One month ago I began an adventure. All my life I've loved books. I'm not even sure how many books are in my personal collection. I know I haven't even come close to reading them all. When people ask me how many I've read, I say "About a third." But I really have no idea.
I do know one thing. Reading has changed me in a fundamental way. At one point in my life, something like five minutes ago, I would have said that the changes were "metaphysical", but I've read too much neuroscience to say that it is metaphysical. Reading has created me in a physical way, carving out my neural pathways in a way that is unique. The authors who have influenced me have allowed my brain to run down their neural paths, so I'm part Aristophanes, part Chaucer, part Shakespeare, part Philip Roth, part Henry Miller, part Jack Kerouac, part Dostoyevsky, part Tolstoy, part Camus -- well, you get the idea. I would be remiss if I didn't mention my wife, JulieAnn, the author that I met because of her book and writing -- talk about positive and passionate changes in my neural pathways.
So as an attorney and lifelong bibliophile, I decided to do something. I decided to start a digital press. In a way it was my response to the problem I saw that was addressed in Book Glutton this morning. How do you write and read in the age of Facebook and Twitter? The interplay of ideas and thoughts are what make us and I wanted to pass out the building block of deep, rather than superficial ideas. My press is barely a month old and we will begin publishing within the week. (Website, a week or two away) I have the rights to publish over 40 books, all by authors who have been previously published.
I feel the weight of trying to wrestle even a small portion of the unruly stream of words into a channel that can be used to irrigate the thoughts, feelings and lives of potential readers.
I do know one thing. Reading has changed me in a fundamental way. At one point in my life, something like five minutes ago, I would have said that the changes were "metaphysical", but I've read too much neuroscience to say that it is metaphysical. Reading has created me in a physical way, carving out my neural pathways in a way that is unique. The authors who have influenced me have allowed my brain to run down their neural paths, so I'm part Aristophanes, part Chaucer, part Shakespeare, part Philip Roth, part Henry Miller, part Jack Kerouac, part Dostoyevsky, part Tolstoy, part Camus -- well, you get the idea. I would be remiss if I didn't mention my wife, JulieAnn, the author that I met because of her book and writing -- talk about positive and passionate changes in my neural pathways.
So as an attorney and lifelong bibliophile, I decided to do something. I decided to start a digital press. In a way it was my response to the problem I saw that was addressed in Book Glutton this morning. How do you write and read in the age of Facebook and Twitter? The interplay of ideas and thoughts are what make us and I wanted to pass out the building block of deep, rather than superficial ideas. My press is barely a month old and we will begin publishing within the week. (Website, a week or two away) I have the rights to publish over 40 books, all by authors who have been previously published.
I feel the weight of trying to wrestle even a small portion of the unruly stream of words into a channel that can be used to irrigate the thoughts, feelings and lives of potential readers.
1 comment:
Fantastic news, Kent. I'm excited to see your living, breathing, electronic adventure unfold. You are the perfect man for this.
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