Where to begin
I was born during the blizzard of 1996… no. I mean yes, I was but no. You don’t want my whole life story. Why would you? In fact, as I’m writing this there is no “you”. “You” don’t exist. I am writing my first substack newsletter knowing damn well the only subscriber I currently have is… myself. That’s right, shockingly you don’t start off with hundreds or thousands or even one subscriber. I couldn’t believe it either. I shamelessly did subscribe to myself using one of my emails.
What even is this?
This is an outlet, mostly. I don’t expect to make money off of this. I don’t really expect a lot of people to ever see this and I expect even less will hear about it. I have found a love for books and reading. I have always had a love for writing. Selfishly, this is for me. A space where I can not only let my creative juices loose but where I can also talk about something I love that I don’t get to talk about very often. Books.
Is this going to be like BookTok?
Probably not. I mean, maybe. I don’t really know what BookTok is other than the obvious, TikToks about books. I could be wrong but to me BookTok is always pretty intertwined with what’s new. Understandable, who cares about Frankenstein in 2023 it was written over 200 years ago or The Picture of Dorian Gray or The Divine Comedy or anything that doesn’t have that new book smell because the first edition was just written. There’s nothing wrong with new books or new authors or online content creators making content about those things! I just don’t think that’s me. Not to say I’m opposed to modern literature or trying something new. I’ll try anything once or even twice. If I were to just start reading and writing about books just to get a little TikTok clout then that would go against not only the entire point of this platform for me but also myself. I don’t have much desire to do something that I don’t love/want to do in order to gain a following. It’s not about that. So, in short, this probably won’t be like BookTok. Or it will.
Schedule?
There really isn’t one, which I know is bad to say. Nothing is worse in content creation than not having a consistent schedule. Even bad content can work to a degree if you’re consistently making it. I think I will do one post at the end of every month as sort of a wrap up or a catch up. If there is even a difference between the two things. Let’s plan on a post the last day or so of each month. I will also periodically pop in to provide updates on if I started a new book or if I bought new books, like right now…
I got a nice little haul the other day:
Frankenstein by Mark Shelley
Assata by Assata Shakur
Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
And I will always make a post when I finish a book, I will also give no details or any opinion on a book (on here) until I have read that book. Will I mix in a few random postings, yeah probably because again, this is for me.
Wrap it up Eddie…
I probably wrote more useless nonsense than I needed to but let’s wrap up here with a few final words. I have a lot of books I need to read and even more I want to read, feel free to send me suggestions on Twitter/Instagram (at)EJS_4. Can’t promise I’ll read it but I’ll see what I can do. Finally, what am I currently reading:
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (sort of)
Go Up For Glory by Bill Russell
Confronting Capitalism by Vivek Chibber
Straight Shooter by Stephen A. Smith (Audible)
I have an idea for the next newsletter so that (sort of) behind The Divine Comedy will get an explanation soon.
To see what I’ve already read and probably won’t write about you can check out my goodreads account https://www.goodreads.com/ejs4.
Until next time, thank you for taking your time to read my thoughts.
Love this
This is hilarious! (and far more honest than my first post was)