Dads on Books

FX 0:01
I'm Mike Walker. I'm David Patrick. We are DADS on Books. I'm online. DADS ON BOOKS Two minutes later! But, we are DADS on Books. We're addicted to books, we sit on books, and we even talk about books. Welcome to another episode of DADS ON BOOKS.

Mike 0:21
Welcome to the next episode of

David 0:25
DADS ON. BOOK

Mike 0:27
BOOK BOOK BOOK BOOKS. So, here we are on a lovely day in ... I don't know... whoville?

I am Mike Walker.

David 0:40
I'm David Patrick.

Mike 0:41
And again, we're DADS on Books and we won't do that. That thing again, because that was ... I know. Maybe a little childish.

David 0:48
I don't

Mike 0:49
I don't know. Anyway. So, we're here today, and we're going to talk about a book. And the book is called

David 0:56
The book with no pictures.

Mike 0:59
Why are we reading a book with no pictures?

David 1:01
That, Mike, is a great question.

Mike 1:04
That's why I asked it.

David 1:06
Okay, I'll answer it. I think you recommended it if I recall.

Mike 1:10
I think I did.

David 1:11
And I think you also said, "Have you ever, have you ever heard of or read the book with no pictures?" And I reached to my shelf of books that I wanted to consider for a feature episode and said, "You mean this one?"

Mike 1:22
And I said, "Yes." This one,

David 1:25
...

Mike 1:25
as I I helped my copy up. Except, mine ... Does yours have the ... I took the ...

David 1:31
sleeve?

Mike 1:31
Cover sleeve off. But,

David 1:33
Mine's long gone. I'm

Mike 1:34
yeah.

David 1:34
years ago. I have no idea.

Mike 1:36
I think ours has like one little tear in it. Oddly.

David 1:39
Wow.

Mike 1:39
Yeah. the inside is just pristine. It's a perfect white. Just like all of the pages, except for, you know, some of the weird words that are in color.

David 1:51
I wonder if the whole point of the book was to save money because the publishing is cheaper, because there's no pictures.

Mike 1:57
Probably.

David 1:58
Yeah, that's it.

Mike 1:58
Although, didn't this guy work at a paper company at some point?

David 2:03
I don't think he ever worked at a paper company, but he sure did on TV.

Mike 2:06
Ah! So ... Who did write this book, David?

David 2:11
Well, Mike, I'm glad you asked. It says down here at the bottom, "Bj Novak."

Mike 2:15
"Bj Novak?"

David 2:16
Yes.

Mike 2:17
you might remember from?"

David 2:19
The offense.

Mike 2:20
The ... the offense?

David 2:21
The offense.

Mike 2:23
Oh, the offense?

David 2:24
Yes.

Mike 2:26
So, yes. So, this is a wonderful book by the wonderful, Bj Novak, who is indeed such an artist, as we will discuss throughout this book, as we talk about it.

David 2:38
Oh, we will.

Mike 2:39
Oh, yes.

David 2:40
I like how we're going to discuss a lot about an artist in a book with no pictures.

Mike 2:45
Absolutely. Well, there's more to art than just pictures.

David 2:49
There's more to art than just meets the eye.

Mike 2:52
That too.

David 2:53
So, when I started reading this and thinking about it, I was trying to remember how we got the book, and I have no idea, I forgot to ask Monica. Since you brought the book up first, do you remember your origin story of this book?

Mike 3:07
Not exactly, but

David 3:08
Okay.

Mike 3:09
I have some ideas, so pretty sure it came about in the preschool age, time, frame, maybe, or the very early elementary school. But I think that a family friend of ours appeared outside of a Chicago. The George's. family of five,

David 3:31
A

Mike 3:31
and we became pretty close during the pandemic, and before that, we already were out bit, but so I think that it came from them.

David 3:42
Okay.

Mike 3:42
And if not, I got to mention them. So that makes me happy.

David 3:46
that's awesome.

Mike 3:47
Thanks.

David 3:48
Very cool. Well, I'll find out from Monica and then we'll pretend that we were talking about it, and we'll put it in post or something. I don't know. But what are your memories of reading this to your Because if it was the pandemic, your kids were slightly

Mike 4:02
Well, It was not during the pandemic that we found this book. But before, but I think our friends, we had known for a long time since they were in preschool. all of them together.

David 4:13
Got it

Mike 4:14
And then during the pandemic, we got to be even closer friends.

David 4:18
I see. Okay.

So this is kind of cheating, but I'm noticing that Sarah, on my now, rising seventh grader, is going back to some of these books and having Mama could read them to her. And the reason why I mentioned that it's cheating is, as you know, I have the shelves, books for us to consider. So she sees them. But it's really fun that she picked this one out and literally Monica read it to her last week.

Mike 4:45
Awesome.

David 4:46
Yeah, and was having so much fun with it. You know, you'll be shocked to learn if you had to pick who in our marriage is more of a cartoon and does voices.

Mike 4:56
Obviously, Monica.

David 4:59
Yeah, clearly, for those of you just joining us, Monica is a physician. But not only was she doing funny voices, she was doing some of the same ones she had done when she read this to the girls a few years ago.

Mike 5:11
That's good to get in those habits of keeping your characters straight.

David 5:15
Absolutely. And I would do the same thing you know, you and I are both performers. And yeah, I would just do the same voice because it's almost like the writing is so good in this that it created real characters or characters that allow the parent to become real, which is what makes it such a great kids book. One of the things.

Mike 5:34
Absolutely.

David 5:35
Well, Mike, tell us about why is there a book with no pictures? What's up with that?

Mike 5:42
Why there is.

David 5:43
But

Mike 5:44
it's very funny because when you're reading this to someone, especially for the very, very first time, you have no idea what's coming.

David 5:54
Right.

Mike 5:54
It's literally blank canvas.

David 5:57
Yes, it is.

Mike 5:58
With some words. I don't remember exactly, but I remember reading it the first time and just not knowing what to expect. And it just kept getting more and more ridiculous. As you got into it because you're like, oh, my gosh. There was so much thought put behind this to make it a fun book.

David 6:21
Absolutely.

Mike 6:21
I mean, you could just have a book with no pictures, but unless you have a story to go with it of some sort, it really doesn't do much.

David 6:30
So you're inspiring me a way to make money selling books and also to keep the very low cost. I'm going to do the book with no pictures and no words.

Mike 6:38
Ooh, the sequel.

David 6:41
Some people call them journals, but not me.

Mike 6:45
Oh, like the ones that you the college, the old ones that you wrote for your essays in college, whatever those books. What the hell were they called? That's what that's what I was looking for. Composition notebook.

David 6:57
Yes. However, the third book is going to be the book with no pictures, no words and no lines.

Mike 7:03
Oh, now it's getting

David 7:06
It's getting deep. But back to the book. We're going to go back to the one that has no lines, but has words. Not only was there a lot of thought and planning into this, as you said, but the words, the font, the size, the coloring of words, the spacing. So been Jane Oback, I think he began his career really as a writer, became an actor on the office, which I think half of the actors were writers first or both. It's clear that he's done both.

Mike 7:32
Yeah.

David 7:33
Because another thing that was happening when I was reading this is that was you can hear it like I can hear the rhythm. And I too read it cold when I first read it to my kids. I'd like to say that I read books ahead of time, no. You can hate what's this.

Mike 7:46
Yeah. That's what's so great about our show.

David 7:50
Exactly.

Mike 7:50
We never know what's coming.

David 7:52
I don't want to prepare. I want to make sure it's spontaneous.

Mike 7:54
Absolutely.

David 7:55
Homework is for school. when you're reading it, I'm even there where there's dot, dot, dots, the ellipsis where there are spaces. You can really hear it. And it's so much fun to reread It's so much fun.

Mike 8:06
I agree. Blur.

David 8:08
And there.

Mike 8:09
Which that reminds me of

David 8:12
Yes. And it's blue

Mike 8:15
car.

David 8:15
in your

Mike 8:15
Yes.

David 8:16
BlurFblue.

Mike 8:16
BlurFblue.

David 8:19
And it's actually blueberry blue. It's a very specific

Mike 8:21
If

David 8:22
you look in the crayon, I crayon said is called blueberry blue.

Mike 8:25
Oh, that's funny.

David 8:26
But while we're both on the same page of we're going to have to go back and reveal our episodes and see how many times we do that. We're literally on the same page. Literally.

Mike 8:34
Yes.

David 8:35
So it's like, BlurFblue. Wait a second. What? I mean, I can hear him. I can hear the intern.

Mike 8:40
Totally.

David 8:40
For him. You know, this isn't the kind of book I wanted to read and all that kind of thing. And just, and of course, what it also does is it It lets you be the straight guy and you're reading it with your children or child.

Mike 8:52
Yes.

David 8:52
Because there are other places where he says, wait, I have to You can hear the kid go, yes, and no, oh my gosh, it's so funny. I love it.

Mike 9:02
But it does kind of give you a sense of, um, what's up? The two, two different people in your head thing.

David 9:10
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm

Mike 9:11
Skits

David 9:11
going to

Mike 9:11
Euphrenia.

David 9:12
That's it.

Mike 9:13
Yeah.

David 9:13
I don't

Mike 9:13
know multiple purse. It's like multiple personalities in your head.

David 9:17
Yes.

Mike 9:18
Because you have to keep it separate.

David 9:19
Yes. Well, there's the monkey.

Mike 9:21
Yes.

David 9:21
There's there's the robot.

Mike 9:22
Yes.

David 9:23
And I'm on the pages where there's the monkey and the robot. And this is a good example of, the font and the colors. Because monkey is lowercase. It's an orange Sarah font and each letter. The letters are at different heights on the page. They're not lined up.

Mike 9:38
Yep.

David 9:38
On the next page, it's robot monkey and it's weird digital, like, you know, very old, bad videographic letters. Very lined up. Very block.

Mike 9:50
Oh and the next page it's blueberry blue

Is this whole book a trick?

David 9:59
Oh my god. Okay, is somebody But where's the head came rise?

Mike 10:03
Oh wait a second here. That's just fun

David 10:05
This is fun and I didn't realize until after I look back down that when you said is this whole book a trick You were reading from the

Mike 10:11
Because after we said blueberry pizza I don't know if we actually said pizza um you said Not reading. In wait a second

David 10:21
Right

Mike 10:22
and that is actually the line

David 10:24
book.

Mike 10:24
in the

David 10:24
Oh my god

Just look down and thought wait Okay, it's like script and mind or are blending and we

Mike 10:33
absolutely it's amazing

David 10:34
But in addition to being amazing and funny. I said the writing is really great and there's no way he was like not doing this out loud Bouncing it off people testing it. I mean he's an actor. He's a writer. There's no way he wasn't doing that.

Mike 10:49
Yeah Maybe he had a composition notebook and was just reading

To a niece nephew because I think he was fairly young at this point. He probably didn't have kids I don't know if he asked his now cuz I don't know that much about

David 11:02
I Don't think he does actually. I didn't make a colpa. I did not research

Mike 11:07
mean either for a change,

David 11:09
but He's I like that. I like him as an actor and a writer did I ever tell you that I met him

So this was probably two or three years into the production of the office and it was back when I was living in LA The I didn't run into him in Dallas.

Mike 11:25
Well, you never know.

David 11:27
That's true. We have

Mike 11:28
an I mean Oh and a Luke lived there

David 11:29
That's it

Mike 11:30
lived there.

David 11:30
They're from here. Yeah,

Mike 11:31
they're from there.

David 11:32
I went to a party in 1990 that either they were

FX 11:35
or

David 11:35
at But that's a story for another not episode podcast but As you remember Mike was working at the farm of Beverly Hills at the Grove, which was walking distance from my house I had to walk through the farmers market and there was there he was B. J. Novak sitting there drinking coffee Read in the paper on a weekday morning and I stopped and said hey, I don't mean to bother you I really love the office. I love your work on that. He kind of gave me the oh thanks like I'm reading The paper and drinking coffee beat it and I said I was I'm an actor and I studied the second city with Steve Carell and I was the assistant to the director on The show that Nancy Walls was in and I dropped enough name. He's like, oh, that's cool And we started talking

Mike 12:17
nice.

David 12:17
I guess he knew I was legit and and you know, I was

Mike 12:20
or he just knew that you weren't gonna go away

David 12:23
Is

Mike 12:24
up and if he let you talk he could keep drinking his coffee

David 12:30
Wow, literally 20 years later and I you're like smart

Mike 12:37
No, I'm not So not true, don't believe

David 12:40
Okay, well then what does that make

Mike 12:41
me?

David 12:42
Anyway, I ran into him and we talked a little bit and I Believe it and I had some sense of decor. I I stayed for a two minutes But

Mike 12:49
totally

David 12:50
totally cool guy and I was of course I now realized it could have done is like yeah, I mean, I'm an actor and I had agents But you know, I really really want to go into sales because I want to I'm sick of waiting tables And I want help I mean, I could have really like been a character.

Mike 13:04
Yeah

David 13:04
And I could have been in the office because you know the guy who's in sales and justifying loving it and he had a dream But you know, he he likes having that anyway

Mike 13:13
Yeah,

David 13:13
it's a good book

Mike 13:14
It's a great book.

David 13:16
Mm-hmm.

Mike 13:16
It is so silly. In fact, it is completely and utterly preposterous

David 13:23
I know what you're doing you're reading one of the lines in there somewhere.

Mike 13:26
No,

David 13:27
No, never.

Mike 13:27
nope. I'm I am quoting myself when I read this book

David 13:31
ah, I got But

Mike 13:33
it is a great book. I don't think there's a whole lot to really

dig deep into the artwork

David 13:43
Well, yes

Mike 13:44
Although we did because really the art is in the font and the coloring of the words It really does

Oddly, I'm sure on purpose

David 13:55
Mm-hmm.

Mike 13:55
it really does give you a sense of where to go with it when you're reading

David 14:00
Yes,

Mike 14:01
it gives you a little bit of a road map so that you can be silly and be Completely and utterly ridiculous

David 14:07
Absolutely and you're right. I don't want to go over more details except for one

Mike 14:11
Tell me more

David 14:12
for those of you who've read the book You know exactly what we're talking about and for those of you who haven't read the book You're probably thinking can you guys forget finish so I can go on and buy the book course, this is the 20th century. I have to do is do a half screen this Amazon Anyway, the point is the page that has all the words

Mike 14:28
yes

David 14:29
and all the things and one of them is like five lines of just lowercase e

Mike 14:34
mm-hmm

David 14:35
And since I'm detail person and my daughters won't let me get away with shortcuts on this book I have to read and do everything, which means the last for a long

Mike 14:46
Yeah.

David 14:48
How did you do that? Do you remember when you did it?

Mike 14:51
I don't remember. I'm trying to find the page because I know the page. Oh, yeah. I really did draw that out the beginning.

David 15:02
in

Mike 15:02
Then, at some point, I was like, "Oh, my... I can't." It's just too long. I can't keep doing this for 45 seconds.

David 15:13
You thought they're not passed out about reading to your daughter or daughters?

Mike 15:16
Exactly.

David 15:18
Funny Mike that you say that. I had a solution to it. Let me ask you one more question.

Mike 15:22
Go for it.

David 15:22
What

sound or how did you read those ease? You don't have to do the whole thing, I don't want you to pass out. Do you remember?

Mike 15:30
I don't.

David 15:31
Okay. So,

Mike 15:32
I think it was kind of like my sense is that it was like the hanging-up of the telephone in 80s and 70s music, ah,

FX 15:44
the

Mike 15:45
music, movies, where it was just like the...

David 15:50
But

whatever I did to solve your problem of not passing out. I do it until I almost passed out and then I take a and then start it again.

Mike 16:04
Oh, taking a breath.

David 16:06
Yeah, so in something like this,

I

Mike 16:12
that's...

David 16:12
exaggerate the breath and I pretend I almost died.

Mike 16:15
So, I've got to ask a quick question here because it's really funny on my end. Did you start with the... just now. Did you start with the E and then get softer?

David 16:26
Uh, I don't know. I would like to say I had the whole thing planned and I saw the sheet music that I wrote with the decry... the decrychendo, um, I don't know. Because

Mike 16:36
I think actually what happened was whatever program we're on, talking to each other with... used some sort of filter and filtered it out because it thought it was background noise. So, it was like, "Heeeee!"

David 16:51
Oh, that's

Mike 16:52
All

David 16:52
hilarious.

Mike 16:52
I could hear was your breath almost. It's pretty funny.

David 16:54
Well, I could have been running out of breath because like I said, I forgot to do my vocal warmups.

Mike 16:58
Oh, yes.

David 16:59
Or maybe there's a feature on the software you're using that's like he is really obnoxious. I'm gonna lower his...

Mike 17:05
Oh

David 17:05
lower.

Mike 17:05
no, that was just me. Oh, I mean, what?

David 17:07
Oh, yeah, but we're recording.

Mike 17:09
Oh, damn, I'll

David 17:10
But

Mike 17:10
take

David 17:10
the

Mike 17:10
that.

David 17:10
point is the girls love that the most and if I ever did have the lung capacity to do 45 seconds of uninterrupted E, they wouldn't let me because they had to do the breathing and then I'd stop and I'd pause and I'd go back and it was also fun when I would read it and Monica would listen and I'd listen to her reading it. I'd steal funny things that she did because she will not be funnier than me.

Mike 17:37
No competition there, no competitive bone in your body is there.

David 17:41
Not one. But anyway, yeah, again, just a fantastic book and as we discovered with twelve, is she twelve? Yeah, twelve-year-old Sarah, you don't have to be very young to appreciate this book.

Mike 17:54
I appreciate it and I am nowhere near twelve.

FX 17:56
(B

David 17:57
Yeah,

FX 17:57
включ)

David 17:57
and I'm even further away from twelve than you are

Mike 18:00
That's

David 18:00
and I love it. Mm-hmm.

Mike 18:01
It is a pretty awesome book. I would like to thank Mr. B. Novak for not putting pictures in this book because I would really suck to buy a book with no pictures that had pictures.

David 18:15
Yes, that would suck.

Mike 18:16
So thanks B.

David 18:17
Yeah. Thank you for being sincere and your true self

Mike 18:20
Yes.

David 18:20
and for being relevant and for being part of the conversation.

Mike 18:24
Absolutely. It was so nice of having you on the show, B.

David 18:27
Oh, it was awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. May I make one more comment? All the copyright and publisher stuff and it is been is in the back of this book instead of the front. I don't know if you have

Mike 18:41
I

David 18:41
that.

Mike 18:42
am looking to see that.

David 18:45
Because usually that,

Mike 18:47
indeed, it does.

David 18:49
And who's this book dedicated to Mike

Mike 18:52
to the reader and future reader?

David 18:56
I love that to the.

Mike 18:56
That is hilarious.

David 18:57
And the future reader. So he knows I almost certainly know he didn't have kids when he wrote this. I think he still doesn't, but that's just awesome because it's like you're for the reader, but you can also read it to people who can read. But it's also for little tiny kids and it's awesome.

Mike 19:13
And the great thing is if you know someone who isn't good at that, giving them this book, not telling them at all what it's about and making them read it would be really fun to watch.

David 19:27
Yes.

I love

Mike 19:29
Unfortunately,

David 19:29
that.

Mike 19:30
I don't know if there are many people in the world who don't know about this book. So.

David 19:34
That's going to say, there's probably 18 different YouTube channels,

Mike 19:38
probably.

David 19:40
this book for the first time.

Mike 19:42
Yeah! Let's ask Tim, I bet he knows.

Tim is a friend of ours. Anyway!

David 19:50
I also saw you looking over your shoulder. Tim and you aren't in the same place. Are you is he there?

Mike 19:55
No, he's in L. still.

David 19:57
Okay,

Mike 19:58
and I am River Forest, Illinois.

David 20:01
Yes, and I am in Keller or comma Texas.

Mike 20:04
I love that you speak your comma. I just

David 20:09
I want to speak to my comma.

Mike 20:12
Well

David 20:12
you have you have your own comma, my and I have my comma, and I want to respect your comma and speak to my comma.

Mike 20:17
Well comma, David, I think this is where we're gonna wrap it up.

David 20:22
Oh you for you didn't you should do the comma on both sides of the person's name that

Mike 20:26
Oh, damn

David 20:26
you're

Mike 20:27
it.

David 20:27
right.

Mike 20:27
Well comma, David, comma. We're gonna get off the phone now. Oh, we're not on the phone. Damn it.

David 20:32
Oh, excellent comma. Make comma factorial.

Mike 20:39
Oh, all y'all out there. Thank you for listening.

David 20:42
is

Mike 20:42
This

David 20:43
and also be sure to look out for volume four, the book with no pictures, no words, no lines and

no paper, no paper. Oh, how about no punctuation? How about punctuation only?

Mike 20:54
would

David 20:54
That

Mike 20:54
Oh, oh, I actually I have that book. I forget what it's called, but it's something about a dot.

David 21:02
Oh,

Mike 21:02
we'll have to find it. Oh, and we really do need to wrap it up someone's mowing my lawn.

David 21:10
because

I love that you plan all of this around your yardward Michael. You're Michael.

Mike 21:18
I called you Michael. That's okay. My dad calls me Michael. And when he's mad at me, he calls me Michael David or not mad at me, but when I'm in trouble. uh

David 21:26
That's that's

Mike 21:26
anyway

David 21:27
All

Mike 21:27
this.

David 21:27
right, Michael, David, cut it off.

Mike 21:29
Okay, David.

Joseph Christopher Johnson. Barbara Patrick. know?

David 21:37
How did you

Mike 21:37
Oh, it's a totally Barbara.

David 21:42
Mom does about

Mike 21:43
Barbara.

Well, David, your mom told me all about it. How David? I love your mom.

David 21:51
Oh, yeah.

Mike 21:52
Anyway,

David 21:52
it's either since uh, you know, Sunday, anyway, yeah.

Mike 21:55
Well, again, this is Mike Walker.

David 21:57
This is David Patrick.

Mike 21:58
And we are dads-

David 22:01
dads, I'm

Mike 22:03
looks dads, should

FX 22:05
and there.

David 22:06
we do it? Uh,

Mike 22:08
we are dads on

David 22:11
books. about-

Mike 22:12
Look, how

David 22:13
how about every other word? We are

FX 22:15
and

Mike 22:15
on

FX 22:15
there.

Mike 22:21
Somewhere in

Hopefully.

David 22:27
Him too. Okay.