 Hello, our buddy E here. Welcome back to another book review kind of shorter. Not really. This isn't really a review of this book. This book has been around for ages I think since the 60s and my input on it really isn't going to change the fact that it's just an amazing book. You know, I really don't have anything to say about the book but what I'm getting at is I'm going to be talking about what it meant to me, why I read it to begin with, and that is The Phantom Toll Booth by Norman Jester, right? Norton, Norton Jester. Norton's a name you just don't hear too much anymore. Norman is a name you just don't hear much anymore. I picked this book up for a quarter at the library. It is one of the very first books I remember reading as a young guy. I don't know how old I was. I know I was in elementary school. This book meant something completely different to me back then than it did now of course. I have not read it to my kids but I probably should at some point because it's just a fantastic book for kids, for adults, for just about anybody. The reason why I picked this book up is why we're here today, why I'm even bothering reviewing this. I've had a problem since about, I want to say it's about since 2012. I started working with an editor who changed my entire outlook on writing and reading and all that. They pounded into my head how important it was for a clean document, for a clean text, for your work to be as perfect as possible. Basically they just pounded this work ethic into me, which did well for my career. Made me, I think it made me into a much better writer but it made me into someone who did not know how to read for fun anymore. Every single book I picked up since working with this editor, I'm not gonna throw them under the bus, not gonna name them or anything, but every single book that I have read since working with them I have looked at with a critical eye. I don't like that about myself anymore. Not every book needs to be torn apart and dissected and not every book needs a point. There are some books you just need to sit down and just escape into and that's what this book meant to me this time. The first time it meant a lot to me because it taught me a lot about the world, it taught me a lot about the expectations of the world, going into the world, how people reacted, how my thinking maybe wasn't singular, how I wasn't alone in the world thinking certain thoughts. There's some very, very poignant stuff in here. I remember like being the world's thinnest fat man, being the world's fattest thin man and things like that. That certain characters that the main character Milo ends up bumping into along the way that meant the world to me back then and nowadays I read it. Well, I just recently read it and there's so much in this book that is still topical today. So if you have not read the book, definitely suggest you go out and read the book. If it's been ages since you read the book, I suggest you go out and get the book. I just highly recommend this book to everyone of all age groups. But the point, like I said, the point of me picking this up is I'm trying to train myself how to read for fun again. I want books that I can just shut my brain off and just escape into. The more that I got to talking about it with you guys here on the channel, especially when I did like my top five Richard Laming books, top five Bentley Little books, books by authors, I no longer enjoy. I got the thinking, why don't I enjoy them anymore? And the reasoning for that is because I feel like I had moved on and I would read those books and I like that's not how I would word it. And I hate that. I was a writer long before I met this editor and I never had that problem. It wasn't until I met this person. I'm very susceptible to manipulation in that way. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing or whatever. I know manipulation right out the bat hits you and it's like, ooh, it's a cringe word, he's putting it off on someone else. It's the same reason why when I get around people like with heavy accents, like heavy country accents, I'll start talking like this too. It's the same thing. I'm a mimic by heart. I tend to be a people pleaser too. So I tend to lean, I don't lie to please people, but I tend to absorb their personalities. I tend to absorb their traits, especially good friends of mine. And this editor was a good friend of mine. Of course, I wanted to please them by being the best author I could. And that turned me into a really shitty reader. And I don't like that about myself, especially don't like it about myself anymore. So I'm trying to relearn how to read for fun. So I picked up a kid's book. Oddly enough, this book's for kids ages 8 to 12, oddly enough, this is a very deep experience. I have loads of quotes and page stuff. Yes, I write my books. Loads of stuff in here. And there's probably quotes in this book that I will use in future works of mine in the epigraph or whatever it might be. But this book was just so much fun. Besides the point that it is poignant and it does have a very terrific message, every single chapter gives you a life lesson that I think everybody needs. And there's also no political bias here. So that was fantastic. I found, unless of course, you're on the side of the fence that doesn't believe in science, that if you're on that side of the fence, then maybe you could get your feelings hurt here. But other than that, I think it's pretty centrist book in that it's just life lessons we all need to know and we should hear about the way we feel about things, about personal perception of things. Kids need to hear that. A lot of adults nowadays need to hear that. It's not stuff that you don't already know, but it is affirming. It is nice to reaffirm those beliefs, those thoughts about what actually makes someone a decent person, what actually makes someone not really a bad person, but maybe they're not on the right path kind of deal. And I'm talking about horrible shit. I'm not talking about just your everyday disagreements. I'm talking about horrible shit. Or actually, it's really good in here for you to see that both sides of an argument, either both people can be wrong or both people can be right. I'm not talking about facts or alternate facts, anything like that. I don't want to get into that stuff, but just the different point of views that just because someone's opinion, unless they're saying like the world's flat, that someone's opinion, that's just their opinion, man. Just move on about your business. Just agree to disagree. And there's one point in here where those characters do that. And that hit me. I was like, I wish if they're not reading this book in schools, they need to be reading this book in schools. But anyways, like I said, I started this just because I wanted to retrain myself to learn how to read for fun. And I got several questions like, if you haven't been reading for fun, what have you been doing? I've been reading for criticism. I've been reading for education. I've been reading basically just to improve myself. And sometimes I think we just need to not worry about that kind of thing and just jump into a book and just enjoy it. And that's, I'm going to follow my own advice. So I'm going to try and pick up more books that are just books for fun. And I'm going to try and turn off my inner editor. Luckily, I didn't have that problem at all here. Probably because it's fantastically edited and fantastically written, that kind of thing. But I'm also going to stay away from the books that you tend to have problems with, which, you know, like the, unfortunately, like Indies and certain presses, certain small presses, that kind of thing. I'm just going to stay away from those things that are going to trigger my inner editor at least for a while until I retrain myself to read for fun. Unfortunately, nowadays you have to put up that wall and you have to decide, you know, especially with me being as critical as I am, I have to pick and choose whether or not to read something based on whether or not I trust the author or I trust the publisher. And sometimes those are one and the same. The author is the publisher. That's unfortunate. But nowadays, without the gatekeepers in place, you know, just about anything can be published. So that's, that's how I got here. But I'm trying to change that. I'm trying to look at things and have some fun again instead of, you know, critically analyzing every little small detail. If you guys are a fan of the channel, you know how I tear apart Stephen King and Dean Coons and all that stuff. I'm going to continue to do that. But I also want to just read some books for fun, which is kind of upsetting because I just got rid of all of my like 80s, 80s and 90s horror collection that most of the stuff I had even read. I didn't think I was going to get into. But I think I want to try some Fear Street books. If anybody out there has any Fear Street books they're willing to get rid of, because I can't find them around here at all. Let me know down there in the doobly-doo and we can talk in email. I'm also looking for some Marianne Liengel. Is that how you pronounce it? Some Roald Dahl, all that stuff. I can get all this stuff from the library, but you know, if we can maybe trade books or whatever, I like doing that too. So if you have any books you want to unhaul, give me a holler and we can discuss that through email. But until next time, I have been E, you have been U. This ain't been a book review. Who am I telling you? I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!