 Welcome to Church of the Chair, where no trip is too long if you're a reader. I'm your host E, and today we're shooting for the stars. This video is going to be different from my new content because I just want to sit here and have a discussion with you guys. I'll be down there in the comments when this video goes live, and hopefully we get some cool stuff going down there in the comments section. I miss doing these kinds of videos where I ask for your guys's input. I stopped doing them for my own personal reasons, but I want to do maybe one of these a month if it goes well, maybe once a week. Who knows? Right now the posting schedule is Monday and Tuesday are for non-Steven King things, and Wednesday through Sunday are for Stephen King content. Now, me and my wife, Shell, were watching a program the other night, and they were discussing how long it would take to get to Mars. It said two years and some months, but I recently looked it up, and at least this is a trip to Mars NASA Mars Explorer, how long it would take. The spacecraft departs Earth at speed of 24,600 miles per hour, about 39,600 kilometers per hour. The trip to Mars would take about seven months and around 300 million miles, 480 kilometers. So, whether or not a manned spaceship would be the same time, I don't know, but I'm going off of that seven months for what I had planned for this video. Now, I don't suggest you say this to your spouse, but because my wife is a very understanding, loving, caring individual, she understood where I was coming from when I said this, which was, if you and the kids hadn't come along, I 100% would take a one-way trip to Mars. I'm sure some of you relate to that, or have related to that in the past, where you just want to be done with this world. I don't want to get depressing, but my life before my wife and kids was pretty terrible. And the point of that was, is I would have no problem leaving this world and traveling to another one, even if I knew that that would be the place that I died. So we, because we are the couple that we are, we started talking about what we would do during the trip, what we would take with us, so on and so forth. And both of us being readers, we started talking about books. And I thought that would be a great, not series, but a great video to discuss with you guys. So definitely, I want your own lists, but these are the books in no particular order. These are the novels that I probably will not get to in my lifetime unless forced to. And it's not because I don't want to read them, but because either they're too heavy, the content's too heavy, and I'm rarely in the mood for the kind of content that the book has, or the writing is too dense, or it's an author that I enjoy, but it's a daunting challenge to get into their work. We'll discuss more along those lines when we get to certain authors. But I certainly want to hear from you down there in the comments about what you would bring with you. And it doesn't have to be just books. It can be any number of things, video games, anything that you can bring. The only, the only restriction I have here is you have to bring physical material. You can't bring digital because you won't be able to download it, or maybe you could download it beforehand. So if you wanted to preload your Kindle or preload your PlayStation, Xbox, whatever, I guess that would work. But you get where I'm coming from, I'm sure, because you guys are smart. We're gonna go ahead and jump into it. I know I've been rambling already. That's why I like the new way I've been shooting videos, because I can cut all this rambling out. But we're gonna go ahead and jump into it. And the first book on my list is Ulysses by James Joyce. This is a book that is extremely daunting to me for whatever reason. I may love it when or if I eventually get to it, but it's one of those books that I have heard nothing but negative things about from current readers. Of course, it's a classic. It's lauded as the first modern novel or the first postmodern fiction. I don't know exactly what it's classified as, but most people consider the first modern novel I believe. Let me know if I'm wrong down there in the comments, because I don't mind being wrong. But yeah, Ulysses would definitely be the first one. And I'm not gonna go through and read all the descriptions of these books. I'm just gonna tell you why I would take them and why they seem interesting to me. So yeah, if I ever get to this one, it'll be sometime far in the future. And if I do read it, I will probably read it to my wife's shell. We did that with Infinite Jest. Also, here's another rule that I made up that you can't bring anything with you that you have already read or consumed as far as video games or anything like that. It has to be all stuff that you have no experience with. So sadly, it by Stephen King and The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt, two of my favorite books of all time, number one and number two, respectively, they're not coming, unfortunately. But I would definitely try to smuggle it past my own rules here. The next one is one that I have put off reading forever. I have never seen the original, not the original, the adaptation all the way through. We watched the first episode or whatever of the miniseries when I was in school. And it's a very heavy read for obvious reasons. And that's Roots by Alex Haley. I hope to get to this at some point in time in my life. It took me forever to find a decent copy. And this one isn't really decent, but it is falling apart. But it's a, I believe it's a close to first edition. If it's not, no, it's a book club edition, but it's from 1976. So another reason why I don't want to read it is because I don't want to risk it falling apart. But if I'm on a trip to Mars, then yeah, definitely. I'm gonna try this one out. If you don't know, the story is about the slavery in the South and a character named Kutakinte. There's the famous scene where the slave master's whipping him, asking him what's his name. He wants him to say Toby, but he continues to say Kutakinte. And if I'm pronouncing that wrong, my apologies, I only have the the movie reference to go off of. Next up, I gotta bring something horror with me. I've never read anything by this author, but people are kind of polarized on whether or not this is good or not. And that keeps me from from reading it. It's kept me from reading it this entire time, even though I bought it when it first came out. And that's imaginary friend by Stephen Chibosky, I think is how you pronounce it. I believe it's a coming of age story in the vein of Stephen King, Dan Simmons, that kind of thing. It is an epic tome. Also, all of these books, I believe, are at least over 500 pages because if I had that much time on my hands and we're shooting through space with nothing to look at, well, except for planets and so on and so forth. But for long periods of time, it's going to be the same stuff over and over again. And I want to get deep into a book. So this one is 705 pages. I'm not going to go back and check out how long the other ones are. Let me move my stack and do it like this so it doesn't fall over. It's a big stack. I think I picked 10 books. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 10. Nice even number. Next up is a Japanese fantasy story that I absolutely fell in love with the cover. I have no idea what it's about. But I fell in love with the cover when I saw it at Books a Million and I had to have it for no other reason to put it on my bookshelf. And that is Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe. I believe that's how you pronounce it. This one, like I said, I have no idea what it's about. A young wataru flees his messed up life to navigate the magical world of vision. A land filled with creatures, both fierce and friendly. That's all I'm going to read of that one. But yes, the artwork is incredible. I love this art style. And it's a wrap around cover. It is a paperback, but it's a wrap around cover. It's just absolutely gorgeous. So that's Brave Story. The next one is a book that I love the idea behind. And I did crack it open and I did try to read it with my friend Danger Slater. I tried to read it with him, but I ended up noping out about 40 pages into it because it was so dense and so heavy. But the concept is a lot of fun. And that is Bubble Gum by Adam Levin. It is a story about a world where the internet was never invented. So it's in the modern day, but there's no internet. And there's, I don't know if there's some kind of creature. This is another cover by because it's absolutely gorgeous. But you got this piece of Bubble Gum and you got these claws coming out and swiping up. So there's definitely a cover by. But again, this book is, it's gargantuan. You kind of look like a dude from Binging with Babish. I know the guy's name is not Babish, but he kind of looks like him. Let's see here. All right. So this one is almost 800 pages, 760 something. All right. So next up, we have a book that was on several lists when I was looking up the best books over 500 pages. And I came across this, it was also recommended to me by my friend Josh. I have never read anything by this author before. I don't even know if this author has other books, but it is City on Fire by Garth Risk Halberg. It's very cool. I think the cover is exceptional with the fireworks and the mirror finish and everything. But what really piqued my interest is there's whole sections of the book that look like this. So cool. This says music reviews, but there's several sections that are interviews and sections that are written like manuscripts with great backgrounds. I don't know that I'll ever get to this one. The description is all over the place as far as how many characters you're following and whatnot. And while I love a big cast, it has to be done well, not saying that Halberg didn't do well. It's not one of those books that stares me in the face constantly and calls me to read it, but it would definitely come with me on a trip to Mars. I actually own two copies of the book, which is odd enough as it is. Hang on. I don't know where I put it. There it is. Right there is another one, sitting on fire. And the reason for that, get back up there, Sally Bear. No. Get up there and sit down. If you don't sit your butt down, stay there. Stay there. She's probably going to jump off. Anyways, the reason for this is I bought this one for I think eight dollars on eight books because my friend Josh recommended it. And he rarely ever steers me wrong. But yeah, he recommended it. And then I found one at a thrift store for 50 cents because that's how my life goes. One is in the one that's up here is in much better condition. So that's why I picked, I think this one is the one that I found at the thrift store, the cheap version, the one from eight books, this one over here is in pretty bad condition. Next up, we have a book that I have tried multiple times to read. And it is one of those books that I will eventually hopefully force myself to read before the end, before the end of my life. And I definitely take it to Mars with me. And that is House of Leaves by Mark Z Danieluski. The farthest I've gotten in this is about 200 pages in. I try to do a buddy read here on the channel. I tried to read it with my wife. And we just kept on getting stuck. A lot of the problems I had where the foot, the footnotes completely took me out of the experience. So if I do read it, like on a trip to Mars, it's not going to ever happen. But you get what I'm saying. Anyways, if I do read it, I'll probably read the whole thing and then go back and read the footnotes afterward, maybe hop back and forth for context, just to find out where they were, you know, where I was in the story. But yeah, this one, this one really, it didn't bore me as much as I had no idea what was going on. And some people are saying that's normal. The book is supposed to give you a feeling of confusion and disorientation, supposed to disorient you. But I wasn't in the mood for that. And maybe one of these days, I will give it a try. But yeah, that's House of Leaves. I hear this a lot about this book. It's polarizing. People either love it, or they hate it. Very few people, no one actually that I've talked to has read the book and just went, it was okay. Or it was meh. So if you're one of those meh people, I would love to hear from you. Next up is an author that I really enjoy reading, but I don't understand a lick of. I have read most of, what is it, not zero gravity. I can't remember what it's called, so we're going to move on. But I did read and finish the Crying of Lot 49. And that's Thomas Pensions Against the Day. And the reason why this one is here is because it is his longest work at 1,215 pages, which is absolutely ridiculous. The only 1,200 page book I have ever read was Alan Moore's Jerusalem. And I did not enjoy most of that book. There was a good three to 400 page book right in the middle, but we're not talking about that. So Thomas Pension, I love the way he writes, very readable, smooth prose, very interesting situations, but I don't understand a thing that's going on. I don't understand his themes. I don't understand any of that stuff. And I have that problem with most of postmodern literature. And I've looked up several videos for like trying to understand the Crying of Lot 49. But it seems like everyone has a different view of what his books are about. And there's no definitive answer out there, because Thomas Pension doesn't give interviews. He rarely comes out into the public eye at all. And when he does do interviews or introductions to books, they're usually very short and just as vague and obtuse as his literature. So he's not one to explain his books. And I like to understand at least half of what I'm reading. I'm perfectly fine with open themes that you come to your own conclusion on. But with these that feels like I'm on the cusp of the point, like I'm on the brink of figuring it out. And then everything flutters away in the next couple of pages. Next up, we have a book. Once again, my buddy Josh, he recommended this author. He even sent me one or two of his books in a huge box. He sends it to me in, you know, those lawyer boxes, or the boxes that printer paper comes in. He just sends me those. He like tapes them all up and then ships them UPS. But 2666 by Robert, is it Roberto Balano, who is no longer with us. But this was originally published as a series or multiple books. I believe I could be wrong about that. I have no idea what this is about. Nothing whatsoever. I've read the descriptions of other books of his and they seem to be more literary, maybe even postmodern fiction. So again, for the same reason with Thomas Pension, I have stayed away from his work. I have multiple of his books because you find a lot of them at thrift stores, especially here in Alabama. Because people around here, I'm not trying to stereotype, but they seem not to like deep literature. Most thrift stores are full of amazing books. And also just huge sections with nothing but Bibles. It's funny because, you know, I get quite a few books. Most of my collection of over 1600 physical novels have come from local thrift stores or Goodwill's, you know, secondhand shops, all that stuff. But yeah, this one, this one interests me mainly because of the cover. It is very cool. I like the artistic styling. I like the fact that it looks like a Renaissance painting or maybe a religious painting, something like that. I'm not big into art, so, you know, I have no idea what I'm talking about. The next one, again, came from my buddy, Josh. This one, the title and the synopsis, the description, all that stuff absolutely caught my eye, but I tried to read it and it is all over the place. Like City on Fire, it has multiple, you know, like interviews, multiple formats, a lot of art, a lot of experimental content, and that is, I'm going to have to read it before I show it to you, America and the Cult of the Cactus Boots, a Diagnostic by Philip Friedenberg, visuals by Jeff Walton. And this is what it looks like. And it's just, it's absolutely crazy. America and the Cult of the Cactus Boots, you're hearing that right, cactus boots, a diagnostic explores philosophy, neuroscience, totalitarianism, alchemy, technology, psychology, cosmology, psychedelia, politics, physics, mystery, adventure, absurdism, there's a lot of that in this book, just me flipping through it, poetry and literature with an obscure hero's quest. So that's everything I would take on a seven month long trip to Mars. What I would read when I get there, it's going to take me, it usually takes me a month to read a book of 600 plus pages. So I say at least three months of those on the trip, I'd probably take even longer because I'd want to, you know, enjoy the ride also. But after so long, I can only imagine space is going to get boring. I would say probably four or five of these would be read on the way there. And then I'd read the rest of them when I get there. But again, I would love, love, absolutely love to hear what you guys would bring along with you. If it would only be books, if it would be video games, if it would be movies or whatever, try to keep it out of the digital space. But I would love to hear that. So take some time, you don't have to, you know, comment right away. Take some time and draw it up. And if you're on the discord, let's talk even more in depth over there because YouTube doesn't tell me when I, if you comment and I reply, it does not tell me when you reply again. I literally have to go hunt that down. So if you want to have discussion, you can click the link down there in the doobly-doo and click that to go out of the discord. And we can have long discussions over there. We like to have fun. There's no issues if there are issues that are brought up and someone does not follow the rules, then they are removed from it. So if you want to come over, have a good time with a bunch of other readers, artists, writers, musicians, all of that stuff, please come on over. But until next time, I have been E, you have been U. This has been what I would read on a trip to Mars. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye bye. I figured since this is an old school type of video, I would do the old school stuff. So anyways, I hope you enjoyed it. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye.