This episode finds Lauren and Michaela sharing their reading quirks, from annotating to audiobooking, and venting about the literary challenges posed by The Alchemist and Ceremony. They humorously discuss why some books just do not click while celebrating the freedom to enjoy reading at their own pace. A transcript of the podcast episode is below for the hearing impaired.

Lauren Dusing  00:00

Hey, Michaela.

Michaela Miller  00:01

Hi, Lauren.

Lauren Dusing  00:01

Welcome to ‘Delightfully Delusional,’ where we chat about everything from high school chaos to pop culture rabbit holes.

Michaela Miller  00:07

Basically, we’re here to share our unfiltered thoughts on life’s most random moments and hopefully make you feel a little less crazy in the process.

Lauren Dusing  00:13

So grab a snack, get comfy and join us for a little bit of delightful delusion.  a completely

Michaela Miller  00:28

…a completely straight face.

Lauren Dusing  00:29

Random topic generator and conversation starters.

Michaela Miller  00:32

All right, let’s hear it.

Lauren Dusing  00:34

Generate random topic there’s gonna be like, Oh, this one’s good. This is what book genres do you like to read?

Michaela Miller  00:39

Okay, I have my answer.

Lauren Dusing  00:40

I know I have mine too.

Michaela Miller  00:41

You go first – I started last time.

Lauren Dusing  00:43

Um, okay, I really love my romance books. Yep. Like, I love Sarah J. Maas because I didn’t used to be a fantasy person, but I kind of like the fantasy romance. I mean, I say that, but I’m also, like, die hard for Twilight.

Michaela Miller  00:56

A lot of people are getting into Sarah J. Maas right now.

Lauren Dusing  00:58

Yeah, she’s very, she’s an icon. She’s very – she knows what she’s doing. I DMed her on Instagram.

Michaela Miller  01:02

Okay, what?

Lauren Dusing  01:05

For my critical reading class. It was like, you’d get extra credit if you DM an author asking them a question about, like, why they did –

Michaela Miller  01:12

Did you get double extra credit if they responded?

Lauren Dusing  01:14

Yes.

Michaela Miller  01:14

Oh.

Lauren Dusing  01:16

I never received a response, and I knew that it was gonna happen, but, like, it was okay, because that made me sound weird, but I’m not weird. It was like, genuinely asking, like, like, just how she got the ideas for all the characters in her books, or if she relates to any of the characters she creates a universe, yes. And I’m like, Yeah, that was, like, really sad. I also love, I love a good Colleen Hoover book. Like, we’re gonna get flamed for that one. I know we are. I own them all. I’ve read them all.

Michaela Miller  01:42

Yeah?

Lauren Dusing  01:43

I just like, I love like, a happy ending, yeah, I love them. I feel like, if happy endings could be a genre, I would also enjoy that.

Michaela Miller  01:51

Actually, if happy endings were a genre, I would, yeah, I’d be so into that. What’s your favorite Colleen Hoover book?

Lauren Dusing  01:58

Oh, okay, I really like Verity. That one’s not as realistic.  And that one’s definitely like, that’s like her like, like, odd one out book, like, it’s like, kind of a thriller, but also romance, okay, that one is really good. I really like It Ends With Us.

Michaela Miller  02:02

Sure.

Lauren Dusing  02:14

with us.

Michaela Miller  02:15

It Ends With Us? Also gonna get flamed.

Lauren Dusing  02:19

I really enjoyed that one. Um, All Your Perfects. I was just talking about a friend with this very underrated, but very good. Yeah, I don’t know. I just, I think I love them all for different reasons. Like, I’d never read a Colleen Hoover book, and afterwards was like, I was not satisfied. Like, I, I’ve always read them and been like, that was good.

Michaela Miller  02:38

Oh, okay, well, that’s like, good, though, if it makes you happy, then it’s like, worth it.

Lauren Dusing  02:43

Yeah, I’m like, no, like, I always, I always enjoyed that.

Michaela Miller  02:57

Oh, me personally, once again, gotta love the romance. I love romance books. I just finished one called oh, it’s by Rainbow Rowell: Eleanor and Park. First of all, there was a lot of spice in that I was not expecting. Like, I turned the page, and I was like, dang, what? Like, what is you are 16 years old?

Lauren Dusing  03:26

No, for real, I loved Eleanor and Park, it was really cute, like, really sweet.

Michaela Miller  03:31

And the ending, made me so happy. I didn’t realize it did, like, the wrap back thing, spoiler, spoiler alert, but it was, like, it was like, kind of a feel good at the end, you, they had me there for a second, and then it ended really well.

Lauren Dusing  03:43

I love that one. I own that one. I love –

Michaela Miller  03:45

Yep, I got it for free from the our school for, like, signing up for something.

Lauren Dusing  03:48

Yeah, yeah.

Michaela Miller  03:49

And I just got around to reading it now, and I’m like, I love, um, I also I’m a big science fiction fan, um, like, all, like, Slaughterhouse Five, hot take. I love Slaughterhouse Five.

Lauren Dusing  03:59

Oh, that one just, I was not –

Michaela Miller  04:00

I love Slaughterhouse Five. I’m reading Dune right now, and I really like it.

Lauren Dusing  04:03

You mean, correction, you’ve been reading Dune for the past. How many months?

Michaela Miller  04:08

Um, so…

Lauren Dusing  04:10

For the past year –

Michaela Miller  04:11

I’ve been on my journey through Dune. No, I’ve been reading it since. Oh, okay, so –

Lauren Dusing  04:17

I’ve been turtle, pacing it.

Michaela Miller  04:19

Yeah, so technically, you would know if you read it. Okay? It’s hard. It’s so I started it at the end of the year last year, I believe, April or May, okay? And then I took a break over the summer to read a bunch of Rick Riordan, what’s it called Percy Jackson books?

Lauren Dusing  04:36

Okay.

Michaela Miller  04:37

I needed a break. I needed a whatever theme that, oh, dystopian. I like dystopia stuff I know, like

Lauren Dusing  04:43

You liked The Giver, too.

Michaela Miller  04:44

Yes, I so dystopian. Specifically, like dystopian science fiction, I’d say is like, kind of so

Lauren Dusing  04:49

You were the weirdo that like Fahrenheit 50, 451,

Michaela Miller  04:53

Don’t tell Mr. Aiello: I didn’t read it. That is the only book that I’ve ever been assigned that I didn’t read. I could not. I was too busy. I literally, I started it –

Lauren Dusing  05:02

I didn’t know that.

Michaela Miller  05:03

I didn’t read it, and then I read the Spark Notes for it, and got like, a 96 on the essay, and I said, ‘Yeah.’ I didn’t even know the thing about how everyone died at the end. I literally didn’t even know that.

Lauren Dusing  05:18

Another question to try on, but keep going when you’re done, I have a follow up.

Michaela Miller  05:21

Yeah, totally. Like, I still feel guilty about that, because I always was like, ‘Oh, I’ll just read it later. I’ll just read later.’ And I literally never read it.

Lauren Dusing  05:27

You’re not missing out. I’m gonna be honest. Yeah, you’re not.

Michaela Miller  05:29

But, um, anyway, yeah, so I’m bit I’m back on the Dune grind right now, and I’m actually making progress now. I’m, like, avidly reading it, but I just had to take a real big break in there. Um, okay, yeah, dystopian. Um, so, Dune, but then, well, Dune’s science fiction, but in terms of dystopian, Divergent, Insurgent, Hunger Games, Giver, okay? All of those. Like, I am a I’m fresh out of like, 2007 Tumblr like, that is my like, so yeah, romance, dystopian… bonus points if it has both. If it’s funny, that also helps, because I am the type of like, loser who will sit in a library and read a book and then, like, laugh out loud we do, like, I’ll be the person who’s, like, sitting by myself, like, turning a page, like, and like, keep going, and people think I’m like, losing my mind, like, around me.

Lauren Dusing  06:15

Literally, fine, yeah.

Michaela Miller  06:17

Yeah. So that’s me. What was your question?

Lauren Dusing  06:24

I so I was just gonna bring up you talked about, like, reading an assigned reading in school. So, like you, that’s, is that the only book that you would say you have not read for an assigned school reading?

Michaela Miller  06:39

Oh, like, as in, it was assigned by the school, and it was, I didn’t read it, yes, for class, that is the only book I have ever not read that I’ve been assigned all the way through elementary, middle, high school. Like, I always read the books.

Lauren Dusing  06:51

Okay, I’m gonna say I’ve always read them. I’ve just always done that, but I just, I guess, they don’t understand, like, the people that don’t read them, like,  consistently. Like, okay, you have one or two. Fine. You You were busy. You were lucky. You did your Spark Notes. It worked. But for the people that consistently don’t read them, I guess I just like, like, I just don’t understand, like, how, like, you can’t I don’t know if you can do that in college. I’m gonna be honest –

Michaela Miller  07:15

Like, oh, you can.

Lauren Dusing  07:16

I feel like it’s like, a good skill to, like, learn to read a book that you don’t want to read, and then, like, annotate it and be able to, like, kind of have to care about it for various, like, Socratics and essays. And I’m like, I feel like that’s a skill that people miss out on when they’re like, Oh, I just didn’t read it.

Michaela Miller  07:34

Because then you do so much with it.

Lauren Dusing  07:36

Yes!

Michaela Miller  07:36

And it’s like, you’re, that’s all. You’re like –

Lauren Dusing  07:36

Like, were you kind of panicking when we would do stuff with it?

Michaela Miller  07:36

And you were like, ‘Oh, I’ve never -‘ Absolutely! I was terrified. And then when we would do Socratic seminars, and then I’d be sitting there, and people would start talking about the end I would literally – For anyone in my sophomore year English class, this is why I literally would like, immediately, I don’t know how many Socratics I ruined. I feel really bad about it, but we did two or three with a Fahrenheit 451, and I literally, every time people start gravitating towards talking about the end, I would just immediately bring it back to the beginning, like, I would bring up a quote from the beginning, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, and like, what like makes you like, what do you kind of connect with that?’ Or what I would do is like, people would talk about the end, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, yeah. And something that parallels that is this thing from the beginning.’ So I would only use like information from the very beginning. And I felt like, I feel like, bad about it, but I don’t think it like, terribly messed anything up, because, like, the Socratics were like, 20 people, you know, so it’s like –

Lauren Dusing  08:27

Yeah.

Michaela Miller  08:27

Everyone else has different opinions out there. But like, I literally would make, like, a conscious effort to redirect things, yeah, because, like, that’s like, such a toxic trait. But like, like, most normal people who don’t read the books, just like, won’t contribute as much, or will just, like, give what they have.

Lauren Dusing  08:43

Yeah.

Michaela Miller  08:44

I, on the other hand, made like, a conscious effort to keep us in the realm of the beginning of the story, because I was like, so scared of, like, getting too deep into the end. And, like, obviously we still, like, people still gone in the end, like, I didn’t disrupt that or whatever. But just like, every chance I had, I’d be like, ‘Oh yeah, this thing at the beginning,’ you know? Um, yeah, but I just like, I don’t, I don’t under like, and I understand like, you might not like all of them, like, I, Ceremony literally took me –

Lauren Dusing  09:10

Our teachers didn’t even like that.

Michaela Miller  09:12

Exactly.  It took me two months to read, because I could only read, like, seven pages at a time.

Lauren Dusing  09:13

It came out of the curriculum.  And I never, like, comprehended and understood it. Like Fahrenheit, that was kind of hard for me, because I feel like I don’t always do well when the books are so detailed on like a setting and stuff. Because I’m used to like books like Sarah J. Maas books where, like, plot is always happening. Plot is always there’s detail, but it’s not like seven pages on what the outside of a house.

Michaela Miller  09:43

That’s what Dune is.

Lauren Dusing  09:44

No shame to “House of Usher,” but shame.

Michaela Miller  09:46

Oh, mild shame.

Lauren Dusing  09:47

So it’s like, like, Fahrenheit 451, I will say, while I didn’t love reading the book, I loved the conversations about it, I feel like there was a lot that we pulled out of that, yeah, that I was like, wow. Like, I actually did enjoy talking about it.

Michaela Miller  10:00

Isn’t that, like, when we talked about, like, the, what does it mean to be happy? And, yeah, all that, like, like, what makes Mildred?

Lauren Dusing  10:06

Mildred, is that her name?

Michaela Miller  10:07

Yeah.

Lauren Dusing  10:08

And just like, the marriage that they had, and guy,

Michaela Miller  10:10

Montag.

Lauren Dusing  10:11

Yes.

Michaela Miller  10:11

And then Claire, or whatever, the girl’s name was.

Lauren Dusing  10:13

Claire, yeah. And so I was like, I feel like I just enjoyed, I enjoyed the conversation that came out of that. And I feel like that was a good, like, like, like, adult ish conversation, absolutely, that we had that was like, I feel like the books they’re having us read, I know this is the point, but it’s like, I feel like I’m like, an adult in society, because I can talk about, yeah.

Michaela Miller  10:32

I mean, I feel like we get like, actual, like, epiphanies. Like, I know that’s the point, but like, we get epiphanies from these conversations.

Lauren Dusing  10:38

I just feel like the people that don’t read it, or just don’t care, like, I feel like you miss out on it, like you miss out on like, absolutely the like being in on the conversation,

Michaela Miller  10:49

Sure. And this is a hot take: I did not enjoy Ceremony. I do think it was well-written, and I think it was detailed, and I think someone there, it is, there for someone to enjoy.

Lauren Dusing  11:02

Oh, there are people that have dissected that, I’m sure.

Michaela Miller  11:03

Like, because I felt like I didn’t, I couldn’t relate enough to it. Like, obviously, I can read books about people who are very different from me, and that’s totally fine. It’s just it was so far out of my understanding that it was in the way it was written, was so challenging to read that it was really hard for me to just, like, get into it, yeah. but like, the thing is, I kind of wish we had done more with it sophomore year, which, like, I hated it, but like, did, like excerpts exactly. I just wish we had done more with it, because I wanted to understand it more. Yeah. I wanted to get it more.

Lauren Dusing  11:34

Yeah. I just think the hardest part is that, like, you never knew when it was flipping from like the past to the present to, like, this other person’s point of view.

Michaela Miller  11:44

Oh, yeah, jumped around a lot.

Lauren Dusing  11:46

It would just, like, flip flop. And it’s like, for someone who’s already not into that book, right? Like having to put an extra effort to go back and, like, understand where you are. It’s just like, no.

Michaela Miller  11:57

Because it also did the thing where it was like, 10 pages describing what the wind feels like, but then out of nowhere, within two pages, you jump from three different perspectives, forward and backwards in time, and then some weird side plot we haven’t heard of.

Lauren Dusing  12:09

And you’re like, ‘No, I can’t.’

Michaela Miller  12:10

Yeah, no, I totally get that, but yeah, like, I just I wasn’t, like, I said I wasn’t a fan of the book, but like, I do wish we had done worth it so I could have understood it better. Like, I will say, I’ll give her credit for like. I can like, so what I am very much like a picture things, especially when I read them, kind of person, you know, like, I see things like movie scenes when I’m like, reading a book.

Lauren Dusing  12:31

Oh, yeah.

Michaela Miller  12:31

Um, I can still like, call to mind what I pictured when I read the book. Like, the detail and imagery was that good that I can like, I can picture it like it was a movie I saw, but it was just like, yeah, all that for what like, what like, what point were you…like?

Lauren Dusing  12:50

I feel like the timing of like, the year that we read that going from your freshman year to your sophomore year, right? I feel like that’s also not the greatest time to read that book like, I feel like that’s something that you read more, that’s something we should have gotten in lit. Like, yeah, it was that hard. Like, I feel like lit could have done well with that, even if it’s like, excerpts from, like, part of it. But I feel like I was like, upset when I, like, annotated the whole thing.

Michaela Miller  13:13

I was furious.

Lauren Dusing  13:14

And then they came, and they were like, ‘Yeah, no. Like, we’re done. We’re not doing anything with that.’

Michaela Miller  13:19

I was so upset about that.

Lauren Dusing  13:21

I’m like, ‘Man, you couldn’t have told me that before I did the whole thing?

Michaela Miller  13:23

Also, sensory nightmare with the sides of the pages, like the ripped –

Lauren Dusing  13:28

I was actually thinking about that, and I didn’t know, like, if you had the same opinion.

Michaela Miller  13:31

No.

Lauren Dusing  13:31

No.

Michaela Miller  13:32

Sensory nightmare.

Lauren Dusing  13:33

I would just, like, skip pages because I didn’t even know, because I was like, couldn’t tell that I was pulling two at the same time. It was like, and like, just ugh.

Michaela Miller  13:41

Like, thinking about having to touch that, like, it was, like, so uncomfortable. I don’t know. Like, why?

Lauren Dusing  13:48

I still have that book.

Michaela Miller  13:49

Oh, I do too.

Lauren Dusing  13:49

I’ll forever keep it because of the annotations I put into that.  Yeah.

Michaela Miller  13:52

I’m not throwing that work away. I spent like, 200 hours reading that book. Like, oh my gosh.

Lauren Dusing  13:59

I’m not. I think that that summer reading experience ruined my like experience for the next summer, because when we had to do Into the Wild, it was giving me similar vibes. So I just first book I’ve ever audiobooked, really. And I –

Michaela Miller  14:14

I audiobooked Mythology when we read it freshman year, because I couldn’t get through that. But –

Lauren Dusing  14:18

No, and I that was like, I think one of the first books I’ve ever not fully annotated, because I would not, I would not hold the book in front of me. I would do my laundry, or I would do other things.

Michaela Miller  14:30

That’s fair.

Lauren Dusing  14:31

And so it’s like, it was kind of hard for me to write the essay, but then it was kind of not, because if we talked about so much, so much, so much certain a part of it, I was like, ‘Okay, well, like, I don’t really need to annotate it.’

Michaela Miller  14:41

Sure.

Lauren Dusing  14:41

But it’s still like, took away, I think part of the understanding, because I wasn’t physically like, writing and highlighting things, right? And like –

Michaela Miller  14:50

I, so, I actually used audiobooks a lot my freshman year.

Lauren Dusing  14:53

Yeah.

Michaela Miller  14:53

Because, like, I don’t know if it was like, because we had COVID, like, when we were learning how to do all that stuff with reading, but like, for some reason, I went from being like, I will read everything, I love reading, to like, I have such a hard time reading right now.

Lauren Dusing  15:05

Yeah.

Michaela Miller  15:06

So like, what was it? Mango Street, Mythology, like,

Lauren Dusing  15:09

…Street.

Michaela Miller  15:10

Yeah, yeah, all of those. I literally had to use, like, audiobooks to listen to. But now I’m at the – Mango Street was really good. Now I’m at the point where I’m like, I can’t use audiobooks. I don’t know what it is, but like, I just can’t get the understanding I get now, yeah, exactly

Lauren Dusing  15:24

When I like, when I read a book that I want to read, for me, if I feel like reading an audiobook is cheating, and I know it’s not, because I know there’s plenty of people that love audiobooks.

Michaela Miller  15:32

Right?

Lauren Dusing  15:33

But like, there’s just something about the physical book. I don’t do Kindle. The physical book.

Michaela Miller  15:38

Hmm…you don’t even do Kindle?

Lauren Dusing  15:39

No, I can’t.

Michaela Miller  15:39

I love my Kindle.

Lauren Dusing  15:40

I – it’s just like, I feel like it’s just like different and also like, I love the way that all my books, like, look on my shelf. And it’s just like, for me, like being able to, like, see the progress I’m making in a book, like the visual for me, like I feel so accomplished, and like it makes me, like, want to keep going.

Michaela Miller  15:57

Exactly, yes, seeing like far your bookmark is.

Lauren Dusing  15:59

And I also just like, I don’t think I can fully conceptualize the fact that like, you just advance like, that far, like, through a book, like you went from the first page not being able to look like you made a dent in it.

Michaela Miller  16:10

Sure.

Lauren Dusing  16:10

It’s like, oh, I’m halfway through an 800-page book, and being able to, like, look at that.

Michaela Miller  16:14

Yeah, that’s why I really like that, the, that Kindle added the feature where it has like, the progress mark.

Lauren Dusing  16:18

Oh yeah, at the bottom?

Michaela Miller  16:19

So it like, shows you, like, how far, and it’ll show you the little percentage of, like, how far through you are. But it’s still not the same as, like, having that book and like having the bookmark go across.

Lauren Dusing  16:27

You know, I’m just, I’m not a Kindle fan. I like my real books.

Michaela Miller  16:29

Sure.

Lauren Dusing  16:30

I’m just, like, is what it is.

Michaela Miller  16:31

Yeah.

Lauren Dusing  16:32

And I’m like, I don’t know. I’m like, I feel like I’d rather, I’d rather spend the money on, like, a physical book than, like, wait for it to come in on a Kindle, or, like, buy a Kindle and do all things that come with that.

Michaela Miller  16:43

Yeah, that’s fair.  What you said about, like, uh, how Ceremony kind of, like, ruined, like, annotation and stuff for you? Mexican Gothic was a fantastic book, in my opinion. I thought Mexican Gothic was a great book. I enjoyed reading it because –

Lauren Dusing  17:01

Oh, I didn’t, but I still think it was good.

Michaela Miller  17:03

I here’s the thing. I enjoyed reading it, with the exceptions of some of the scenes with Virgil that were kind of actually horrible.

Lauren Dusing  17:09

Oh my god, the –

Michaela Miller  17:10

Yeah, okay, that, yeah, yeah, that we’re thinking of the same stuff. But like, like, I say I love it because, in comparison to Ceremony and Into the Wild and the Alchemist, like, it was fantastic!

Lauren Dusing  17:28

Vomiting in my mouth when you said, when you uttered the words The Alchemist. And

Michaela Miller  17:32

Here’s the thing, like, I thought, like Into the Wild was not a bad book. And I know that a lot of people are not gonna agree with me on that.

Lauren Dusing  17:40

Yeah, that’s a hot take.

Michaela Miller  17:42

It’s, that is a hot take. I don’t think it was a bad book. I just don’t I think the reason I disliked it so much when I was reading it is because I wasn’t in, like, I’ve talked to my sisters about this. I know that’s like, sorry, like outside news source, but like, yeah, I was just not in the right space or at the right maturity level to process it the right way, yeah, because it’s a book about life and finding meaning in your life, and a lot of that is hard to look at when you’re in high school, and, like, also a sophomore in high school, not even hardly, even a junior, yeah, like, when you’re looking at it from the perspective of, like, ‘Oh, like, that’s so stupid. Why would he go out into the middle of nowhere?’ Versus the perspective of, he literally just wanted to be free. He wanted to be happy.

Lauren Dusing  18:24

Yeah.

Michaela Miller  18:24

And like, I feel like I had such a hard time seeing it from that perspective when I was 14 years old, versus if I were to reread it when I’m 20, or, like, even now, I feel like if I were to read –

Lauren Dusing  18:34

Like, when you’re her age – his age.

Michaela Miller  18:37

Right, when you’re at the point of, ‘Okay, do I pick what’s expected of me, or do I pick what makes me happy?’

Lauren Dusing  18:42

Yeah, his was extreme.

Michaela Miller  18:44

But it’s the same idea, you know, like I said when I was talking to my sisters about they, like, agreed. They’re like, ‘I hated it in high school. It was horrible in high school.’ But now I think back to some of it, and I reread parts of it, and I see parts of it, and I start thinking of it in, like, my life, and I’m like, you know, I feel like I want to have that understanding of it, but I can’t yet, because we’re still in high school, you know?

Lauren Dusing  19:03

Yeah.

Michaela Miller  19:04

So it’s like –

Lauren Dusing  19:04

I haven’t lived enough life.

Michaela Miller  19:06

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, absolutely. And like, our experiences are so different from his that it’s like, hard to put yourself in that position of, like, ‘Oh, my family wants me…’ Like, you look at that and you’re like, your family’s paying for your college, paying for your grad school, literally giving you a bunch of money, gave you a nice car, also, like, probably, like, lowkey, physically and verbally and mentally abusing you.

Lauren Dusing  19:25

Exactly.

Michaela Miller  19:26

So it’s, like, really hard to put yourself in that position when you haven’t, like, you said, lived enough life to understand it, yeah, but yeah, that’s my hot take on that. So I feel like that book gets trashed a lot, and, like, rightfully so. But I’m standing here now and I’m like, sometimes I see things, and I’m just like, I would love to just,

Lauren Dusing  19:42

No, I would agree, though.

Michaela Miller  19:43

Like, I will run up into, like, not to be whatever, but I’ve been to Alaska now, and it’s I get it. It was beautiful and it was amazing, and the cell service hardly worked. People were never on their phones, like, you could take pictures, but people were never on their phones. People were talking to each other. People were running around in the mountains. People were going on train rides. And I’m like, this is beautiful,

Lauren Dusing  20:05

But there’s like, the double, like, the undertone of Alaska is, like, it is so beautiful, but it is so deadly.

Michaela Miller  20:12

Exactly.

Lauren Dusing  20:13

And it’s like, bears, moose, yes, poisonous. Like, I feel like he was coming from the angles, like, ‘This is so beautiful. I love this so much,’ and not realizing, ‘But this is also so dangerous, and this is so wild.’ Like, he was an idealist. Yes, it’s like, Alaska is feral at its finest.

Michaela Miller  20:30

Right.

Lauren Dusing  20:31

But, like, feral with, like, some lipstick on it, right?

Michaela Miller  20:34

It’s so, it’s so wild, like, yeah, like, nobody lives there. So there’s so much, like, it’s like, beautiful that there’s so much natural space, but also there’s so much natural space, so all this stuff that we don’t see in the suburbs, like actual wild animals that have never seen a person before in the climate…

Lauren Dusing  20:51

That is, like, the climate was definitely his downfall.

Michaela Miller  20:53

Yeah, people can’t leave their homes, and he’s living in the middle of no home in the middle of nowhere, like going, like, backpacking with no gear, like that, also confused me a little bit, but

Lauren Dusing  21:05

I think he…yeah, yeah.

Michaela Miller  21:08

And then there’s that little bit about the Devil’s Thumb from Krakauer, his little in – his input on that. And I also was little bewittered by that. But I mean, yeah, I don’t know that’s, that’s my two cents on that.

Lauren Dusing  21:19

Okay.

Michaela Miller  21:20

I just need to put that out there.

Lauren Dusing  21:21

No, that was good. I enjoyed that.

Michaela Miller  21:22

Yeah.

Lauren Dusing  21:23

And that’s a wrap for today’s episode. Thanks for chatting with us.

Michaela Miller  21:26

If you liked what you heard…

Lauren Dusing  21:27

Or even if you didn’t!

Michaela Miller  21:28

…Feel free to hit that subscribe button and stick around.

Lauren Dusing  21:30

We’ve got plenty more ramblings where this came from.

Michaela Miller  21:33

And if you’re feeling extra generous, leave us a review. We’ll see you next time on Delightfully Delusional!