All right, here we are. This is the Other People Show. I'm Brad Listy in Los Angeles. It's good to be with you here at the end of the year 2021. It's the holiday season. Here we go. Happy holidays, everybody.

Whatever you celebrate or if you celebrate not at all.

This episode is for you.

It is the end of the year.

2021, almost in the past.

This has been the year that the other People podcast celebrated its 10th birthday.

10 years of other people, 10 years of talking with writers about life and about writing.

A full decade.

More than 700 episodes. What is it? a full decade.

More than 700 episodes.

What does it mean?

And why am I doing this?

I don't know.

And you know what?

It doesn't matter because it's the holidays. And when it's the holidays, you don't have to think about those kinds of things. It's time to take a break from existential

questions. 2021. What can we say? It's been a big year, a multifaceted year. A lot of ups, a lot of downs.

It has been tumultuous, exhausting, tedious, unnerving,

exciting, depressing, terrifying, infuriating, inspiring, inspiring.

It has been for me once again a year in books.

I just looked at my notes here and I have read 69 books so far in 2021. And have found something to like in all of them or almost all of them

or you know what all of them really there's always something good and redeemable in a book or most

books so to close and redeemable in a book or most books.

...