Hey everyone. This year my goal was to get through 100 books, and I'm 12 books behind with just three weeks ago, but I'm still determined to hit that milestone, even if it means losing my job and neglecting my family

responsibilities in order to achieve an arbitrary number. So today I'm going to give a lightning

recap of the 88 books I've read so far. I've got some suggestions for fun short reads

if you're in the same boat as me, scrambling to check some boxes.

Also, I'm going to ask you for your recommendations for short reads as well so that I can hit

100 in a year for the first time ever and finally feel like a fully satisfied human being.

Let's get into it. This is The Book Pile. A podcast about the best of books and the

worst of books. If this is your first time on the podcast, welcome. And might we suggest checking

out our back catalog of nearly 200 episodes with as many books, most of which include my co-host

David Vance. For example, on our last episode, we discussed Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets,

and before that we roasted The Spy Who Loved Me, which is the worst James Bond novel.

And other favorites of mine overall from our episodes have been Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,

Elton John's autobiography, me, and our live roast of angels and demons,

among many, many others. I'm Kellan Erskine. I'm a comic, a father, and I have all my Christmas

shopping done already. Just kidding. I just wanted to see how it felt to say that. That was nice. This is a solo episode today.

My podcast partner, Dave Vance, is off this week, getting gifts for his nephews and nieces by stealing stuff from those toys for tots bins.

But he'll be back next week, Monday, December 16th, as we discuss the book, Dopamine Nation.

And here are the next five books that Dave and I will be covering together if you'd like to read ahead,

or maybe you already have, and you just didn't know it, you clever plums.

So, not necessarily in this order, but still probably. After Dopamine Nation,

we'll do Slaughterhouse Five. We're crossing our fingers that Gary Goldman will return to the

podcast for that one. He's a huge Vonnegut fan. Then the book, Everybody Lies. And then this is

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