Thanks for including The Purse on this list! (Also, I can so relate to the image of getting off the school bus and knowing there's a fresh Sassy at home! It was the best feeling in the whole world!)
Love this post. So many things I also experience as a creator and receiver on here. I have the luxury of spending about an hour per night reading, and try and read at least 3 pieces in full on a good day. I love the niching, the mastery, the care and the community that exists on Substack. It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you for continued gift 🩷
Loved this post/ode, Claire! I do the exact same thing and I feel like I could write the same love letter to the medium. I think it is scratching the itch I've had since Google Reader closed up shop - that feeling of scrolling/flipping pages, encountering new ideas, keeping up with old friends, all at the same time. Thank you so much for mentioning Field Notes, too - that was quite a thrill as I was reading along, I'm grateful! xo
I'm tickled that you've found the NFG way of life to your liking ;-) I use Substack in a very similar way. I always feel a little bad about unsubscribing or canceling a paid subscription, but in the end my F*ck Budget can only accommodate so many minutes/hours of reading time, and that's even more valuable to me than the money. If I find myself skipping a publication 4-5 times in a row, that's a signal that I should probably just let it go. (As an obsessive declutterer, I treat my inbox like I treat my wardrobe and everything else; if it's not getting used regularly, it's out the door!) Usually, I continue to follow those writers on Notes so that I'll keep seeing them pop up, and maybe catch a new post that grabs my attention--maybe even re-subscribe. And FWIW, I've been a Culture Study subscriber since the very beginning, because I followed AHP on Twitter and just always really liked her reporting. So when she said she was launching a newsletter I signed up without even knowing what Substack was. Haven't regretted it!
Culture Study before a newsletter?! Mind-blowing. I keep your No book on the small bookshelf next to my work desk in my office pod (3,000 other books are in the house). A total game-changer. Your style + content are a magical unicorn combo. I haven't read your time management one though!!!
Love this post! So many good Substacks to enjoy — and thank you (a billion times) for shouting out Strong Sense of Place!
Your stories remind me of a period in our lives, circa 2011-ish. We were in our early 40s, and I'd just published my first cookbook and quit my full-time corporate job. Dave and I decided to 'say yes to things we would normally say no to.' Hilarity ensued.
First up: A trip to Costa Rica with a female friend we adored and her new husband we barely knew. It was her birthday, and the husband's gift to her was a rental house in Costa Rica to which she could invite anyone she wanted. We just had to pay for our flight. Even though we didn't have Costa Rica on our 'want to visit list' (I hate hot weather. We aren't really beach people.), we said yes.
We should have taken note when WE WERE THE ONLY FRIENDS TO SAY YES TO THAT. The trip was horrible — expensive, unfun, the place we were staying turned out to be not all it was cracked up to be and... Oh, yeah! The big news... the new husband? Turns out he was a raging narcissist (diagnosed!), unbeknownst to our friend. When his terrible symptoms starting showing themselves — I'll spare you the awful stories, but trust, our experiences that week ranged from mildly annoyed to concerned about our safety — our friend's MIL and FIL were, like, 'Oops! Sorry. We were hoping he'd changed.' Anyway, that trip, terrible as it was, cemented for us some core rules about how we like to travel, and we really pay attention to them now.
During that period we also experimented with different types of yoga (love love love Kundalini), started taking walks every day, tried a 'secular sabbath' once a week (we still kind of do that only with less rules), and modeled the behavior of people who travel a lot because we wanted to travel more, but I have weird feelings about whether or not I deserve (?!) to take so many trips — which, yeah, that needs some unpacking, right?
WE WERE THE ONLY ONES TO SAY YES TO THAT is perhaps the title of this book, which is like Shonda Rimes' but different, because mostly bad things happen.
HAAAAAAAAAAA
I'm here for the awful stories, for ever and always.
Thanks for including The Purse on this list! (Also, I can so relate to the image of getting off the school bus and knowing there's a fresh Sassy at home! It was the best feeling in the whole world!)
I LOVE The Purse! Keep rocking;)
Love this post. So many things I also experience as a creator and receiver on here. I have the luxury of spending about an hour per night reading, and try and read at least 3 pieces in full on a good day. I love the niching, the mastery, the care and the community that exists on Substack. It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you for continued gift 🩷
There is such *good* content here, and it's a treasure to spend the time to read it. ;)
!!! Well this is just the best of everything.
as are you!
Loved this post/ode, Claire! I do the exact same thing and I feel like I could write the same love letter to the medium. I think it is scratching the itch I've had since Google Reader closed up shop - that feeling of scrolling/flipping pages, encountering new ideas, keeping up with old friends, all at the same time. Thank you so much for mentioning Field Notes, too - that was quite a thrill as I was reading along, I'm grateful! xo
I LOVE Field Notes, and have since always. Also, was it YOU who introduced me to Louise Penny? I thought...during a re-read session today... ;)
I will happily take credit for introducing you to Three Pines and Inspector Gamache!
But this next one is taking so long …. more than the usual!
I'm tickled that you've found the NFG way of life to your liking ;-) I use Substack in a very similar way. I always feel a little bad about unsubscribing or canceling a paid subscription, but in the end my F*ck Budget can only accommodate so many minutes/hours of reading time, and that's even more valuable to me than the money. If I find myself skipping a publication 4-5 times in a row, that's a signal that I should probably just let it go. (As an obsessive declutterer, I treat my inbox like I treat my wardrobe and everything else; if it's not getting used regularly, it's out the door!) Usually, I continue to follow those writers on Notes so that I'll keep seeing them pop up, and maybe catch a new post that grabs my attention--maybe even re-subscribe. And FWIW, I've been a Culture Study subscriber since the very beginning, because I followed AHP on Twitter and just always really liked her reporting. So when she said she was launching a newsletter I signed up without even knowing what Substack was. Haven't regretted it!
Culture Study before a newsletter?! Mind-blowing. I keep your No book on the small bookshelf next to my work desk in my office pod (3,000 other books are in the house). A total game-changer. Your style + content are a magical unicorn combo. I haven't read your time management one though!!!
Love this post! So many good Substacks to enjoy — and thank you (a billion times) for shouting out Strong Sense of Place!
Your stories remind me of a period in our lives, circa 2011-ish. We were in our early 40s, and I'd just published my first cookbook and quit my full-time corporate job. Dave and I decided to 'say yes to things we would normally say no to.' Hilarity ensued.
First up: A trip to Costa Rica with a female friend we adored and her new husband we barely knew. It was her birthday, and the husband's gift to her was a rental house in Costa Rica to which she could invite anyone she wanted. We just had to pay for our flight. Even though we didn't have Costa Rica on our 'want to visit list' (I hate hot weather. We aren't really beach people.), we said yes.
We should have taken note when WE WERE THE ONLY FRIENDS TO SAY YES TO THAT. The trip was horrible — expensive, unfun, the place we were staying turned out to be not all it was cracked up to be and... Oh, yeah! The big news... the new husband? Turns out he was a raging narcissist (diagnosed!), unbeknownst to our friend. When his terrible symptoms starting showing themselves — I'll spare you the awful stories, but trust, our experiences that week ranged from mildly annoyed to concerned about our safety — our friend's MIL and FIL were, like, 'Oops! Sorry. We were hoping he'd changed.' Anyway, that trip, terrible as it was, cemented for us some core rules about how we like to travel, and we really pay attention to them now.
During that period we also experimented with different types of yoga (love love love Kundalini), started taking walks every day, tried a 'secular sabbath' once a week (we still kind of do that only with less rules), and modeled the behavior of people who travel a lot because we wanted to travel more, but I have weird feelings about whether or not I deserve (?!) to take so many trips — which, yeah, that needs some unpacking, right?
WE WERE THE ONLY ONES TO SAY YES TO THAT is perhaps the title of this book, which is like Shonda Rimes' but different, because mostly bad things happen.
HAAAAAAAAAAA
I'm here for the awful stories, for ever and always.
Heart;)