#23 Geek Yoghurt's Bookshelf

Hey everyone and welcome back to the podcast! We've got more of a chill episode lined up for today as we delve between the pages of some our favourite literature, from debating who the best fictional detective is, to discussing the saddest, most overrated, and most interesting books we've read and our favourite authors, it's recommendations galore! Happy listening! ( Note: Spoiler warning for most of the books we discuss )

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, I'm Coda. I'm Sophie. And I'm Deirdre. As an aspiring filmmaker, actress, and musician, we will deep dive into the world of music, movies, books, and everything in between. Welcome to the Geekyogre podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hello. Heya. Hey guys, welcome back to this week's episode on our bookshelves.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

No, thanks. Come on. Like, yeah. Okay. We'll just continue. Um, yes. More of a chill episode today. We're just gonna be talking about some of our fav some of our fave books and book recommendations. Yeah, so does anyone want to start? Or will I? Okay, sure. Um, what's should we do our like favourites or like our favourite genres? Authors, maybe? Sure. Okay. Um, or not. Why is it so sure about this? Well, I'll just I'll just I'll just talk for a bit. Okay, come on. Yeah. Well, I myself, when I'm reading, usually opt for a more crime-oriented thing. Me too. Yeah. Yeah. I love a good mystery novel. Yeah. So my favourite authors would be like Agatha Christie for sure. Oh, for sure. Or like Dan Brown. Yeah. Um actually we should talk about Don Brown. Okay. Right now? Okay. Go ahead. You you wanted this. What are like thoughts on Dan Brown? Because the like the plots of his books are interesting, but he's low key like such a bad writer. Yeah, I think you can get past that though. I don't know if you can though, because then once you kind of notice it, you can't like unsee it. I don't think I noticed it when I was well, no, I read his books like three years ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

I'm currently reading his books, so I don't know. What one are you reading? The Da Vinci Code.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

The Da Vinci Code is so good. I think I've actually read the Da Vinci Code like four times because I read it. I reread it for like school assignments and stuff. I'm actually so sick of it. But it's a good book. I think it's a nice like staple like book for everyone to read. You know? Because it's fairly easy too. It's interesting though. Yeah, I I like I like his books, but um they do drag out a bit. It can get a bit confusing. Or it's always just um like Robert on some random female love interest who's there for the book and then just never again. Yeah. And it's always a different one every time. Yeah. And she's like super smart and she likes helps them solve the case, and then it's just over. Like they're all quite repetitive. That's true. Um, but Agatha Christie would be my favourite overall. Like I've read loads of her stuff, and it's it's also different, but like believable. You know, like the quality's like pretty consistent. Yeah. Like my favourite would be And Then There Were None. It's very good. Murder on the Orient Express, I actually didn't particularly love. You know that like movie, The Murder on the Orient Express. Which one? Oh newer one or the other ones. Wait, I was actually thinking of the Polar Express. But now that I think of it, I've seen The Murder and the Orient Express too, and it's a really good movie. I was thinking of you know that one Polar Express movie and it's really like creepily like animated. Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen the things in that where like one of the the people is like flo floating in the background? They did like didn't finish the animation. So if you look closely, like a crowd of elves, one of them is just floating along. It's very funny. No, it's um I don't know, was there a murder in the Orange Express movie that came out like maybe in the last five years? Yeah, I think so. I don't know if I've seen that one. I think I've seen the older one though. Quite good. But yeah, like movies barely ever live up to the book. True, true, true. Well, on the topic of mysteries, who's our favourite fictional detective? Fictional detective. I'd probably say Sherlock Holmes. Because I don't know, pro is okay, but Sherlock Holmes is just horror. He's such a whole character. Yeah, I I've I think I only read one Murder at the Vicarage, which is okay, but I'd think the the plot was sort of mine is Skull Doug Reason. She says about looking at the whole collection of the shelf. My entire collection. Actually, that's not my entire collection. I have more. That's like literally the best book I've ever read. That's my favourite book of all time. Really? Yep. Everyone should read them.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

When I was smaller, I liked the Murder Mouse and Ajax series. I think like Yes. Never got into them.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Really? Yeah. And I didn't like how they would make like the edges of the pages the same colour as the cover. Yeah. I don't like how the pages are coloured differently.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Even on the fancy ones. I actually got my book signed by Robin Stevens.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

No way. Why was that?

SPEAKER_00 4:57

For how Because she had like a signing event in Etons, so I went to the few years back.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

No way. That's so cool. Yeah, I like those. I don't think I read them in order though, so I like sort of confused myself. Because I was given like the seventh one for Christmas once.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

And so I have to work my way back.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Yeah.

unknown 5:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Or you know what we're so good, the like one of us is lying book. Yeah, I actually haven't watched the series, but the series is really good. I watched it a couple years ago. Or but like two years ago or something. But like it's like the plot is like completely different to the book, but it's like still really good. Yeah. Well, I don't know who my fave author is. Either Derek Landy. Or I actually don't know. Actually, you know what books I loved growing up and I still love? Anne of Greengables. I think I tried to read that. Lucy. Something Montgomery. They're so good. And the series is really good too. So like whimsical. Do you guys like start books often and not finish them? Or do you like have to finish them?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Yeah. I think I spent like six months reading The Hobbit because it was so like oh it was so long. It wasn't really like into that much, but it was ten. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

I tried Lord of the Rings and then I I think I got like two pages and it's like too much brain power. Like I think I read The Lord of the Rings. The whole thing. Probably not the whole thing. I definitely read The Hobbit. I don't know what else I read. It is good, but I've seen the first one only. But yeah, I think myself, I there was maybe up until a year ago I'd like I'd have to finish every book I started and then I wish I could be like that. Yeah. But now I'm just like if I don't like it after the first chapter, I'm just like, yeah, there's nothing worse than forcing yourself to read a book. That was low key me with um Life of Pi. For whatever reason, I was like determined to read that book, and it's genuinely so uninteresting. It's just this guy on a boat. The boat sinks, and he's on a lifeboat with a tiger for the entire book. I watched the lady. And then he like it turns out, okay, spoiler alert. It turns out by the end he's like imagining the whole thing. Really? Yeah, it's meant to be actually. So there's a dead deer. This is actually pretty dark, but it's okay. There's a dead deer and like the tiger and something else on the boat, but it turns out that's like his family. Is it a monkey? Maybe. But they all like died and were on the boat with him. So he replaced them with like animals like in like in his head to cope. Wow. Because he was stuck on the boat. So yeah. It doesn't really make it any much better though. It's just boring.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Yeah, we had to watch that in class. And it was quite like you just like or did you put it on, and then we're like, if you missed a class, you'd just be like confused as to what was happening. Really? Yeah. Because it was like really it was just a tiger on the raft, and then really and then you'd have a boat out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Do you guys like horror books?

SPEAKER_00 8:14

I haven't really read any books.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Stephen King.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

My goat. I've been reading to read Stephen King books, but I haven't really like I read um The Dead Sone the other week.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

It was good, yeah. It was a bit long though. A lot of his books are though. I really want to read it, but like it's genuinely like a thousand pages. And I can just never bring myself to read it. He does have some really good books though. I read the Short Hank Redemption recently. This is also a movie. That was very good. Oh, that's quite short, because it's a short story. So I've only read two Stephen King books and I read short stories, and neither of them are horror, so yeah. I really like Pet Cemetery. Like the song by the Romans. Or you know what one of my fave stories is? The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Yes. I like that one. I love that book. It's so like Autumn.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

I can't remember if I finished it or not.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

I don't think I did. It's literally a short story. I know. It's like 70 pages or something.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

I know, but like I like read halfway through, I think it was like like a trick. It was like an hour ride, and then I like got halfway through and I forgot to finish it.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

I just love that book. And the ending is so good. Yeah. I wrote an essay on it, I think. Really? Yeah. I can't remember why.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

But I have one. Yeah. You were like, oh, I have a PDF on it if you want to see it. Yeah, I was gonna say more about that whole one.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Or Dracula and Frankenstein. Two classic goats. But yeah. Dracula is literally one of the best books I've ever read. It's just so vibey. Or like this, I don't know if this is just me, but whenever I read a book, I like have to be able to imagine all the scenery in it. Like not really characters, that doesn't really matter, but the scenery. I don't know why. And then I have to have like a mental map of the town or whatever it's based in, or else I just like won't enjoy reading. This is so random. But with Dracula, I can imagine like the castle and the town like perfectly. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, it's cool. It does make it better. Because I I read something or saw something recently about you know Franz Kafka, the psychologist guy. Um he wrote a book and it was something to do with an insect. A beetle? I don't know. Wait, I think I don't know. But um he like said to publishers he didn't want the beetle, like or the insect to be on the cover of any of the copies because Oh, was it um was was it was it one of those like Metamorphosis, yeah. I think it was that. Yeah, Metamorphosis at that. And he said he didn't want it to be on any of the covers because then it would stop people from imagining it themselves. But all the publishers just ignored that. Yeah, it was metamorphosis. Didn't he like not want his books to be published or something? And then they were. Or maybe I'm thinking of someone else, I don't know. I'd say he did. Oh. But a lot of his stuff is left unfinished. I actually really want to read stuff from him. I've been meaning to buy it. I'm reading The Phantom of the Opera at the moment. Really? Wow. I'm not reading anything. Because I for Christmas I got a Damon Album biography. And I started it then. Peak literature. It literally took me four months to finish. So I finished last week. Yeah, I don't know why I didn't want to read it so bad, but like every time I thought about it, I was like, I can't pick this up. But it was there's actually some interesting stuff in there. But when it got to the more modern stuff, especially because I know since it was published, like blur have like gotten back together and like wrote a whole album that a lot of it doesn't really apply anymore. Yeah. But I have another one because I got two for Christmas from two different people. So I've got that to look forward to.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Every like a week or so, it's been like so that really it's just a picture of his face.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah, I just kept sending pictures of it in various locations. Yeah. But I love like when you finish a book and you get to like choose what to read next. You know, looking through like my my TBR shell for what yeah. True, it's a good feeling. It's a good feeling. What's the saddest book you've ever read?

SPEAKER_00 12:07

When the world is ours. Really? Yeah, I cry reading in the book, to be honest. We talked about this.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Yeah. On like episode three. Yeah. You asked that same question. I'm gonna own it. I'm probably sitting in this exact place, too. No, that was back when we were in our old recording space.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

We actually wanted to ever.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Oh my god, yeah. Do you remember this? Yeah. I can't remember what I said. Our old recording space. I low-key like it, but it just gets really warm. Yeah. Yeah. And it's more open. Like where we are now is more cozy. I agree. It's there, it's it's a bit more like everyone can see us. Yeah, it's quite literally. The walls are literally clear in the place we're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. And it is further away, so this is just sort of more convenient. But yeah, so I mean we can all go through our saddles book.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

I think your status book was the bell jar, did you say? Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you were like my definitely the bell jar.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

I remember that was my favourite book for a brief moment. I got so much hate about that. Yeah, everyone like I had a religion teacher, and I was there she was also an English teacher, so she has a bell jar poster on the wall, and she was like, uh or someone pointed out, and I was like, Yeah, that's my favourite book. And then she was like, What is wrong with you? You you sadistic psychopath. And I was like, Yeah, but it's important to like to read this stuff. And then I got in a debate in front of my whole class with this other guy, uh, about that same book. And I was like, God, why does it keep going? Oh my god, that reminds me of someone telling me Lord of the Flies was one of their favourite books, and I was genuinely like, What the hell? That's that's really weird, because it's just not a nice book. It's like everyone just dies, and it's all these kids, and like it's terrible. That I've also tried to read multiple times and never finished. Once I I stayed up all night reading that because for well, A, I wanted to get it finished, and B, I didn't want to like read half of it and go to bed because it was just like disturbing, so I was like, geez. Well, no, it's not that bad, but it's just a bit like oh. But yeah. Mine's the thought in our stars, which I've Yeah, the movie is also quite sad. I love John Green though, he's one of my favourite authors. Really? Yeah. Jinx. No, I've read a couple of his things. Like the oh Turtles All the Way Down and about Catherine's. Yeah. Pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

I really like Holly Jackson. Yeah. She's a good author.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Did she write a good girl's guide to murder? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

That's a good book. I liked the progression through the trilogy. To read the trilogy. I thought it was very good. Like at the end it was like I was so sad when I finished them.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

I was like, oh.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Because they're quite easy to read, but like detailed at the same time, which I like. Because like you know, reading classic books is great and I love them.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

But it's also nice when it's sort of you don't have to think too much about what's being said. That's what Oscar Wilde is like. Genuinely. His books are so chill and easy to read. It's such like a vibe. And he's he's funny too.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

World's biggest fan over here. Oscar Wilde propaganda.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

No, like genuinely. Um or have you guys read Little Women? Yes, I have. Actually, I haven't. Have you not? Oh, that's mad. I I've watched the movie so many times.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

I love it. I remember I watched so I read the book and I was like, wait, this means I can watch the movie now. Yeah. And I didn't realise there was like a sequel to it. Oh yeah, it's so confusing. Okay, like spoiler, I think it's Beth like dies. Yeah. And I was like, I had her crying. I was like, I didn't know she died because I didn't read the sequel.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Oh yeah, she like gets sick, doesn't she?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Yeah, that didn't happen in the first book.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Oh no way. Yes. Oh that's not great.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's everything was all Sunshine and Rainbows in the first book.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Some of the copies have like the other stories built in, and then some don't. So it's like really confusing. Oh no. I think I read it, I knew she was going to die, but I remember it didn't happen in the book, and I was like, what? Then I realised I'd have to read a whole other book, and I was like, oh, are you serious? But yeah. It is good, but it does drag a bit. Sometimes. I think. It's really like nicely written though. Like you can really like enjoy it. Are there any books you guys are like planning to read at the moment? Yeah, loads. My like shelf is like stacked because I keep buying books. But like this Damon Albar book has really like held me back. But yeah, um, I was gonna start Breakfast at Tiffany's because I did borrow it off a friend like a year ago and it's her favourite book, so I should probably give it back. But that and then I also bought Outsider by that guy, Albert Cam Cameron. Oh right, yeah. Yeah, I got it for like less than five euros. So happy because I was looking for ages. So there's that one as well. That those I'm looking forward to. Oh wait, have we all read 1984? No. I have it though. I thought you guys had read 1984. I've read Animal Farm. I read Animal Farm. Yes. Oh, maybe that's what I'm thinking. That I actually didn't enjoy too much. Um I like the the whole like metaphor of it, but I thought the actual story wasn't great. Wait, is it just the animals like represent communism? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

I remember I read that when I was like on holidays and then I was like, I like came out of my room because I was like, oh, I finished reading it. I was like, what even happened? Like, no, I obviously like I like I had to think about it for like a good solid hour.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

That's actually like my favourite thing. I really like going on holidays and bringing like a good book. Like I don't know why, but it always has to be some like random like ancient horror book. Like I remember reading like The Turn of the Screw while being on like a holiday in like Spain or something, and it was just so like chill. Because it's such a contrast, you know, but in like a good way. I've really oh, you know what I really want to read? Sleepy Hollow. This is a bit random, yeah, but like I really like the movie, and I like re-watched it recently, and I really want to read the book about like the headless horseman and stuff. Yep. It's a great story.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

It's a story I read like a while back, but it was a kind of written, it was a murder mystery, but it was written from the perspective of the murder. Have you like it's called Wind Lose Kills Eye. Have you read it?

SPEAKER_01 18:22

It's so cool. Well, no, like you know anything.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

No, well, I can't do Windows Kills Eye. Can I borrow it? Yeah, I'll give it to you like tomorrow. Yay! Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Yeah, I read something similar. Have you read um what's it called? The talented Mr. Ripley? Oh maybe? Yeah. I bought it in the world's oldest bookshop in Paris.

unknown 18:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Wait, what's that about again? It's I think he's schizophrenic. I didn't really understand what that happened after.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

I put it back on my reread shelves, so I will be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

How many shelves do you have to read? Not read and read. And then if if it's on read and I want to read it again, it goes back to not read. But like, how often would you guys reread books?

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Not often, not like literally almost never because I remember everything that happened.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

So kind of looky, I don't. I for I actually think my memory's terrible. Like in movies as well. I can't remember. That's so weird. I know. I think I don't know why, but my memory is really bad recently. But not for like if I'm studying something, then it'd be fine. Do you know, like before the era of the printing press, people would just like reread the books they had over and over.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

And that's so weird. That's what Belle from Beauty and the Beast did. Really? Yeah, because she didn't have any books in the village, so she was like, Well, yeah, but like the memory because she read the book.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Like anyway, that's like the kind of Yeah, or was it was it Socrates, I think, who said that people shouldn't write because it would like oh he said it would like make you like stupider.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Oh, but he he was kind of weird though, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yes, and he would like never write. I'm pretty sure it was him.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Was he the philosopher that when he just went up to people in ancient Greece? It was like, are we alive or imagine?

SPEAKER_01 20:21

No, he was known for being like I don't like like imagine like being a philosopher and you're genuinely just sitting around all day being like, yo, why are we here? How do you get paid for it though? Like Or if imagine having a busy day in like ancient Greece and some random guy comes up to you and he's like, What do you think the meaning of existence is?

SPEAKER_00 20:40

I mean like I could just shut off. Like imagine they were like alive today and they're like, oh my god, I can't believe he got famous after like everything.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Yeah, Socrates didn't write anything down because he viewed philosophy as a live evolving dialogue, and he also believed writing was a dead medium that weakened human memory. That just doesn't make sense though. Like, what do you mean? Jeez. Maybe he thought too hard about it.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

He was like, I'm not gonna write that down.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Maybe he thought his like thoughts were too like precious. Because you ever have like a good idea, but then the second you try to like write it, it just seems like bad. Yeah, so I love you, like see what what he's getting at. But also at the same time, like it's like if you like you have an idea for like a story or something, and then you write down like a chapter, and then you read it over like a month later, you're just like, what was I?

SPEAKER_00 21:26

For real, it's just so cringe, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Yeah, for real. No, I do want to get into philosophy though. Like read about it. It's like really wait, didn't like Sophie do a philosophy course with the degree philosophy course.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

What the hell? Like Yeah. That's that's fun. Yeah, we had to learn about like Socrates and Aristotle and all these. Yo, yeah, it was just learning that it was like, yeah, these people thought they were crazy. I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Yeah, real. The allegory of the cave is quite interesting though, I think. Yeah. The what? The allegory. Of the cave. Did you not learn about this? Probably. What is it? It's like okay. Um it's like there's people like I know. There's people in the cave, and then there's shapes, shadows being projected off the walls, and that's all they know of life. So then they don't want to leave the cave. I think this is it. And then but then someone leaves the cave and they're like, oh, it's so much better outside the cave. But the other people don't want to leave because they're like, well, we know this, we don't know what's outside. So don't really get what we know. It's like people are scared of like what the what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Going out and exploring the world, basically.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Yeah, like why why leave if you're satisfied here? But there's more outside. There's a whole world outside your cave, you know? You gotta you can almost come back to the cave.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Yeah. Yeah, but then you wouldn't then you would like even know stuff that you didn't know before. It'd be like a different kind of vibe.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

And there could be danger outside the cave. That's true. Or do you ever think about how weird we shouldn't have on this? How weird like the internet is, because like surely it's not good for your brain to like know what's happening on the other side of the world even though you've never been there. Do you know do you know what I mean? Like it's weird that we know stuff that we don't like experience. Yeah. That it doesn't seem right. But hey. That's a lot. Well, should we call it a day there? Yeah, a lot more to say. But should we just if we have one book that we want to recommend to the listeners each, we'll just end on that. Okay. Like doesn't even have to be your favorite. The picture of Dorian Grey. Yeah. One of my fave books ever, and it has an important message about vanity.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

I can't remember my book because I was gonna say something and I was like, I was like, oh, this is a bagger, and I was like, I can't remember it. Um yeah, I'm just gonna leave it out with you. What about you? Um oh. I'd say the Belgiar. Okay, it's important. Yeah, it's an important message. I'd say probably the outsiders, actually. I was like looking at it. Oh, the outsiders. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

You know, she wrote it when she was 16. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah. Well, there you have it, folks. Thank you for listening as always. Thank you. Bye. Bye.