lee oh wow Harper Lee says it’s a richly
Comic poignant narrative H I really think that’s G to be a good buddy read for us I think it’ll be very wholesome a good thing to balance out the uh Clockwork Orange Vibes that we had going that was scary yes very scary all right and then
The final book you gave me is there there by Tommy orange Mr orange so this was a book that you read well it wasn’t recently anymore no it was a few years ago it was maybe 2021 actually or 2022 and you really loved it yeah doesn’t he have a new one
That just came out it’s coming out I think this month actually wait I pre-ordered that I should look into that yeah it might be showing up on my doorstep any day now but yeah SI he has a new book I love that so you gave this
To me because you just think I would really enjoy it yeah yeah it’s great book here’s the controversy raan do you already have it I already I asked you to send me all of your yellow books cuz the spine is yellow okay well I must have though because it was in the yellow
Spines I see it here’s what’s nuts okay here’s what’s nuts okay I was flipping through my copy because I was like I don’t tell do I not there is a bookmark from Iron Dog books a Bookshop I’ve only ever been to with you so we bought this together that’s
Idiotic that shows you how short my time span memory is what’s funny though is my copy got the cover bent and ripped oh I don’t know how it’s funny because even though I scoured all the photos you sent me and didn’t see it I still in my heart felt
Like you already had that book so I was in my heart I was like if she already has it you could just give it to one of you know to Connor or to CJ or something because I think they would also love it exactly so I feel like this is going
Still going to go yeah feel free to regift my copy I kind of expected that that might happen yeah but I also feel like this is really made me want to reread it like it’s like a bit or not reread it read it like it’s really given
It a boost in my order in my picking order what will be redneck it feels like a sign so I did want to let you know just because that’s so funny that we probably bought this book together six years ago or something there with you that was bad that’s the funniest
Thing you’ve ever seen said on this podcast and thank you good night signing off Reuben out funny okay I have one more book to haul and um as you know I work with book of the month on my own YouTube channel from time to time and they send me books
And sometimes I get like really excited about the books and I want to mention them here as well so this was sent to me but they don’t know that I’m mentioning it here um and it is good material byll Al I just started hearing about this but
I did I don’t know what it’s about I just saw that somewhere and was like Dolly what’s this so set a drift on a Sea of Heartbreak Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship because if he can find the answer to that then maybe Jen can find
Her way back to him but Andy still has a lot to learn not least his ex-girlfriend’s side of the story in the sharply funny and exquisitely relatable account of romantic disaster and friendship Dolly alderton offers up a love story with two endings demonstrating once again why she is one
Of the most exciting writers today and the true voice of a generation well I mean okay those were some big claims right at the end there isn’t that interesting it seems that there’s two endings that’s cool so it’s kind of that gives me immediately reminds me of a Taylor Jenkins readbook that’s about
Like a woman’s life that goes on two different paths and it just follows both different timelines to see what would have happened and you don’t know which one’s true or not and I feel like that could be kind of the vibe with that too like there’s two possible endings but we
You might not know exactly yeah that’s really interesting to me so I Tried reading another book by Dolly alderton everything I know about love and I really didn’t enjoy it I found it frustrating I own that one so that’s yeah I ended up dnfing that one I made
It probably a third maybe halfway through it like I pushed through farther than I usually would and I just in the end was like you know what I’m just not enjoying this one actually and I don’t so I don’t have it anymore but I’m still I’m still intrigued about Dolly alderton
Cuz I hear about her all of the time and this sounds cool and I’ll be honest I love the cover that’s part of it that is part of it um so I’m curious I’m curious about it and I was excited that it was one of the ones I got sent this time
That’s awesome yeah so I thought I’d mention that all right how about you you’ve got some stuff to talk about yes so I haven’t hauled anything because I’ve been a superstar about not buying books I don’t know how it’s been happening for this long but hell yeah
I’ve been doing a really good job and I’m proud of myself so I decided to do another TBR um and all of the books that I’ve picked to kind of shout out today are all books off of my 24 in 24 TBR so this is a little peek behind the curtain so you
Can see some of the some of the things that I’ve been wanting to read so I’ll start with a book that you actually gifted me this is on my list The Last Unicorn by Peter S beagle this is one that you gave me like many years ago
It’s been a few years now since you gave this to me and every year I’m like I should read that I should read that and then it just never happens and that’s like part of my goal to like read more Fantasy last year I was supposed to to
Read this this was supposed to be one of the books I read that was kind of in the back of my head so I’ve finally decided to actually put it on my TBR and this one is so fun cuz I really don’t know anything about it all I know is that
It’s about a unicorn and there’s a character named schmendrick every time I look at the back I’m like whoa that’s crazy but this also is helpful towards my goal of reading um like older books because this came out in the’ 60s I think so right that’s also partly why
It’s on there like my TBR is almost 50/50 like books that were published before 2000 and books that were published after 2000 so if I read all of them then my goal will be accomplished just naturally um so then the next book that I’ve got is Jasper Jones by Craig
Sylvie which is another book that I’ve been meaning to read for years and this is by an Australian author and it’s kind of hailed as like an Australian um tequilla Mockingbird it kind of has a similar Vibe a similar story line and I this is one that actually I started
Reading a few years ago and I just wasn’t in the right mood for it so put it down after reading like you know 10 pages or whatever and um I’ve just been meaning to pick it up ever since and actually it’s got a very cute bookmark
In it cuz I Tried reading it look at this it’s got sushi on it God Sushi that’s so cute I love that I I don’t often start books and then put them down intending to pick them up again but anytime I do I always just leave a
Bookmark in there so that’s where all my bookmarks are but yeah so this one I’m very excited to read and it’s one of the few YA books I still have on my shelf so I think that’ll be a fun well not fun but it’ll be a quick read probably and
Last B I wanted to shout out is a Honker it is uh Not To Kill a Mocking Bird the windup bird Chronicle by her different bird so yeah this is probably one of my most mashed potato books that I still have going on like I have been meaning
To read this ever since heroi M Kami really like came onto my radar as like an author that I was enjoying and wanting to read and I keep putting it off because it’s long and I know it’s going to be really dark like that’s that’s all I know about it but but I’m
Still very excited to read it I think I think I’m really going to love it I think it’s going to be up there as one of my favorite huki mukami but also because of that there’s so much pressure on it which of course makes me scared to
Read it um but yeah so those are some of the books that I am hoping to read this year wish me luck that’s cool though I’m uh I’m really curious what you think about the windup bird Chronicles it was the first um hurrier kamami that I tried to read I
Think I made it like it’s like 650 pages right I think I made it like 350 pages in um yeah it’s around 600 so basically in my undergrad at one point I realized I feel like people don’t realize this and they should I realized that I was allowed to
Design my own courses so people don’t know that you’re allowed to do self-directed courses if you have a project idea you have a pitch you have an actual plan like it’s you can’t lie and not do anything but if you have an actual plan you can then go go to a
Professor and say I want to do a self-directed course in this and this is my plan and if they sign off on it and agree to be your professor for that course which is just a supervisor you can just do self-directed courses so I did two of them because I was like I
Just have books I want to read and I want to make YouTube videos instead of essays and so um one of the courses that I designed for myself was magical realism so this was like I was 19 so this was back when I was reading like a
Lot of as king and really enjoying that sural magical realist thing and I was like okay I also want to try 100 Years of Solitude I also want to try oh no was it I think I did House of the spirits yeah House of the spirits instead of 100
Years I did House of the spirits I did one as King book I did that book wind up bird Chronicle and there was another one and um I had to stop reading it first of all it was too long I was just like oh God I only have a semester and I have
Five other classes and blah blah blah so I was like way too much but secondly it was the mo like there’s a lot of um war crimes in the book and they’re so scary railen like it was really graphic that was the thing it was so graphic and I
Hadn’t read anything that like that before and I was like not in the right head space I was like Moving on but I’ve always wanted to go back and finish it could you handle it now like is it that’s the thing it was literally a decade ago so I’m very curious now
You’re 29 what do you think about it should I go back and actually try that one out or not definitely well I will keep that in mind when I do eventually get to curious I’ll keep you in the back of my I’m curious you you you can
Message me when you’re like oh I’m at the war crime part I’ll be like it’s [ __ ] up isn’t it oh no I’m scared spooky yeah okay so let’s transition into what we’ve actually read and what we’re currently reading so I’m going to start us off because I finished letters to you
By erve guber and Eugene savit Kaya erve guber was a French writer and journalist and also a photographer he passed away in 1991 of AIDS Eugene savitskaya is a Belgian writer still working today my opinion on this book is basically what I had said to you last week it was
Interesting if you really like letters and you like poetry I would give this a go I think you’ll find it interesting if you think of the letters not as not just as correspondance between two people but as like little poems in and of themselves I think it’s actually an interesting
Project however if you don’t like letters or you don’t care about letters and if you don’t care about poetry then I don’t think you’re going to enjoy this because it didn’t have a plot it didn’t have a story that it was moving towards it didn’t have a particular beginning
Middle or end there was no through line so it was a little bit uh monotonous cuz you’re like this is very arbitrary like kind of feel like I could read them in any order it doesn’t really matter yeah um it’s also just not the greatest relationship basically like I talked
About last week Ave is like in love with Eugene and he Eugene is not reciprocating this well like he’s like not responding to A’s letters and I found it really hard to read like It’s just sad it’s just sad to read like a person who constantly is pouring his
Heart out to this other person right month after sometimes like six or seven months without hearing from the other one and then Eugene will respond I’m like sorry I didn’t respond and I’m like oh my God just break up with him just be like oh my gosh actually this is not um
Going to work out another thing that I realized with this collection that was a little bit tricky was obviously it was um well I I say obviously I forget if I mentioned it this time the corresponden is between 1977 and 1987 so obviously there are other ways to communicate in this day
And age the 70s and the 80s were a phone heavy time and so there are a lot of mentions in the letters of like that phone call and I’m like okay so I’m actually missing a lot of the story that’s yeah that’s true you’re missing a
Lot of context and stuff I’m missing a lot of what’s going on in between the letters and so I didn’t even feel like I was getting a full picture of what was going on um the first sentence of the book is a note on the present Edition quote no collection of correspondents
Apart from the letters to Eugene savitskaya if he wishes and no interviews erve guar wrote in the last line of his literary Testament November 3rd 1991 so basically he was like no one you’re not allowed to publish my letters and don’t publish my interviews unless Eugene wants to publish those letters
That I sent him so he did get full permission to publish these letters I I don’t think that it’s weird that he published them or anything I I think it’s a cool thing to have out there and I think it’s cool to have like a queer relationship from
The 70s kind of um just published and and accessible and available so that’s cool and of itself but I just didn’t love it um I found it interesting it one of those books where I was like if I was in university I’m like I’m sure I could
Write an essay about this thing but again do I want to reread it no I don’t I won’t I won’t revisit this you know yeah um it was so sad if I it made me sad actually I was like I would like for them to get back to I would like for
This to end well or for a to like find the love of his life or or something and then I find out a dies of AIDS and I’m like this is actually very in his 30s I’m like this sucks this really sucks actually um also one okay this is a tiny
Little nitpick tiny little n but if I can’t say it here where can I say it the translator say makes this decision yeah so she says the epistolary farewell presents an especially thorny challenge to the translator so basically like the way that you end a letter like cheers
Ariel best wishes railen like those those little phrases particularly elusive in French is the shape shifter Tas word for word I’m embracing you a frequent flyer in the correspondence between the two writers the verb EMB encompasses both to kiss and to hug and depending on its context can swing from
A warm but unromantic expression of affection between grandparents to a child perhaps or to a performative term of endearment between lovers in the majority of its appearances here I’ve chosen to leave it untouched in the French to let it radiate in its intricacies and ability to slip as the correspondence itself does between
Registers of friendship flirtation and Etc so I’m like I don’t I read that and then I was like wait you’re deciding the transl is deciding not to translate something yeah she’s like I can’t just don’t do it I’m like but that’s literally the whole interesting thing about being a
Translator is you have to translate the untranslatable you have to interpret it for me because I I’m I’m hearing what you’re saying but I don’t know what they mean by shtim brass and and you read the letter in the original French with its full context and meaning you’re the one
Who I’m trusting to like end these letters with the correct vibe and if it just says I’m like I don’t know what that means exactly in this context espe if you didn’t read that translators note before reading the letters like you would just be like what is Jon BL and
You wouldn’t know what it could mean you know right so I obviously I’m glad if she was going to do that that she put the uh forward she did put it in the forward and she was like I’m not translating that but I read that I was
Like that’s weird I was like how dare you okay H that’s really interesting because I don’t know what to make of I don’t know I found that really interesting I’m I’m not saying that it’s not bad I’m just saying like never encountered a I’ve read a l I read a lot
Of translated fiction you and I read a lot of translated fiction I’ve never read a translated fiction book before where the translator was like I’m not going to translate that and you’re like okay all right um okay what did you finish anything this week and if not
What are you reading no I haven’t finished anything because I’m still reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and it is quite long as I’m sure I’ve said before it’s just it’s like 500 pages just under 500 pages in this copy I have and I’m about 150 pages in so I didn’t
Read a ton over the past week but I I did read a bit and I’m enjoying it um it’s just like really long like it’s the type of book where I’m like I’m really liking this I kind of feel like it could have and maybe should have been like a
250 or 300 Page book but I haven’t read the whole thing yet so I you know I can’t say that definitively but I do feel like it’s I don’t know it could be shorter I don’t know how much of it is going to like I don’t know how much of
The main character’s life we’re going to see as of right now she’s still a kid like she’s 11 at the beginning of of the book but it’s kind of gone back it kind of flips back and forth in time a little bit so like I’ve gone to a part where
It’s like okay let’s this is her when she’s like six and she’s just like going to school for the first time and so you’ll get to see little glimpses like that so I’m like I don’t know if it’s going to go beyond her being 11 and like
Kind of go into her adult life but the fact that it’s so long is making me think it might do that but which is good I like that um but we’ll see so yeah I’m I’m definitely enjoying it but it is kind of like a slow read cuz you’re just
Getting glimpses of this American family and kind of their struggles and um so it’s yeah it’s quite good but we’ll we’ll see how it goes I do feel like it could be um definitely not like a new favorite but I am really enjoying it
Still so we’ll see how it goes but I I can see myself possibly that like reading this for a few more weeks so I might start something else to kind of jump start my reading a little bit because um once again I’m kind of like slogging behind a little bit even though
I’m trying to read less books I’m still like you know just barely scam scraping by to keep up with that goal of reading like around 50 and so I’m like I I want to I want to speed along a little bit so we’ll see this might become more of a
Backgound find balance interesting balance so we’ll see we’ll see but that’s it that’s all I’ve got going on the thing that I have started reading is seven empty houses by samanth schwein so this is translated by Megan McDow and it is a collection of short stories and I’m
Guessing there’s seven stories but 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven y seven stories um I think that they’re all about houses like okay okay this is interesting though it’s I I feel that a couple things are going on number one I feel that the synopsis on
The back is misleading because it seemed a little bit weirder on the back it literally says the seven houses in these seven stories are strange a person is missing or a truth or a memory some rooms are enticing some unmowed others empty but in saman Schwan’s tents mind B
Mindbending tail something always creeps back inside a ghost a fight trespassers blah blah blah blah blah so I thought that there was going to be a little bit more weirdness going on yeah it sounds like the more just like there’s just ideas inside the houses yeah it’s more
Like there’s a lot of feelings in yeah yeah instead of actual things happening or so the first story was great it was about um a a kid and their mom and they’re on a drive looking at other people’s houses because clearly the mom wishes that she lived in a bigger house
And things kind of go wrong and and they uh yeah there’s a little bit of a mess but nothing weird happened like nothing Supernatural happened I was like okay that’s fine no problem no problem Second Story um was really stressful it was about this like divorced couple and their children and their grandparents
And like this kind of family reunion that again got really stressful and like really out of control and it it did end a little weird like that what happened in the story wouldn’t happen in real life but it wasn’t like out of the question right it could happen I was
Like yeah okay all right that story really I felt like ended randomly I was like huh oh okay on on next story um what was the next story about oh the next story was my favorite actually it so far it was about um neighbors and like just an encounter a little
Conversation that these neighbors have and and they are kind of in a loop they keep having a similar conversation because of a a thing that has happened in their past and it was again it was very touching and it was very beautiful it was well written but it wasn’t weird
It was just a conversation between two neighbors I was like oh now I’m halfway through the book right I’m I’m halfway through the book and I’m like okay I’m enjoying it and I think these are good stories but I feel like the person who wrote the synopsis just literally lied in order to
Make this seem more enticing and there was a way to seem there was a way to make it enticing for what it actually is you didn’t have to lie you could have said like mundane stories about mundane people living mundane lives and I would have been like huh cool because that’s
What it actually is there’s no the seven houses in these seven stories are strange disagree they’re very normal houses uh they’re not strange at all so that’s weird I wonder if they just did that cuz Samantha schein’s other books are quite strange so I think they’re trying to
Like make it seem appealing to people who’ve read her other books I guess is like fever dream I’m a little bit like weird have you guys read this book is they’re not that strange H yeah like check out a different book by her and you’ll find strange but not here yeah so
Now I’m in the middle story which is doing the thing that you literally talked about last time when you right reviewed your short Story collection which is what made me pick up a short I was like yeah I should read a short story collection too this short
Story colle this short story that I’m on is like uh 90 pages long oh my God that’s too long it’s way too long that’s not a short story a whole separate book yeah like that could be its own little thing it’s like over a third of the book
Oh my gosh yeah in my collection which is uh lesser known monsters of the 21st century by Kim Fu most of the stories were like under 20 pages I would say I read it on my e-reader so it’s hard to say but it was yeah all of them were
Short except for one like there was one that was maybe like 40 pages instead of 20 but all of them were really short do you can you see that part that I’m holding up that’s one story that’s one story is this entire and like I say it’s
Over a third of the book I was going to say the collection itself is very small and if that’s seven stories that’s it’s uh the book overall is 190 pages but then one of the stories is 90 Pages it’s very it’s interesting so I am
Not disliking it I I don’t like when the marketing about a book lies to me it bothers me that has nothing to do with Samantha schweblin she didn’t write that she didn’t decide how this book got to be promoted um and I’m enjoying her stories but I’m not loving them yet and
Also I really don’t like a super long story in the middle of other short stories cuz it kind of disrupts the flow a little bit I don’t feel like I’m reading a short story anymore but that’s what I’m reading so there you go everyone there’s our
Reading update and now we’re going to go to the mail room all righty so here we are in the mail room and um I’ve got some comments from YouTube L okay so this comment here from Joe dno says rayen’s new haircut is such a sleigh now I think this is very
Funny that is really funny considering I haven’t had a haircut in I had a haircut thank you though I think was my hair just straightened it might have looked like I did something to it stra it was just straight they were like oh my God you got a haircut and everything
They like I just straightened it that one time wow that’s fun well thank you so much that makes me feel really good I know I thought you’d like that thank you salami says it’s interesting how my reading life is aligning with Ray I’m slowly becoming an e-reader girly plus
I’m reading a short story collection and I’ve added the collection she recommended to my kid oh my God I love that wow I know this mail room is all about me love it oh I also did get a couple of really nice comments about du and I just
Wanted to say thank you and that that’s really nice and uh I’ll keep you updated on the situation as it unols all right what did you find Ray okay well I’ve got a couple from our patreon here first and I thought this one was really cute this
One from comes from Tiana who says this podcast reminds me sometimes of the school days when I made an appointment with my best friend to study and we chatted about everything and nothing for hours and never came to the actual learning love it I think that’s to say
That we um we get sidetracked a lot and um I think that that’s good I think that’s fun I think it’s good in fact I think we should Sidetrack more actually yeah yeah let’s just go on tangents let’s talk about kayak for a while um God this next one is from here’s the
Thing sorry I’m gonna I actually am going to do a here if Conor gets a red kayak yeah what color should you get what color should I get because my impulse would say would be purple kayak right but I actually would want our kayaks to look cool together they should
Match and also I it might be tricky iier to find a purple kayak I feel like that’s not a common color for a kayak I’m not sure H that’s something to think about I’ll let you all know maybe you should get a red one too two red kayaks
It’s kind of kind of boring but it would look really striking two red kayaks it would look really striking I saw some kayakers today they looked really striking like I can just imagine you like as from a top down view like as like a book cover or something
Like two red kayaks no it’s it’s so true striking it would look cool I when I bought hiking boots a couple years ago I really dis distinctly remember this memory cuz my I went to the shop with my dad cuz my dad’s like very outdoorsy and
I was obviously one of his opinion and so anyways I was trying on some boots and I found a pair that I really loved but I didn’t like them like I didn’t like them enough to buy them simply because they were comfortable they were the color I wanted they were great brand
They were everything was good the price was good but they didn’t have red laces and I wanted red laces like Wild by yeah that’s very chery straight and I said that to my dad and he was like well let’s just ask the woman because there
Was a woman who was helping me try on shoes right and my dad said he really she really likes these shoes again remember I’m like 24 I’m an adult but he’s like she really likes those shoes but um she really wanted red laces and she was like oh that’s fine we have we
Have backup laces I can give her red laces and she went to the back and she came back she’s like here you go now will you buy them and I was like yeah and it’s got free red laces I love that that just goes to show you
Know if you have a question ask it because yeah you might get an answer that you like exactly well that was a fun tangent I’m glad that we did that okay we actually took a tangent uh because of Tiana thank you so much and then this next comment is from Jen who
Had a kind of fun follow-up to my Google Slides situation that I talked about last week um she says if anyone else is interested in a private social media situation and you and your friends all have iPhones I highly recommend making a shared photo album on the photos app
It’s not as multimedia as a Google slide but you can add photos in there and caption them and friends can like and comment on them which I didn’t realize that’s really cool I love it because I recently decided that I’m permanently done with Instagram and just being able
To share nice moments from your day with friends makes it feel like when Instagram was still fun and relaxed I agree with that I because I like the idea of sharing photos but I don’t want it to be about validation and I don’t want it to be like for everyone to see
Necessarily so like right right right I like this Vibe that’s a very very good tip so thank you Jen and then looking into our Discord I found a couple of cool pieces of book news um so this person in our Discord who’s called goose is like my one of my
Favorite people on our Discord they helped us find out when we uh when we originally talked about the peach hair so thank you go but they also shared this in our Discord um they said listening to the recent episode and hearing about the book truck I just remembered this upcoming game it’s a
Cute indie game where you run a tiny portable book shop for all of us who want to live the book truck dream but won’t be able to it’s called tin book think we’ve heard this I’ve heard I think I might have sent you the trailer
For yeah cuz it r a bell when I saw that I was like wait I know about this game but now I’m like we should get that game that seems like a good switch game for us to play and then the other piece of news came from Ryan who let us know that
There’s going to be a TV show on Apple TV for the U book dark matter by Blake Crouch which I’m like oh yeah finally this book is like the most one of the most cinematic like perfect adaptation types of books I’ve ever read and I love
That book when I read it a few years ago so it stars um Jennifer Connelly and Joel ederton so pretty good cast as well but yeah it’ll be on Apple TV which I don’t have Apple TV so that’ll be tough that’ll be tough but I want to watch it
Okay and then this last one was a kind of a book recommendation that I thought would be good for you and I and for our listeners so this is from on our Discord Zer toaster very cool name and they say I’m currently reading a memory called
Empire and it is so good have you all read it it feels like a mashup of sci-fi and dark Academia the characters are powerful and the book utilizes an interesting plot device to keep the lore dumping some sci-fi books can fall into from being overwhelming one of the
Characters has an IMO or Imago I don’t know how to say that essentially a device that transmits someone’s Consciousness into your brain so we learn a lot about the setting by experiencing another human’s Consciousness alongside the main character which that sounds so cool I’m like wait that sounds kind of dark um
Kind of black Miry a little bit it’s called a memory called Empire um I’m not sure who the author is but I thought that that sounded really interesting if anybody wants a cool sci-fi book does s really cool I’m looking at it now who’s the author the author is arcadey Martin
Okay seems cool pretty cool seems cool well very cool good job nailed the mail room once again well thank you everyone for watching this episode another one in the books h on our way to five years we haven’t really talked about that but uh this will be in October will be our 5ye
Anniversary so yeah just every time that we finish another episode I’m like how have we been doing this for so long I love it we’re lucky we’re lucky peeps So yeah thank you so much for listening and or watching whatever you choose to do is
Great and um if you want to support the podcast there’s three ways that you could do that number one you could share it you could tell someone about it spread the good word number two you could join our patreon this is the biggest thing that you could do um
Because it’s that monthly ongoing support that makes this whole ship run and then the third option is checking out our merch we currently have bookmarks available we still I think have some ball caps maybe you want to start getting ready for spring and we have some new stuff coming soon so you
Can take a little look there see what we got but yeah we’re also excited for Merch cuz we’ve got some new things on the pipeline and they’re so exciting we haven’t had like a proper merch growth moment in a while yeah we’ve kind of left it by the wayside a little bit but
It’s coming yeah we didn’t do that much new merch in 2023 and we’ve got some really good plans for 2024 so we’re really excited to share those when they’re ready but there you go thank you guys so much for listening and we will talk to you next week bye
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