Book Chat with Garrett

This episode of Lit Happens with Sid, now I am joined by another fellow book lover, Garrett. Garrett, how are you? I'm great, Sid. How are you today? I'm doing good. So before we dive deep into a few of your top picks when it comes to books, tell us a little bit about who you are, where you're from, and when your love for reading really began. A little bit about me is I'm from sunny Southern California, the Golden State, and woo! And it's really hot today, so I'm trying not to sweat through this interview. And a little bit about me is that I found a love for reading mostly during the pandemic. Previously, I had been on and off with a love of reading through high school and college, but it wasn't until the world kind of shut down for me to find time to appreciate the things that make me happy and bring me joy. And one of my first favorite authors that I discovered during that time was Agatha Christie Mysteries. I had always loved a good whodunit, and to really enjoy and dive into those Detective Poirot stories just really did it for me. Yeah, and the cool part is you work in a bookstore, which I feel is the best way to spend your day. And I'm like, I love your videos when you're doing the announcement for the clothing and everything. So what typically goes into your day-to-day when it comes to being surrounded by books? Oh my gosh. One of the best things about working at a bookstore is honestly just surrounding yourself with book lovers, whether it's my peers as fellow booksellers or the guests, because I get to talk about books literally all day, whether I'm recommending a personal favorite or saying, oh my gosh, my roommate read that. You should really check that out because they loved it. And so we're always just spreading such a positive message all around the board for just reading books and just finding something that they would enjoy and hoping that they recommend that book maybe to someone else also down the line. Yeah, and I love how when you go in the bookstores and people are, like you said, not just recommending that the books that they've read themselves, but also other books that you know other people have read. And it's just an all around great community. And you do that on your Instagram page where you're sending recommendations, but then you're also posting honest reviews. And I think that just helps within the book community because everybody's so friendly, so welcoming. And it's nice to get the honest feedback. And then plus, like I said, you work at a bookstore, so you're a pro at this. And so some of your favorites is All Boys Aren't Blue. And it's been sitting on my TBR for I don't know how many months. I stumbled across it when I was actually at the airport in Atlanta. And I was like, oh my God, this seems pretty interesting. I wanna deep dive into that. So for anybody who hasn't read it yet, give us a little bit of what can be expected and what you loved about it. Well, a little bit that can be expected from All Boys Aren't Blue is that it is a memoir of sorts by George M. Johnson where he's writing about the intersectionality of being black and queer and trying to grow up and find his identity and where he kind of just fits in the world. And what I loved about it, not only in its subject matter, but it's also a frequently banned and challenged book. And that really caught my eye because well, why is it being banned? And I wanna know, I wanna know the why. I wanna know what's going on. What is in this book that is being challenged by schools across the country? And when you read it, you realize books aren't bad. The books aren't the problem. The subject matter sometimes can vary. Maybe this is strictly high school and up. Maybe younger readers, maybe wouldn't be tailored for this audience. But for a banned book like that, we need to not challenge them. And in a way, it's like the Streisand effect where it's bringing attention to these stories. And I think that's what helped made All Boys Aren't Blue so popular today. And I think too, like when it is a banned book, it's like you guys aren't doing a very good job because like you said, it's gonna make people wonder why. Like now I really wanna read it because why are you guys banning? Like, what do you want us to not know? Or what are you trying to like sweep under the rug to kind of like bury or kind of act like never happened? And so it's like, you guys are banning these books but people are still gonna get them either way. And I think banned books are probably the best books to read because like they obviously have something in it that people are like, oh yeah, no. People don't need to learn about that. And it's like, hmm, that gets inquiring minds thinking. Exactly, I see you there. Because one of the best parts about, again, being in a bookstore is that we always cultivate tables based on where the conversation's going. And so if banned books right now is the hot topic, we're purposefully making a table for those banned books so that those books can fall into readers' hands. Yeah, all you gotta say, I do the opposite. So if you say it's banned, I want it. Thanks, you didn't do a good job. One that you sent over was Death on the Nile, which I know has been around for quite some time and I know it's been made into like movies and series and everything. So what would you say, even though you liked it, what would you say would be a pro and a con with this book? Ooh, great question. Something that I loved about it is that like other mystery stories, whether Agatha Christie or not, I love playing along with the detective to see if I can solve it by the end. Because that's just so exciting. It's almost like when you're younger, you're watching Scooby-Doo. It's just so exciting to see, did I get it right? Or what was the twist? Was I stooped as well? I think maybe a con sometimes is, for those older stories like in Agatha Christie, they're so well-known in pop culture. Have I been previously exposed to that twist unknowingly or that plot device unknowingly? And were those tailoring into my thought process when reading it? And so maybe a current thriller or a current mystery might do me better where I'm not predisposed to what the twist could be. Yeah, and I do agree with what you said with like solving it in your own head. Cause I don't know how many books I've actually set up in the middle of the night. And I'm like talking to myself like, wait a minute, is it this person? Could it be this one? Like, what did this mean? And it's like, you really need like a whiteboard to kind of just like follow your thought process when it comes to some of these books. And so another one that you liked was Swimming in the Dark, which I had never heard of. So tell us a little synopsis of it and what drew you to this novel. What drew me to Swimming in the Dark is that it is a queer fiction story. And it is, if I recall correctly, 1980s Poland, where being queer is, you know, shameful. It's a no-no for them at the time. And it really follows these young characters where they have like a summer romance in a way where they're really trying to discover themselves and their identity. But one wants to continue exploring themselves in that way and to live authentically, while the other character chooses to not pursue themselves in that way. And you're kind of watching this diverging path and it's just so heartbreaking. It's like, if anything, it's sad and gay, I'm in. They're like, those are like the two topics, like regardless of what else is going on, that's what I want to be reading. That's what I want to be reading. And so, Garrett, before I let you go, is there anything else that you would like to say to fellow book lovers out there? For any fellow book lovers or just readers in general, please, please, please support your local bookstores and libraries, you know, we all need the love and support we can get in our communities. Our libraries are the backbone of what they do and provide and the services for our community. Please, please, please support your libraries and bookstores. And then, Garrett, tell everybody where they can find you on Bookstagram. And you can find me at Garrett's Library here on Instagram. Voila, see, there you have it. Garrett has some awesome recommendations, a lot of color-coded things. He gets to meet authors, the whole shebang. So I highly recommend following him. So Garrett, thank you so much for taking the time to come and chat with me and fellow book lovers out there. We greatly appreciate it. Thank you very much for having me on.