good morning Hank it's Tuesday your book
debuted at number one on the New York
Times bestseller list huzzah
Hank this whole experience has been so
joyful it is so much better to have your
brother publish a book than to publish
one yourself
but maybe my favorite part has been
watching people read and discuss the
book together in the fans of an
absolutely remarkable thing discord
channel it's reminded me how fun it can
be to read a book with people like
reading is usually a solitary and
private experience but when you're done
with a book it can be so fulfilling to
talk about it with people slightly off
topic but when Sarah and I first met we
were discussing that and we decided to
start a two-person book club which we
did for like three months before we
started dating possibly history's most
egregious example of two people failing
to notice they were in love with each
other anyway lately I've been missing
not only the feeling of reading a book
with a lot of people but also the
experience of a slightly less open more
community-oriented Internet where we do
and make stuff together not to be overly
dramatic but lately a lot of my time
online feels like I'm you know shouting
my despair into an infinite void which
you know is nice in its way but not
necessarily what I want to do all the
time all of this is melded together into
an idea that rosianna halse rojas and i
have developed with our friends at
dftba.com called life's library the idea
is that every six weeks for one year a
group of people will read a book
together not a brand new book but one
that's at least a year old and then
together we will discuss it in a discord
channel which is like a chatroom except
better in every way the books will be
chosen alternately by Rosie Anna and I
and if you sign up for the physical
life's library you will get a copy of
the book mailed to you along with lots
of other stuff like a letter from me
book plates designed by artists we love
postcards other surprises you also get
digital stuff including a podcast
rosianna and I make about the book as
well as a discussion guide and there
will be q and a's with the authors
unless they are unavailable and/or dead
I guess everyone who's dead is
unavailable well maybe not maybe we can
do a seance Q&A with the dead authors I
don't know we'll figure it out together
alternately you can sign up for the
digital subscription in which you pick
up the book at your local library or
bookstore and then you get all the other
resources emailed to you and if you
can't afford either of those options you
can still get your book at a local
library and participate in the
discussion at the discord as for the
books they'll range from why novels to
mysteries to memoirs we want to read
broadly and celebrate lots of different
kinds of books the physical subscription
will be $25 per book which includes free
shipping both domestically and
internationally
the digital subscription will be $10 per
book in a related story shipping is
expensive and all the profits from
life's library will go to partners in
health and organization we've worked
with for over a decade that is dedicated
to providing healthcare access for the
poor our first book if we can pull this
off will be Jacqueline Woodson's if you
come softly which was published 20 years
ago but still feels blisteringly
contemporary Woodson is one of my
favorite writers and if you come softly
as one of my favorite books and I am so
excited about the thought of getting to
read it closely with lots of you so yeah
one more thing we'll only be able to do
this if enough people sign up so we
can't like promise that it's gonna
happen but if you're interested in
life's library please go to life's
library book club com to sign up to be
notified when the book club launches and
if enough people sign up in the next
week or two we will launch and your
copies of if you come softly will arrive
by Christmas which reminds me that
life's library would make a great gift
for your family and friends okay I think
that's it I hope you like the idea of
life's library I'll be in comments to
answer any of your questions lights
library book club comm is where you sign
up and Hank I will see you on Friday