A Note to the Wise Is Sufficient

Plus an Important Update about My Publishing Schedule Going Forward

Substack recently released a new feature called Notes. I’ll have more to say about that in a moment, but first I want to mention a change in the publishing schedule here at Miller’s Book Review 📚. Starting this week, I’ll be publishing my midweek essay on Thursdays and my reviews on Monday.

Update: I abandoned this schedule as well 🤪. Here’s the plan, going forward: I’ll have two posts a week, mostly one midweek and one on the weekend.

This Thursday’s Bookish Diversions will include several insights from and about the world of publishing—including a ranking of the seven biggest book publishers. Check back tomorrow for that. And since next Monday is the last Monday in the month, I’m planning to review Joseph Heller’s screwball Catch-22 as part of my classic novel goal for 2023; I finished reading it a week ago, and I’ve been noodling on just way to say about it ever since.

As for Notes, there’s always been a social component of Substack—comments, sharing, and the like. But Notes operate a bit like Twitter or Instagram. You can use the feature to post links, quotes, photos, and brief observations. Since Twitter and Facebook’s algorithms seem to discount posts with links these days, this provides another avenue for sharing short-form content and testing out ideas.

I’ve been playing around with Notes for a week or so now and enjoy the feature. I especially like how easy it is to share other Substacks I’m reading. When I see something on Substack and share it on Twitter, engagement is minimal. (And there was that ridiculous moment when Twitter basically banned all Substack content; thankfully, that’s changed.) But with Notes, I can “restack” any post to the Notes feed. I can also restack other Notes. So far my experience has been comparable to Twitter, though a bit better—and I say this as someone who’s been on Twitter since 2008.

Engagement still doesn’t blow me away, but that’s where you come in. Notes is new and needs people in the Substack universe like you to jump in. How? Just go to substack.com/notes or hit the Notes tab in the Substack app—it looks like this:

Subcribers to Miller’s Book Review 📚 will get my Notes in their feed. Please engage! You can like, comment, and restack any Note that catches your attention. Even better, you can also post your own Notes. Find a link, quote, meme, or observation you like? Awesome! Share it. Like everything else on Substack, the platform gets better the more you engage.

I’m hoping Notes becomes a place for conversations about bookish diversions and remarkable reading that continues beyond the reviews and essays I post here each week. One great thing about restacking newsletters and Notes—hint: just look for the twin-arrows icon and punch it—is that you can bring different voices across the Substack network into conversation with each other. I hope to see you there.

I don’t have much else to add here except an appropriate quote from Eugene Vodolazkin’s latest, A History of the Island, which I’ll be reviewing in May.

It is not for us to know the times or the seasons, it is for us only to take careful notes.

Eugene Vodolazkin, A History of the Island. Review forthcoming!

Thanks for reading! If you want get my Monday reviews and my Thursday essays, the best way is to subscribe—if you haven’t already. It’s free, and I’ll send you my top-fifteen quotes on books and reading.

And don’t forget to download the Substack app. It creates a one-stop experience for all Substack newsletters, Notes, and more. Great for reading what you already love, and finding new stuff to love as well.