This Is The Moment I’ve Been Waiting For

I saw the mention of a Bookcast the other day, a podcast about books, and it got me thinking. I realized that between this, BookTok, and the rise of Goodreads influencers this is the moment I’ve been waiting for. I’ve trained all my life for books and reading to be cool again.

My journey to being a reader started long, long ago. It started with my mother reading to me, and not reading the standard fair of children’s books. There were those but she also read Mark Twain. Then I started reading the condensed classics and Reader’s Digest condensed books. Which eventually led to reading Stephen King, becoming an English major, and reading more and more and more as the years pass on.

I always say that any new innovation is a reinvention fitted for modern technology. BookTok, Bookcast, and the like are just that. It is a new version of book tv, Reader’s Digest, and book radio. It is all stuff that has been done before refitted for modern technology. Just like Amazon is a catalog store on the internet.

Here I am having read for most of my life, been an English major, and having some modicum of talent in both writing and speaking. I’ve also been told I can be moderately witty at times. I really should be trying to figure out how to monetize my brain without having to donate it to science.

I’ve thought about it. Two solutions come to mind. I don’t have the looks for BookTok so that’s out. Like too many podcasters I am a bald, angry white man so that is a possibility but perhaps the better path is writing longer and better review on Goodreads. The only problem is the ones I have seen that become influential are the negative reviews.

I don’t read books to nitpick them to death or to misunderstand basic storytelling techniques or to assume anything I don’t understand is a plot hole and not a thematic devise. In other words I’m too smart to be an influencer. I still think this is the best path forward. Any podcast would have to be recorded after the kids go to sleep and that could have disastrous consequences. Writing longer and better reviews of books I’m reading anyway feels natural. My problem is I give all books I finish five stars because I own a business and am locked into the mindset that all reviews are either one star or five star.

Or I could turn this blog into a book and reading blog, but isn’t it already. Maybe I was never meant to monetize my mind. Lord knows I’ve been haphazardly attempting to do so for the past decade and a half with little to no success.