I Just Signed My First Book Deal. Thanks Substack!

Journal Like a Philosopher is coming!

I just signed my first book deal!

This is really cool. The book is tentatively called Journal Like a Philosopher: How to Use a Simple Notebook to Live an Examined and Good Life but that subtitle’s probably going to change. Anyways, Journal Like a Philosopher is coming!!

Here’s a characterization of the project from my book pitch:

The book seeks to mend the rift between philosophy and the people by plundering the very best of the philosophical academy past and present and teaching it in a deep but accessible way to those who should have had access to it all along. In Journal Like a Philosopher I examine 20+ modes of philosophy, I give some historical background for each mode with examples from philosophers who used those modes throughout history, and then I teach the reader practical habits for applying these modes to their own lives today, using something as simple as a notebook.

By engaging deeply with the great philosophers of yesterday and today, the reader will be equipped to start their own philosophical journaling habits and become well-reasoned, self-examined, philosophers in their own right, ready to tread the path of the good life.

I’ve been working out the ideas in my book here on Substack in various posts, as well as over on my ParkNotes YouTube channel for a while now. But now I get to take even deeper dive into some of my favorite books, and I get to finally read many of the books that have been on my list but which I could never make time for before. Now they’re literal research for my job! So, it will be cool to produce something for my audience(s) but it will also be really cool to grow as a thinker, researcher, and writer during this process. Writing philosophy that other philosophers don’t sneer at and that is actually readable to now philosophers is stupid tricky, but I’m going to give it my best. I’ve been practicing here on Substack and I think I’m close to getting the hang of it.

This is a book for the people though, not necessarily for the academy. But I do hope to write in a way that does justice to the philosophy under consideration and that will introduce philosophers and theologians to thinkers they have not been familiar with, like Georg Lichtenberg. I also hope to introduce my academic friends to unfamiliar ideas from well-known thinkers like Augustine and his invention of the philosophical soliloquy. On top of that, I know my academic friends will benefit from at least one of the notebook habits I’ll introduce.

For the lay thinker-folks, this book is your book. Notebooks, philosophy, a tiny bit of theology, new ideas, new habits—let’s go! I’m bringing you up to the top shelf cookies. You’re going to love it. It’s basically “ParkNotes the Book” but beefed up much more with way more research, attention to detail, and turn-of-phrase. Hopefully they let me do footnotes but if not, then you’ll have a butt-ton of end notes to help with your own further study.

So, thank you for watching my ParkNotes videos and for reading my Parker’s Ponderings pieces and especially thanks to everyone who comments and gives me feedback on my stuff. It’s been immensely beneficial—genuinely!

I’m going to continue to be working out my ideas here on Substack in paid and free posts, so stay tuned. Anything that is related to the book but doesn’t fit will probably go in paid posts here on Ponderings. So, another big THANK YOU to the paid subscribers for helping support my research on my way to producing Journal Like a Philosopher.

Let’s get to work!