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- A Tale of Paperback
A Tale of Paperback
I've been away for a little longer than planned. A writer's block, I guess. Still there. But yesterday, or today while I write this issue, was this newsletter's one-year anniversary. A shock, it still lives!I intend to try and keep the once-every-2-weeks frequency, perhaps sometimes once a month, as I only write here when I feel there is something to say, and sometimes... there isn't. Most often is about myself and my own experiences, so your patience with this newsletter is never overlooked.I'm glad to be here, to write here, and above all to have you reading it. Thank you. I appreciate you.Let's keep this train on the tracks.--A couple of years ago, I could barely finish one book in an entire month.Last year ended with a whopping read count of 60. Sixty books in twelve months, a not so high number by some standards but really impressive to me, someone who struggled to juggle "work" read and fun read ever since my early twenties.There's no magic to how this happened, no pro tip or moral to the story. I consider this as getting out of a reading slump and diving right into a reading binge. I'll get to that soon. But, as proud as I am to wave that number around, it came at the cost of "staying behind" in some other favorite pastimes so I could catch up on my reading. This is the paradox of entertainment in the 21st century - we have so much to entertain us we stress picking what to be entertained with. Not being able to consume entertainment right as it hits daylight makes us feel obsolete, prone to spoilers, left out of conversations and pop culture in general. It's impossible to stay on top of things unless that is your full time job. (What are spoilers, anyway?)But back to books.Different people take different avenues to learn. Some might even prefer to venture through the alleys, or walk down the emptier streets neighboring the avenue, but at some point we all get to Knowledgetown. For whatever reason, my favorite avenue is reading. Maybe because of the low stakes that seem to accompany them; want to learn something new? Here, take a book! It will look good on your shelf and no harm in having another tome for a rainy day, right? And that's how I surrounded myself, and my home, and my shelves, with books. I found myself surrounded again, still in a rut, thinking, "how the heck am I supposed to read all of this?".So I revisited a book I loved (it was Machado de Assis, as you are probably not wondering). Made myself read it again. And then came another. And soon enough I was picking up new books, good books, terrible books, recommended books, let's just stay in and read books, what am I doing it's 2 AM on a weekday books. I had book cravings and like an addict I would dig into whatever that Massive E-book Empire had under "sci-fi" or anything that sparked my interest that week, and let me tell you how much BAD stuff there is to find out there, oof. Not to understate the work and effort and courage it takes to write a book and put it out there. But that doesn't mean they are all good.Yet this binge-return to reading shifted something in me, and before it became clear enough to surface into words, realization of how much my own style changed during this year hit me. Like with anything artistic, we the creatives absorb references like a sponge, internalize them, and in the eventuality of creation, they spill out mixed in our own thoughts and ideas. I sense these changes more than I see them. Not sure if, objectively, my writing style shifted. Maybe is my thought process that engulfed the structure of literature, lyricism and rhythm. Maybe it's a consequence of maturing, of internal changes that leak into what we do. Long story short, I'm the basic bitch who read 60 books and now thinks she's Hemingway.Well then, back to cutting down adverbs.-Maíra
I've been away for a little longer than planned. A writer's block, I guess. Still there. But yesterday, or today while I write this issue, was this newsletter's one-year anniversary. A shock, it still lives!
I intend to try and keep the once-every-2-weeks frequency, perhaps sometimes once a month, as I only write here when I feel there is something to say, and sometimes... there isn't. Most often is about myself and my own experiences, so your patience with this newsletter is never overlooked.
I'm glad to be here, to write here, and above all to have you reading it. Thank you. I appreciate you.
Let's keep this train on the tracks.
--
A couple of years ago, I could barely finish one book in an entire month.
Last year ended with a whopping read count of 60. Sixty books in twelve months, a not so high number by some standards but really impressive to me, someone who struggled to juggle "work" read and fun read ever since my early twenties.
There's no magic to how this happened, no pro tip or moral to the story. I consider this as getting out of a reading slump and diving right into a reading binge. I'll get to that soon. But, as proud as I am to wave that number around, it came at the cost of "staying behind" in some other favorite pastimes so I could catch up on my reading. This is the paradox of entertainment in the 21st century - we have so much to entertain us we stress picking what to be entertained with. Not being able to consume entertainment right as it hits daylight makes us feel obsolete, prone to spoilers, left out of conversations and pop culture in general. It's impossible to stay on top of things unless that is your full time job. (What are spoilers, anyway?)
But back to books.
Different people take different avenues to learn. Some might even prefer to venture through the alleys, or walk down the emptier streets neighboring the avenue, but at some point we all get to Knowledgetown. For whatever reason, my favorite avenue is reading. Maybe because of the low stakes that seem to accompany them; want to learn something new? Here, take a book! It will look good on your shelf and no harm in having another tome for a rainy day, right? And that's how I surrounded myself, and my home, and my shelves, with books. I found myself surrounded again, still in a rut, thinking, "how the heck am I supposed to read all of this?".
So I revisited a book I loved (it was Machado de Assis, as you are probably not wondering). Made myself read it again. And then came another. And soon enough I was picking up new books, good books, terrible books, recommended books, let's just stay in and read books, what am I doing it's 2 AM on a weekday books. I had book cravings and like an addict I would dig into whatever that Massive E-book Empire had under "sci-fi" or anything that sparked my interest that week, and let me tell you how much BAD stuff there is to find out there, oof. Not to understate the work and effort and courage it takes to write a book and put it out there. But that doesn't mean they are all good.
Yet this binge-return to reading shifted something in me, and before it became clear enough to surface into words, realization of how much my own style changed during this year hit me. Like with anything artistic, we the creatives absorb references like a sponge, internalize them, and in the eventuality of creation, they spill out mixed in our own thoughts and ideas. I sense these changes more than I see them. Not sure if, objectively, my writing style shifted. Maybe is my thought process that engulfed the structure of literature, lyricism and rhythm. Maybe it's a consequence of maturing, of internal changes that leak into what we do. Long story short, I'm the basic bitch who read 60 books and now thinks she's Hemingway.
Well then, back to cutting down adverbs.
-Maíra
This week’s recommendations:
(Watch) The algorithm™️ brought me to this sweet documentary about beautiful bookstores and how to read more.
(Read) All books printed from roughly the 1850s to present days are unlike to outlive us, but older books will. A tale of our impermanent times.
(Create) Homer is a fresh new web-based story flow editor (a spin off of Outspoken). I've been playing around with it and am very excited to put it to use.