853 – Did I Read It? Ludlum Edition

EPISODE 853 – Did I Read It? Ludlum Edition

[START OF RECORDING]

SCOOTER: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and friends beyond the binary, it’s time for the podcast.  You know, I just thought of the term ‘bookish’ but you know what? I have a book wish…instead of bookish, I’m full of book wish.  I guess that sounds like a weird thing to say; book wish, or bookwich which would be a sandwich made of books. That’s not appetizing at all.  I just wish that you find…a book wish is like wishing good books to you, like saying have a good day. You don’t really know for sure. You know what I’m saying?  A good book wish. It has positive built into it even though it doesn’t…it sounds neutral. It’s not neutral. When I say book wish, I don’t really know what I’m…anyway, patrons, thanks for supporting me.  I have a book wish to you all. Thanks, patrons. What do you say we get on with the show?

INTRO: [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing, trouble getting to sleep?  Trouble staying asleep? Well, welcome. This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep.  We do it with a bedtime story. Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press play.  I’m gonna do the rest. What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you can set aside whatever’s keeping you awake.  Whether it’s thoughts, things on your mind that you’re thinking about, feelings, emotions coming up while I talk, or remnants of ones still with you from the day, or maybe related to tomorrow, physical sensations of any kind.  If you’re dealing with something like that, I’m here to take your mind off of all those and many more; changes in schedule or routine, or you’re traveling, or someone else is…whatever it is, I’m here to help. What I’m gonna do, one, I’m gonna send my voice across the deep, dark night.  I’m already doing that. I’m gonna use lulling, soothing, creaky dulcet tones, pointless meanders, superfluous tangents, metaphors that…things resembling metaphors. Is that a metaphor? I’m not even sure…I think it…I guess I’d have to say something that resembles a metaphor. Something that’s like a metaphor as a metaphor, like a combination of words.  Anyway, jokes that are…things that are like jokes; attempt to take a partial joke and a partial metaphor and present it as not something complete but turning in a incomplete work, that’s what I also do. But really, I’m here to keep you company as you fall asleep. Now if you’re new, a couple things to know off the bat; this podcast is very different. If you’re having…if it’s unexpected, you might be having an unexpected reaction to it ‘cause that’s perfectly normal.  You might be skeptical; that’s an ad, or even on the strong side skeptical because obviously you would be. This is a podcast that puts you to sleep. What are you up to? What are you doing? All good questions. I guess the best…I don’t really have a good answer. The best answer I have is kinda see how it goes. This podcast does not work for everybody but of the many, many, many users or listeners that I have, most of them say hey, it took two or three tries and then I realized that this is a…that the podcast…I had a non-realization about the podcast, is how I realized it.  That’s one thing; is if you’re new, welcome. I try to welcome you just by being honest. Other thing that throws new listeners off sometimes, and if you become a regular listener, you’ll kind of adjust to how you like to consume the show, is the structure. The show starts off with a few minutes of business. That’s how we keep the podcast free and not behind a paywall. Then, there’s an intro which is another thing that can throw you off. It’s like a twelve to twenty minute…I honestly have no…I have a general idea what a soliloquy is but that word just popped in my head. I don’t know if it is a soliloquy.  It is a monotone monologue where I just kind of talk about what the podcast is for twelve to twenty minutes. That’s what I attempt to do. That would take two minutes. You’re right about that, but then as I try to explain things, I get distracted and I go off-topic. But there’s a dual purpose in that; it gives you time to wind down, to get ready for bed. It establishes a kind of…just like I was talking about at the top of the show; if I did have a café, if I proposed having a café called the Cozy Café, I probably have ‘cause I remember I talked about that dog Cozy. This was years ago. Tonight, I thought we’d have a café called The Bookwich.  Now I just thought of…I said how did I not think of another…that could have another meaning. Oh boy, I guess this is what tonight’s episode has to be about; The Bookwich, ‘cause I was thinking about The Bookwich Café but now I’m picturing some wonderful wizened character that…the Book Witch. It sounds like we’re going well, later when you’re fully literate, you’ll be able to go. I say well, I don’t think I’ll ever be fully literate. Okay, then when you’re ready I’ll send you deep into the stacks to meet with the Book Witch. I’d say okay, well, that sounds really…it’s the Book Witch. Is it The Book Witch? The Book Witch, yeah. Would you like a bookwich while you wait and think about if you’re ready to go see her?  Sure, ‘cause I was actually trying…originally, I was trying to introduce the podcast to new listeners and then I realized I wanted to start an imaginary café called The Bookwich Café ‘cause I mentioned at the top of the show…maybe I should just create a sandwich called the bookwich. What would be in it? Literature. I don’t know because I’m not that…alphabets…let’s say alphabet soup between two pieces of bread. No, we call those tomes here. It’s between two tomes. We call them covers. I just changed that chalk board, changed it from tomes to covers. Is that alphabet soup? Well, I don’t know if technically we could say that ‘cause another company may own that but we do put a collection of…we also have a sweet…savory and a sweet version.  Are those alphabets? I don’t know. They’re letters, cereal letters with a sweet, sweet frosting. Yeah, between two covers. Those are tarts that pop out of the toaster. Yeah, for our lunch edition, we call it. We seal it up in one of those sandwich sealers, you know? You can get them at garage sales. That’s maybe the only place you can ‘cause if you pay more than a dollar for it you feel like oh, boy. But yeah, okay, it is two pieces of bread with alphabet soup in there. You’re right. You got me. Sorry, I got to get…’cause the only reason I admitted it is because I’ve gotta get back to the new listeners. The intro is a way to wind down, to take your mind off stuff and ease you into bedtime. That’s why I guess it takes a little bit of getting used to if you’re new.  But then as a regular listener, it will be somewhat familiar. You say okay, I’ll start the podcast. Some listeners do it before they get in bed, some get in bed. You’ll see what works and say I’m just gonna listen to Scoots, try to get to a point, never get there. Then I guess make an episode about the bookwich. But tonight’s episode, I think I’ll have to do that one day because tonight’s episode’s about books. That’s why I had books on the brain. We’ll have to return to the bookwich ‘cause this actually…intro is for an episode I made about books I’ve read. That’s what I’ll talk about next. It’ll be the intro, some business, then I’ll talk about a bunch of books I read from one author, and make it a personal journey with that author, and to speculate on if I can remember anything about any of the books which is probably at least ten to twelve mass-market paperbacks from this one author.  Maybe I’ll read one of those books and have a Part 2 at some point down the road. Then there’s some thank you’s at the end. That’s the structure of the show. There is about 2% of listeners that skip the intro [00:10:00] and then there’s a percentage of patrons that listen all night and they might listen to story-only episodes and stuff like that. But for a lot of people, yeah, the intro is a way to ease you into bed and then I start talking about this author. You’re in bed, ideally cozy, distracted. Here with your bore-friend. I’m here to keep you company. This is a podcast that clearly, you probably figured it out already, you don’t really need to listen to. There’s no pressure to make any sense of what I’m talking about or to remember it or anything. But there’s also no pressure to fall asleep. I’m gonna be here for about an hour to keep you company as you drift off so you don’t have to worry.  If you can’t sleep, if you’re in a position where you can’t sleep or it’s gonna be a few hours for whatever reason, or you’re waking up in the middle of the night, I’m gonna be here ‘til the very end to keep you company. I take those of you asleep and awake; you’re all really important to me. That’s the structure of the show. Those are the kind of rules around the show. See how it goes. My goal is to take the seriousness out of bedtime, bottle it and then drop it all, and then try to pick it back up. I’m the kind of person who builds businesses around…well, I didn’t really build a business but I thought of one, the café that serves…here’s the thing; this isn’t a terrible idea. I mean, maybe it is, putting alphabet soup in its raw form which is never raw actually, and just putting it in bed. Don’t put alphabet soup in bed, please. I mis-spoke there. Putting in a bed of bread is not a great idea just because my theory in my brain…I mean, it is a bit congealed, that soup.  It’s not in a watery sauce, but it is in a sauce so I would say you may have to reduce it or…I don’t know. What if you put a…here’s an idea; this is just a guess and maybe some actual cooks could maybe start it on the stovetop. Maybe a quarter or an eighth of a teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with triple that in water. That might work. I’d say an eighth just so see if we don’t throw the taste off. One eighth a teaspoon of…maybe a quarter. Let’s try it with a quarter, though; a quarter teaspoon of water, three quarter-teaspoons of cold water. Mix that in a bowl or a jar and then put it in your warming alphabet soup. Then ideally, you’d have an alphabet gravy-type soup. Then, this is what we do with the…what did I call the café? The Bookwich. That’s how you make a bookwich, maybe, ‘cause I’ve never made one except in my…you know, in my imagination. It doesn’t seem that great. Maybe, I don’t know. Let’s just do it in our imagination only. It’s like making a mud pie. A bookwich is not made for regular consumption.  It’s a kind of things that dreams are…made of dreams, not dreams are made of bookwiches. Dreams are made of book wishes, among other things. I don’t know. I’m trying to think of other wordplay with bookwich. I think the Book Witch will probably make me choose a bookwich, as in which book, but I’m not positive about that ‘cause I haven’t reached the age of maturity which the part of my brain says in quotes, “You mean physically mature or emotionally mature?” ’Cause I don’t know which one’s gonna come first. Where was I? This is a podcast to take your mind off stuff and put you to sleep, believe it or not. I’m your bore-bud, your bore-friend, your bore-bae, your bore-cuz. I send you book wishes. I won’t send any bookwiches ‘cause they’d definitely get returned. I’m good at sending wishes but I’m not good at actually sending things. I’m glad you’re here. I really, really appreciate you coming by and checking out the show. Give it a few tries ‘cause I really hope it helps you fall asleep but it does take a few tries for most people.  If you discover or you’ve already discovered the podcast is not for you, you can go to sleep with any podcast Hack and Slash, no thank you to check out other shows. But I’m glad you’re here; I work very hard. I yearn and I strive ‘cause I really want to help you fall asleep. Here’s a few ways we’re able to keep this podcast free for everybody.

Hey everybody, this is a new…some listeners like really boring content, some listeners like content with a little bit of imagination, and some listeners like the stuff with a personal touch, or a purple touch.  I wish I had the purple touch. If there was the story of King Scooter, it’d be the King with the Purple Touch. But actually, that was Prince, so I can’t really…Prince was the one with the purple touch. But where was I?  I had this idea for a new, like occasional…whatever, trending style. I guess, yeah, kinda trending style episode with a little personal touch to it. I don’t think this is quite the right title but I think Did I Read It or something…I think Letterman once, David Letterman, who some people might not be familiar with, but David Letterman did a Will It Float?  Once upon a time. But this is Did I Read It? Which, I guess, it was similar to Tale of the Tape but…Did I Read It? But I thought I’d do it in a way…I guess wondering where I came up with this idea. We’ll unpack that, we’ll talk about the first author we’re gonna be featuring which will be very unexpected to most of you. I’ll talk about that. Let’s get started.  I don’t know how I thought it…I know I thought of this recently ‘cause I was walking the dog and I was thinking about this author, walking Koa. Sorry, if you’ll excuse me, she corrected me. She said the dog? I said no, the dog, like underscore, underlined with quotes. Then she sighed. Okay, so I was thinking about this. Something happened, my brain thought of something, then I walked the dog.  Then I was thinking again about the thing I’d been thinking about which in this case was an author and a book and saying huh, I kinda barely remember that book. Then I said huh, I wonder…I thought about this before in some way because it’s kind of a part of my childhood, or my teen years as a boy. You could wake up tomorrow and the communities around the show say wow, boy, did you hear about Scoots talk about his teen years last night?  It really was a snoozer. Holy cow, I thought it was gonna be revelatory, and it was. Just underscored why we appreciate that he makes a sleep podcast. I’m pretty sure it was my teen years. It might have even been…it might have even been in my twenties, now that I’m thinking about it. Not 100% sure on that. I don’t know how much time we’ll have for this author now that I’m trying to unpack all this. I thought it’d be a…goodness, maybe a two-parter, possibly, though I just started a book.  I wonder if this author is even in the library for eBooks. I mean, I know you can probably purchase it. Again, I’m not trying to throw any shade, either. I’m just trying to buy time for my brain to remember what made me think of this author? I mean, the author has a few blockbuster movies; none that have come out in the last…I think the last movie probably came out four or five years ago. Maybe there’s one more coming. I don’t know. Really good movies, or pretty good depending on what you like.  I don’t know, maybe…this is the only thing I can think of, and this is really a stretch, and I’m not even positive. Here’s the question; who doesn’t love John Krasinski, right? Or is it Josh? I do. I know on Amazon Prime, which I think is what I use to watch a couple shows for the podcast, there’s been ads for his Tom Clancy show Jack Ryan. This isn’t about Tom Clancy though, so spoiler. I said okay, one day I’d like to watch that show and I actually know somebody that’s a big Clancy fan. I said have you watched that?  Here’s a strange code to all that. I was visiting family recently for a couple nights and one night I didn’t realize my dad was a big Jack Ryan fan, and season two had just started, talk about something somebody should be paying. Hey Bisoss, send me a cheque for this, alright? [00:20:00] I watched a couple episodes. I did enjoy it; a great cast, as I said. My dad really, really likes it. My mom slept through it but I think she’ll probably watch them again ‘cause he was talking to her even though she was asleep about everything.  It was like watching it…I don’t know if people watch TV very often with their parents and I don’t want to make generalizations but it was a bit like watching it with a DVD…whatever the second. There was the main audio and then there was my dad’s commentary which was more expository or revelatory. What is that, RFQ? Request for information from my mom who’s sleeping saying okay, wait, is that…I said actually, it was the un-spoiler ‘cause when they first started the episode, it was season two, episode two and he tried to fill me in on everything.  Then the person they thought was up to no good…actually I’m pretty sure that person was not. That actually added more tension for me in a good way. Then I said well, this character’s somewhat likeable. I’m surprised. Then I said I’m confused at what that character’s up to, if they’re up to no good. If you’re a fan of The Wire, you’ll be happy with some of the casting. There’s also a character that always…an actor. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the gentlemen’s name but he always reminds me of one of my friend’s dads, that when I first met them, I wasn’t too sure about them ‘cause they coached sports.  Then I came around on them, but never 100%. That’s like Jack Ryan’s…one of his bosses. You say well, I like you and trust you and I kind of do, like a magnetism, and at the same time, like saying huh. He’s got a great voice. Where was I? That has nothing to do with…that may have been what triggered me. I’m trying to think of what else it could have been that triggered…it didn’t trigger me. That guy, that dude does a little bit. Then I said huh. Then I was walking the dog and then I thought about this author. Maybe it was just when I had a list of ideas for the podcast. I don’t know. But I thought of this author that I read almost every book of theirs.  It could have been also that another author…I guess this was more it; that I’ve read a lot of another author. In the last two years I’ve read a lot of books by one author. I think I read three out of the last of…not now, I’ve read other books since then, but at the time I thought this idea, out of the last four books I read, three were by the same author. I started to see the archetypes of that author’s writing which you’d only notice if you’ve read a lot of those books in a row; where you say okay, I still enjoy this but I kind of see oh, okay, this is a theme that…I mean, probably the same for people who listen to podcasts, right? I guess that was it. Sorry about that, John and Jack.  John and Jack, is that the same name too, huh? Also, very tall. John Krasinski is very tall. Even my dad, during his commentary, was commenting on how much taller he is than all the other characters. Turns out Jack Ryan’s tall, too. Also, Jack Ryan’s been portrayed by many people; Alek Baldwin, John Krasinski, or Josh. I should know that because there was one time I was listening to a podcast when Juno came out. He was talking…never mind. Now I’m never gonna remember any of this. Jason Bateman, actually…he was talking about Jason Bateman…going to Jason Bateman’s house and Jason Bateman giving him a hard time ‘cause he had ankle socks on. I mean, as a friend…Jason Bateman’s so friendly and gregorious.  Oh, it’s gregarious. Thanks, Jason. Glad you’re here to keep an eye on my…so, anyway. I was thinking of this author. Maybe that was it; I’d read all these other books recently and I started to see some patterns emerging with this one author. It reminded me of the first time this happened to me, that I know of…was when I undertook a reading… actually, this is when you had to buy books in the book store. This author was not…not all their books were…now you might see them in a used book store, but at the time I think they just did a reprint of all their books in mass-market paperback. Also, this was in the 90s. The books, I think, were all…a very 80s and 90s author, Robert Ludlum. At some point in the 90s, I guess it was…I like to decide I was gonna try to read all of Robert Ludlum’s books that were currently out because I enjoyed one or two…I enjoyed them.  Then I read them to where I was like, I read too many in a row. It must have been in the…maybe it was in…’cause it was also…I was reading a lot of them when I was working. I’d be on a break or something or waiting for somebody and I would read…I’d just keep a book. Especially a mass-market paperback, you could keep with you at all times. I did really enjoy them. I was gonna go through; I was gonna tell you a little bit more about Robert Ludlum. I did do a basic vetting ‘cause I said what if this guy…I don’t know. Like I said, I haven’t heard anything about him ‘cause he passed away maybe fifteen, twenty years ago. But I did say what if he’s not the greatest guy or something? But he seems like he was. I definitely didn’t read all his books. I’ll talk about him, then I’ll talk about my first experience, my first Ludlum experience. Holy mackerel. Then maybe run through…then, with the remaining time…I’ll make a proposal, and then I’ll run through some other books and see.  I’m hoping I can just go by the…go to the cover art, too. But this is from Wikipedia; Robert Ludlum. It’s spelled L-U-D-L-U-M. 1927 to 2001. Now he’s up there having adventures in the sky. The author of twenty-seven thriller novels. Then we’ll talk about the most famous ones in a second, but the number of copies of his books in print is somewhere between 300,000,000 and 500,000,000. Thirty-three languages it’s been published in, forty countries. Also written under the pseudonyms Johnathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd. He's born in New York and lived also in Naples, went to Westland. Let’s see; New York City, his maternal grandparents were English. He got a BA in drama. One of his novels at the fictional Carlyle University which was like Westland. He was a marine and a theatre actor and producer. He did shows in Fort Lee, New Jersey, Playhouse on the Mall at Bergen Mall in Paramus, New Jersey. That might have helped his understanding of energy escapism and action that the public wanted in novels.  He once said, “I equate the suspense in good theatre in a similar way. I guess I am theatrical.” Many of his novels have been made into films and mini-series which I don’t think I’ve seen any of them except for one. Yeah, mini-series. Although story lines depart significantly from source material; during the 70s, lived in Leonia, New Jersey where he spent hours a day writing. Let’s see, so let’s see when he wrote his first book. 1927; let’s see when his first book was published; ’77, so again a perfect example of the falseness of you can’t have a third act. Now, writing analysis and criticisms according to Wikipedia; they’re typically heroic novels. What do you call that? With an…whatever they call that, [00:30:00] uber-type. I think this is where, after reading a bunch in a row, I kind of fell out of…maybe, I don’t know…I don’t remember. I just had too much, much like my relationship with sweets and stuff, where I say…did I tell you? I’m recording this before the holidays, 2019, and I never thought I’d say this but I don’t think I can drink any egg nog this year.  I had too much of it the last two years, or three years. Anyway, again, going against…this is very Cold War and post-Cold War. I think he was one of the people that was able to make that jump to say well, what fictional device can we use to replicate the power of the Cold War, espionage, to create thrillers? What other kind of super baddies can we make? Basically, yeah, that’s it. That’s the filmography. Interesting. Oh, so that wasn’t when his first book was published; that was when the first book was made into a movie, was when he was fifty. I don’t know, we’ll have to find his bibliography. It’s supposed to be on the three…oh yes, I’ve got to click on it. That’s why. Oh, but it was 1971 and I think, yeah, he was still in his forties. Yeah, ’27 to ’71. Fifty years would be ’77; forty years would be ’67. So, forty-four. Looks like he put out a book almost every year. A couple of years there was a little bit more time between them. I think now he’s kind of a brand which I know because as a librarian, when I was working in the library, there was a lot of requests especially for his newer books based on his characters under the Ludlum brand.  It looks like yeah, even…he co-wrote a couple books and then in 2000, The Odds. Then became a brand with other people writing under his thing, which is pretty common now. This is interesting ‘cause there’s a lot…I didn’t realize how extended his universe had become. That’s interesting. The first Ludlum book I read was definitely probably something my dad had read and left lying around in the summer. Wow, so it had to be…it was after 1990. It was in the…some point after 1990 ‘cause it came out in 1990. Actually, I’m seeing a bunch of them that I read. I see another one my dad had probably…one that he had in paperback and one he had in…I could see the first of three to five books I read. But I’m almost positive the first book I read was…well, now I’m confused ‘cause I said well, it could have been this other book, but I’m pretty sure the first one I read was a book called The Bourne Ultimatum which was a movie, a series of three films with Matt Damon, right? But the book is not very…it was the third book in the Jason Bourne series but it was the first book I read, which you don’t necessarily…that’s the cool thing about these books; is, I don’t know. I definitely read this one first, or second, or third, but it’s the first one I always remember because I only remember the end of the book for the most part.  The character is similar to Matt Damon’s character but this was set in the 90s so it’s a much different setting than the films. A ultra-able hero with nearly superhuman abilities even though he’s supposed to be human and Jason Bourne had a sworn enemy that I don’t think is in the movies. Carlos the Jackal which became, I think, almost a meme back in the 90s. I’m not sure if it was actually a real thing too, or maybe…I don’t remember. But I remember in this third book, what was cool was…I’ll have to reread that one. Jason Bourne was somebody that, much like other heroes, even superheroes, was like oh, we’re gonna make you into the…how do I explain this in a slippy context? Someone discovers this person has an aptitude for heroism and they say oh, okay, well, we’ll do…we’re gonna take your memory and make it a little bit hazy to give you ultimate training to be the ultimate hero. There’s usually…they don’t have a lot of memories or they’re trying…one part of their character arch is trying to connect with who they thought they were or who they originally loved, or reviving their fragmented memories. Also, then the A stories, a lot of times…world stakes; something, the world balance or something is at stake, but also their human balance is at stake and I think in The Bourne Ultimatum, it was the ultimate Jason Bourne adventure.  I think it might have been supposed to be the last one. In this story, the only thing that I really remember; do I remember this book? I remember reading it and saying wow, this is cool. The coolest part was the set piece at the end. I think in 1990, my history’s horrible but I’ll assume that was during…as things were changing at the end of the Cold War or the slow wind down after the Cold War. It’s written with still some Cold War aesthetic and the set piece at the end was…I think it was Carlos the Jackal and the KGB were working together. Probably, they had some personal stake for Jason Bourne. They’ll say well, you just let us take over the world or else we’ll use this personal stake against you. He ends at this KGB training facility which was unbelievably cool to me, just imagining it, ‘cause it was set up like…it was huge and it was all these different towns. It might even had a fake theme park where you could train, I think to be undercover. I don’t know if this happens in the Americans. That’s on my list of things to watch. That’s basically the book. They end up ruining the whole place as they go after one another. I clicked on the wrong book even though I remember that one, too. This one, The Bourne Ultimatum, came out in 1990. I think this is a version…the first edition. I don’t think I read the first edition though, ‘cause it looks kind of familiar but only because…I wonder if there’s other editions.  There was two…oh yeah, maybe there was a paperback. This must be the hard-back version. I’m gonna open up two different things here. Okay, I did find…I think I found…I wonder if they re-released the book with the plot from the Jason Bourne movie, ‘cause the plots are nothing alike as far as I know. Looks like there’s actually a lot of older ones too, or maybe they were released in other worlds. But this one, let’s see…what is it, Bantam Books it the one I read, the mass-market paperback. Ludlum, I assume, was a really big deal ‘cause his name is ten times bigger than…it takes up most…takes up 60% of the cover, I’d say. It says Number One New York Times Best Seller, Robert Ludlum. Then it has a picture of a shell which I think was something like the…I don’t know. It somehow symbolizes Jason Bourne. Then the Capital Dome and then a railroad tie, or railroad spike, and none of that rings a bell about the books. This would be one I should re-read. Let’s see, any other stuff that we need to know about this book? Mostly it’s about the thing. I know it’s nothing like the movie. I guess I don’t really remember anything about it [00:40:00] so that doesn’t really do us any good for much other than…that was the first book I read. I really enjoyed it. I really liked the ending. It was a real big set piece which again, wouldn’t make sense in a movie. Maybe they redid it another way. I don’t know ‘cause I really don’t remember much about the movies either, other than they used technology and they were really thrilling.  My brain doesn’t remember them. I’m surprised it came out. In 2007 was the last Bourne movie. That would have been either the first or the second or the third book I read. This other book was another sequel. Looks like that I would have read; it came out around the same time. This was 1992 and this one…okay, maybe this was the first or the second one because this was a comedic thriller; The Road to Omaha. It was a sequel to…maybe this is what got me into it because that was kind of my thing. At this point I’d already read Hitchhikers and I’d read some Vonnegut. I was really…it was funny, those few things. The next thing I know, I’m reading Ludlum nonstop. But I don’t know. This was a comedic thriller. It sounds a little bit problematic to me. Sam Army lawyer, Sam Devereaux, who gets caught up in the schemes of General MacKenzie the Hawk Hawkins. The cover was of an eagle. This was The Road to Omaha. The eagle has a Native American headdress on. As I say, this seems a little problematic. It’s a sequel to the book The Road to Gandolfo. Hawk has discovered a long-forgotten treaty between the US government and a tribe of Native Americans for the State of Omaha, the land underneath the State of Omaha, which includes a bunch of the…I was giving away the plot ‘cause I don’t remember anything about this. This is according to Wikipedia which includes a couple big air bases. I guess Hawk tries to bring a suit against the United States to give the land to the tribe. Devereaux, who is retired, is now representing them.  That’s about it. Let’s see if we have any other information here. It came out in ’92; paperback came out in ’93. I think my dad had the hard cover of this book. He might still have it somewhere. Then I probably would have read Road to Gandolfo next just because that’s kind of how I roll. Now, the Road to Gandolfo is written under a pseudonym; Michael Shepherd. It was about the hawk, Hawkins, and he gets kicked out of the army. This one I definitely read because he goes…he’s over the top, the Hawk. The only person that can help him is Sam Devereaux who gets caught up in his schemes. It looks like Pope Francis is in the book. This, like it says, oh yeah, this is a humorous novel as opposed to just a straight thriller. That might have been why I liked it. But this one came out all the way…well, the paperback came out in ’82 but I didn’t read it until the 90s. I wonder if there’s a picture ‘cause…I’m gonna have to find a picture of that one ‘cause I definitely don’t…I think by the time I read it, it was a Robert Ludlum book. It looks like there’s a bunch of different covers. I do see the cover I read, but yeah. He had a bunch…obviously he had a lot of different re-releases. There was even an older one that has a thriller-type one, like a Agatha Christie, that era. I guess that was the 80s. I definitely read it during this Bantam era, I think. There are used copies. I’m not gonna read this one, though. I’m gonna just try to read that…the other one. But yeah, this one, on the cover, this is The Road to Gandolfo. Oh, of course, when I click on it, it brings up another cover.  That’s not what I wanted. This one, it looks like it says Robert Ludlum up on top. It’s red with concentric circles. It says The Road to Gandolfo. The scintillating…how do you say that? Scintillating national bestseller by the author of The Aquitaine Progression. It shows a person like the pope getting on a helicopter as far as I can see, which isn’t that great, you know. That’s interesting. Let’s see, I go to Robert Ludlum’s author page. He’s standing in front of a marsh in a raincoat which looks familiar. That must have been on a lot of his books. Yeah, this doesn’t really have any pictures so let’s jump back to his page here. That’s The Road to Gandolfo. These sound like books I would have enjoyed, particularly with the streak I had been on, ‘cause in high school, that’s when I discovered Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams which was strange, but those were what I was reading during the school year for pleasure. These were my summer reads. Of course, we don’t judge people’s summer reads. Then after that, I guess I probably would have gone through the other two Bourne books next which would have made sense. Would I have jumped back to Bourne number one? I guess so, which is The Bourne Identity. I would have read this in the 90s at some point but it came out in 1980. This is full-on what do you call it? I think the Bourne movies were a little bit…they were set in the whatever aughts, right? But it was a spy thriller with Jason Bourne, a man with remarkable abilities. Everyone’s trying to catch him; gotta catch him, just like Pokémon. Just like Pikachu feels; you’ve gotta catch ‘em all, Pokémon.  Whatever those, you know. Jason Bourne was the original Pokémon but it was all gotta catch him instead of all gotta catch him, instead of gotta catch ‘em all. Peter Canon of Publisher’s Weekly said The Bourne Identity is one of the best spy novels of all time, up there with le Carré. Le Carré is a spy who came in from the cold. It was a television movie of the same name with Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith, and then in 2002, a Matt Damon film. Let’s see, so the preface of…oh, there is a real Carlos the Jackal, I guess. I’m just trying to figure out too much without ruining…not reading the plot. I don’t remember anything about the plot. Let’s see, the name Bourne…I don’t want to look that up because I don’t want…I mean, I’m not super worried about spoiling it but…it’s interesting. It was a 1988 television movie and a 2002 film. It was only loosely based on the central premise. I’m trying to find the cover of the book ‘cause the one on Wikipedia is definitely not the one I read. I definitely, from being a librarian, remember the two more modern versions of the book, or actually, it’s three. I definitely read it in this, again, the Bantam era. I think that’s the name of it, ‘cause this is definitely the one I read. It was red, it’s the same as the other Bourne books that I read. It has a big Robert Ludlum…The Bourne Identity, then a shell with the railroad tie. Oh, maybe a person…I don’t know if that’s a person. Isn’t it always they’re trying to find their child or lost love? Here’s the thing that a mother might say; how come Jason Bourne’s not trying to get home and find his mother? Jack on her.  She’s been wondering where he is. He hasn’t called in twenty-five years or whatever, forty years, and she’d like to know that he’s doing good. The Bourne caller ID or something. Call your mother already. What are you searching for your lover for when you could find your mom? [00:50:00] You know, just come in and check in already. I know oh, okay, what about his sister or his best friend, or his dad? He plays ball with his dad. Okay, but I think his mother would be the most likely. They would get the most…say hey, already, call your mother. Then there was The Bourne Supremacy. The book came out in ’96; again, I don’t think I read this ‘til the 90s at some point. Let’s see, so some of this…I just saw Treadstone which I know is one of the things from the movie. It’s the second Jason Bourne novel, the sequel of The Bourne Identity, precedes of course The Bourne Ultimatum. Gave its name to the second film, was a completely different plot though so that’s good news for anybody who doesn’t like spoilers. I don’t want to do any sort of spoiling here, either. 597 pages in the first edition, starts in Maine, a lot of plot. A lot of plot on Wikipedia; that’s all it is. Let’s take a look at the cover; that’s what I’m interested in. Are we right or are we right? Here we go; it’s coming up here. Good old images, image search is good for this stuff. Okay, I’m not seeing the one I recognized reading the book. At this point I was probably on my own to find these books which we’d go to the bookstore. Or maybe it’s this one here. It’s strange; usually I don’t remember much but I’m…since I’m a visual…oh, here we go. I found it.  Oh no, that’s The Bourne Ultimatum. I’m looking for The Supremacy, dudes. Oh, here it is; I found it. It’s kind of a blue and neon hot pink. It says The Bourne Supremacy and it has the shell with the railroad thing. I can’t really see in this picture what it is. There was an earlier edition, or the original edition which had a more stylized cover with maybe a picture of Jason Bourne and then what looks like a painting of a woman’s head. I guess, I wonder if Matt Damon’s on the cover; is it like, is it original…I’d be disappointed if I saw the movie, I’m just being honest, and then I went and the book was nothing like it. Some people could be surprised. Another thing I forgot is that one thing I was impressed with, just because I’m who I am, is that almost all the books started with The except for one book from 1973 which is Trevayne or something. I don’t even know how to pronounce it, which I think was made into a movie. Let’s see if I can go through these and think about which ones I’ve read. This first book was the Scarlatti Inheritance. I probably did read that just because I probably did at some point say let’s just go through these in order. Or it was like one way to say…to set myself at the bookstore ‘cause this was back in the 90’s; you had to go to the bookstore to buy books. I think it was someone like Ludlum and it looks like they had done a reprint right around the time I discovered it, was probably pretty easy. Scarlatti Inheritance probably. What was it about? Probably some kind of heiress. I don’t know, or some sort of…I don’t know. Maybe we’ll look into it. Osterman Weekend probably; that was a movie though, that I’ve never seen.  The Matlock Paper; definitely. Trevayne; I don’t remember. Cry of the Halidon; maybe. The Rhinemann Exchange; maybe. That one is not a very…I mean, a couple of these you say okay…Matlock Paper, that’s good. Scarlatti Inheritance; I don’t know why I like that name but I’d say yeah. Osterman Weekend; I’d say well…Matlock Paper; that’s…even without Matlock is, you’d say okay, Cry the Halidon; I don’t know, there’s something in there that’s not…and same with Rhinemann Exchange. Road to Gandolfo, Gemini Contenders; now that’s a good…I don’t even know…I definitely read that. That’s probably about twins that are up to no good. I read that. These ones, I definitely read; Chancellor Manuscript, The Holcroft Covenant, Matarese Circle. That almost sounds like The Maltese Falcon. Those are all good. I definitely read those. The Parsifal Mosaic; I don’t even know. That one’s hard, but I probably read that. Aquitaine; these are hard to say, too. Aquitaine Progression, maybe, then Bourne Supremacy. Icarus Agenda; I definitely read that, probably just ‘cause I like Icarus. Bourne Ultimatum; read that. Road to Omaha; read that. Scorpio Illusion; probably. That’s a great title, Scorpio Illusion. I was born in a totally different month. It was totally an illusion. Apocalypse Watch; probably. Matarese Countdown; now we’re in the late 90s so probably I didn’t read of these after this. Hades Factor, Prometheus Deception, Cassandra Compact, and Sigma Protocol, Paris Option, Janson Directive, Tristan Betrayal, The Altman Code. I definitely didn’t read any of this. Prometheus Deception would seem like something I’ve read, or Hades Factor, but I don’t think I read any of these after…maybe Apocalypse Watch might have been the last one.  But I’m not even sure about that one. Let’s look at that; let’s just look at a couple more. That was a TV movie; that’s why, probably. Virginia Madsen and Patrick Bergin. It’s the second of…people that are up to no good. Drew Latham. I think that maybe I did read these or maybe I did see the movie ‘cause…let’s see, the first book; The Holcroft Covenant was in ’78. Oh boy, this is…it seems like it’s a pretty…yeah, this one is…tough stuff he covers in this stuff, holy cow. Of course, with these titles, there’s some of them that are like…okay, let’s see The Scorpio Illusion ‘cause they say that’s a pretty good one. Suspense, drama, action, and thriller. Tyrell Hawthorne, Naval intelligence officer, one of the best, called out of retirement. Yeah, this is I guess where you start to see where I’m like okay, what is…they keep calling people out of retirement. It says this novel consciously draws on Freudian theory to add depth to the dominant characters; factual error in the novels. Not too much on there. Came out in ’93. Probably read this one but not on the cover they have there. Let’s see, Icarus Agenda; that’d be another one. Probably not gonna read any of these. This one looks interesting though; the cover is not one I read, the first edition. It shows a white lighthouse with either lightning bolts coming out from it…let’s see. Evan Kendrick, congress person from Western Colorado, friends with the Sultan of Oman. Somebody goes undercover, well known architect. It sounds like…I don’t know, should I read The Bourne…I was gonna read The Bourne Supremacy, right? Let’s see what this Parsifal, yeah, I think that’s how you say it; Mosaic…Michael Havelock, counsellor ops, love of his life…I definitely read this one. KGB; this one’s a spy novel, the whole nine yards.  Came out in ’82. I read it in the 90s. You can kind of see there’s usually one main character, torn loyalties, family thing. Let’s check The Matarese Circle. Probably read this one. Anthony Blackburn…oh no, it’s two separate people go to the big farm and then Brandon Scofield…oh, he has to team up [01:00:00] with the silly Taleniekov which they never got along and now they have to work together. I like that idea; someone washed and enforced into retirement instead. This might also have…yeah, they definitely like spies, mafia. These are a bit like those…like Pulp Fiction, those books, that style of book. Actual thriller novels, the ones that are a bit like westerns. Let’s finish up with The Gemini Contenders. This came out in ’76. The Italian Alps, mysterious cargo, and a secret brotherhood of priests trying to locate the cargo. Okay, so this sounds like…Gemini Contenders; where’s the Geminis? Immensely wealthy family, secret order, and a bunch of other stuff. Brother versus brother; here we go. Yeah, so I guess it’s like, each brother is searching for it. One’s good, one’s not good. You remember those…was that a 90s or the aughts when that…what were those books that came out that were really popular, that Tom Hanks was in the movies about? I mean, I guess that Ludlum was my version of that but he had more books for me to go through. What was those called? I have no idea. Oh, I almost thought of it…The Da Vinci Code. Those books, right. Those ones were more…everybody was like…The Da Vinci Code came out, super popular, and it had super tangential discussions about it, and then the next couple books came out, too. Anyway, I don’t know, this is interesting, a little interesting stroll through some of my…not childhood reading; I guess it was in my twenties but yeah, some reading I did as young…as a…even though I was whatever age I was, I was still a tween.  Thanks, goodnight.

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