A Visit From the Suckfairy - Ep. 31 of Intentionally Blank

[@brooket1269]

"Children are people." I work with youth and not a lot of people say that. I really appreciate you guys saying that.

[@DavidGFalzarano]

This comment is children propaganda

[@meh62]

another failed joke

[@commanderdreg]

on the book that Dan couldn't remember: he noted that in the series a girl goes off and trains as a knight. i actually had exactly the same experience my family read the first book or part of the first book, I can't remember and we never continued the series. I only recently discovered the series again and qued it to my reading list. the series was Alanna: The First Adventure from The Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce released in 1983. the premise is that an at least relatively high-born set of twins, one boy, and one girl, have come of age to train in their arts. boys train to become knights and girls train with magic. but the boy has n interest in becoming a knight and the girl wants nothing to do with magic, so they trade places. plz let me know if this is it. it would be a funny.

[@danwells9305]

THAT'S IT! I was pretty sure it was Tamora Pierce, but couldn't remember for sure.

[@michaelbodell7740]

@@danwells9305 I thought it was that too, and that series holds up IMO. I'm your age and read it (the whole series) for the first time about 5 years back.

[@AmyLongUS]

@@michaelbodell7740 Good to know! Loved them as a kid. On your recommend I’m gonna go try the new-to-me continuation books.

[@commanderdreg]

@@danwells9305 That's hilarious!

[@bloodysmurf]

@@michaelbodell7740 I had great nostalgia for this series and bought the box set with the intent of reading it with my daughters. Unfortunately, I don't think it holds up past the first book, and even that one has some uncomfortable moments (especially dynamics between older men interested in younger Alanna0.

[@joernlieberich7453]

in germany "the investigator books" were made into a radio play series called "die drei fragezeichen" and they are huge. there are more then 200 about 1 houre long episodes and are voiced by the same voice actors since 1979. you will be hard pressed to find anyone born after 1980 who does not know of "die drei fragezeichen"

[@ChitsandCats]

And they even go on tour and have also turned some into shows made for planetariums. There are regular shows here at the Hamburg planetarium, went to one about 2 months ago. It was great!

[@MaxFleye]

I wonder if Brandon signs pages in his dreams.

[@katipunanball4799]

He probably dreams about writing books, signing them is like a part of it haha

[@rattmanchu]

the real question is why 2 piles

[@isabellarussosavoldi1702]

@@rattmanchu because he has to give a little time for the ink to dry

[@jasonpearce1628]

Dan, the book you were talking about sounds like Secret Under The Sea by Gordon R. Dickson.

[@bryans.9131]

This is was the book that got me into science fiction was a scholastic book

[@danwells9305]

That's it!

[@arcadelinkauthor]

41:40 While the overall quality of cartoons is getting better and better (and honestly ALL television, now that every streaming service has to try to prove their worth), but I think that Avatar the Last Airbender was an anomaly. With how great cartoons are becoming, Avatar still puts them all to shame. I say this having watched Avatar for the first time last year as a 32 year old. It's just masterful.

[@emosongsandreadalongs]

I love that you guys mentioned Darkwing Duck. I loved it as a kid and just rewatched the first couple episodes the other day. It's decent and fairly funny. One thing that stuck out were the wordplay jokes. Right at the beginning of the first episode you see two scientists named Dr. Gary and Dr. Larson

[@wasabisniffles]

Magic tree house gets all my love and appreciation. Still holds up too!

[@ernest3611]

About the wine heist, it's easier than what Dan imagined: there was no security guard. It was the recepcionist doubling his job. So the woman went to the reception desk to ask for food and the recepcionist went to the kitchen to open it up, leaving the situation clear for the man to steal the bottles. And there wasn't a real security guard because the owners put their faith on the electronic locks the professional thieves bypassed.

[@cbpd89]

Oooh, a fancy lock bypassed? This food heist just got a little cooler.

[@c.a.mcdivitt9722]

Someone needs to remind them of Tolkien's advice of "No wall will hold, unless men defend it."

[@ernest3611]

@@c.a.mcdivitt9722 I liked the reference!

[@JackDespero]

@@cbpd89 It was a wine cellar, of course it got cooler.

[@tobiasrogerio1200]

My first book was Percy Jackson, and I still remember the moment I realized that a fantasy could last longer than an hour and a half (average movie duration). Well, now I'm a bookworm.

[@theonlysinoda]

Same

[@OldRod99]

YES! Someone who has not only heard of, but read, the Three Investigator books! I loved those growing up. Brandon earns bonus points for today! :)

[@elitillemann6890]

A excellent modern children's poetry compendium is "I'm just no good at rhyming." It's a fantastic collection with hilarious poems that are great for children, but also fun for adults.

[@KalleVilenius]

I remember a picture book called My Grandpa is a Pirate. It's about a kid who goes on a pirate adventure with his grandpa. Checked it out at the library and discovered it was even better than I remembered. The Disney Afternoon had Gargoyles, Disney's answer to Batman the Animated Series. Now that was a cartoon.

[@FrshChees91]

The Suck Fairy must have done something to Beast Wars' computer graphics.

[@myrojyn]

BEAST WARS *roars*

[@lolroflundxd]

Maybe you already know this, but a lot of old games, looked way better and less pixelated on CRT Monitors. They actually looked better back then, because they were made specifically to look good on that hardware.

[@bowtieproductions6708]

Beast Wars will never not look awesome

[@lifedragon99]

@@lolroflundxd beast wars is a cgi animated transformers show. It has nothing to do with old games.

[@SauceMario]

That's how I felt when I was trying to rewatch Reboot.

[@JonSteitzer]

One unexpected joy of the last year has been discovering this podcast. I love your conversations.

[@Qwertified108]

Just came across this podcast, and while I've been a big fan of Brandon's work for a while, I was unfamiliar with your work, Dan. At least, I thought I was until you brought up Zero G. I got a short story on Audible through some kind of promotion and wasn't even sure what I had until I got bored one day. It was such a fun listen! It became my go-to listen for long car trips with friends and family. My siblings and wife all loved it. I'm really excited to hear it's a series and im looking forward to checking out your other work too! Also, hey to you, Brandon 😂. Always love your work and it's a given I'll be reading anything you put out!

[@SEHipple]

To me, the book Dan was describing sounded like Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce. It came out in 1983. And, oh man, I loved this book. It's about a girl who switches places with her twin brother so she can learn how to be a knight and he can learn how to be a magician.

[@megandueck2148]

I thought the same thing! Such a great series as a young teen.

[@lightsinthemirror]

95% sure the book Dan is talking about around 22 minutes is the first Song of the Lioness book by Tamora Pierce.

[@shadon444]

Agree

[@danwells9305]

You are correct!

[@stoned887]

Ahh man I loved the three investigators as a kid! In germany that series is a huge hit with over 200 books in the series. I think it was so successful partially because they were also released on cassette and CD as audiobooks/audiodramas in the 90s. Each of the three investigators had their own dedicated voice actor and Im pretty sure those same three guys are still doing them for different platforms now. The series is known as "Die drei ???" in german language countries.

[@j.dangoodberry8481]

Brandon: has a black lotus Also Brandon: My magic cards aren't worth that much...

[@Silas_MN]

that's how he gets people to not want to steal them

[@ericwaite5179]

Does he actually have a Black Lotus?

[@j.dangoodberry8481]

@@ericwaite5179 Indeed. He's spoken about it on multiple livestreams.

[@indigorl4440]

@@ericwaite5179 I'm listening to this episode a couple months after it came out, but check out his kickstarter countdown livestream lol

[@SneakyTogedemaru]

@@indigorl4440 lol for real

[@Trintron46]

Dan! The book about the girl disguising herself as a boy to become a knight is a wonderful start to one of Tamora Pierce's series. The first book of the Song of the Lioness series is Alanna's First Adventure. I have loved these novels since I first read them at 11. I'm 24 now and they hold up to the test of time, plus I believe any ages can enjoy it.

[@danielcolwell4306]

New Silverstein like poetry I can't recommend enough is an author named Chris Harris. I bought his book, "I'm just no good at rhyming" for my nephews for Christmas and it is hilarious (they thought so too). I don't think he's well known as I found his book randomly on the shelf at Barnes & Noble crammed into a corner, but I read through the poetry anthology at least three times before I could bring myself to wrap it

[@cavere42]

I thought of this book as soon as I heard this podcast. My daughter loves it!

[@cathbadh1320]

Happy to see the Saberhagen love. Being in the same age group as Brandon and Dan, the Sword books and their sequels/prequels were some of the earliest fantasy I read and loved

[@GalaxyElfJess]

I get super excited when I see a new podcast video has come out. My husband has started listening to these with me as well and really enjoys responding to the nerdy discussion as we listen. Thanks for another fun episode! 🙂

[@Kellen81]

Earliest I remember reading on my own is devouring Encyclopedia Brown books from the library. Earliest read to me was Where the Red Fern Grows, which holds up as an adult and still brings the tears. As for 90s cartoons: Gargoyles was (and still is) excellent.

[@LMJeffJones]

As someone who's childhood was the 90's I was lucky enough to not have to grow out of cartoons because we had the animated X-Men show. Then as I got older, just transitioned into pokemon/anime and all the toonami shows lol

[@ImNotOld_ImVintage]

I was read to so much as a child that I actually learned to read from it. I was reading Dr. Suess and other fun childrens books as a pre-schooler. I read the Three Investigators and loved them around the 2nd grade. But, the first time I found books that were "my thing" was The Chronicles of Pyrdian in the 4th and 5th grade. I still reread the series every few years and still love it.

[@Veilure]

My first book was Magic Tree House. Inspired my love of reading from then on!

[@raebertgrayson5766]

I also absolutely LOVED Saberhagen's Swords books! They were a little above me at the time I read them, but was very intrigued by the setting, and the swords themselves: the idea that each sword had an outstanding, unbeatable trait, but also had an outstanding detriment was revolutionary to my young brain.

[@EmperorDoom]

This was my first series as well. I still love them and they hold up real well.

[@raebertgrayson5766]

I'm so glad Brandon felt the same way I did when reading Thomas Covenant! Douglas really stretched my brains...

[@Morfeusm]

“I am going to spoil this because it’s amazing” Daniel Andrew Wells, Early Days of 2022 AD

[@cheevocabra]

First book I remember read to me: The Monster at the End of this Book First book I remember reading: My Teacher is an Alien First book series that was "mine": The Belgariad/Mallorean and The Elenium/Tamuli (I kind of read them concurrently)

[@eldestmissbear4235]

I never read Silverstein as a child, but, at 15 or 16 I found Where the Sidewalk Ends and Light in the Attic at my grandma's house and and read them back to back in one sitting at midnight. So wonderful!

[@Wh4tsupy0]

Wow, this episode reminded me that I actually read the Three Investigators as a kid. I had totally forgotten until Brandon mentioned the junkyard hideout. I also had no idea that Alfred Hitchcock was a real person at the time.

[@narpassword0]

43:40 Dan's talking about Turtles Forever, a television film from 2009 that combined the turtles from the current run at the time (the 2003 series) with the 1987 cartoon series and the black and white turtles from the comics in 1984.

[@raebertgrayson5766]

I absolutely loved the MYTH Inc. series! I was so sad when I heard that Robert Asprin passed away, especially when I learned he participated in the early years of the Society for Creative Anachronism using the name "Yang the Nauseating", and co-initiated the society Great Dark Horde during 1971 (I didn't get involved in the society until the late '80's). Responsible for MYTH, Phule's Company and for stories in Thieves' World, I deeply enjoyed his writing, and he's one of the most influential authors I've read, in that I absolutely devoured his books whenever I could get my hands on them (money being hard to come by, then; I haunted my schools' libraries...).

[@mikeyfoofoo]

I read "Another Fine Myth" and a few of the "Phule's Company" books recently. Such a fun and silly read. I really enjoyed them.

[@dylanfinlayson5556]

I had completely forgotten about The Three Investigators. That memory hit me like a freight train.

[@BlackOmegaOne1]

Agreed, I read almost the entire series and had totally forgotten about them until now.

[@suepedie1]

I'm so grateful that my local library had Anne McCaffery in the SciFi section or I would have missed them! Thank you so much for this video. It is a couple of weeks after Christmas & I just ordered a bunch of books for my grandkids even though I just gave them a bunch of books.😁

[@DigitalTheologian]

My four and eight year old LOVE Silverstein poetry. Cleaning out my parents’ home, we found the books my mom used to read to me; and the cartoons on the covers drew my kids in. My four year old has found some of them so funny she has memorized a couple to share with her grandma and grandpa.

[@ioannisstavrianakis1199]

The three investigators were my first series as well! Such amazing memories reading these… hours and hours of fun

[@alexrechkin7]

What an awesome episode!! I tried to watch original TMNT and suckfairy did visit it, but i still find enjoyment in it ironically laughing at all the silliness which i never do because i dont like watching stuff that everyone says it is so bad its good, to me it is just all bad bad, but 80 TMNT is exception.

[@Beech27]

Happily, my childhood favorites-LOTR, Thrawn Trilogy, Sabriel, Shannara (after Sword)-have held up. LOTR just seems to get better every time I read it. Even still, were that not the case, there’s a lot to be said for the right thing at the right time. Great experiences don’t necessarily need to be perpetually accessible.

[@robertdullnig3625]

Thrawn Trilogy? I've never been able to get very far into that one.

[@cbpd89]

Some of my more formative memories as a kid were of my mom and sister reading out loud to me. I remember my mom reading Charlotte's Web and James and the Giant Peach to me. My sister read me the first couple Narnia books, complete with different voices and accents for all the characters. Now I love reading to my kids. I've read Shel Silverstein, Dog Man, and Ronald Dahl to them. And you bet your eye I do voices for the characters!

[@LucysLocket]

The first book I remember being read to me was Huckleberry Finn, and the first book I ever read myself (outside of comic books) was The Hobbit when I was 7. I think the first books I read that I really connected to was Percy Jackson, and the series I loved that got visited by the suckfairy was Ranger’s Apprentice. Looking back, I’m now realizing what an interesting combination this is for a girl. 😂

[@kevinmathews4050]

My first book I remember loving was The Pirate's Adventure on Spooky Island. Loved the art in that book. Forgot about it until a few years ago and found it again.

[@ashlynlee3322]

This is my first time hearing about the suckfairy, and definitely feel like the series that got me into reading at age 11, Inheritance Cycle was visited by it. Which is sad, but my feelings might be from the fact I reread them after reading and rereading all the books Brandon Sanderson has out.

[@Karitz964]

Me too. I think loved the first three books and loved them, but while waiting a couple years for four I must have grown up a bit. So when I read the last one... it was just pure garbage. I just felt like he didn't want to write that book anymore.

[@lolroflundxd]

For me it holds up, on a reread.

[@freerundjs]

I feel like it is good. But not very original. So if you have read much other fantasy it will feel helplessly derivative. Though as a first series it will be good. Does not hold up after reading more though

[@jonathonwhitington402]

I was actually thinking about this exact subject last night at work. Just thinking about shows I used to enjoy that I don't think I want to go back and watch again because I don't want to have them ruined by the fact that I'm 20+ years beyond watching them the first time and loving them.

[@greenguy369]

I read a fair bit as a child... And I have never even HEARD of so many of these titles. I didn't think I was THAT much younger than Brandon and Dan...

[@Sybato]

This seems like a good place to mention that the playlist for Intentionally Blank, is maybe fittingly, missing some of the more recent episodes.

[@danielhuras617]

Guardians of Ga'Hoole (Kathryn Laskey), Keys to the kingdom (Garth Nix), Inkheart Trilogy (Cornelia Funke), Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer) were my favorite series's to read growing up, and I strongly suspect I'll run into the suck fairy if reread them.

[@beardietwitch]

Not the first, but one of the first books I read is the Animorph series. I tried rereading them as an adult and the suck-fairy did me dirty with them.

[@74gould]

Really cool to hear that TMNT was both of your 1st TTRPGs. :) I loved that game! My friends and I played that, Robotech, Rifts, Heroes Unlimited, pretty much all the Palladium games.

[@raebertgrayson5766]

Ah, man...! So many book titles that I've read and enjoyed when I was younger! Loved The Hero and the Crown, which I read first, then found The Blue Sword, and loved it, too!

[@randomwrites5203]

"Did you stop watching cartoons?" I never stopped. Kept watching Cartoon Network & Nickelodeon cartoons through high school and college. Even graduated to anime. 😂

[@Metalhead1658]

My first book was The Little Prince, think Dad wanted to teach me something with this one, so i come back to it every couple of years, still love it.

[@CoconutMigrating]

Dan’s first book sounds like Secret Under the Sea by Gordon Dickson

[@danwells9305]

That is definitely it! I looked it up and holy crap does that cover bring back memories. I need to find a copy.

[@notthis9586]

THANK YOU! My mom read this to me when I was like 6, and all I could remember besides what Dan said was the alien walking on the ocean floor and google was less than helpful in finding it.

[@mcwidowmaker7495]

First series I've read was forgotten realms and dragonlance books, which unlocked fantasy for me. From there, Anne Mccaffrey, Lron Hubbard, Terry pratchet and many many more. In the 80's there was no kindle's. I had accounts with the school, church and public library and visited them weekly to exchange books. Real bookworm.

[@beowulfshaeffer8444]

A. A. Milne was wonderful to hear as a kid! Perfect example of what I came to think of as the "fairy tale" or "children fiction" tone of writing.

[@andeven1]

In Bangladesh, The Three Investigators books were rewritten into Tin Goyenda (meaning the same thing), however with the lack of copyright enforcements, the original author was not creditted. This series is still having new entries since 1985.

[@damiansilva2454]

That TMNT multiverse thing is from S4E10 of the 2017 series... which was easily the best TV series in the whole franchise

[@jamcdonald120]

48:10 everyone was saying that. It was even BUILT on ingress. The AR might not have been ready, but that wasnt important

[@Pablo360able]

Every time Brandon reminds me that he is familiar with the legend that is Axe Cop, it surprises me all over again, and I really should stop being surprised at this point.

[@aenea22980]

Dan - the girl who trains to be a knight by pretending to be a boy is Alanna the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce! Loved that whole series.

[@timwindling]

I recently bought the 'Book of Swords' books for a few bucks and knew nothing about them. It's good to see that they're good, and I am now excited to read them.

[@kendra1768]

@Dan Wells I'm on my 3rd copy of "The Blue Sword" as I love it that much. It has one on my most favorite sentences in all of fiction. "Sir Charles piled marmalade on his toast till it began to ooze off the edges, added one more dollop for good measure, and ate it all in three gulps." Tickles my funny bone in just the right way reading after reading.

[@JackDespero]

In Spanish, specially in Spain, we had Gloria Fuertes as a poet for children. Her books were some of my earliest memories. As a kid I could quote 2 of her books from cover to back by heart, around 20 or so poems. I just needed to hear the first sentence and the rest just followed. I do not know whether they are translated to English, or whether in English they will keep the charm, but there is my recommendation. Not exactly super modern, as she wrote them in the 90s, but still.

[@thecosmicaesthetic]

My first big boy book I read all by myself was Hatchet. Nobody gave a crap about books in my house growing up. Hatchet and the first Harry Potter got me hooked.

[@smithy040]

First book I remember reading was Pratchett's The colour of magic and I loved it. Going back it's far from his best work but it's definitely what got me into fantasy books

[@hecksnek6158]

Guardians of Ga'hoole was the first chapter book series I read. I don't know if any of it would hold up, but it was very formative.

[@rileymoore2967]

That and the Warriors series were huge for me too

[@buttonsmasherable]

Heist fanfic about stealing Brandon’s magic cards has been started!

[@markstenquist2315]

Animorphs. The second animorphs book was the first book I read in a single day. I wonder how it holds up today.

[@30Huckleberry]

Where the red fern grown, bridge to terebithia… made me haaate reading. First series that got me reading was RL Stine Goosebumps.

[@kirkwagner461]

Heinleins "Red Planet" literally changed my life. I hated reading novels before it, and dreaded having to write a book report. But "Red Planet" introduced me to sci-fi, and loving that freed my mind up to reading other genre's as well. I'd be a VERY different person if I'd never been pointed to that book. My strongest Suckfairy encounter was reading "Dune" a couple decades after the last time I had read it. Still a good. Just not as rich in my mind as I (still) recall it being.

[@andrasbiro3007]

Strange, I had the opposite experience. I've read Dune as a teenager, and then again when I was around 40, and I was shocked how deep the books are. The story was exactly as good as I remembered, but then there was layers and layers of serious philosophy under it that I've completely missed as a teenager.

[@jony4real]

This is Animorphs for me. When I was a kid Animorphs was the coolest book series ever. Then I grew up and realized that you can pace a series so that all the key plot points don't happen in book #1. (Okay, Ax shows up in #4, but you get the idea.) I still love Animorphs, I'll never get tired of reading about teenagers morphing into animals and fighting for the planet. But I see the limitations now too.

[@jamescaldwell2357]

My first book was Saberhagen's "Merlin's Bones." I've reread it and it is still great.

[@Rendref]

Ducktales are still cool. I rewatched them a few years ago and loved them

[@crshumate]

50 cool points to Dan for mentioning Ingress. Those were fun times.

[@FebbieG]

I don't remember being read to as a kid, but I do remember my mom reading A Single Shard to my little brother and me when I was like 14 or 15. It's a masterpiece. The first book I remember reading is Harold and the Purple Crayon. The first book I remember really sucking me in was (unsurprisingly) Harry Potter. Those books made me a reader. Also, Deltora Quest. The first book I bought with my own money was Eragon.

[@amyofhearthridge]

The first I remember reading myself that really propelled my love of reading was the first Boxcar Children book. 😄

[@dbjmk8083]

The Redwall/Martin the Warrior books started my reading journey. Before that I was just an intensely adhd 8 year old who couldn't sit with a book, that became an intense adhd kid who would miss out on sleep to read my books. I read about 10 of them and then realized they all had basically the same story arc. So I switched into Harry Potter, A series of unfortunate events, Lotr, the Wheel of Time etc.

[@MrSilvUr]

There was a TMNT special with the various Turtles from different iterations interacting with each other, and this was before Spiderverse! But was it before the last season of the underrated 90's Spider-Man cartoon that inspired the comic that inspired Spiderverse!?

[@Drukalnn]

Tamora Pierce books are really good. I think Dan was talking about The Song of the Lionness books. My mom got me The Immortals books when I was in middle school and I was really drawn in to the world she had built there and she has trilogies or quartets all set in this world at various points in its history with pretty strong female main characters.

[@Jenova2435]

The Three Investigators is a huge thing in Germany. When the American novels stopped being published in the 90's they just kept it going and wrote their own. There is over 200 novels at this point.

[@radiantthought]

saberhagen's books of swords were so pivotal for me as well. I'm very happy to hear that I'm not the only one.

[@hatezis]

I binged the Sonic Boom cartoon recently. It is definitely aimed towards small children, but I think the creators were having fun with it, and there are jokes in it that adults will enjoy. And I don't mean "adult" jokes, just jokes and musical (!) refernces that will make any adult laugh, while genuinely making kids laugh as well

[@WordSarien]

For the most part, the stuff I liked as a kid was solid, to the point where there were adult family members who would watch or read them with us (Gargoyles came out when I was a kid, and Avatar: The Last Airbender came out when I was a teenager - I was spoiled rotten). There were a couple of old favorites that I temporarily fell out of love with. But, a couple more years and I realized they were still good, just not flawless like I'd remembered. And then, a couple of years ago, I decided to re-read a book series (that shall remain nameless) that I'd loved when I was in junior high/high school. *That* was a mistake. The later books were "Just how stupid was I to like these in the first place?" bad. "I should give these books away but I don't want to inflict them on anyone else" bad. The worst part is, I finished re-reading all 8 of them that I had (not short books, I might add), and even borrowed the 9th (which I'd never read before) from the library. I was *that* convinced that my nostalgia had to have some basis in reality, and the books *had* to get better eventually. Nope - I should've given up just before the ending of the third book. Oh well. At least I can scavenge some inspiration for my own writing from the versions of those books that I remembered fondly - even if they bear no resemblance to the actual books.

[@AmyLongUS]

My guess for the girl who pretends to be a boy so she can train as a knight is maybe Alanna from Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small series. Loved those books and have been afraid to revisit the world by reading the more recent series about her daughter lest I find the world’s suffered the Suckfairy’s touch in my absence. Loved those books.

[@willelliott2671]

I’m almost sure you’re right. It sounded so familiar and I was thinking this was a Tamora Pierce book. Good memory!

[@AmyLongUS]

@@willelliott2671 Thank you!

[@nionashborn7626]

Dealing with dragons was one of my earliest "this is my thing" moments

[@starflameburnsbright]

I love that book series so much. Cimorene is a beacon of common sense and practicality. Also Morwen. 'None of this nonsense please' indeed. 😁

[@amazinggrace2292]

I was so lucky to grow up with 90s and early 2000s cartoons (Batman the animated series/the adventures of Batman and Robin/Pokémon/teen titans/avatar/ and there was a thundercats reboot that was really good) we definitely still had some dumb ones but the ones I can clearly remember are ones that for the most part still hold up

[@AbsurdNotions]

I think the girl knight book Dan is talking about is The Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce. The first book was called Alanna: the First Adventure.

[@MattViklund]

I loved the mini comics that came with the old Masters of the Universe toy figures. A toy AND a comic? ** SWOON **

[@Patrick-rl1ku]

Loooovvveeeed Silverstien growing up! The Giving Tree and The Missing Piece to be added to the poem compilations mentioned.

[@andrewberenson5717]

I love the investigator books. I think one of the boys was Jupiter Jones. And then later in the series in stead of Hitchcock, there was some guy named Sebastian. Those were the first books I went to my local library to pick up. My mom was constantly driving me to my local library. The first books that I remembered being read to me were the Sweet Pickles books. Stories about animals who have human jobs. For example, the camel was a plumber and the yak was a taxi driver. My gateway to fantasy was David Eddings' Belgariad series.

[@999fine5]

For me, Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind, and most of his early works, before he became all preachy and self absorbed.... It was an amazing book that had me sucked in within the first chapter. For years he was my favorite author, reading his works compelled me to search for more books like it. That led me to Robert Jordan and ultimately Brandon Sanderson (before he took over the WoT series) when he first released Mistborn and Elantris. After reading the Mistborn series Sanderson firmly supplanted Goodkind as my favorite author of all time. That includes Plato, Tolstoy, Dickens, Rand, Tolkien and countless others, the man is officially a legend in my mind =)

[@coreyloucks4865]

I absolutely loved Street Sharks! It was like TNMT but with Sharks! Brilliant!

[@beowulfshaeffer8444]

Hey, Dan! Are you thinking of *Tom Swift and his Jetmarine?* I remember being read that book as a kid, as well as several others from the same series.

[@danwells9305]

It's Secret Under the Sea by Gordon Dickson.

[@AgencyNighthawk]

Holy crap, Dan! I was literally just thinking about that kid under the sea with rebreathers and trying to figure out if it was the earliest book I can remember (it's not, the Hardy Boys take that crown), but I can never remember its name either....

[@danwells9305]

Secret under the Sea by Gordon Dickson! Someone else identified it.

[@sherizaahd]

I'm right in that transition from HeMan to Batman cartoons. I remember waking up early to watch HeMan, GI Joe and other Saturday morning Cartoons, and then I also remember the introduction of Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Tailspin, Duck Tales and Darkwing Duck. Then also the Spiderman cartoon around there and the Batman and XMen series. I still like Animaniacs, but the XMen seems to have been visited by the Suckfairy. I think Batman is still good though, same with Darkwing Duck.

[@Blixthand]

First book I can remember being read is probably an Astrid Lindgren book, though I can't remember which, probably Pippi Longstocking or Emil, cause I know Brothers Lionheart and Ronja the Robber's Daughter were later by a year or two. I haven't read all of Lindgren's works, but what I have read I do go back to sometimes and I think it holds up, except Pippi Longstocking, who were never my favorite anyway. As for the first proper book I read myself from start to finish were Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which holds up IMO. Around the same time I both read and were read most of the Famous Five books. Haven't revisited those since I were 10, but they were part of my moms childhood and she enjoyed reading them to me, so I could see those holding up. I also read the Deltora Quest books, which I did re-read a few years ago as an 19 year old, and while obviously being targeted towards a younger audience, I were surprised at how well they held up. The one series I read when as a that I go back and forth on is David Eddings' Belgariad. I loved the first 4 books and though the 5th were OK, but a bit boring at times when I first read them when I was 9-10, the Maleoreon were noticeably weaker, but I remember really liking book 2 and 3, even finishing book 3 in just 2 days. Then I tried re-reading them when I was 15 and I only got trough the first 3 books. It was defiantly much worse than I remembered them I I were quite bored a lot of the time. Now I'm 25 and have just listened through all of the audiobooks and am currently almost done with Belgarath the Sorcerer, and I don't think they are as bad as I thought when I was 15, but not as good as when I was 10. Especially the Maloreon books felt really boring and dragged out for too long, but I quite enjoyed the Belgarion books and could see myself reading or listening to them again some time in the future.

[@AlwaysComplex]

I find it interesting how Daniel Greene just recently had a review of the second season of The Witcher in which he would of preferred more monsters of the week content over the overarching story, while Brandon and Dan are reminiscing about how cartoons went from monster/episode of the week to overarching story and they liked the world building more. I wonder if years down the road when people look back at The Witcher or other shows that are going more overarching story vs monster/episode of the week if we will have people missing the monster/episode of the week or preferring the choices that the creators made to focus on the overarching story.

[@GoldenMechaTiger]

I think the style Daniel is looking for is just with a bit of monster of the week but with a lot of overarching story as well so not the typical thing from back in the day where you could basically watch episodes out of order and it would still make sense.

[@andrasbiro3007]

I missed the monsters too. Maybe because I played the games first, and there of course killing monsters is like 95% of what you do.