Max Greenfield, I DON'T WANT TO READ THIS BOOK
[0:01]Hi, I'm Sivi Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast,
[0:05]Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
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[0:32]And now, back to our daily author interview site and a quick hello from some of my kids.
[0:36]Hi, hello.
[0:38]Enjoy the show.
[0:40]Max Greenfield is the author of the children's book.
[0:43]I don't want to read this book.
[0:45]Max is a New York born actor who is best known for being interrupted by his two beautiful children,
[0:50]Lily and Aussie, as he writes this bio.
[0:52]Max tries to tell them that this is important, and to please leave him alone, but neither child believes this,
[0:57]as they are certain that mommy is the one with the career, and daddy just act silly on TV sometimes.
[1:02]Welcome, Max. Thanks so much for coming on Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books to discuss.
[1:06]I don't want to read this book.
[1:08]I'd like the title of your show.
[1:11]Thank you.
[1:12]Is there anything you do have time for?
[1:14]I mean, I make time for everything, and yet I feel like I never have time for anything.
[1:19]I don't have time for it.
[1:20]Here's my question, actually.
[1:22]Okay.
[1:23]When you find time for anything, are you overwhelmed by it, and then accomplish nothing?
[1:31]You mean if I actually have like a stretch of time where I don't know what to do with myself?
[1:35]Or like time off?
[1:36]Yes. Often I say out loud, what should I be doing now? Wait a minute.
[1:40]I feel like should I do this? Should I do this? Should I do this?
[1:43]Or if it's like at an appropriate time where I could possibly be doing something like hanging out with my husband, or
[1:49]watching TV or something, yeah, I don't really know what to do with myself.
[1:52]I don't know either.
[1:53]It's a weird thing.
[1:55]I'll be like, gosh, I just mean time for me.
[1:58]And then like a random window or an unexpected window will open up.
[2:03]I don't know.
[2:04]This is a nightmare.
[2:05]I don't know what to do.
[2:07]Yeah.
[2:08]There's like too much.
[2:09]Like I should go through the kid emails.
[2:12]Holidays are coming up.
[2:14]I don't know.
[2:15]I don't know.
[2:16]I don't know.
[2:17]I don't know how everybody else does it, but I just feel like, yeah, every day I try.
[2:21]I try hard every day and see if I can do it.
[2:24]And then I like give myself a rating sort of at the end of the night where I'm like,
[2:27]did I do okay?
[2:28]I don't know.
[2:29]That's a mistake.
[2:30]I know.
[2:31]I'm certainly not going to judge.
[2:33]I mean, I agree.
[2:34]I agree.
[2:35]Terrible.
[2:36]My reigns would be very low.
[2:37]I doubt that.
[2:38]Well, I have to say that my kid thought it was hilarious that I had this book on my desk.
[2:44]And of course, read it and loved it.
[2:50]And they were like, well, why did he write this book?
[2:52]And I was like, well, I will ask him.
[2:54]So why did you write this book?
[2:56]Well, I don't know what your experience has been, but my experience as a parent and as a reader myself,
[3:03]but as a parent first, you know, was going into my kid's room every night before bed and going,
[3:09]okay, let's done read a book.
[3:10]And my daughter who's very much like me would have some sort of reason why she didn't want to read each book that I suggested.
[3:18]At which point a half hour later, I'd be like, well, now it's bedtime and we've read nothing.
[3:23]And so when the opportunity of writing this children's book came around, I thought, well, if I was going to do it,
[3:29]it would be called, I don't want to read this book and it would be all the reasons why you don't want to read a book and the hopes that your kids might read that book.
[3:35]And it was based on that 30 minute conversation that we'd have.
[3:39]But then when I started writing the book, it really opened up.
[3:43]to my own experience as a young reader and the difficulties that I had and continue to have.
[3:49]And then it became a much more personal experience for me.
[3:53]And, you know, so I think the book works on a lot of different levels, some very light and fun.
[3:58]And then some, you know, where I think it opens up a real conversation for some kids who find reading to be difficult.
[4:04]Yes. I like how you really lament the role of sentences and paragraphs and, you know, just keeps getting worse.
[4:11]Like how much worse could it be?
[4:12]Based on the child's performance reading the book.
[4:17]I think you can identify if this is a fun book for them or if this is if they turn into a drama, you can be like, hey, so, what, tell me about how you're, how you're reading what, where are you finding difficulty?
[4:30]So were you not a big reader yourself?
[4:33]No, I was not at all.
[4:35]I'm still, I'm still not.
[4:37]I'll get scripts and specifically movie scripts.
[4:41]Well, if I can make it through the first 10 pages, somebody's written a masterpiece.
[4:46]You think it's lack of attention or you think it's like the processing of it.
[4:50]Like do you feel like you have dyslexia type of saying or do you think?
[4:53]Oh, I know. I have dyslexia.
[4:55]Okay. Okay. Sorry.
[4:56]No, please.
[4:58]I know it.
[4:59]But for me, what I think happens is, and it's not just like, it's not like I'm like reading words backwards.
[5:04]For me, it's, it's a little attention things, but it really is.
[5:09]I have to focus so intensely on what I'm reading to retain any of it.
[5:17]Mm-hmm.
[5:18]That it becomes such a heavy lift.
[5:21]And I can only read small sections at a time.
[5:24]But oddly, when, like I really, I love audiobooks.
[5:28]Mm-hmm.
[5:29]So I'll listen to an audiobook and I'll get it all and I'll listen to it for hours.
[5:33]It's great.
[5:34]And my daughter's the same way.
[5:36]Like I'll read to my daughter at night.
[5:38]Sometimes if she has a book for school, I'll sit and I'll help her and I'll read a big chunk of it.
[5:43]And I'll think for myself, while as I'm reading it, I'm like, you know, this is, this is difficult for me.
[5:49]I hope she is listening.
[5:51]And it turns out because she's had to do tests for the books that we, I have read.
[5:59]She does so well on the desk.
[6:01]So, you know, what she retains through listening is so much more than either of us.
[6:08]We'll get out of actually reading because it's hard work for me.
[6:12]Yeah.
[6:13]I mean, there is a whole field of science around that.
[6:16]I know.
[6:17]I mean, don't feel bad about it.
[6:19]In books that I won't read.
[6:21]It's true.
[6:22]They shouldn't even publish books about.
[6:24]That's right.
[6:25]It's like, here's a book about this.
[6:27]There's a 550 page book about this.
[6:29]Like say, I'm like, yeah, great.
[6:31]I have, I have many people with dyslexia in my immediate orbit.
[6:34]And, you know, reading letters backwards is such a misconception.
[6:37]And that I wish I don't know where that came from.
[6:40]I know.
[6:41]It's wild.
[6:42]That's like the definition for people who don't really understand that.
[6:47]I had dinner last night with this fellow mom of one of my kids friends or whatever.
[6:52]And she said one of her kids has.
[6:54]It's the dyslexia for math.
[6:56]Disgraphia maybe or just anyway.
[6:59]Now there's a math thing that people are being diagnosed as.
[7:02]So I feel like it's great in one on the one hand because now you're not.
[7:06]The people who were just always thought they were bad at math.
[7:08]Like how interesting to know that there's a reason why.
[7:11]And if they do XYZ, you can fix it.
[7:13]And it's not your intelligence.
[7:15]That's exactly right.
[7:16]I mean, I think the advantage of having the diagnosis.
[7:21]Because it's exactly what we talked about before, which is you can get the 550 page book about dyslexia.
[7:26]I'm not going to read it.
[7:28]But the advantage of having the diagnosis of it is that hopefully knowing that.
[7:34]It doesn't chip away your self esteem and your confidence.
[7:38]And you go, oh, well, there's a real reason why this is hard for me.
[7:43]And hopefully get to a place where you say where you can say like, and that's okay.
[7:47]Yeah.
[7:48]I do think that so many people, you know, their self worth comes from how they are perceived in school and growing up.
[7:54]And if all the teachers, if everybody misses it, you just grow up thinking that you're just not brighter.
[7:59]You can't do this out of the other thing.
[8:01]And it's sort of a tragedy because most dyslexia people go on to be some of the most creative people.
[8:06]Actors, producers, my husband's a pretty serious undiagnist dyslexic.
[8:10]But I, you know, I read him like if there's a book and I'm like, this is really good.
[8:15]I don't do this as much anymore because I've gotten too busy.
[8:17]So I'm really sorry to him for this.
[8:19]But anyway, I used to like read the books out loud to him at night.
[8:21]And like that's what we would do.
[8:22]I would like read him a like, oh, this is hilarious.
[8:24]Let me read you this chapter.
[8:25]And I don't know.
[8:26]I also think, and I'm totally off topic here of your book, but now I'm just chatting with you.
[8:30]You know, it's really hard.
[8:31]You're right on topic.
[8:33]It's really hard in this email text world.
[8:37]Right.
[8:38]Like my husband Kyle gets so tired reading all these texts all the time and his brain and his eyes.
[8:43]and like by the end of the day.
[8:45]And meanwhile, I'm like, because it doesn't bother me at all.
[8:48]And it's it's it's very inconvenient.
[8:50]The adult version of this book because I don't want to read this email.
[8:54]Are you going to do that?
[8:56]I should.
[8:57]You should.
[8:58]It should also be this format, though.
[9:01]Like for maybe a little smaller, but not not a grown up book.
[9:05]That's so funny.
[9:06]I love that.
[9:07]Yeah.
[9:08]This being in the subject.
[9:09]I don't want to read this email blank.
[9:11]Yeah.
[9:12]You can have a whole thing on texting.
[9:14]You can have a whole, you know, the whole, yeah, folders.
[9:17]Going back to what you were saying, though.
[9:19]I was trying to say, because it sparked something.
[9:21]I was like, you were talking about creative people being dyslexic.
[9:25]Yes.
[9:26]And I had it for a second.
[9:28]I lost it.
[9:29]It's early.
[9:30]I'm sorry.
[9:31]I didn't have to do this this early.
[9:32]I remember.
[9:33]No.
[9:34]So I remembered it.
[9:35]I had listened to a study that said one of the things that happens right.
[9:41]around the age of like seven, eight and nine.
[9:44]Right.
[9:45]When you're learning to read is that a child begins to compare themselves.
[9:48]They learn how to compare.
[9:49]It's like sort of hits them, whether like, why, hold on.
[9:52]Why is that child tall?
[9:54]Is that mean I'm sure?
[9:56]Yes.
[9:57]And it happens at the exact moment.
[9:59]At the exact moment.
[10:00]that they're starting to learn how to read. So to be able to look around a classroom and go,
[10:05]they've read two of the Harry Potter books and I can't get through a chapter. What's wrong with me?
[10:16]And because there's so little to go on at that point of what on how we sort of tell ourselves what
[10:26]intelligent is, you know, if you can't read like the child who's rippin' through the
[10:32]Harry Potter books, you probably think, you know, that's smart. And your parents might think
[10:39]and still can be the most loving, wonderful parents, I think. Yeah, I don't know what's going on
[10:44]out of there. I don't think that that's right. And it becomes this whole thing. And to me,
[10:51]so much of what this book is trying to do subliminally is take some of the emphasis off of
[11:02]how important we decide reading is at that age. Like you're going to learn to, and if the book,
[11:09]if this was in any other format than a book, I'd say it might be problematic. But here's a book
[11:16]that's saying, I don't want to do this at all. And it's written what I feel like is in an intelligent
[11:24]way where, you know, the writer is not, or the reader rather, is not, you know, some infantile
[11:32]this is an intelligent who's saying, these are the reasons why I don't want to read this book.
[11:37]And I think I make a pretty compelling argument. And it's to just take some of the air out of
[11:44]the balloon. It's like, look, man, we're reading, we're all going to figure out a read. But we're
[11:49]going to do it at our own pace. And there's going to be children who are going to do it very quickly,
[11:54]and are going to be an incredible at it. And then there's some people who, you know, in their mid-20s
[11:59]are going to go, I think I, you know, I think I'm getting to hang of this. I think I know how this
[12:06]works for me. I think you're right about the social comparison. And that's also the age when
[12:11]anxiety sets in. So I think double whammy of like, you're comparing yourself and you're like,
[12:16]wait, now I'm short and I can't read or whatever it is. And so then you're anxious about it.
[12:21]And then it comes, well, yeah, why do you think I think that's probably why the anxiety creeps in?
[12:27]Yeah. Well, apparently it's like, that's developmentally win and win. But forget on that.
[12:32]I'm not a scientist. I won't read the reports.
[12:36]That's funny. So does it affect your writing? Like, did you sit down and write this whole thing?
[12:42]Like, or is it more for you in reading and tell me like what it was like writing this book?
[12:47]Yeah, sure. Well, it takes me. There's another book that's called, I don't want to write
[12:52]this email. That is a drama for me. Because I think that's definitely how it affects me in terms
[12:58]of like how it just like see it affects me in terms of organizationally putting words together
[13:04]and shaping senses and paragraphs. It is a nightmare.
[13:09]Yeah. And that's why, so when it came to me about sort of the way the book came to be was,
[13:15]it was in the very beginning of the pandemic. And I was homeschooling my daughter. And we started
[13:22]posting some videos and stuff on Instagram. They got a lot. They got a big response.
[13:26]People loved them. It was really nice. And we were doing it basically because we were so overwhelmed
[13:32]terrified. And so we sent these videos out. And then we were getting these responses from first
[13:37]responders and from teachers. We're saying, it's videos. You're keeping us going. And then we were
[13:43]million. I were like, this is so much prefer. But so we were doing that. And I had an agent who
[13:51]reached out to me at the time. It was like, what are you doing? So wonderful. And we love the
[13:58]relationship between your daughter. And like, we think there's something here. Is it a podcast? And
[14:03]I was like, it's definitely not a podcast. I can't talk for that long. And so then they said, well,
[14:08]what do you think it might be a book? And I go, well, I cannot write a real book. And it's come up
[14:15]since after having written this book, like, well, what if we extended in the new road? And I said,
[14:20]I on a good day, you might convince me that it's a good idea. But when I actually try to sit
[14:25]down to do it, this is going to take me 15 to 20 years. And I'll still be like, I don't know.
[14:32]So organizing words is tough for me. Then he brought up the idea of, well, what about a picture book?
[14:40]And I said, I think I actually can make sense of that. And it really is the perfect format for me
[14:47]because 40 pages this format really makes sense. Because I can move words around and I can play
[14:55]with it in a way in that smallest space that feels very doable. That makes sense. Yeah. Well,
[15:03]I still think you should do the email book. And maybe that won't take you that long. I feel like
[15:08]I'm tempted to like, you know, do it and like send it to you. And you could just like use, I'm like,
[15:12]use this. That's funny. So how, and did you get paired up with the illustrator?
[15:18]Yeah, I got, it was a really wild process. You know, I pitched this idea to an agent and he said,
[15:23]he was going to take it out. And I thought, that's a bummer that that's nothing's ever going to
[15:27]happen with that. A couple days later, he was like, penguin would like to make the book. And
[15:33]this was the, I had written some screenplays and some other things that had very different responses.
[15:38]I'm still waiting to hear on those. So all of a sudden we were tasked with writing the book.
[15:45]And then writing the book was this incredibly rewarding experience. I didn't write it with my
[15:52]daughter, but she was certainly a part of the writing process. Her friends were part of it. Again,
[15:58]it was right in the middle of the pandemic. So like, there was a small group of kids in our neighborhood
[16:02]who'd go on these bike rides on our house and sit on the front lawn. And I would read them drafts
[16:07]of the book. And I'd go like, and they go, it's okay. What about this part? And so it was great.
[16:15]And we had so much fun doing it. And then you give that over and you find illustrator. Do you think
[16:22]you might, they might be right for it? And that illustrator then goes off and does whatever they want
[16:27]to it and makes it, you know, and visually brings it to life. And I thought, you're going to really
[16:33]just have to let this go and let it become what it's supposed to become at this point. And we
[16:39]were so lucky to get Mike. And he exceeded every expectation of what I imagine this book would look
[16:46]like when it came to life. It's so cool. It really is. Because it's the only thing I was really
[16:54]adamant about was it needs to be very, it needs to be readable. Yes. You know, I want this to be
[17:01]a book, the kids read. And when we when we got to this fireworks is chapter two, I still don't want
[17:07]to read this book. All of a sudden my daughter was like, what? It's a chapter book. And I was like, no,
[17:11]it's a joke. It's okay. Keep reading it. You're not reading a chapter book right now.
[17:18]No, the illustrators are amazing. They're amazing. It's really awesome. I actually have a children's
[17:22]but coming out in April from Penguin also from right on. We're in a house. It's called Princess
[17:27]Charming, but a girl who can't find her thing. And then she realizes her thing is that she never
[17:32]gives up sort of loosely based on my daughter. But it's called Princess Charming. There is actually
[17:40]another twist, but I won't give it away. But it's about a girl who can't find her thing. And then
[17:45]she really, yeah, yeah, that her thing is that she never gives up. Oh, I love that. That's cool.
[17:50]But it's like based on like the smoothie star comes to the palace. And anyway, it's kind of funny.
[17:55]But yeah, but I didn't know how to write a picture book either. And my editor was like,
[18:01]okay, I'm going to draw you a little picture on like how many pages and literally on a scrap of
[18:04]paper. She was like, here are the boxes. And I found it like really hard versus writing like
[18:10]it's much faster for me to write like long than to pick the right words. So I think it's a skill.
[18:15]Oh, yeah, this to me. It felt like, it felt a little bit like writing a song. And now
[18:21]mind you, I've never written a song. But if you were going to, it would be like this,
[18:27]but it felt like this as opposed to, you know, this and making it all sort of one. And the first
[18:37]page needs really the last page. It was just great. I had so much fun doing it. Oh, I'm a poem,
[18:42]whatever. Yeah. And my kids, by the way, like you, they have written this, we have a second one
[18:48]coming out. So I like let them write the whole thing. So now they have like crazy characters,
[18:52]like rainbow, the awfulest, or I don't even know. So now my editor's like, that's kind of about
[18:57]that second book. And I'm like, it's like, maybe. So might need some edit. I need some edits to that.
[19:06]But and in terms of like your real job and stuff, like what are you working on? What's your
[19:12]acting situation? Are you on something currently? I'm trying to just, I'm trying to transition
[19:18]so we children's books. Okay. And just do those forever. I had so much fun doing it. Now,
[19:23]I'm currently working on the neighborhood on CBS, which is in its fourth season and going really
[19:28]well. Yeah. Awesome. Amazing. Yeah. Okay. So do you have any parting advice? If anybody else out there
[19:34]was going to attempt to write a children's book? Okay. Well, I mean, it would be the same advice
[19:39]I get to, to anybody who's doing anything creative is to, you know, look at your own experience
[19:45]and pull from that. And it's very easy to write and create when you're doing so out of your
[19:52]own experience and what's truthful to you. I've made the mistake of, you know, thinking something's
[19:59]a good idea.
[20:00]Yeah. We're having no experience space in that area at all. And just bang my head against
[20:07]the wall and be like, I think this is a really good idea, but I'm not a do it. But I think
[20:13]you know, like this book was was such a wonderful thing to write because it was it was
[20:18]easy. It was based on my experience. Again, not only as a parent, but as a reluctant reader
[20:23]myself. And I think it's probably like the most honest and true content that I've ever
[20:29]produced. Amazing. Well, yes. And anything that can help that sort of selection issue late at
[20:37]night when nobody can find the right book and everything seems wrong. And even the book that
[20:41]was like two minutes before they wanted to read and then they changed their mind and you're never
[20:45]going to get them to bed having this. And the toolkit is a welcome addition. So thank you for that.
[20:52]All right. Well, thank you for all your time today. This was really fun. Sorry. I think you became like a
[20:58]conversation, but anyway, I had a great time. Anyway, thanks for the book and we will be reading
[21:04]this even though we don't want to. Awesome. Thank you. All right. Take care. Good luck to you.
[21:11]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't
[21:15]forget to follow me on Instagram at zebi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[21:20]Also sign up for my newsletter at zebiowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots
[21:25]of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan in fact, texture sound for
[21:30]the sound editing. And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and
[21:35]now trim music.