Hey everyone. If you think that some of Roald Doll's books are too scary and mean for your kids,

then definitely don't let them read the story of his real life. This book covers the author's life

from about ages 8 to 18, and in those 10 difficult years, we learn of a few of the things that would

inspire his extremely successful novels. This is Boy, Tales of Childhood

by Roald Dahl. And this is The Book Pile, a podcast about the best of books and the worst of books.

If this is your first time to the podcast, welcome. May I also suggest checking out our back

catalog of over 150 books. We've covered everything from Jurassic Park to Pride and Prejudice, to the Hobbit, to Unbroken, to Little Women, and we've roasted classics like Twilight and the novelization of the Transformers movie. I'm Kellan Erskine. I'm a comic, a father, and as a good, loving father, I would never send my kid to a boarding school in the 1920s.

As usual, well, our recent usual, my co-host, Dave Vance, will be back next week as we cover the book, The Year of Magical Thinking.

Dave is out this week because he mortgaged his house just so he could use all the money

to bet on horse races, or as he calls them, his new job.

I had a heart to heart with him about it, and I was like, Dave, that's not a job.

You're just throwing away your money, probably to organized crime.

And he was like,

what's wrong with pursuing what you love?

And I couldn't argue with that.

And I also asked him if I could have some of his money,

but then I think we got disconnected.

Anyway, like I said, Dave is now on every other week's schedule with the podcast.

But if you listen to earlier episodes,

he's on every single one of them up until about episode 145. And lastly, if you're not a Patreon subscriber yet, you still have a few

days to join before our first Zoom online hangout. And actually, as a new development on that,

I'm going to be sending out a quick survey in the Patreon to get a consensus on an ideal

...