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It's time to announce our twentieth book, and there's one question on everyone's mind: will anyone be forced into a tree? Also, Mike & Conor do another round of Calibrate Your Tastes.

It's time to start another crazy journey. We're excited about this one!

(Conor would like to state for the record that he realized about half an hour after recording this that his favorite poem is Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie. In fact, he probably listened to it at Dartmouth while watching the WinAmp visualizer on The Slap Trip)

Assignment: The first 3 chapters

Comments

A.T.

I actually read this one last year & it's completely awful. Bob Honey manifesto vibes & there's a nod back to Antiqua that I won't spoil for people.

Manda Newlin

The new book announcement always has major Christmas morning vibes. I'm really hoping there's a Lexus wrapped in a big red bow out in the driveway. But it's probably homemade oven mitts or slipper socks, and that's okay, too.

Kelly Long

I love that Kevin and Mary Jo hate this book!

amolove

what's the reading assignment (im tired so i coulda missed it?)

Mike Suhr

For the record, hated FG. Sort of a mile stone for the dumbing down of the U.S. “Now feel this” kind of movie.

Ian Gibson

Don't normally read along due to my vision impairment, but unfortunately I found the book on audible. Let's hope my headphones survive the experience.

Jesse Shade

Just a warning, that audiobook is an abridged version, but then again, maybe that's fortunate.

Ian Gibson

Oh thanks for pointing that out haha. Now I'll know if they get hung up on something I don't remember happening.

Andie Etchison

I kept waiting for the … April Fools!

Jesse Shade

Fun fact for you, Zemeckis and Hanks were *thisclose* to making Gump & Co a movie, but then 9/11 sorta happened. I remember reading part of it as a kid who loved the first movie, and all I remember is how bitter it was, as if Winston Groom was pissed that the movie took so many liberties with his precious vision. I do remember Kevin's lifelong hatred of the original movie from his hilarious rant about it in his book, so I'm sure this is gonna be a blast.

Jesse Shade

Delightful, i can't wait to read a bitter eight page poem about Bill Clinton's McDonald's habit.

Jesse Shade

Now we know why Servo wanted that feather in Jack Frost to stab Forrest Gump in the eyes and kill him, lol.

Mandie Cornelius

I’d like to share my appreciation for Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie. It’s a beautiful poem by one of the world’s greatest poets. I haven’t listened to it for awhile so thank you for posting the link!

Brian Johnson

I need to look into this further but I feel like I've heard that the author was very angry about how little money he ended up getting when the movie was a huge success so he made the sequel almost un-filmably bad to sabotage any future films. This may be totally mixed up in my brain. I'm looking forward to the book!

Dawn Godfrey

Oh, this book is NOT gonna motivate Mike to watch FG. You should do a quiz or something where a losing % gets him the punishment of having to do so. 🥉

Moviegique

Tom Hanks did, of course, do some work after Bosom Buddies. None of us will forget his stunning turn in "He Knows You're Alone" as Elliot, the jogger who gets decapitated, and "Robbie", his moving portrait of a tortured soul driven mad through his involvement with role playing games in "Mazes and Mosters".

Moviegique

Seriously, though, Mike is enjoying NOT having seen "Forrest Gump" 100 times more than he will by seeing it. It is like eating uni that is slightly off.

Moviegique

Holy cow, it just occurred to me that "Forrest Gump" is "Ready Player One" for Boomers. It's seriously just a "remember THIS" list of pop culture events, around a dissolute and kinda skeevy plot.

Jenny S

I’m super pumped that my local library actually has this, LOL.

Thomas Shaw

"the sort of book that i'd throw in my bag for Grandmas house" Please Connor, we call that a Winter Stack around these parts.

Jennifer Tomich

Can I nominate the book The Room was based on for next project?? Source: Dominic Noble’s YouTube channel https://youtu.be/YqW2GUhTaFo (Yes, April Fool’s Day….)

Elizabeth

I read FG as part of my childhood adventures through the yellowing paperbacks in the basement. This is why, as a naive, sheltered, and late-maturing child, I was the only kid in my class who knew why it was hilarious that a neighboring school’s mascot was a beaver.

BLUE SULLIVAN

Conor's choice of The Monitor absolutely captures at least the music side of his taste. (And "A More Perfect Union" is low-key a top 25ish indie rock song, post-2000.)

Taylor Conner

I remember reading something about a scene in which (no joke) Forrest winds up hiding in the back seat of O. J. Simpson’s white bronco during the infamous chase. Don’t know if that’s in the book or just an invention for the would-be movie but I’m dying to find out!

Elizabeth Meredith

I've never watched Forrest Gump either ... by choice, because everyone was going apeshit over it, and i tend to run the opposite direction from the hype train. But several years ago, i was on a private bus where they put that movie on. I had to make a choice whether to give in and watch it, or stick my fingers in my ears and repeat "lalalalala" for two hours. I did neither. I fell asleep. 🤣 Another movie I've never watched & have received screams of derision about: Bambi. Just never got around to it, but now it's kinda a "thing" for me, lol.

Bleachedblackcat

You are super lucky. I was forced to watch it a couple times (first time while sick in the living room at my aunt's) and every time I hate the film more

Erin M

Is there not an e-book? Weaaak, Winston Groom.

Emily Brown

Wait a minute......I think you're right! Though a better joke would have been the sequel to Bob Honey.

Erin M

I've had people get angry with me for having never seen E.T.

Gina Dalfonzo

That was the most offhanded announcement I’ve ever heard. Five minutes after Conor named it, I went “… Oh, wait, that’s actually the new book?’ 😀 Or it could just be that it’s the end of a long week and I’m not completely with it. 😊

Grape Faperson

Just to be clear. Uni is the gonads. You are eating the gonads.

Jenny S

My husband and I tried uni a few years ago at our neighborhood sushi joint which is normally very good—we found it disgusting and hated it. But the discussion on this episode makes me wonder if what we had was perhaps just “bad” uni (we are in Indiana, after all) and that perhaps we need to try it again elsewhere…?

JoshuaJSlone

For the first time, a book I've actually read. It was when it was pretty new, so details are very fuzzy. I remember a lot of discontinuities coming from only having seen the movie before reading it, though. Maybe this time I'll swing back and check out the first book before catching up.

Stephen Kadwell

My wife got really excited when you reached the reveal as she had seen this article about the book some years earlier though never read it. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/literary-sequels-never-knew-existed/

Chaos Shadow

I enjoyed Forrest Gump when I finally saw it, although I have no particularly *strong* feeling about it, and I totally understand the view of it as emotionally manipulative Oscar bait. So said, my strongest association is actually a clip from Joel-era MST3K host segment where Tom Servo just goes OFF about his loathing of Forrest Gump. Good to know what as pure Kevin.

Moviegique

I had a similar reaction. I'm like, "Oh, yeah. Hey, they're sure talking a lot about this Gump book. I wonder when they're gonna ann—oh, no..."

Elizabeth Meredith

If you Google it, it's possible to find a downloadable PDF .. wink wink And you don't even have to go to the dark web!

Elizabeth Meredith

Same here! A few years ago, I put a whole uni in my mouth and had the same reaction as Bridget .. barf! It was a nice restaurant in Atlanta & everything else was delicious, so i assumed i just don't like uni anymore (I've had it a couple of times before & it was ok). Not sure I'm going to give it another chance .. plenty of yummy sushi available!

Balaji S

Just picked this up from the library, I was _immensely_ relieved to see how thin it was, as opposed to being some sort of Modelland-style brick.

Paige Hackett

I also got the audiobook. Read by Will Patton. Half an hour in and I want to gouge my ears out.

Paige Hackett

I just realized I’ve been listening to the abridged audiobook. Thought it was unabridged. 😞

JoshG

I'm surprised they even found a way to abridge it. I feel like it's already written that way.