This week. I'm thrilled to have david yunan. Whose newest book super fake love song is out now. An conversation that we pretty much covered all talk about his newest book a his debut his writing journey and a lot about what he was like as a young person so really enjoyed talking to david. Hope you enjoy listening listening so david. What book hooked you. What book hooked me It's it was when i was in middle school. I don't know exactly how old i was. But i remember talking to my librarian and i was like i don't know to read their so many books in the school library and she just pulled out the halloween tree by ray bradbury and If you read this book but it's it has these awesome woodcut Drawings in it and it came up a long time ago. Like in the sixties. I want to say and this is way before like killington and the newspaper from the nightmare before christmas. But it's kind of there's a character in it. That is the skeleton dude with. I think he has a pumpkin for a head. I know he doesn't but he's like this very skeleton like figure and he's very creepy and he's very Theatrical like jack's kellington was and he challenges This group of boys on halloween when their trick or treating to to give up a year of their lives to save the life of their best friend Pippin who's at homesick can't trick or treat and so they travel around the world and learn about like all these Reports and customs that surrounding death and they wind up in mexico and they eat The sugar skulls and that is like. I'm going to give up a year my life to save my friend and It was just so it's like super atmospheric and super moody. This is awesome so then at of course read all very bradberry. I could find reading stuff. I shouldn't have been reading and so middle school time. Was that in age. Like were you a big reader. Then was it hard to get you to read or was it something where you pretty much constantly always had some sort of book. You're working your way through. I mean i was always reading. Yeah for sure Is reading a lot of stuff But then that book kind of it was like my first sorta grownup book. I guess and after that i started reading a of piers anthony fancy novels and i read like fifteen close and i was like wait a second. It's kind of the same story over and over again and that's florida and Then i started reading a lot of stephen king which i know i shouldn't have been reading And my dad was a weird guy to he. he He studied victorian like them. He he focused on the metaphysical poets. Okay it adds seoul university in career and then when it came to the united states he studied library science all things. wow and so he was like you need to be reading old man and the sea You need to be reading. Was it on human bondage and then lady chatterley's lover and was like that. I don't think i should be reading this. But he didn't care he's like the crazy. Daddy shows like the horror movies to his kids because he wants them to to Have a good sense of the canon. Anna is exposed to a lot of stuff that i probably shouldn't have been but i'm grateful for it and i would imagine while it was definitely helping Definitely helpful for your reading life to have a dad like that and that was kind of pushing it but was there any sort of rebellion there. That because you were being forced to read so many books were pushed upon you that reading. You rebelled against or turn against it because it was it was assigned by by dad I don't know it's hard to remember like like reading moby dick before high school. Sure looks like there's no way. I'm gonna finish so even if it did come from like a friend i don't know if i would have just cause but it did. It did feel like homework for sure At the same time like my older brother. I have one older brother. And he was a big reader to He used to read at the dinner table and it was like a problem. You know But i you know. I'm a little brother saw. I'll read to on just like him. I want to compete in everything we do. Because we're siblings. So he also turned me into the reader just sort of inadvertently and so when you got to high school especially when those are when in in those english courses you're being assigned full size novels and things like that. Didn't you find and really getting into what's canonized literature. We'll call it. Were you kind of a step ahead. That you think In those courses because dad already sorta had you on that home regiment of a reading those types of books. That's a funny question. Because i just realized really recently i mean my dad passed away like over a year ago. and so It just when you're when your parent passes away and makes you think a lot about your relationship in like your whole history. And i was like dude. My dad was like an outsized influence in in my interest in writing in books. I never appreciated him fully for that. He just kinda did it sure Yes and when. I hit high school. It was english. Classes where my absolute favorite My english teachers were my absolute favorite. My locker got broken into one time. So isis i was like no lockers and i used my english teacher's classroom as my locker That's how much we trusted. Each other's liked each other so that was sort of the year of You know camus. And ray bradbury. Shirley jackson and margaret atwood. That's like when i started really getting into those guys and and then i was like all right. This is this is really important to me. Plus i also had study hall. Not how i had studied hall but Journal i wrote in my journal pretty much every day so and so i take it