Summer Read

Do you read or listen at the beach?

Surely I am more clever than writing about my summer beach reading during the summer right after I got back from the beach? It was probably the younger me who was more clever.

Well, I have a side trick here. 

My book, sunglasses, espresso, and OJ. Not my car.

Driving from Tennessee to South Florida I listened to a Bill Simmons Podcast episode. He had Chuck Klosterman on and they talked about Dame Lillard to Miami odds. They talked about bands. They talked about aging a bit but they got onto TV and documentaries and Bill asked something that pertains to books. 

“Do you think documentaries have replaced the beach read? Like, if you are going on vacation, and you normally would take some beach reads, now you use the time to catch up on documentaries or tv in general?” I’m paraphrasing as I remember it. 

What do you think out there in Substack land? 

I’d be curious to know what sort of sales figures  a beach read gets these days. What does this news do to print forecasting. I think there is something to what Bill is asking but I think it’s fair to say that TV is in flux. TV had a killer 2020-2022. No one could get enough TV. Mandalorian, Jordan documentary, all of it. Of course we all know why that was a unique time, as well, why it was doomed to fail is a whole other topic. I’ve got another podcast link for you on that, also Ringer network, Plain English podcast this week about the mess the TV/Streaming industry is in. It’s a lot of info but it’s a great run down on an industry flipped like a car by technology. 

Now, Disney is halting work on projects. Netflix is cutting shows.  Everyone making TV is planning to make less TV. In a few years we might not have as much content as we do now, at least not the way we are getting it now. Maybe AI and robots will churn out bespoke TV for us? Can I get 1 part Justified, 1 part Blade Runner, with Christopher Nolan treatments?

Now, if TV  comes to a halt in about 3-4 months and streaming after that, not sure what the timeline is, then -Will this end up making a boom time for books? Again, what do you think Substack land? 

What were my beach reads?

Libra-Don Delillo. This book made James Ellroy seem less like a complete magic trick. No knock on Ellroy, at all. It was kind of comforting to see that James didn’t completely invent a genre out of thin air. He certainly took it to the max and continues to. But now I need to find out what DeLillo read to get inspired to write Libra or now do I need to assume he invented a genre? The book is badass. It’s hep cat cool and leaves you burning and churning. 

Lament from Epirius- Christopher C. King. evoked the same feeling as the writings of the late Nick Toshces and Lawrence Osbourne. I feel like author Christopher King quoted my favorite phrase from Lawrence Osborne, “The suburb of the soul” referring to modern existence. Music used to be more than something for elevators and commercials. It used to be for funerals, calling animals, and communication. Visceral things. King tells the story of searching for vinyl on the eastern side of Istanbul where he discovers 78s that hold a music he’s never heard before. Soon he finds his way to the Greek region of Epirus and finds musicians who still play in the style from those 78s. One last thing, in a way it also reminded me of Bourdain but instead of food, well maybe booze in this case, it was 78’s. 

Alright book land, this was sort of a lazy post but the gist is this. Is the beach read gone? Let me know in the comments.