SUMMARY: Our best books this year had everything: Murder! Therapy! Lyndon B. Johnson! The three elements of good literature. Come join us as we review our favorite books of the year. Happy New Year, and thanks for listening to The Book Pile! We really appreciate it. See you in 2025!

WATCH KELLEN'S NEW COMEDY SPECIAL ON YOUTUBE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpBt0W1zrDU&t=1237s

-Get two free tickets to any of Kellen's live shows in 2024-2025 by joining The Book Pile's Patreon at:
https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile

-Dave’s book / game The Starlings is here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMBBLGXN?ref=myi_title_dp

Buy any of the books (the BEST books!) mentioned in this episode and support the podcast at the same time! Just click below! In no order, they are:

A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
https://amzn.to/3DOeiAc

Permission to Feel, Marc Brackett Ph.D.
https://amzn.to/49YI0i2

Here One Moment, Liane Moriarty
https://amzn.to/4gPRAGV

What Alice Forgot, Liane Moriarty
https://amzn.to/40eKo13

Dead Men Scare Me Stupid, John Swartzwelder
https://amzn.to/40fOIx9

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
https://amzn.to/40dlK0x

The Body, Bill Bryson Tchaikovsky
https://amzn.to/3Pga9rq

A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
https://amzn.to/3BSwZlV

The Years of Lyndon Johnson (book 1 of 4), Robert Caro
https://amzn.to/3BSA1GP

Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky
https://amzn.to/3DLBLSB

The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, George Saunders
https://amzn.to/3PfNIT4

4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman
https://amzn.to/3VZ9pus

The Great Mental Models (book 1 of 4)
https://amzn.to/41QsfI7

Raising Emotionally Strong Boys, David Thomas
https://amzn.to/40cY24M

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, Lindsay C. Gibson PsyD
https://amzn.to/3DyRkx3

Bea Wolf, Zach Wienersmith
https://amzn.to/4gBW1op

Slaughterhouse-Five the Graphic Novel, Kurt Vonnegut & Ryan North
https://amzn.to/4gBQPkm

Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt
https://amzn.to/3VWGUO4

The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin
https://amzn.to/49V2VCJ

The Nutshell Technique, Jill Chamberlain
https://amzn.to/40hcpoN

Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury
https://amzn.to/3VZa0wc

Live From New York
https://amzn.to/3VZe8wc

To Hold Up The Sky, Cixin Lui
https://amzn.to/4iYk9mL

Quiet, Susan Cain
https://amzn.to/3Pif1ML

The Elephant in the Brain
https://amzn.to/3DBgwTH

When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
https://amzn.to/4a12SVP

A Heart that Works, Rob Delaney
https://amzn.to/3Wo9BUz

THE HOSTS!
-Kellen Erskine has appeared on Conan, Comedy Central, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NBC's America's Got Talent, and the Amazon Original Series Inside Jokes. He has garnered over 200 million views with his clips on Dry Bar Comedy. In 2018 he

Rediscover this gem of a Book Pile episode (#114) that we dug up from 2022 (now with an even newer intro full of public-domain Christmas music!) Listen to Dave whisper laugh! Hear Kellen disagree with Dave's habit of walking out of movies! Notice how Kellen tries to defend himself against what appears to be a an unequal luggage-packing relationship with his wife...

JOIN OUR PATREON to get in free to any of Kellen's comedy shows in 2025!
https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile
*
Dave’s graphic novel escape room: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMBBLGXN?ref=myi_title_dp
*
If you want to read/listen to this book and support the podcast in a fun way, click here to buy the book! Free on Audible to first-time subscribers, and check out any or all of these fun British narrators!

Tim Curry:
https://amzn.to/41NI823

Patrick Stewart:
https://amzn.to/3VNQfYj

Hugh Grant:
https://amzn.to/41NIqWH

SUMMARY: We live in a society inundated by endless sources of entertainment and cheap dopamine. In today’s book, Anna Lembke discusses how we can respond to such dangers, like, for instance, a pool table. Friend, either you're closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge, or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of a pool table in your community.

Well, ya got trouble, my friend, right here
I say, trouble right here in River City
Why, sure, I'm a billiard player
Certainly mighty proud I say
I'm always mighty proud to say it
I consider that the hours I spend
With a cue in my hand are golden
Help you cultivate horse sense
And a cool hеad and a keen eye
J'evеr take and try to find
An iron-clad leave for yourself
From a three-rail billiard shot?
But just as I say
It takes judgment, brains, and maturity to score
In a balkline game
I say that any boob can takeAnd shove a ball in a pocket
And I call that sloth
The first big step on the road
To the depths of deg-ra-day--
I say, first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon
Then beer from a bottle!
An' the next thing ya know
Your son is playin' for money
In a pinch-back suit
And list'nin to some big out-a-town jasper
Hearin' him tell about horse-race gamblin'
Not a wholesome trottin' race, no!
But a race where they set down right on the horse!
Like to see some stuck-up jockey boy
Settin' on Dan Patch? Make your blood boil?
Well, I should say
Now, friends, lemme tell you what I mean
Ya got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table
Pockets that mark the diff'rence
Between a gentlemen and a bum
With a capital "B,"
And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool!

WATCH KELLEN'S NEW COMEDY SPECIAL ON YOUTUBE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpBt0W1zrDU&t=1237s

-Get two free tickets to any of Kellen's live shows in 2024-2025 by joining The Book Pile's Patreon at:
https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile

-Dave’s book / game The Starlings is here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMBBLGXN?ref=myi_title_dp

THE HOSTS!
-Kellen Erskine has appeared on Conan, Comedy Central, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NBC's America's Got Talent, and the Amazon Original Series Inside Jokes. He has garnered over 200 million views with his clips on Dry Bar Comedy. In 2018 he was selected to perform on the “New Faces” showcase at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. He currently tours the country www.KellenErskine.com

-David Vance's videos have garnered over 1 billion views. He has written viral ads for companies like Squatty Potty, Chatbooks, and Lumē, and sketches for the comedy show Studio C. His work has received two Webby Awards, and appeared on Conan. He currently works as a writer on the sitcom Freelancers.