wearing sandals on purpose

Our main topic today is all about reading, why we read, and where our love of reading comes from. Spoiler- we grew up around readers who read…all the time! We also reminisce about libraries from our childhood. Guess what? YOU need to be reading more. So do we.

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

read, books, library, fantasy, big, crime novel, cs lewis, microfilm, building, remember, sci fi, memory, world, important, people, talking, genre, called, aaron, series

SPEAKERS

Collin, Aaron, Brandon

Brandon  00:05

Welcome to Oh, brother, a podcast of three brothers. Trying to figure it all out. It's your host, Brandon, Colin, and Aaron. On this week's show, wearing sandals on purpose. Oh, boy. I just found a receipt. My pocket that I need. Oh, no. Well, that means you haven't washed it yet. So you're good. Good. All that I need to put it in my folders. Go ahead. Don't lose it. Okay, we're good. We're off. Okay, we're ready. Ah, that's, that's how you write a business friends. Right? Randomly reflect receipts in your pocket and find things in your pockets and go Oh, snap was suppose that

Collin  00:55

I that is important. As you think I learned, you think I'd learned there was a time There may come a time in my life where for some reason, given things that I was filing and paperwork that I was using and eating. I had to show proof of like, quote unquote, last year's tax return not tax returns, but property taxes. Yeah, that I had to show last year as property taxes, like 17 times in one. That was obviously exaggeration. That's really that's really odd. Yeah. And of course, it was like, Okay, I've got to take these, I gotta get this document. And then I have to go, Okay, put it in this file. And then I would lose it. And then someone else would be like, oh, I need to see your paid property taxes. I'm like, great. I'll go to my file. Oh, it's

Brandon  01:45

so I'd have to go back to the courthouse wait in line at the bursaries that the bursaries but whatever, the people, whatever, yeah, whatever. I had to pay the money. So it's basically the bursaries,

Collin  01:56

get my copy, and oh, my gosh, and they were just like, you know, you can request this online. And I'd say, you know, every time I try it says, For me to come in, because it doesn't recognize any of my information. And they go, Oh, well, thanks for coming in. Yeah, wouldwould, it's broken

Brandon  02:12

eggs. I do this frequently. I say things to myself, like, tell myself these little lies. You know, like, I'm gonna put it right here. So I don't forget where I put it. And then I think sometimes I'm too clever with myself. Right? Like, especially at work right at school. I'm like, I want to put it in this cabinet. So I can find it again. And then like, when I needed to get I'm like, huh, where is that? Guys? It is so I do all the time. Right. Aaron, do you lose stuff? Is that just or is that just me and Brandon. I've actually gotten

Aaron  02:57

better at keeping things organized. Now here, now I have like a legit little folder thing that I have for like all my really important documents. Because I know number one, like applying to a school, and like or like just like all the forms need for like work and stuff. Like job wise, like, oh, you need to do your W two and like all that stuff and just like kind of a pain. So instead of having to hunt things down, I just have everything that's deemed important in just kind of one big folder that I have for everything. And so I just I just keep stuff there so I don't have to worry about it later. Here and then I don't know I don't know how much I'm gonna have to deal with like classroom wise.

Brandon  03:47

Whenever I have to get in so yeah, Jose What are you playing? I'm trying not a diet Mario sorry, a little bit loud. And like I was like, intently listening to you but obviously insanely distracted to the background sounds of like white Sorry. Got a little switch here. So it's all good. No worries. So yeah, we do that with like, okay, when I say I, I obviously mean Susan do that for like important like stuff at home right? We have like, spa in a folder and like, you know, in the closet over but like in my personal life with just like things where I go oh, I should remember that. And I'm put it right here. Gone. Never to be found again. So yeah, you're not the only one that does not and sorry. Okay. Yeah, no. It was just, I have them over here to the right. And sometimes they just don't know I'm fine. And I just had to go and find copies of them. That's not Yeah, I have been reading the line which in the wardrobe to the kids at that time. Wow, what a uplifting and happy bedtime story you have chosen for your children. Well, it's one of those things of like,

Collin  05:30

you don't remember like, how long it takes to like, get to the good part because you forget that in the middle of like, the beginning of the story is like way into the end of the, like, the dark times. In Narnia. Sorry, spoilers for this, people listening. But yeah, yes.

Brandon  05:49

Spoilers for CS Lewis, seminal 70 year old work. I don't everyday someone's born is healthy, the Flintstone? So I've only read one of the books I read. Well, we talk more about that later, you know, and I have just been

Collin  06:11

it's been good. Yeah, there's been a lot of very nice discussion. And because I have all these, I have all these books that I want to read with my children. And I'm trying to figure out obviously, like, be very patient to, like, the, you know, age appropriate stuff, not rush things. So why which wardrobe was like, it's actually for ages seven to 10. Was was written for. Yeah, and so like, we're right there. Right. Like, we're good.

Brandon  06:39

Yeah, you know, why? Five and six? Six and four, five.

Collin  06:47

So we're just we're just diving in, we're reading we read one chapter. And I leave plenty of time before we you know, go to sleep. So if anything scary thing is concerning. We can have conversations about

Brandon  06:58

it. Man, from what I remember about the beginning of that book, they must have just been like, like, it's gonna take like 70 years to get anywhere, right? Like it's pretty drab. It's pretty, it's a little it's not the best. Fastest clip, but I'll say, how many of them are there? Ah, ha, six. I alluded generally don't know the answer. So I I read the first one in the fourth grade. And was not interested at all. Which is weird. Because like, I like fantasy things. Right? Even then. I read the Lion the Witch in the wardrobe. The first one right? Then was like,

Collin  07:48

nope. Seven. Here's here's what's weird. Or seven. Did you say seven? No. In order language the wardrobe Prince Caspian boys at Dawn Treader, the Silver Chair the horse and his boy, The Magician's Nephew, and the last battle. What is weird about how the Chronicles of Narnia is old is they're told from the point of view of a storyteller. And so some chapters it'll say, and now I suppose you're wondering what's happening to Edmund while the others are talking? Well, presently, Edmund is walking across like, it's there. It's weird how it's told. Yeah, that's true.

Brandon  08:26

It'd be like if you read The Princess Bride, but it was just Peter Sellers talking to you a little too much. Exactly. Peter Sellers. Just it's just me. I'm I'm Peter Sellers.

08:38

Oh, nice. Turns out I

Brandon  08:46

just one more thing. Sorry. I was a very bad Colombo impression and I apologize. Nobody. I have never heard a good Colombo impression it just be very real. Okay. Fair enough. Yeah. And so I have

Collin  09:01

been reading through that. And it was a it's been very good. I've been really enjoying this. We're starting to get some parts and also pausing and being like, translating words, because I know as soon as I read a word, they're going to immediately ask me what it is. And now I just pause and say that this and they keep reading.

Brandon  09:22

Well, like are they really confused for when? At the beginning the white which again, spoilers, pulls up, and it says she wrote upon a sled pulled by reindeer. And I had Lily was like, What's us lead? Like, slay? Like, she's like, why didn't they just say slay? Because that's not the word you want to use? Goes because he's CS Lewis. Having to do that, and it's also I also appreciate it because it is such a crash course in like

Collin  09:59

mythical like creatures and lore, because nothing that's true, nothing is explained. Literally nothing. Nothing like you, you meet a fawn within like three days, the second chapter, third chapter. And it's just like it is a thing. And it mentions like, whenever Edmund comes into the castle, all creatures that he sees, is just list name, right? And it doesn't describe them at all. There's no like, like, I don't know what my kids are envisioning, while I'm saying these words, but I conjure images, but they don't, because they don't even look like it's been. That's been fascinating to have just like, you. Again, we've talked about this and world building, like you get thrown into it. And this would be very different. It was like, had been looked at ogre, and some and you know, the an ogre is the bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. And, yeah,

Brandon  10:53

that I mean, that's horrid when they do that, too, though. Like, that's the worst when you just expose it at me. Like the whole time, like, gross. Don't do that. It's bad writing. Like that. That brings up an interesting question just about like, the world of CS Lewis, right. Like, what did he write these things? Let me say because, like, my question is, did he? Okay, 1950s. Right. So the 1950s Starbrite. We're going to get so many letters. It's fine. Peter Sellers. You met Peter Falk? Oh, yeah. I'm in Peter Falk. Okay. Yeah, I just stopped the right stop letters. Bring back your carrier pigeon. Bring it back. Yeah, I'm in my bet. As soon as I said it, I was like, that doesn't sit. That's not right. But I couldn't think of as accurately as I just went with it. Anyway, so he wrote these things in the 1950s. Right? So did do you think that children in the 1950s knew about Greek mythological creatures? Because it was like a part of culture? Or do you think CS Lewis was an old man? Who knew what it was? It just assumed other people would know? Or do you think he was thinking? It's magical? It doesn't matter. Go? I'm gonna put his name down. Right? Because like, a lot of times, like when you read stuff that all people will write for, like kids, you can tell that you have they have no idea what's happening. You know, like, they're just, like, assume that kids know things, but they don't. You know? Or is it just like, oh, yeah, it's magical. These are magical. It doesn't actually matter if they know what they are or not. I'm just gonna use the name and go with it. Right. Like, because it's fantasy to black. Yeah. I mean, I'm gonna say that. That because I don't I mean, 50 years ago. Oh, no. Seven. No. Yeah, that was longer time. Now. This is that a man that? Real? By No,

13:27

right? That's right.

Brandon  13:31

Like the 70s was there still 30 years ago? And then you're like, Yeah, right. They are? Yeah. No, I mean, I'm going to go ahead and say that they probably had more connection to them, then especially written over in great English.

Collin  13:56

You know, school houses is true, right? Like, that's offers a different audience of like 50 years ago in the United States 50 years ago, and English school houses probably probably didn't know more about, about that literature.

Brandon  14:08

Or I don't know, I'm just like, this is just a thought I had. While I was pondering that, like, Yeah, I wonder if he expected them to know what that was? Or if it didn't matter, or like, okay, so like this. Last week, we were watching this game show thing. I don't remember what it's called. But it was on TV. And it's like, some new game show where like, it's like a team. It's like a trivia show. But it's like a grandson. It's like a grandchild and a grandparent together. And like they ask the kids questions that the grandparents should know. And then like the other way around, right? So like, if you were the grand kid, you would only get questions that were like, from the 70s through the 50s, right. And then like, they asked the grandparent It's about like, Drake and Nintendo. Right, you know. But the questions, you could tell that the questions were written by people in their late 20s. Because they were showing like, like, name this portable game system. And it wasn't a Nintendo Switch, like Aaron is modeling for us right now. Oh, it was a Sony PSP. Oh, yeah, that thing that was a big deal in like, 2010 when the writers were children. So they're not in touch with current children things? Oh, no, you know, it's like, what the, they experienced as a kid. So I'm imagining CS Lewis, just like in a British school house, right? Like getting his hand smacked by some like cranky old lady like, copying lines about Greek mythological creatures. And he knew all about them when he was 16. Or when he was like, in sixth grade. So he is imagining that sixth graders nowadays should know exactly what he knew. Nothing too. Interesting. Aaron, do you have experience? Have you ever read any of the Chronicles of Narnia? I'm not the Chronicles of Narnia. But I definitely feel that's kind of how it is with like the dune series. Sci Fi it's like, oh, you should clearly know what this is blessed. I have spent more time actually looking things up than the book, because it just mentioned something in your life. But it's not a thing. It's one of those things where it's building the world, but doesn't explain what else is in the world. Unless you've either read the other books or like the encyclopedia, so out, like a word will pop up. And I'll be like, well, crap, what does that mean? And so we're like, Well, who are these people? And so I've spent most of my time doing that. I'm also the same person that hates like The Great Gatsby. And so I haven't read, like, at that point, though, right? Yeah. Like those those, quote unquote, classic novels of the only time that I remember the outsiders. Oh, yeah, like I read the whole thing come on. The the only time that I truly read the line, the witch in the wardrobe was fourth grade Mrs. Queens class, she had the audio book. And apparently, some famous person was like reading it. And we're supposed to follow along. And I was like, this is kind of stupid. Like, there's an there's, there's a closet, and they go in that, and then that's a different place, like, and then the

Aaron  17:44

movies came out, which I think Mimi took us to, and I was like, oh, that's the thing that I quote unquote, read in fourth grade all those years ago. And so like, I didn't really get it, although kind of that same trope with mythical creatures in fantasy. A few podcasts ago, it's like, just another fantasy movie, I'll just know the fantasy book. And so I never like truly got into it. And like, like all and the author's like, really cool. Like, all this is like, revolutionary at the time, or blah, blah, blah. So for me, I couldn't I never gotten to those kinds of books. But coming across a book that was just like Uber super confusing, and kind of more of a droll than anything was was doing I'm attempting to power through it as best as I can.

Brandon  18:35

But that's kind of the only thing that comparatively that I would have. No, that makes sense. Like, it's, it's one thing, I think whenever you make up your own creature for your book or whatever, like if you're talking about creature mythologies, right, so like in Dune, right, if they make up their own thing, right, right, like Star Wars and like, Oh, it's this thing, or even like, even like the wheel of time when the you know, they're like, Oh, here's a Trolloc. Like, okay, well, you clearly made that up. So the fact that I don't, I don't know what it is, is fine. Right? Doesn't matter. But when you're gonna be like, Centaur fine, right, when you're transporting existing mythological creatures from one mythology into another one. Yeah, right. I feel like it's a little. I don't know, maybe it's because I already know what that thing is. It's weirder. You know, and then the fact that they don't like talk about it is kind of odd. Because you're like, because my brain is going why is this Greek mythological creature in a closet in England? Right, like, understand that? I think a lot of oh, I had a point where I was like, going with this crap come back to me. Yep. Again, I think I do a lot, right. But like, when Yeah, when you transport them, you know, it's like And then you know, some things, I guess it depends on how it's presented to you, right? Because, you know, sometimes when people say elf, right, if they don't give me any other context, I'm gonna think one thing. But then they might be like, Oh, actually, it's this right? I'm like, because you see elves, like, everywhere, they've just been co opted by everything from like Tolkien to Warcraft to Skyrim. You know, they're just everywhere. And they're all different, but like, you kind of know what you're getting into, right? So if it says, dwarf, you're like, Okay, I kind of know what that is. But then, like, those are like, 100% made up fantasy tropes that are, like, accepted as modern fantasy things. And then when you're like, fun. What? Yeah, this is a fantasy trope from many, many, like 2000 years ago, they just drop it on me now like

Collin  21:07

this is what got me thinking about a lot of things over the past, we've been doing this for over a week now of, of why, why reading broadly, and reading. For me, I really think reading fantasy books is, is really beneficial. Because it takes you not just I mean, it, it really does stretch you in having to imagine worlds that don't and physically cannot exist.

Brandon  21:41

And I think that's really important. And part of being able to create new ideas, or come up with

Collin  21:53

explanations for things or give examples or tell different stories as a person and just as individuals to think in by reading, I mean, just let's just be real. Reading is good. Like, that's all we should all be reading. Okay, fair enough. Like, okay, yeah, who didn't see that one coming. But I think it kind of depends. And I know, when we were going through getting Lilian reading and interesting, obviously, you know, education specialists, doctors were like, it doesn't matter what they read as long as they're reading. But I think once you get reading, I think it does impact you on what you read. Not just that you're reading. And I think it is important to read broadly across genres, and type in everything. Because even I have noticed that as I've moved away from reading as much fantasy as I used to, and I read other things now, it's, you know, I go back and I read fantasies, and they're just, they kind of much more impactful, at least for me, maybe that's just because I started reading and fantasy books stuck there for so long. But I do think they are very important type of literature for people great.

Brandon  23:10

Well, I think they're good because like, fantasy and sci fi both do this thing where they, they can tackle, like, big modern, like social questions and problems, but in like a weird way, where like, you don't like that, like weird, but like in an indirect type of way, you know? And it's not like, it's not like a direct comparison. So if you read like a modern fiction novel, it's like, exactly one to one. Like, what's the real world is like, right. And the fantasy escapism kind of allows you to experience the same themes, but in a different setting. That's like more interesting. For sure. You know, sci fi, too. I know that they all get lumped in together, right? Anytime you go to a bookstore, there's like, the Sci Fi slash fantasy section, just sort of like over there. Right in there. They get kind of lumped in together, but they both do that. They both can do that. Well, the problem with fantasy, sometimes, is that there's a lot of bad at the end. It's not like there's not there's like just normal generic, like bad, every kind of genre, right? Like, I've read lots of books that are just like, I don't get to the end. Like I don't even know what this book was about. I feel it was just a book that I read. And it was just sort of, like, trashed or away. But yeah, and the thing about fantasy is sometimes I find it a little easy to do that a fantasy because some faint like we've talked about before, like fear the overuse of fantasy tropes is just like so apparent, right, like, then it just like can really be formulaic and boring. And then you miss the point of the interesting stories you can tell. Right? So that's, that is the big like, thing to watch out for. Is that because like, they can do that it's good to be on guard, right? I think they can cry and be to go Oh, look at the fantasy like, how am I gonna say this?

Collin  25:31

I think they they can be obtuse and or indirect and how they present topics and ideas. What is not fun is whenever they're just like, they follow very similar tropes, or it's kind of like a nudge, nudge, wink, wink, hey, look, we're talking about that guy over there. But look, it's an elf. Ah, right. Yeah.

Brandon  25:53

You're just like, Yeah, well, I mean, again, you can do it well, right. Like, sure. There's a difference, right? It just depends on the writer and the world that they create around it, you know, the, you can talk about things like racism. In a fantasy novel, that is a fantasy thing, right? There's always a group that is like, prejudiced towards a different group. Right. And it's usually it's framed as like, elves, dwarves, something like that. Right? In a kind of showcase this problem that kind of tackle this issue. get you thinking about this kind of thing in like, an indirect way? Right? Yeah. So you can see, just like a another way to think about it, you know, and they can do that with any kind of problem, you know. Which is, which is good fantasy. You know what I mean? Like, one of the things that can make you fantasy other times you just need to be like, stabbing a dragon, you know, it's fine. That's fine, too. You know, it's okay. Not everything has to have like this really big, deep seated. Yeah, not meaning. No, sometimes you want to read a book. You know what I mean? I think that's important, too. Like, this is the problem that I have. Right? I have gotten so like, for a long time, I've just been reading like nonfiction, you know, for work or whatever. And I just like certain nonfiction stories, but like, the don't read a lot of just like fiction books. You know, and that's a problem that I have, because then you get into the middle of this like, nonfiction book, right? Let's pretend you're reading. Paris, 1919, six months to change the world. Right? Let's pretend you're reading that. And it's like a 500 page monstrosity about the Treaty of Versailles. You know. It can be a little hard to motivate yourself. To keep reading that, right. This is a book you can read, like nonfiction is different, because you can read a chapter two, and then like, walk away from it for a while, you know, because it's like, it's, there's not a story element really. That's like contiguous. I mean, there is there signing the treaty, but like, you know what I mean, it's like not so urgent. So, right. Trying to motivate yourself to read, can be difficult. And I think that's where having a genre that's your favorite is important. Because, like, you can fall back and just be like, I just want to read this because it's fun. And I like it. You know what I mean? So like, it's, it's good to have that, like, you were talking about being well rounded and reading lots of different types of books. I think if you only ever read one type of book, it gets very boring. At least it does for me, you know what I mean? Like, and I become unmotivated to read, like, I just don't want to, is it just the same thing a lot, and like, whatever, blah. And so I think switching it up, is, is good. If you have some favorite genres, you know, that you can fall back on, and say, I just want to read just for fun, and you can pick up a fantasy book, and just kind of like read for enjoyment. I think that's really important. Right? And like you were talking about, it's about early exposure. It's about what you read as a kid like you have these fall back. You know what I mean? So if you read sci fi as a kid, if you went through a big sci fi phase in middle school, like a lot of people do, like me. Sometimes it's just good to go back and read it just because it's fun. And you have like a connection to it. You're gonna mean, yeah, I did that this week. I was gonna talk about this. Look at that. You just brought it up anyway. But like that's what I did this week to help motivate myself to have all these books like I kind of discovered that my hobby is not reading. It's like book collecting, right? So anybody really, it really shouldn't be like, like 12 billion books around here. And I'm like, I need to read these, right. And I have a bunch that are like, half read because they're nonfiction or I have so many nonfiction books I read like half of them and I just like, read like four books at a time, which is weird and Susan makes fun of me. But like, fine. In order to help motivate myself, I went back to a classic genre, The Mystery Crime genre, right, pulling out the family tradition of mystery crime novels. I dove into I got, I bought this book. It was on the byline. I was just like, looking. I was like, I need something that's like, because my problem with reading nonfiction is my attention span. I need something that will hold my attention and get me thinking about the book sometimes. So I was like, well, obviously, obviously has to be crime, right? Because it's like a mystery. And you're like, engaged in watching it. So I bought this book. It's called the tenant by Katherine Engberg. It's like, she's a Danish writer. So like, Danish crime fiction is like a big genre, apparently. So it was not sue Grafton. No, it was not. Yeah, surprise, surprise. But yeah, that's what I went. The family tradition wrote of mystery crime novel.

Collin  31:39

This is fascinating. We we have some way of getting the kids into also reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. And Lillian, like, loves, loves these so much like to wait, before we get before we start reading. We always recap what has happened up into the story up until the tap of Baghdad. And then we talk about what we think is going to happen in the coming chapter, which is always my favorite thing to do when you're reading those kinds of books. You know, novels have like kind of starting to project ahead. And you can already tell how she's starting to pick up on some tropes or things or like, doing the whole like, well, but the teacher said this thing and so what if they did this thing? And whatever. So it was a it's been a lot been really cool to do that. So have you been? How have you been enjoying the ones that you've been reading?

Brandon  32:41

is really good, right? It's really good so far. I'm about halfway through. I've been splitting my time of like, I'm using it to reward myself so I've been reading so my nonfiction to like motivate myself and then I read this thing right later. So it's really good so far, like it's pretty interesting. Got the old twisty turny things going on here. The book basically, if I summarize the back, take place in Denmark, right, because a Danish so who's the author again? Her name is Catherine Engberg. Yes, I got that. That's called the tenant. It's nice to green. But like, basically, it's I won't get to read this whole thing. But like, there's a lady. There was a murder in this apartment building. And the murder matches an unpublished manuscript of this lady who's writing a crime novel. Right? So this lady that also lives in the building, is writing a crime novel about a murder victim. And the lady in her building gets murdered in the same way, as in the unpublished manuscript of her story. Dun dun, dun. Okay. I like yeah, so that's a good that's a good premise to go by. That's all you need to know. Now you're in right you're like okay, I'll read that so that's what I've been doing this week. That's what we're trying to motivate myself to be reading more you know, not just playing Forza racing cars right trying to do some other area What's your go to? What's your go to reading when you read? If you read Do you hate okay, you can mine I mean,

Aaron  34:37

so I know my usual go to and this is kind of the the worst thing and I know I've sent you Snapchats of this Colin is like when I go to Barnes and Noble and like the history section. I'm there that's usually my go to when I was younger. I used to love reading a lot of those like sports books about like, you know how like a coach or a certain player God where they are and like their journey

Brandon  35:02

Yeah, sci fi. I love you know, Warhammer 40k. I also have a lot of Warhammer Fantasy books. The one I have the one I'm reading now, where's it is King Leopold's Ghost about the? That's a good one. Right? I have our King Leopold of Belgium and the exploitation of Congolese in the DRC in Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Aaron  35:32

Yeah, the big one. And so just kind of how like it played out and like, Why, which is not usually talked about a lot in history. So I've been reading that because it's captivating to see like, like, wow, this is crazy that this happened. This didn't really happen that long ago. No, it didn't.

Brandon  35:51

So. So that's the crazy thing that I've that I've been reading. It's more of just like, and I know,

Aaron  36:01

typically, my reading changes, especially when he gets closer to like, school isn't like, I gotta read something, you know, US history related. And then like, in the summer, I was like, Yeah, I want to read fantasy I want to read sci fi. And then like, the moment, you know, July rolls around, I'm like, Oh, well, history, you say? Yes. So my, my kind of style changes depending on when, when the time of time of year is.

Brandon  36:29

No, I agree. I'm the same way. Like, I feel like, it's hard for me to balance like reading for, like work, just, you know, little things, even like papers or articles or books about the subject matter that I teach, just to keep it for me and keep up on stuff and like, learn more, so I can teach the kids better. And like reading for fun. You know, it's difficult balance that strike. And that's why I went with this genre. I pulled the genre out of the old hat sat around waiting a while. And so it's like, oh, yeah,

Aaron  36:59

I will say when I was in school, those like, the certain kinds of books that you had to like, you get a read a week to read this. And then you know what, we'll discuss it. But I mean, for example, Great Gatsby, I will just load the book until the day I die. If you if you gave me a book and told me to read it, I was not gonna read it. I just had zero interest into whatever you think that I whatever you think, I think that I would like, more than likely I would not like it because it was just awful. So a lot of those times like people like oh, we have to read this for points my now that's okay. I'm not going to because your taste and book is terrible.

Brandon  37:46

So yeah, I just a lot of those books. In school I, I couldn't tell you. Um, you know, the books like the K, or things like that the things that like we had to read, especially for like our book, quotas, or whatever we had, like, I know, I'm not going to if you're really bad at picking books for me, so I'm just not going to read it a. Yeah, I have unfortunately been reading more and more like business books, which have not been fine. So I've been trying to find the ones that aren't like it, because it's such a terrible world of drudgery and monotony, and annoying people writing books, trying to trying to find say, it sounds a real bad

Collin  38:42

is really that. So trying to find things that are written like, kind of that are business II, but not by someone who runs a business. I know that sounds bad. But one of the ones that I found that I'm really enjoying, it's called anti fragile things that gain from disorder actually written by a mathematician and statistician, as he looks at the world and goes, Why do some things break? And the thing other things don't break, basically, is his premise. And he he comes out and as I've been reading this a bit going, oh, like, there are a lot of biological principles that we know of why ecosystems are robust. And what happens when you throw an organism into a static environment versus a turbulent environment versus something that's too turbulent. And why like, medically like your bones and your body is stronger. Whenever you lift weights. And whenever you run and you exert, you use your body, it actually does get stronger, like bone density and things like that, like that disorder, and impact that you put on it actually strengthens it. And so now how do we take some of these principles and apply it to building things that that last and actually need and benefit from a little bit of chaos That's been a it's been a fascinating read so far.

Brandon  40:04

I think this is the kind of important thing about reading broadly, as well, is because there's lots of lessons that you can learn from stuff like that, that apply to other things. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, it's not like to learn about teaching practices, you don't just need to read teaching books. Oh, oh, you mean, you have to read other books and the principles that are in there, cross apply. And, and that's really important, I think, to get a broader view, kind of on how things work, you know what I mean? Like, so you read broader. It can help you, you make these like cross subject, connections, you know what I mean? Like, you can read a book about math and statistics, and then be like, Oh, hey, that reminds me of this like biology book, like you're talking about that I read, you know, I can look at this business book, I can look at this, like, leadership management book, right? Or just like these principles, right? And like, I can apply that to how I organize around my classroom, right? Because like, some of these things are the crossover, you know, there's a big crossover there. And so I think broadening out is really good for that, because you make new connections, and you can come up with new ideas and practices and things to do that way. They kind of make, you know, easily these like new ideas about stuff, and how to do it that way. Instead of just like only one point of view, from a person who stays like a teacher, and they just are stuck. And they say, Oh, do this only.

Collin  41:53

Yeah, it works. So that's an amazing point of you, as a person will never get any new ideas. Just read about people telling you how to do something or how they did something. I had an advisor when I was in graduate school, who she was a she studied ecosystems and community organization of how do organisms basically organize and structure themselves at a community level? So you know, you've got populations and in groups populations make community in a geographic region. She wants to know, how do these work in a hierarchical way and structure themselves and kind of balanced each other out? She basically spent all of her time reading, like, French philosophers.

Brandon  42:45

Like all sorts of Yeah, no, I mean, that's really like Voltaire is all over that, right? That's what you need to read.

Collin  42:51

No, I think I've told you the story. But her entire her entire PhD dissertation when she was going through school was based on some philosopher, Greek philosopher that says, You never step in the same stream twice. And he wrote that to me, like, because the stream is always moving, right? And it was like, because the world is already always moving around you. And so she was like, Ah, I wonder if that's statistically true. How far do you have to step in a stream before you reach a different biotic community?

Brandon  43:24

So not very far, but no, not very far at all, is what she, like she went on to like, it was just fascinating. It was like, yeah, that's where those amazing ideas come from, how things aren't connected, but you have to be looking for those. Right? You can't just sit there and wait for that. And so, you know, I know. Both of you are really big readers. When did you want how do you think that came about in in your in your life? I think I think part of it is that as I alluded to earlier, the family tradition of the mystery crime novel, listeners, my our, excuse me, grandmother, and mother both were a voracious readers of crime fiction. Oh my gosh, yeah. It was kind of distressing. How many random paperback crime novels both of them had? Like. So I think just kind of like I would say, kind of being exposed to books just in general. Right. Like, I know that like when we're little mom and dad both like read, and then that stuff and then like, I guess it's just sort of that finding something that you like to read. And just reading more of it, I would say A one of my early memories of being like, wanting to read things is I got a hold of some Boxcar Children books in like the second grade. And I read like, a bajillion of those things, right. For whatever reason, I just connected with that series of books, and I really liked this sort of, like mystery aspect, you know, is kind of like mystery light, you know, the Boxcar Children like, whatever, but like, I just latched on to reading that. And I enjoyed reading that, and I just read a lot of them. You know, and I don't really know how long I did that. Probably, well, I don't really know, second and third grade, I guess. And then in fourth grade, I remember we had to read a lot of books in school, and we read a lot of like, fourth grade is the Year of Reading books that like scarred me for life. Right. So I read like, the Bridge to Terabithia in fourth grade. We read like the taste of blackberries, right? All these books were like everybody dies. It's all like super depressing and sad. And then, like, I don't really think all my friends. I think that's what happened. I think one of my friends was reading some fantasy books. And I started reading those, and then some, like random Star Wars fiction, right, and like, fifth sixth grade, I kind of got into that stuff. And then kind of went from there. I don't remember reading just a whole lot in high school. Just like for fun, but, like, or college, really. But then after college, I was just like, Yeah, I'm gonna start reading some more. And I read like a whole bunch of shows off here. We have a ton of rated jumps that I've read. Yeah, kind of similar stuffs kind of adventure, thriller, crime, classic literature. And like, kind of just kind of expanded from there. I think that's that kind of the early exposure is just being around people that read, just like see walking into a room and seeing somebody reading a book. And being like, Oh, that is an option for fun. Right? Like, I think that's probably kind of where my reading background kind of comes from. Aaron, what do you think? So I know, a lot for me is when I think like the one of the first times that I truly like got into reading was when Colin would read to me those how I can't remember what books they were on the way up to South Dakota. You know, no, no, no cell phones. No, no mp3 players. No, you know, we definitely didn't have the CD player. And then it's kind of the wind of father music selection. So now music, yes. And the music. The music of the wind rushing by we would have the backseat of the suburban like down so we get like lay out and stretch out. And Colin would read to me the little see, the stupid face of one is like not a time travel book. But it's like, the time trio type, whatever it was. Yeah.

Aaron  48:53

And then I think you also you read something else to me. But being back in like, the car for what was like 12 hours or whatever it was and just like sitting there reading like, like, Oh, this is like super like cool and how like interesting this is and like that kind of stuff. And then I know that I was also perpetuated by many

Brandon  49:14

like every chance we got going into Springfield, it's like doing good Barnes and Noble real quick and

Aaron  49:21

and I kind of definitely got older of like, No, I definitely remember like having a lot of fun with this when I was younger and how like how cool it is like I'm getting to do what I did for when I was younger and then like the other big thing is when Collin made me read the Harry Potter book before you see the movie of like, just watch the movie and like reading it and like oh, this is like way better than what we're about to see. Then I remember watching the first film and yes, it was super cool, but I was like

Brandon  49:53

what like the book taught me like so much more and like how come I didn't have to I didn't do that. And so I think that's kind of where it really started. For me anyways, if I had to like put a pinpoint on it, I think it would be pretty neat. Probably about around that time. That's a good one. Right? Brandon? Just, like rustling through my brain slideways at the mere mention of Time Warp trio. I have the book on my shelf right now I'm looking at it. Oh, I think it's our copy from your kids to this is one of them the one that there's a cow on it? Yeah, the good the bad and the goofy. Yeah. And then and then like the first like true series that I got into that like, like reading about kids are kind of my holding on to them. But

Aaron  50:50

oh, as I said, Hold on. Was the magic Treehouse series. Oh, first like yo, I can like really get behind this and like, where they're gonna go like next week kind of thing. So yeah, Tom work trio.

Brandon  51:04

I remember Colin reading those to me. And being like, it was more of like, it was like someone who like reads this to me. Like that's pretty dope. So yeah, I think that if I had to put like a marker on it would be probably like that time period for me anyways. I'm pretty sure that the Knights of the kitchen table is genuinely one of the most hysterical and funny books that I've ever had in my entire book is Larry is like, Oh, it's so good. I forgot about the magic treehouse. Those are pretty good. Books for kind of young kids. That's like Eric to Aaron's favorite things together reading books in like history, like glam. combined. I remember I remember the Pompeii book. I was good. I think I have that one of my classroom actually.

Aaron  51:58

And then I know the one that like the one book that truly, um, I was like, this was the greatest book of all time, when I was younger, it was a Bunnicula. And I'm

Brandon  52:10

here and I'm like, Yeah, this is like, do they have this? Like, everywhere is like, is this on Oprah's bestseller list? Because it should be that that review. That book? Was the was the one I was like, Yo, like this? If it's not a big it's going to be kind of thing. Turn that it is big. It's a big deal Sorry, I have to divert. stuff. I'm gonna back up to the time rock trio. I don't know. I to me, I have. It's one of the first memories I have of reading a book and belly laughing. So yeah, because it really is. It's so incredibly funny. Whenever it's the night at the kitchen table or something, whatever that is. Yeah, but I think the kitchen table next to the kitchen table, it's the best one in my opinion. It doesn't get better than that. For that, that four series. I, that made me laugh so hard. And it was just a core memory for me of like, of not just being exposed to books, because obviously, you know, our parents are readers. And so we had books on shelves, randomly. They kind of like were laying strewn about the house. We would go to Barnes and Noble. So we had time to like, peruse and look at stuff while mom was going finding things. And we would also go to the library. Yeah. Going to the library and just the public library. The deal Brentwood Public Library, is the one we used to go to the most often in my memory is right there as close to dad's work. Uh huh. Right. We would stop by there. You know, go say hi to go grocery shopping in the area. Well, yeah, there used to be a grocery store right there. Uh huh. Like right by it. Now, the buildings aren't even there now. I don't think but like, the grocery store there. Yeah. It's interesting to me, because that was my answer to like, why are we read it? Why am I why did I read it? Why I had that connection with them. Because they were just like, around, right? Like, it's very much like, the around. Yeah, we were like, we were encouraged to go and find them. And like, if we picked up a book, it was like, okay, like there was some discussion about buying it or not, obviously, but like, we were encouraged to find things that interested us. And they were gifted to us to like we were gifted books. Some of them had scrawl in the front covers that would remain on legible to this day. It's true. That's true. But

Collin  54:48

like, like they were just around and I'm, I'm incredibly thankful for that. Because I know like I have such a like I said, like the time we're free to like that's, that's that book came out in 2001. And I still remember laughing did a really boring Yang 2001

Brandon  55:11

I still remember, belly laughing at that, and just how hilarious that was. And then everything else since then if books that make you laugh, cry, or that are suspenseful, and make you angry or whatever, like, they really do not just take you places of like, we started talking to us, I told you like, fantasy and sci fi and those things, but they make you feel things as well, which is what I always take away from a book as like how this book makes me I feel while reading this book. Yeah, I mean, that's a big part of the connection you have to write. Like, how do I, because that means you've connected with it in some way. Like if you have a feeling at all, like, you're doing good, right? Like, you're feeling can be like, oh, man, I don't like this at all. But it's because you it's not like, that feeling doesn't just come from somewhere, right? I mean, nowhere I like it for a reason. And you have made an impact on you and connected with you somehow, like some books do that better than others. Right? Like, some books make you like laugh uproariously in some books, like, are not funny at all. You know, some books are really interesting and insightful. And some are just like intriguing and interesting, right? Like it is. There's a whole gambit to run here. Of these interesting things. And like, that's what's so good about reading is like, there's literally infinite possibilities of what you can read, right? Like, depending on your mood, depending on how you're feeling, you know, whatever, but they are these like memories that you have, right? They were ebooks, like I just had another one. I remember those like, I remember these, like we had these big, hardback books about, like animals or something. Right? You remember these things? Like, I don't know what they're called. I think they're in the closet still probably. Like, they're not that they're not gray. Are they? No, no, no, those are different. Yeah, that's the series. It's This is mom series. There's like fairy tales and stuff. That's that one. Okay. Um, no, they were like, they're almost like, coffee table books. No, they were smaller than that. They were like these books. They were kind of tall. They were like skinny but they're about like animals or something. And we had a some of those. And dad used to read those to us like well that like for bedtime or whatever he was thinking the beat out of them winds up I don't know what they are. Or there's I remember something about there was like, it was like, it was like nonfiction too. It was like a pictures of like, actual, like raccoons and stuff. So I don't know. Like is there a coon one? I feel like there's one about water. Animals, right. This mystery book series. Calling dad tomorrow and Yeah, Dad collection is very important. Because they're like, there's a picture somewhere of like, him reading a book. I think it's you trying to make you take a nap. And dad is napping and you're totally like looking at the books

58:32

backfire,

Brandon  58:33

ultimate backfire of the year, right. Like but I think at some exposure that time spend it like we're just going to the library. We're just getting like, hang out at the library and look for a book and just get it right. Oh, go into the this is why I also the Brentwood library is why, in my mind when you say the word library, I immediately think of brown. Right, thanks to brown building. Imagine the most 1980s library listeners in your mind. That's it. That's what it was that I'm trying to think which one that one is is that like the one work like a long it's kind of like, very blocky. Yeah. It's it's brick. No, it's um, Glenstone. Let's start Glenstone in Seminole Seminole across from the attic, the cemetery. Yeah, it's very low in long and break right in I mean, it was I don't know what it is now. Reno, not surprising, I imagine because Springfield Public Libraries, like building all their buildings, I think but this one is like a super 80s it was super 80s they had big inside they had these big like, Florida. To my young mind ceiling. They probably weren't that tall, but like bright out in metal bookshelves. Yeah calling in they're throwing fits, because he can't take like 17 books, you know, it's fine. You know, sometimes you just have oh my gosh, there we go. Hold on. Seeing if I can find some old photos. Oh, man Anyway, take some of those that's hard to find old photos of things because they get put away so fast. It's true. Ah, but no one was thinking about taking a photo of the Brentwood library in the 90s, early 90s. Right. It's not a thing they're doing. Like, like, like, five years ago, like, there were? No it was done pretty pretty recently, like in the grand scheme of things. The last library that Springfield renovated, they renovated like every one of the billion that was there. Except for that one, tucked away in the corner. The renovation was completed. How would I say five years ago that reopened 20 It was closed and reopened in 2017. So like, oh my gosh, man. What I wouldn't give to go inside that brown building. Again. So great. I think that's that is fascinating. I, I really do appreciate that. To hear your your connections, to books to reading, and to how that how that's impacted you because I know that that's been something that it's come and gone as I've been obviously busy things come and go but it's something I'm willing to know it now. Like very passionate about, like, you will be readers, and you will like it that's cool. I have to do another book challenge. So it smells like here. I have to get one that Aaron is interested in reading this time. We're gonna get him on board. That's what we gotta do. Mark that got this one? I'm not sure if you've heard about it's called The Great Gatsby. Well, Jason's favorite fairy he loves by the sign off here is again, give us the green light. Scott will read a more contemporary one this next time. Modern. At least go to your library, folks. Get a book. Read it. I go. My my take away from this is true. Thinks he's got a library card. I haven't actually ever been in towers, or building a new one.

Collin  1:03:06

But lad went and got a so there's officially a library some branch of the Webster County Library branch like Webster County as a branches of library now wanted downtown in downtown there. And so he went and got the kids library cards at that place. And so every time we go down now they we have to stop by the library and pick a ha.

Brandon  1:03:31

Like, nice. Man, I have so many memories of because we use the Springfield Public Library system, obviously. And like that was how I first use like their search searching databases. For oh my gosh, I was horribly old computer. Oh, yes. Yeah. What was it called cat? Oh, man. Oh, cool. Cool Cat. Was it cool cat? Sounds familiar. That sounds like a thing where there's like an image of a cat because it's mostly sort of catalog and you're supposed to go and search for different things that the computerized card catalog got and you could to EBSCO host or searching papers and other files through stuff and yeah, yeah. Going down the microfiche films in the band. They only had that at the downtown branch. I remember that. They still had those there when I was in high school because my friend worked at the library. And they still had those monster microfilm machines. If you could go and look they have those at the Missouri State Library still. Yeah, I remember doing one of those things from Boy Scouts where I had to go to the library and like find like an old news article and it was for the it was for your birthday. Like the newspaper for the year you were born or something thing like, oh, my gosh pull a news article for what happened. Yeah, reeling through that monster by looking at it with your eyes burning is newspapers just like screen by 1000 miles an hour from my vision man Things are crazy microfiche? The space that you save by making them on those little microfilm key waste by having the machine that reads longest is Oh, that's true. That's good point microfiche versus microfilm. The role of fees, static card images that you could put in the little it looked like a big computer. Yeah. It was the film The big role that you were all through the those machines? Well, the I remember like Whelan nothing. I remember those. You have to like look in those like, weird like, viewfinder goggle things, right? Look at like the was it that little red toy number that you like? Click the button and share the pictures on it like that did? Yeah. I think it's only appropriate that I insert the entry for what microfilm is. From Encyclopedia Britannica Online. That seems Oh, yes, I think all listeners under the age of 30 are gonna be like, What the heck are you talking about? Oh, man, you got this. That's not real. You got the CD ROM or micro, or it's like a CD ROM. All of the world's knowledge came on the CD. Yeah. Pre internet man. What's going on? Learn how to I remember having to sell when I was in high school. When I wrote my research papers for junior writing class, that's the year that we did a bunch of research papers, nearly like two maybe I don't know. And then I did another my senior I do have these memories of going to had to go to the public library. Because I was only allowed to have two internet sources. Uh huh. That was it. The rest had to be books. So I have these memories of going to the public library and just like setting up on one of those big library tables, and I just had books open around me. Right, these big reference books, write books about the topic or whatever I was researching. Like, whatever. And I had my giant stack of like, note cards, you know, just sitting in the library with all these reference books. piled on the table. In my mind, it was a lot. I felt like Gandalf, it was probably like four, or five. But like, in my mind, it was a lot because some of them were like, non checkout double, you know, like the big reference books. Like the encyclopedias, it's like that. So you had to go there and like, get all your stuff and read all your note cards and sit at the table and copy out the information.

1:08:19

Oh, yeah.

Brandon  1:08:22

You could pay to use the copy machine. But who wants to do that? Nobody's not me. Sitting in the library on a Saturday afternoon and not paying for copy machine. Nope. Yeah, I have that memory as well. Like, because even in the early 2000s, the Internet was not allowed. Right? It was to internet sources only out how would you know what's real? Anybody can publish? Yeah, turns out still hard to figure that out? Apparently. We're gonna have to we've been yelling at people for 20 years to be careful about what you read on the internet. Yeah, nope. Just fine. What could go wrong? Yeah, I have these memory of it. I went to the library center, the new one that they had built at that time it was new the one that Campbell Leno. Yep. That is now it was like brand new. And I do remember that like walking in that building. versus my old friend. The Brentwood library was a massive difference because it was like light in there. You could see there were windows. There were actually tables. I don't have any memory of tables in the Bridgewood library or a reference section. But I was younger and wouldn't have gone to the reference section. So Right. That's not exactly a complete memory but like I think the Brentwood in the other one is where I used to rent the or want mom to do Yeah, you could rent like the Three Caballeros from the little VHS section. Yeah, because I always wanted like one of those like, that was the only reason because I can ever find anything that I truly wanted. As it was like a magazine or something. VHS section that always had something that I was like, oh, yeah, I can totally like get this library. This true My friend works at the library, like I said, so he would just like our DVDs all the time. Just like whichever. Like didn't matter like this one. to it. Anything else? Yeah, just take it. Watch it. Okay, put it back. Take it one. Man. So yeah, but I do remember that having to do the research at the actual library. It's crazy. Weird times. Right? Like yeah, I'm gonna get a copy of the time. We're here to read it now. This is you. And I have homework well, I'm, I'm gonna go finish a book overwrite read before bed, your grandmother would be proud of you. I was I was going to add you talked about having books everywhere I paint an e reader. That is very bad because I am already a digital hoarder. Like it is to now it's just like, unlimited space to put all the books in the world I will have all of that's true. Now you're never gonna decide what to read. Right? That's because you're at night Do you like I can get it it's all connected so I can get on the Wi Fi with it. And then I can hook it up to my library card. And so I can just like browse their catalogue and check out books on the library forever. Like why would this is amazing. Good love this so just start with a I guess and just go down. Exactly. Anyway Alright, good. Well, guys, enjoy eating don't melt this week, please. Oh my gosh, it's so bad. It's so you're never gonna believe this. It's so hot. I've been wearing it. I've been wearing sandals on purpose. It's so hot outside. I can't even tell you know it's Hi ladies and gentlemen. I have a devout tennis shoe where only bizarre my sandals this week is so hot. I can't I that's what we have softball practice at 7am. So we know how to deal with the heat better than midnight. Right? That's a good idea, though. Early morning, so bad in the morning after about 10 But don't die from here. And we'll accomplish that task, my friends and we'll see you again next week. All right. Love you guys.