The Book Pile

Zoltan Kaszas joins the podcast to discuss unshaven music guru Rick Rubin's  humble and surprisingly deep book about making art (the "surprisingly" is just based shallowly on Rick Rubin's looks). - Listen to the audio album of Kellen's new 30-minute comedy special "Negative Comments"! Available by joining The Book Pile's Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/T...

What's better than uncovering the mysteries of history? MAKING UP history so that it fits into a clue-based adventure! - Listen to the audio album of Kellen's new 30-minute comedy special "Negative Comments"! Available by joining The Book Pile's Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile OR WATCH his new special here for free with promo code KELLENERSKINE https://www....

Look. It’s just possibly the worst book we’ve ever read. This is the maddest you’ll ever hear us. - Listen to the audio album of Kellen's new 30-minute comedy special "Negative Comments"! Available by joining The Book Pile's Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile See us LIVE in Los Angeles (adjacent...) on Sep 6th! Tickets here! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kellen-ersk...

- Listen to the audio album of Kellen's new 30-minute comedy special "Negative Comments"! Available by joining The Book Pile's Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile SUMMARY: Look, we know. The internet has made an ABUNDANCE of Cthulhu content. You have Cthulhus out the wazoo. How could a podcast about Cthulhus possibly satisfy you, or add something new to the Cthulhu...

With a new intro where we announce a live episode recording in Los Angeles (on 9/6/24)! With a new, smoother overall edit to our conversation, today we revisit an episode from 2022 where we break down Goodnight Moon with Chad Daniels who just released his first Netflix stand-up special Empty Nester . They boys talk about how it's hard to have a "good night" when your child is kickin...

Math is boring unless it ends in a disaster, right? Maybe? Well it doesn't matter how YOU feel about it, bad things happen and math is always to blame. This book proves it (even if it's not what the author intended). * JOIN OUR PATREON for bonus episodes and full audio of KELLEN'S NEW HALF-HOUR COMEDY SPECIAL!!! Listen to "Negative Comments" now! https://www.patreon.com/Th...

Have you considered letting the pressure off yourself to be someone you're not in order to feel truer belonging and inner peace? Brown encourages authenticity (*unless you're a big dumb jerk, then you should pretend to be a smart nice person) in a world that pushes unattainable expectations. *Kellen added this part -JOIN OUR PATREON for bonus episodes and exclusive clips of Kellen's...

Wrong way: read books about making good movies. Right way: read books about making a bad movie, and then don’t do that. This book tells the story of a historic box office flop, Bonfire of the Vanities . (It is historic in the sense that someone wrote a book about it.) Hear us make fun of the people who made it! Even though they seem very talented! * JOIN OUR PATREON for bonus episodes and exclusiv...

A magic girl (barely), a sociopath boy who thinks he's a knight, a strong guy who got fired from wrestling, and a bad guy with a mouth where his ear should be but only sometimes, I know this sounds made up . . . and it is, it's all made up in this book. Also there's an apocalypse, but that was probably obvious. * JOIN OUR PATREON for bonus episodes and exclusive clips of Kellen&apos...

Interestingly, this is also the title of the world’s saddest and shortest autobiography. Also on this episode, Kellen and Dave pitch a much better sequel to Jurassic Park . * JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EPISODES! https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile * If you want to read/listen to Catching Fire and support the podcast in a fun way, click here to buy the book! Free on Audible to first-time subscriber...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EPISODES! https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile * Rediscover this gem of a Book Pile episode (originally episode #92)  that we dug up and polished from July of 2022! Dave brings up Sauron's oversight on Mt. Doom; Kellen thinks Frodo fell short; Dave first asks the question "What would you do if there were no consequences?" then promptly makes fun of Kellen&a...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EPISODES! https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile * Picture a bird. Pretty cool, right? Now open your eyes. There’s another bird by that bird. I bet you feel so racist. Anyway, Bird by Bird is a beautifully written, witty, unpretentious book about writing. * If you want to read/listen to this Bird by Bird and support the podcast in a fun way, click here to buy the book! Free...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EPISODES! https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile * Rediscover this gem of a Book Pile episode (originally episode #84)  that we dug up and polished from May of 2022! The Big Short is a little nostalgic jaunt back into the greatest financial collapse of our lifetimes. Also on this episode, the duo discuss air fryers, hot tubs, and nuclear-bomb insurance (in that order of pri...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EPISODES! https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile * Look, we’re going to level with you. If we describe this episode's book right here, you’ll leave. The description sounds boring. Your feeble attention span has been weakened by the internet age. So just trust us and try this one. Some parts are about love. Is that enough of a dopamine hit for you? You sad sack of TikTo...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EPISODES! https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile * Rediscover this gem of a Book Pile episode (episode #99)  that we dug up and polished from 2022! The Inner Game of Tennis describes an innovative approach to better, easier mastery of tennis and other activities. Plus, Kellen tries to never praise his kids, and Dave gets better at sports by focusing REALLY hard on relaxing,...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EPISODES! https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile * We look at the first Harry Potter book again now that Kellen has read it a second time and Dave has continuously been listening to it since he was born. Also, we are trying to violate Harry Potter copyright as much as possible in the hopes Rowling will angrily tweet about us and send her massive audience to our podcast. So...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EPISODES https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile * Kellen and comedian Chad Daniels talk about each others favorite poems. Also, Chad recalls an incredible moment during a Foo Fighters concert; and both of them admit to some of the things that they purchase for themselves as adults because they never got them when they were kids. * Dave’s book / game The Starlings is here: h...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EPISODES and to submit the name of your favorite poem for us to discuss on a very-near-future episode with Chad Daniels! https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile * The Three-Body Problem proves that you can take a mathematical equation and turn it into a thrilling, murder-filled story. Much like another book, And Then There Were None . Join us as we discuss science and whethe...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EPISODES and to submit the name of your favorite poem for us to discuss on a very-near-future episode with Chad Daniels! https://www.patreon.com/TheBookPile * Rediscover Lateral Thinking, a book ahead of its time as far as developing the human mind but not ahead of its time in terms of entertainment value...  Also rediscover this gem of a Book Pile episode (episode #99) ...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EpiSoDEs! https://patreon.com/TheBookPile * To buy the book and support the podcast, click HERE! https://amzn.to/43ejtlH * This book (for reals) was George Lucas's plan B just in case Star Wars: A New Hope bombed. The idea was to use the story of this novel as a template for a very cheap follow-up movie in case A New Hope didn't make him enough money to produce...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EpiSoDEs! https://patreon.com/TheBookPile * To buy the book and support the podcast, click HERE! https://amzn.to/3P5Gy4c * Nothing could summarize this book better than this Amazon review we found: “This book provides many useful hints that will have you agreeing.” Indeed, we were agreeing! Join us as we go through many nuggets of sound advice. Plus, Dave has career advi...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EpiSoDEs! https://patreon.com/TheBookPile * To buy the book and support the podcast, click HERE for The Body https://amzn.to/49pRTV1 * Have you ever laughed while reading a book about the human anatomy (and not just with giggles and pointing)? Bill Bryson writes in an almost magical style about the wonders of what we do and do not understand about our insides. * Kellen E...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EpiSoDEs! https://patreon.com/TheBookPile * To buy the book and support the podcast, click HERE for Watchmen https://amzn.to/3uCrELW * “Who watches the watchmen?” That is the central question of this book, asked over and over. And yet they never answer it! So what was the point of asking?! It’s like when Christopher Nolan forgot to show if the top stops spinning. Just ba...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EpiSoDEs! https://patreon.com/TheBookPile * To buy the books and support the podcast, click HERE for The 4-Hour Workweek! https://amzn.to/3uFGSj7 * We would've written an intro to this episode, but we didn't have time now that I guess we're only working 4 hours a week... * Kellen Erskine has appeared on Conan, Comedy Central, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NBC's...

JOIN OUR PATREON FOR BoNuS EpiSoDEs! https://patreon.com/TheBookPile * To buy the books and support the podcast, click HERE for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! https://amzn.to/3HPkXZX or HERE for Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator! https://amzn.to/3UtoNiN * Wonka is available to stream this week, and in honor of it, today we're praising Roald Dahl’s most famous book, and roasting his mos...