Meet Taythelostbard: the Electrician Turned Voice Actor Bringing our Book Boyfriends to Life
Tay Knox has a voice that makes the women (and men) of Booktok swoon. So much so, he’s already got three audiobook narrations in the works. I sat down with Tay and chatted about his life story, how his experience has been since a few viral videos catapulted him onto Booktok’s radar, and how it’s completely changed the trajectory of his career. Plus, I couldn’t chat with him and not have him do a few favorite quotes for us… Watch the full interview on YouTube, or read through the transcript here.
Tay 00:02
There's so much in books and so much written down that sounds so much better when it's spoken. And so I was like, why not?
Ashley 00:12
Hey everyone, it's Ashley, welcome to Books Are My Third Place, your literary lifestyle haven. I am so excited for this week's interview, I cannot wait for you all to see it. So let's get started. And as always, happy reading. We've got a special treat here this week. I've got Taythelostbard here with me and we are going to be talking all things voice book boyfriends and the man behind them. So Tay, welcome.
Tay 00:37
Hello, thank you for having me.
Ashley 00:39
Tell me your origin story. How did Taythelostbard come to be? I'm imagining like, little Tay running around with a guitar and a microphone. Like, tell me that story.
Tay 00:49
You're not far off. As a child, I was quite sheltered. My mother was actually police and my father was a bodybuilder. And so things were very strict. And one thing that I could always go to was music. I picked up a guitar at the age of nine, maybe 10. And never put it down. I think a lot of strictness that actually lended itself to my creativity. And I didn't have many outlets. I didn't hang out with friends very often. And so I wrote songs and watched fantasy movies, you know, Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean and emulated those characters. You know, I always wanted to sound like Jack Sparrow, and I got myself into a band when I was about 19 or 20. And stayed in that band for the better part of a decade. Played metal and I was the lead guitar, I found myself letting that gets me a bit much. And then I had my daughter and quit. I jumped into just playing music for them, for my kids and my family and reading to them, reading to them as a big part of what we do. You know, I like to tell them to bedtime stories. When I was a kid, I was doing accents and voices and stuff forever. And everyone always told me oh, you should do cartoons when you're older. And I guess I am now. So...
Ashley 02:19
Wait, so what are you currently reading to your children?
Tay 02:21
It's usually by request. They have a library of books and play room and they just choose one and I'll read it. If it's Pinkalicious. It's Pinkalicious. If it's Peppa Pig or whatever, I'll read it.
Ashley 02:36
And then what made you start posting on TikTok?
Tay 02:39
Well, I started posting only music. It never really caught on. And then I really go into Dungeons and Dragons. And listening to the Critical Role podcast, which is literally all voice actors playing Dungeons and Dragons together. And it's great. And so I kind of dove into a character and I broke out the acoustic guitar started writing kind of folky fantasy inspired music, and it just kind of developed from there. And I figured there's so much in books and so much written down that sounds so much better when it's spoken. And sounds like, why not? You know, people have been telling me to do this for years, I should try it. And I tried it and it took off. So
Ashley 03:30
what's the current day job? Like? Is it at all related?
Tay 03:33
Not at all. My day job is I'm an electrician, actually, and I work at a engineering firm, and I build control panels for factories and stuff. It's not very interesting.
Ashley 03:51
What's kind of the way that you begin to embody a character, like from page to voice, like how do you decide how to bring them to life?
Tay 03:59
I'd call it a short form of method acting? You hear about all these actors, you know, Heath Ledger, being one of the most notable, you know, he spent months getting into his character, and he went a bit too far. But you hear about all these actors that do the same thing. They go out in public as their character. And I do that for, you know, 10 minutes before I try. A lot of the stuff that's requested. I haven't read. You know, I haven't read ACOTAR and so a lot of it is creating context, for myself. I'll read a quote, whether it be Rice-and/Rhysand--however you say his name, and how try to create a story behind it, something that I could relate to. And then I would put those emotions into me saying the quote. And so in a way, it may not resonate as that character as much as it is just me. Good example of that is the one I did of uhh, "I fell in love with you smartass." That one. I had no idea, the context behind it. But I read it. And it struck me as a tender moment and a quiet between two lovers moment. And I ran with that, you know, and I put the emotion that I would put behind those words, essentially. And people seem to like it.
Ashley 04:21
Yeah, definitely people seem to like it. You came across my For You Page when you didn't have very many followers. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, Booktok is gonna go crazy. And then they did. So I feel very happy to have been early. But, I think the question that is always in everyone's minds is how many accents can you do? Is there a limit?
Tay 06:10
There's definitely a limit. I'd say most English speaking accents, I can do. Okay, I tend to stay away from the non English speaking accents, because there's a sense of sensitivity that comes along with those, you know, whether it's Spanish speaking or even French speaking accent, they can be taken too far into a stereotype. I tend to stay away from those, because I don't speak those languages, essentially. But yeah, anything from Scottish, Irish, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the South parts of America. And even Canadian, I can do the Canadian accent.
Ashley 06:56
Does your family ever get tired of you doing the accents?
Tay 06:59
No, my coworkers do though. Yes. They always tell me to shut up. Or they make fun of me. That's for sure.
Ashley 07:09
You're gonna have the last laugh I have a feeling.
Tay 07:12
I told them that I'm doing voice acting. And they're like, "Oh, you've been a voice actress, huh?"
Ashley 07:20
Do they know about your TikTok? Like, have you told them
Tay 07:22
I’ve told them about it, but I will not let them see it. I never want them to find it. Because I will receive an ending shit from it.
Ashley 07:33
It's so funny because I feel like a lot of us as TikTok creators, we definitely have that feeling of like, I can make a complete fool of myself to millions of strangers on the internet. That's fine. But if it's somebody I know, I'm like, did not see that. Like keep scrolling.
Tay 07:47
Please just ignore it.
Ashley 07:50
So how did you initially find Booktok or even think to start doing some of these quotes?
Tay 07:57
They found me. Okay. I think it was the Mr. Darcy quote that I did first. That one blew up pretty quickly. And then I received the request for--how do you say his name? Rice-and?
Ashley 08:16
Rhysand (reece-and) and then it's Rhys is the short.
Tay 08:20
That's what I thought because, you know, there's the actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers and I was kind of thinking yes, sounded like that. But anyways, yeah, I got the request to do Rhysand's quote. And it just, they all found me then I had no idea what I was saying. And yeah, it took off.
Ashley 08:40
Who is the most requested character that you get?
Tay 08:43
Um, it's all over the place really. Early on, it was Rhysand, and then Casteel and Cassian and Azriel basically. Okay. And then I posted a Loki video and people asked for a lot more Loki. I really enjoyed doing Loki, so...
Ashley 09:06
So we'll have more more Marvel to look forward to then? Okay. And then I feel like you've also quoted a lot of poetry...do you have a favorite poet? Are there any that particularly inspire you?
Tay 09:17
Well, once it took off the TikTok everything. I started reading more poetry in my research for tiktoks I fell in love with Pablo Neruda. It's all translated, and it's beautiful. You know, he has just incredible imagery, painting pictures with his words other than him, I'd say Robert Frost and, of course, Edgar Allan Poe. I mean, who doesn't love him? One that's technically not a poet, is actually Joey Batey and he played Jaskier on The Witcher, the show. He has a band and the music is technically poetry. It was one of the first videos I think I did...uh it was a farewell wanderlust. That was one of his songs, essentially. And it's absolute poetry. And so I would call him a poet, musician, and an actor. But yeah, those are a few of my favorites.
Ashley 10:19
Would you consider yourself a big reader? Like, I know, you mentioned fantasy, as a child, do you feel like you're going to become a big reader now? Because of this?
Tay 10:28
Yes, right now, I'm not. I mean, I have a four year old and a six year old, so Okay, take up most of my time. But as the girls get older, sure, I will jump back into reading when I was single, and without children, I was reading all the time. And, you know, it was it was an escape. You know, a lot of people use it that way, you know, they experience pain, or drama or stress in their life, and they read to get away from it. And that's exactly what I did. So, I actually started, I feel hypocritical for saying it, but I started listening to the first audio book I have in months, today.
Ashley 11:13
And so, okay, well, now now you have to tell us what it is.
Tay 11:17
Oh, it's Star Wars. I love that. Okay. It's it's the origin story of Darth Bane, who's just a legend. And, you know, not even canon in the Star Wars universe. But that's a great lesson so far.
Ashley 11:33
So obviously, we know from your videos that you have some beautiful ink, so I have to ask some tattoo questions. So any book related tattoos? Okay. Okay. So tell us about those.
Tay 11:46
My favorite book of all time is Moby Dick. Okay. And so, I have actually, that's might be hard to see. But I actually have Moby Dick on my thumb. My half sleeve was inspired by Moby Dick. There's a character in it called Queequeg, a cannibal essentially. And in the book he is described to have small black squares tattooed all over his body from head to toe. And so I grabbed a piece of graph paper and drew this up and put it on my arm. But other than that, I have a Witcher tattoo.
Ashley 12:24
Moby Dick is...that's one of my earliest memories of movies that I saw when I was a kid, like the super old one. I should remember Ahab getting strapped to the way.
Tay 12:35
Oh, actually, one of the biggest tattoos I have is on my chest, and it's the silhouette of an albatross. It seems very weird to most people. But within Moby Dick, there is reference to The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, which was the seafaring poet, you know, back in the day. And the legend was that when you're sailing, if an albatross flies with you, you have good luck. If you do anything to hamper the albatrosses flight, or shoot it down, or if it comes aboard and you kill it for food or anything like that, you are basically dooming yourself. And so I literally got it around my neck. And not technically around my neck, but the area but yeah, I guess that's a book inspired dancing as well.
Ashley 13:25
Oh, I love all of those was over a year ago, I asked people to it was when everybody was doing the like, stitch this and tell me, whatever, you know, XYZ. And I asked people to stitch and share their bookish tattoos. And it was so cool, though, to see because I felt so inspired, because I have several that are not visible, but it was in they're all book related. But it was one of those things where I felt like, there's so many people, especially a lot of authors that were sharing, and it wasn't necessarily their book, but the book that inspired them to write. And I kind of always have a rule they have to have at least if I'm gonna get one, it has to have at least multiple meanings for me, just so I don't get sick of it.
Ashley 14:08
We kind of touched on it. But what what was your first viral video?
Tay 14:13
Well, the Mr. Darcy one took off. But then the one I followed that with was Rhysand's darkness, quote. That one surpassed it? Yeah. The first one would have been Mr. Darcy, I'd say.
Ashley 14:30
And then what was the moment where you were just like, 'oh, my gosh, what have I done? Like what's happening?' So one of one of I asked booktokers to share some quotes or questions. And so somebody did ask kind of a similar question of like, your initial thoughts or reactions when readers came to you with all of their, quote requests as well.
Tay 14:47
I became accustomed to taking requests as a musician. And so getting requests wasn't anything new, technically, but the amount of I was quite new. I think the moment I realized something was happening was when I woke up the next morning. And I saw in my notifications 99+, I was like, 'This has never happened before. And I don't know how to handle it.' And I kept it in at work the whole day. I didn't tell anyone. It was exciting. You know, every time I look at my phone, I see something new, you know, there was a comment. So, you know, even a duet or something. But I think that was also a big thing, too. Before I had maybe two of my videos duetted at all. And so to see so many people using my video, or using my audio, even for their own artwork, or their own cosplay, or whatever it may be, that was when I started thinking, hey, I might be onto something. And people are feeling this. And it's resonating with them to an extent that they want to make their own art with it, and I was very honored. And then people were posting reaction videos to what I'd had, which was wild. Definitely not used to that.
Ashley 16:06
Yeah. Well, and then you added on top of it. I remember the Kelsey Woods music, which Booktok is also very obsessed with. And she's so talented and incredible. How did you discover her music?
Tay 16:20
Somebody actually mentioned her in a comment and was like, 'you know, it would be mind blowing if you use her music along with this,' or something like that. And it was, I went and listen to my music. And I was like, this is beyond anything that I could come up with ever. And I even told Kelsey myself, that it's insane to see the reaction people have with her music paired with the story itself. You know, she's brought the emotion side of the story to life. You know, that's something as musicians always have to do. We want to play on emotions. We want to make people feel things. You know, when I was writing music, I wanted to make people cry. You know, and she's done it. I mean, if they don't shoot for the Hulu show. Just beyond beautiful. What she's done.
Ashley 17:16
Yeah. So Hulu, if you ever happen to see this video, please, please hire them. I remember the first time I saw hers, it did make me cry. Like I've because I think the stories like as you said, I think words and music, and when you piece them together, they do bring out that emotion in people and those feelings. And it's just kind of that overwhelming, overpowering, feeling that you can't let go of. And I think anybody that can create something like that, yeah, whether that's yourself or somebody like Kelsey--I think it doesn't come around very often. So when it does, I think people just get so excited and want to latch on to that.
Tay 17:57
I think, another example of that, from my point of view, as we love rainy days video, the song I use for that was actually another Tiktoker called @Macklaurenmusic. And she did a cover of Damien Rice's Delicate. And that song has stuck with me since high school. Because it's on I cried to. It was a song. You know, I was angry to. It was a song that calmed me down. You know, it was a song that stuck with me for, I mean, almost a very long time now. And so hearing her cover of it, you know, it was completely different. And I never thought anyone could do that song justice other than actual Damien Rice himself. But she did and I told her as well, it gave me goosebumps, it was like I was hearing the song for the first time. You know, so it resonated with my own story. You know, and so I totally understand that, you know, it's like watching Lord of the Rings and listening to the score later, you know, it's, it brings you back to those moments, it brings you back to those battles, you know, whatever it may be. And it's there's a strong connection between music and literature. And I don't think one can really exist without the other.
Ashley 19:18
Yeah, I think there's those either songs or movies like, I don't know, Lord of the Rings has always been very special. For me, it's my favorite of all time. And I used to have and I still do I'll put on like the cast commentary of extended versions and just have those on as background while I'm like writing or doing anything, it's just like it's my background...
Tay 19:41
You find out so many cool little facts. movies as well. Yeah, like he broke his toe.
Ashley 19:49
Of course that one! That's the on! So I have another question from another Booktoker. @Heirofbooksandroses. Great name. She gives you a very nice compliment. She says the tone in his voice is beautiful and relaxing? What book or movie would he like to narrate? And what is it an ideal relaxing moment for you?
Tay 20:07
That's very nice. Thank you. Book wise, I mean anything Star Wares would be amazing. I'm a huge nerd when it comes to that. Other than, I'd say, Pride and Prejudice. I love the book. I love the movie. It's the epitome of a slow burn, you know, and it's just very well written. And just magical. Even without actual magic. I would love to voice act in or even just act in, like, a pirate movie. It'd be great. I was thinking about it the other day, if they ever made a movie of the book as the Captain Hook story, from his point of view... Lost Boy or something like that. But if they if they ever made a movie or a show, I would be there auditioning to play Captain Hook in a second. Yeah, I have a lot of favorite villains. But he's been one of my favorites from childhood.
Ashley 20:07
For a long time. Well, you know, maybe Johnny will make another one now. You never know.
Tay 20:07
I hear he is.
Ashley 20:14
So your dream there could come true.
Tay 20:26
Maybe.
Ashley 20:28
The other thing I wanted to ask, this is sort of tangentially related, is, what are your favorite kinds of characters to bring to life? Like do you prefer villains? What? What's the ideal character?
Tay 21:37
I do like voicing villains. But not not the typical villain. Okay. I don't like to be the loud, boisterous, you know, powerful villain. I like to be the quiet ones that actually have all the power, whether it be political or just mental or even physical without showing it. I'd say my favorites are the morally gray characters. You know, the mysterious, seductive, roguish types, you know, they both do good things, they both do very bad things. And they don't really feel much remorse for the bad things. But you know, and when it comes to a villain that loves I believe that's when they become less of a villain. But yes I like morally gray antihero types. I think my voice lends itself to that as well. I sound a bit sneaky, I'd say. I'm actually voicing something that may be a bit of a challenge for me, and an audiobook coming up. It's a book called Ruination JN Baker, and I'm playing an angel. Okay, I'm playing an asshole, virgin angel. I know I'm just going to be growly the whole time. Yeah, it may be a bit out of my wheelhouse. It'll be a challenge.
Ashley 23:01
It's good to challenge yourself, though. Yeah, I feel like that with the morally gray, which is obviously very, very popular on Booktok as well. I think there's that trope that's like "I hate everyone but you" and that definitely embodies that type of character.
Tay 23:18
Enemy to lover type of thing. I believe that's what Ruination becomes, okay.
Ashley 23:23
Okay. If you were to put it in a sentence, how the book community has impacted your life so far...?
Tay 23:31
They've given me a bigger head. No, they've, they've been very accepting. That's, that's kind of the risk you take going on TikTok, you know, essentially posting videos of yourself, you're being vulnerable. Even if you're playing a character, you're being vulnerable, and you're putting yourself out there, whether even just be your face, you know, you can receive hate for just about anything. And I half expected that. It's been positive, you know, they've been welcoming and accepting. And the ones that I've connected with personally, have been so creative, you know, and they want to collaborate and they want to, you know, just see what we can create together, or even they can suggest or whatever it may be, they're so positive. I very much appreciate them, you know, they've come alongside me and just made it a dream.
Ashley 24:30
I've been so inspired by how creative that the community really is. And I think especially because, just the accessibility to create now, I think it's so much easier to you know, for people to write and publish things themselves and have ownership over what they're creating and not have to necessarily rely on going through the traditional route of querying and you know, is a big five gonna pick me up? And we've seen that with all of these different books that have gone viral and become super popular that are all by independent like indie author. And that's really cool to see you collaborating with them and seeing "what are you guys going to create?"
Tay 25:05
Yeah, I have three authors that I'm working with right now that you can expect content from.
Ashley 25:12
Oh, okay. Do we get any teasers?
Tay 25:14
I can tell you the names. Maybe a brief premise. Ruination, as I've said, will be probably the first one that I'm starting of the three. It's a duet. And so I'm teaming up with an incredible voice actress, Ashley, and it's, it's going to be a lot of fun. And I feel like book targets just kind of eat it up. The second is called Tattoo Kiss, and I play the male lead, I play a Scottish musician who suffers a tragedy and wakes up in the hospital. And in the same hospital, a woman wakes up from a coma. And they find each other somehow and it's a story of healing and difficulties and working through pain in your mind and that so that one's going to be a heartbreaker. The last of the three, which should be starting within a month or so is called Rise to the Dawnbringer. So, fantasy romance. I'm not quite sure if it's age gap.
Ashley 26:28
haha Are you having to learn all the tropes now?
Tay 26:31
I have to. haha I play the male lead in that his name is Sifrin, and he's also a growly asshole. I seem to be typecast.
Ashley 26:38
I'm sensing a pattern here.
Tay 26:40
Yes, I'd say all three characters are basically growly assholes, which I'm not in my, my daily life, but I guess I can voice them fairly well. I'm excited for all three, it's been a whirlwind so far. But it's been fun. And it's been a learning experience.
Ashley 27:01
As a creator, or as a person wanting to break into voice acting--we could do both. What would be one or two tips that you would give people like just starting out?
Tay 27:12
Well, for TikTok, do it for fun. Don't expect anything, if you have a talent, utilize it. And if it catches on, it catches on. You know, keep your expectations low with social media. You know, it took me I think I was on TikTok for about a year and a half, two years before anything actually happened. You know, I sat at about 300 followers for that amount of time. And then it exploded. But anyways, TikTok, it's so 50-50 You know, something that doesn't catch on, like, my initial music didn't catch on. Try something new. Try something that really resonates with you. If you're a crafter, if you're a writer, you know, do what you know you're the best at and follow it through. For people trying to get into voice acting, or narration, audition your ass off, you know, and put yourself out there as much as you can sign up for ACX. It's free. And it's free marketing. And that's the most basic thing you can do. When it comes to your actual voice. Find your voice. It doesn't have to be the one you speak in daily. It doesn't have to be one that is your natural voice, or the it's just the one you're most comfortable with. The one you fall into when you're joking, or you know, anything like that, and stick with it. Develop that one voice and it'll become almost a trademark. And that's also why I've kept my natural accent a secret.
Ashley 27:49
Are you still keeping it a secret right now?
Tay 28:57
Oh, yes. Yes. Or am I?
Ashley 29:00
K, I don't know. I can't tell.
Tay 29:03
I've convinced people I'm Australian. I've convinced people I'm Scottish. I live in California. And so I worked at Starbucks when I was younger. And we had a drive thru. And I had lots of fun. I would do accents for each customer and they buy it.
Ashley 29:21
I'm sure you did. When I was growing up my mom and I used to do accents all the time. Like just for fun. And I always felt like a crazy person because I feel like okay, no one does this. Except for my family.
Tay 29:30
If you feel like you have so many different voices in your head. Just different accents.
Ashley 29:38
So for those who are still working drive thru jobs this is it's great practice.
Tay 29:44
Do it. Don't be afraid. Yeah, you will probably only see those people once, maybe twice. Don't do it to regular customers. But unless they're down with it.
Ashley 29:55
Or you just have to remember which accent you use with them and always use that. Do you have anything you wished you would have known before, I guess, any of this happened?
Tay 30:06
I wish I had a library of recordings that I could just post, it's tough keeping up with it, you know, and having a family and a job and all the stresses of life, you know, it's demanding. And sometimes I'll try to sit here and record for an hour, if I have the house to myself, as I do right now, and get absolutely nothing, you know, because I'm not happy with it, or it just doesn't feel right. At the same time. I do like having it done that day. You know, most if not all, my tech talks are posted right after I record them. I don't really have many drafts. So it's on demand. And it's instant. And so the minute you guys see any video is the minute it was recorded, or however long it takes for it to upload.
Ashley 30:52
It is overwhelming. I do think, especially if you're posting every single day, like I think at one point, I was posting twice a day for almost a year. Creatively, too, you always want to be putting out the best content. And it's like, is that going to be at that volume? Not everything is going to be amazing.
Tay 31:08
You don't want your channel to be like middling.
Ashley 31:09
Yeah, that balance.
Tay 31:12
Yeah, my algorithm has been treating me that way for the past week or so.
Ashley 31:17
Oh, yeah, yeah, we could definitely get into the algorithm talk. I do feel like that is a hot topic that I think it's, it's a forever unknown.
Tay 31:26
I got lucky that people that had large followings saw my stuff and liked it. And they shared it. And so I owe whatever popularity I have on TikTok to those people. You know, you included. You know, you saw my stuff you liked it, and you kept following, you know.
Ashley 31:47
well, you're building a community, I think that's the biggest thing people are going to follow. And I think people forget that. Sometimes it's like, it's not just us speaking out into the void, like you're speaking to actual people. And you're resonating with a lot of people because of the content that you're doing, that people have a emotional attachment to. You're going to continue to build a community that's going to engage and I think a lot of people forget about that part of it.
Tay 32:11
I mean, I started out trying to get on metaltok and then I was trying to get on dndtok. And I wasn't cosplaying dndtok didn't take off. I found Booktok--they found me and I found my people.
Ashley 32:31
Can we expect some cosplay from you? Or you're like, No.
Tay 32:37
I would love to. But I'm not crafty.
Ashley 32:43
I feel like we could make this happen. So if any cosplayers happen to be watching this...
Tay 32:49
It's also difficult because I am larger than most costumes you can buy. I'm six foot eight. So yeah, so finding costumes that are ready made that fit is difficult. I would love to cosplay, I would love to do it. You know, I go to Disneyland. And I see all the characters, and I think, I'd be a much better Loki than you are, or, you know, the Winter Soldier or something like that. Actually, my fiancée and I, we are going to Massachusetts for our honeymoon. But on the way back, we're hitting Disneyland because it's probably going to be our last time to be there by ourselves without the kids, right. And we're going to be there around Halloween time.
Ashley 33:36
That'll be so fun.
Tay 33:37
We're dressing up, right? And she's like, you can't. I'm like, you can kind of dress up.
Ashley 33:43
You can kind of dress up. Subtle.
Tay 33:45
So my plan is to be president Loki going to Disneyland.
Ashley 33:51
Wait, and what is she...did she pick an outfit yet?
Tay 33:53
She's gonna get Maleficent horns to do something. I've slowly been breaking my fiancée into the deeply nerdy side of me.
Ashley 34:08
She discovering this for the first time?
Tay 34:11
She watched Star Wars with me, and built Legos with me. She bought me Dungeons & Dragons stuff for my birthday this past week. And it's I'm slowly getting there. And so breaking her into the fact that I want to dress up as characters might be a bit much as of now. But I mean, once we're married she can't say no.
Ashley 34:39
It's for life, man. So I might know the answer to this one, based on our conversation today. But if you could go to any fictional land or universe, where would you go?
Tay 34:49
That's really difficult, actually. Yeah. And might be a bit obscure. There's a book series, the first one's called The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I love the world building he did in that series, the magic concepts that he created. And the even the academics that he created just for those books was unbelievable. I guess it's not very fantasy, but pirates. Pirates of the Caribbean. Otherwise Asgard.
Ashley 35:25
Great choice. I was expecting a Star Wars planet to be honest.
Tay 35:31
None of them seem very hospitable.
Ashley 35:35
That's true! Do you think...well, this is a good follow up. So The Name of the Wind...obviously, we're waiting for Book Three. Do you think we're ever gonna get it?
Tay 35:46
Yes. I think we are. 'cuz he released that shorter book, right?
Ashley 35:52
A novella, I think.
Tay 35:53
Yes. And I mean, there's been rumors, he's working on the third one, and unless he just has lost inspiration and motivation. I think it would be a tragedy not to get Book Three.
Ashley 36:06
I feel this way about that, and also the last two books in Game of Thrones. That one I'm less hopeful for, I don't know.
Tay 36:16
Full confession. I have the entire series...
Ashley 36:20
Oh no! I was like, have you not read them?!
Tay 36:22
I have the entire series. And I've read half of the first one. I didn't finish the show.
Ashley 36:30
Well, that's okay. Because I feel like the show...None of us were very happy about the end. But yeah, the books are so good. They're hefty. Like they're very hefty. So...
Tay 36:41
Yeah, maybe I'll listen to them.
Ashley 36:44
That's not a bad idea. I don't know who narrates them.
Tay 36:46
But I work eight to 12 hours a day. So I have my headphones in all day. I can listen to them easily. I think that's a good idea after Star Wars, of course.
Ashley 36:55
Okay, so that's my challenge for you then. You gotta read those. They're so good. Then we'll do a part two. Okay, so these are kind of rapid reveal things. Favorite place to read?
Tay 37:09
Favorite place to read? Of all time? Or consistent?
Ashley 37:14
Maybe consistent.
Tay 37:17
Because my favorite place that I've read of all time is quite something.
Ashley 37:21
Oh, okay. Well, you can answer that too.
Tay 37:24
It was a trip. My fiancée and I took last year to Tennessee. We stayed in this place called Bolt Farms Tree House. And it's, it's beautiful. It's a tree house that looks over a valley. And there was a hammock chair out on the deck looking over this entire expanse. And I just sat there and read for hours. And it was just beautiful. You could hear the cicadas going in the trees and you know the rain started moving in. So just watch the clouds and it was just magic beyond something I felt before. But otherwise my favorite places read consistently would be my backyard. It's a small city backyard but it's, it's my place.
Ashley 38:15
You didn't think I'd talk to Tay and not have him do some quotes for us, right? Enjoy!
Ashley 38:21
I'll mute myself so that we can let the master speak.
Tay 38:27
The first one is uhh Rowan from Empire of Storms. So, unmute yourself for a second.
Ashley 38:38
Okay.
Tay 38:38
Should I do this in my voice or should I do it in accent?
Ashley 38:42
Oh, well, I think everybody would love accents. Right? So. So those are those are the contexts for all of them. All right. Take it away.
Tay 38:56
So Rowan from Empire of Storms. "Even on this world as a forgotten whisper of dust between the stars. I will always love you."
Tay 39:09
Let's see The Darkling...Shadow and Bone.
Tay 39:14
Got to channel my inner villain.
Tay 39:20
"Fine. Make me your villain."
Tay 39:25
And then angry. It's so hard to be angry when I'm blushing.
Tay 39:34
"You are my god damned damnation. But there will never be anyone but you."
Tay 39:44
And then we are...quotes. haha
Ashley 39:46
Oh my gosh, I think everyone's gonna love that so much. I can't wait for them to hear this.
Tay 39:51
I hope so.