Book Talk: Dungeon Crawler Carl, The Offing and Yellowface

Liam Benjamin: Hey everyone, welcome to the Teach Me Quickly One More Time podcast. In today's episode, we're going to start talking about books and I hope it's going to be a conversation that we will continue to have throughout this series. I have fostered a love for reading over the last few years, partly due to my sister. I think that journey of reading has kind of grown I've really tried to challenge myself with the books I've been reading. engage with readers a little bit more. And in this series, in these little episodes of books, I want to talk about some of my favorite ones that I'm reading right now, but also bring in some books that I think could have an impact in education. I think some of the big takeaways I've had with books are sometimes not just the ones I can read in class or the stories that I found really engaging for children, but also the ones that have shaped me and left an imprint on me. And that's not true of every book and that's totally okay. I think it's totally fine to not like a book. And it's even more important that we teach children that as well. We don't have to like a movie. We don't have to like a TV show. We don't have to like a meal. It's okay if we want to be a bit of a critic those critiquing skills are so important. But in this series, I want to talk about some books that I really enjoyed. going to start by talking about my love for reading and how it's grown over the last few years. I definitely think it started when I was younger, at the age of about 12. And the first real big book I remember reading and feeling incredibly proud about was Adrian Mole, The Diary of Adrian Mole. And I loved it. I don't think I got at that particular age all the political nuances and all the puberty kind of references. There was a lot there that I haven't quite tapped into, but for me it was a longer book. It was the first time I really felt like I'd achieved something as a reader. I knew that I was good at reading or relatively I was able to understand the words and maintain the pace because of the feedback I've been given as a as a child, as a student. I don't think another set of books really had an impact on me until I got to Harry Potter. There were definitely books that I'd read, I'm sure, along the way, but nothing that had stayed with me until Harry Potter. And I think the growing influence of society reading it, it became really popular, everyone was talking about it, and I just caught that wave. I remember curing outside of Waterstones, waiting for that book. to come out and to read it. I remember teaching in a class one July and I'd saved, I think it was the Order of the Phoenix until the summer holiday and one of the kids had spoiled quite a significant moment in the story. that was devastating. I also want to reassure anyone listening right now that if I'm going to be talking to you about books, I will not be spoiling anything. I want to talk about how the book has made me feel, the lessons I've taken away from that book. Maybe there will be some inspiration for you, but I don't want to spoil or take away anything of the enjoyment for you. I want you to have that for yourself. So rest assured, I will not be spoiling any stories. So yeah, Adrian Mole, then on to Harry Potter As I got into teaching, there were more and more books that I was reading with children, short picture fiction that would stay with me. and time again. I can't remember how many times now I've read Where the World Things Are. It still gives me a chill when I read that last page about his dinner still being, still being hot when he gets back to his room. And when I first started teaching I landed myself a year six class walking in there not really knowing them, not really having time to prepare the way that I kind of joined the year. there was a rack of Michael Morpurgo books, Kensuke's kingdom on the shelf. And I didn't really know anything about it. And I, you know, this was back in the day before you could kind of look up a good reads review and kind of decide whether or not it was appropriate, but there was a class set in this year six class. I thought, okay, someone's put them in there for a reason. Let's, go for it. And I cracked it open and I handed them all out and we did that kind of traditional. teaching thing where I'd start them off and then I'd choose some children to read out loud. Very much how I was kind of introduced to reading as a kid. beautiful story. We get to the last few pages, the last few chapters of the story, and there isn't a dry eye in the classroom. Everybody is with you in that moment when you're reading that story and they're impacted by that character, that writing. And it was just... moment and I really felt like we as a class bonded in that particular moment. We'd all gone through this story. We'd all discovered what happens to Kensuke We all discovered what happens to the family and you know all the children upset, beautifully moved and as with a teacher hat on we got so much creative writing out of that. We got so much powerful engagement. It came up in the theater down the road. I organized a school trip for the parents based on just this one story. And we were able to share it. And it was a beautiful moment. Flash forward and I'm still, early years classes I'm teaching now, beginning to write my own stories for them and to try and leave an impression on them. So books have always been there, but I think the biggest impact for me has been my sister. She's been my librarian in all these years. She's a very avid reader. She reads so many books and I often tell the story about how, you know, one particular year it was just before COVID hit. And she'd given me a Christmas present of a big bag of books. And inside that bag of books was little bookmarks in each one that were adding more and more information to the blurb of that story. She'd say things like, read this if you're feeling a bit sad, because it will cheer you up. Read this if you want to know more about food and have your soul nourished as well as your appetite. things that weren't on the blurb, there were kind of the hidden meaning of the book and she'd leave little clues about them. That was really impressive and I loved that. And they were all books that she read and she could kind of vouch for and she picked and tailored for me. And it was a beautiful, whopping great big bag of them. I actually still, this is to give you some indication, a lot of those books are still on my to-be-read pile. And what's happened is I've started reading those books. and it's inspired me to read more of that author and I've gone and found more of those books or I've discovered a genre that I didn't know I liked and I've gone to find more of that genre and I've kind of deviated. And every so often I'll just pick up a book off the shelf off my to be read pile open it and there is one of the bookmarks and I'm like this is one of my sister's books this is one that she's given me from X amount of years ago it's still a nice surprise. Still nice treats. And I leave them in there. So if I hand them over or pass them around, those little notes are still inside. So my sister is definitely my librarian. She's definitely curated a lot of books for me. But because of that interest that she has in reading, she has sparked something in me. one of the series of books that I want to talk about a little bit at the moment is the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I'm really loving these. They are incredibly engaged in in terms of their pace. It's very quick moving. The world buildup takes a little bit of time in the first book, but once you understand the concept, the series just doesn't stop, it doesn't let up. There's always a new monster, there's always a new mission, there's always a new plan. The two main characters, Carl and his cat Donut, have been placed in this apocalyptic scenario where a televised series of battles and quests and adventures are being put out into the universe. And it's up to Carl to kind of navigate his way through this. And it is very engaging. There's a lot of magic and And weapons and potions and spells and monsters and gods and all sorts of things. And what I love about it is it's so linear. There's not a real jumping around, there's not a chapter for this character, there's not a thing happening over there. It's all very, very linear, and I really like that. It makes it very, very quick to read. The books are not small books, they're weighty, but they're so quick to devour. I've actually enjoyed this series so much that I've been forcing myself to slow down, forcing myself to just read some other books in between each one. I've just finished book six. There are eight currently out, ten possibly in the series that have been hinted. And yeah, I I I still have, you know, a high heart rate when I'm reading these books because I'm just like, my gosh, what's gonna happen? And they are absolute page turners. And the author Matt really does invest in the characters, and there's lots of connecting storylines, and you really feel for the situation they're in. there's a great sense of peril. there's a sense of urgency, and you never really know where it's going. And Even in the latest books, I'm still surprised. I'm still like, my gosh, I can't what is happening? And yeah, it it's taken I don't know. I don't know why I never found these books sooner, but you know, when a book finds you, it finds you. I've shared this with a lot of people that are a fan of a fantasy genre. If you like video games, if you like this kind of world building. Every book is a different level in the game. Every book is a different kind of I wouldn't say a genre, but it's definitely allowed the author and the characters to face different trials and and and test their own skills in an environment that, you know, is different or unique to the last one. there's a lovely sense of conclusion in some of the storylines as well. It really isn't rushed, it really does feel that the author has taken its time to give a sense of brevity and depth. Even in times of humor, this has a little bit of everything. So please let me know what you think of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. If you're a fan like me, They are so fun. One of the other books that I want to just talk about that I've read recently, and that is The Offing by Benjamin Myers from 2019. Again, this was one of the books that my sister recommended that I found on my shelf recently. it's so frustrating because I feel guilty that Crikey, this book has been on my shelf for so long, I have not read this one yet. And then I start reading it, and within two days I've finished because it's such a beautiful story, and you can't wait. to get more into it. You kind of worry that it started so good. How could it possibly end this good? But the ofhing is a romantic, poetic look at England post-war. The story of a young boy called Robert, who is not quite wanting to start his work in the coal mine just yet. This destiny that's already in front of him that he's gonna face. So he decides to take off on an adventure and start exploring what England has to offer. he then comes across this woman, Dulcie, who lives by herself in a little cottage overlooking the ocean. And between the two of them they form this friendship. It's a beautiful coming-of-age tale for both characters, and it captures the essence of summer in the UK, strawberries and fresh lobster in a time where people were struggling to cope with their rations. have to say, one of the big themes that I loved about this book was this sense of rebirth and friendship and self-realization and how they help each other. it brought a beautiful smile to my face when I was reading it. And I hope that you get that too. so yeah, that's the Offing. It's by Benjamin Myers. Go read that. The other book that I listened to recently and this was an audiobook that I had on the go. It's Yellow Face by R. F. Quang. It's a book that I'd seen come out a while ago and I was really intrigued by it. having lived in Asia for a long time, it was one that I wanted to engage with. And it passed me by. I hadn't managed to get a copy or I didn't want to bring in a copy yet when I knew I had so many other books on my bookshelf to read. And then I registered with the library it was an audiobook. And I was like, right, okay, now seems the right time to be reading this book. And it is funny, isn't it? How that book finds you when you need it most, or it makes you feel a certain way at the right time. I don't know what I quite expected when I started listening to Yellowface. It caught me in a moment of huge imposter syndrome of huge anxiety. I'm currently writing and producing things and putting stuff out there. And I really felt like who wants to listen to any of this stuff? Who wants to read anything that I'm putting out there? So I was very critical of myself. And this book was it was like holding a mirror up to myself, forcing me to check what I was doing. whole story is lovely and beautifully written. There's a sense of peril all the way through. There's a sense of cringe, not from the writing, from the author, but from the the choices the character is making. And and there is a lot of anxiety that comes from that. It's a satirical look at modern day stereotypes and racism. It's very well told. It's very well done. It's crafted in such a beautiful way. And it was, I don't know, an eight hour book. I I devoured it in two chunks over the course of a week and it was just wow. Yeah, gripping. It will stay with me for a while because it is a book that makes you think. It is a book that makes you check yourself. It is a book that makes you, I hope, hold yourself to a higher standard. But yeah, good storytelling. Really, really enjoyed that one. That's Yellow Face by R. F. Quang. Well, I hope that you have enjoyed hearing about some of my favourite books and my journey into reading. I'd love to hear about your journey into reading. If you have any recommendations from me, please let me know.