Guys: With Bryan Quinby - Guys: Episode 94 - Book Guys with Alex Goldman

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

This week, we curl up with some Book Guys. They are always stewing and ready for a knock down drag out war. Are the bookstores too political? Of Mice and Men lights a fuse and causes two guys to go at it in the most book guy way. Good news, Dracula isn't even scary!! Alex Goldman hosts Hyperfixed and is very nice and has read Dracula There is much more Chris at twitter.com/thecjs and of course https://www.patreon.com/notevenashow And for more Guys content, streams and SHOCKTOBER: a deep dive into shock jocks you can click patreon.com/guyspodcast twitter.com/murderxbryan and  https://bsky.app/profile/murderxbryan.bsky.social  Guys is on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/guys.pod Guys has a Post Office Box now! PO Box 10769 Columbus Ohio 43201

Welcome to Guys, a podcast about guys. I am Brian and with me is my co-host, Mr. Audio books, Chris James. Hi, Chris. Wow. That's a pretty good one and I appreciate you bringing back the insult. That one's like that one feels like a pretty solid one. I kind of figure out if it actually is, you know, it's honestly I'm this episode. I'll get the guest on. We'll get the guest on we have out. Oh wait. Hey, I just want the guest on, we'll get the guest on. We have Alex.

Oh, wait, hey, I just wanna say, I think it is an insult. Like if you're a real reader, I think, to say listening on audiobooks, I think that is an insult. I think you did insult me. Well, a little bit. From Hyperfixed Podcasts and X Reply All, Alex Goldman, hi Alex. Hey, how you doing?

Thanks for having me. So I do think that was an insult too, but I felt insulted as a person who, who uses, who reads audio books. I don't, I don't read, I don't read them at all. So I want to say this. I don't, I don't even read at all. So not Greg or anything like that, but I just never, I used to read, I used to read a lot when I was younger like I used to

read a lot of books like literature and stuff but now I find myself what okay no but like no I'm I'm making I'm making fun of myself like I really was I was like I had a list of the greatest books of all time or whatever and I was like oh I oh, I'm going to like read all of these, the catcher in the rye and grapes of Rass. So I've read a lot of those and didn't understand any of them because I was way too young. And, but yeah, I sort of, I guess I read court cases now and stuff like that and news and different weird, strange things.

So I'll say this about for like three or four years post-Kweber there, I brought it up this time. Wow. For three or four years after that, I was the same way. I read all these books. I can't understand the world. I can't be a dummy. I can't be a complete idiot walking around.

Plus I was working at this cable company. I've talked about this before. My only goal in life was to seem smarter than the other guys at the cable company. I've talked about this before. My only goal in life was to seem smarter than the other guys at the cable company. And were they like traditionally smart? No, no. They were like blue collar guys. They don't care about the catcher in a ride at all. They don't. You know, you'd say Holden, they're thinking, you know, who's holding my beer while I take

a piss type of thing. They're not thinking holding the Caulfield. So I started reading a lot of those books. I didn't understand any of them. And then the other thing I did that was completely, I think, fucked my brain up for a little while was I started reading political books. And and the ones I was reading were lies and the lying liars who tell them by Al Franken read like a lot of Michael Moore books and like those kinds of books where like for a few years my brain was just like, we need some, you know, obviously we need to change the

politics in this country. It's crazy the way things are. Then you changed and now you're pretty happy with them. Yeah. I love politics. All of them. Every last one of them. You vote for both parties. I think you told me. I do. I just want the parties to get along. I don't know why they're arguing so much. That's my whole thing. Yeah. It's a lot like my philosophy of baseball and hockey. You know, we like to see the goals. We like to see the home runs.

That's what we like. Yes. Yes. We just like someone to win. Yes. And that's what I'm looking for. So I went to r slash books. I want to say this though. They are not down on audiobooks there at all.

They are up on audiobooks. Now. Here's why I think it remember the bird guys episode where guys had that lifetime list. Yes, of course. You had all the birds that they've seen. Yeah. And want to see there's also the birds that they want to see.

There's the list of ones that they have. They tick them off. So they get the list and then they yeah. Yeah, that's right. So a lot of these people have that and we were just talking about this for books and they're now able to read like twice as many books basically because they can read a book and then also when they're not reading listen to an audiobook and they're never not kind of reading. That's why they love it.

Is that considered? That's not considered doping or like, that's not considered to be... I'm trying to think of a different, I guess, the coasters, right? That's not considered cheating the system in any way. This is the thing I wonder and I think about and I do want to ask Alex a question also, but are we seeing this pro audio book attitude because we're online and the real true fucking traditional book readers, they aren't even picking up a damn computer. You know what I mean? They're doing everything analog and those are the real traditionalists. But my question for Alex was, are you a big reader, Alex?

What's your relationship to books? I think I was a bigger reader at some points in my life. Now I feel like as with all things, all I do is read for work, which is, you know, trying to seem smart on the radio. I have to at first. But even then, like I like for a story I'm working on right now, I had to work on it, but I had to read a bunch of science stuff. And I was like, this I can't I'm like, I don't have time

like the I don't have the I can't do the emotional labor of understanding this. Yeah. So so I went to a science friend and I was like, can you come on the show? Can you read these and then come on the show as the expert who I can ask questions about? That's Marco. So I don't have to put it in my own words. That's kind of like you're using your type of intelligence there.

You know what I mean? You're like, hey, I don't have the science stuff. But you're like, I'm going to cleverly figure this out. So that is showing that you are actually quite smart, probably. Sure. But I mean, like you, I think that mostly I'm reading like, I'm reading weird internet stuff, legal filings, stuff like that that ends up coming up for work, and then books if I need to read them for work. Like reading for pleasure has definitely diminished. Yeah, I have some foundational kind of books that

like help me to develop my worldview that I read. A lot of them fiction. Oh, I think probably people listening would love to hear what those books are. The most important couple are there's a book by a sociologist named Pierre Bourdieu called Distinction that changed a lot of how I think of the world. Is that a fiction or nonfiction? It's nonfiction. That's a theory book actually. And it was just a big deal to me. It was like, uh, it was a guy talk talking about politics, but not about politics. You know what I mean? He's like talking about art and how art influences politics. It was this big thing. It just made me like feel

like, oh, okay. Like I'm starting to understand it. I would never be able to explain here because I'm stupid, but I loved it. Then there was a book called things fall apart by Chen Hua, a che bae. I've read that. It's so good. It changed everything. Cause it was spoiler alert everybody for this book. It's about this. It's like this whole long story. It's not a long story. It's only like 200 pages, but it's about this like tribe in Africa and like you read all this guy, the guy, the strongest guy in the tribe's life and all this stuff he's going through and then, you know, and then at the end he gets killed and by Europeans and then Europeans make him one line in a history book and it just fucking

opened up a thing in my mind about history that like it's just one of those things. And then like there's a book called A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. I mean, I know I haven't read it, but I know that book. It's a guy that's about to die that just hates the world and hates all the people. It really was good. know that book. It's a guy that's about to die that just hates the world and hates all the people in it. And it really was good. I don't know why. I'm familiar with the concept of that book.

But yeah, I haven't read it. I've not read it. It's an essay book, so. Are you a big Vonnegut fan? Me? Yeah. Yeah. I've read a lot of his books.

I think I've read most of his books. Wow. I read for a while. There was a period of time where I was like, I've read a lot of his books. I think I've read most of his books. Wow. I read for a while I there was a period of time where I was like I'm reading and when I went to college I was an English major for a semester. So like I've read like a ton of stuff I just don't now and like I told you recently. I just remember reading comic books, which makes me feel so stupid When I was when I was in college, Kurt Vonnegut was teaching at Smith.

I was at the University of Massachusetts. It was right down the road. And a friend of mine had a voicemail from him on her phone. And that that was like a bit like that was incredible. Cash to have. Yeah. What did it say? Was it like it was just like it was like, oh, hi, Kate. I just wanted to follow up on your on your.

It was very much like I wanted to follow up on the thing that you asked me about about your your homework. Fuck you. Try to get that. God, take that. Get that printed. Get that onto a or like the get onto a cassette tape. Get this cassette tape autographed. I mean, that is why you shaking your head, right?

Because it feels like you're talking about another certain cassette tape, but then you start, you said to get an autograph. So, oh yeah. What is going on with that cassette? Actually, it's good that you bring it. It got posted on the fucking Patriot now. What, what? Oh, you're talking about the one that, Oh, I was talking about a different one, which was the, the, of course you've, you've lost that one though. I think the, um, the, the song homicide note, the homicide note song homicide note. But anyway, let's get to book guys. Uh, let's not talk about, by the way, I do have an aunt that doesn't have a TV, has a pipe organ in her house, like it was doing compost in like 1989. She's like all that stuff.

And she is not on the internet and only reads books. Her house is full of books. She was a librarian at Denison University. See, so like she's the most book person I've ever met. No internet, no, her kids never had TV and never had internet their whole entire life growing up. So they would come over to our house for the holidays and those kids would just sit in front of the fucking TV. It didn't matter what was on the TV. They would just sit and zone in on it. And I think at the time I should have

taken that as some sort of a lesson, but I did not do that. But they were, so it sounds like they were, were they like deeply religious or in sort of, like do you know what I mean? No, they were just- It's just things odd, like this, how long ago was this? It wasn't that long ago. It's still going on, number one.

Number two, while I was growing up, my aunt Sue, like she had the chance to get legit rich at one point, cause Verizon wanted to put a tower on her property. And she said, no, I don't want that tower. I do guy. Give her credit for that. You know, no, I wouldn't take it to money, but of course, but like you got to give her

credit for standing on her principles, but she's a, she's, she's like the quintessential, like what you're describing a person that doesn't have the internet, probably doesn't have a smartphone and only has books. Like I remember when we stayed a week at her house and she was like, I was like, now was she saying, I don't want this because I think Verizon's a shitty corporation or was she like, five G,

I don't want it controlling my brain. No, you're the first one's right. Cause this was years ago. This was before like all the five G stuff. She really was like, I don't think they should be putting towers in rural areas. So it's for good. It was for good. Yeah. She's a wild one. But anyway, I went to our books. This is so weird. Uh, this person comprehensive fun 47. So have you ever taken a library book on vacation with you? I went back and forth about it before I went on a trip last month. I didn't want to lose it or risk damaging it, but I was in the middle of the book and didn't want to have to

wait so long before continuing it. I grabbed the book at the last minute and I'm glad I did. I wound up reading some of it several evenings and it made a nice memory. Nothing bad happened to the book and on the contrary, it came in handy. I pressed a leaf in it and brought it home as a souvenir. Wow. Anyone else taking a walk on the wild side and brought a library book on vacation with you? So this is a little tongue in cheek. I think maybe, you know what I mean? At the end, like take a walk on the wild side. They sort of recognize that this is, but yeah,

that it really threw me for a loop there. What a huge that it came in handy where it actually was able to press a leaf that you could bring back where it's like suddenly had a function other than just being a book. But yeah, very cool. Very cool. Very cool. Would you bring a book on vacay? I mean, what's the worst that can happen? I damage it and I gotta pay for the book. Who cares? What's the book going to cost 30 bucks? And that's an argument that's going to happen here. I lost a library book. I lost a library book or not lost one. I just didn't return it ever. That's me. That's me. I never lost them. I never I well I did eventually lose it. I got rid of it. But I remember it was the whatever the like John Belushi biography

or wired wired. Yeah, it was wired. So I remember when I was like getting into comedy, I was like, Oh, I'm going to get this book. And yeah, I just know I just remember seeing it years later. Years later. And I was like, Oh, fuck, like just opened up a drawer. And I was like, I was supposed to return that. What happens when that, am I? They just have to buy a new one. Yeah, they just buy a new one. But I'll say this, I shouldn't be allowed to borrow things.

And that's why I'm glad we live in the age that we do, because I shouldn't be allowed to take a book home. Or when you rented movies. Yeah. I fucking would rent a movie, never take it back and never go back to the place and just have to go to a different place. I agree. You shouldn't be, you should not. I should be allowed to borrow things at all. I shouldn't be allowed to borrow library books because I'll look at them over and over again and be like, that's late. And then in my mind, I'll go, well, I'll look like a real idiot if I return it now, You know, so what kind of movie collection did you have if you were never returning them?

Like I had layer cake, very few movies. The one I remember the mayor's layer cake, layer cake. That was like some sort of like gangster movie or something. Yeah. And I never watched it either, but I owned it for like a decade and I got it from, I think the library and just never returned it and never will. I've still never seen layer cake in my life. Uh, Kat Jen says, it's never occurred to me that this might be a bad idea.

I do it all the time. And then a cursed fish wife says, because it's not a bad idea. Most people will maybe lose one book over their lifetime and pay a $10 fine. What a phenomenally weird posts. OP needs to borrow a book on risk management. Whoa. Yeah, we're jamming. Yeah, relax. I love this type of fighting too. It's like everybody, none of them are really aggressive

at all, do you know what I mean? So it's all like this sort of like half aggression and they're all still kind of polite when they're being mean to each other. Yeah, yeah, this is, I hope there's some more of that. What a wonderful episode to have between fantasy football guys and hardcore guys. Yeah, this one's a little bit more, I mean, he's going to whip anybody's ass here. This person is correct that it is a phenomenally strange pose because I just thought about this as well as like what it

don't you have to like you could lose it if you're like just like well well not on vacation just say so this person's saying you shouldn't leave your house with it at all because you could I think that's what she's thinking yeah I see so it's just like my parents were like that my parents wouldn't ever let me take they wouldn't let me take library books to school. Really? Oh, yeah. My parents wouldn't even let me leave them on the floor of my bedroom. They'd freak the fuck out. It was it was like, there was a huge thing about respect for the institution of the book

of the library. It's like, yeah, I was not I did not. I did not learn that I was not taught that and I had no respect for the library at all. That's the thing. I will say I do now. It's a good thing. I like the library and I think it has a lot of good functions. Of course, that librarian on Twitter, Elon Musk's Twitter, the librarian who,

do you guys remember that guy who was really positive? Yes. Yeah, he did. So basically, I forget, somebody is going to know exactly who I'm talking about, the name. But yeah, he posted something and somebody tried to be like, look at this fucking idiot. Look at this guy, he's so excited about libraries, trying to dunk on him. And then everybody was like, oh, this guy is great.

And he became this viral sensation of like talking about how great the library is. Um, yeah. So I want to meet the, I want to meet the guys for like, look at this fucking dork. He's excited about life. Yeah, it was, I remember it. I remember it. No, Brian.

Well, you're saying you would agree with them. They were like, they were the guys I would be fast. They're the ones that I want to talk to like I mean Well, it's because the guys kind of you know what I mean, he kind of has a bizarre way of speaking a little bit He's like very soft-spoken like I really love the library So it's like they were trying to mock him for like the way he was or whatever But everybody was like no, we love this guy and we love the library. This guy goes a $10 fine. That's such a weird number. Books are expensive and most libraries will charge you the cost of the book if it's damaged. And by the way,

libraries often have to pay more for the books than others. They don't get secondhand books. They typically get hardbacks when available or even special library bindings, parentheses often books that aren't available on hardback at retail. And many will pay for the distributor to process the books such as putting the protective shields in place. So now there's some heavy costs. You're saying that there's a Oh, $10. I think not. We're talking extra heavy pressing, you know, special communication with the publisher. This you could be looking at thousands of dollars if you damage a library book. Actually, the next post here, twice, twice, years apart, I had to replace two books because

they were in my backpack and they got soaked due to heavy rain. I was charged $30 and $40. I'm very careful with books, but these two downpour were heavy and everything got soaked. So you're looking at a $30, $40 situation, you know? Yeah. I mean, that's if you're lucky, that's if you're lucky. I mean, it depends on what the book is. It could be a special print hardcover library only model with a special library imprint, you know, casing on it. And I think those will go 150 easy, you know?

Have you considered this? You do know you pay for libraries, right? Unless you don't pay taxes, the funding comes from city and county taxes, state taxes and special revenues. Your comment sounds like the library is burdened with buying books that you ultimately pay for. It's a smoking deal. Yeah, I'm afraid to say sorry, library, but we pay your fucking salary and I'll and I'll

fucking lose as many books as I want because I paid for them to begin with anyways. Yeah, you know what? Fuck them. I'll take wired from John Belushi wired. It's so it's my fucking right as a taxpayer. I paid for the book. Yeah. I want to say this before we start because people before we even because we're going to do some reviews but of bookstores and I didn't want to do libraries because the reviews for libraries are so unbelievably bleak that you know they're pretty rough. I mean, also everyone I know who who who works in a library is like, yeah, basically my job is to tell dudes to put their dicks away most of the time. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of that, but there's also a lot of guys that are like, this library seems to have a lot of leftist literature, and they're like talking about, you know what I mean, the kind of books they're talking,

the books that aren't even like even political, it's like mad about it. And I was like, yeah, there is that. If it's a large comprehensive library, it'll probably have a lot of leftist literature and a lot of conservative literature as well. Like it'll have a problem with that. Chris is that a lot of them don't know what conservative nobody ever has. I got you. Okay. This guy goes, I'm over here talking about how libraries buy books from distributors and you think

I don't know how they're funded. I'm a public librarian. Libraries have to buy books and when you damage them, you're not going to pay $10. You're probably going to go pay the cost of the book. That's the point of my comment because I see what I see happen is library customers come in and get upset at how much it costs to replace the books. And it's because they don't understand. So this guy, this guy really, I want to say this next guy, I am against him. And I think what he does is wrong. He goes, my partner was astonished to learn that I take library books with me on my stand up paddle board.

Oh, hang on, hang on. I want to think about this one a little bit. I don't know. Why are you G for a gene? Oh, cause he goes on the paddle board. I like those up. He stand up paddle boards and he's holding it in one hand, I assume, and with the paddling with the other.

But I'm trying to understand why he would be. I don't think he's reading while he's doing it. He says, so I can take a break, lie down, and read while on the lake. OK, that's confusing. So no, that's not what I thought he was going to say. I thought he was going to be stand up paddleboarding to a remote area that you can only get to.

You know what I mean? There's no road, and you're going to sit in this nice area and read for the day, but no, he's actually laying in the water on his back. Like what is that? That's wrong. I'm just like, look, I'm not the police or anything like that, but this guy is in the yellow. I used to be a cop and I got out because of all the bad, you know. But this guy's in the wrong, completely. If I was his library, I wouldn't let him have books anymore. Well, if I read this and I was able to verify it was him, yeah, I would definitely revoke his library card,

maybe his man card as well, you know? Well, I'm mad. I worked at a video store in, so I'm 45. So I worked there when I was like 18 in 1999. And... Local, like a, like a, not a chain? Yeah, it was not a chain. We were the only place in town that had porn.

And... Brian just all of a sudden was like reading something on his computer, like not paying attention. And then you said that and he was like, whoa, what, sorry. And he just like... I got a friend that would be interested in coming in there and grabbing as many movies as he can.

I have, yeah. We know a guy who would have been interested in potentially talking to you about business related stuff as well, because Brian's friend, when he was growing up, porno Sean was trying to start his own independent porno shop. He was like, Sean. Yeah.

I mean, it's not your name. You got to start a porno. Well, we started calling him porno Sean, I think due to thatawn. I mean, it's not your name. You got to start a Pornoshawn. Well, we started calling him Pornoshawn, I think, due to that. And I actually, it's a funny thing, I took credit for calling him Pornoshawn. It was actually somebody else who got pretty mad about it on the Patreon saying that, hey, I was actually the one who named him that. But who knows? You know, history is so hard to...

Yeah, you can't possibly know. But we used to, we had, there was a blimpy subs, like two shops down from ours, and there was a couple that would come in and get porn all the time. And we had to eventually start denying them coming into the store because it was, this is so weird. One night, one night we, I was like working was like 7 p.m Ray it was like storming out and the man of the couple came in with his porn stack of porn Cassettes to return and he had a huge gash down the center of his forehead and there's blood all over him and the movies And he just kind of threw them on the counter and walked out and then we had to clean His blood off of our pornos put put them back. And we were like,

I'm sorry, man. We can't like, you can't bleed on the pornos. That's like one of the main, like I'm not even, I didn't work at a video store. I understand that you can't bleed on the pornos and then bring them back. Like if you're bleeding on the pornos, clean them off first and bring them back without blood on them. I'll tell you what's funny about that. Do you remember Chris, the tattoo guy that went to the tattoo parlor and said he fell off his bike and the fucking tattoo parlor owner was like, get your fucking nasty blood out of here. Yeah, totally. That does remind me of that. He tried to show him a picture on an app and the guy's like, what the fuck is an app? Yeah. He was so mad that you guys were so mad. It sounds like you guys would have had

the right though to say it to this person. Was there any indication why there was a gash on his head? Did he say it? There was no explanation. He didn't say anything. He kind of, it seemed like a scene in a moot, like he stumbled in, tossed them on the counter and walked out. And it was like, it was like so bizarre that every, you know, we worked at, it was Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was a tiny little town. We, we just, we just, everybody sort of came in to be like, what the fuck is going on? We were all just like hanging out.

So everybody came in to be like, what do we do about the porno guys from down the street? Yeah. And we had to have a weird fucking place though,bor is a weird fucking place, though, for sure. Like I, I, every time I love it up there, my daughter was going to go to school up there. And there's a lot of fucking weirdos up there. It's true. So in the space that that video store used to be is now a head shop and lingerie shop called Bongs and Thongs.

Wow. That's very cool. Brian, you could do all you could do whatever all your stuff there, all your shopping. OK, this guy on our slash cast classic literature says hot take of mice and men isn't that good. I love that I've read of mice and bed because I get that it's a quote classic and product of its time. But seriously, like only three things happen in the quote story. Oh, this is great. This is great. Talking about it like a film like, you know what I mean? Like it's fucking character development. Like there's no literally nothing happens

in. How do you get shot? Like why is boyhood even a fucking fit like nothing happens just a life of a kid growing up County how many things happened is even but where he's like three things happen in a whole goddamn What are the three things he's referring to obviously him crushing the that's you know the crushing the mouse That's definitely a thing that he's referring to. Well, he also crush, he also kills a woman. I mean, that's the- Oh, of course. Yes, of course, that's gotta be the second, but what's the third thing that happens in a-

Well, he'll talk a little bit about that later. This first person goes, quote, "'I didn't like this thing, therefore it has no value,' is the least compelling, most arbitrary reasoning someone could give. So he's in trouble now. Oh, shit. So he didn't give enough reasons for it being bad. He just, well, he said, he said only three things happen. He said only three things happen in the story. And then he did

say if you enjoy it, good for you. I'm glad you have something that brings you joy, but I honestly believe it should be, shouldn't be held in such high regard as it is. Well, I mean, yeah, okay. That's all fair. You don't, you didn't believe it should be, shouldn't be held in such high regard as it is. Well, I mean, yeah, okay. That's all fair. You don't, you didn't think it was good. Other people did. That's, that's your right brother. He's in trouble now. He, he then replies and goes, I never said it had no value. I'm just pointing out that it's super overrated. And then our guy comes back. Now he's pissed. He goes, uh, what do you mean overrated? It's either worth remembering or it isn't. If you don't like that one, then feel free to read mean overrated? It's either worth remembering or it isn't. If you don't like that one, then feel free to read any of Steinbeck's other works, but

he's more than demonstrated his skill as a writer and justified why his body of work is worthy of being held in high regard. You haven't provided any objective reason why it deserves remembrance or doesn't. You just offered the autobiographical detail that you didn't like it which isn't a compelling argument or even an argument at all but he's not make I don't think he's making an argument is he really he's just saying like oh I guess he's arguing that it's over you say hot take you or if you say hot take you got to defend yourself he said it's not it's but he's basically just saying I didn't like of my cement. I felt like it was boring, I think is what he's saying.

You know, basically, I'm now imagining a guy getting hounded off the Internet by like a bunch of John Steinbeck stands who come for him in the same way that like people grapes go read Grapes of Wrath and then come back and tell me his body. Like why? Why did he bring in? He's just talking about of my son. Why is that person even bringing in his full body of work? Not not lacking. Our O P comes back and goes being remembered and being overrated,

aren't mutually exclusive. I never said he's not talented. I haven't read any of his other works, so I wouldn't have any solid ground in that claim if I did. It just annoys me when people act like this book is an unequivocal masterpiece that has zero flaws now that's where I go against the op because nobody's nobody he's making up somebody to be mad at it's wonderful I do it all the time I'm probably going to do that after we record it makes somebody up to get mad at but that's what he's doing. Right? Yeah, there's no there's absolutely there's I guess there's some people who say that. But yeah, not in not in this thread. Definitely. But the way they argue is so beautiful.

This guy goes, you still haven't given any metric by which to judge what is or isn't good beyond subjectivity. I distinctly remember half of the people reading it in high school hated it. So, who are these people that are making the strawman claim that it isn't a masterpiece with no flaws? I don't even know of any person who would say it is his masterpiece, let alone a masterpiece. At the very least, it stood the test of time and is still read today by an audience beyond those forced to read it to earn a passing grade, which is still more of a rubric

with which to compare and contrast than you have offered. I'm just gonna say this, listen, I'm not a reader, as I said, I struggled to even, I can't really even read anymore, to be honest. It's a skill you lose if you don't do it. But I think one of the reasons why of Mice and Men is popular as well is that it is considered a classic and it's like 95 pages long. Yeah, yeah.

I think that it's super. So that's why a guy like this is like, I haven't read any of his other books because the majority I know Grapes of Wrath is quite long. And I don't know, you know, I'm not, I don't know who the rest of his work, but I imagine there's not as many, you know, super. So that's why he's read that one. Like here's another guy read it as well. You know, it's so short. Yeah. Here's another guy that goes, why'd you say this? What made you get online and say this? You might as well have gotten on any sub right. And so I have no clue what I'm talking about. Argue with me. You're the first person to disparage a work of art for your own inability to understand it.

Nor will you be the last, but that crowd of seldom good company edit. Also, this is the wrong subreddit, buddy. Try r slash books or better yet r slash book circle jerk. So, wrong Reddit. Oh, basically, and this is a really, this is cool, because I love, they're like, you didn't understand it.

Yeah, and that's a key thing is like, I don't know anything about your understanding of it. We haven't discussed it. You haven't really, but I'm just gonna say right now, if you didn't like it, you didn't get it. I love these type of people. Now comes OP, one of the best arguments in a long time, he goes, this, this is why I made this post.

Just because people considered a book to be quote art, unquote, just because something teaches an important lesson or paints a picture of the past doesn't mean it's inherently good. And continuing to call it quote art has a ripple effect and can have detrimental repercussions. Just look at a song of ice and fire. Martin almost single-handedly led the fantasy genre into an edgy, grim, dark era.

Luckily we managed to avoid that so far, but it was close there. So if you call. She happened. If you call some of that art, then other things become art. And then that becomes a whole huge problem because then bad art. That's the problem What is it? What is it? Well, you just don't want people calling George RR Martin art. Why not? Because then other people will make things that are like the things he's made is like yes Alex You is that is that what oh, it's cuz then they'll think it's art and then they'll make it

But then if other people are enjoying it, oh, he's dumbing us down though, as a society, I suppose. Is that, is that part of the problem too? Yeah. Yeah. And this guy goes, but you have no clue what you're talking about. You're going on to talk about fantasy books and Georgia, RR Martin, while denigrating what despite your personal inability to see it as such is widely regarded as a literary landmark, as if this is not a skill issue that belongs exclusively to you. You might as well go scream in the streets at a Tim foil hat and would have the same overall feeling. You have to like it, but the argument status as a work of art is blatantly insane Steinbeck as well as dust. I F ski and Hemingway have to deal

with so many of the most infantile criticisms and brain dead analysis due to the fact that they're the first names one hears when they don't know anything at all and want to quote experiments with the classic. You're out of your element, stick to fantasy books, enjoy them. Do not trouble yourself with things like art and the taxing mental processes that attend them. Your element is very funny that you are very much out of your element. Stick to the fantasy stuff. I don't know at all. This guy is like a real, obviously,

a dickhead and everything, but he does make one point there I think that is sort of true is that those authors, they do get a lot of this like sort of nonsense criticism or whatever because they are the people that say, I'm going to f*** the literature. I'm going to get the people that's like, I'm gonna get into the literature. I'm gonna get into like, you know,

I'm gonna read of Mice and Men and I'm gonna read Hemingway or whatever. And then you have people who are just like, well, this isn't very good, you know? Well, they're dead though, so I don't care that they get shit. I mean, you can shit on me all you want when I'm dead. Yeah, totally.

He goes, do not trouble, I love the end of this. You don't have to, but you should probably at some point in your life, learn to keep your mouth shut and matters. You're woefully under qualified to speak about lest you risk sounding like a total idiot. So that's really good. Lest you risk this. Yeah. This guy has taken this guy took a turn or took a wrong turn at chive Boulevard. These's got the real sort of like that classic sort of speak that we really hate around here, you know, where it is just like every single word is carefully

sort of picked out in order to make you seem smart, sort of, you know what I mean? Like that's just over talking. This guy, the OP goes, I see you're a only classical realistic things are art kind of person. I'm not going to try to prove myself to you about my history with reading such a funny thing to say. Hey, I don't need to tell you how much I've read. Yeah. Listen, you don't know what I've

read. You don't know a thing about me. Um, I love the idea of having to like prove your reading bona fides to a bunch of weirdos on Reddit. It's also so weird to see it happening in a books subreddit where like I'm not dumb enough because I've done enough of these episodes and know that every kind of guy argues and they they get caddy with each other and they get nasty with each other. But this sounds to me like, um, like I could, you could swap out the names of those books for MCU movies. It would, it would sound exactly the same guitars. It's like Beatle songs.

Like every time we've gone, but it is a little bit more shocking when it happens with the type of guy that you think in your mind, when you think of a book guy, and when I think of a book guy, I think of like a nice dork. You know what I mean? Like I don't think of a mean person. I don't think of somebody that would say like, lest you risk sounding like a total idiot. Oh, I would, I disagree. I would, I would think that like, lest you risk sounding like a total idiot. Oh, I would, I disagree. I would, I would think that like, because I think that there's like some pretension in it, you know what I mean?

The idea of being a book guy and all these like the great unwashed who they just watch their movies and their stupid TV shows and stuff. And I think there is a little bit of looking down on people. So I don't know. I feel like it's, it's not surprising to me that somebody coming in and kind of saying like, Hey, I tried reading of mice and men and it wasn't very good or whatever would get met with like a lot of being like talking down to or whatever.

I think a lot of these people also maybe went to college for like English and like I only did one semester in English. But one thing that like, it taught me that one semester of English taught me was that like, nothing's necessarily like, it's hard to explain, like nothing's necessarily bad. Like there's a critique to be had of any kind of book that you read. So like I have, I can read a book that's dense and like hard to understand. I don't want to, and I never will, but like you can do it and use it to figure out other ways of thinking or whatever. And like, I think that a guy coming in and saying, I read this book and it's overrated. It will like set off alarms on a lot of English majors sort of thing. This guy goes, I, so he goes, uh, I don't have

to tell you about my history with reading because I don't have to, but you sure do talk a lot of shit about my skills of interpretation. Meanwhile, you seem to be lacking in that department yourself. Oh shit. That's a huge insult in the book community. You seem to be lacking in interpretation skills. Oh, that's like the worst thing you can say to a book guy. If they can't interpret you have to interpret So much shit when you're reading because you can't even physically see it. You know what I mean? It's like listen to the comeback the comeback scrape. Damn now you got on a tin foil hat and you're into your underwear lmao You're gone a little bit crazier now, yeah

Yeah. It's a big going. You're going a little bit crazier now. Yeah. You're wrong, but I can see you've made a lifelong commitment to being as such. I'm more so- Oh, hang on, hang on, hang on. That's a good line right there.

Well, you're wrong, but I can see that you, what, can't read it again. You've made a lifelong commitment to being as such. Oh, that is, I'm gonna use that one Well, you're obviously wrong, but I can see you've made a lifelong commitment to being as such So, oh that is so fucking annoying. Holy shit Well here he goes I more so see the world in terms of books for children books for adults who refuse to develop an adult mind and books for adults

this fundamental Did they say books for adults twice? No books are adults who refuse to develop an adult mind and books for adults. This fundamentally. Wait, did they say books for adults twice? No, books are adults who refuse to develop an adult mind. That's one. I think that would be like your Harry Potter books and stuff and your Georgia RR Martin and shit. Yeah, he has this fundamentally boils down to a lack of information understanding on your end, coupled with an insatiable need to keep speaking. Why is it so hard for you to believe this is a problem with the book instead of you that over decades everyone has conspired around these books to make you feel inferior and that they're all lying about the value of them, which is more likely you're entitled to your opinions, but others are, are equally

entitled to mock them when you insist on being mocked. So there it goes. And our OPE replies and goes, I think it's just, this is, they're still, how long do they go on with this? There's only two more, but he goes, I got you. You're a pretentious douche noted. How can I come from, how can I come from comfortably disregard everything you say? Thank you. And then you sound pretentious as well, by the way. We've got, yeah, yeah. Then the guy goes true to form. Folk like you always use that defense. You're pretentious. A word I only have a tentative grasp on.

That's so good, because it's just like, oh, oh, that old chestnut that I hear six to seven times that I have not. I can't even really truly understand what someone could possibly be pausing when they say such a thing, you know, because you have an informed opinion on art and form and you're able to wield language to speak on it. So obviously everything you say is bullshit sticks fingers in ears. La la la. I don't have to listen to you. I'm an adult and as good as anyone else, no matter what I do, LMFAO good luck out there chief.

Oh my, this is, this is like the nastiest argument that I, that was one of the nastiest arguments on the show. Yeah. I would agree. There are, this is getting like really fucking mean and they're, and someone said and someone said shit that's but that's like the biggest swear like they don't really swear a lot you know that I love the last paragraph of this Chris pretentious evermore seems just to be a slur that insecure folks used against the intelligent folks to discredit anyone who doesn't just applaud them for being mediocre no no it's the thing that you are right now. It's the thing that that sentence is. That is it. I feel like calling that a slur, it does disservice to the word slur. It does. It really does. Calling pretentious a slur is very good. I think I went to look at Goodreads. I looked at some review of Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Oh, Dracula. So we all know this one. Even us, you know, Luddites. Or we've heard of this guy, the blood sucker. Right. I didn't. Well, he was a book guy. He did.

But he was from the books. Okay. Oh, okay. So the first guy goes, uh, one star. After reading Dracula, I realized that just because something is considered a classic doesn't mean it can't be shit. For the most part, I didn't really know what was going on. I fully was lost the entire time.

It was not a good experience. I didn't even know what some of the words meant. The characters talk like Yoda from Star Wars sometimes. And then he in parentheses goes, yes, I'm aware of the original publication was 1897. And it's written in old English of sorts, but still, but still, but still could have had a little bit of foresight, you know what I mean? And like understood how language would change and evolve. Also, I have to say as a person who's read Dracula, it fucking bangs.

It's so good. I would imagine it's probably good just based on the fact that it is still sort of going strong today. You know, they're making movies based off of it. They're like, you know what I mean? It's like it has stood the test of time as a story. Definitely. So yeah, I would imagine the source material is pretty good on it. Well, this guy is wants them to say Riz. I think like, why doesn't Dracula say Riz at all?

Yeah, I noticed it. Dracula was getting sucked off and did not say Hawk to us. Nobody in this entire book said skibbidy toilet. And look, I understand that's a new thing, but they could have. I mean, just add it in a little bit. I mean, you and this is yeah, like they've made updated versions of it. You know what I mean? You can read the one where they talk more like not an old English if you wanted to. Well, the next guy and then his next paragraph goes, yes, it has its moments. I even had a quote or two that I put up on my blog because

I thought, Hey, that's a really awesome quote, but overall it was shit. So this guy totally not understanding what's going on, Totally confused. And just like every now and then he's just like, well, that's a fucking cool line. And he like puts it on his blog. I mean, there is a, there is a argument to be made. Maybe not an argument, but there is an argument to be made that there is an episode called quote guys, which is the guys that post quotes and don't understand them at all, but they sound like something that is part of their, that, that is like in their life. Yeah. Yeah. Like that relates to something in, but they don't really know the true meaning

of the thing that they're, that they're quoting. Yeah. Cause it's totally out of context. Right? So like they see a thing that says something that they think means one thing, but it's not in context. So they don't even know what it originally meant. Alex, I just want to add you. So you read, you've read this book. Did you, were you able to understand what was going on in it? I was, I know that there's like, there's like literally illusions going on. I didn't understand any of that. Let me ask you you agree with Theo's review he gave it one star and he goes when does he open the hotel? No, no, that's the only line in this review I have to guess that he's talking about the children's movie starring Hotel Transylvania

have to guess that he's talking about the children's movie. Oh, darling. Hotel Transylvania. Hotel Transylvania. He's making a bit of a joke. I think he's probably goofing around is that that might be Theo Vaughn. He's a comedian. So he might be going out. Called me Kweeber could be Theo who invented the name Kweeber. Yes. Robbie says Dracula being the origin of vampire, fire story. Hey, Alex. This is a very important aspect of the show. We have to pause now because he said vampires and we just need to let everybody have that sink in so they can start making their memes, making their posts, making their signs that they're going to bring to the AEW wrestling shows. So Brian could see it. That's a vamp or everyone vamp or that's an a flop. It's known as a flop Alex and people. There's a group called the flub heads that are getting a lot stronger. And honestly, like it's kind of scary. I feel

like they're becoming more like a militia now than a group, but anyways, yeah, they get really excited when he makes a flop like that. Dracula being the origin of vampire stories. Is it, I believe it is. Must be groundbreaking. It has left a huge mark and is an influence and inspiration to lots of movies and literature and literature in our world today. So I, my expectations were up there in the clouds and this didn't even fly. First reason in bold. this book isn't scary.

This episode is cracking me up. I don't usually laugh this hard at this stuff. This is it's the book's not scary. I don't know. Like, I can't get scared from a book. I don't know who's writing this, but like, I don't know. I don't think you should expect to be scared by a book. Anything.

A movie shouldn't be judged on whether it's scary. There's never. We talked about this on the horror guys episode when a guy's like it reads as you saying, like, I'm scared of that. I'm not even scared of Dracula. I'm with Dracula's. It doesn't even like, yeah, like he's like, he's not even that big and strong.

A book being scary. Shouldn't necessarily be a standard in judging whether it should be good or not, but this is Dracula. Not some Edward Twilight shit. I was supposed to be terrified. A lot of movies I've watched, which were inspired by Dracula, were what? Much more scarier than this one. This guy really wanted to be scared.

I wouldn't watch, you know, like when Frankenstein came out, it scared people so bad. They were like losing their minds. And I would not watch Frankenstein with the expectation that I was going to be in any way scared. I know. Just reading an old book of a story that you've known about since you were like five. What is it going to be surprised by the by the story of Dracula? Have you ever if you ever watched any cartoon? It's like a been done in every cartoon. You just know it anymore.

Yeah, it's one of those things that you just know as a person. It's like you, you learn it when you're a kid, you're going to read the book one. It's going to have maybe some languages that you don't understand, which makes sense because it was made at a different time, but you can't, how would you get surprised by Dracula? What would fucking, oh shit, this guy drinks blood. You know what I mean? I don't know what would scare you or surprise you at all in this book. We have a new, there is a new, exciting version of this coming out, right? Nostradamus Robert Eggers made. It's not watch that it's too scary.

But it actually does look scary and Willem Dafoe is in it and like the trailer it looks like it is scary and definitely obviously with a movie it's I think it's easier in my opinion because you can do like lighting and that type of so you can mood you can set mood better and my brain I can't set a mood at all. So he goes a lot of the movies I've watched, which were inspired by Dracula, were much more scarier than this one. Even books. This was so tame written in epistolary form. So this guy like actually kind of feels like some weird version of a guy that does understand literature, but also is dumb and thought he

was supposed to get scared by. He just looked up the words too. That's fair. I don't know though. There is more telling than showing and that definitely ruined the thrill and the horror for me. I don't even get the title. Why is this even called Dracula when he barely appeared in the novel? Oh shit. He's like, well, the thing is, though, he's a big name. So it's like, they're going to have them be on top line. But it's like, oh, right, right, right. Yeah, they'll do that sometimes. Like some of those small movies, they'll get like one star, have them film for one day and then put them on the top line. That's probably what we're like.

After, you know, Jennifer Aniston becomes famous, they're going to put her performance in Leprechaun as the top billing. Exactly. Yeah. And one might say that everything in the book is happening because of Dracula. Well, I mean, that's true. Yeah. Which makes him a huge character in the book. He's in the whole book. You never see him doing his relation to Dracula. You don't see him though. I want to see him. I want to see him and there's no pictures of him in the book either. Well, that's next thing he says. His presence is so underwhelming. We only get to see his form at the start and at the end and others. He's just disguised as a bat or as missed instead of the villain himself. The novel revolves more on the lives of his victims and how one death may affect others emotionally and mentally. Also how that will result into most of the characters

are annoying. Mina is a dip shit and instead of them taking Dracula down, I was actually rooting more for Dracula killing them. Okay. I'm not, I don't remember it too well, but I think that might be kind of fucked up at it. Like opinion to have it's a weird attitude. He goes to pacing is extremely slow. Wait, wait, wait. You're telling me the 1897 telling me that the time 1897, when did they, do they have automobiles? You're telling me that the pacing was a little bit slower potentially than nowadays when everybody has fucking watches 15 second videos, it does a fucking million different things at once. He goes, we get into the lives of these characters and we get to see what they would do in their

lives 24 seven. There was a bit of investigation at the middle, but besides that I wanted to see more suspenseful moments, especially at the end in their final showdown. I didn't get any of that. And I found the ending to be very anti-climactic. He wanted, he wanted, he wanted a police procedural, like he wanted more investigation into Dracula. He wanted a fight scene. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what he said. He wanted like an elaborate, like, like you would see at the end of an action movie or even a horror movie now where like at the end, like that movie, Abigail, she's kind

of a Dracula, right? And the movie and at the end there's this huge showdown where there's like fighting and shit is all happening. I didn't like that movie, but whatever there's all this fighting and like shit is happening during the movie. I think he thinks that's how these things are supposed to end. I think I think what he wants to see is a is a book in which characters are getting picked off one by one.

And we sort of know what's going on, but not entirely. And then at the end, there's a big reveal with a massive fight. Yeah. Quippy, Quippy Final Line, which is like, which is like, I hope you, you want dinner. I hope you like steak and then yeah. Yeah. I also think you're right. But I also think he wants Dracula to be in like 90% of the scene. Like I think he wants there to be some people looking for Dracula. Like maybe there's

20 I'm writing this book for him. There's like 25 guys in the book and you read like one sentence about each one and Dracula comes up and kills them. And then at the end, there's one big powerful guy versus Dracula and it's a big fight. Yeah. And Jack, the end of fast five, Jack has got like a little tiny little henchmen. He was like, Hey, track, you're going to get these guys or what? He goes, Dracula is a huge disappointment being such a notable and well-known classic. I expected more from this, but I really didn't get what I want. This novel shows characters and how they would feel and react once they lose their loved

ones. But all the horror and the grittiness I expected from this is not present at all. That is the horror. The horror is losing people. Yes. It see that's crazy. You're right. But but like a horror movie or horror thing now does involve a lot of

times like 12 guys getting killed before they get to the end. Well, that's not true because then there's also the horror movies where it's just like it's a it's a allegory for trauma. That seems to be the number one type of horror movie now, where it's just like some shit about trauma. And it's like, there's like some forces or whatever, you know, so I, I don't know, I'm kind of with, I kind of I kind of like my stuff to have that a little bit of killing. And I'm a slasher guy. So I have Dracula, have they done a Dracula slasher? slasher guy. So I have Dracula. Have they done a Dracula slasher?

I mean, yes, I would say that the best one I can think of, and it's not a great movie, but it's fine. It came out like a couple years ago, the voyage of the Demeter or whatever it's called. They're on a boat. That's a chapter in the original Dracula. It's written as like a journal entry of this guy being like, I was on this boat, and then we went in this coffin, and it was full of dirt. And there was a button but then the guy got up and killed everybody and we didn't know what was going on. And they just made that chapter into a book. But that's exactly what a book and then a movie or sorry, they made a chapter into a movie.

Sorry. Yeah, that's cool. That's see that I didn't watch that, but maybe I will. I remember seeing the trailers for it and never never got out to it though This guy this is on our books and the person says I hate people who talk in libraries Chompers chompers. Yeah, he goes. I think this is a good place to post my little composition of how annoying it is when people talk In libraries, I love reading I could do it for hours at a time However, I have ADHD so any little distraction tends to break my concentration. When the distraction happens to be visual, it isn't so bad. But when it's audible, I can't focus because my inner voice that's trying to read can't be heard through whatever the outer sound is, and that's annoying because most of the time it's someone talking, and the worst part is they're mostly

talking on the phone. Why would you come to a library to talk on the phone? That's not what a library is for. Talking on the phone is for outside the library. It's quite rude and it makes me sad. Also, we do have quite quiet reading rooms, but they're right next to each other and do not sound proof. However, people mostly use them to watch videos without any headphones, which leaks through the neighboring room and therefore worse for reading in peace.

My dream library would be where you would be fined for talking unless an emergency or whatever it is will be perfectly silent. I could read for hours without having to move every so often. Now listen, I kind of agree with this person. I do kind of agree that you should probably be quiet at the library. I mean, I think people, every time I'm at the library, people are quiet at the library. I mean, I think people every time I'm at the library, people are quiet at the library. I don't it's it is a quiet place I've found, you know, like the Vancouver Public Library, at least, and you know, downtown.

What I read in the reviews, ATX writer replies, he goes, hate is too strong of a word. There's too much hate in the world today. True. There's too much hate in the world today. True. Wow. Yeah, I never thought of it like that. But yeah, no, you're right. Kind of beautiful. Yeah, it's beautiful. This guy's a poet, probably. He goes, when did it become okay to eat in a library? I don't want to hear someone wrestling with a chip bag while I'm trying to study or read. Now, see, that's where it gets wild to me. I mean, I know that there are people that have like sensitivity to like, you always hear about

people that hate being at the movie theater because at the beginning of the movie people are opening their shit up and it bugs them. But I mean, people do eat like this is just part of being alive and the chip bag is going to rustle. If anything, you should blame the chip companies. If you ask me, I'm a big bag. Mesa phobia. It's called called meets a phonia I forget. Do you guys remember? Do you guys remember when Sun Chips were like we found we made this compostable bag? You just throw in your compost. It's great for the environment and then people were like this game bags too loud So they switch back to the non compostable. I don't remember that These goddamn bags are so loud. We hate them. It's like, okay.

Um, this guy goes, uh, reminds me of when I was a law student. People would literally get chewed out over sneezing or coughing in the library. Then he gets a reply and goes, how can one be literally chewed out to be chewed out? Oh, language careful. You don't know who you're talking to here motherfucker. You're a in some fucking bullshit forum. This is a real, this is a forum full of literates. All right. Yes. Let's go take a look at a bookshop in my city. That's like, right. It's almost kind of a famous world. It's like a tourist stop when you come to town. There's a German bit village book loft and it's been around for a long time forever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just full

of books. Like my daughter goes there just to kind of hang out and walk around. It's like one of those places. It's just like if you like books, does it have kind of a cafe in it? Sort of a thing. No, it doesn't. It's just all books. It's just an insane amount of books. I've actually never been in there. You used books? New books? I don't know if used or new, but Paul reviewed it. He gave it damn one star. Paul, he said, felt pretty impressive when I was there on the 5th of March, 2022. The mask rule was a bit much and made for a very unpleasant and

unwelcoming visit. I used to love this location as a hot spot to go whenever I visited. So so he won't be they lost his traffic. It was a try. He was oppressed. He was oppressed. But this was 2022. Oh, I see. He was early 2022. He had to put his COVID mask on which was oppressive. And it was, I remember having to wear the mask and God, that was so hard. I hate when a guy says put a goddamn mask on. I'm like, why? You know? Yeah. Yeah. When I'm sick, when

I'm sometimes I'll get, I'll be very sick still. It might be COVID or it might be something else, you know, but God, I'll go out in public and I won't be impressed. I will not feel oppressed. I will go out and I will- We shall overcome. And so I think we shall overcome when somebody tells me to put on a damn mask, you know? I mean, I am happy.

I am, I am happy. How do people react to that, Brian? They love it. They're like, dude, this guy is fucking on it. You know, this, this must be a real leftist is often what they'll say to me. They're like, this guy is fucking on it. You know this this must be a real leftist is often what they'll say to me They're like this guy is more about action than than he is talking. Yeah S outland gives it one star. I did a review last night. I'll talk about it at the end I didn't actually write one though. I just gave him five stars and moved on

I do want to talk about this before we get out of here because of what happened on the Nintendo guys episode. S Outland says one star Obama book right at the entrance. There's so many anti-Trump titles, but couldn't find any conservative political books in best seller section or political. Definitely some imbalanced inventory. Seriously disappointed. I mean, that's not the idea that your bookstore has to have the same amount of conservative books as liberal book. Yeah. The classic liberal bookstore.

I mean, yeah. So that's not surprising, but who also knows is that maybe Obama's book came out or something like that. But yeah, I mean, who that's, that's not surprising that there's going to be some bookstores that are going to be like, oh, I'm going to be a book store. That's not surprising. But who also knows is that maybe Obama's book came out or something like that? But yeah, I mean, who that's that's not surprising that there's going to be some bookstores that are going to be like, I prefer a political party and I don't like the other one.

I'll say this. I think book guys and librarians are fully within their rights to hate Trump and conservatives because they're the ones constantly getting attacked. Yeah. You know what? Like the librarians. I mean the, the shit that's happening to librarians is fucking crazy. Why would they? What? Like why would a librarian like Trump? They're like costs. These guys are constantly trying to get them fired. You know, uh, this guy Landon says one star politically charged bookstore. So Brian, do you know you've been there? Is it, I mean, it just,

listen, it is in, it is in German village, which is in downtown Columbus area. German village classically in the eighties and nineties was one of the like gayest neighborhoods in the country. Like it was known as like that. And it's not a conservative. It's very much not conservative in that part of the city. You know what I mean? Like when you're inside the city is and when you're in the city of Columbus, it's very liberal. And when you're in like a German Columbus, it's very liberal. And when you're in like a German village, it's even more kind of liberal. So like, I don't know why they would carry books that would offend the people that actually shop there every day. You know what I mean?

And I don't know why. And not even, not even offend them, but just they're, they're running a business. So it's like, we want to, we want to sell products that our customers want to buy. You know, that's all this works. Yeah. Again, they don't know what conservative literature is. That's my belief is that there are probably is almost an equal amount in a way, but they don't, they don't understand what is conservative. Like they don't think Atlas straw shrugged is a, is a conservative book. You know what I mean? They just think it's a book that's non-political. So there's all these books that they probably perceive as non-political that are very conservative messages

would be my guess. This next guy goes very cramped navigating stairs was quote, interesting, very little Christian fiction, but way too much witchcraft oriented books and stories. Not worth the time. So people were in there doing magic, very little Christian fiction, but way too much witchcraft oriented books and stories not worth the time So people are in there doing magic very little Christian fiction. Oh Hey, you want some Christian fiction? Check out the Holy Bible I just don't believe in it. I'm just don't believe in Ricky. Are you being Russell Brandt before he got? Just Ricky. I know if I was being Russell Brandt notes. I absolutely believe in it. I believe in all of it what um

The only I'm trying to think of Christian fiction that I can think of it all I can think of is left behind those books aren't some of those YA books What left behind? Those books aren't some of those YA books. What Left Behind? Well, no, aren't some of those YA books like kind of Christian oriented, like the ones that got really popular? You guys don't, I mean, there is an entire, like, there's full print, like publishing,

that was a just published Christian, you know fiction stuff Like it is like a such a huge moneymaker that yeah, like cuz if we would never know about you know Like it's not public. It's not popular in the in the normal real world. Yeah, but then the other what the other thing I'm thinking of is What's it called the lie in the witch in the wardrobe, which I'm sure is in this bookstore. Yeah, that's a Christian thing. There's like a lot of Christian things. Narni. That's Narnia is the lion. Yeah. Joseph or jaw. Joseph says we were standing in line to check out and waiting patiently for the employees to return. Once he did return for some reason, he allowed another customer to check out in front of us. Hmm.

Must have been liberal. Ah, yeah. That's what, you know, they'll do that sometimes. Sometimes you'll just let liberal people check out first. Yeah. When I can just tell. Sometimes I'll be like, what are your politics when they walk in so I can remember it when they, you know what I mean?

We got, we have liberals over here, conservatives. I'll like put them in two lines. This is what the way I'll do it, but I'll only work the liberal line until I'm done and then I'll take a break. Now take a break. Then I'll help I went to break and I'll hope that the you know, the that the government all freaking give me a handout for it. Anyways, you know, here's a Vancouver bookstore called pulp fiction books.

Well, I know this. I know pulp fiction very famous as well in its famous. It's a movie. This is a very famous. I used to live right close to the Pulp Fiction on Main Street, which which location there there is Main Street 2422 Main Street. So Main Street. This is right close to where I live right at Main and Broadway in Vancouver. A very, very sort of cool. I don't know about that. Yeah, it's sort of known as like a cool. There's a lot of hipster coffee shops around there and stuff like that. There's truly there's a lot of like really, you know, good sort of artsy type stuff around there. The

owner seems like a huge problem. It's called the neighborhood is called Mount Pleasant. That's the name of the neighborhood. They're not living up to it. The owner is really nice by the way too. I don't know about that. Dylan says one star. This is new. Read the negative reviews before going to this store and then go support the dozen or so other amazing privately owned bookstores in Vancouver that don't have an owner who has accrued dozens of one star reviews about his deplorable behavior toward customers. I went to the main street location to sell some psychology slash philosophy books. The owner was rude and arrogant from the immediate onset of our interaction for absolutely no

reason. I called him out on this and he kicked me out of the store. I must have seriously rattled it. I love that line. That is a good line interview. I must have seriously rat got his ass. Yeah, I fucking that guy didn't know how to deal with a guy that would like me. Yeah.

He goes, I must've hauled him out for being rude. Yeah. Can you imagine like in real life being a guy that thinks you real life call people out at a place and the guys being rude, like I've done it so rarely because first of all, you can't win that. You can't win that argument. He owns the goddamn fucking bookstore. Like that's his store.

Just calm down. But anyway, he goes, I called him out on this and he kicked me out of the store. I must have seriously rattled him because he followed me outside to the street berating me about my book selection and generally just ranting. I like that. Honestly, I think I think it's kind of bad ass to be like, get the fuck out of my store. I don't care if I'm rude. And also the books you picked out are really stupid. I love it. I fucking love

that. I am. I have always been a proponent of guy that works at the bookstore, the music store and is a prick to people because of their case. Like I love that. I think it's something I did at the, at the video store. Whenever I would have to, I could never get a job like that, but I can, I used to really want to work at a movie theater and I can guarantee if I had gotten a job at a movie theater, it will be nothing but disdain for people that were seeing movies that like, you know what I mean? Like they come up and get the tickets and you're like, Oh, okay. Yeah. So when I were going to see Paw Patrol, yeah, yeah. If I can lose her, it's very funny to, to do that. Record store guys are best known for it, but even then they're like, I like that because it is like

that movie high fidelity. When the guy comes in and asks for like Stevie Wonder and he just gets berated. I always found that scene so fucking funny. That is a, I know, I know this guy in the way that he is like I've interacted with him numerous times and I, with the people I was reading other reviews, people seem to be mad about him basically saying, those aren't good, but I don't want those books. They're coming into trade books and it's embarrassing. You come in, same as anything, you come in with like used clothes like for, you know, to resell or whatever, like, and they're like, we don't want these, you know, and it's embarrassing

and it makes you feel bad. And you're probably going to be like, yeah, he was rude, even if he wasn't. I think he kind of is a little bit like that, though. He's prickly. You're dealing with a guy that owns a bookstore. He's nice. I'm telling you, he's nice. He is. Yeah, I have. There was a guy very, very nice. There's a photo of him in that review. I know. I know. It's funny.

There's a guy that used to work. There's a place called the North Market. It's right down the street from my house. It's like a, you know, it's one of those markets where there's a bunch of different booths and different people do different things. And there was a cheese guy. He was just known as this mean guy. You go online, you read about this cheese guy all the fucking

time. This guy's fucking asshole. I can't believe he did this. And I started going more regularly. asshole. I can't believe he did this. And, uh, I started going more regularly. And one time I asked him, Hey, what's the best cheese for a baked potato? And for the whole rest of the time he worked there, he loved me. He was nice to me every single time. So like, I think sometimes you just have to engage these guys and talk to them about the, cause they love a thing so much. This guy loves books so fucking much in a way that you can't even though, in a way that you, the only other thing I

could think of that you would love that much is, is Legos. You know, like this guy, you love Legos so fucking much. You know, uh, this guy goes, uh, even when I walked away, he actually followed me to my car and while still ranting on began to record me. What on earth for? I'm not the wiser. And so I took the attached photograph of him. Quite a lovely portrait if you ask me. I can't imagine how much revenue this guy misses out on acting in such a way. Cheerio then. That part I didn't. Yeah, he doesn't lose. I think it's very successful.

And overwhelmingly positive reviews too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I will say that this place has 4.3 stars, 500 reviews. Blair says, it was bad enough, but perhaps not surprising, giving reports of similar abuse. The owner of the store was rude and currently dismissed the books I'd brought in to trade. This is his modus operandi and has been for at least a decade. What was new was his refusal to sell me the book I'd come into town. This is like what King I love this guy. He's my favorite guy. I I feel like I feel like these people are I've just never had a negative interaction with them.

So I guess they're a pain in the ass. Why are you following like why he's following them? That person outside that person was like saying some fucked up shit to him or something. You know what I mean? Like something that's happening. There's a line coming up in this review that will reveal what happened with this one, too. OK, because he goes, what was new was his refusal to sell me the book. I come into town to buy because I'd ask him if he'd set the slight discount to the price marked in pencil. Uh, you just don't

do that. That's crazy. He didn't refuse to sell you the book. He would have sold it to you at the price that he wanted for it. You just wanted to pay less. You just don't do that. I don't, I don't know where this person thought they were, but it's a used bookstore. And I will say that, like, whatever. I agree. You probably shouldn't do it.

But even if you do, if you say, hey, could I have it for a little bit less? And he said, no, no, that's the price. Then you have to say, okay. And if you want it, then you buy it. He goes, he went on to berate me for doing so. And then I offered to pay the full price. And he said, this book is no longer for sale. We're done. Now, that is funny.

That is funny. That's so good. I yeah, that's great. Yeah, this guy is 100 percent a pain in the ass. And then he goes, even as I apologize for daring to offer a lower price, he got extremely personal regarding my character and said I needed to reflect on my poor attitude. In the end, he would not sell me the book and I left empty handed.

I would warn anyone contemplating entering this door to be prepared for abuse, whether buying or selling a book. This guy was a pain in the ass again. We don't talk each other down anymore. It's just not a thing that's done. You don't walk into it. I understand the impulse to want to do it, but like I just every time I've ever been with somebody who's like, I'll pay this.

I just feel so uncomfortable and I have to turn around. Yeah, it makes me embarrassed. Yeah, I used to I used to work at a bookstore in college. I would like do the guy sidewalk sales and he he was hard of hearing. And when people came in and he just didn't like and he, uh, he was hard of hearing. And when people came in and he just didn't like the look of them, he just turned his hearing aids down and then they tried to talk to him. He'd be like, huh? And he just pointed as he pointed his hearing aids. I just, I, I had a, my friends across the street that

I grew up with, they hated going shopping for anything. Cause their dad would go in the store, like he would go to the mall and go to stores and say, can you give me a price break if I buy three pairs of these pants? And like they were just like, holy shit. And they could never do it because they can't fucking do it. The people that are in that place. Right. They have no ability to make.

Yeah, they can't do it, but he would just do it every time anywhere they went. Yeah. Going to like a real just a store, like a retail store and try to get discounts. That's old school shit. That doesn't really happen. Just count on a TV at H.H. Greg is like, come on, dude, they're not going to do it. They will never do it. You know, my 97 year old grandma is Jewish. Grandma is very much

like, she will, she will walk into any place and be like, no, what can I get for free? She'll like say that to or if, or if like she has to send a meal back, she'll, she will say to she'll like beckon the server closer and be like, we'll have our drinks on the house. She just says it like it's a foregone conclusion. Used to be a thing that people just did. They acted that way.

It's weird. I think that might be part of my... I pay more for everything because I'm constantly nervous about that kind of an interaction happening and it not working out for me. I don't think I can handle somebody saying no. So I'm just like, listen, you know, give me the most expensive thing you got. I'll fucking buy the thing. I'll pay the money. I'll walk out of here and everybody's happy in the end, but salesman's happy and I'm happy. You know, it doesn't make sense. You should do research before you buy stuff and you shouldn't buy the most expensive thing. I would never also you should consider the fact that like, you know, you

can't always get the most expensive thing. You're not like, you don't have as much money as a lot of people. I got a car. You know what I mean? Like I'm just like, I'm going to get my iPhone 15. That's the one I want. I might get a new one soon, actually. Finally, don't get it. Do you? Is there anything wrong with your phone? The battery dies slightly faster. You're going to get a new battery, pay it for a new battery and then keep using your phone. This is a thing we need to do as society. All right.

Stop fucking getting all this new shit every time I hold onto your phone and use it as long as it's still working, please. Well, let's- And don't use AI, and don't use AI. Don't fucking use AI, please. I only use it for certain things. Just reject it, please. I only use it for conversation starters and zingers. Oh, fuck. I have Chad GBT, I just type,

give me some zingers for this new show I'm doing. You know, and it's like, ah, here you go. All of his jokes he's been doing on guys have been chat GPT. Let's do one last thing here that I found great. Uh, I'm going to share a picture with you guys. I'll make it this picture for the episode. Okay. Uh, this guy and this is guys. My wife told me to get rid of my book collection since it's just a pile. Now, this picture's insane. Yeah, it's the pile.

And it is just, all it is is, it's mostly paperbacks. It's all paperbacks and it looks like a really disorganized used bookstore, you know? Like it just, they're all kind of Yeah, they're they're they it looks like it could fall over at any moment to like it. They're not stacked up evenly kind of like it. Yeah, it's a real mess. You could never find a book you wanted to read in there. Oh, yeah. It's like Jenga. It would be like Jenga trying to get a book out of the middle or whatever. Yeah. Not only that, but it's not you're not seeing the spines. You're just seeing the bottoms of them.

So even if you were to take a book out. That's a really good point, Alex, that we should mention is that yes, a lot of them are turned the other way and you're not really seeing what you want to see. No, you can't. You can't see anything that's going on. He should get rid of these books. Well, not necessarily. You could organize them, get a bookshelf, you know what I mean? And yeah, bookshelf. I bookshelves for Legos. This guy goes, Mike, Matt, they would be called Lego shelves if they were. Yeah, which is the new modern use for him now, because there's ebooks.

You know what? I can't even come up with something to our can't even come up. Yeah, we love Legos here. Well, you can't come up with anything. All right, because it's like not even worth arguing. He's just such a two fist that it's just like, whatever, let him say whatever. And I just let me say this and I'm not trying to keep you guys forever. I just want to say this. I like to say I do have to go because no, I haven't mentioned it yet, but I will mention it now because it doesn't matter because episode will come out so much later.

So people won't be able to wish me a happy birthday. Right now, right as we speak is my 40th birthday. I have, I- Happy birthday. Thank you so much. We love you. And we, okay, so the first guy goes, she's not opposed to the books.

She's opposed to the heap, make it presentable. It's unfair to force your clutter on others. Unless this is your own space and no one has to look at it. And in that case, do I, I do you, I guess. Yeah. That, that's that, that, that I feel like is the best advice to just say, Hey, clean it up. And she, and maybe she won't cause a bookcase, a nice bookcase with books, all of it. It looks really quite nice. Like for like decoration like decoration wise you know it can make your home look nicer actually. The next person goes apparently you can get pest infestations and piles of books like this so even if it's just his own space he needs to fix this pests will spread.

Like rodents? Like what? Well that's what they're saying yeah this next guy goes yeah even if you live alone you owe your books more respect than that even Even living by yourself, existing like a dirty rat in a hole is not cool. Okay. So now they're like, and just to be clear, I want to say like, it's only one little space. We don't know that he's living like a rat. I mean, he just, I take that a little. Yeah, it looks like it's a closet. It doesn't look like, it's not like it's an entire room.

Yeah, it's not like he doesn't, it doesn't seem like a hoarder necessarily, you know, he just book guy who's sort of disorganized with his books. So this guy goes, this went from a pile of books to a dirty rat hole very quick. Next guy goes, the books do look like they're kept by a dirty rat. Sorry. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What? That's that's a bit much kept by a dirty rat. Like this guy seems like a real son of a bitch, if you ask me. He seems like a real dirty rat. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I do have a rule in my house that that books are not allowed to be stepped on. Because kids will just like throw it on the ground and then walk around. And I'm just like, come on, have a little bit more respect.

But beyond that, books are tough. Yeah, yeah, they can handle some around, especially a hard cover. But this guy again has no hard guys. A dirty, dirty rat only has flies. Can you write only has the he goes? I guess not. This guy goes today on top 10 things that only happen once on a blue moon talking about the infestation. So that's the OPs saying like, oh, this guy's just helping the O P and then the next person goes, not really.

There's a good chance of bugs and mold, both of which will ruin your books. If you care about your books and you want them to stay in usable condition, you should treat them kindly. And the next guy goes, the issue is you can't see what's going on in the spaces behind the book. So things can creep in and a rabbit says, uh, for all they know rats chewed an entire tunnel through those books. So now we're at the point where there is a rat tunnel in these books. Yeah, the guy keeping them is a dirty rat. And now he's fucking pretty comfortable surrounded by a bunch of his fucking family members who have all dug tunnels through his books.

Yeah, it's gross. You know, silverfish love these types of piles and you can say goodbye to your books once they're on it. Oh, there's silver. We have silverfish around here, like in Vancouver. It is a thing. So we'll see them every now and then. But they like books. I didn't know that.

Yeah, carpet needles too. I thought they were more into movies. I'm just kidding around, guys. I'm joking. This next guy takes OP sizing. He goes, why is it OK to enforce your order on someone, but not OK to be cluttered? We got a cluttered rights activist.

Cluttered rights. Yeah. We're fighting for cluttered rights, Chris. Dirty rat rights. Yeah, it's about enforcing, it's not about enforcing order. It's about common courtesy and respecting the living space of others

by not subjecting them to your heaps of stuff. As I said, if drone five a place, be as cluttered as you like. And then he comes back and goes, right, but why should the desire of one fold to the desire of the other? One person wants an ordered space and the other prefers a cluttered space. Why is there one interested in why is no one interested more important than the other?

So he's saying, how's it, how's being ordered better than not being ordered. It's philosophical sort of discussion now at this point, and really getting into the important thing. I'm starting to think some of these people, they're just kind of going online and hoping to have some sort of argument to feel something or whatever, perhaps. Because this doesn't really, it's just a pile of,

it's just books. Now they're saying like, the importance of one person's thing should not outweigh that you know what I mean like they're getting really serious about a really unserious thing this guy goes when I see books neatly stored on shelves I think ah yes a fellow bibliophile when I see OPs pile I think of episodes of hoarders where the person also collects used toilet papers and old soup. Jesus Christ. That's very extreme for the pile of books that I see. It didn't look like again. You guys will see it if you look at the photo. It doesn't look that bad.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he goes, oh, come on. This other person goes, oh, come on. Doesn't have much storage space. Could be moving, et cetera. Should get shells, but they don't devalue the books. And then the next guy comes back and goes, it truly does is they will fall apart like this. You don't need shelves to stack them nicely in a fashion where you can read the spine. So, uh, and, uh, this next part's very funny. I'm just going to let you know, this person goes, donate them, take them to a one leave one box near you next I goes seriously and then OP comes back and he goes I tried this week but it didn't go well the library slash church nearby actually gave me more books while I was going to donate.

So this guy has this guy what's happened is I has suffered some sort of curse a number of years ago in relation to a book, and now he's sort of cursed to accumulate these piles of books that he cannot get rid of them. I went to donate books and came back with more is so good. And that's so good. Like, imagine his wife is like, all right, get rid of these books. And he fucking comes back and he's got twice as many. He's like, I don't know what to tell you.

How do you I'm sorry. You're going to have to take them all right now. The guy goes, it's just a pile. Get some shelves. You degenerate degenerate. You think of the guys that we've talked about on this show. Degenerate dirty little rat. Yeah. And then finally,

Lee says, get some shelves, you fucking animal. So, jeez, people are really hard on that. I don't I think that he should probably organize his books, but I don't think he deserves all that. He's a dirty rat, in my opinion. That's all I think. Fucking rad, who like it. It sounds like some of them won him dead and I

Deserves does not deserve to die. I went to a thing last night by the way just before we get out of here It was it was called a game show battle, right? Mm-hmm kind of like an escape room sort of thing where you go in and you're on a game show Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you mean. Yeah, I won We've heard this song and dance before Alex and He's he's he's claimed victory on another thing and it was a lot of people did Analysis on it and stuff and they were like, man, just nobody did any analysis Me a cheating certain things didn't we didn't accuse anybody

We said here's the facts you decide decide. And it just, something's wasn't right about it. Everyone decided something wasn't right about it. And now- It's just, Alex, my life is difficult because right now I won trivia and they're taking that away from me. And then also they said my wallet looks like a PlayStation 4. It's the size- I did see a picture of the wallet. It's a a PlayStation four. It's the size. I did see a picture of the wallet. It's a wallet.

What do you think, Alex? Do you think it looks like a PlayStation four? Be honest. Be honest. It did have like a lot of vestigial plastic pieces that I didn't quite make sense of. It pops out. The cars pop out. It pops out.

Yeah. So yeah. And it has an air tag. It's not weird. It's a fine wallet. And I want to say I have to say that when I did see people ragging on it, I was like, well, I have one of those air tag wallets because I constantly lose my fucking wallet. Yeah. But I bet yours looks normal and you probably bought a better one, but we don't need to get into it. You bought a much better one than him. There's no way that you spend

the reason about on a mechanism. How many dollars? How much? Only that's what I'm saying. Yeah. He did not spend a good amount of money on something that has mechanisms on it. It's a really bad decision. But Brian, what's this thing you claimed you won?

It was like you play family feud. How many people play? It was two teams and I was on the winning team. And who was on the other team? My fucking wife and daughter and sister and my daughter's boyfriend. Oh, he's hanging around? All right.

We got him. Ashton's our boy, man. We love Ashton and this stuff. We like him. And who was on your team? My brother, his wife and their daughter. Holy shit. I didn't want to be on the same team

with the people I live with. I mean, listen, this is I wanted to destroy them. I believe that you won this because this is a thing. You're competing against your own family. I wanted to destroy the people I live with. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks so much for coming on. Alex. Anything to plug perhaps a podcast that is perhaps we mentioned off the top that is a new and is fantastic and everybody should go listen to. Yeah, yeah, I just started a new show called hyper fixed. I people write in with their problems and I solve those problems.

their problems and I solve those problems. And it sort of becomes like, you know, documentary style podcasts, you know, this American life style kind of before they got so serious. Can I, I have a friend who has a number of problems. And could I talk to you off the podcast? I'll talk like a cool guy and just like I could maybe write in something and you could do some stuff to try to help him out. No clue. I would love to hear who this guy is. You don't ever talk about him on the show.

Well, you know, you don't know which you don't know that he doesn't talk about him. He hasn't given any information yet. Yeah, normal guy. He doesn't show a very normal guy according to brace Belden of true and on I he knows guy. According to brace Belden of true and on. He knows. And also according to brace Belden of true and on who I think is on the next episode,

I believe. He's on next week. He's on next week. But he also, I was listening to true and on and he mentioned that you're that you are like an actual swinger in the lifestyle. Okay. That's crazy. I'm going to tell you why. There are probably

like a few hundred to a thousand people who stopped listening to street fight and haven't found guys that now fully believe I'm a swinger. Like that I went through some kind of a spiral after street fight and we're now on the. That's one of my favorite things that brace did that and did it not as a joke. He just sort of made people think that you really are a swinger. They do really, because somebody sent me a screenshot of some subreddit that said, when did Brian become a swinger? Well, he's not some sub. I'm sure it was your subreddit. I don't know that your subreddit

that they were asking it because we listen, we don't't go I get stuff sent from that subreddit. I got something sent there from the Instagram, you know, on the Instagram about you know, how much money is made and stuff like that. So I if you want, I could go check and I can go weigh in and let people know that what I know about whether or not you're a swinger. Everybody know whether or not he's a swinger. Well, I just know that I believe that he is. Oh, I'm not. Okay. Well, you've met my wife, which that's another nightmare that's going on. Swingers can be and often are married. It's not that- They are always married.

They're always married. Yeah, that's why- So you can meet someone's wife and it doesn't have anything to do with whether they swing or not. I'm just joking. The reason Brian said that and it was actually a really smart maneuver is because he knows I would never say something like that about his life. And cause she's so sweet and nice. And so now I do have to, I don't think Brian's a swing. Katie would have to be a swinger and I don't believe she is. That's my nightmare. Now, by the way, is now all the guys that think I'm weird and make fun of me have met my wife, every single one of them, Mike, Jesse from your Kickstarter sucks, Chris, Stefan, John, like they've all met my wife now and they

just take her side automatically. Like she's flawless or something. It's not that she's flawless. It's just when you meet both of them and you see them interacting, you know, you just, it really hammers home. What a sweet, sweet and wonderful lady she is. And what a great person she is and how tough things must be. Sometimes it's easy living with me. All right. We'll see you all next week with hardcore guys with brace. Belden again, we made an $8 tier on the Patreon.

There is no year. We're not taking anything away from the $5 to you're still going to get the video on Monday of the stream and all that crap. But if you want an extra episode a month of one of my series, you know, you get your holy boys. I'm sorry. Uh, this month is Brace and Brian, um, and you want the show on video, the bonus show on video, you can get it. And believe believe me this first video is Fucking incredible. It is a good one. We did we did we get Greg deemed up We did two full hours on on the it's already dropped. So when this oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so we'll see you next week Goodbye. Bye

Bye