Recommending Print Media

Books of mine and others to read.

Hello openers of emails. I am here to implore you to put your device away, smash it with a mallet and read a book.

I don’t know why you subscribed to this newsletter, which I sometimes use as a platform to rant about music or writing or podcasts without the editing that I desperately need.

A strange thing happened in the past couple months.

I gave up on my New Year’s Resolution of listening to a new artist I’d never heard before every day, which was a primary motivation behind sending these email updates, even though I worried I was just annoying everyone. I also lost almost all of my ambition to write about music on the internet. I’m either getting too old and cranky about AI etc. or pretentious in my newfound embrace of print media. I think I like writing best when it takes a long ass time, and I edit it obsessively, but after years it comes out in tangible form.

Print media is slow. The gratification, if any, is far from instant. The feeling of holding a physical item that contains your words is indescribable. Most writers dream of it. It’s not easy and when it happens it doesn’t change much. I was lucky enough to stumble into an opportunity to publish a book on Madvillainy for Bloomsbury’s 33 ⅓ series, and lucky to do so again on Midwest Emo for their Genre series, but I still often get bummed about my short stories and novel manuscripts experiencing continuous rejection. The publishing industry remains an uncrackable code, but there seems to be a re-swelling current of enterprising individuals taking it upon themselves to ensure the tangible written word lives on regardless of corporate gatekeeping power structures. Zines are back, they say. I feel like people crave physicality despite our continuous descent into cyborgness, and I want to be a part of that movement as much as possible.

Recently, my work was published in three purchasable books. Another piece was accepted for forthcoming publication in the hard-copy edition of World Literature Today. Although I don’t have many followers and am not regularly experiencing the blog era rush of strangers responding right away to something I wrote, I am essentially living my ‘90s dream of what I imagined “being a writer” looked like. I don’t want to brag but I guess I am a little bit. But it also seems possible for anyone to just do this — break out of the self-publishing stigma, and get stuff out there before everyone disappears from earth with masterpieces eternally loitering in inaccessible google drives.

Here are the books in which you can read my work, as well as the work of other writers more talented than me.

Lyrics As Poetry Vol. 5 — “No Future Part Three: Escape from No Future”

The editors of this journal asked me to write about lyrics that resonated with me. I wrote about Titus Andronicus’s “No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future,” from their 2010 undisputed classic album The Monitor. This was around two years ago. Patrick Stickles’ lyrics hit me in a new way because—like him when he wrote it, but different—I was facing the lingering uncertainty of certain change. I finished writing the piece, addressed to my future child, in the hospital room waiting for him to be born. It’s probably too personal and sappy, but writing it was as cathartic as belting out the repeated “You’ll always be a loser!” refrain with dozens of other weirdos in the pit of one of several Titus Andronicus shows I attended over the years. It’s not worth buying for my piece alone, so luckily Lyrics As Poetry is a tremendous undertaking of awesome published lyrics and essays about them. I was honored to be included.

Barrelhouse Print Issue #25 - “Alex Trebek’s Estate Sale”

In 2021-ish, I attended Alex Trebek’s Estate Sale. His family was selling all his junk at his mansion in Studio City. When I got home, I started writing about the experience. It led me to ruminate about my relationship with my mother, who I used to watch Jeopardy! with, and how that relationship had changed since she lived thousands of miles away and both of us were only getting older and closer to our own estate sales being held for us. I worked on the essay for two years, submitting it to various outlets and getting rejected occasionally. I eventually came to the conclusion that the essay didn’t need to be published anywhere. I wrote it more for myself than anything.

When I saw Barrelhouse, one of the lone literary journals I actually enjoy reading, was accepting submissions, I sent the essay. I was surprised to learn they accepted it. I thought maybe it was too personal, but I guess they enjoyed the mix of pop culture criticism and existential dread.

I was worried about my family reading this because I talk about them in the essay, but I posted a snippet on Instagram and my sister immediately texted the group chat asking where she could read the rest. My brother informed she had to buy it and save print media. After my wife read the story and told my family it was the best thing I ever wrote, I finally got the courage to give my mom a copy. When I arrived at her house that weekend, there was already a stack of about 15 copies of the journal on the kitchen table. She eventually read it and enjoyed it, as did far too many family members for me to not feel anxious about revealing so much of my vulnerable emotions. Oh well. I stand by the piece and am glad that it will exist on for a while in print form. Check it out if you get the chance. Save print media, etc.

Pink Warm Belly of a Dying Sun

ain’t about me, an artist who I’ve interviewed for this newsletter before, put out another great spoken word project with Prairie called Pink Warm Belly of a Dying Sun. He asked me to contribute a piece of writing to a book he published in conjunction with the album. It’s part interview with the artist, part rumination on stream-of-consciousness, doomscrolling, and the apocalypse. I’m glad to have contributed alongside other artists. I’m grateful for people like ain’t about me, who put out art like this into the world, to exist against all odds. I hope to someday catch one of his art installations in Berlin.

AND BELOW

are a few of the other books recently published by people I know or kinda know. I have either read them in full or partially but I can still wholeheartedly recommend them. It’s so cool to have connected with other writers over the years and see their work eventually released in this format. Writing is a solitary, isolating act so it’s best to celebrate the semi-communal victory of another’s success.

Independent As F***: Underground Hip-Hop from 1995-2005 by Ben Pedroche.

I’m about one-third into this well-researched documentation of a specific decade of underground hip-hop. I was reading it on a low-res PDF sent to me by the author, which was not ideal, but I just ordered a physical copy of the book. I’m looking forward to finishing it. I also may publish an interview or something with Pedroche in this newsletter someday.

If you subscribe to this newsletter because you read my Madvillainy book, you will want to read this one. We usually don’t think about decades starting in the middle. I was surprised that Pedroche chose such a narrow focus, but the timeline he chose is abundant with creatively-defiant musical masterpieces. This book is a meticulous source of crucial information. I wish it was out before I wrote about Madvillainy. It is inspiring to read about what was happening in the underground during the long leadup to that album. The ‘90s truly were a fruitful time for independent record labels or artists who wanted to operate outside of the traditional industry system. And the major label system was also going wild at the time. There’s a lot of nostalgia about the ‘90s right now because everything happens in cycles, but damn it was objectively a pretty good time for music.

Waiting for Britney Spears by Jeff Weiss

If you’re reading this newsletter because you found my writing through Passion of the Weiss, you will like this book. Jeff has been one of my favorite writers since high school, the kind that occasionally pisses me off because I can’t translate the world into prose the way he does. He’s also been a supportive mentor for myself and many others over the years. I didn’t doubt I’d enjoy whatever book he ended up publishing, but I was not sold on the topic of Britney Spears. A few pages in, I was hooked. It was way more of a page turner than I expected. It also does a good job of jumping through long lengths of time from paragraph to paragraph which is something I want to be better at in my own writing. This book hits on the exact themes that have been interesting to me about literature lately -- what is the truth, where do the lines between fiction and non-fiction exist in a “post-truth” society, how can you write factually about pop culture phenomena without being boring, etc. It also got me listening to Blackout in a new way. GIMME GIMME MORRRRE.

Stamford Hospital by Thammika Songkaeo

I’ve been aware of this book for years now, witnessing glimpses of its brilliance in writing workshops I took with Thammika. I was super excited when I heard that it would be published via Penguin Random House. I’m only thirty or so pages in, because I’m reading it concurrently with a million other books and also just started playing Cyberpunk 2077, but I’m blown away so far. The book is about a woman whose husband experiences new medication-induced asexuality soon after relocating to Singapore while raising their young child. The protagonist drops off the kid at a hospital despite her not needing that level of medical attention, so she can have some time to herself and ruminate on it all. From everything I’ve read already, this book is an unflinchingly honest portrayal of motherhood and marriage. Thammika is another writer that occasionally pisses me off because she’s so good, but I love it.

Blob by Maggie Su

I was excited to find out that Maggie Su, who grew up around the corner from me, published a really great book about a blob that turns into a human. I doubt she remembers who I am, but Maggie’s older brother used to pick me up and drive me to school and soccer practice in high school. I didn’t even know she was a writer but it is really exciting whenever anyone from my hometown does something like publish a book. The book is also set in a fictional college town that has characteristics similar to Champaign, which if you know me you know I enjoy to an annoying degree. Check this one out.

I also wanna recommend Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur by Dean Van Nguyen. I know Dean through writing for Passion of the Weiss and have always enjoyed his perspective. He interviewed me about my Madvillainy book at an event in Dublin, where he told me about this book. I haven’t read it yet, but I ordered it and am looking forward to it. I like the focus on politics as related to Tupac. Penguin Random House has good taste!

I also want to give an honorable mention shoutout to Richard Bachman, Stephen King’s alter-ego. I read his books The Running Man and The Long Walk (both on Kindle, so not as print media) and they blew my mind. I think I even liked the Arnold Schwarzenegger adaptation of The Running Man—entirely unfaithful to the source material—more. AND GUESS WHAT? The Long Walk might be the best book I’ve ever read. It made me feel guilty for favoring “literary fiction,” and denying for so long that King might truly be the GOAT. Go read The Long Walk though, seriously.

I still have vague desires of sending sporadic Midwest Emo writing updates here or starting a new print literary journal called “The Fictional Review,” but I’m not gonna make any promises. In the meantime you’ve got a lot of reading assignments, so get it on it please.

Thank you,

Will