A Smash Hit
Some of you (but not most of you) will remember when I spun off another Substack newsletter called “By the Books,” about a month shy of one year ago.
It was an experiment.
Insofar as the success of any experiment can be measured by the things you learn from it, “By the Books” was a smash hit.
The main thing I learned? One Substack is enough for me, thank you.
I started with hilarious optimism about how often I’d be able to publish new posts about works of great fiction. When I first came up with the format, I actually thought I could do one a day.
Then I thought well maybe just one every weekday.
Then I thought you know maybe three times a week is good.
Then I thought oh shoot it’s already next week? Once a week it is!
Anyway long story short, it’s been five months since my last post on “By the Books.”
And in that time, the audience for Dispatches has more than quadrupled. Which means most of you, reading this right now, had no idea I even did this other thing.
A real shame, if you ask me (we’ll pretend you asked me), because it was a great idea. Those were great posts — all 21 of them. So great that I’ve decided to republish all of them here, under a new section called…can you guess?
How to live “By the Books”
Here’s the pitch (copied straight out of the old About section):
At some point in the past few years, I realized that while I had picked up the habit of reading lots of nonfiction books about business, productivity, and personal development, the books that continued to have the most profound impact on me as a person, were works of fiction.
In particular, great literature.
“By the Books” is my distillation of the best life lessons from the best fictional stories.
I still love both classic and modern books of nonfiction, but I believe there is a growing cultural deficit of appreciation or even awareness of the best wisdom that humanity has passed down through generations in the form of fiction. People who learn from the classics will always be better equipped for life’s many challenges and opportunities than those who chase the latest trends in pop-psychology.
Every issue of “By the Books” will take less than three minutes to read, and feature one work of great literature, including:
A brief plot summary
A distillation of its core themes
At least one actionable insight that can improve your life
Health, wealth, and wisdom are products of the stories we tell ourselves. What better way to write a better story for yourself than to absorb the best that humanity has ever told?
21 Mondays
I’ve got 21 great posts, so for at least the next 21 weeks, I’m going to brush one off and republish it here in this new section.
Then, depending on your feedback (and whether I feel like it), I’ll keep going and publish more.
As a show of seriousness, and to secure a bit of accountability for this commitment, here’s a list of the first five titles:
Frankenstein - Becoming monstrous in isolation
Paradise Lost - Alchemizing shame into knowledge
Moby Dick - In trauma we trust
To Kill a Mockingbird - Confronting complexity
The Picture of Dorian Gray - For love of beauty
And don’t worry, even if you think all this is boring and dumb, there will be other, non-By the Books posts. Just not on Mondays :)
What Else?
By the Books posts are designed to be shareable, so I’ll be slapping a big Share button at the bottom of each one.
I’m also very interested in requests! What are your favorite classics? (What even is a classic?)
As always, thanks for reading. I’m excited to share this stuff with you. I think you’re really going to like it.
Three cheers for putting all your brilliant shit in one damn place! Excuse my language. 😊💜
It is “Flashback Friday” everywhere this morning it seems. Great to see you repost work you’re excited about and give your new audience like me a chance to read it.