I've never had so much fun talking about nothing! Thanks for the honor of inviting me onto your channel. It was a pleasure to chat about so many of the books we love and other things. For me, these conversations are the best part of BookTube. Cheers, my friend!

Cannot wait for our collaboration! Also, how awesome to have an interview with Abercrombie himself!! Looking forward to watching that :)

How I learned about Beowulf: My ninth-grade teacher gave us a brief synopsis and then we joined the other high school honors students at the theater to see Beowulf, with a cast of 2 men (maybe 3) and a handful of props that took turns serving as swords, Grendel's arm, a ship, and the cave under the water. It felt very trippy and took me awhile to figure out what was happening. LOL. We didn't touch the poem until 12th grade. I understood a bit more by then, but I'm not sure we were able to fully appreciate it. The only other fantasy/sci-fi we had on our reading lists in school: The Hobbit, 1984, Dante's Inferno, and Fahrenheit 451. I really wish we had had more. While I really enjoyed The Great Gatsby, A Tale of Two Cities, and the obligatory Shakespeare, it would have been so much fun if we had had more fantasy or sci-fi on the list. Surely there was plenty to choose from by the early 1990s.

For something that was Talking About Nothing, it was very engaging! So much fun just listening to you chat to each other. Looking forward to you reading some Memory, Sorrow & Thorn.

I have an August birthday too! Happy Birthday month, Mike and Philip! 🥳

Happy birthday, guys! A great chat with Dr. Chase, as always. I, like you Mike, was so very sad about The Dark Tower movie...I just wanted it to not....suck lol. Agree with Philip that I love the way Sarah analyzes characters. Great discussion, guys!

My favorite scene in Midnight tides is when Bugg and Tehol are speaking for each other.

Love Dr Phillip Chase!!!! Been following him almost as long as I’ve been following Mike!

People talking themselves out of liking Tolkien? They need to be found.

Hahah, love the point on people saying not many die in LOTR. "Read the Silmarillion"

This was absolutely great. Thanks to you both.

Thanks, guys, I had a great time listening to you talk about all those stuff. Such good vibes. You guys rock.

I have three favourite booktubers. Here's two of them!

You guys are a lot of fun. It's a pleasure to listen to you two talk.

Great video, enjoyed the back and forth and free for all subject matter. Movies, books, shows, what else can you ask for. Both your channels have been a great source of information and commentary while I have read and finished certain books. I thank you both for all you do.

My 2 absolute favorite booktubers in a podcast format!

I was almost 2 when Star Wars was in theater. I first saw it on TV at my aunt's house during a Christmas party at some point in the 1980s. I was riveted. I remember nothing about that party except Star Wars. I will never forget being shocked when a young Millennial co-worker argued with me about the Han Solo/Greedo scene. I felt so old when I realize that he had never had the opportunity to see the original. #hanshotfirst

Love these long chats!!! You both are awesome!

Please keep doing these, theyre great!

Yea man. Mike and the good Dr. I’m here for it.

Comment edit after watching entire video: I think this is the best discussion video on your channel so far. Extraordinary and entertaining. ---‐-------- What a phenomenal video I am 35 minutes in enjoying it very much will be back tomorrow

Happy birthday Mike and Phillip!

Talking about nothing is an amazing idea! I'm able to cook and lisent to great discussions and insights on different things and books

Early comment before watching this video, fun to see a video with two of my favorite youtubers

Midnight Tides was the reason I picked up the Esslemont books in the first place After the showing the Crimson Guard had in that book, I couldn't ignore a book called Return of the Crimson Guard. How could anyone resist?

this was wonderful thanks gents!

My dudes! This was fun. Thanks for taking the time to entertain is with nothing!

This is absolutely awesome! Although I’m new to Mr Chase, I ride with Mike forever. Sometimes it is good to diverge from talking about books and just have a free-flowing conversation. I’m looking forward to seeing you do one with Petrik pal!

Great chat guys! I had so many thoughts to add but I've forgotten them already. Having read most of Bernard Cornwell I am happy his work is re-emerging his standalone book Agincourt is excellent!

Happy birthday to both of you! I'm so looking forward to the colaboration between Philip and the brother's Gwynne. I don't know a lot about medieval times but I would love to know more! And Mike, I'm really glad you get the chance to talk to Steven Erikson. I haven't read Malazan (yet) but I know you will do a great job.

I chose Watership Down to read for pleasure in middle school and absolutely loved it! It's still one of my favorite books, and whenever I feel nostalgic for it again, I'll even listen to it on audio! Bunny grimdark 🤣🤣 love it

This was a lot of fun. The length was great-was able to listen to it in parts while making dinner, taking the dog out, etc.

Happy birthday to you both. It's actually my birthday today and I've been thoroughly spoilt with cards and gifts. "Love these talk about nothing" videos and Philip is a fantastic guest to have. I'm still watching and loving it up to now. 🤓

Happy Birthday, Philip & Mike! What a fantastic way to spend a couple of hours. I had to laugh a little at Philip’s face when Mike said he would really have to think before committing to The Silmarillion for a second time. 😅 I will absolutely be coming to both of you for advice/support (haha) when I start Malazan. And Mike, I’d be happy to chat Beatles/Buffy/King/Star Wars/Fantasy anytime. ☺️

Great chat!

My favorite booktubers talking bout nothing, im gonna enjoy this!

Great discussion guys thankyou. Looking forward to your First Law chats with the Gwynne brothers, that will be fun, and i agree, Sarah 's reviews are great too.

Two hours of nothing and this is one of my favorite of your vids. Hope to see more of these if the numbers don't hurt too much.

Leo’s are the best! I’m on the 8th and my son is on the 17th. Happy birthday guys!

Love when you guys get together!

I would love to hear Philip's take on the last season of GoT. Everybody and their sister has given their two cents on it, but I feel like Philip's talk about it would be healing.

Happy birthday lads✌

The Doc and Mike. I think Phillip should call Mike, Hal. Do I need to explain that reference??

Who disliked 22 minutes after upload? 😂 Have great day! And thanks for this conversation. I'll be watching while cooking dinner.

I just watched this video and enjoyed it. Looking forward to the two of you with the Brothers Gwynne talking about something 😀

Just felt the need to climb on board and chime in August birthdays are best. Woot :)

I read Great Expectations at school. I loved it. Still one of my favourite novels. The problem with literature is people react to it differently so if you force books on people they're always going to be people that hate it. The number of Americans who seem to have been forced to read Catcher in the Rye and therefore hate it forever is ridiculous. Finally, it really depends on your teacher. Get a good English teacher and they can get you interested in pretty much anything.

Happy birthday to you both.

My favorite part of this whole thing (besides Leo connections and being of a certain demographic ) is Mike's comment that if you want Bind quotes go to Mike and if you want Littersture writing notes or what not, ask Philip! Perfect.

One of my favorite Arthurian stories is Jack Whytes a Dream of Eagles, I think you could classify it as historical fiction but I bought it in the fantasy section. Follows from when Rome leaves the British isles several generations up to Arthur.

Came for the *Nothingness* , stayed for the great conversation :)

Thanks gentlemen, an entertaining couple of hours :)

The first time I read Mistborn I was about 1/2 way through The Final Empire and I was like, wait, is this YA? It’s the best YA I’ve ever read, turns out it’s not technically YA (or marketed that way) but it’s amazing.

You guys are my two go-tos for genre fiction discussions. When I first 'discovered' BookTube, I was all over the place, but found over time I was leaning on the more 'seasoned' presenters. Without casting aspersions on younger presenters, I find you guys more interesting BECAUSE you've reached a certain age. You have the wisdom of experience, and you speak with more fluency than the younger folk. I don't know about you two, but I learned some key lessons in public speaking over the years, and you guys happily refrain from injecting too many 'likes', 'ahs', and 'ums' in your commentary.

This was a great video, I really enjoyed the discussion. Watership Down is grimdark... no argument here. 😁 One of the most disturbing and brilliant YA novels I read was Junk by Melvin Burgess (I think it may be called Smack in the US). Really great book, but very disturbing (and not at all fantasy or SF). I am really looking forward to Dune, I was 12 years old when I read it the first time, and along with Lord of the Rings, it was one of the most formative series that impacted my reading habits.

Your point about people talking themselves about liking things... So true!! I'm like, nah thats great just enjoy it! Don't listen to the naysayers

I'm pretty confident that both of you will really enjoy Prince of Nothing. Also fantastic talk. Great video.

I’m also an August baby! :D Happy birthdays gentlemen

Happy birthday to the both of you! You are in good company, my son managed to dawdle long enough in the womb to also be an August baby.

Just started book 4 of the Dark Tower because of you TWO

Happy birthday to you both! August born Virgo here 😎

just started the video, but leos definitely are the best!

My sons are 8 and 6 ... These days, I am reading Wizard of Oz to them, while their solo reads are all Dogman ... It feels great to know I am not alone!

I agree with you, Mike, that the reading lists for schools is crap, granted it's been 15 years since high school for me, but I think the system could use an update. I think the options idea is best and they need to update the list of books that are "required" reading. I definitely agree there should be some fantasy and science fiction on the list. I never stopped loving reading, but I was in honors English, so it wasn't quite as stressful as AP. I didn't read Beowulf and Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight until I took a British Literature at a community college just for fun. BTW, you guys got me considering giving Malazan another shot, because I did like Gardens of the Moon, but it took me a long time to pick up the second one, so I decided to let it go at the time. I still have those. I remember when Internet was just starting up.

Happy Birthday! Yeah, a bunch of new SFF adaptions that I am looking forward this year: "Dune", "The Wheel of Time" on Amazon, "Foundation" on Apple+. Ibn Fadlan did not travel to Scandinavia (at least outside of "Eaters of the Dead" & "The 13th Warrior"), as the funeral he witnessed was in modern day Russia among the Volga Vikings/Varangians/Rus (other sources tell that the Volga Vikings ventured with their Dragonships as far as the Iranian Caspian Coast!). Just watched "The Green Knight", so I look forward to your take on that adaption Professor!

I almost died seeing a face peak from behind Mike (damn YOU caretaker of Overlook). I am new to the channel

in Anne McCaffrey's world of The Dragonriders of Pern, when a youngster was impressed by a dragon and became a rider their name was shortened like Farnanar became F'Nar. I didn't realize that other authors used this type of thing so much.

Timestamps for podcasts are up to the one eager fan who watches this when the bell rings and has timestamps ready 2 hours after

No wonder I love both your channels. Leo season 😁😂😂😂

Wonderful chat guys, would love to see the talk about Dune - just gimme a chance to read it too. 😅

2 minutes in, and we have a strawberry thief and twin peaks coffee mug. I am so down for this conversation.

A few comments about nothing.... I distinctly remember watching Star Wars in the theater. Opening scene of the star destroyer coming over my head in surround sound as a six year old. Then waiting in line for Empire with friends on my little league team. Read Watership Down in high school but after watching the cartoon multiple times on HBO. There's a dog loose in the wood and big water kept going through my head.

For Philip: Federer or Nadal?

Happy birthday🎆🎉🎆

Happy Bday

Sanderson's Skyward series is decent for YA for girls--or boys for that matter. The main character is definitely flawed but still likeable enough that I kept listening to the first two books. Not sure if the third is out yet. Some complained that the second book didn't have the entire class from the first book in it, but that would have been impossible with where the story was going. I still enjoyed it and it was nice to see actual character growth. I think it's a great series for girls and dads to read together. If I had discovered this in my early teens, I would have been super excited.

I think its interesting that "bad" movies in the past, are almost entirely dependant on the money put into production, but nowadays we can get a movie that has a bunch of money put behind it, but is lacking in quality still. Good writing is so important

Happy Birthday to the both of you. My birthday was August 3rd.

Duuuuude I can’t wait for the chat with Joe Abercrombie!!

It's funny, cause I had initially real trouble adapting to Joe's humor and Steven's was instantly my favorite in the genre

You were talking about skipping the poems and what Erikson hides there for you to dig out. I won't spoil anything but it really is incredible the things he tells you WAY in advance about what's going to happen and to whom. Like real soul crushing major character stuff. So yeah. Read the poems/epigraphs/chapter intros.

Sadly I'm so old I had to google what YA was!! ffs lol and the worse thing about being a parent is when your giving out to them or giving advice and suddenly you realize just how much you sound exactly like your parents!!

Star Wars is Sci Fi 100% that thematically borrows almost everything from fantasy. No matter what you want to say, midichlorians are canon and the Force is basically just the in-universe physics interacting with the aforementioned magic microbiology.

Phillip: It did bad commercially,or it was actually a bad production? Mike: Yes

R.Scott Bakker's series is awesome.

There is a top golf 10min from my house!

It took me awhile to warm up to esslemont, (sorry spelling) his writing has gotten better, his first book was torture to read it was so awkward and simple...it was like a half finished child's drawing..but he got better, he seems to improve with every book, which I can appreciate and respect, but it still doesn't have that thing, but to be fair I don't know that anybody else does, like pitch black darkness in Erickson's books feels packed with history and sentience and E'mont hasnt got there, but he is prolific and he does seem to get better every book he writes and I love that cosmology n world setting .

Just thinking out loud: maybe since Dear Doctor played D&D in the eighties, we can collectively convince him to try out watching Stranger Things?🤔😉🤣

Mike, speaking of watching things with your wife, I may be the only human on the planet waiting to to hear what you guys thought of Outlander. 😅

Some Aug babies are Virgos - happy birthday month Mike 😅

Smh. Leo’s always think they are the best but it’s clearly Aquarius.

Leo's are the best. Cheers 🍻

MST is "imagine if ASOIAF was written by Robin Hobb who fell asleep and decided that readers also should fall asleep by reading the book, and also have no intriguing plotlines or twists at all, except maybe last 100 pages of the last book". That is more of a correct description :-) Sorry to bash on ol' Tad Williams again

What is the named the Channel of this A.P person they keep talking about?

Videos titled "X is garbage and here's why". Hate that stuff.

This should be marketed as Joe rogan for booktube 😂

2 hours of nothing? Lets goooo.

After the latest Abercrombie books, I'm not sure it's wise calling yourselves a Leo

Skyward is good, Its similar to Enders games

01:07:09 who are you talking about guys? I want to follow him!