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This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work

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at MJMunoz.com. Welcome to Story Over Everything. This is a Skimming Leaves

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episode. It's episode 48 actually of Skimming Leaves where I'm talking about

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This is a casual book chat episode. It's

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very short as far as content for the casual book chat. So after I finish

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talking about Harry Potter, or after past me is done talking about Harry Potter

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book 7, I'm going to talk a little bit about what's next for Skimming Leaves

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slash Story Over Everything slash whatever I call the thing in the end. It's

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actually uh, hold on let me see, I can't actually look it up right now, but it's

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got a title and I do know what it is and it's already on assets that I've made

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for the first episode which has actually already been recorded in part at least.

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So anyway, I'm just gonna preface by saying despite how it sounds at first

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and then how I contradict myself after that, I do like Harry Potter and the

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Deathly Hallows. I thought it was a really interesting book and I'll tell

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you some of the reasons why. I don't cover a lot of it because so much of it is

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spoilers and I think honestly I probably started recording right after finishing

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the book and I just wanted to spoil it so much that I couldn't allow myself to

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speak that much about it. So yeah that is part of the reason it's a shorter

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episode but again after it's done you'll get to hear me talk about what's next

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and what books we can look forward to reading and talking about together.

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So Harry Potter book 7, the Deathly Hallows, is a very interesting book. I'm

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not 100% sure how I feel about it other than the fact that I like it. The ending

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of it was a little too short for me. I appreciate the epilogue. It was a very

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short epilogue. I almost wonder if I would have enjoyed it more without the

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epilogue if it had just had some sort of other denouement and that was the

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end of it. I'm not sure. The resolution honestly like the final battle

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type thing happened kind of quickly. Like it was interesting there were like nice

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steaks, you know fat juicy steaks, and you know overall that was good and I felt

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really you know it was it was semi-anticlimactic. I'll be 100% honest. I

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won't share what I mean by that just yet but the like big showdown final match

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was almost not a big showdown in a final match and I think it's thematically

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correct and I don't necessarily know what Rowling was trying to say with that

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or Rowling as they call her in the audiobooks. I don't think I necessarily

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know what Rowling was trying to say with the way it ended but there was a really

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nice after the final battle was over moment of reflection and coming down

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from things that I really appreciated and gosh how do I put this? Can I say this

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right out or not? I'll be vague about it. There's an ultimate weapon basically

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that Harry is able to utilize at some point and he has in his possession, maybe

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that's the more correct way to say it, he has in his possession and he seeks

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counsel from somebody and he decides to lay down his arms and to not literally

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his arms but he chooses to take this super weapon which may need to be taken

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from somebody by blood or by bloodshed I should say. Well and to clarify that

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means that the ultimate power of this weapon is most effective when you have

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murdered the previous owner of it and taken it from their corpse and Harry

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decides to end the... he decides to do something that will break the power of

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this weapon and he basically ruins it for himself and that's a very interesting

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choice it's a very bold choice especially because earlier in the book he

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had become fixated on finding this weapon and you can guess I'm sure

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Voldemort had been fixated on finding this weapon and it was really an

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interesting turn it was really interesting to see how the two of them

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were warped by it and even some other characters were awe-stricken and

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desirous of this weapon but ultimately Harry decides to nullify its efficacy

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and therefore help to prevent a future war or any future bloodshed over it

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really forget about a war just even the one you know murder of somebody for the

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sake of something like that is you know tragic so very interesting so like

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definitely you know totalitarianism comes to the front and these concepts

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of revolution come to the front in this book and kind of you know war and

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fighting kind of comes to the front and like war is important and the ability to

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fight war and to stop evil people from doing evil by opposing them with you

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know violence of your own you know violence that's justified is good and is

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really interesting so I I don't really know like what rolling is like talking

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about or whatever you know overall objective or point is of this book other

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than wrapping up the series which I think she does quite well you know it

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brings everything to a head as I think I've already said twice I need to stop

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that and I'm really curious well I mean my my eldest really enjoyed the book and

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anyway there was um like I want to know people's broad reactions to it because I

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think it's overall a satisfying ending and a satisfying conclusion and at some

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point kind of like in return of the king you know Tolkien's return of the king I

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was not depressed but it's like man this is like really a downer of a book and

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what's going on and then you know things got better of course things got worse

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but ultimately they ended well and everybody's happy and whatnot and there's

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no peace and I feel like it'll be a lasting piece although you know I

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wouldn't mind if there were some more conflicts in the wizarding world

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different you know you know outside of Hogwarts or different things being

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explored in different ways because when it's all said and done it's like a

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really interesting world that's been developed and it's really you know fun

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there's a lot of cool ideas that Rowling got to do in here and I know it's just

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it's really interesting basically Harry, Hermione, and Ron are on their own with no

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guidance and nobody to help them and well nobody outwardly saying that

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they're guiding them and helping them and maybe they're receiving help and

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guidance in you know interesting ways but it's a really interesting I don't

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know it's like that's like a great metaphor for growing up and my favorite

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thing in this is that when Harry eventually starts dealing with Voldemort

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outright he just starts calling him Tom or Tom Riddle like he addresses him as

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Tom Riddle not Lord Voldemort not he must be named nothing like that he just

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starts calling him Tom which I love that and I had like maybe by the third book I

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thought hey it'd be really cool if instead of calling him Voldemort they

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just started calling him Tom or Tom Riddle and you know mock him by that or

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whatever and they do and or Harry does and it's excellent and like really the

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final conflict between them is mostly a conversation I think I mean it's more

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protracted than that but it's like you can boil it down to a conference a

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conversation the conversation is a conversation where Harry basically tells

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Tom you're not a real man and I'm a real man and I want to give you a chance to

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be a real man because that's what real men do iron sharpens iron bro and

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it's really an incredible moment for Harry and thinking about it now it makes

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me think this book is really about Harry growing up and Harry becoming a man

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and maybe that's what the whole series has been coming of age right but he

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basically gets to be out in the wilderness figuratively and literally on

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his own with the help from his friends and they've got to figure it all out and

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it does not go well for the majority of the book and as soon as it starts to go

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well and they start making progress rolling ratchets it up the difficulty

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and gives them issue after issue after issue to deal with and they do not have

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an easy go of it and it's very entertaining because of that and yeah I

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don't know I don't really know what to say I want to spoil so much I'll say

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this if this movie or this book were an episode of friends it would be called

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the one with all the deaths and several people die I cared about two deaths to

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a degree that I had no idea I would care about these deaths and there were a

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couple surprise deaths that I think rolling failed to make full net

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narrative impact with them in how they went down and I think that's too bad I

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don't know why she didn't just add a couple chapters of the book or shift

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things around to include these deaths and maybe because it wouldn't be

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satisfying or it'd be like too grisly or something

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but I miss not having them and honestly I didn't get the full emotional effect

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because of that I believe and that's too bad that's really too bad so yeah it was

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a yeah it was an interesting book like you get little insights into the past

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that are supposed to justify certain characters and how they behaved and what

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they did in this book and perhaps others and I don't really get it I didn't really

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care I didn't really empathize or sympathize too much and like in some way

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they made things okay for me and in other ways some of the consequences of

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people learning the truth about their actions like didn't make any sense to me

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and it was weird

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so that was that was really interesting again overall it was a really good book

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I really enjoyed it I definitely want to spend more time in the Wizarding World

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and hey lucky me Cloud Library has a few more rolling books there's short stuff

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there's the Tales of Beetle to Bard which features in this book there's

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there's a history of Quidditch for sort of quidditch throughout the ages there's

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fantastic beasts and where to find them so I'm very interested in checking those

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out as well and I'm hoping that they'll be enjoyable and kind of like how I read

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the Cimmerillian after the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy I hope I

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will enjoy these you know shorter smaller stories that give us peeks into

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different parts of the world just as much as I enjoyed the main series so

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that's what I have to say about that I really think I'm gonna go ahead and wrap

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up then because I don't have much else to say I want to spoil it but I'm not

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gonna spoil it for now and yeah that's uh that's all so toodaloo until next time

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folks thanks past me I'll take it from here alright so folks here's here's

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what's going on I have explained this a little bit already but I will I'll talk

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about why I'm making the shift I really want to write books professionally I

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really want my career to be as an author among other things I'm okay with doing

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other things but uh as long as it's creative I'll be happy with that but

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really I do want to write stories I want to tell stories I want to entertain

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people with stories and I want to talk about stories too I want to write I want

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to read write and talk about stories now the reading and talking about stories is

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super easy barely any convenience all you got to do is read a story and talk

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about it but I'd like to have some sort of audience to talk about it with for

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now I'm content with talking about books as or I'm talking about books by myself

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although you know the format of skimming leaves is to invite a book chat a

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casual book chat as I say and I'm happy with that now the next thing the next

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leg of the journey will also be structured so as to invite a casual book

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chat but it'll be a little more a little different a little more a little faster

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a little more put together and I guess that's the thing the difference between

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what's going on right now what I've been doing with the Harry Potter books is I

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took way too long to produce them I put I put too much of the wrong kind of

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effort into them and I've decided that what I'm going to do instead is I believe

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the list of minimum three dozen books that I've picked for this next project

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which will take the place of skimming leaves yeah it'll take the place of

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skimming leaves for sure it will be the main thing going out over story over

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everything for the next year or for the you know for the rest of 2024 and yet

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I've decided to make things be structured in such a way that that will

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not stop me what does that mean that means that you will get multiple

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uploads a week to the story over everything audio podcast feed which is

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all linked to that which which it and everything else I'm doing is being linked

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at MJMunius.com so just about every single day of the week you're gonna see

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a post going up will it be short yes guaranteed there will be a short post

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where I'm reading to you what I wrote and giving some commentary on the process

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of it or describing to you what I've drawn and giving some commentary on the

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process of it and some thoughts on the creation of it that's gonna be a lot of

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what you're gonna see but in addition to that you can expect every week from this

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week on one book chat going up which in which I will discuss a middle grade book

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and that's about it I'll announce at the end of one episode oh whoa whoa I'd not

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decided this yet okay I will announce the next book that I'm going to read at

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the end of the first episode and you know what hey I can do this now the

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first book I'm going to read in this series of reading and reviewing and

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talking about these middle grade books middle grade novels is tuck everlasting

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which was published in 1971 or no 75 by Babbitt I don't remember her name Natalie

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Babbitt I think the tell you Natalie Babbitt so if you want to be in on that

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with me go ahead and read it since I'm gonna put this I want to wait to tell

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you what I think about these books until I've actually read them so instead of

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saying this is a great book or this is a terrible book or whatever and then

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telling you to go read it and look forward to it look forward to hearing my

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commentary on it and maybe joining in with me and making comments about the

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book I'm gonna tell you this is the book I'm gonna be reading next week and

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talking about in the book chat I welcome you to if you're interested read it and

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listen if you don't want to read it and you don't want to or listen to the book

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because almost every I think every book I'm gonna put on the list well I need to

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verify every book I have I have planned to listen to the audiobook version of it

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so that's something you can join me in doing listening to the audiobook as well

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I'm gonna have as many of them be books that can be found for free on cloud

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library or hoopla which are legal sources for those sorts of things and

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then for some books I will be listening to the LibriVox version which is again

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a free and legal copy of the book found in audio format so I'll provide links to

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those things as well that's more stuff for me to do that's okay it's okay

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more stuff for me to do but it's alright it's gonna be good in the long run I

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want people to use these free sources any free resources anyway because I think

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it's a good thing to do you know media is expensive but quality media matters

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and you're gonna want to invest in a nice hard copy of it or buy your own

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audio version of it or whatever for the future so learning about these books and

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having yourself exposed them having your mind open to them is gonna help you in

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the future and the point of this project that I'm doing is to gain a mastery over

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middle grade fiction by reading middle grade fiction from the past the

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classics and middle grade fiction from the modern times which are also

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considered to be very popular very well received I want to see kind of what are

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the limits of middle grade what is how far to the bounds of middle grade go

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because honestly I'm only really interested in writing pulp fantasy

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superheroes maybe adventure that's about it and I think that's okay there's

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nothing wrong with only wanting to enjoy those things

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I don't use anything else that's that's the truth there's nothing wrong with

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only enjoying those things what I do think is wrong is saying that I'm wrong

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for only enjoying those and saying I must read if I'm going to read middle

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grade or anything I must read certain genres or literary fiction or whatever

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they call the fancy schmancy stuff that I don't really prefer that isn't really

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my taste so yeah I haven't fully surveyed my list and paid attention to

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it but I'll be honest and tell you that there are some books on that list that I

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know that I am uncomfortable with and that I didn't really want to read but

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for the sake of this project and for the sake of like I said attaining some level

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of mastery and experience and being able to have a bit of authority to say hey I

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read all these books and these are my thoughts on them or I read all these

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books and I did reviews of all of them and here they are you can read them or

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listen to them and hear my honest open thoughts on these books I decided to

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push myself and do that so anyway yeah so Chuck Everlasting is the first book

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in the series of books I'm going to be doing once a week for please God the

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rest of the year and that should equal minimum three dozen or 36 books

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potentially more so we'll see how everything works out we'll see how well

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things go and if a book is truly horrendous I might say I read this for

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the project I don't want to talk about it this is you know who it's by this is

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when it was written this is the publisher was and if you're interested in

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it you can look into it on your own I have no interest in discussing it I

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sincerely have entertained that idea and I think well I thought about it so I can

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say you know if I ran into something like that what would I do well there I

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have my solution that's exactly what I would do there are for sure adult books

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that I've read like that or that I've read and received like that and I would

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have the same thing to say I'm not gonna name them here because while this this

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isn't being put out for kids to listen to it's being put out for adults to

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listen to you I want it to be all a sorry I got interrupted there but my

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point is that my brand is family-friendly I want to write family

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friendly things so I'm going to read and review family friendly things and what

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is family friendly it's just like subjective it's just like your opinion

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man yeah I know it's just my opinion man so I'm gonna let you know this is what

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I'm doing and this is what I find to be family friendly and this is something I

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don't and just over time you'll have to see if you agree with me if you trust me

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if you think I'm a nut then you know whatever you can judge it on a case by

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case basis that's what I'm gonna be doing with all these books I'm reading

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I'm gonna be judging them on a case by case basis and assessing them that way

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and you can agree or disagree that's okay you can agree or disagree and if

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you disagree that's fine I'm not telling you I'm not forcing you to buy books I'm

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not forcing you to not buy books so yeah I'm also not calling for people to be

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canceled or attacked or boycott or anything like that so yeah I mean is it a

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boycott because it's not my preference to buy that and I'm not gonna tell

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people to read it I mean if you want to call that a boycott you can call it a

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boycott but I don't think it's the same thing it's just like yeah this is not me

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I'm not gonna I'm not gonna buy women's pants because I don't wear women's pants

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that's just how it is so anyway yeah so what was my overall point I'm not sure I

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guess I'm just trying to let you know what it's going to be like going forward

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on story over everything I will continue to make you know content I'm gonna

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continue writing my own books which are middle grade and in order to help me

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understand the market better help me be exposed to the market in some way I'm

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gonna be reading slash listening to and talking about middle grade books and

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I'm gonna cover a spectrum from like you know stuff I wouldn't enjoy so much like

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everyday normal life just like the life of a kid I guess to really cool stuff

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like you know kids going off and having adventures and stuff in between you know

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mystical magical adventures and you know other worlds or whatnot and then just

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like you know mundane stuff at home I'm gonna cover the whole gamut of that and

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I think that's good and even in my writing I'm having kids I know I I want

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the fantastical so I'm writing fantastical stuff with my kids but like

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they're also in mundane settings in their homes in the suburbs in you know

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regular places that kids go and even my more fantastical stuff with the grow

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bugs themselves that's all like it's a semi fantastical area it's just like a

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wilderness like a park like these bugs are living in this bush in a park but

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they're magical and they're having magical adventures in there so yeah I

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just I like that that's fun for me I don't necessarily want to write it right

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or read a depressing book about people living normal sad boring lives because

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you know hey I'm right here no I have I have a wonderful life and you can too if

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you you decide to make it so it's a lot of it is how you look at things a line I

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stole and I think possibly directly quoted in it but in one of my characters

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mouths from from Star Wars from Qui-Gon Jinn your focus determines your reality

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so you know how you want things to be a lot of what your mindset is and how you

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think about things is deterministic or you know colors heavily your reality

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because it colors the way you perceive things so anyway I think that about does

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it for me this is gone a bit longer than I thought it would but I'm doing I think

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good setup to ramp people up and bring them into the next chapter which is you

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know we're putting Harry Potter behind us I did end up reading Tales of the

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Beetle the Bard and which is really good actually and fantastic beasts but I don't

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know that I'm gonna talk about them definitely not fantastic beasts that's

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not something to talk about there's not enough of a narrative there but I it's

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not something I recommend against reading let me put it that way but yeah

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tells a beetle the bard maybe at some point I'll do it but you know don't hold

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me to that don't hold me to that I definitely suggest you read it it's a

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good stuff if you like Harry Potter it's it's good and if you didn't like

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Harry Potter it's also good it's just good good storytelling very very cool

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stuff so yeah that's uh that's it for now I'm gonna go ahead and get out of

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here until next time folks take care be well this is MJ signing out I hope you

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enjoyed that go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions comments or other

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feedback you might have there you can find all of my analysis art and fiction I

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cover books tokusatsu comic books anime and more look around you're sure to find

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something else that you'll enjoy as well this has been a story over everything

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production