Hi, everyone. Welcome to the librarian is in the New York Public Library's podcast about books, culture, and what to read next.

I'm an acapella singer.

We were just talking about that. And I'm narf. I'm narf. Who's narf? Did you ever when you were a kid say your name backwards? Oh yeah, Nug. Nug. Nug and K-N-R-F. And I remember it was very difficult for me because it's Frank, so backwards is K-N-A-R-F. So is the K-N-A-R-F? Like a no. That's an important question. Either Narf or K-N-R-F. I like K-N-R-F. Right. Like Knav, the publishing house. Yeah, exactly. it's not not or is it notf i don't know no it's whether you want the silent k is there a word that does not have a silent k but begins with a k

k that has a consonant following it like no knowledge silent k the librarian is in blowing your mind

since 2015. Hi, where Noug and Knarf? I'm Noug. Well, I'm glad I kicked off this fascinating podcast with saying our names backwards. I was just going to try to get you to sing a cappella bass again the way that you were a second ago. Dood. Well, we both love pitch perfect. Dude. Dude, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do do do do do do. You're not singing. You're not harmonizing. I love the pitch perfect movies. I do too. That can be a non-book wreck. There we go. All three of them. Right off the top. A very in quality, but pleasure givers all. They're so funny.

So let me see.

I read a book that I'd like to tell you about. No. And maybe I want to ask you, let's see, let me ask you this question. When or if you think about your life? I try to do that as little as possible. Well, that's sort of the question.

Oh, really? When are if you think about your life. Do you actually find yourself consciously

putting a narrative on your life or a format on your life? That is such a good question. I actually

think about this a lot because of like the stories that you tell yourself about yourself

and about your life. Yeah. I think about that a lot. I do do it a lot too much, I think.

Do you ever question that occasionally? Like what your personal narrative might be? Because I suppose

then we all do this to some degree. I mean, like you alluded to, which is you were being facetious, but it's

partly true, and it's also partly true for all of us. Sometimes we just don't want to think

about it too deeply, our stories. But I think probably for the most part unconsciously,

and it surfaces sometimes like in the morning when you just get up or at a dark night of the soul at

night, you think about your life in a certain way. And you go back to that same narrative. And I

always wonder, I think often about whether I'm putting myself into the wrong narrative or

I'm forcing myself into the wrong narrative and want to bust out of it. maybe I'm just accepting a narrative that was given to me or something I devised when I was young and more impressionable that just took. And then maybe there's something in my personality that cleaves to that narrative. But I read a book by Karen Armstrong, who is an author who writes a lot about religion and spirituality.

She wrote The History of God.

She wrote biographies of Buddha and Muhammad.

And she's written several memoirs.

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