Hi, Yollie, good morning! Hi, how are you? I am well, thank you. Who is this? This is Jen. Hey, Jen, where are you calling me from? Brockville. Excellent. Hey, are you a big, um... I don't want to say summer reader. Are you a big reader? Huge. I love to read. Do you really? Good for you. Good for you. How often, like, how much do you read? My goal is usually a hundred books a year, I try to do. Yeah, okay, so we're about on the same pace. Yeah, totally. Hey, so let me ask you this. Well, before I ask you about something, when you read... I'm assuming most of the time you read to yourself, right? Yeah, you mean, like, not allowed. Correct. Yeah, I read to myself. Do you like reading aloud? No, not really. Why? When I'm reading to myself, like, I kind of get put into the world that I'm reading, but when I read aloud, I'm trying not to mess up what I'm saying, so I don't enjoy the book as much. When you... I understand that. When you say you're trying not to mess up, why? Like, who wants to read in front of people or be around yourself and, like, you say the wrong word and then everyone's looking at you like you're an idiot? I don't want that. Yeah, but don't you feel like... Well, let me ask you this. What if people weren't... You weren't afraid that people were going to be critical, that people were going to be positive, that even if you messed up a word, I mess up words a lot, right? That even if you mess up a word, nobody was going to, like, go after you. How can you guarantee that? True. What do you mean? I do have a theater major, so... Yeah, so you should like acting. You should like acting. I'm not a... Listen, I'm not a confident reader, but don't they say, don't they say you would know this, that people... Like, reading a lot, like, people enjoy being read too? Hmm. Now, I don't know if that's the case or not. I don't know if that's the case. I mean, I think that's why people are really liking audio books now, because you can just put it on and it's being read to you, kind of acted to you, but you can also just put it on and do the dishes, drive in the car. I think it's something a lot of people are starting to do to get into reading. A lot of books are also being turned into graphic novels to get people into reading, like, Fahrenheit 451 and a lot of George Orwell books are now graphic novels. By the way, can I argue something? I don't feel like... And maybe I'm wrong. I don't feel like people get audio books because they enjoy being read too? I just think they do it to cheat reading. No, no. I'm being serious. Stop. No, no, no. I thought you were behind that. No, no, no. I don't mean to... I don't mean to cheat reading, but I think that it's like, well, why would I... Listen, it's why I won't go see a movie with subtitles. Like, why would I read the movie? I can hear it. Because you don't speak the language. No, but I meant, like, don't put subtitles on there for like English movies and stuff on the TV. Like, why am I doing that? But I don't think people are doing it because they enjoy the... They feel like it's comforting to be read to. Have you tried an audio book? Never. Okay, I read a lot of fantasy, and a lot of people really like listening to audio books for fantasy because the actors, like, they get into it. So people like hearing that. When you say fantasy, do you mean like sexual fantasy? No, no, no. I mean, like, A Court of Thorns and Roses and those sort of books. It's Romanticy. Oh, wait, are you into that? Love it. Oh, my God. The Court... That's my girl. Yeah, the Court of Thorns and Roses series is amazing. And books 6 and 7 are coming out in the next year. Woo! It's a big deal. Are you sure? Are you an audiobook person? I do both, but I would say it's like 95% is physical reading. Right. But sometimes if I want to go, say, like walk, I want to go for a walk for exercise, I'll listen to a book. Well, you really? Cheap reading. The... So Romanticy is big. Yes. The fourth-wing series is... Oh, On a Star. Yes. Oh, so good. Do you get the... What is it called when the sides of the books are painted up on the pages? Sprayed edges. Yes, sprayed edges. Do you get that, Sarah? Oh, I don't know what that is. Oh, I guess you're not as into Rebecca Yaros as I am. What is sprayed edges? Ma'am, do you want to describe it? What is sprayed edges? It's when the edge of the book besides the spine, they have different pictures or a different color on them. So four-fourth-wing, a lot of the sprayed edges are black, but have the dragons on it. Oh, that's cool. See, I read on Kindle. Oh, I don't like that either. I can't do that. I don't like that either. Can't do it. That's why I don't know what sprayed edges are. No, not at all. I'm not even talking about the dragons. All right, very good. Very good. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. That is if there's an author on and the book's not out yet and they send us, say, a PDF, Elliot is not happy. I lose my mind. I hate it. I hate it. Like, I don't read enough for pleasure, but I want a book. I want the physical book. Tell the publisher to send me a galley proof. You're damn right. I used to be that way. But as soon as you start with the Kindle, you don't go back. No, but I also here's the other thing I hate. I want to know, like, oh, God, how much do I have left? You can't do that. No, not on. I'm holding the tap my phone. I'm doing this routine. It sounds so pleasurable. God, how much more? But that's how I learned to read. Like, oh, my God, I just have to finish because you got assigned. You have to read like four chapters. You're like four. And the first thing you do is count the pages and be like, Goddamn, 16 pages. Hi, Elliot. Good morning. Hey, good morning, everybody. Hi, who's this? This is Elizabeth from Brunswick. Yes. Are you a big reader? I am a big reader. My husband also reads as well, but he has dyslexia, so it's difficult for him to read. It's like painful and he struggles a lot with it. I started reading a new book called Dungeon Crawler Carl. Oh, that's so popular. Oh, my God. I haven't read it yet. It's a really fun book. That book is taking off. Tell him what the premise is. So it's basically aliens take over the world and it's like a hunger game thing where aliens are watching humans fight through dungeons to the end. Okay. Anyway, are you do you agree with two things? Number one, do you agree that people like reading aloud and being read aloud to? So this is the first time that I've done it. It's not super comfortable to start out. I like to read ahead and then feel better prepared to read out loud to him. But he enjoys it for sure because he gets to still enjoy the book and not have to struggle through it. That's number one. Number two, have you ever heard of page break? No. So page break is and I believe it is starting to become more and more popular, but it's a, I guess, retreat. I don't know what to call it. It's like a, like you sign up for page break and whoever the page break people are, they host these weekends where you go away somewhere and you stay at like a, like it could be like a, like a cabin or a hotel or, you know, some kind of gathering place and you go there. And it's like they have, you have dinner there. Like they make it sound really nice, honestly. But the the activity is everybody brings a book, the same book, and you go around and everybody reads out loud to each other. Oh, I think it depends on your other readers, right? Like, I think that's my issue with audio books, too. I mean, I enjoy having a physical book anyway, but some audio readers, I'm like, I cannot listen to this person. Yeah. The. I think that that has a lot to do with it. If you have a lot of people in one space and everybody is reading just the portion, I'm like, I can listen to half of you, but the other half, I'm like, I can't. Okay. But maybe they feel that way. Maybe half the room is like, I really like how you read the other half's like, oh my God, this girl's horrible. Great. Agreed. So I was reading, I signed up for the retreat because I love reading aloud and being read, too. I don't know anybody other than you, ma'am, that reads aloud. Yeah. I don't know you there. Like I said, it was just a circumstantial that I started reading this book and I was like, I think you'd really like it. And he was like, if you read it to me, I'll be willing to sit through it. A car, though, if somebody doesn't have the audio book, will a passenger read to the driver? Oh, no, you know why? Because my car is somewhat modern and we have a radio. A lot of people get carsick, too. A lot of people get carsick, too. Yeah. Yeah. That's why we're listening to the radio. Let's see. We've got a four hour car ride. What can we do? Let's read. Oh, this person says, I started to relax when we dove into our first 90 minute reading session. What book did they read? Does it say according to the website, their last retreat, which was just a week ago was a night night font. Night night font. They read it over 48 hours. Oh, I don't know that book. Punch me in the nuts. Jordy Rosenberg is the author. It's not romantic. I don't want it. So what happens over the course of those 90 minutes? You read. But how many people? Oh, there were 16 people at this. I'm sorry, 16 strangers at this. And you just take turns going around. And I can't remember. It's like you read. They like the rule is like you have to read like, I can't remember if it's two pages or three pages and then the next person starts. Oh, so you don't break when you're ready to break? No, like you, you the that's not how it worked in school because I would have been like, I was all right, next. Yeah, no, no, I can't. I can't remember like how many pages they say they read and then it picks up and then the next person starts in and they go. But the rules are very good. You don't you don't correct somebody's pronunciation and you are encouraging. If they don't say that, why would you ever sign up for this? What do you mean? It would be embarrassing if you thought people were going to immediately critique you and your ability to read and pronounce to Kate. Right, but they're going to do that anyway. Oh, mentally, mentally. I don't know. You have to have the right mindset to God. It's Sarah's turn again. Something like this. Oh, if a voice is grading, I guess you may not love that. Right. But I do think they got a tick like every time they at the end of a sentence. They have to breathe in before they read the next sentence. Don't you think you have to go in with a very positive attitude about what's a sorry. I like that when somebody goes that's positive. I hope there's I hope there's a saliva sucker in there. They do list you mentioned the food. They list the chef and the wine that was going to be there. And it says that. Oh, yeah. No, no, it's like it's a whole thing like they try to make it seem very nice. This is not for me. Dinners are inspired by the book we're reading each dish is themed around a specific scene character or quote. And then the wines are curated as well. 304 pages. Oh, God. So short. Short 304 304 pages. That's long. I'm barely through it. I'm like, oh my God, how much more I'm reading Alchemized right now. And I think it's 900 pages. What? Yeah. Dungeon Crawler Carl is 466. That's weak. Wait, did you bring that book with you here on my Kindle? Oh, that's right. Yeah, it's always with me. Have you read any of it since you got here at the gym? The the gym. Book at the gym. Well, in my own home, right, I have a little gym with a treadmill and I have a television right in the in where I live here. A hotel. Right. Oh, they don't have TVs? No. Oh, whatever, dude. Yes, I'm reading a book. Oh, God. The thumbnail here. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Says that it does feature a topic that you love, Elliot. And if Sarah, you haven't gotten to this yet, I'm so sorry. Wait, which, which, for which book? This is Alchemized. Fond Fond or other. I'm only 30% in. Do you know about the amnesia? Yes. Oh, I love amnesia. No, I love amnesia. He does. He is a big fan. No, I'm obsessed with amnesia. It's very fascinating to me. Amnesia enthusiast. Yeah. No spoiler. It's very early in the book that you realize. Does it like a ceiling fan hit him in the head? That's exactly what happens. In this fantasy world with no technology, it was a ceiling fan. Can I go to line one? I don't know what the book is about. Here, just you want to look at the cover. The, are those all trees and stuff? It looks like some sort of. Oh, it's a mountain. Castle or gate. Oh, God. A barring. Necromancy and mind readers and the undead. Sending you. Is that the author? Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, I thought it was like it. Well, never mind, Elliot. I don't know the name. You thought that's where all the way most stop. Hi, Elliot. The morning. Hello. Hi. Who's this? Hi. This is a thunder. I'm calling in regards to the reading out loud. I do read out loud all the time. And it's because it helped me with my attention deficit. Right. Because I get lost sometimes if I'm reading something and my mind just goes somewhere else. Then I have to go back and read sometimes even pages again. So if I read out loud, that doesn't happen. And I also, if I'm working, I'm telling myself out loud what I'm doing. It keeps me focused. I'm still reading. So what if you were listening to someone though, if you went to this group that Elliot's talking about, my Elliot the morning's page break. Yeah. Would you space out and be like, can you repeat that? I might space out. Yes. I might space out. It's for the else is reading at my space out. Yeah. No, I'm with you. When I'm reading, I usually doze out. If you, someone fell asleep in the small breakout group that you're reading allowed to. Yes. Well, and I mean, remember the first session was 90 minutes. Good. Bye. Yeah. No, I would be snoring. I can't do audibles either. I'm sorry. Now, because of the accent, I don't know if you said all the bulls or edibles. No, audible. Audible books. I got you. I got you. I cannot do either. Gotcha. Where are you? Where I do hear an accent though. Where are you from? Italy. Oh, mama Mia. Sorry about the soccer team. Mama Mia. Hey, the, um, no, no, but that like, like for example, I, I know that's not about soccer. I feel like if we, if I've been saying that for the last 12 years, if we put together a page, what did I call it a page break? Yeah. I feel like more people would rather hear you read than to hear me read. I think you have a much more like bookie voice than I do. Now you're, I get that a lot. A lot of people tell me, oh, I love listening to your voice. Your accent is so amazing. I'm, I don't like my voice. I don't like the sound of my voice. I remember it took me days to set up my, my, my, my, my voice to set up my answering machine back in the days. Um, cause I did not like the sound of it. Oh really? Oh, I think you have a very pleasant voice. Oh, thank you. Absolutely. I would, I would love to sit and have an affogato and, and read together. Oh my goodness. Yes. Let's do this. Oh, very good. That's my page break. Affogato. All right. Very good. Very good. I'm going to read pages of a book to you, but if she's working the fast food drive through, we're trying to accomplish two different things. I just wanted to jump in front of that before somebody who's listened for years remembers you having an issue with accents when it comes to that context. Just, I want to be able to order in anyway, anyway. Now, what was the, what was the thorough book that you had mentioned earlier this week? Oh, Walden. Walden. We were discussing it with Sam. Sam, exactly. Exactly. So in order to show what page break would be like, Kristin, can you come here for a second? I thank you for saying, instead of Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau. Thoreau. Yeah. Thoreau. Thoreau. Thoreau. Kristin. She was not discussing Walden with Sam, if that's what you're going to ask her about. No, I wasn't. I wasn't. But I thought we should all read Walden. Oh, no. Wow. Can I have, I have a question. Yes. What's the origin? What do you mean? Of Walden. Is the author like from another country? No. This from the US of A? No, no, no. No extra credit for the accent. There you go. No, I have broken it up. Oh, dear. Oh my goodness. Well, I already see a little discrepancy. What? What's wrong? What's wrong? Is this the beginning of the book? Wait, what's the discrepancy? Okay. Why don't we just start reading and people will figure it out. Why? It goes, I highlighted Elliot, then Sarah, then Kristin, then Tyler. I actually, I get stuck with two. Oh, so you're going to intro and outro us? Oh my God. I just looked at that part. Why don't you just start? You'll be done pretty quickly. So many pages. I don't feel like that. Wait, poor Sarah, you are missing a line at the top of page two. Oh, joy. Remember, we don't make fun. We encourage. We encourage. That does seem unfair. What's that? There is a printing issue. No, no, I think it's the same line. Oh, it is. It's the same line. No, it's not. It's definitely not. I think is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is How do you not make a sound? Like if it's a word that everybody should know. Okay, here we go. Why are you looking at me? Now to be fair, none of us have had any chance to read any of this. Not at all. Well, in high school, the... No, we didn't. I'm sure this was an assigned text. Economy. When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone in the woods, a mile from any neighbor in a house which I had built myself on the shore of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present, I am a sojourner in civilized life again. Damn, that was good. Oh, can you... you can't compliment either. No, you compliment. I know, I don't think you're supposed to critique at all. I feel like you should. What if we do like the... I feel like you should. Poetry. It's very... because he wrote our names so nicely on our sections. There is a break, but did you... like is this the next sentence, or is it supposed to be a paragraph? Well, I don't know. Go ahead, Sarah. I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat if I did not feel lonesome, if I was not afraid, and the like. Others have to have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes, and some who have large families, how poor children I... how many more... Oh, that's... How many more children I've maintained. ...is being distracting you? It's quite... The fact that I've got 10,000 lines of run-on sentences to read... I'm sorry, I don't think that's in the text. So you want the lead or not? I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no particular interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these questions in this book. In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted. In this, it will be retained. That, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that this is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there are anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I on my side require of every writer first or last a simple and sincere account of his own life. Not merely what he has heard in other men's lives. Some such account as he would send his kindred from a distant land. For if he lives sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply to them, and I trust none will stretch... That's what I put an and in there! Yeah, I know. And, you know, who didn't throw? I trust that no one will stretch the seams and putting on the coat, for it may do no good service to him whom it fits. Excuse me, there's also not a no in there, for it may do good service, not no good service. I'm down, so you're not supposed to be critiquing! Alright, put on your seatbelts. Yeah. I crushed mine! Anyway... Oh, it was two sentences. Alright, yes, go ahead, Kristen. Okay. I would feign... I think that's how you say that word. I would feign, say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and sandwich islanders, as you who read these pages, who are said to live in New England, something about your condition, especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it can not... It was a printer. Whether it cannot be improved... Should say can't! Yeah. As well as not. I have traveled a good deal in Concord. Is it Concord or Concord? Concord. Okay, Concord, I think that's what you said. And everywhere, in shops, in offices, in fields, the inhabitants... Yep. Go with it. Have appeared to me to be doing penis and... I think it's penis. I did penis. In a thousand remarkable ways, what I have heard of... Brahmins. Brahmins sitting... Do not assist. Sitting exposed to four fires and looking in the face of the sun or hanging suspended with their heads downward over flames or looking at the heavens over their shoulders, quote, until it becomes... What? Everything you're doing is quoting Thoreau. You don't have to tell me quote. But this is the first quote within a quote. Nobody cares. Anyway, quote, until it becomes impossible for them to resume their natural position while from the twist of the neck nothing but liquids can't pass into the stomach, unquote, or dwelling, chain for life at the foot of a tree or measuring with their bodies, like caterpillars, the breads... I don't know what that is, of vast empires or standing on one leg on the tops of pillars. Even these forms of conscience... Here's this word. Okay, first of all, that's not conscience, but... Conscious. Thank you. Penis. You're not following the rules. I am following the rules. You're talking. I'm dozing out. Only two pages left for her. That's so much. Now you know how I felt. You have two sentences. I started. Okay, penis are hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily witness. The twelve labors of Hercules were tripling in comparison... I thought there was supposed to be another S there. With those... There's not one S in there. Yeah, compare is done. Oh, go ahead. With those which my neighbors have undertaken, for they were... Wait, for they were only twelve and had an end, but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor. They have no friends, Eolus, to burn with a hot iron the root of the Hydra's head. But as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up. The end for me. I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle and farming tools, for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they may... That they might have seen with clear eyes what field they were called to labor in, who made them serfs of the soil. Why should they eat their sixty acres when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man's life pushing all these things before them and get on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met? Well, nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn 75 feet by 40. It's odd-gian... G-E-N-U-N-U-N-G-E-N. Stables never cleansed and 100 acres of land tillage mowing pasture and wood lot. The portionless who struggle with no such necessary inherited encumbrances find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic... Cubic feet of flesh. This is like pubic. Oh look, Elliot has a small one. I think I got to go again. But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost, but a seeming fate commonly called necessity. They are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It's a fool's life as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before. Wait, that's it? That's Walden. So what's this about? I paid attention to the part I had to read and not even so much what it meant, but just what I had to say. Were your two parts even half of Sarah's or Chris'? I went twice. I went twice. So now, but imagine if we did that over three days, how great would that be? How much wine is involved? You got a 900 page book! It actually says right here that they really don't want the guests getting drunk. No, because you got to be able to focus and read. But there is wine as a big part of it, so you're tempted maybe to drink, but they'd like you to stay. Be responsible, because you're responsible for your own reading and somebody else's. They want you to stay in the zone. By the way, can I say this? This is the first time I've ever read Walden. Or really any Thoreau. It was probably watching you read the hardest you've ever tried to do something on the show ever. You were sitting up straight, your posture confused me. That's how I read. Because you're usually a little bent over. Oh, I don't have great posture, but when I read, I'm a wreck. But you were sitting up trying your best not to screw. I don't think you made any mistakes. No, I made zero mistakes. No, you definitely used the wrong word in the second reading. Oh, just... Penis? No. It was bi and he said but. That was for fun. That's like pubic and cubic. I have a question. Yes, Thoreau is who you read. Thoreau. Tyler, you read this, right? Like the full story? I'm pretty sure we're in high school. Can you sum it up in like 10 seconds what it is? So as Elliot said in his first paragraph. Thank you. Aren't you listening? No. Thoreau ends up living for two years near Waldenpaw to escape the industrialism of city life. And the whole book is a call for citizens to rid themselves of their materialistic desires and live a more simplistic life. Okay. That makes sense why I was talking about the Chinese and the New Englanders. I forgot the Brahmins. And you didn't want to highlight the Aegeans? I don't think I said that. I think Tyler said it. Yeah, but you would have heard that. I didn't have my hands on. Oh, he's reading out loud, dummy. Oh. I haven't seen this since high school and I don't know how any of us... We almost have lied and said we read this book. We didn't have to read it. We didn't have to read it in AP. Maybe like in regular English you guys read it. I never heard of it. Yes, you have. No, I have not. Yes, come on. You just don't remember. No, I remember. It was not part of the syllabus. That I believe there was no reading. Well, we had to read like Homer. The Alvernac. Farmers. Yeah, the farmers. Uh-huh. Every year.
