Aubrey
00:00
It was then in probably halfway through the book she starts talking about seed oils and I turned it off so fast.

Peter
00:18
Well, welcome back to Generations. I am one of your co-hosts, Peter.

Aubrey
00:22
And I am your other co-host, Aubrey.

Peter
00:25
Aubrey, how have you been?

Aubrey
00:27
You know, I've been pretty good. Um, it is full full winter now here in Wisconsin, Wisconsin, as they say. Okay. Um full winter, like a foot, I would say, of snow arrived a couple a couple weeks ago and has not moved. a a muscle. Um it snowed it's been snowing like a couple more inches, probably like every five days on average since the first big snowstorm we had. Um So it's been staying, you know, very consistent. It is a full winter wonderland here. Um it's also very, very, very cold. Like it was so it was like 32 degrees on Tuesday and I was like, it's time to whip out the swimsuit. Wait, let's reopen the pool. It's summertime. 32? That's great. I could walk out with no coat on and I would be like, this is amazing. Because it has been like not only is the wind chill crazy, but it stays consistently between negative five degrees and like ten degrees Fahrenheit. um just constantly and because of the wind chill it's usually 10-15 degrees colder feels 10 15 degrees colder than it actually is. So, you know, I'm getting used to that. Um having a garage like parking spot is nice. Um but For Hayden and I, there's like two of us, so we switch off like week by week, kind of just whoever needs it more. Um so when I have to go outside, it is like even though it's a five second walk to my car, it is Put on my full-length coat, my wool socks, my gloves, my zip up the coat all the way, put the hat on and the hood on, and walk to the car. So, um It's I honestly don't hate it though because it feels I don't know, feels Christmassy. It's like if it's gonna be that cold, at least there's pretty snow on the ground, you know?

Peter
02:27
That's true. You know, that's interesting. It has definitely not been like that here. Yeah. Uh I mean we had a couple days where it snowed. And then it got warm enough that it turned into rain, so it pretty much melted it all. And today it was like fifty-five degrees.

Aubrey
02:48
What?

Peter
02:49
Yeah. And it's supposed to be in the fifties for the next Three days and then it's gonna be down in the 40s, Monday and Tuesday. So it feels very not like Christmas here.

Aubrey
03:01
That is crazy.

Peter
03:02
Like I walked outside from work today and it felt Like it felt like we were on the other side of winter. Right. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's starting to warm up. It was it's been it's been a little bizarre. I I do hope that it actually starts to feel like winter. Um because uh we definitely could use the snow.

Aubrey
03:25
Right, absolutely. Yeah. Desert. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, so that's been that's been fun. I've been getting Just, you know, more comfortable at work, just with my with my kiddos that I work with. Um They're fun and funny and say funny things. And anytime any of them say, How old are you? I say, ooh, how old do you think I am? I love this question. This is so funny. The other day I got one hundred, which was no. Oh, okay. And I said oh okay. And then another kid with his full chest said 29 and that hurt more than the a hundred I think.

Peter
04:07
Yeah. Yeah, I can see why that would be more he was like 29 and I was like, you think I'm 29?

Aubrey
04:15
Wow. Um I've also got in 85 is always a f is that that was a funny one. Um the other day I got 33, which I was like, ooh, nope. Yeah. So close so far though. No. So yeah, they're slightly painful. They're entertaining. Um But yeah, we're just kind of g I'm getting ready 'cause I have Christmas break too, like two weeks off uh Christmas break 'cause it works at a s cause I work out of school. So yeah, kind of just trudging through until Until then, but yeah, how are you?

Peter
04:54
You know, hanging in there, it's just it's the end of the year and it's always things get busier at work in one part because you know people are trying to get everything done before the end of the year and insurance changes, but At the same time, it's tricky because we lose a lot of days because of the holidays, especially OR days. Yeah. As and this year in particular, my OR days are Thursdays and it's every Thursday and then I have Tuesdays and Fridays. But it's like, hey, guess what was a Thursday, Thanksgiving? Guess what's also a Thursday? Christmas. Oh, Christmas, yeah. Guess what's also a Thursday?

Aubrey
05:36
New Year's. Yeah.

Peter
05:38
So I lose three full OR days because of that. And So it just kind of makes things a little bit more of a crunch. And then there's always the other stuff. It's, you know, Christmas parties here and we've got our office Christmas party tomorrow night and We had the Ward Christmas party last Thursday that I had to help with because of because and it's just all this stuff that kind of makes it feel Busier to a to you know in a way that I'm like, uh I do not, I do not appreciate this.

Aubrey
06:10
Yeah. Yeah. Instead of being able to like hibernate for the winter, it just like it's Busier.

Peter
06:16
Yeah, it does. Yeah. But any anything else interesting or anything going on you want to mention before we we hop into our topic for this this week?

Aubrey
06:24
Not really, not that I can think of. There's probably something that I'm probably forgetting. But no, that's okay.

Peter
06:31
So uh our topic this week, this was your idea, and I thought it was a great one. And we are going to talk about books we read in 2025. So we're at at the end of the year and we're gonna go and we're gonna talk about books we read and just sort of what were our thoughts? What'd we like? Did did were we disappointed? Just generally, you know, what do we think about the books that we read? So why don't you kick it off? What's Name a book you read and tell us tell us your thoughts.

Aubrey
07:00
Share your thoughts. So I made a list because I have read quite a few books this year. Let me pull up my list here.

Peter
07:08
All right.

Aubrey
07:09
Okay, so I read um all of the secret projects, Brandon Sanderson's secret projects this year. So one of them that I read um obviously was Tress. Yep. Um loved, loved Tress. Such an enjoyable, lovely little story. I that one was just I have nothing but good things to say about trust. And I'd I'd been shocked I hadn't read it until then. I w I had read I read through all of the Stormlight archive before I even read The Secret Project, which I think is funny.

Peter
07:45
Okay. I read Tress last year. Uh I couldn't remember when it was, and then I was looking, I was like, oh yeah, it was last year because I remember listening to like listening to the audiobook of Sunlit Man as we were driving down to uh to Las Vegas for spring break last year.

Aubrey
08:04
Yes.

Peter
08:05
But yeah, Tress, I I think Tress is the book that if anybody was like, hey, I'm curious about Brandon Sanderson, I would probably say read tress. And if that clicks with you and you like it. then read more. And if you read Tress and you go, eh, I don't know if that's for me, then definitely don't waste your time.

Aubrey
08:29
Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think Brandon Sanderson actually I saw him on uh on TikTok actually. He put together a little starter pack um that was like if he was like basically if someone wants to get into reading my work here's your three little starter pack um to kind of get familiar with what I do and it's tress. The Emperor's Soul, and then the very first Mistborn. Um, the last uh the last Empire.

Peter
08:57
Final Empire.

Aubrey
08:58
Final Empire. I was like, what is it called? Mistborn one?

Peter
09:02
Yeah exactly

Aubrey
09:03
Yeah, which I thought I was like, wow, that's yeah, that's an incredible perfect little little trio to have someone start with, honestly.

Peter
09:11
Yeah.

Aubrey
09:12
Um But yeah, so I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed Tress. But anyway.

Peter
09:16
Definitely.

Aubrey
09:17
What about one you've read?

Peter
09:18
Well, so I'm gonna lump these together and I'm gonna say that I reread the original Mistborn trilogy. uh and enjoyed them. I liked it. I think I actually enjoyed reading it more this go-around than I did the first time. The sense of discovery and everything obviously wasn't there. But the nice thing about rereading it was there were a lot of little things that I maybe didn't pick up on the first time I was reading it. And and so I picked up on that this go-around, which I think made a big difference to to kind of my overall enjoyment of the series. At the same time, and this is going to be a recurring theme in part of what we're talking about today, I I am noticing that as we talked about with Wind and Truth, Sanderson's worlds are very interesting. His magic systems are super cool. And I like a lot of his characters. But he's not got the most excellent prose. Right. And and it was better. at the beginning in earlier books. But I really did enjoy rereading that first Mistborn trilogy, um, which then led to more that I read that we'll talk about more. But what was something else that you wanted to talk about?

Aubrey
10:45
Um I actually also reread just the Final Empire because I had finished reading um then this is I'm not saying anything in order right now. It's just in order of how I how I wrote them on The notes, not in the order of how I read them. It's quite alright. But I yeah, I reread The Final Empire. It was um I listened to it on Yeah, an audiobook. Um now I also enjoyed it more the second time around because yeah, there was more things that I picked up on. There was more things that I I was just like, oh, that's when that happened. You know, stuff like that where yeah, I was able to appreciate that one more. Um But I'll I'll say a second one. I also read Sunlit Man Man this year. Um and I enjoyed it. I thought it was interesting. Um I did feel like Are we saying spoilers or no spoilers?

Peter
11:41
Um yeah. Go for it.

Aubrey
11:44
Okay.

Peter
11:44
I'll make sure we we we say spoilers for any books that we've read.

Aubrey
11:53
Okay, okay. Um I did feel like his Sigzel's personality was just not the Sigzel, I would have thought. I know it was supposed to be way like many, many, many years have passed, you know, like it's way many things have happened and he's changed a lot, but oh sorry, that's the plant light just turning off. Um but I I felt a little like it felt too far away from Sigzel to be Sigzel at the end when it's revealed that that's who he is. I figured out personally who it was. Um because oh I actually read I read Sunlight Man before I finished Wind in Truth.

Peter
12:40
Okay.

Aubrey
12:41
So it was before it's 'cause it's revealed at the end of Wind in Truth that he like gets the spren. Gets the high spren, right? Yeah. So I read Sunlit Man before that. Um and then I was like, oh, I think I know who this is. This sounds like Sigil. So it was actually it wasn't like spoiled for me beforehand. But I was still confused because I was like, there's no way this is Sigil. I don't know. I just feel a little Felt a little weird. So I don't know how you felt about that.

Peter
13:11
So I read The Sun Man, like I said, last year, and I did not read Wind and Truth, obviously, until this year. Really recently I finished it. And so as I was reading Sunlit Man, it had been long enough since I had read any of the Stormlight that I didn't have a strong Memory or connection to Sigza. Fair. Fair. So when I knew that that's who it was, and then I'll be honest, as I was reading Wind and Truth this year, I kept coming back to that and I was like, I just I don't see the connection between Sigzel in The Sunlit Man and what I'm reading here in Winded Truth.

Aubrey
13:50
Yeah. Yeah.

Peter
13:52
So I can I can totally see Yeah.

Aubrey
13:54
I'm glad I'm glad you agree because I was like, I don't know, this feels it feels a little too disconnected, but yeah. I mean, still cool. It was still fun, still, still fun to read.

Peter
14:04
Yeah, it's a neat it's a neat setup and it's fun to see the world way, way far in the future, because again, spoilers, we find the Scadrions and they've got a friggin' spaceship that's buried under So you're like oh okay. Yeah clearly.

Aubrey
14:18
Greasy Stuff has happened. Things many things have happened. But yeah. Anyway, what's another? What's another reading?

Peter
14:25
Well so then I'm gonna jump in and I'm gonna go ahead and and we're just gonna tear off the Cosmere Band-Aid from the get-go. And I am going to say that I then after reading The original Mistborn trilogy, I read the Wax and Wayne Quadrilogy. Yes. Yep. And really, really, again enjoyed those. I continue to think Wax and Wayne may be Sanderson's best two characters. And so lots of fun to spend time with them, lots of fun to to reread. some of those books and see those connections because the reason I hadn't read The Lost Metal when it came out.

Aubrey
15:04
Yeah.

Peter
15:04
I remember when I was reading Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning. There were a lot of callbacks that made me say, I need to, I I wanted to refresh myself on that original trilogy again. So that's why then I just went and I read all seven of them together. And I r I love the Alloy of Law. I really like Shadows of Self. I like Bands of Mourning. And The Lost Metal is okay.

Aubrey
15:30
Yeah.

Peter
15:31
Um I mean. So again, I I knew again, I don't know why I'm saying this. We're just going full spoilers.

Aubrey
15:40
Yep.

Peter
15:40
I knew that Wayne was gonna die.

Aubrey
15:42
Yeah. Yeah.

Peter
15:43
Like that didn't surprise me. It didn't disappoint me. I felt like his end was appropriate for the character.

Aubrey
15:48
Yeah.

Peter
15:49
And I felt like there was a fair amount of foreshadowing.

Aubrey
15:52
Yeah.

Peter
15:53
At the same time, I I feel like there were some things in that that I don't know. I I I really liked the relationship between Wax and Staris.

Aubrey
16:03
Yeah.

Peter
16:04
And I felt like it actually became increasingly underutilized as the books went forward to the point that in the Lost Metal I like what Staris is doing back in what Ellendell or whatever and and everything she's doing and taking charge there. But I I actually didn't like separating the two of them. Yeah. And again, I can see why because of the story and kid and, you know, all this kind of stuff. But I think that I like the relationship between Wax and Wayne, but I really, really liked the relationship between Wax and Staris and how it grew and evolved over the series. Yeah. And I kind of felt like she was. Again, uh not sidelined because she was given important things to do, but it still kind of felt like she was less important in that book, which disappointed me. Um Marcy, I liked her in The Alloy of Law, and I liked her less as the series went on. And so we're spending so much time with her in The Last Metal that I I didn't love that and that made it a little bit of a weaker book. And then I'll be honest. I I I'm starting to well, first of all I I hate Kelseir at this point.

Aubrey
17:26
Yeah. Yep.

Peter
17:27
Really, really.

Aubrey
17:28
No other option.

Peter
17:29
Do not like Kelseir at all.

Aubrey
17:31
Yep.

Peter
17:33
And I feel like The the pantheon of deities in the Cosmere is becoming too Complicated.

Aubrey
17:49
Yeah.

Peter
17:50
So and and and the way that it's like, you know, in in the last metal, now we've got, okay, we've got harmonium and we've got harmony, and we've been seeing the cracks. in in Harmony's abilities and stuff over this series, but then we've got, I don't remember, was it Valor or whatever with the name of the I swear it started with a V. I can't remember.

Aubrey
18:10
Die beats me man.

Peter
18:12
But but then it's like the whole big plan is they're gonna launch a missile at Ellendo.

Aubrey
18:22
Right.

Peter
18:23
Like it just kind of felt anticlimactic. It felt like like I was like, really? I mean this feels like like I expect the and again, I if it's not Valor, it's been a while. I forgive me, but whatever this other god, the red-eyed god that, you know Like this plan to launch a missile, I here's the thing. You know what it reminded me of? syndrome. Launching launching the big the big battle you know monster to to the city. It was like

19:02
I just expect the God over there to be like, I shall launch my missile and you can't stop me, Mr. Bond.

19:02
You know?

Peter
19:03
I'm just like, what the heck? Come on. So yeah, the last medal was Honestly, for me, kind of a really big letdown. Yeah. From the rest of the Mistborn books. Yeah. Which I'm just gonna follow that in because we already have a whole episode on it, but dovetails into the fact that I'm starting to get a little nervous because Wind and Truth was a big, big letdown for me from the rest of the Stormlight books. Right. So I'm like, okay, Lost Metal, Wind and Truth, uh. I mean, I still enjoyed reading them and I like the characters, but Boy, I really think that I would say that both The Lost Metal and Wind in Truth might be my least favorite Brandon Sanderson books in the Cosmere. And I'm I'm specifying that so that we can we can leave the frugal wizard's bullshit whatever to medieval crap hole

Aubrey
20:00
Right, right.

Peter
20:02
You know. Yeah. So I'm a little nervous. I'm a little nervous, Aubrey.

Aubrey
20:08
Yeah, I am too. I am too. And it always takes me a little bit to kind of process that I actually didn't like the book after I read it. Like after I read Lost Metal, I was like, oh wow, that was Awesome! Right. And I kind of like actually thought about it and I was like, wait, but maybe it wasn't.

Peter
20:28
Yeah, so

Aubrey
20:30
Yeah.

Peter
20:31
I don't know. That's one of the reasons why I have not read Isles of the Ember Dark because I'm just like, give me, I need a good long break from Brando Sando before I'm ready to to dive back in.

Aubrey
20:44
Yeah. Well, that's goes into I have read Isles of the Umberdark, so obviously I won't spoil it for you. Um I did think it was fun. I thought it was fun. Um good. I'm glad to hear it. I definitely it wasn't like my absolute favorite of like the short. The short ones. Um, I think I probably like Tress and Yumi better because I just I I do love Yumi. Um that's another one that I read. Yeah, that's another one I read this year. Um but Yeah, I thought Isles of the Umberdark was fun. I I liked the characters. Um it I'm trying to not say spoilers. Um, it felt a l a wee boring at times where I was like, why do I care? about what's happening right now. I' But overall I I enjoyed it. Um because what is it called? What is it called? The the shorts.

Peter
21:40
Isn't it Sixth of the Dusk?

Aubrey
21:41
Sixth the Dusk. Yes, I always forget that's what it's called. 'Cause so I uh no, I also read Sixth of the Dusk right before Isles of the Umberdark came out.

Peter
21:49
Which if I understand correctly and tell me if I'm wrong, uh you probably didn't need to do that. Did not do that. Isn't Sixth of the Dusk interspersed throughout Isles of the Umberdark?

Aubrey
21:59
It's every other chapter is a chapter from Six of the Dusk for the whole part one. So you can just so I I it was an audiobook and I skipped all those chapters because I was like, I just finished this like last week. So That was not, yeah, not not necessary. Um but I did also like Six of the Desk of the Desk. That one was a good one.

Peter
22:19
Yeah, I remember enjoying it. It's been a long time since I read it, but I do remember enjoying it.

Aubrey
22:23
Yeah, and I love those the the characters are fun. It's just fun to kind of get that different different sort of character where I think I in either the acknowledgments or I don't know, one of the little blurbs where it's like Brando Sando saying something about the book um before or after. He was like, I wanted to try writing a character who doesn't talk very much and is very good at it. Um, so that's the that's the whole thing is the main character doesn't like to talk and is so confused why everyone's talking all the time and doesn't and it's always like this person asks him a question And it's like he was silent because the question did not warrant an answer or something like that. And it's always just funny because It's just different and fun to it's just fun to read. So yeah, I did enjoy Isles Isles of the Ember Dark. I definitely did. So good. Yeah. What's another one you read?

Peter
23:18
Well, so I'm gonna lump all these together because most of them are novellas, uh, and I really just I don't feel like it makes a whole lot of sense to talk about them. Uh but I read all seven of the murderbot diaries, uh, novellas and novels. One of them is like a 300-plus page novel, the others are like a hundred and something page novellas. And I liked them a lot. I think that they're interesting. Murderbot on Apple TV Plus is actually really good. If you haven't watched it, you should watch it. It's it's a pretty faithful retelling slash slight reinterpretation, but but again, a pretty faithful uh version of the first book All Systems Read. And I I think it's not, you know, it's not real highbrow science fiction, but it does. what I really like when science fiction and fantasy do, which is they use this fantastical world or or again this futuristic world to explore themes and things that are meaningful to us. And so the common thread through all of uh the Murderbot books is, and I don't know, are you familiar with Murderbot at all?

Aubrey
24:46
Nope.

Peter
24:47
So I'll give you the short the the short version. Murderbot, the main character, is a security unit or a sec unit. And sec units. are a combination of they're kind of I think guess they'd fall in like a cyborg type thing where they are cloned organic tissue m fused with uh mechanical tissue and mechanical parts and stuff. And and so the interesting thing about them is, you know, they have computer processing abilities and all this stuff. But then they also have an organic brain. Okay. And and one of the the tensions in here is that kind of conflict where it's like, okay, the organic brain is doing these weird organic brain things. And then like basically the computer part of it is like, why why is the brain doing these things? That doesn't make a whole lot of You know, but he it, rather, it always refers to itself as it, it has Murderbot has hacked its governor module.

Aubrey
25:49
Okay.

Peter
25:50
So it now has free will.

Aubrey
25:52
Okay.

Peter
25:53
And all the other s all the other sec units they're owned by companies. Uh and and so what happens is Murderbot is assigned as the sec unit for a group that is going to a planet to do some geological uh studies and everything to see what's going on in this planet. Is there are there minerals here that they could mine? And so when when a company takes out or when a group takes out a bond to go and and survey a planet Mm-hmm. The company that they're getting leasing all of the equipment from then sends along a sec unit. That's part of the deal. And then they pick this sec unit. He's been It's been feigning that it still is regular and it has to follow rules and everything. But it doesn't. So it goes with preservation aux, which and the preservation, so In this future, there's the corporate rim. So there's all of these planets and stations and stuff that are all under corporation control. And then outside the corporate rim, there are other sort of independent groups. and preservation aux is one of these and in preservation it's much more kind of an almost socialist egalitarian uh set up. And so they're very different than, you know, traditionally MurderBot has been sent out with miners to mining facilities where they're just trying to maximize their profit and get out. Whereas And and the whole rest of the book's kind of chronicle murderbot having its free will and trying to figure out how to exercise it. and uses its free will at one point to run away from preservation ox, but then comes back and the rest of the novels and novellas are are with people from preservation. But it's all A it's all really kind of a meditation, maybe a hoidi-toidi word, but I'm gonna use it. It's all all of these books, they're kind of a meditation on, you know, what does it mean to be human? Like what makes what makes us us? And it's really interesting because I think that These were written and you know, the first ones were written a few years ago and they're still being written. But the eighth one is coming out, I think, early next year. But especially as we get into this era where AI bots are just so becoming so ubiquitous and it's such a buzzword. And we have all these people talking about, you know, oh, you know, there was a dude who got fired from Google because he had said that Google Gemini had become sentient and all this stuff. And and it's I just think it's interesting at this time, this reflection of okay, well what makes us What sets us apart and preservation, everybody on preservation insists on referring to Murderbot as as a person, basically, not just not just a sec unit. And it It struggles. Murderbot struggles with this identity, this idea that, you know, but am I, but am but I'm not, but they think I am. They treat me like I am, but am I, but am I not. Uh so they're interesting. And again, they're easy reads. Uh the Audible books, they used to have just straight up regular audible books, but now they've done a whole um their dramatized adaptations with sound effects and different voices and I I'm weird, I guess, in the I would much rather rather just have one person reading them for me instead of all of the extra stuff. Yep. But they were fun to listen to. And so I enjoyed those. I'm I'm looking forward to to book eight coming out.

Aubrey
29:24
Yeah. Well that sounds cool. That sounds super fun Speaking of the dramatis like you dramatized that adaptation, I read um White Sand. Oh okay. Except I listened to it and it's like the graphic audio because it's a graphic novel. F So there's all the sound effects and the different voices. Um I wholeheartedly despised listening to the graphic audio. Like I could not stand it. It was horrible. Especially because I listened to it sped up and it it like it was bad sped up because the sound effects were like sand whooshing and like desert winds and people walking through the sand. Sped up was just like ho it was like nails on a chalkboard.

Peter
30:11
Uh yeah, I can see that.

Aubrey
30:13
And it's split up into like the three like three parts, three separate graphic novels basically, and same with the audio. So after the First one, I was like, I literally can't listen to this um anymore. So I went to the library and got the actual physical graphic novel and It took me a really long time to read because I am not used to reading graphic novels. And so I would sit with the book like this close to my face, like an inch away from my face, so I could like see which text was supposed to be next and which pictures in what order and try and actually understand what's happening in the scene. Which is silly. Uh 'cause you would think it'd be easier to read 'cause it's like a fun picture book. It was not easier to read for me. It's not.

Peter
31:00
No, I mean Eden has had us reading some comics and graphic novels and stuff over the years in the middle of culture and Because I don't read a lot of them either. It is always, it is a different experience. It takes me a little bit to sink into that mode. And then because because they like this kind of stuff. We've read a number of Japanese ones. Oh. And so I've had to retrain my brain to make sure I'm reading the panels left right to left.

Aubrey
31:29
Right to left.

Peter
31:30
Top to bottom. Instead of left to right, top to bottom. So I have to start over at there and make sure that I'm reading the speech bubbles again right to left. To get the gist.

Aubrey
31:42
So yeah, it was it was a little rough, and it was not my favorite story in in terms of just like the actual story. Um I thought the magic system was cool. Like obviously everything is some s form of investiture in in the Cosmere and having it be with like ribbons of sand that they bring alive. You know, that's all cool. Um but I kind of didn't feel like it uh went into some of the characters long enough for me to really care. um about them that much. And I know it's like supposed to be short and I don't know. I just wasn't really I I didn't love it. I'm glad I I read it 'cause I, you know, I like just getting the full I wanted to read all of basically all the Cosmere books. Um But it just wasn't really my favorite story. I was just a little bored to find myself not really wanting to finish reading it. Um and kind of had to like get myself to pick up the book and finish it, which is not a great sign.

Peter
32:44
Yeah, I I've still never read it because I just don't feel like I need to.

Aubrey
32:50
Yeah.

Peter
32:51
You know? I mean I'm sure at some point it would be good to, and I have it. Like I bought it on Kindle or something, the graphic novel. And so one of these days I will. I just kind of forget.

Aubrey
33:01
Yeah. Yeah. It's not a super memorable one. Um. But yeah. Anyways, what's another one you've You've read?

Peter
33:09
Well, so I I've got two more non-fiction or two more fiction and then a cluster of non-fiction that I want to talk about. So Uh I'll talk about w what I'm currently reading is I'm finally reading the three body problem by Chichin Liu, or I don't know if that's how you say the name. Um I don't know, are you familiar with three body pro with the three body problem series at all? Mm-mm. So it won the Hugo was translated. Uh I want to back say back in the twenty teens And it was kind of one of the first books, I think it may be the first book by a Chinese author that won the Hugo. Yeah. And it it did, you know, it's fairly well regarded. And Netflix actually made a series a year or two ago. But it's it's kind of more hard sci-fi. So the the three body problem are I mean this is like you're up right up your out in astrophysics. So I don't need to explain to you what the three body problem is. But do you want to give the anybody who's listening a short version? You'll probably do better than me because again, this is literally. Your jam.

Aubrey
34:21
Yes. Let me let me let me give everyone the let's let's find my little You're gonna do the with the I'm gonna find my little easy 'Cause there was al I always have fun, easy explanations for that.

Peter
34:37
While you're finding that, I'll give a brief overview, which is it starts out it it's it's all taking place in China and it starts out in like the sixties with the cultural revolution. and there's this one main person. Her dad is a professor and gets killed in the Cultural Revolution. He's a physics professor. She is as well and then she gets shipped off to some radar peak. um military installation and then it jumps forwards to kind of modern times and it follows this main guy who's like a nanomaterials expert And he kind of gets pulled in and and there's scientists who have been committing suicide, and he's kind of trying to see what's going on here. And then there's this video game called Three Body. that he sees and he starts to get invested in. And and it's all basically I don't want to spoil too much, but it's all building right now towards kind of a what I I'm thinking is a first contact like situation. Yeah. Um But my gut tells me, and I could be wrong, but my gut's telling me that maybe this first contact isn't gonna be awesome for humans. Anyway, it's it's interesting, sci-fi. It's again getting back to the prose. The prose isn't the greatest, but that's I think in part because this is being translated from Chinese.

Aubrey
36:03
And so that would make sense.

Peter
36:07
I wouldn't be surprised. I mean it's not it's it's not bad at all. It just feels fairly stilted and kind of There's the there's not a ton of art to the prose, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's much more artistic if I could read the original Chinese, which I cannot. Right. But I'm enjoying that. It's uh there's three books, and then there's like another one that is kind of not as well regarded, but I don't know. I'm gonna read at least the first three books and then we'll see about the fourth.

Aubrey
36:37
Yeah.

Peter
36:38
The other book, the other fiction book that I want to uh mention is um Murder Your Employer, The McMaster's Guide to Homicide by uh Rupert Holmes. Uh Rupert Holmes just for fun because this just made me go, are you freaking kidding me when I realized this? Um Aubrey, you're familiar with Escape, the Pinha Colada song, right?

Aubrey
37:01
Yes, yes. Yes.

Peter
37:03
Yeah, guess who wrote and performed that song? Rupert Holmes.

Aubrey
37:07
Oh, what?

Peter
37:09
So he had like this whole recording like music recording career in like I think it was like the late 70s, early 80s. And then he's written some musicals and has at least one Tony Award or maybe a couple Tony's that he's won from writing musicals. And now he's writing fiction and murder your employer, I think, was like his first big fiction book that he wrote. Uh it was great. It's a ton of fun. The whole idea behind it is the main character. It's really kind of got three principal characters, with one of them being the main character. The main character has this just horrible boss who is abusive, manipulative, stealing people's credit, doing unethical things. And in the process of this, two people who this guy worked with, one whom he was interested in a possible romantic relationship, one who was actually his good friend, they both went missing.

Peter
38:07
Oh. Or y you find out they both actually committed suicide because of this boss. Oh no. And so this guy's like This guy's gotta go. I'm gonna off him. And he concocts a whole big plan to kill him. And let's just say the murder does not go as planned.

Aubrey
38:25
Right.

Peter
38:26
And then two people show up within hours in the hotel he's rented, uh, room he's he's he has kind of got, and he thinks they're police, and it turns out they're not police. But they're from the McMaster School of Homicide and they have come to take this guy and enroll him in the school because he has some mysterious benefactor who is like I am your sponsor. I will and so most of the book is him writing letters to his sponsor about what's going on while he's at the school and reporting in. And so it's this whole thing, he meets a whole bunch of other students at the McMaster School. He has no idea where the McMaster School is. He can't figure that out. He can't get off campus. And all these things are kind of happening. They're learning how to kill people. And and and each one of the other characters also There's two other women and each of them is also there because they're going to try and kill their boss. Wow. And and there's a bunch of, you know, everybody's there trying to kill somebody different. Their plan is to kill somebody else. But the idea being that killing your employer is a specific type of homicide you have to plan for and prepare for. And and so it kind of goes through all three of these characters through their time there at McMasters, and then about like maybe two-thirds of the way in something happens and they all have to go out into the world and carry out their final thesis, at which point if they're successful Good for them. If they are unsuccessful, because they know about the McMaster School, they will need to be deleted.

Aubrey
40:03
Oh no. Oh no.

Peter
40:06
So it was very enjoyable. I really liked it. It was It was what I went to after Wind and Truth, and it was such a step up in terms of the pros. Yeah. But I really enjoyed it. There's rumors that he's writing another book in this. The nice thing is, even if he turns it into a series, the setup of the world he's created allows for there to be more books in the series. But that characters from one book could show up in the other, but it doesn't have to be like it was a very satisfying conclusion for these three characters in this book. Uh so I I I really did. I enjoyed it uh quite a bit. And i it's one of those where I'm like, oh. It's you should read it. It's funny, it's interesting, it's uh it's a it's a lot of fun. There's kind of a It's like a reverse Sherlock Holmes Who Done It sort of thing, in that you know who's gonna try and do the murders, but at the end you're like How are they gonna like how are they gonna carry it out? What is their plan? How have they got this figured out? So um it was it was great. Honestly, probably in looking back at the fiction books I read this year, I think this was far and away my favorite book.

Aubrey
41:24
Oh, that's awesome. That's so fun.

Peter
41:26
Very fun. And it was one of these where your mom gave it to me for Christmas, like a couple Christmases ago.

Aubrey
41:32
Uh-huh.

Peter
41:33
And I don't know if she knew anything about it. It was just a uh a physical bookstore opened up here in town and she somehow knew somebody involved.

Aubrey
41:41
And so she went and saw this and I think just the title, cause funny enough, yeah.

Peter
41:45
Everybody knows kind of how I feel about, you know, my work situation at times. And so I think she just thought this would be funny. Uh and and it's it's a delightful book. So that's awesome.

Aubrey
41:54
Yeah, no, that is awesome. Um oh yeah, I was gonna say the the three body problem Um basically the simplest of it is if we have like celestial bodies that are involving like two objects like a planet orbiting a star or something like that. Um and with a little with a little gravity in hand you can calculate how they're gonna move around each other. But the three-body problem is you add a third body and then you can't predict. what's happening anymore and kind of everything that we know um it kind of just falls apart the predictability of it. So that that's the simplest that's the simplest way to say that. Um cool. But that's fun. That's that sounds like a fun both of those sound like fun books. Uh Yeah, I'm enjoying them. Yeah. Um I'll wrap up my Cosmere, because I think what other Cosmere So yeah, I read Yumi. Yumi was super, super fun. Yep. Thoroughly enjoyed Yumi. Um I love that Tress and Yumi are narrated by wit. Um I love yeah, Yumi has a special special place in my heart. Um I will definitely be rereading it soon as I comfort book I think is just so cute and just such a delight. Um but another so two books that I read all lumped together is Um The Hunger Hunger Games, Songbirds and Snakes, and then Sunrise on the Reaping. Songbirds and Snakes, the movie's already out. I don't know if you saw, have you seen that movie?

Peter
43:28
Um, here's the secret. I really liked the first two Hunger Games books, and I so disliked the third Hunger Games book that I have ignored everything Hunger Games since then.

Aubrey
43:39
Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I kind of did too, because I mean I never really got around to watching Mocking J Part One or Part Two because I didn't really know.

Peter
43:47
I mean I watched them it's fine, but it's like you're gonna feel about the movie the way you felt about the book, I think.

Aubrey
43:54
Right. And I recently watched them when I was flying for something probably Probably the wedding, I think, actually was the last time I flew by myself. Um and I was like, oh, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Um but Songbirds and Snakes, um, great movie, great movie. Gives you the heebie jeebies for sure. Um, but great movie. The s so I already knew what happened, but I wanted to read the book. Either way. Um so obviously I like things were spoiled, but some things were different in the book than they were in the movie, so that was fun. Um 'cause it's about snow when he is in school, like he's seventeen. Um and it's about b Katniss's distant ancestor, basically the only other District 12. Um, Victor, the only other District 12 Victor that they've ever had in the history of the Hunger Games, besides Katniss and PETA, of course. That's her games, uh, Lucy Greybeard. Um, and it is is very good, very good book and still kinda gave me the same like emotions like, oh what's gonna happen, even though I knew what was gonna happen already. So I I did enjoy that. And then Sunrise on the Reaping is Hamish's games. Um and it absolutely ripped my heart out. I'm quite excited for the movie. I think it will be very good. Um cool. It makes you really understand why Hamidch is the way that he is. Interesting. You finish the book and you're like, yep. I understand why you're a horrible drug or, you know, alcoholic asshole. I understand. Because horrible, horrible, horrible things are done to him in Sundays on the Reaping. Um so I wouldn't say it's a fun book, but it's a good book. Sure, sure. Um but I'll say one other one because I have more um fiction that I read um this year. I have a couple misses that I'll bring up in a minute, but one really, really big hit, like probably the best book I've read this whole year, maybe in quite a few years since I read Throne of Glass, honestly, um, is Project Hail Mary. I don't know if you ever read it.

Peter
46:12
Oh yeah, yeah, definitely.

Aubrey
46:13
I read it years ago. So fun. Oh my goodness. So fun. I loved it so much. And Hayden had read it and was like and was like, you should read it, just, you know, try and not be so astrophysicist and just like accept some assumptions that they have to make and then you'll enjoy it.

Peter
46:32
Sure, sure.

Aubrey
46:33
Um, and because of course the astrophage, you know, if you just accept the facts that they're saying about astrophage, nothing like falls apart in my science brain. So it was great. I had no troubles no troubles with those assumptions. Um but that was such a fun book. I just finished reading it only like a week and a half ago, I think. Yeah, it's a good one. And I listened to it on the audiobook. I don't know if you listened to it when you read it.

Peter
46:58
Nope, just read it.

Aubrey
46:59
So it does like they do the um like chords and sounds that that Rocky's voice is in the audiobook. And then when um Grace is able to like understand Rocky, it like says the words that Rocky is saying but also plays the chords in the background. So it is it's just a super cool audio experience. Um 'cause I've I've obviously it's still just the same like reader. It's not like a dick different voice, but they just like add in that little thing which makes it feel very, very immersive. So that one is my absolute ding ding ding. Everyone should read that book. And you saw do have you seen the trailers for the movie that's coming out in March?

Peter
47:44
No, because I know I'm gonna watch the movie. I haven't watched any of the trailers.

Aubrey
47:47
Yeah, that's fair. Well, it just made me even more excited about it, honestly. Um I was like worried about Ryan Gosling playing Grace for a second, and then I watched the trailer and I was like, oh, I don't need to be worried. This is great. He's gonna do great. Nice. So yeah, anyway, I'll get to my missus in a second, but what what is another one you read?

Peter
48:08
Um why don't you do how many more do you have? Because I've got a chunk of nonfiction and I'm just gonna zip through all of those.

Aubrey
48:16
I have three misses series and then one big miss nonfiction, and that's all that I have.

Peter
48:26
Okay. Why don't you give us your series misses, then I'll do my nonfiction, then you can wrap up with your big miss.

Aubrey
48:32
Okay. So I obviously I've talked about how much I love Throne of Glass on on the pod. Um Court of Thorns and Roses, also good, not as good as Throne of Glass. These are all by the same author. Sarah J. Moss, yeah. Crescent City. Eh.

Peter
48:52
It's okay.

Aubrey
48:53
Throne of Glass, best thing I've ever read in my whole life. I know I'm I'm biased. I love it. Nothing will ever beat Throne of Glass in my life. So going on I I was like, I want some of that sort of fantasy, the romance fantasy stuff. I love that sort of fantastic. The romanticy as well. Yes, sure. Romance To see that's just like easy reads, fun magic system. Like let's just, you know, I so I branched out. You had actually given me um this series called um, an Ember in the Ashes a coup quite a few years ago. You got me the first two books. I had read them. First two books were pretty good. when I had read it when I was like, I don't know, what, fifteen or something. And then I was like, I remember those. I want to get those again. So I got them from the library. There's a series of four. Um reading it again, I was like, mmm, this feels like we're copying from every other popular fantasy book that exists. And just bundling it up into one book because the author decided they wanted they wanted to write a fantasy book too. So Um, that's what it felt like. Honestly, the first two books were still like enjoyable, but then the second two, I was like, whoa. Where are we? What is the plot? What is happening? Why are all these new things in here? I can't follow what anyone is saying or thinking. And it was just, yeah, I also don't really love first person.

Peter
50:21
But it can be a little it can be a little tricky.

Aubrey
50:23
Yeah, so and it's first first person and yeah, so it's not like I regret reading them.

Peter
50:31
But I was like, mm, maybe they were not slam dunks.

Aubrey
50:35
Yeah. Um another series That's getting very popular. Fourth wing series.

Peter
50:43
I have seen it all over the place.

Aubrey
50:45
Yes. So the the last it's not even the series isn't fully out. The la the most recent book came out this year in January. Um And I cruise through them. Um, the writer, the author is just bad at writing. I'm just gonna say it. I'm just gonna say it. They're just bad at writing. Sorry I had to reread sentences so many times to be like, what are you saying right now?

Peter
51:11
Like Yeah, that's like what are you saying?

Aubrey
51:14
Like you can't picture how this conversation is going because it's so poorly written. I I genuinely had to re-re and be like, am I dyslexic? Like, what is happening here? What is happening? And I just was not There's been so many like I'm probably still gonna read the next book when it comes out because I do want to know what happens. It ends in a horrible cliffhanger. But I also just think that the characters are weird and And way more static and flat than they should be. There should be so much character growth happening in this sort of series, and it doesn't feel like that. I also don't care really about the characters enough because I feel like they just are poorly written enough that I just don't care if they live or die, to be honest. I don't know. It was just it's just weird. I Don't know why people are all over it. Because if things like Throne of Glass are out there, just go read Throne of Glass. It's it's literal gold. Don't read this garbage. This is not this is not it. So that's a miss. And then the series I'm actively reading right now is called From Blood and Ash.

Peter
52:24
I feel like I've seen this popping up as well.

Aubrey
52:27
Yes. Big sigh. Big sigh. I will say it's it's different enough like the actual fan it the fantasy is more it's more like vampires and less like Faye fairies with powers sort of thing. So it's like different enough that I'm like, okay, I'm kind of interested now that I'm in the second book. The first big book though I was like, I know exactly how this is gonna pan out. In like the first chapter, I was like, oh, this mysterious guy is gonna actually be the big bad. Then we're gonna find out that the big bad is actually not the big bad and everything you've ever known is a lie. And then it's gonna be lovers to enemies to enemies to lovers, back and forth, and then it Throw up. Throw up. That is not it trash. Trash. The first book. Yeah. I'm sorry. Trash. But then I was like, but I'm kind of interested enough in the plot and like how I was like I wanna see where this goes. But then I found out there's seven books in the series.

Peter
53:29
Oh geez.

Aubrey
53:30
So If the second book is a little better, it's kind of slow, but it's getting a little better. Um, and again, I'm kind of more interested in in like the magic systems because it's different enough from the other stuff that I've read that I kind of want to see where it goes. But if I don't if I finish this one and I'm not dying to read the next one, I'm not wasting my time on all that. that. Yeah. Yeah, so that was that was pretty disappointing. Um let me see let me check my list. Yep, those those were my misses. Those were my misses. And then I just have my one big miss will hit after your After years.

Peter
54:05
Okay, so I'm gonna give you the rundown. Um, you know, I generally try and have a non-fiction book that I'm reading at the same time as a fiction book And so we've talked about my fiction stuff. Here's the nonfiction I read this year. Um I'll make most of this fairly quick. Uh I read a book called Learning How to Learn. Uh I don't remember the PhD lady who wrote it. It was interesting. I think it's a little bit more for um kind of kids and and maybe high school students. But I thought it was interesting. I had some good ideas about learning better. Uh I read a book called Stick With It and the whole, you know, science to blah blah blah blah blah. Basically, hey, how do we how do we stick with new things? How do we make changes? Stuff like that. It was okay. I read a book called Liminal Thinking. It was also okay. It was basically, oh, you know, We have belief systems and here's how these belief systems have developed over our lives, and you may want to try and Think outside your belief system sometimes to think different.

Aubrey
55:14
No way. Okay.

Peter
55:17
Didn't did not feel groundbreaking. Uh I read Atomic Habits by James Clear. Uh it's obviously quite popular. It's good. I think it's worth reading. Again, not groundbreaking, but does have some interesting ideas about how, you know, again, emphasizes the importance of small changes and and has some good ideas about how do we how do we make new habits what are things we can do to make those stick and how do we break bad habits Uh again, I think it's worth reading. It's fairly easy to read. Then I read a couple books about writing. So I wrote a book, I read a book called Write Your Novel from the Middle. Fairly short. The idea being that the midpoint, this key point of your novel, if you start from there, it becomes a lot easier if you really nail down what your midpoint is. Uh it's a lot more inspiring to then take it and you can go both directions and get your first act, get your third act, and and build out the rest of your second act. And then the other one I wrote, uh excuse me, I read is Save the Cat writes a novel. Save the Cat was originally written as a screenplay writing book. And Jessica Brody, who has written a bunch of books on her own and then does a lot of lecturing and teaching people how to write, she wrote Save the Cat Writes a Novel. and breaks each book down into fifteen beats where basically she says every book the every good book actually has these fifteen beats. And goes so far as like explains what each one of the 15 beats are in the first, I think that's like chapter two.

Aubrey
57:03
Okay.

Peter
57:03
Then she introduces the idea of genres of books, not genre like fantasy, science fiction, whatever, but like, okay. Um you know what is the structure of the novel? Is it a why done it or is it a this, that, and the other? Okay. And then the rest of the book is she takes this one genre And says, okay, here's like four to seven novels that are fairly well known that fit this specific genre. And then she goes through each beat and is like, this is the beat of the, this is beat one. This is what it is in each one of these books. And then like literally takes one book and goes through and will say Beat one, pages one to two. Beat two, pages two to seven. Bait yeah, it just like goes through and some of them it's like you know, bigger beats, it's like beat this page, you know, 130 to 1902 or something, but walks you through each one of these books to say No, really, I'm not kidding. Every good book hits these 15 beats, and I'm gonna show it to you. That's awesome. So I thought it was great. I'm very excited to use that as I start working on my next book coming up soon. And then the final book I want to write, I want to mention, probably the best, the my favorite book I read this year. And that is Tiny Experiments by Anne Lar McKumpf. Yep. Uh I absolutely love that book. It is very inspiring in many ways and uh just hit me right where I kind of find myself at this stage of my life. And uh because of that, uh it it really, it's it is the most impactful book I read this year. I absolutely loved it.

Aubrey
58:48
That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. I've heard you talk about it quite a bit.

Peter
58:53
It's it uh again, it it truly I would consider it life-changing. for me because it changed it changed the way I think about where I'm at in my life and what I'm doing. And I mean it changed the way I think about things like goal setting and all this kind of stuff. So

Aubrey
59:08
Yeah.

Peter
59:08
It's pretty cool. Well, let's hear your miss. I'm excited.

Aubrey
59:11
Yes, my my big miss. It's such a big miss that I actually had to stop reading and couldn't even finish it. Um, and I'm still mentioning it. That's how bad it is. Okay. Um so I wanted to get into reading more nonfiction. Um, and I was like, maybe I will start with like a science-y anxiety book. Let's let's just see. We all know I have anxiety. Let's just see how this goes. So I Found this one called The Anatomy of Anxiety, Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response Let me just tell let me just read you this author's little like Wikipedia blurb. And and you might just understand why this book is bad just from this. Okay. So Ellen Vora, MD, received her BA from Yale University, graduated from Columbia University Medical School, and is a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist. And yoga teacher, specializing in depression, anxiety, insomnia, women's mental health, adult ADHD, bipolar, autoimmunity, and digestive issues

Peter
01:00:22
Okay.

Aubrey
01:00:23
Mm-hmm.

Peter
01:00:24
I mean, I hear that and I go, this is someone who went the allopathic route, started doing again, total guess, know nothing about this author, this doctor, but I I'm going to be more forgiving than you. And I'm going to say that the allopathic medical system Is so beyond effed up in the United States right now that I have I I am again I am generous to people who get in that system and then go. This is bull. I'm gonna try something else.

Aubrey
01:01:08
Yeah.

Peter
01:01:08
So that's not saying whether that's good or not in this case. I'm just saying I can see where this author may be coming from.

Aubrey
01:01:16
Yeah.

Peter
01:01:17
So, this book But I can also see how that could set her up to be difficult to take her seriously.

Aubrey
01:01:27
Yes So I I guess I'm just gonna preface this by saying, like, obviously, I've been going to therapy for my anxiety. for five years at least. I've been medicated almost as long and tried different medications, try you know, like actively been with a psychiatrist for also like four years. Sure. And I have like I I've feels like I've tried everything that I possibly can that people say helps anxiety. I have tr I've tried it. I've tried them all. So I was like, let's just I just want to see what there is. And of course it says the anatomy of anxiety. I was like, maybe it's more of the sciencey approach. Like, you know When it talks about the actual pathways that are affected in your actual brain about anxiety, I don't know if it feels more like it clicks in my head. So I was like, we'll we'll see how this goes. And the amount of times that she says inflammation in the first chapter, I thought I was gonna lose my mind. And you know what I mean. You know what I mean. It was like, you're anxious because you have gut inflammation. And I was like, is it now? Okay. And then I was like, maybe I'll just give her a chance. Because I'm sure like a lot of people's anxiety is just like unnecess their body giving off unnecessary stress responses because they have a not great lifestyle. Like if you're chugging 17 cups of coffee in a day, yeah, you're probably gonna be anxious. Or if you have a horrible sleep schedule or Yeah, like a horrible diet, a horrible, you know, there's so many factors that obviously is gonna give your body unnecessary stress responses, and I completely understand that. But It was then in probably halfway through the book she starts talking about seed oils and I turned it off so fast. I turned it off so fast. I approve. I really thought I would maybe give her a chance. I couldn't do it.

Peter
01:03:37
I approve.

Aubrey
01:03:38
So that was my absolute big, big miss. There was a couple things like That were probably um valuable to some people. I mean she kind she talked about like the the just value of having a good sleep schedule and like trying to get to bed at a similar time and waking up at a similar time so your body can just get in the good rhythm and actually get high quality sleep. Stuff like that. Like And also just making sure you generally are trying to get in your fruits and veggies and your minerals and vitamins and all the good stuff in your diet. Yes, sure, that's great. But Then she started talking about like how you need to eat liver, like raw liver or something.

Peter
01:04:21
Oh, so she's like going full on liver king.

Aubrey
01:04:25
Something like that. And I was like What? And then it was like three sentences later that she said seed oils. And then I just was like, okay, I'm done. So I turned it off. And it was one of the like My our library does audiobooks and so it just self-returned itself after like two weeks of me having it checked out. And I just turned it off, closed the app, said I'm not opening that ever again.

Peter
01:04:50
That is that is totally fair.

Aubrey
01:04:52
So yeah, but uh I guess to end on a more positive note, I'm about halfway through reading Driven to Distraction, which is the in the ADHD book, a book about ADHD. Um it's been like revised and updated because it was written in like the nineties. So they just call it ADD, but you know, it's it's we're they're we're talking about the same thing in the book. Um not that I have ADHD, because I don't, but There's a lot of people in my life that do. And I was like, I don't know, it feels like it'd be fun to kind of understand it a little more. Um, and it's been quite informative and and good lately or recently as I've I've I've read it and gone into it. So I'm I'm excited to to actually finish to actually finish This book.

Peter
01:05:38
Very good.

Aubrey
01:05:39
Yeah.

Peter
01:05:39
Very good.

Aubrey
01:05:40
But that is if I I probably have forgotten a couple books that I've read because I feel like I've bounced around a lot.

Peter
01:05:45
Um well I'm gonna share one last fun thing that I've just started reading. Um it's called Goodel Escher Bach. Oh. An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter. It's like 900 pages.

Aubrey
01:05:59
Wow, that's a chunky.

Peter
01:06:00
It was not available. It is not available in ebook. I had to buy the the physical book. Uh is came it was first written in 1979. It's a Pulitzer Prize winning book. Um here's what I'll just I'll read you the title on the front. What it says says a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll.

Aubrey
01:06:23
What? What? Wow. That sounds interesting.

Peter
01:06:32
Yeah, it is uh it is really It's something else. I mean, it just bounces back and forth between like fictional characters. It talks about music. It talks about the art of M. C. Escher. It talks about the logic. proofs of Kurt Goodel, a Danish logician. And and the the idea being that basically where does the self emerge from?

Aubrey
01:07:00
Okay.

Peter
01:07:02
And using the disparate works of this logician, this kind of abstract whatever art you want to call M. C. Escher, and then the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. that there are common now common recursive loops within these things that where and that that represents the things that happen in our brain where the self emerges from the random chemical reactions of our brain.

Aubrey
01:07:28
Very very fun. That sounds like a funky book.

Peter
01:07:32
You know, it was one of these it was on this list of like you know, 10 books that change the tw you know, the 20th century or something. And I was like, and it's funny, I remember it's the title of this book is in the back of my brain. I have no idea why. So when I saw it, I was like, oh yeah, I remember. And then I was like, might as well read it.

Aubrey
01:07:52
Yeah. Yeah. That looks like one that'll take you a second to get through. I'm sure.

Peter
01:07:57
Yeah, yeah. I mean this is a sit at the desk and have it open and have a a pen and a notebook in my hand while I read it sort of book.

Aubrey
01:08:06
Oh, love it.

Peter
01:08:08
I love it. All right. Well, we kind of went long, so how about we'll wrap up here? I and uh we'll be back in another couple weeks. Ish we'll kind of plan that's actually should end up being the week of Christmas if my math is correct, right? Yeah. Or the week before Christmas.

Aubrey
01:08:24
Fit physically. That might be the week of Christmas.

Peter
01:08:26
Yeah, I was gonna say it is the we it'll be the week of Christmas.

Aubrey
01:08:29
Either way, I think I'll be there so

Peter
01:08:31
Okay. Well, we'll be back then in a couple weeks. We'll figure it all out. But until then, it was great to uh hear about our reading and uh fun talking to yeah

Aubrey
01:08:40
I see ya.