Hello and welcome to HankGames without Hank. My name is John Green, manager of the AFC Wimbledon Wimbly Womblies, today taking on Scunthorpe in Kingsmeadow. Rosianna, is Scunthorpe a real place? She didn't answer me.

I think-- I think she might have headphones on or something.  By the way, I don't know if you can hear in the background. There's a--

Maybe the reason that Rosianna didn't answer me is that she didn't want to tell me the truth, which is that Scunthorpe is a made-up place. There's (?~0:28) manager.

Is Scunthorpe real? Is it a town of like more than 1,000 people. There's not a lot of people in Scunthorpe, Rosianna said.

How can there be so many towns in England? It's a small country. It doesn't even include Scotland and Wales for God's sake.

It's so weird to me that there would be so many.  (?~0:47) manager, just looking very handsome. I don't know if you can hear that chainsaw in the background, but God knows I can hear it. I've been hearing it all morning.

It's incredibly annoying. There's 65,000 people living in Scunthorpe, but that's down-- I mean, during the height of the British empire, there were like 400,000 people there. Now it's down like 80%.

Anyway, we're just gonna-- let's look into the future, guys, and I think we all say the same future, which is a nil-nil draw. However, today's topic comes from Darian, who writes, "How should I go about transitioning from reading fantasy-fiction to non-fiction?" Darian contributed to the Project for Awesome. Thank you, Darian.

Lots of cutaways to (?~1:22) today. I don't really know why but I think it's great. And there, of course, is Other John Green, just motioning with his finger where he would like the ball to be played.

It's a horrifically ugly night here in south London and I don't-- I have to squint just to see the screen, which, usually, usually, that's a bad sign. I probably should move my chair closer to the television set where I play this game. I'm, in general, starting to feel like-- oh, I thought that was me, but that was one of the green players.

In general, I'm starting to feel like I'm too old for FIFA.

I've been watching a youtuber I really like named DoctorBenjy. He plays football manager and then also Fifa and then sometimes he also plays this game H1Z1 that I really like. Oh no! Everything worked out better than expected.

Um, (?~2:12) frustrated, frustrated about the decline of the British Empire, the British steel industry, and also frustrated with their inability to get it past Shia Lebouf, America's favorite anti-trump actor.  Um, anyway, I've been watching DoctorBenjy a lot, highly recommend it. He also plays this video game on his second channel H1Z1. And I've been thinking that would be a fun game to play if only I had internet access here in our internet video company  It's gotta be!

But it isn't, because I can't really see which of the players is which, but I think I have a corner now. Um anyway, there's Tom Hopper.  Uh, let's talk about fiction and nonfiction. I mean these days, what even is fiction, you know?

And what is nonfiction? I've was- I've been listening to the podcast S-Town, which for those of you who haven't listened to it, it's just incredible. I just passed it to the wrong guy because I genuinely cannot tell the color of the players in this dark murky foggy evening at Kingsmeadow, and now we're in big trouble.

Big big trouble in Little China.  Anyways, I've been listening to this podcast S-Town, and it reminds me of, of a Faulkner novel in its scope, in its uh- in its approach. It's just really really brilliant and beautiful, and it's also uh- true.  Um now, ugh. Frickin- (?~3:32) That's it.

I'm moving the- I'm moving my chair up. Hold on.  I'm moving my chair dramatically forward. I'm much closer to the screen now.

And I genuinely believe this is gonna make all the difference. I think we only gave up that goal because I was so far away from the screen.  Now, I mean, or alternately I could get a much bigger television. This is a little bit like, uh, when my dad started reading large print books, and I was like "what's wrong with you?"

And now I realize it's just a function of age. Anyway, time's winged chariot draws near, and the end of my time on this planet is coming shortly. Now I'm in a frickin darkness.  S Town's a great podcast, and it's nonfictional, uhh, and it reminded me that much of the best storytelling in the American tradition is nonfiction. From Mark Twaine's travel logs to, there's lots and lots of great Truman Capote, lots of great nonfiction writing out there.

Some of my favorite, Eudora Welty essays are nonfiction. So how do you transition from reading fiction to nonfiction? I think the biggest most important thing- That's a nice pass.

And then that's a nice give back to Whelpdale. It's Whelpdale. It's Whelpdale!

It's Whelpdale!! And he dribbled out of bounds. Brilliant Whelpdale!

Amazing! Astonishing! Oh god, we're so bad.

Um, still top of the league though. I don't see uhh you know, we're still top of the league. So anyway, I think you've got to start maybe with nonfiction that uses some of the tropes of literature to tell stories well, whether that's an essay by Eudora Welty like Sweet Devouring, whether it's uhh- So I think you can get good nonfiction reading experiences that are still narrative if that's of interest to you.

And then I also think there's lots of great memoir out there, which can be very, kind of literary in scope. Whether that's, you know, The Glass Castle, I think is just a wonderful memoir.

Um, I don't know. There's lots of great memoirs out there. I'll put a link to a few in the description because I'm trying to play FIFA at the same time as talking about books. Um, and I think that might be the first step?

But then- Oh gyaaa! Terrible, really really terrible. That's all I have to say about that.

Aussie Aussie manager frustrated and alarmed, and appropriately so I think. And then while Taylor dispossessed, frustration. Frustration mounting!

And with Paul John Green out with the broken leg, and we are just not the same without him. I mean I think that's the biggest thing.  It's one-nil to the bad guys. Ahh, the nation of Scunthorpe just experiencing unprecedented successes.

Should we make some halftime substitution? Perhaps, perhaps we shall. Whelpdale's exhausted and also had a terrible half.

I think this game needs a hot slice of Frank(?~6:58) for us to really succeed. I know lots of people are saying we shouldn't play 4-4-2, but I mean, why make me even worse at this game?  So um, the other thing about reading nonfiction is that it can be informative in a way that fiction kind of can't be, right? Like there's a point to- there's a thing that nonfiction writing does when it's really good, which is both entertain and inform you.

So I think like reading the Economist every week is a way of reading nonfiction. That's potentially very useful, or at least very useful to me. I've found out so many interesting things in the Economist, like I just- I like reading it so that I can quote it, um, at like social gatherings, which is probably super annoying.

Actually now that I say that, I bet it's super annoying.  Come on! Okay! Yup, yup, yup!

That's good work! Ugh man, but then the Scunthorpe defense is just too strong for us. 

But that was good. I will say, I thought that was- Um, oh boy, really unnecessary slide tackle going for a red card there. Uh yeah, so I also don't think you have to necessarily, uh there, in the title or in the question, I'm worried that it creates a false dichotomy where you, uh, either read fiction or nonfiction, uh when in fact, like I think there's plenty of time in a reading life to read both. And increasingly, yikes!

Great use of the X button. Not to brag, but that was a really really solid use of the X button.  Uh, I feel like increasingly, um, people kinda think that, like, they need to be one sort of person or another, and I just don't think that's true.  It's gotta be! Oh it's [gibberish] you're killing- For the love of God.

I mean, [sigh], I mean [sighs].  Yeah so anyway, I think there's plenty of room in your life to read both made up stories and true ones and also to hear them in multiple formats. I think the other thing I've been thinking a lot about recently on this front is that we treat reading like it's good or noble and also like it's a little bit of a chore, or or somehow something that we do so as to be closer to enlightenment or whatever.  Um that's a pretty good ball, and then that's a very nasty tackle. There's no getting around.

I guess there wasn't a red card since the referee didn't stop the game, so that's encouraging.  I feel like we treat reading, especially reading nonfiction like it's a chore or it's something that we do so as to have, like uh, a more like, I don't know, cultured life or whatever. 

When in fact, like, whether it's a story about I think- yeah, it's a yellow card. Whether it's a story- yeah, Lyle you deserve that. Don't fight that one. Whether it's a story like S Town that comes in podcast form or it's a story, um, or whatever the format is.

I feel like sometimes we end up worshipping format instead of, like, quality of storytelling. So for me, I don't think reading, and I say this as a writer, is inherently better than any other particular, like, way of interacting with story or information. I don't think that, uh, reading nonfiction makes you smarter than listening to nonfiction podcasts does, or watching nonfiction video does, or anything like that.  I think the, you know, medium is important.

We can't, like, dismiss it. But I worry sometimes that we end up kind of worshipping a certain kind of story over another entirely because of the, like, format in which it's told. That's pretty good.

Ah! Frustration! Frustration!

There's no- I mean, there's no I in team, and I feel like there was a little bit of an I in that attack. You know what I mean? I feel like that was not- That was just, we're just not at our best right now.

We're really struggling. Oh, almost a second goal for Scunthorpe in the 88th minute. We've maybe got one chance left.

So I encourage you to read nonfiction, but I also encourage you to listen to nonfiction podcasts and watch informational YouTube videos, and in general to like read and live as broadly as you can. To interact broadly with the world, I feel like it makes for a better life in general. Uh, but also to still read made up stories.

I think there's tremendous value in them. Now obviously I'm biased because it's what I do for a living. 

But I do think that there's a lot of value in them, and I think um, lot of like consolation uh, value. But also they are, you know for me, made-up stories are also a way of like looking at the world and understanding my place in at and trying to uh trying to grapple meaningfully with that instead of doing what I do most of the time which is just ignore it.

Speaking of ignoring! I would like to ignore this result. A horrible loss! A humiliating defeat for AFC Wimbledon. Just despicable.

I mean what is my highest player rating? 2? It's Buckminster Fuller with a 6.8. I mean, 7.1 for T.S. Eliot which seems high. Uh, the fact that any of these players are in the sixes seems unreasonable to me.

I'm going to give them an absolute lashing and I'll be back in a few days and we'll be better, I promise. Thanks for watching. Best wishes.