 Kaz is excited. It's super weird. Whoever wrote this episode of my life? Something almost like glock to ask. I got my sweatshirt since I wore the stupid thing. So I've decided to do a vlog project that's a little different from how I normally do vlogs. Instead of just being, you know, a couple days or a couple weeks in my life where I'm just reading whatever I have to be reading, this is specifically going to be a specific TBR for this vlog and I will just be checking in with you as I complete the books that are on this TBR. So the books that I'll be reading for this vlog, I had the idea of reading books that inspired some of my favorite music. A lot of my favorite music was inspired by books. So this is just, you know, it's not every song that I like that's been inspired by a book, but you know, it's a starting point. So I have six books that I want to read for this vlog and they are The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. This is what inspired the Mumford & Sons song Dust Bowl Dance. Mumford & Sons is one of my all-time favorite music, musical artists, if not my favorite. I love Mumford & Sons. In fact, two of the books on this TBR are for Mumford & Sons. So anyway, Grapes of Wrath is number one. Then Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse inspired a few songs by two different artists. So this inspired three songs by the Smiths. William It Was Really Nothing, London, and frankly, Mr. Shankly. And then it also inspired a song by the same name, Billy Liar, by the Decemberists, who I also love. So it's a tiny book to have inspired that many songs. So I'm very curious to read it. Then In Watermelon Sugar by my word, who is it by? By Richard Brodigan. This is what Harry Styles has inspired the song Watermelon Sugar on. It's a very, very short book. So I've heard it's quite a strange book. But I'm very curious to read it because Watermelon Sugar is one of my favorite Harry Styles songs. Next up is another book inspired several songs. That is 1984 by George Orwell. I have read this. I read it in high school. So it's been a long time and I can neither confirm nor deny if I read everything that I was supposed to read in high school. So I want to revisit it. And it inspired, I'm specifically reading it. I'm sure it probably inspired more than that. But I'm specifically reading it because it inspired several songs by David Bowie. He had a song called 1984 and then also Diamond Dogs. He said it was inspired by 1984. I think other music of his was also inspired by 1984, but those two in particular. Next up is Me and the Devil by Nick Toskey's Toshies. This inspired a song by the same name, Me and the Devil by the Fertelites, who I can't tell if they're big or not. I feel like when I started liking them no one had ever heard of them. I still feel like no one's ever heard of them. I love the Fertelites. So, and I really like that song. So this one. And the other Mumford and Sons one, monstrously long, is East of Eden by John Steinbeck and this inspired the Mumford and Sons song, Tim Shull. Those are the books that I will be reading for this vlog and I will let you know. I'll check in as I finish each one to let you know my thoughts and to let you know if it changes at all how I think about or feel about the music that inspired or that was inspired by those books. Kaz is excited. Isn't that right, Cathy Kaz? Okay, book one done. Watermelon in watermelon sugar. In watermelon sugar is the title. Hence my watermelon shirt. Kaz isn't all the time for that. It's a really short book. I read it once and I was like, I did not understand that. So I read it most of the way through again thinking that I would make sense of it the second time through and I did a bit because like it kind of, I might have stolen the trial. It kind of like a closing argument or no, kind of like opening statement in a trial. It's like, here is what we will show you. And that's I mean for any trial, like that's what an opening statement is supposed to do. Here is, hey, jury, here is what I'm going to show you. And then the trial is showing that ostensibly. And then closing arguments to see that's okay. So remember I said I'd show you this, then I did show you that. See, I did what I said and it's proof now because I'd be a great lawyer. So in watermelon sugar, it kind of does that. The beginning of the book is kind of like, here's what I'm going to tell you in this book. Here's what this is going to be about. Here's all the things that I'm going to go over with you. And when you have no context for this, there's no context for anything in this book ever, which is quite disorienting in general, but especially that beginning bit of like, here's some people that I'm going to tell you about. Here's some things, some occurrences when I tell you about and you have like no context for that. So you're just like, okay, I guess you will. And so then it kind of flashes by and then like all that stuff does get shown to you. But like I didn't really like connect it with the opening statement, if you will, just kind of stuff happening. I was like, okay, okay, okay. And the timelines of things like were quite confusing to me. It was only the second time through that I was like, okay, okay, I see now. This is actually the past here. This is the present. These are the things like when you read his like opening statement, the second time through, I was like, oh, yeah, I remember. Now that you're reading that list, I'm like, yes, you did do that. You did do that. You did do that. Okay, okay. So I didn't finish the second time. So I was like, okay, I think I'm understanding it as much as I'm going to. Like I remembered, you know where it goes from there. And I was like, okay, I still can't understand it. But like, I don't think rereading it again is going to change anything. It's super weird. It is super weird. It's very it's a like post apocalyptic dystopian kind of deal. And there's something about it that a teeny tiny bit, it reminded me of Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolf. And so I mean, it's extremely different from that. But in so far as it kind of dumps you into this like far future world where it doesn't explain anything. It's just like how this character is interacting with his own world. So if it's not a thing that he would need, would field needs to be explained, either to himself or to you, then he's not going to. And it's something that he doesn't know, because the future has forgotten it, then he wouldn't know to tell you and no one is going to tell you. So it's really kind of hard to place this when and where this is supposed to be taking place. And if everything that's being told you should be taken literally or not, for example, tigers. There are tigers in this book. But are there tigers in this book? It is unclear. There's certainly something that is referred to as a tiger or as tigers plural. But it remains extremely unclear if those were meant to be interpreted as being striped feline animals. So it's a weird little book. It's super weird. And I can't say that it like the only part of it that is recognizable to me in the song Watermelon Sugar is that it also brings up strawberries and strawberries are also brought up in that song, which might that might be why. Because like, knowing this song as well as I do and knowing that's why I'm reading this book, I mean, it talks about watermelon sugar a lot because in this future world, nearly everything that they make, everything they eat to make, wear, construct housing, fuel things, it's all made of watermelon sugar, which is like, you know, sugar derived from watermelons. And there's like multiple different colored watermelons more than we have in our world now. We have like a couple different colors of watermelon. This has like kind of a rainbow of watermelons and the sun changes color every day and the depending on the color of the sun that day, that is the color of the watermelon also. Which again, I don't know if this means that we've had significant climate change and that's all pollution in the air and it's pollution causing all of this, or if it's like, you know, genetically bioengineered watermelon. But that doesn't explain the sun part or why they would match. Pollution would explain that a little better, but not really. That it would change literally day to day. So it's weird. But yeah, again, like the strawberry, I mean, talks about watermelon sugar all the time. So like, that's inescapable. It becomes white noise after a while. But when someone, they're like exclaiming over the strawberries that somebody brought to a collective meal, I was like, taste like strawberry. But it doesn't really have anything to do with like how the song talks about it. Because they're just like, in a far future dystopian, having strawberries in a world made out of watermelon sugar. So I think, and I mean, I think Harry Styles did kind of say that it's mainly the title that he got from this book. He has read the book. I don't think that he said the entire song is meant to be about this book. It's mainly the title. This is a weird book. Super weird. I mean, they're in a place called I Death, which like based on when this is written, it's possible. Although I'm not convinced that that is why that's a reference to like Macintosh. Because it's it's even written like that with a lower case I and then all caps death, which is like, if Macintosh was going to be referring to our mortality, I think it would be I death. So yeah, it's super weird. But I did learn that it's there are other songs that are also inspired by this. So people are getting a lot out of this. And and I'm it's also my understanding that a real life commune, a kind of a little bit organized itself based on how they are organizing themselves in in watermelon sugar, which is a little alarming. I can't say that I recommend it, but it's like, it's super, super short. So like, if you're curious, it's like not a big time investment. And it's, I promise you you haven't read anything like it. Not I can guarantee. That's that's watermelon sugar. On to the next one. Finished book number two, the me and the devil by Nick Toshies. I believe that's how they said it on the audiobook. And this book, I it's an experience. It's a journey when I went to check it on Goodreads. Why did I check it on Goodreads? I don't know, because I wasn't marking anything as reading, because like, this is like an interior secret vlog project. But for whatever reason, I went on Goodreads. And I saw that it has under three stars as the aggregate. It's like 2.9 something, which is like, we're really, really low for Goodreads. So I was like, oh, oh, and I already started it when I saw that. I was like, I mean, I don't know how I feel about this yet. But like, geez, and I having finished it now, I am like, I still wouldn't have like, if I had not looked at Goodreads at all, I wouldn't have been like, well, this is going to definitely have a low aggregate. But that being said, having read it, I'm not that surprised that it does have a really low aggregate. And not because I think it's terrible. But because it's strange and extremely R to X rated. And it's just it's a very distinctive flavor. You know, it's like blue cheese, if you love it, you love it. But a lot of people don't. So I yeah, I don't I really honestly like I'm not writing books, you know, while I'm doing this project. You know, because it's secret. So I have time to consider what to rate it. But honestly, like, this and watermelon chugger, I'm like, I honestly don't know what I would rate it. So it's just as well that I don't have to read it right now. I don't know. So let's talk about the book. This is it sets itself up as an autobiography for Nick Toshies. But it is not actually autobiographical. I mean, it is to some degree, autobiographical. But it's not meant to be actually read as truly autobiographical. That makes sense. So like, he is the main character, the author. And there are things about it that arch I learned something while reading it. I had no idea. So this is it feels strange, the coincidental timing of this. But he's actually he was I first learned while reading this book that he is that he's close friends with Johnny Depp, and the godfather of Johnny Depp's son. As far as I can tell, there's no reason for me to think that's like he I'm Johnny Depp and him are friends, for sure, that I can confirm or did confirm. I didn't see I couldn't like corroborate him being the godfather. But considering how close of friends they seem to me from what I can gather, I don't have any reason to believe that that's not true. But then also learned that he's actually passed away and I believe in 2019. So he was good friends with Johnny Depp. And he was, if this is true, the godfather of Johnny Depp's son Jack. So just like fresh off the Depp Hurd trial. It was just weird for that to come into this like, you know, what are the odds? And I couldn't help thinking about the trial and like how this kind of speaks to Johnny Depp's personality and the very kind of dark sensibilities he has the dark humor, dark music, dark literature, like, I'm not surprised that Johnny Depp like I don't know what this what what Nick's other books are like. But this this is how he's writing something semi-autobiographical. So like, you know, Johnny Depp's a colorful guy. So it doesn't it doesn't surprise me. There's a lot of allusion to to SV and that sort of thing in this book, which just you know, again, the timing of what has been going on recently, it's just it was it was it was strange, especially because like I've been planning this vlog project since probably a year ago, if not a full year, almost a year. And I've had this book like ready to go for this project for many, many months, like well before the trial ever started. So like the fact that like I put off doing this, and then finally got around to and then I was like super busy with the trial watching it. So I was like, okay, trial's over. I have space on my TBR. I can finally start doing this. And one of the books is by somebody who's actually close friends or was close friends with Johnny Depp. It's just weird. Like, you know, it's sometimes you feel like the writer's room of your life is a little too on the nose. But yeah, okay, so there isn't there isn't a plot per se, which I did see some of the negative reviews for it call out and be like, I mean, they obviously generally hate the writing style of it, but also we're like, and it has no plot. And I kept hoping there would be and then there wasn't or things like that. And that's true. That being said, if something is like purporting to be autobiographical, whether it is or not, one doesn't really expect an autobiography, whether it's fictional or true, to have a plot in the traditional sense. Because you know, human life doesn't have a plot, despite what I just said about the writer's room of my own life. Whoever wrote this episode of my life, they really like tied some threads together. But so it's, um, I guess it's kind of surreal. And it definitely gives you reason to believe that what's going on is not actually going on. It's an unreliable narrator. But I just I have such mixed feelings about the reading experience because I don't I feel like while I was reading it, I was equal parts horrified, mesmerized, and impressed. And occasionally a little bored, which is just kind of a wild roller coaster of emotions. And I mean the poor decision to cook slash eat dinner while listening to the audiobook for this. And on the one hand, that's a great choice because the food descriptions, which there are many, like, you know, I'll take your Game of Thrones and raise you a me and the devil because there are so many food descriptions in this book. And it makes it sound delicious. And like 99.9% of the food is not vegan. So I'm saying like, he's talking about foods that I have no interest in eating, but he's making it sound really good. And he's kind of a foodie, kind of a gourmet. So it's not just like, you know, he does eat a burger at one point. It's like the best burger he's ever had, of course. But I mean, he's talking about like duck eggs and like expensive wine pairings and like, you know, charcuterie boards and, you know, really above and beyond and like insist on never buying even, we're not just talking about prepackaged food, like prepackaged, like fresh produce, like he's like, that doesn't even taste like it. If like, you're going to get a tomato that's prepackaged, you may as well get no tomato at all. You know, it has to be like ripe and fresh and local. And like, it's not he in no way, is it like a moral question, he doesn't give a shit. But the quality of the food is of paramount importance. And cheaply produced produce is not as good an eating experience. So he's just very, very elite about his food. So anyway, those descriptions, that's, you know, that's very compatible with cooking and eating dinner. Like, you should be, you know, getting hungry. But the food is often being described on one page, and the SV etc is being described on the very next or same page. Like it's in, you know, it's a lot, it's back and forth. So like from one, you know, one moment he's got me salivating and the next moment he's got me gagging. So it's, and I mean, I can't, I mean, I guess you can. I can't really rate it based on how kind of nauseated I feel at the r r to x rated portions of it. Because, you know, whether or not something is well written, in the same as if you are comfortable reading it. And I can say I was deeply uncomfortable reading large portions of this book. But at the same time, unlike, for example, Norwegian would, even though Norwegian would is not autobiographical, Murakami insists it is not. People have often assumed that it must be at least a little bit. This, you know, says that it's autobiographical. And it's, it isn't really. But that being said, it's, it feels to me anyway, when you're reading this, that they, yeah, this is not the time for this. What the fuck? It feels to me anyway, that the author agrees that this is not okay. If that makes sense. So you're like, you're reading it as uncomfortable as it is to read the scenes. It is comforting to feel that you are on the same page with the author where at least, you know, maybe you disagree that this was necessary or like, why would you write about this? But you get the sense, I get the sense that the author intends this to be off-putting and it tends this to be gross. And it tends it to make you uncomfortable. So when you're reading it, like, at the very least, when you read it, you're not like, the author thinks this is okay. Oh my God. You're like, the author has chosen to write some, oh my God, things. But the author would, I think, agree that it is OMG. This is not normal or okay. And it's kind of, I don't know, partially shock value. I do think it is shock value. But it is also all kind of part and parcel of the surrealism he's going for. And the sort of, I don't know, breaking down of humanity and moralizing and identity and all this kind of thing. Because this too, I saw some reviews and, you know, we can, reasonable minds can differ. Saying that this book is like kind of up its own ass and that like, this author thinks he's so brilliant and really it's just garbage. And I get why they would say that. And again, you know, if that's what you feel about this book, then that's, you know, that's what you feel about it. I personally feel that you are meant to think this. That it's a bunch of bullshit. Because I did see that from some reviews that it seemed to me that they had, either they said they de-enaftered it or I think they probably de-enaftered it. Because mild, not really spoilers, mild spoilers, it does get kind of pointed out in the text. This is all horseshit. That, yeah, like it's, it's pointed out pretty overtly that all of that is BS. And that this guy is in love with his own BS. And this guy who is in love with his own BS is doing like kind of shockingly horrible things. And it gets to the point where he's even shocked by what he might, may or may not have done and he's not even sure if he did it. So it just keeps getting ratcheted up. The level of horror and then the level of dissociation from the horror and the dissociation from humanity and the dissociation from self. And it just keeps getting more and worser. So I mean, even when it was BS, like I thought it was like well-executed BS, I was like, I think you mean this to be BS, but nevertheless, like this is well done BS. Because there is, you know, some actual intellectual substance to it. Even if like the confidence with which it is delivered is BS. There's some interesting questions, you know, being, being debated. So like I just feel, I don't know how I feel. Like I feel, I think it's a, it's a talented writer. I do. I don't, I don't, you could not write this if you do not have a considerable amount of talent. Because just at any given point, the prose itself was quite good. And the way that it is this surreal autobiography is kind of a crazy concept. And there were so many times where it like, it came up to the line of feeling almost like a Twilight Zone episode. And then it would, it would come up to that line and then put something in to be like, not quite, but not quite. It isn't that though. So I think, I mean, I guess I feel like it is brilliant in its own way. But it was extremely uncomfortable and kind of horrifying a lot of the times. Like I can't really say I enjoyed reading it. The parts of it I did genuinely enjoy. But like overall, it's such a depraved, strange dark ride that, you know, um, I, it, I don't know. Yeah, because the, the R rated scenes are, it's a lot. It's really it's a lot. So, you know, trigger warnings abound. There is, yeah. I feel like I've read some pretty intense stuff. And I'm not just talking about, I want to be clear. Because I, you know, I don't read a lot of smutty books. And I'm pretty on the record about that. And my fellow Blades and Bodice Rippers book club ladies are always laughing at my innocence when it comes to levels of smut in books. But there's a big difference between, you know, smutty Bodice Ripper erotica books. And then this. This is not, um, that's not that. This is more like if you've seen Quills, the movie, which actually is one of my favorite movies. I really love that movie. My mom thinks I'm nuts. It's about the Marquis de Sade. And I guess that's almost like the best comparison I can think of for this book, even though this book is really nothing like that. But like the, the experience of watching Quills, which is why like, I think I like this book, but it's like, it's worse than Quills. Like if you like Quills, which again, it's, if you don't know who the Marquis de Sade is, like, cliff notes back in the day, like, you know, we're talking several hundred years ago. The Marquis de Sade, he famously wrote really, for the times anyway, but I think even by modern standards, like very pornographic stuff. And he was institutionalized largely because of that, but he was, you know, the Marquis de Sade. Like he's got, he's comes from money. So anyway, the film Quills is a fictionalized account of the Marquis de Sade. Him being institutionalized, him still getting his writings, you know, smuggled out of the asylum so they can still be published and all of the like titillation that causes and all of the inmates of the asylum and like politics of the asylum, the depravity of the quote unquote sane people who are in charge of the asylum and it's, you know, it's locked. There's a lot of stuff that goes on in Quills and that gets depicted on screen in Quills. But it's a brilliant movie. Jeffrey Rush plays the Marquis de Sade. The priest who sort of like oversees the asylum is played by Joaquin Phoenix, one of the scullery maids who works in the asylum is played by Kate Winslet. There's just some amazing performances in that movie, but it's a bit of a rough watch. So this book I think is pretty brilliant in the concept and also in the execution, but it is harrowing. I was put off my dinner, like actually put off my dinner. But yeah, I mean, again, to be clear, it's not just, you know, just really, really detailed, you know, sex scenes. It's, because I mean, it is that, but it's very, very violent ones that are most uh, I would say consensual. It again approaches that line, but it is on its face consensual, but that doesn't change the fact that it's very, very uncomfortable on many levels. The age disparity, the power imbalance, the mental states of the people who have consented to this. There just seems to be a lot of issues for these individuals that they are working out through these acts. And then there are conversations about it, just kind of, I don't know, they would be interesting while also deeply off-putting. And it, and then again, again, it's this stuff that is also all approaching the line of like a Twilight Zone episode where the things that go on are so, well, the things that go on and then also the result of those things going on is when it begins to feel surreal. And I'm, I'm just trying to warn anyone who's thinking about picking this up because I'm being mostly positive about it. Saying it is pretty brilliant, so if you're interested in it, like, you know, be my guest pick it up, but it's a lot. It's a lot. So anyway, I did re-listen to the song Me and the Devil by the Britelles because I was like, I don't, I mean, I, I can't say that I listened to the song that closely, but I don't remember it really being that strange. And I listened to it again and I was like, yeah, I mean the song just generally feels kind of like Faustian the whole, you know, like, I'm gonna sell my soul. Just a good song. Nothing about it really like calls out to me as being directly inspired by this book. I mean, I know that it is at least the title of the song is and in concept. And I mean, it was perhaps reading this book that just made him just generally want to write something about the devil in you and the temptation of darkness kind of thing. Nothing too specific? Who knows? It's a great song. I really like it. Obviously, that's why it's included in this project. But in the book, I just, I mean, it's gonna stick with me, I think. I don't regret reading it by any means. There's also something else in this book that given the deaf herd trial and what the specifics of that trial were, because I don't think it's very spoilery to say there is the acquiring the purchase of a blade of a knife that is in it. I don't know. It's just prominently discussed in feature. And that was a big piece of evidence in the trial is a knife that was like ornamental and special. So I don't know, just stuff like that. But like, especially for when I'm reading it stuck out to me more than other things. Like that wouldn't have stuck out to me otherwise, if it wasn't for when I'm reading it. So yeah, it's, I think the author is brilliant. This is not necessarily like my favorite reading experience. But I would be curious to read more from him because I have, I mean, I have no idea what, if his other books are exact, are on this level of depravity. I mean, the back of the books, I was writing in a lineage that includes Dante, William S. Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Hubert Selby Jr., and Hunter S. Thompson, Nick Toshies, maybe America's last real literary outlaw. Me and the Devil is outrageous, disturbing, and brilliant. A raw and blazing novel, truly unlike any other. Like the man said, read him at your peril. I fully endorse this description. So yeah, being, and then this too, he mentions Keith Richards in the book. And Keith Richards blurbed it as well. This is the best from one of the best writers around, Nick Toshies knows the devil as well as any man has. Brilliantly bizarre, the poignancy of this remarkable story is about fine lines between love and hate, pleasure and pain, genius and madness from USA Today. Another chapter in Toshies' unflinchingly perverse literary output. All these blurbs on point. Blurbs are often BS. These blurbs are on point. So yeah, that's me and the devil. Don't, I don't know how I feel about the book, but the song remains an excellent song. So if that's what he needed to get the inspiration to write the song, great. And I'm not mad that I read it. I'm still recovering reading it, but um yeah. All right. I think the other books that are on this TBR will be lighter fare. Looking forward to reading less harrowing things. 1984, done. I don't think I mentioned when I when I introed this video that 1984 didn't just inspire the song 1984 or the song Diamond Dogs. It inspired the album Diamond Dogs, and in fact I knew I knew this when I like decided on this project and then I forgot about it and I remembered again that David Bowie originally wanted to write a musical about or based on 1984 and then he wasn't able to get the rights from the widow of Door Doorwell. So he wrote a bunch of music that I mean I think everyone I think it's pretty well established that was like probably stuff he had been working on for that musical. A lot of it ended up on the album Diamond Dogs even though the musical never happened. But some of it you know it sounds kind of musically like a rock opera kind of thing. Anyway so yeah in an alternate universe I wish I could I wish I could see the musical that he envisioned because like just the album Diamond Dogs is pretty rad and you can imagine some of those numbers on stage. But anyway the book 1984 um actually read it a few days ago I haven't had time to sit down and chat and it's uh I definitely got more out of it now than I did in high school. Not only because like not just because like you know I actually put attention to all my teachers I ace my classes but because I just you know like I say with a lot of stuff that they make you read when you're in high school at least what the stuff they were making is read when I was in high school things might have changed for the better. I don't really know. But a lot of it is like even if it's good some of it is like I don't know why this is a classic but some of it okay there's a reason this is a classic but 16 17 you're not gonna really get it or get much out of it. You can't really relate to the experiences of the characters and not because you know oh that's not your experience you can't relate to it just because like the ages of the characters and this like the the amount of like life experience that the characters will have had even if it's a different world you know um an older world or a lower tech world it's still adult things and it's not like it's inappropriate for teenagers it's just like you know that's not really been your life you have you can't really identify with that um so anyway we're in 1984 now as an adult who's like paid attention more to politics and paid attention more to the world and seen even in my lifetime the rapid acceleration of technology and just in general like I'd heard of 1984 before I read it of course because it's so much in the zeitgeist that like you cannot have not heard of it I knew almost nothing about it except that like it existed I think I knew that big brother came from 1984 but like that's all I knew and then since having read it then without even having read it you just like acquire more and more knowledge of it being referenced and like what what it's about and all of the ways that it gets referenced in other media and by people in conversation and by my art etc etc so I don't know I just feel like I came back to it now with just a greater awareness of the world a greater awareness of politics of technology a greater awareness of life as an adult and a greater awareness of the significance of 1984 on society on culture on on art on conversation on how we discuss and conceptualize a lot of the topics in 1984 not just like adult experience but you know like I having studied further in my life like in college like um having rereading this now after having studied Foucault and the penopticon it just I just get so much more out of 1984 now than I ever possibly could have even if I'd like done an intense close reading of it in high school so yeah I'm glad that I revisited it and I really probably wouldn't have not for this project so um yay for that um and I can you know it's it's another one of those books that it's it's so it's been so talked about and it's been so referenced that when you actually read the thing it feels kind of trite and derivative even though it's the one that started it it's kind of like when you read dune or you read um or if you read Lord of the Rings or if you read Peter Pan or things like that where like so much has come after it that was inspired by it that when you go back to read the thing that originally inspired everybody it feels like the copycat because you're like oh this is such a cliche but when this was done it was not a cliche like this is the this is the one that started it all so yeah but I I think I was just I'm just able I don't know I'm being a reader that's more of a critical thinking reader I've read more books just numbers wise I don't I just feel like I'm better able to get more out of it now than I ever could have then so I'm glad I read it now and it is I mean I knew you know it's you can't it's like impossible not to know the David Bowie songs are inspired by 1984 one of them is called 1984 another one of the songs is called Big Brother um if you pay attention to the lyrics in the songs in the album Diamond Dogs like it's not hard to pick up on that even if you totally missed that there's a song called 1984 and then also also this is all over the place I'm very tired today it's also really really hot today and I'm wearing this sweatshirt purely because I'm talking about David Bowie because I don't even think you can see it so it's like completely pointless but it's a David Bowie sweatshirt I originally was going to put 1984 on my list not just for David Bowie but for like a bunch of music that was inspired by 1984 because David Bowie is hardly the only person to have written music that was inspired by 1984 um so I wanted to put Muse on the list as well but I was like whatever I have an entire album of David Bowie's as a reason to read this I don't need to add stuff so yeah all that to say it's it really holds up and I really really think that it's a book that you should read later in your life like at least a few years into college and even that seems like I don't know it might also just be like the time as we live in that like uh that high schoolers maybe nowadays because of the acceleration of technology and the hyper awareness of everything that's going on because I just like wasn't that aware of stuff when I was in high school because I wasn't so like we were beginning to have internet be part of our lives on the day to day but not the way that it is now I mean we had my space dating myself um female like it wasn't this like information overload and it wasn't the it's not surveillance per se but the way that social media kind of observes us all over the time and the way that algorithms are tracking our data all of the time um I don't know reading 1984 now as opposed to in high school when like yeah the internet was a thing and we certainly used it and people were starting to talk about where this is all going to go and what's the limit and we should be careful with the internet um but it's really kind of more come to a fruition now so maybe reading in high school now I don't know do people do kids even read anymore there's that too they would get more out of it because they're more aware of the world but they would get less out of it because high schoolers don't read anymore right I don't know I don't know anything about the young people these days I am extremely old anyway anyway anyway anyway yeah I really really liked going back to 1984 and reading it now and now that I've reread it now and how do you better experience with it then I remember just being kind of like I get that this is like important or whatever but it's super boring when I was in high school so now that I had a much better experience with it I could see myself rereading this every few years because I especially because of the subject matter because of the way that our world is going I don't I don't I feel like it's it's kind of like uh every year I watched V for Vendetta on the 5th of November I've been doing that I don't even know how many years but I it's years and years and years I watch it every year and I was saying that like watching V for Vendetta is getting less and less fun because it feels less and less like a wild futuristic fiction and more like just how the world is so I feel like reading 1984 you know now and then you know a couple years from now and then a couple years on from then we'll just get more and more depressing if our world continues down the path that's on right now it's a nice uplifting clip you know if you need to pick me up though just listen to Diamond Dogs because it is a great album and that might perk you up silver lining yeah 1984 it's a heck of a book it's a classic for a reason and I I like there's a lot of classics that I've read because they are classics because I was made to read them in school or because I made myself read them because I was like this is a thing that I want to have read and I derived almost no enjoyment from it but I'm like I like that I know now what the conversation is about I can participate in the conversation 1984 I really thoroughly enjoyed this the second time around even though I knew everything that was gonna happen I'd read it before and even though you kind of know what's gonna happen even if you haven't read it before just because people talk about it so much and the way they talk about it you can kind of like you wouldn't know exactly how it ends but it wouldn't be hard to guess especially if you've read dystopians that came since then that were largely inspired by 1984 so it's not where I love a book where you're like my god what's gonna happen I've never seen anything like this before because you have because everybody copied your door well but he did a really great job with it and there's so many lines in it that make you want to stop and think or that not make you want to but make you stop and think even though some of them are quite familiar and you know you've heard it before but they still like he just has a way with words and when he explains this whole thing and this whole new world that he's envisioned it's um it takes a lot of imagination to have done this when he did but at the same time it's kind of terrifying how little imagination you'd need to take our world and make it into this one like we're not that far off so the um the prophetic nature of the book I'm sure just gets you know it's going to get creepier and creepier every yeah so yeah I enjoyed it a great deal the second time and I want to reread it reread it um I want to make a habit of rereading it I guess that's what I'm trying to say um yeah so check out my sweatshirt since I wore the stupid thing even though it's really really hot outside and um yeah we'll see you for the next book very soon just finished The Grapes of Wrath which is the book that inspired Dust Bowl Dance by Mumford and Sons and um I did not expect to cry at the end which I just did um and then I listened to Dust Bowl Dance um because I don't know if I've mentioned but I've been doing that you know as I've finished the book um I then listened to the music that I was reading it for I mean the song has always been really really impactful um I mean I did this project because it's music that I love already um and I mean even without reading Grapes of Wrath you can tell I mean the Dust Bowl Dance like if you know anything about the Dust Bowl like you know it's it's obvious that it's about that if the name didn't give it away but listening to it after like right after reading Grapes of Wrath damn it's a great song um and this is a great book um this is I never had to read this in school we read um the only Steinbeck I read in school was um of my son Met which I'm guessing I'm probably like better now I remember not liking it much when I was in high school because as you know I've said classics that you read when you're a teenager because you're made made to do it often are not books that you can really relate to at that age because like I don't know if I had read Grapes of Wrath if I'd been forced to read it in high school if I would have appreciated it I know more about the Dust Bowl now than I did then and also this is the second Dust Bowl book that I've read this year I don't think I don't feel like there are a ton uh it's not a period of history that gets written about or movies made about very often people love doing the world wars people love doing the civil war people love doing maybe there's certain parts of history that get done over and over and over again and the Dust Bowl not so much and I read the Four Winds uh I think that's what it's called earlier this year which is also about the Dust Bowl and it was I kept sort of comparing them in my mind because I couldn't help it because that's I think the only other book that I've read about the Dust Bowl and I mean this is a classic for a reason like that the Four Winds was good it was definitely a good book but oh my god and I just ah the ending I didn't realize it was the ending it didn't feel like the ending and then the abruptness of it made it um it's kind of almost what made me cry I'm about to cry again now just thinking about it I uh yeah it's uh it's not a light read um I think one of the things that makes the reading about the Dust Bowl um so well I mean it's tragic no matter when you read it but it's really tragic when you feel like we haven't learned anything from previous era's generations and mistakes um we don't have exactly this situation right now but the parallels between this and the present day crises related to migrant workers and agriculture and just mankind being awful to mankind in ostensibly a prosperous place the the the fact that a place that is industrial a western industrialized country that people live in in third world conditions then in during the the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl um as and it happens now to this very day in in not dissimilar circumstances um and the way that people villainize those who have nothing those who the way that the people of the the othering of of poverty and of desperation it's like you want to believe that we've learned our lesson but yeah we clearly have not the Dust Bowl was hardly the first time that happened and we clearly haven't learned anything since then so I mean reading about a historical time period reading about tragic things happening is is emotional regardless even if it's nothing like the present day you know reading about people dying at the black plague oh okay plague is actually a little too relevant as well but you know like things that are not exactly a thing that we are dealing with right now and reading about it happening is is horrible when you're reading about this and you know apart from little things like technology like you feel you could be this could be about the present day you know like it doesn't feel um it doesn't really feel that historical it feels it feels pretty topical and current and that is like on a meta level even more depressing but yeah I'm glad I read it um and I'm glad that I read it now and not in high school because I don't think I would have appreciated it I would have been irritated with how long it is and would have like skimmed it enough to pass the test or write the essay or whatever um I would have been made to do and also I mean I know I mean I've got two Steinbeck books on this TBR because Mountford and Sons um Marcus Mountford in particular uh big fans big fan of John Steinbeck um there's actually there was um a John Steinbeck um some kind of a present day it was like an award or commemorative something to do with John Steinbeck and I don't remember right now what was the occasion other than it being about John Steinbeck and Marcus Mountford gave a speech um there at whatever occasion that was about John Steinbeck so anyway like point being uh what I was what I was going to say um is that John Steinbeck I I don't remember much about of mice and men and I don't think I was um mature enough as a human or experienced enough as a reader to really appreciate good or bad writing in high school um so I don't know how I'd feel about of mice and men if I regret it now my memory of it is like vague and meh but reading Graves of Wrath so like I don't know if it's because Graves of Wrath is like way better and that I would think that regardless um but this was so impactful and the writing is it's so good I I get why Marcus Mountford is a big big big fan and why he's so influenced by Steinbeck um the poetry of his words um which you know you can see that influence I mean that's one of the main reasons I love Mumford & Sons not the only reason but I do love the lyrics of Mumford & Sons songs and they kind they wear their influences on their sleeve but they are influences that I like there's a ton of Shakespeare in Mumford & Sons I could have just put Shakespeare on the CBR but I didn't you're welcome I not everyone I guess but you know it is a topic of conversation that like oh classics are just written by you know old straight white men and it's about time we stopped just reading you know old straight white men and we think Hemingway and that and you know like Catcher and the Rye and things like that where it's a very like um a male-centric story written by a straight white man and um actually I have no idea about Steinbeck sexuality but he is a white man and I have to say that especially as comparing this to The Four Winds which was written by a female author I don't think the representation of females was any different or better in the is it Kristen Hannah is that her name the author but in any case the female author like she the it was a female who was the main character in that book this book doesn't really have a main character just about the family they are kind of they got they share the spotlight pretty equally and it it heavily and strongly um prominently features the women of the family and portrays them as the strength keeping the family together the strength to see things done yeah and it doesn't the the women aren't caricatures the women aren't like you know just like martyr figures they're not um you know loving supportive wives that just like you know like they're they're very very human characters very strong women in particular the mom of the family with a matriarch I suppose because her she has adult children who are there as well and the way that she takes the reins and the way her her husband kind of bitches about it and is like what's the world coming to when a woman tells you what to do and what's the world coming to when you don't even question it when a woman tells you what to do she's like that's fine once we figure all this stuff out once we have food in our bellies you go right ahead and tell me what to do but until then we're gonna sort stuff out unless you've got a better idea we're doing what I'm saying so yeah it was it was just very modern um the issues that are being depicted are sadly still going on but the depiction of all of the people in the family the the women and the men the children everyone the people they encounter good and bad I know in in Marcus Mumford's speech um it's been a while since I listened to it but he talked about how John Steinbeck was just like a student of humanity and how he would just listen he just wanted to talk to people and hear their stories and not so that he could talk at them because he truly truly listened and truly wanted to hear people's stories clearly I'm not able to talk um without crying um so I've talked long enough about Graves of Wrath um it is classic wiser minds than mine have opined about this book at length I'm sure um Marcus Mumford among them but it's uh it's amazing it's really it's it's incredible and um am I actually really really no I shouldn't say actually but um uh having two Steinbeck books on my tbr I was like well it seems like a lot but here we are um and I'm excited seems like the wrong word because this is heavy and I expect that also to be quite heavy but I am looking forward to reading Ace DeVita I know the least about that I knew a little bit about Amis and Men before I read it even in high school I know a little bit about Graves of Wrath based on the song Dust Bowl Dance but also I've seen very quick clips of the film of it like I vaguely had a sense of the type of thing this would be without any specifics of the plot I don't really know anything about Ace DeVita except that it inspired the song Tim Show but I'm looking forward to reading more Steinbeck because damn son this is a classic for a reason I'm gonna go um listen to something happier so that I can cheer up see you for the next book I just finished East of Eden by John Steinbeck I almost called it Tim Show that's the name of the song by Mumford and Sons um that is the reason that I read this one and um I am completely blown away by it um I this is I think a new favorite book of mine now um wow wow wow wow I did look up some info about it and about Tim Show specifically because uh when you're reading I mean I was I was keyed into Tim Show because that's the song um so I was like oh there it is that's the reference and it comes up a lot actually and is a theme um not throughout um because it's at least halfway through before Tim Show comes up but after that I mean it becomes like kind of the a thesis or a a large symbolic thing in the book but yeah you can't really read East of Eden without like remembering Tim Show like basically what I was going to say is that like I was already looking for it but even if I hadn't been looking for Tim Show like you would notice Tim Show so I think anyone that read East of Eden and someone from Sons had a song called Tim Show would have been like East of Eden and the lyrics of Tim Show would if you were like possibly East of Eden and then looked at the lyrics you'd be like definitely East of Eden also this edition I'm I'm I mean I got this edition um before I even started this project just because I liked this this edition and I mean it was a classic that I had heard of and was like vaguely interested in reading and it's it's really stunning and I'm I'm delighted that I love the book um and have a nice edition of it yeah holy cow so now I mean I kind of want to go back and read if my isn't mine because I said I don't have super fond memories of reading it and then there's a couple I think it's Steinbeck wrote five books it might be more than five you wrote at least five books so I want to read more Steinbeck and I totally get why Marcus member is obsessed with Steinbeck um yeah like I knew that because I'm a huge fan of Mumford and Sons um so before I ever decided on this project um I was aware of of Marcus Mumford being a fan of Steinbeck I remember being like that's nice for you like I'm glad that made you write nice like beautiful music um because I'd only ever read of my son met in high school and I was like I don't know if that was well but you know you do you I am now obsessed um grapes of wrath and east of Eden Jesus not light reads but um full disclosure I binged all of east and eat it all of east of Eden in one day uh that being today I it's a long book um and I didn't want it to end and it ends just as uh relatively just as abruptly as grapes of wrath this time I was like well I was still surprised but I was more ready for it um because I had just experienced that with grapes of wrath um but yeah the whole time I was reading it I was like I I don't want to be doing anything else I don't wish this was shorter in fact I I mean like my plan is to finish it today you know as I'm reading it I'm like that's my goal today but also I'm I'm sad that I'll be done with it because it's it's so good I tiered uh I tiered up multiple times while reading it and definitely at the ending I tiered up at that um yeah east of Eden is it's fantastic I guess I haven't said what it's about at all I didn't know what it was about other than that it inspired the song Timshall and that Timshall was a Hebrew word um and it was like a biblical reference that's all I knew and then I knew that there is a film with James Dean that I have not seen which now I want to see it's uh I guess it's a multi-generational family story I guess Steinbeck referred to this as his magnum office it's a sort of about two families and them I guess intertwining they only really intersect at one point but um one of the families is actually semi-autobiographically inspired by the family of John Steinbeck's grandfather maternal grandfather and there is a John Steinbeck that appears in this book that is John Steinbeck but it takes place um pre-world war one yeah mostly pre-world war one and then up to and into the beginning of world war one and it's about our families that um it's just it's I don't know it's it's just about people about people's relationships it largely takes place in Salinas California which is for me kind of I don't not that there aren't a lot of books that are about California I just don't really read them because I mainly read fantasy but also when I do read things that are not fantasy um it's it's never set in California probably because I don't like California all that much so I'm not usually picking up stuff to like escape into the idea of being in California yeah I mean when I read like historical fiction it'll be like medieval stuff or renaissance or French Revolution or Regency or things like that so like not California um so I just I it's a when they they kept naming places because it takes place um you know in more northern California and I did used to live in northern California um so like a lot of the place names it was just weird because this is a historical fiction book and it feels quite historical but to have all these place names would be names of places that like I know those places but also they would be unrecognizable to me as they were uh this long ago like they are nothing like that anymore it's a lot more rural is what they're describing but yeah it's about I yeah this I mean it's generational stuff it's about parenthood and it's about I mean the the whole thing about Tim Shull since that's the name of the song and that's what then it's a big symbol in the city than Tim Shull my understanding is is actually a mistranslation or is an error and this isn't actually accurate but going by what is told to you in the book assuming like you know in the universe of this book they believe this to be true anyway that um it's to do with the story of Cain and Abel and to do with different translations of thou shalt thou wilt and thou mayest and so Tim Shull is thou mayest and it's the idea of like the difference between philosophies of sin of and your responsibility as concerns sin like you like thou shalt um meaning that you you have to overcome this that it is like that it is so it must be so thou wilt um or me is is is ordering you to do so um and thou mayest Tim Shull meaning is up to you like you can but it's up to you and so a lot of this book is to do with like the sins of the father the sins of the mother and how they affect the next generation are you what your parents made you do you carry the sins of your parents to what degree you inherit responsibility for what they've done have you inherited their proclivities have you inherited their tendencies have you inherited you know whatever it's that kind of thing what is it that makes you good or evil and if you've done something evil does that now mean you are evil or does it mean you have a choice with how to deal with that that's why Tim Shull becomes such a thematically important symbolic thing I when I looked up the book after finishing it just now my understanding is the one that came out uh the response it got was that it was too heavy-handed and it's messaging and people didn't like that uh I guess it's time to piss people off I personally complain about heavy-handed messaging a lot and I did not find it to be too heavy-handed I mean there's obvious symbolism um it's very you know consciously woven into the story but I don't know I maybe it's because I just liked it so it doesn't bother me but the I thought it's exploration I mean it's not Tim Shull isn't the only thing that's explored as a theme or a um philosophical conversation I thought the characters were that too that there was criticism of the the evil mother character and I actually thought that she was really well written chilling but well written yeah I found the whole book incredibly engrossing and thought-provoking and emotional and beautiful and uh an absolute masterpiece I definitely would see myself rereading east of Eden not you know immediately not you know monthly because it's pretty heavy I really love this book um so I'm glad this project made me pick it up and now I love the song Tim Shull even more now it's not just a beautiful song it's also a beautiful song that is in conversation with and in a reminder of a beautiful book definitely this is a success one more book to go a nice short light I believe satirical book so after all this time back I think I deserve a break we'll see you for that and the last book Billy Liar is finished so I'll quickly talk about Billy Liar uh and then go over all the books and then and then we're done we did it uh so Billy I smell like a near Billy Liar um is this short little I guess is that a right word I don't know but it is humorous it's very British humor um Billy Liar follows Billy um and he's uh a a teenager but like post high school sick 19 um he lives with his family he works um for an undertaker he doesn't like his job and he doesn't like his life um and so the this is like a little slice of life of him getting into huge trouble um because he's he's like a um a compulsive liar um as the title might have given you that clue but he is also like really fantastical in his own imagination like it's almost like there's a fine line between you know like uh someone who like really believes their own fantasies and a liar you know because like I mean he is lying and he knows he's lying um about a lot of stuff like it's not like he doesn't know he's lying but he's also got this wild imagination um and wild like uh delusions of grandeur so he's lying to himself almost as much as he's lying to everybody else so yeah it's just like watching him with his family at his job with his friends with his little ladies in his life two of which believe they are engaged to him and one that he actually likes but he's not engaged to her um and the way that he like spins lie after lie after lie and he can't keep track of all the lies and all the people that like follow up with him about stuff that he said before and he's like oh that's right I told you that this was the case with my dad and though that's right I told just this was the case with my whatever and he like can't keep it all straight and he like does things like that get him in trouble um I guess not needlessly well pretty needlessly but like um like instead of mailing things that he's supposed to mail for work uh he keeps the postage money and doesn't mail the stuff and then is sitting on the stuff that he was supposed to mail and is driving him crazy um and it's stressing him out he has like huge amounts of anxiety about all the stuff that he was supposed to do didn't do on purpose didn't do but it feels guilty well maybe not guilty but it feels anxious about being discovered um and look there's just like there's just an amazing moment I think it's from the beginning where he's like I had this idea that I would write down all the things that are giving me anxiety and then you know as I resolved each of them then I could erase those things from the list and I'd end up with like no anxiety like everything is erased from the list and he takes a look at the list and everything is still on the list so this system is only creating more stress for him because now this list is reminding him of all the things that still give him anxiety um so those those are pretty relatable there's a lot of things like you know most people reading this book I would hope are not like Billy got lying to this degree and exaggerating to this degree and living in the world of their own fancies to this degree but on some level I think you can identify with Billy there's something almost like Glock to ask about his internal um monologues and like the derision with which he regards his family friends his employer like it's a little reminiscent of how like in his thoughts Glock to thinks like getting really derisive things like sardonic and jaded things and makes fun of people in his own thoughts like Billy does that a lot and you can't help but be like I mean yeah the people around you are kind of ridiculous um you also are ridiculous Billy but like I'm like the same reason like you should like you shouldn't be able to really identify with a torturer i.e. Glock to but you can identify with like you know hating your job hating your employer and like thinking thought like evil thoughts about your employer and like making fun of him in your head like you can relate to that same with Billy and like his family and his employer were like you're not you know like Billy hopefully but you can identify with like thinking your family is ridiculous and like thinking these kinds of thoughts about them you're like I mean yeah we've been there um so this is a lot of fun um it's it's really really witty very British humor so if you don't like British humor then you probably wouldn't like it and it was turned into a play and a film and possibly a TV show definitely a play and a film and I would like to watch the film now because as I was reading it I was like I could definitely see this being a fun film so I plan to check that out um and I did listen to the songs again and yet they were very clearly about Billy Billy Liar in particular um I mean William it was really nothing is the one that's like most like by the title and everything like overtly about Billy Liar but frankly Mr. Schenckley more reminds me of the vibe of reading Billy Liar of all the songs uh the December song also like you can see that it's inspired by this but again the one that the most like the tone of the song the type of song that it is the lyrics of the song are the most reminiscent to me of like that's Billy's vibe is frankly Mr. Schenckley so songs that I already enjoy already uh and now I have an added level of enjoyment because I've read the book but so just sum up these are all the books I set out to read and I have now read them all they were in Watermelon Sugar which I think um now that I've read everything this is definitely my least favorite um this book is really weird and it has not stuck with me really in any way I'm not like still thinking about it I'm yeah this was weird I'm glad we got Watermelon Sugar the song but this book um I cannot really recommend then uh Me and the Devil by Nick Toshies um I talked about this one probably the longest I'm not sure I haven't checked my my clips yet I'll find out when I'm editing I talked at great length about this because this book is it was a dark AF it is pretty like mc17 so I I enjoyed it I think although enjoy is a weird word to use for this but I don't regret reading this um and it didn't really change or or increase or decrease or at all affect my feelings about the song because the song seems so loosely inspired by this honestly this I guess I could say the same for in Watermelon Sugar other than my baffle mint oh I don't know why you read this and write a song but um anyway yeah it didn't really change anything for the music but I did I'm glad that um the song being inspired by this gave me a reason to read this because I would never pick this up for any other reason in 1984 which was the only reread um on this list um it's a classic rare reason um and you know a lot of this stuff like you know it was very apparent in the bowie songs that this was what inspired it so it's not like oh I never like picked up on it like even if you've never read an 1844 pick up on it but I just I liked a refresher on this and the I think where I am in my life right now being older having more experience having read more I definitely appreciated this book a whole heck of a lot more than I did when I read it in high school so I'm glad that like this project again like I might have picked this up just for um just to read um without this project unlike me and the devil but I'm not sure that I would have and I definitely wouldn't have been soon so like I'm glad this pushed me to reread this now and like actually appreciate it for the amazing classic that it is then my two Steinbecks I've come over from this project a big Steinbeck fan um I like I'm already a Mumford and Sons fan and like I was like I'm glad you like Steinbeck but now I can be like yes me too I also love Steinbeck and I love that you love Steinbeck another thing that we like okay I guess it makes sense that I vibe so much with their music and they vibe so much with Steinbeck that I would vibe so much with Steinbeck it's like a transitive property I think between the two I think I like to use to have eaten better but they're both amazing they're both incredible but like the one that I would see myself rereading is east of Eden the grace of wrath is amazing they're both I haven't been reading these books as I've been reading them because this is a secret project but these are definitely five star books um no no question in my mind about that especially especially east of Eden this is like a favorite of the year possibly I really liked this and then Billy Lyre which I just talked about um nice quick easy definitely the the lightest read of them all I mean watermelon sugar was short but it was not light it's like weird and dark um so Billy Lyre was like a nice little dessert at the end I don't like dessert it was a nice little treat a nice little snack at the end um and I'm looking forward to uh watching watching the film hopefully in the near future hopefully it's streaming streaming somewhere I would I don't want to pay for it but I might because I'm curious this is nothing to do with anything but I really like this cover design and they have other editions like in these covers uh or like other books um with this like cover style and now I just want to go and read these books because they have these covers in particular um I've like kind of wanted to read Clockwork Orange um because I love the movie Clockwork Orange but everything I've heard is that the book Clockwork Orange is not unimpossible to read but the cover of Clockwork Orange from like this uh from this line it looks like this skull-duggery pleasant bone skelly skelly fella so any hoosies uh yeah Billy Lyre it was fun I think uh yeah I haven't like I said I haven't I haven't been writing the books as I've been reading them I just finished this I think probably four stars I didn't like adore it but like for what it is it's it's quite clever and amusing so yeah that's my project that's that's that's the project done um let me know if you liked this if you'd like to see me do more types of videos like this I mean I have planned some more videos kind of in this vein of like a group of books that have a certain thing and then checking in as I read them um but like if there's I know other music out there tons of music is inspired by books so if that's specifically um if that part of this like you liked you want to see me read more books that inspired music um let me know or other types of like books that inspired something or or whatever or if you never ever want to see a video like this from me again you let me know that as well whatever you want to let me know I post videos on Saturdays other random types of all but I think Saturdays will like and subscribe join my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you