Isak's Blog

Happy Friday,

Cue the music, brew that pot. I’ve been listening to Charli xcx all week and soaking up the dog days of summer before it’s pants season.

Here are 10 interesting things worth sharing this week:

1. A few years ago I watched “Adaptation” and became really interested in how Hollywood and writers can use “The Hero’s Journey” to structure stories, which led me to read Vogler’s “The Writer’s Journey” and Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” So I really enjoyed this 90-minute interview with Steven Pressfield on “How I Write”, who talks a lot about structure, Hollywood, writing good stories, and why we like The Hero’s Journey so much.
2. I’m still listening to nothing but “No One Lasts Forever.” Voice samples in music are nothing new, but it is interesting how the speech-to-song illusion can make certain statements feel so musical.
3. I wrote about my love for vintage mass market paperbacks — those gorgeous, portable books I recall from 60s and 70s lit classics and 80s horror — and why I think they’re the best book format.
4. This Tuesday was August 4, 2026 — the day of Ray Bradbury’s 1950 short story “There Will Come Soft Rains,” which makes it as good a time to read it as any.
5. I have a few meals I’ve made several times a week for years (popcorn, bean bowls) — and beans are a hot food item this year — so I’m thinking about that time Beau Miles ate nothing but canned beans for 40 days then ran 50 kilometers. (If I did this I would consider coffee a form of bean and have a better adjustment.)
6. Every couple years a local news station will talk about why people still like typewriters, and I’ll watch them every time. This one’s about Gramercy in New York City, the same store Ruth Ozeki got hers.
7. “I can’t dance, I’ve got two left feet!” “I thought he was kidding.” “But I wasn’t, I was born with two left feet.” “Best In Show” is a really funny movie, and after talking with a few people older than me, a once-popular movie that’s not talked about much anymore!
8. Sorry, this newsletter is becoming a place I share everything I see about typewriters, but Andrew Loura’s restoration of his family’s 1919 Underwood was very satisfying.
9. I finished Stephen King’s “Duma Key” about a painter grieving a life-altering event who moves to a vacation community and slowly uncovers its dark past as it impacts their creative process. Which is exactly the same premise as “Bag of Bones,” which I read earlier this summer. I love when writers return to the same well to explore the same idea in new ways.
10. I relate to a lot in this video essay about ordinariness feeling boring, being stuck in the past or future, and overthinking instead of experiencing your life.

See you on down the dusty trail,

Happy Friday,

Cue the music, brew that pot. It’s been a long, hot week and I could use a lake.

Here are 10 interesting things worth sharing this week:

1. This New Yorker owns so many books in his studio apartment, his landlord is trying to evict him. (Goals?)
2. “I always loved this slogan used by the New York State Lotto: ‘Hey, you never know.’ As someone who’s taught writing for many years, I don’t know a better mantra for anyone involved in the arts.” This George Saunders article has so many good nuggets in it. Another: “Someone might have to live a long time before the thing they were born to say becomes fully formed and accessible to them.”
3. You can now browse every Criterion Closet pick in a virtual closet on this cool web app.
4. Today is the last day to bid on the American Library Association’s iconic READ posters of celebrities holding their favorite books. (Of course Nicolas Cage’s is Siddhartha.)
5. I like when people a) make arbitrary stupid goals, and 2) use them as an interesting hook for doing something, so I’m still thinking about how Beau Miles ran a marathon from home by running one mile around his house every hour for 24 hours straight and fitting in as many chores as possible in-between.
6. I wrote about Henry David Thoreau’s Type II Fun trip camping in the woods, foraging for food, and using some old lumber as a sleeping bag to stay warm at night, which reminds me of this old Dirtbag Diaries podcast episode about the three types of outdoor fun.
7. How I work isn’t all that different from a Large Language Model: I read a bunch, let the ideas simmer, and then draw on them all — consciously or not — to write. The problem is that now a bunch of stuff I read is AI-generated whether I know it or not, which is affecting the whole process like a genetic mutation.
8. I’ve been missing the fried bologna sandwiches and classic country bands of Robert’s in Nashville from this time of year last year, so I’ve been listening to this Vintage Country playlist on Spotify a bunch this week.
9. My Stephen King kick continues with “Different Seasons,” a collection of novellas including “The Body” — which is probably better known for its adaptation into the movie “Stand By Me.” I loved this movie when I was younger: a group of boys hiking, telling stories, getting into mischief and adventure — and I’m delighted how well it was adapted and sad it was banned in Utah schools this week. (I guess they also banned “Bag of Bones” which I also just finished?)
10. I like this idea of using a typewriter to write a cover of an essay/book you like, like a shorter version you make for yourself.

See you on down the dusty trail,