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With your propensity for books and fiction in particular, I was wondering how you store your books. Now where, through this podcast, have you bent for less rather than more in a room? What's your advice for someone like me, now drowning in books? Leslie, as you might imagine, I don't store books. I don't keep them. I used to think that I would, and I used to treat them as if they were kind of sacred objects. I still have maximum respect for them, and I, as you may know, I spend half my life reading. But I don't hang on to them. The only books I retain are those that have sentimental value, or on the few occasions when people have given me valuable books, I have two or three books which are worth quite a lot of money. and if they're signed either by the author or by someone that I admire or love. I suppose at one point in my life I did think I was going to live, when I grew up, I was going to live in a book-lined room. But in fact, when I came to the point where I had a room, I didn't want it to be book-lined because it was just too complicated and too much stuff. And I don't want to keep a lot of books that I'm never going to pick up. I feel that's sort of wrong. If I'm not going to read them all of the time or regularly, then why keep them? So I take excess books to the Oxfam store. I buy many more books than I'm ever going to read. And I buy books compulsively. I have a rule. I have two rules in the bookshop. I have several, but I have two particularly. And they're both completely random and ridiculous. One is I never buy a book with trees on the cover. And the other is I won't buy a book if it's got clouds on the cover. Because I've been burned too many times, Leslie. I've been burned by tree-covered books and cloud-covered books. So that's never going to happen again. I made a vow. There are other criteria which I won't go into now. Hello, my name is Geneviève Giroux. I'm a Canadian-Belgian based in Los Angeles. My question for you would be about smell, body smell, perfume smell, and how do you deal with them if you're in an enclosed space for quite a long time? An elevator doesn't count. An airplane would definitely be something. And how do you address the subject? And what is a comforting smell for you? Thank you so much. Genevieve, this is a very tricky issue that you've introduced. I have been in closed spaces with people who have interesting body odor, and it's tough. I don't think, I certainly have never had the courage to tell anybody if they had anything like an unfortunate smell. On the few occasions when it's happened, I've just angled my body as far away from theirs as is possible. smells I like are I like the smell of marmite I like the smell of bacon that's what prevents me largely from being a vegetarian I like the smell of coffee I think the smell of coffee and bacon are always is always much much more satisfying than the event itself this is my theory I like the smell of fresh bread you know the usual things I don't have a perfume I've never worn I've never been confident enough to wear cologne or anything of that kind or aftershave. I always think aftershave was sort of the generation before me. I don't know anybody who wears aftershave. I don't think I do unless I'm losing my sense of smell, but I don't think I am. And for women, I'm not that familiar with perfumes really. So I can't help you in that regard. Although I've never worn cologne or perfume of any kind, I am particular about soap. And I'm also a moisturizing freak. I am fetishistic about moisturizer. I buy an enormous amount of moisturizer. I buy unnecessary moisturizer. I have several different smells in my bathroom. I kind of rotate them. The other day, I put three kinds of moisturizer on at the same time. And then I worried that maybe there would be some chemical reaction and my skin would start to fall off or burn. but it didn't happen so everybody calmed down because I just couldn't make up my mind you know between I did a film in Belgrade once and my makeup artist gave me Dr. Hauschka the Melissa and I was scared on this film and I thought I was going to mess it up but in fact it went really well and then she gave me this moisturizer so I put those two things together like any you know superstitious medieval peasant. And I decided that it was obviously lucky moisturiser. So I have to buy it all the time now. So that's a constant in my life. And that smell of Melissa by Dr. Hauschka reaching out for sponsorship is one of the signature smells in my life. Hi, Bill. It's Anne here from Sunderland. I thinking about ditching my social media accounts because there such a time suck and I end up just doom scrolling And I wondered what are your thoughts on social media My thoughts on social media is don go near it I've never had to have, I don't own a computer. You're either talking to the right person or the exact wrong person. I've never owned a laptop or a computer. I've never touched one in earnest. And I made that decision straight off the bat. I'm lucky. I do. Obviously, I have an iPhone and not obviously I have an iPhone, but I have an iPhone and therefore I carry a computer around in my pocket. But I very rarely do much with it apart from make calls and receive texts. I've never looked at Instagram. I've never tweeted or X'd. And if I sound slightly pleased with myself, it's because I am. I'm really, really, really, really happy that I dodged it, that particular bullet. bullet and I'm not normally that smart but I somehow I saw it I just saw it coming I think it was when Facebook started and they said you can enumerate your friends it's like a nightmare you count your friends I was working on less contact working quite vigorously on less contact not more so it was precisely what I didn't need it was precisely my nightmare and I think if you can wean yourself off it, or if you can go cold turkey, I'll hold your coat, because I think it would be a great decision. We are all enthralled to our devices, and it's damaging. You know, I understand that it causes a level of depression, and sometimes extreme depression, particularly in young people. And it's like when I do PR, when I do press for a film or a show, it's not digging holes in the street. But by the end of the day, you are absolutely exhausted because there's something about it which is innately fatiguing. And if you're young with an iPhone, it's like you have to wake up every morning and do your own PR, which must be very, very grueling. And the pressure must be considerable. And if you could eliminate that, and it's the enemy of reading for a start, And I like to read, so the phone has to go off before you open a book. If you can get off it, get off it. The sky won't fall. There are people who have to have it, apparently, for work purposes, and I understand. But if that's not the case, then let's not go there. Let's wander free. Hi, Bill. Katie here. What are your thoughts on dressing gowns and slippers, as my stylish boyfriend has a vehement aversion to them. Are gowns and slippers allowed? If so, do you have any suggestions that might be up to the standard of this Highbury Barn sartorialist? He has banned them at his house and my feet get very cold on his kitchen flagstones in the winter months. Katie, I don't wear slippers and I've never worn slippers and I didn't for most of my life own a dressing gown but then I went to stay at Le Bristol Hotel in Paris and I arranged to buy, I didn't steal, all the bathroom linen. So I have two Le Bristol bath mats and I also have, I used to have some towels and now I have two bathrobes because somebody also bought me one. But slippers, no, I wear last year's loafers. That's what, or the two years before. But the idea that he would ban you from wearing slippers, that's just unkind and wrong. And you should either, you should get him to reconsider, or there is another option, which is show him the door. Just don't go around there anymore. Or buy slippers that are sort of unassailably attractive. But I don't know. I don't think anyone should be banned from wearing anything in anybody's home. So I worry about your boyfriend, Katie, just, you know, to be perfectly frank. Hi, Bill. I have the privilege and pain, if you like, of flying a lot. It would be really helpful to know your thoughts on what to wear for both short-haul and long-haul flights and what travel luggage or accessories you recommend. And just as importantly, what you would avoid like a rash. Unless, of course, rashes are kind of your thing. Yours, Vic from London. Vic from London. I fly regularly. And the latest development is that I dress up to go flying. And it gives me enormous pleasure. I can't tell you quite why, but I love turning up in an airplane in a suit and tie. And I take my jacket off and I hang it somewhere sensible and then I kick back. And I watch the other people, largely men it always seems to be, getting into airplane pajamas. I think the day you get into airplane pajamas, the game is over. It's never going to happen. I've always worn suits most of my life, even when I didn't have any money, because what would happen would be that I would, when I had no money and I would do jobs which required a suit, they would buy me a suit for the gig. And then at the end, they would allow you to buy the suit, maybe for half price or maybe for a third of the price. Or sometimes they would just say, go on, take it. and therefore I would pay for the suit with the money I'd made from the gig but I wouldn't have any other clothes because for a while I not only didn't have any money but I was an above average mess and I could never get anything together. I could never organize a regular place to sleep for instance and I used to sleep on a lot of sofas and couches and I used to sleep in squats and various places wherever I could find somewhere for the night and I hated carrying things. I didn't carry anything I'd accumulated from one place to another. I would hitchhike carrying the book that I was currently reading because I couldn't bear to hitchhike carrying anything. So I would leave if I had been working, say, in Liverpool. I would leave whatever I'd accumulated in Liverpool and start afresh, which gave me enormous pleasure to be unencumbered. I've spent most of my life slightly overdressed because I got a taste for suits. I think you put a suit on and it's, you know, it's done. Anyway so on the airplane I now dress up and I wear a tie It amuses me to be dressed like somebody from the 1940s And as for luggage I don check a bag The late, great Tom Wilkinson, who I traveled with on a couple of occasions, he very glamorously carried a small holdall and breezed through, you know, ignoring the baggage carousel. And it was so kind of glamorous that I immediately vowed I would never check another bag for as long as I lived. And that was 20 years ago. And I haven't. I pass the baggage carousel and try not to look, you know, dismissive of the people who are waiting for stuff. But I do. I feel superior. I feel superior and I feel obscurely proud of the fact that I carry no stuff. I know it's difficult for women because they need what you might call hair products. So there's a lot of liquids involved, which I don't bother with. And also I think that, you know, if I need hair products, I'll buy them wherever I'm going. And in terms of luggage, I carry a very satisfying, basically kind of what most people would call a weekend bag. That's all I take. I'm a big enthusiast for dry cleaning. And I have all my shirts cleaned and pressed at the dry cleaners and then sheathed. Yeah, none of us in the studio here can survive the word sheathed for some reason. And my colleagues who are otherwise quite professional and apparently adult find it absolutely impossible to relax around the word sheathed. But it's the only word that covers it really, if you'll pardon the pun. and therefore I can go into my holdall with maybe five shirts well that's nearly a week and then there's shorts and socks and a toiletry bag and then I carry a suit bag with a couple of pairs maybe three, depending on the trip I mean if it was like a month or something I'd take three pairs of trousers excluding the ones that I'm already wearing and I've already got a suit because I'm wearing it on the plane so that hold all that has been with me for many many years and I can highly recommend came and here again I'm reaching out for sponsorship from Alfred Dunhill and co. Other than that that's about the size of it really. And now it's time for what's become a particularly popular element in the whole podcast thing here which is the banned word list. People can't get enough. I tell you, if we get any more response from listeners, there'll be no words left in the language. There are people that want all kinds of things banned. My bad. Absolutely get rid of that. My bad. Where did that come from even? If any of your friends use the word my bad, then they can fly out of your address book. blue sky thinking turns out to be unacceptable and punching through the glass ceiling is unbearable and wrong any kind of business speak frankly is fine if you're in a meeting but don't bring the meeting to a cafe if you want to really upset me i love cafes i live in cafes and i love cafes as much as I love any other aspect of human society. There is a tendency now to take the office to the cafe. And when you walk in your local cafe and they put three tables together and they've all got their laptops out and they're all talking impenetrable business speak, it makes me want to find another cafe. Thinking outside the box will get you thrown off these premises. This episode's playlist is called Dance Tunes for Snake Hips. You know who you are. And the first track is by Prince. Finally, we're getting around to it. It's called It's About That Walk. And I really, really like it. And there's a lyric involved, which I was going to read to you. And in fact, I'm quite, I yearn to read it to you, but I'm not going to read it to you because I've discovered in life that there are things that sound perfectly great when Prince sings them that also sound really uneasy-making if I speak them, particularly into a microphone. So you're going to have to trust me on that. I wonder if you can spot the passage in the lyric that I'm reluctant to speak out loud in public. I wonder if you can spot that. The next song is by an artist who I also have probably come late to, and she's called Sy, S-Y, Smith and this is a song called Good and Strong. Put the kettle on, dance around the kitchen. Then we have the inestimable Jimmy Smith, the great Hammond organ maestro with Dr. John on vocals doing a thing called Only In It For The Money and that's a really good album if you want to check out the album from which it comes. And then again Aretha Franklin with A Rose is Still a Rose, which I believe was produced by Lauryn Hill. And it's about how a young woman should not despair if she's been deceived into intimacy by a rogue because she's still a rose despite that. And it swings like nobody's business. Then we have a live version, live from the Nassau Coliseum in 1976. of the song Stay by David Bowie, and I think it's one of the greatest beginnings of any track ever. So check it out. And the last track is from a band that are coincidentally enjoying a revival, and they were a 70s band that I knew nothing about until my tremendous producer, Alice Williams, introduced me to them. And they're called, even she isn't quite sure how to pronounce it, but we're going to go with Simande. It could be Saimande. It could be, anyway, it's C-Y-M-A-N-D-E. But once again, it'll be in the show notes if you can't remember. And it's a song called I Wanna Know, and it a really really cool rhythm and blues number Check it out This week Book of the Week is The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald And if you haven't come across Penelope Fitzgerald, I can't recommend her strongly enough. The Bookshop, as it happens, quite sort of coincidentally much later after I read it, was adapted into a film by Isabel Quaggett, the eminent Spanish film director, and she adapted it and directed it. And I was invited to be in it with Emily Mortimer, who is somebody I admire tremendously. And it's a beautiful book about a woman who tries to open a bookshop in the English countryside in Suffolk. she needs help because she wants to sell this is in the 1950s she wants to sell lolita the Nabokov novel in her bookshop and there is resistance to that because it's a controversial book so she asks Mr Brundish for his advice Florence lent forward you know Mr Brundish there is a certain responsibility about trying to run a bookshop. I believe so, yes. Not everybody approves of it, you know. There are certain people I think who don't. I am referring to Violet Gamart. She had other plans for the old house and now it seems she has been affronted in some way. I'm sure she knows that it was an accident. It was difficult to speak anything other than the truth in Holt House to Mr Brundish. But Florence added, I'm sure that she means well, means well, said Mr. Brundish. Think again. He tapped on the table with a weighty teaspoon. She wants an art centre. How can the arts have a centre that she thinks they have and she wishes to dislodge you? Even if she did, said Florence, it wouldn't have the slightest effect on me. It appears to me, Mr. Brundish said, that you may be confusing force and power. Mrs. Gemart, because of her connections and acquaintances, is a powerful woman. Does that alarm you? No, said Florence. Mr. Brundish ignored or perhaps had never been taught the polite convention of not staring. He did stare. He looked fixedly at Florence as though surprised at her being there at all, and yet she felt encouraged by his single-minded concentration. May I go back to my first question? I am thinking of making a first order of 250 copies of Lolita, a considerable risk, but of course I'm not consulting you in a business sense. That would be quite wrong. All I should like to know before I put in the order is whether you think it is a good book and whether it's right for me to sell it in Hardborough. and I don't attach as much importance as you do I dare say to the notions of right and wrong I have read Lolita as you requested it is a good book and therefore you should try to sell it to the inhabitants of Hardborough they won't understand it but that is all to the good understanding makes the mind lazy Florence sighed with relief at a decision in which she had had no part. Then, to reassure herself of her independence, she took the single knife, cut two pieces of cake, and offered one to Mr. Brundish. Deeply preoccupied, he put the slice on his plate as gently as if he were replacing a lid. He had something to say, something closer to his intentions in asking her to his house than anything that had gone before. Well, he said, I have given you my opinion. Why should you think that a man would be a better judge of these things than a woman. At these words, a different element entered the conversation, as perceptible as a shift in wind. Mr. Brundage made no attempt to check this. On the contrary, he seemed to be relieved that some pre-arranged point had been reached. Well, I don't know that men are better judges than women, said Florence, but they spend much less time regretting their decisions. I have had plenty of time, said Mr. Brundish, to make mine, but I have never found it difficult to come to conclusions. Let me tell you what I admire in human beings. I value most the one virtue which they share with gods and animals, and which need not therefore be referred to as a virtue. I refer to courage. You, Mrs. Green, possess that quality in abundance. she knew perfectly well sitting in the dull afternoon light with the ludicrous array of slop basins and tureens in front of her that loneliness was speaking to loneliness and that he was appealing to her directly the words had come out slowly as though between each one she was being given the opportunity of a response but while the moment hung in the balance and she struggled to put some kind of order into what she felt or half-guessed, Mr. Brundish sighed deeply. Perhaps he had found her wanting in some respect. His direct gaze turned gradually away from her, and he looked down at his plate, the necessity to make conversation returned. Thank you for listening, and I hope I've helped. Pass and squander the time. Although I smugly, you know, tell you that I'm not, that I'm in the digital dark, and I'm very, very happy about that. The show, luckily, is on Instagram. So I am kind of now in the digital world, although I will never really properly directly visit it. But there you go. And you can reach me on Instagram at illadvisedbybillnye. Ill-Advised by Bill Nye was produced by Alice Williams and Keira Gregory. Assistant producer was Angelique Solmer. pronounced Soma, and it's an iPod production, and Bill Naigi remains an executive producer, and that is the correct pronunciation of Bill's name. He'd like me to say that. There's a lot of people going around saying all kinds of funny things, but it's Bill Naigi, and that's final.
