Skip to content

October 16th: John's Library Pwns

2007-10-16 · letter vlog · John · 3:55 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal update · tags: timely hook, community lore, self correction

For Teen Read Week, John urges adults to read, confesses that his July library tour was an abridged 'movie magic' job, and gives Hank a comically 'exhaustive' tour of his catalogued home library.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; second day of Teen Read Week: when is Adult Read Week?, teenagers read more than adults, read instead of watching CSI Miami

  • ★★ John bets that the average teenager has read more books in the last year than the average adult. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:09
  • ★★ John tells adults who say they are too busy to read anyway, rather than watching CSI: Miami. (playful) — 00:00:09

00:00:42 — Confession that the July library tour was abridged by 'movie magic'; full tour of the shelves: poetry, reference, religions, author copies, foreign editions, 'in your pants' titles, art books and miniature chairs

  • ★★ John confesses that his earlier tour of his catalogued home library used 'movie magic' and was very abridged, and offers the full tour. (playful) — 00:00:42
  • ★★ John tours his shelves: poetry (Cummings, Shakespeare, Dante, the Norton Anthology, Dorothy Parker), reference, religions, family, languages, social sciences, screenwriting and his author copies. — 00:00:42 · Looking for Alaska (novel), An Abundance of Katherines
  • ★ The living room holds foreign editions of Looking for Alaska and first editions of fiction by living authors and of favourite or dead authors, plus Southern studies, science, art, history, YA and essay shelves. — 00:01:51 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★★ John adds 'in your pants' to several book titles on his shelves, calling 'Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone from Your Pants' a Brotherhood 2.0 classic. (playful) — 00:01:51 · in your pants, Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?, Brotherhood 2.0 · first in: 2007-01-29, Brotherhood 2.0: January 29th

00:03:01 — Reading from his childhood diary; fiction by dead people, boxing, sports and Mark Twain shelves

  • ★ John reads Hank an entry from the childhood diary he says he kept at nine, dated October 16th, 1984: the best day, because his brother got sick. (joke) — 00:03:01 · Hank Green

00:03:25 — Travel section and collections of books about conjoined twins; happy Teen Read Week, hooray for books; sign-off

  • ★★ John shows his first editions of books about conjoined twins, with more such books scattered through social sciences and fiction. (playful) — 00:03:25

Humor (significant)

  • Touring his shelves, John notes the Islam and Christianity sections sit next to each other. — 00:01:12

    “separated by the wicker basket that keeps them from fighting with each other”

  • Among the science and technology books John names one real title with the suffix added. — 00:01:51

    “which includes The Making of the Atomic Bomb in Your Pants”

  • John reads Hank an entry from the diary he kept as a boy, dated the same day of the year. — 00:03:01

    “Today was the best day. My brother got sick.”

  • After showing two separate collections of books about conjoined twins, John makes a modest boast. — 00:03:25

    “I've read more books about conjoined twins than there are actual living conjoined twins in the world”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Teen Read Week

Also: People: Dante Alighieri · Dorothy Parker · E. E. Cummings · Mark Twain · William Shakespeare

Projects: Brotherhood 2.0

Works: An Abundance of Katherines · CSI: Miami · Everything You Need to Know About the Goth Scene · Looking for Alaska (novel) · The Making of the Atomic Bomb · The Norton Anthology of Poetry · Volatile Bodies · Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?

Terms: in your pants

Concepts: conjoined twins

Also centred on Teen Read Week: Oct 15th: Happy 16th Birthday B20

Replies to

← Previous: Oct 15th: Happy 16th Birthday B20 · Next → October 17th: The Man Who Throws The Tetris Piece