With, that's not right, I guess with excessive, the auto correct said, Access Hospitality, which is my new favorite spinoff of Access Hollywood. What's good.

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of The Newest Olympian.

My name is Mike Schubert.

I'm the titular Newst Olympian.

I never read the Percy Jackson books as a kid. I am a 29-year-old man reading them now on a quest to determine if this was a book series that we've all been sleeping on as a society. I'm not on this quest alone, though. I am joined by someone that you might recognize from The Bright Sessions or the other fine work at atypical artists or the author of a book called Some Far Away Place, it's Lauren Shippin. Lauren, how's it going?

Good. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm so excited to talk about this series. I'm very excited as well. I was very delighted to learn that you were a fan of the series so that I could talk about it with you because it's always fun talking to you in general, but also about books. And now you've written your own books. Like, look at this. Perfect guest.

I'm straight. about it with you because it's always fun talking to you in general, but also about books.

And now you've written your own books. Like, look at this. Perfect guest. I'm stoked. Absolutely wild. So before we get into chapter 17, which is called, we shop for waterbeds. I wrote in my notes. Why not? Like, at this point, of course. What else are you going to do? Shout out to the people who've been sending me that tweet slash meme whatever of someone saying that the chapter titles of Percy Jackson books remind them of clickbait YouTube titles, except halfway through the chapter.

You learn that the clickbait is actually real and it's not a lie.

God, that's exactly it. A very accurate description.

Rick Rudin was ahead of his time. He

truly, truly, truly was. But what is your history with the series? When did you first start reading

it? All of that good stuff. So I came to it fairly late. The first book came out, what,

like 2008? 2005, I believe. 2005. Okay, so wow, way earlier than I thought. I was, I think, the right age to be reading these books when they came out, but I just kind of, like, missed them somehow. And then sometime in college, my sister, who also reads like a lot of YA, bought them on our shared Kindle account. I was traveling and started reading it on my phone on the train and

just like laughing out loud on this train. I just thought it was like so, so funny. Burned through

the first like two books and then a couple months right, I read the third. And then I haven't read

the fourth or fifth. Like I don't know what happened, but I think I just got

distracted by school and, like, got busy and just didn't quite make my way back. And by the time I was like, oh, wait, there are two more books. It had like been too long. And I was like, do I need to reread one through three before diving back in? So I've only read the first three, but I remember finding them absolutely delightful and thinking like, I know that this is meant for 13 year olds, but I'm,

you know, 20 and I think this stuff is hilarious. Yeah, I've heard a similar story with a lot of folks who are guests on the show where because of the time the fourth and fifth came out, we were either high school, college, whatever it was, and life just got in the way. So you are not alone. But I'm glad that we get to talk about this book.

Because, yes, it's very good. No matter the age, I'm 29, and I laugh out loud many times. And I'm very intrigued by the story. And I'm very invested in the story. And I'm very nervous for all the characters. Especially in these chapters, as things are starting to ramp up and get scary. Yeah. So I say we get right into it where we last left our heroes.

They had just come out of the Lotus. ramp up and get scary. Yeah. So I say we get right into it where we last left our heroes. They

had just come out of the Lotus Casino and they were in there for five days and now they only

...