June ‘23 Recap
This episode of Books for Men is a short recap of all the episodes from June '23. There was (1) nonfiction book, (1) work of fiction, and (1) edition of From the Vault. I also share my current vision for the podcast. Listen for more!
Listen to the episode:
*Subscribe to The Books for Men Newsletter, a monthly round-up of every episode with full book and author info, all the best quotes, and newsletter-only book recommendations!
READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So as always, I just wanted to send a quick thank you to everybody who has listened to the podcast thus far, and especially to those who continue to support the podcast via word of mouth. That is super, super important, especially considering that I don't do much promotion for the podcast. In fact, I primarily rely on word of mouth, and I know that we are sort of making a little bit of headway because the listenership seems to be increasing. As this continues to build, I may look at doing some other types of promotion, and on the surface, you may be saying, well, why don't you promote it more? I’ll be honest with you in saying that writing comes before podcasting for me. And so with only limited time, I have to kind of pick and choose what I can do on a regular basis for the podcast.
(01:12)
Although the promotion piece kind of falls by the wayside right now, the content piece is something that I can commit to and consistently do on a regular basis. I believe in compounding, which means whatever you do has to be maintainable. And that is actually the North Star for everything I try to do on the show. And also with life in general, I guess. I think that results in whatever you're doing come from little actions compounded over time, and I'm willing to test that theory over the course of a lifetime. And I'm aware that that could sound a little bit grandiose as I look out so far ahead. But to me, I don't see the value in doing something just once unless you're trying to test it, which I do periodically with a myriad of things. But if you're actually going to add something to your existing process, then maintainability should be the North Star because again, that's where the results lie.
(02:21)
And this isn't a fact, of course, it's just a theory that I am willing to bet on. So what does that mean for you, the listener? Well, in short, it just means barring any catastrophic event or complete change in direction, then you should expect weekly episodes on a regular basis over an extended period of time. I've committed myself to doing these episodes over and over and over and over again. So much so that my current plan shows me getting to about three to 400 episodes before I even look back and say, well, what has happened here? Or What have I built or not built here? Mostly because I want to give it that opportunity, like I said, to compound and to build over time. So, in order to do that, I need to consistently create something for you, and I don't want to make it sound like I have a gun to my head because that couldn't be further from the truth.
(03:20)
I enjoy doing these episodes, and that's one of the primary drivers of the whole reason why I started this show. I mean, if I had an outlet to talk about books in this way, then I probably never would have started the podcast. Aside from the fact that I want to inspire men to read, it's also personal gratification for me to be able to create a platform where I could share my opinions on books and stories, because I spend so much of my free time in life doing this—reading, writing, evaluating stories. I'm just really into it, right? And so having this outlet is extremely gratifying and enjoyable for me. And I've sort of been on a soapbox here, so I will get off of it. But before I do, you might be wondering, you know, you said that you value writing over podcasting, so I haven't seen any new writing, and I do want to assure you that I do have two novels that are complete, and I am currently trying to find a home for them and evaluate different publishing avenues for these projects.
(04:42)
So I'm not sure when you'll see them or if or how you'll see them, but I do want you to know that I have been working ferociously on new work since I last published Tom Collins, and I am going to continue to do that. So that is the 411 on my life. And now I think I could get off the soapbox officially and do the recap for the month. All right, so the first episode of June was the nonfiction book for the month, and it was called Page Fright by Harry Bruce. And it was a super fun read about the fetishes and foibles of famous writers. And really what it does is it reminds you of all of the conflicting ways that writers like to write, and it uses really famous writers throughout history, obviously, and quotes them and talks about their process and what tools they use, how fast they write. Were they drinking alcohol? Did they have good luck charms? Where did they write? Just all of the above, really, it reminds you that there is no right way to do this thing called writing.
(05:59)
And that's probably one of the best qualities of the book in my opinion. It was just super entertaining and I would highly recommend it, especially if you are a writer or somebody who loves reading about writers. Now, the second episode of the month featured another edition of From the Vault. It's a short essay from an Instagram series I wrote called Pop-up Writing. The pieces only lived for 24 hours on my Instagram story. It was sort of this fun and unbridled column that I did, and this one just deserved an official home. I think you might agree. It was called “Last Time, Don't Fuck It Up.” And so it's got a pretty aggressive title, but you will probably understand why pretty quickly if you go back and listen to the episode.
(06:42)
But just to give you a little bit of an idea of what the article is about, I pulled this quote and I'm going to read it to you right now. “That's the thing about the last time. You never know when the last time is, the last time, even crazier, sometimes the first time could be the last time. And it happens way more than you think every day, actually.” So if that sounds interesting to you or you'd like to place that quote in context, then definitely go back and listen to the episode. And of course, the last episode of June was our work of fiction for the month, and it was called The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. And it was the first time I ever featured a psychological thriller on the podcast, which was something that I wanted to do, mostly because of how popular the genre is in the modern sphere of literature.
(07:33)
I thought that it was appropriate to share at least one. And this was a great example. It's a novel about a sputtering mid-list novelist who embarks on this wild goose chase to discover the truth behind a plot that he stole from one of his deceased MFA students. He becomes super famous for this story and then receives an email from an anonymous source saying that they know he's a thief. And what's so fun about this book is it sort of doubles as a satire on writing and the publishing world, and I love anything that is satirical, so it won me over in that respect. And it's also super readable. It has that page-turning quality about it, something that you should expect from the psychological thriller genre as a whole really. And I get into a little bit of that both about the genre as well as the plot, of course, in the episode. So if you're interested, I would definitely go back and listen to that one.
(08:32)
All right, so that just about does it for the June 2023 recap. I did want to remind you that all of these episodes that I mentioned here today, as well as all of the past episodes, do have full transcripts available on the website BooksforMen.org. That is something that I did add and is maintainable, so you should expect them for the ongoing future. And also, I did want to remind you that I do have Books for Men bookmarks with the George R.R. Martin quote, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. A man who never reads lives only one.” And if you'd like one and you live inside the US, then just send me an email at dv (at) booksformen.org, and I will definitely drop one in the mail for you. I only have a limited supply, so just keep that in mind.
(09:21)
And of course, I've already reminded you about the importance of word of mouth at the top of this episode, so I won't do it again here. But I do want to quickly remind you that you could double down on that support by rating, reviewing, following, or subscribing on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on. Any or all of those things will help more people find the show in, in return, increase awareness around the initiative, which again is inspiring more men to read. Lastly, for more information, you could visit the aforementioned website BooksforMen.org, where you can also sign up for the newsletter, which is a roundup of every episode, including full author and book information, all the best quotes, as well as newsletter-only book recommendations. Again, if you're interested in signing up for that newsletter, you could do so at BooksforMen.org.
