The pals share out their favorite comics and graphic novels.

The pals sift between to ersatz and the echt when it comes to reasons for authors dropping foreign words in their writing.

The pals discuss how they keep track of what they read, and it turns out each has a very different process.

The pals discuss buying books and if they read books the buy right away (or at all). Nico asks the pals what they do with books after they read them.

The personal pals share their favorite fantasy novels, and try to tease out the differnece between high and low fantasy.

The pals ditch Dave to talk about Noah Baumbach's 2022 Netflix adaptation of DeLillo's novel.

Books touched on: Genderqueer, by Maia Kobabe; Road of Bones, by Christopher Golden, Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson; Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi; Maame, by Jessica George; Kindred, by Ocatavia Butler and Damian Duffy; Ink Blood Sister Scribe, by Emma Torzs; Marlena, by Julie Buntin; Counterfeit, by Kirstin Chen; Comedy Bang Bang The Podcast The Book, by Scott Aukerman; Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys; The Spy Who Loved Me, by Ian Fleming.

Aaron asks the pals what they think of writers intentionally omitting personal hang-ups (like drinking or smoking) from their writing.

The pals discuss the recent controversy with the Hugo awards, as well as the challenge of self-censorship in the modern era.

The pals did a group read of Ryka Aoki's sci-fi novel Light from Uncommon Stars. Will it stand the test of time or be shot into the ocean of forgotten books?