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Episode 104 - ADHD: Books and Bookstores
50 Plays14 days ago
Paul and Martin (co ex-mayors of ADHDville) open the chapter on books and bookstores. They get into it, why are bookstores popular with ADHDers? Lots of stories and stuff. boom.
Pull up a virtual pint at the King's Agitated Head pub, and join the conversation in ADHDville. Don't forget to subscribe for fresh episodes every Tuesday. See our beautiful faces on YouTube
Put quill to paper and send us an email at: ADHDville@gmail.com
ADHD/Focus music from Martin (AKA Thinking Fish)
Theme music was written by Freddie Philips and played by Martin West. All other music by Martin West.
Please remember: This is an entertainment podcast about ADHD and does not substitute for individualized advice from qualified health professionals.
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Transcript
Welcome to ADHDville
00:00:00
Speaker
back in the room and Paul will be back in the room just in a couple of minutes we had a little bit of technical flim flammery and we and we didn't get Paul's first bit so I'll do his bit all alright so glad you could join us we really appreciate appreciate ah that you're here so let's go to a place where the distractions and landmarks and the detours are on the main roads welcome to ADHDville
00:00:36
Speaker
But we'll be here in just a minute
00:00:50
Speaker
So at this point, my co-host would say, I'm Paul Thompson.
Personal ADHD Stories
00:00:54
Speaker
I was diagnosed with combined ADHD calling to a couple of years ago. And I will say that I'm Martin West. And I was diagnosed with the combined poopoo platter of ADHD in 2013.
00:01:05
Speaker
And we will be starting here at the King's Agitated Head pub, where Paul will walk in any minute now. um And we will get going on our subject of bookstores and books.
00:01:20
Speaker
So, in the magic of podcast editing, to Paul and me. Shwing, shwing, shwing, shwing, shwing. All right.
00:01:33
Speaker
So, this is your subject, Paulio. Why don't you ah lead the way?
Sensory Joys of Bookstores
00:01:39
Speaker
Yeah, I've actually got some structure, Martin, this time for once. All right.
00:01:44
Speaker
We're talking about the like the sensory aspect of books and bookshops. Then we're going to go to the other stuff, are like you know how books were related to different parts of your your life's life cycle, your lifespan, your life.
00:01:59
Speaker
All right. Okay. so why it So there's some sensory aspects of books and bookshops. Well, you could also include libraries if you have if you know if you want.
00:02:11
Speaker
i was There was a thing. i discovered a thing about the smell of bookshops, right, Martin? Yes. comes from ah thing called Volatile Organic Compounds, VOCs, that are released by paper the combination of paper, ink, and glue.
00:02:26
Speaker
These compounds can produce subtle calming effects similar to aromatherapy. For example, vanillin, a compound in aged paper, and has a scent similar to vanilla, which is known to reduce stress and anxiety.
00:02:42
Speaker
There's an actual link between the smell of the books actually having calming effect to all ah kind of our you know our mood, as it were, right?
00:02:53
Speaker
All right. Also triggering positive memories, you know, like you go back to your childhood. They're called Proustian memory, okay, where smell triggers wild emotional rich memories, okay.
00:03:07
Speaker
ah Then all right being in a book-filled environment can signal a learning mode in your brain that subtly encourages concentration and mindfulness.
00:03:21
Speaker
i You know what? i have said have said that, or at least I feel like when you walk into a bookstore, you feel instantly smarter. Like as soon as you go in, you are smarter than you were when you were on the yeah outside.
Bookstore Nostalgia and Humor
00:03:38
Speaker
And you know what? That made me think.
00:03:41
Speaker
If you did a test, right, if you did a test um inside a bookstore, I reckon you would score higher in a test if you did it in a bookstore than if you did it in a boring room. And bit like we yeah hand if you're following on from last week about hats, if you were wearing a hat bookstore. just about to say the same thing.
00:04:06
Speaker
Yes. You do really well. That's the secret. I was just about to say the same thing. you but It's basically finding ways to trick your mind into into pretending that you're smart. ah Right? Yes.
00:04:19
Speaker
Well, because we are, obviously. Yeah. So i ah I can remember, Martin, ah let's go into like phases of our ah phases of life, right?
00:04:33
Speaker
I remember when I was about seven. Hang on, hang on, hang on. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I haven't finished with the whole sensory thing. okay. The whole sensory thing. That's a whole subject all by itself.
00:04:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Which is what you're describing is like there's old bookstores, right? They have that kind of, that sort of vanilla thing.
00:04:59
Speaker
dust, leather, wood kind of vibes to it, which is yeah which is gorgeous. I mean, who doesn't like walking around an old bookstore?
00:05:11
Speaker
And then there's a a new bookstore called
00:05:17
Speaker
yeah vibe, smell, yeah sensory thing, which is totally different where you kind of get these kind of like fresh difference paper smell, fresh ink, fresh glue. There's kind of two very different.
00:05:31
Speaker
Yeah, two different vibes. I like the kind of independent store kind of vibe.
00:05:37
Speaker
yeah Think um the the bookshop in that film with, oh, blimey, um where there's, oh, God, based in London, but it's with the American actress.
00:05:54
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. But while you're thinking of that, I'm thinking of Foil's bookstore. Notting Hill. in Notting Hill. Oh, okay.
00:06:06
Speaker
And there's a bookshop. it's like It's almost a bookshop. It's like a protagonist in that. Think of that kind of scale. You go in there, it's like, ah. It's like for an ADHD person, these environments that are like full of this of potential stimulus, right?
00:06:24
Speaker
It's like spark your mind and curiosities and, you know, wonderment adventure. Right. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Like, you know, like, yeah, so I was just saying that you've been to Foyle's bookstore in London, right? Yes, yes. It's in Charing Cross.
00:06:46
Speaker
It's a big old There's like five floors. There's about 100,000 books in it. And you can get lost in it. I mean, like, you can literally just lose your way in the shelvings of the books. It's like sort of some crazy Hogwarts library. it's got fun...
00:07:06
Speaker
Fantastic cafe slash but bar in the middle there. It's like almost are quite difficult to find. And they have like jazz evenings. It's like jazz music in there. You can go there listen to concerts.
00:07:18
Speaker
Amazing place. Amazing. But because it's old, so like, you know, the the more modern bookshops, like on five floors, like Waterstones in Piccadilly, it doesn't quite cut the mustard.
00:07:32
Speaker
It's not the same vibe. I like it. No. I can enjoy it. Not the same. But it's not the same. Files is phenomenal. Just around the corner from Denmark Street, where you would probably go to go and buy yourself a harp or a banjo or a guitar.
00:07:48
Speaker
It's right around corner. don't know.
00:07:53
Speaker
I get all my banjos and harps from Denmark Street in London. you know I remember once there was a tourist asking directions to Denmark Street and I sent them to Topna Court Road by mistake.
00:08:09
Speaker
Of course. Oh, yeah, mate. Left to go right and then straight on for about two miles. was actually, ah so and then I thought, oh, no, I heard Tunnel Court Road, but what they said was Denmark Street.
00:08:22
Speaker
And it's literally like 30 seconds walk from where they asked me. I sent them in the opposite direction. Oh, God, I still feel bad about that. Yeah, no, I know. still feel bad about it.
00:08:35
Speaker
That's funny. Yeah. i I feel i i for slightly angry um about the time i was i was working in, ah but I worked in Manhattan for years and I was just and was just out on the sidewalk.
00:08:50
Speaker
And I've been there for long time. And someone came up to me and said, where's a Spring Street? And I knew exactly where where it was. I went, yeah okay, mate, yeah, ah you just go down and it's about four blocks down on the on the left.
00:09:08
Speaker
And I went, oh, okay, thanks. And then he walked up to someone else and said the exact same thing. Like he walked about maybe six, seven foot and then asked the person, is's that same it's because I had an English accent.
00:09:22
Speaker
He didn't trust me. know He didn't trust me. At all? Yes. You had to go and ask someone else. and I get that in Italy. People like stop. I had someone stop in their car.
00:09:36
Speaker
I was walking there along and I had my dog with me. said, oh, he must be a local, right? So he stopped, wound down the window. And where is such and such? And I was talking to him, gave him precise.
00:09:48
Speaker
He'd look at me like I was talking Swahili. said, no. Like my mum, bless her, if she heard a so Scottish accent, she would just look at them and say, haven't got clue what you're talking about.
00:10:02
Speaker
But she never tried to understand them.
00:10:06
Speaker
Oh, blimey. Right. Yeah. yeah, yeah. No,
Diverse Bookstore Sections
00:10:11
Speaker
it's like... Anyway, so back to bookshops. Back to foils. I've got list here. was going to foils of...
00:10:22
Speaker
I've got a list of like potential sections of foils.
00:10:29
Speaker
Oh, okay. All right, go on. Go on then. Okay. So this is where I used to get quite interested. Sometimes you used to like, oh, haven't got time. I'll go straight to the section of foils whatever big bookshop it was.
00:10:41
Speaker
ah good You know, go cut to the chase, get to the section you want to. But if you had more time, think, ooh, what if I try a different section, a section I've never gone to before?
00:10:52
Speaker
So I looked up. I asked ChatGPT actually. Yeah. To give me a potential interesting sections of a bookshop. Okay, here's my list. All mythology, feminist politics, experimental cooking, occult, esoterica and mythology.
00:11:12
Speaker
Okay, mind hacking and cognitive play, tick. Afrofuturism slash indigenous sci-fi and fantasy.
00:11:23
Speaker
Then miniature and pocket fiction. Miniature and pocket fiction. Last but not least, but there were more, but this is what's your fiction. First editions and rare finds.
00:11:39
Speaker
Lovely. Interesting. They all sound like interesting, interesting subjects. There is, i have to, I have to give a shout out. When I lived in Portland, Oregon, um there is a, there is a bookshop there called Powell's bookshop.
00:11:56
Speaker
ah And it, it's, it's the world's largest independent bookstore. It covers an entire city block. Okay. um So whereas Foyles had 100,000 books, Powell's has a over a million books.
00:12:15
Speaker
Wow. so that just gives you and how big by this bookstore is. You thought Foyles was big. Powell's is like...
00:12:27
Speaker
So their section on Afrofuturism and indigenous sci-fi fantasy was probably whole shop in fact, you know, in normal terms scale. yeah Yeah, yeah.
00:12:40
Speaker
No, it is a ah huge store. Wow, that sounds great. You'd get lost in that. I got completely lost in. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, no. i was I was hopelessly lost. I think honestly, think when you walk around,
00:12:55
Speaker
you're mostly bumping into lost people. Like we're all just
Bookstore Social Dynamics
00:12:59
Speaker
lost. what mean? Or potentially, if you're in the right section, potentially you you could bump into your tribe.
00:13:09
Speaker
If you went into like, oh, I'm going to go back to Afrofuturism. There's a good chance you find like-minded people.
00:13:21
Speaker
Maybe. I tell you who does scare me in bookstores. have an and ah People who work in bookstores, I feel intimidated by them because for some reason I feel like they've got a a major in English Lit, right? Yes. and and they've And they know all the books.
00:13:48
Speaker
yeah And I go and pay for something, say, and then they sort of like judge me on the on the books that I've chosen.
00:13:59
Speaker
Isn't there a word for that? Isn't there a description for people like that? There are people that are bookly or something. People that are something, bookish. I know, but it probably starts with sort of a biblio.
00:14:14
Speaker
Bibliomaniacs. Bibliomaniacs. Bibliophiles. Sounds good to me. Yes. think I think that's probably them.
00:14:26
Speaker
Yeah. So, um yeah, they kind of scare me. But I do like being in ah in ah in a bookstore, and it's the same as ah as a stationary store. you know, like when when you go in and there's lots of very similar things.
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah. This would massive stationary shop. Yeah. There used to be a massive stationary shop in Tomlacourt Road. What was it called? It was huge.
00:14:53
Speaker
I think it was on the second floor. that You could find every type of paper you could possibly imagine. It was immense. Oh, God, that was amazing. Yeah. Okay.
00:15:04
Speaker
Okay. um um Also good places, if you're single, good place to potentially meet for your future, you know, soulmate, you know, good place to go and, you know. All right.
00:15:21
Speaker
Yeah. Single. Experimental cooking section. Yeah. I don't know if they do it, but imagine a big bookshop. They could have singles evenings. That'd be pretty cool.
00:15:34
Speaker
i I guess they could. Yeah. if you go to Dof Stoyevsky section, you know, it's like, oh, let's go dr do to Dof Stoyevsky, see who's hanging around in that section.
00:15:50
Speaker
Oh, right. So, okay. So as I'm thinking about it and I'm going to, and I'm going to one of your single nights at the bookstore, I'm going, right, well, I have a, I have a priority of sections i want to hang out in, right? So the most important thing I'll be, right, go and hang out in the, in the experimental cooking section, right? And see who's there. No one. Well, let's go down the list. I want to go to like,
00:16:19
Speaker
I don't know, sort of the graphic novel section. All right. When you say down... Check out the action. Yes, I would do that. It could be several stairs.
00:16:32
Speaker
I do like the graphic novel section. But how desperate would you go? When you say go down the list, are you saying down the list in terms of level? Potential intellectual level.
00:16:44
Speaker
Could you go down the list until you got to Enid Blyton books?
00:16:51
Speaker
i Well, I was ah was really thinking about it as like as my interest.
Children's Books and Innovations
00:16:56
Speaker
So if I'm looking for a partner, i I want to hang out in the sections where I'm most interested in then and then I go into the sections. Could you potentially get a bit desperate and go to like a section and think, oh, God.
00:17:12
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay.
00:17:17
Speaker
Okay, right, or perhaps I have to go to the kind of ah kind of toddler section books and see if there's any women who want to be mums. Ladybird books.
00:17:29
Speaker
Yeah. Although the kids' books are so cool now.
00:17:35
Speaker
they were They weren't anywhere near. I'm so envious of kids now. The best books now for kids. They're so good.
00:17:46
Speaker
Right, no, I mean, they have always been at the forefront of the printing technology. Like, I can remember being at art college and, you know, they would say, someone said, look, if you want to know what How good printing is, go to the kids' section.
00:18:07
Speaker
Really? I've never heard that. And you will see the best printing techniques will be there, like all the die cuts, all the fold-outs, all the pop-ups. Yeah, yeah. No, that's where pop-ups.
00:18:24
Speaker
That's where all the action is. that's where the That is where the printing action is always. Okay. if I got sent about two years ago a book.
00:18:37
Speaker
Actually, he was our first the first guest on um on our podcast, Jonathan. He sent me a children's book. about um It was a children's book, so it's meant for like four to seven-year-olds, and it's children's book about um hugging hugging your the angry part of yourself.
00:18:58
Speaker
giving yourself You're the angry part yourself. Was it a hint? I think was a hint. Yes. Paul, take a chill pill.
00:19:08
Speaker
So, yeah. Okay.
00:19:13
Speaker
I can remember. I just like i just rolled over over to the bookcase behind me. like yeah I was working at a company and we had a new CEO,
00:19:24
Speaker
And she bought everyone a book and it would just it it just appeared on my desk when I came into to work. And this is what it what it was, which is holding up to the camera. It's like, what to what do you do with an idea? Okay.
00:19:42
Speaker
I still have it. Is it good? Have you ever read it? didn't sign it though, I noticed. No, because you're ADHD.
Content Resistance and ADHD
00:19:52
Speaker
a CEO of a company gives me a book yeah and it says, what do you do with an idea? My job is to do things with ideas.
00:20:07
Speaker
It's like she's telling me. it should be the other way around. You should be giving her the book. Screw you. Yeah. Do you not find, though, that if someone um buys you a book or someone suggests you see a film or follow a podcast or whatever, you don't do it? pathological demand of ah Pathological demand avoidance, yes.
00:20:38
Speaker
Yes. Yes, that's me. me.
00:20:42
Speaker
If someone suggests something, it would be yeah pretty likely I wouldn't do it. It's totally me. Yeah. I will never see that film. But I think you're the ah think it's a bit of you. It's like amount ah the amount of times I've suggested to you to watch something. yeah um I sent you a link in the middle of the night.
00:21:02
Speaker
Martin, Martin, you've got to go watch this, please. ah You don't. Right. Right. So if it's short, I will. But it's like a one and a half hour lecture.
00:21:16
Speaker
And I'm like, it has to be like, A minute. Right. Yes. But I think I sent you something once and I said oh don't worry, mate. You don't have to watch the whole thing. Just ah go straight to um the 19th minute and the 52 second point and just watch it for two minutes.
00:21:39
Speaker
All right. ah Enough. Yeah. Okay. Enough. It's like drift. It's like tumbleweed. Clearly that's what happened. Yeah. Yeah. I'm very much like that.
00:21:54
Speaker
Okay. Are we finished? We aren't going to be so suggesting any books. Yeah, I think we can move on to ah to but ah
Childhood Book Reflections
00:22:05
Speaker
books. in out Books at various stages of our about a personage, of our being aliveness.
00:22:13
Speaker
Yes. All right. Do you want to start off? Well, I can remember but when I was, I think of my earliest memory of ah books. Well, I remember being deeply, deeply dissatisfied with Enid Blyton and Lady Bird books.
00:22:33
Speaker
I think even then I was like subconsciously aware that they were. Deeply unsatisfied. Yeah. ah I was so subconsciously aware, even at that time, that these are books for neurobeige people. They're not meant for me.
00:22:50
Speaker
And they were just stupid. All right. know They were Enie Blyton books. They've just been, now you read them, they're deeply racist and sexist and um just horrible things.
00:23:03
Speaker
um But then I do remember. so Enie Blyton books, for anyone who doesn't know, is like is about about four or five kids.
00:23:13
Speaker
They were written in like... don't know. feels like the 30s, somewhere around there. I think 40s, 50s. And on adventures in the countryside.
00:23:27
Speaker
Yeah. They were very classist, racist. Some of the privileged white kids on an adventure with their dog. They were really crap. They were called the Famous Five.
00:23:38
Speaker
So that's your... And they were just like, oh man. But I never read that stuff. I used to read stuff like the Rupert Bear manuals. Do remember Rupert Bear?
00:23:49
Speaker
Yep. There was like the character Rupert Bear that was really kind of... ru Rupert Bear, who was ah
00:23:59
Speaker
i I didn't like Rupert the bear. Yeah. i he He wore a very distinctive, like, yellow checkered scarf and red ah jumpsuit, possibly. Yeah. I didn't like him, but he had a sidekick.
00:24:17
Speaker
And he annoyed me. Yeah, I didn't like Rupert the Bear. I liked his sidekick. he His sidekick was a little bit mischievous and a bit bit weird, right?
00:24:29
Speaker
All right. And there was ah there was a part in one of the stories about him where he finds a secret library.
00:24:38
Speaker
And to this day I'm fascinated by this little secret library that you found in this like this little nook that you found that was really small that most people just walked straight past and didn't realise existed.
00:24:50
Speaker
and i And it's like this secret little nook in a library that just love the idea of. Yeah.
00:25:00
Speaker
Nice. How about you, Martin? So polite it would like earliest memories of books. my ah Is that your earliest book? You you know what? It's it's funny because I don't remember having toddler books, but that's probably because. so I remember but a book about a new colour.
00:25:22
Speaker
And I've been obsessed with it ever since.
00:25:27
Speaker
It was a book about someone who discovered a new colour. was like, what? Are you kidding me? It just completely ignited my imagination.
00:25:40
Speaker
And I've been trying to find it all these years. So if anyone out there knows what it is, just let me know. ah I've looked for it several times. This book.
00:25:51
Speaker
What, the ah the the book or the colour? It's a book about someone who discovers a new colour.
00:26:01
Speaker
I've never found it. Yeah. All right. I think that's the earliest thing I can remember. is Let us know. Okay. um
00:26:12
Speaker
All right. I remember that this this is going shock you, Paul. ah Okay. It's going to shock you to the core. All right. I'm embracing myself. My first book that I actually remember was my...
00:26:24
Speaker
was my
00:26:29
Speaker
There's a couple, but the I mean, this there there's two that I can skip through really quickly, which is I had a dinosaur book that I used to read and I used to get into bed and then I would try and read it and see if I could get to the end of the book before I fell as fell fell asleep.
00:26:49
Speaker
So there was that. Right. I also had um a book about about about ah rocks and had some really nice pictures of of crystals and and that was interesting. It was like a nice reference book for grown-up people.
00:27:11
Speaker
Right. That was nice. What age are you talking about? What age are you talking about? Like five? the
00:27:21
Speaker
Well, so our first section is early childhood, right? Which is like 0 to 10, somewhere around there, right? Oh, okay. That kind of early. So I was about six.
00:27:37
Speaker
Oh, early. Okay. Okay. But my mum had two books. Yeah, yeah. We had to who you two books. One was the red book aside the green book and the blue book.
00:27:56
Speaker
They were big, huge books. And these were these were nursing books because my mum was a nurse. And these were her...
00:28:09
Speaker
reference material i guess and basically it was two books of of of these diseases and things that can go wrong with blimey with you and it had like pictures had like color plate images Oh, no. Of infections.
00:28:35
Speaker
Oh, God, yes. And that's what I remember. That's what the earliest book that I read that was burnt into my skull was like these i colour plate images from.
00:28:47
Speaker
did So these would be colour pictures.
00:28:54
Speaker
color painted on black and white photography images that were done in like probably like the 40s somewhere around there and that was like horrific and and from there I kind of thought wow there are hundreds of ways to to to kind of to uh to end up dead right there are hundreds of hundreds of hundreds of ways to end up dead uh i am bound to get at least half of these surely kind of thought what that
00:29:33
Speaker
Yeah, so those are my earliest books. Quite disturbing, to be honest. There go. So, yeah, let's move on to like pre pre-teeny kind of yeah time, okay?
00:29:47
Speaker
This one's an easy easy one for me. I've got down Roald Dahl right there. That was a big thing for me. My world was blown apart by Roald Dahl.
00:30:01
Speaker
Nice. I do like his books. Marvelous medicine. And when you're talking about, there's a section, I've got it written here, section where George says, yes, grandma, George said, George couldn't help disliking grandma.
00:30:17
Speaker
She was a selfish, selfish grumpy old woman. She had pale brown teeth and a small puckered up mouth like a dog's bottom. I was like, yes, come on.
00:30:30
Speaker
Come on. That's what I've been looking for all my life. This book speaks my language. Yeah. I love it. yeah Around the same time, I won a book through the book club.
00:30:47
Speaker
so There was a book club. We have the traveling libraries. There's a like a coach. had been all right i'd been renovated and like turned into a traveling library. And you'd pitch up.
00:30:58
Speaker
And you could order books, but it would take forever. It would take about two months for them to arrive, the books. And in one day, I won a prize for the best drawing in my year, and I won a book about mollusks.
00:31:16
Speaker
yeah That's what every every childhood boy dreams of. yeah book of mollusks. was so proud of that. Who are you, Charles Darwin?
Adolescent Reading Escapes
00:31:27
Speaker
Did you have a travelling library kind of thing going on? Well, I mean, ah our school had its own library. ahha Did your school not have a library?
00:31:42
Speaker
A best small one. But if you needed to put something niche, like something to do with mollusks, you had to order them. You have to yeah had to win a competition for it. yeah But if you didn't want to borrow them, you wanted to buy them.
00:32:00
Speaker
You know, if you wanted to buy them. So the library, yeah it basically it was it was a library, but was also ah a method with with the with which you could buy books as well, order them and buy them.
00:32:14
Speaker
Yes, I did buy a book which was about... um ancient beasts so it was like sort of um it was myths who but it wasn't as interesting as a book about mollusks Paul okay it was up it was it was it was only on mythical monsters okay so not as not as as exciting as a ride but you could do mythical monsters and mollusks all in one book
00:32:49
Speaker
Whoa, my tiny little fragile young mind couldn't cope with that much excitement, ah
00:33:03
Speaker
ah like Paul. I did really like books. like I think that was the age where you kind of where you kind of really get into books, right, is you you suddenly like, I don't know, I feel i was switched on at that point. So I read...
00:33:19
Speaker
I can remember like I read, uh, the, the, the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. of yeah that's That's when I read all of that lot.
00:33:30
Speaker
And, uh, um I really liked Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Restaurant at the End of the the Universe. So really liked like science fiction and fantasy was kind of good, which was good because it was like, oh, books, you can escape from your sucky, sucky world into the world of the mollusk.
00:33:58
Speaker
Yes. oh Or Lord of the Rings. Or Malcolm's Marvel's Medicine. Yeah, that's what Roald Dahl did for me. opened up my imagination like, oh, my God.
00:34:11
Speaker
It's like a whole new world of potential, you know. Right. it was it Because I was thinking about this and it was like, normally, if you wanted to kind of like it escape, right, you would like watch the TV. tv But that was like a family affair. You would all sit around...
00:34:34
Speaker
on the couch or whatever you'd all watch the TV. It wasn't a private little world that you could to, where books kind of yeah whereas books kind of opened up that.
00:34:47
Speaker
Totally.
Adult Reading Preferences
00:34:48
Speaker
your Your own little private universe, which is very nice. Very nice. Yeah. So, yeah. So then onwards to onwards.
00:34:58
Speaker
What the bla more recent adult. Yeah. I mean, I, I got much more into nonfiction as an adult. Still am.
00:35:11
Speaker
and ah I went through a ah phase of, ah could I just like went down a rabbit hole of um um Chinese revolution, communist revolution, um history books.
00:35:24
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I remember you reading some ginormous book about Chairman Mao. Yes. Mao's secret life. Every time I came over,
00:35:35
Speaker
Right. it it was be You would be like, did you know, Martin? That sounds like Yes. His teeth were full of pus.
00:35:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:50
Speaker
That sounds a lot like me because that's the thing. It's intimate. And I'd go down a rabbit hole, you know, Mao Zedong or, you know, the Chinese Communist Revolution.
00:36:01
Speaker
But I wanted desperately to share it with everyone. turns out most people aren't interested in oh yeah Chairman Mao's dentistry.
00:36:12
Speaker
Shock. Flash news. I do remember that the that that was always the the the thing for a while, was going around seeing you and getting random Chairman Mao files.
00:36:27
Speaker
But they were thank god but they were but there were in they were in into in interesting facts. like Thanks, mate. So, so was yeah, it was it was it was fine. he was It was funny.
00:36:40
Speaker
did you Did you change John? Are you a nonfiction man?
00:36:46
Speaker
I am both. So I would basically flit between like history, which I, which I, I, I do love history books.
00:36:56
Speaker
Um, I still, I will still, I'm still really, really in into history. And I would also go into like, um fiction as well. So so this is my this this is my Terry Pratchett moment where I kind of I i i discovered Terry Pratchett books and okay and i love them and I bought them every year and I've read practically all I have read all of these all of his Discworld books are which there are like right there are many
00:37:35
Speaker
many books. I've never read Terry Prudget. I love him.
00:37:42
Speaker
Well, obviously, if I say go away and and read a Terry Pratchett book, you'll be like, fuck off, mate. yeah I'm not going to read any of his goddamn books. But yeah, I loved it.
00:37:55
Speaker
i mean and the I mean, he is he has written a a lot of books and i was and he he died about ten years ago And i was saving his last book for ages.
00:38:11
Speaker
Right. right um So he knew was going to be his last book. So i was like, okay, right. So i I ended up. It was quite public, wasn't it? He knew he going to die.
00:38:23
Speaker
had a terminal illness, so it was quite public. I like, God. Yeah. Yeah. once I read his last book, that's it, right? So I ended up, I read all of the other Discworld books.
00:38:35
Speaker
So I went back to the beginning and I read all the Discworld books all the way up to the last one. Yeah, yeah. many are there? Took me fucking ages. How many books are there? Oh, how many discs, how many discs?
00:38:48
Speaker
How many Discworld books are there? And now I'm going to have to go on to the old. How many Discworld books are there? I've heard of them. thought it was like two or three.
00:39:01
Speaker
There are 41. No. no
00:39:06
Speaker
Blimey. I heard recently the one helier than the law never had and that when he started writing a book, he never had a clue what was going to happen.
00:39:17
Speaker
He had no plan for his books at all. Right. He just started writing. Yeah, that they are. He would he would have an and an idea and then just start to write, which is, and it's interesting, just, you know, like when you go through a body of work of of of an author like that, you can, you you kind of see how they put the things to together and how they. Yeah, yeah.
00:39:46
Speaker
evolve yeah um how um pattern recognition so anyway yes i read all the books and then i read the last one uh the shepherd's crown and um and that was like and and that killed me to kind of get to the end of the last book and go that's it there's no more to terry terry pratchett after this yeah yeah
00:40:14
Speaker
yeah ah biography i really like a biography i know autobiography
00:40:23
Speaker
Oh,
Audiobooks and Accessibility
00:40:24
Speaker
yeah. I haven't read many. Other people's lives. don't know. Other people's lives. I don't know, mate.
00:40:35
Speaker
ah You should read one of the best autobiographies I've ever written was Sidney Poitier's autobiography. is absolutely mental. All right.
00:40:47
Speaker
First successful black actor in the Afro-American actor. um Amazing, amazing book. Anyway. All right. Okay.
00:41:00
Speaker
Have you ever picked up a book ah book in Ikea? You know, like when you kind of go into Ikea and you sit in their little and they are little all funny a pretend lounges?
00:41:14
Speaker
Yeah. And they have books lying lying around. Yeah. Have you ever picked up and then had a look? No. And they're in Swedish. And you go, oh, no, no, they are real books. Nice.
00:41:27
Speaker
Oh, okay. They're real, actual books, and they're all and they're all Swedish. Nice. And I go, oh, I can't read this. Yeah. Probably the most difficult language in the world. One of the most difficult.
00:41:41
Speaker
Yeah. ahlining Now my situation is I've got probably up to 30 books waiting to be read, and I've banned myself from ordering any more books.
00:41:59
Speaker
I have three books, I guess, that are in various states of being read. You know what? I find it, as I've got older, I've forgotten how to read.
00:42:12
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It takes while, doesn't it? I've forgotten how to actually read a long format like a book. Yes.
00:42:24
Speaker
which is find it hard i find it harder now than i than i did then. I like the idea of getting back into that to the extent where I've i've i've i've played with the idea, Martin.
00:42:37
Speaker
This is the way my stupid ADHD mind works. I've played with the idea of buying myself a really, really good, comfortable armchair to um push myself into reading books again.
00:42:55
Speaker
pick the logic out of that yeah yeah that sounds nice yeah yeah i do have a nice leather armchair which which would be a good book reading thing but my my brain i mean so i do audio books now mean that's how i basically consume books because I've never really got into that. i can use it to do all my boring ADHD tasks. So if I have to do laundry or I'm cleaning hey any of that stuff, ah I put an and an audio book on, got my headphones on and I'm just like, yeah, I'll just listen to this book.
00:43:39
Speaker
while I'm doing this other the boring task. I mean, it's i'd just I can zip through books like, you know, so one book every, so in in in a week I can read about two or three books.
00:43:53
Speaker
Really? Basically. Have you ever tried Kindle? Learned through them like,
00:44:00
Speaker
No, no. i I did. Didn't work for me. And I think it's, yeah, there's something about the texture of a book. Like if if I'm going to sit there and look at a book, ah want I want the smell of the paper.
00:44:16
Speaker
Well, you could do that. I feel it. There's a company, I've got it written down there. It is a great segue. It's such a good segue. I'm almost embarrassed. Yeah. There's some bookshops and publishers have tried replicating the old book smell in candles, perfumes, and air fresheners.
00:44:37
Speaker
But probably they've never really hit mark. But you could do it, I'm sure. I don't know. You could have a Kindle, but have the have a candle burning and pretend you're reading a real book.
00:44:52
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. You know what? Okay. One thing I find difficult about books is I'll read a paragraph and then I'll kind of forget or I'll get distracted and then have to go back it then I have to reread that paragraph again. Yeah, that's it. And I'll get distracted and then I'll end up reading that paragraph another time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, Jesus Christ, it's going to take me forever.
00:45:23
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Okay. You know what? Did you know, Paul? Did you know, Paul? There is a, um you know, like, so, you know, you're you're into typography, right?
Cultural Storytelling
00:45:36
Speaker
Yeah. um There's a thing where um ah there is a dyslexic font. There's a font that's been specially designed to to make it easier to Yeah.
00:45:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's called, what is it called? It's called something mean like dys, dys, where is it? I think had it written down somewhere. But um yeah, it's called dys, dyslexy.
00:46:08
Speaker
Okay. and I've never heard of that. That's interesting. It's, it's. It's supposed to help. So it's a sans serif. So it gets slightly technical. So it's a sans serif font.
00:46:21
Speaker
ah So it doesn't have those little extra bits of information. And it's almost like the ascenders and the descenders kind of go from thin to thick.
00:46:32
Speaker
So it so almost has like a bit of a... car cartoon has a more cartoony brush script that's amazing i've never heard of that yeah oh i might have to i might have to go down a rabbit hole on that okay very cool like that okay well i think i'm pretty much there everyone ah
00:47:01
Speaker
where are you at you got anything left i will say ah will Just a couple of interesting things i yeah about stories. um And that was, um
00:47:16
Speaker
i um you know, the the the grim fairy tales and all of that. and um And all of those stories, just kind of going back to to when we were young, and I came across this thing about Beauty and the Beast, which was like a Disney film, came out in like 1991.
00:47:39
Speaker
um How old do you think that story is? Well, it's from the Grimm brothers who are are they Danish. It's Danish, isn't it?
00:47:50
Speaker
The Grimm brothers were Danish. know. I'm guessing really freaking old. I think about 300 years old. No, less. years about 4,000 years Okay. That story. Okay. Okay.
00:48:07
Speaker
about four thousand years old ah all right okay
00:48:16
Speaker
So there's this, um there are ah scholars who who who can, who yeah who have looked at all the fairy, all these kind of these stories and they' and they've matched them up with fairy tales.
00:48:34
Speaker
stories from from you you know from ah from ah across the world and they can see where stories overlap a lot, right? So you might have yes Beauty and the Beast and you have a like a very similar Beauty and the Beast story and you can go back in time, back in time until you can find...
00:48:54
Speaker
like the earliest version of that story, and they've gone back to 4,000 years ago. So all of those stories are really old, like like like Jack and the Beanstalk goes back about 5,000 years.
00:49:09
Speaker
Oh, wow. So that's like sort of...
00:49:13
Speaker
Well, that's like that's that's because storytelling storytelling is basically I was listening to a podcast only last night. Great um episode by I was just we were just talking um before we came on air.
00:49:29
Speaker
ah The podcast by Blind Boys. Fantastic. He was talking to a ah storytelling specialist. Great lady. He's also she's Irish.
00:49:40
Speaker
And um she was talking about the history of storytelling and how important storytelling is to um human being, as, you know, very a very being, is you know, how important storytelling is it within our social environment.
00:49:58
Speaker
And really very cool, you know, and how far back it goes, as you were saying. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Stories of, as long as we've had language, we've had stories.
Nostalgia of Landline Era
00:50:14
Speaker
Yeah. um All right. Well, let's crack on, think. Let's jump in our tri in now oh tractor um and make our way over to ah Alexandra's Haunted Inn.
00:50:30
Speaker
Yes. Get in, get in, get in Come on. Crank her up. Tractor, I mean, not Alexandra.
00:50:41
Speaker
Thank you.
00:50:49
Speaker
Well, Alexandra's haunted in, um and she's left a note um about last week's episode, um which was about phones, telephones, and telephone calls. Yes, yes.
00:51:06
Speaker
And, yeah, she did remind us that... that in the early days, in the early days when we were just boys and girls, ah you had to be at home to receive or make a phone call.
00:51:20
Speaker
Nowadays, so many people do all the time. Exactly. It was like you you you only got bugged at home. Yes. You didn't get bugged everywhere. That's a good point.
00:51:34
Speaker
A very good point, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I kind of like that aspect of it, although it did make things, you know what, the but the the hard thing was with always, ah if and i can remember a time when we were going to at the British Museum in London,
00:51:58
Speaker
And we didn't have phones. Said, right, well, i'm going to meet you there at, I don't know, like 10 a.m. m or something. And I was running late and I couldn't phone you to tell you I'm running late because we had didn't have phones.
00:52:14
Speaker
We just had to stand there and wait yeah until I suddenly popped up. Yeah. That's just reminder. Do you remember we used we used to ring? used to have the speaking clock. He used to phone, call a number, and he'd get the time.
00:52:32
Speaker
know. fact, they only stopped doing it. How cool is don't Perhaps it's still going. I don't know. Oh, that would be so cool if it still exists. 15 Mm-hmm.
00:52:44
Speaker
fifteen yeah beside he um I would phone up the speaking clock once in a while just just just just to hear it, weirdly.
00:52:58
Speaker
All right. So, anyway, so feedback. And this is the part where you say... This is bit what say. Your feedback is really vital to us.
Listener Engagement and Next Topic
00:53:09
Speaker
And come on, come on. Give us your feedback, comments, whatever you want to say. um Could be um also could be any suggestions you've got for next week's podcast episode, which Martin's going to you tell you to tell us about now.
00:53:28
Speaker
ah For example. Well, I thought next week we we will talk about, will we will be seasonal. <unk> as ah what We're recording this at the beginning of October.
00:53:40
Speaker
um And we will talk about ADHD and autumn. And all the sensory, lovely... that comes with that time of year.
00:53:53
Speaker
um Roasted chestnuts, for example. Roasted chestnuts. h Exactly. and and and And it's also like a time ah just after the summer holidays or the summer vacations when everyone's back, you have this little window when you feel pressured.
00:54:11
Speaker
done ah before Thanksgiving hits. So um it is a kind of ah an interesting little time of year. All right. So that just leaves me too sad.
00:54:26
Speaker
ADHD Phil is delivered fresh every Tuesday to all purveyors of fine podcasts please please subscribe to the pod and rub and rate us most well read and feel free to correspond at will in the comments but wait if you wish to see our beautiful beautiful faces then sally forth to the YouTubes and the TikToks and you can also pick up a quill and email us at ADHDville at gmail.com but in the meantime be fucking kind to yourself And I beseech you fellow ADHD, fare thee well with gladness of heart.
00:55:02
Speaker
And that's the end of that book, of that chapter. Chapter. There, says the mayor. That's that.