The Sunday Shelf: *Finally* My 2024 Reading Wrap
A new issue series + everything I read in 2024 + thoughts on my 2024 reading + my Top Ten Favorite Books!
Hi Book Franz,
The day that TikTok was scheduled to be banned, I deleted the app from my phone, knowing that I didn’t want to hold on to an app I couldn’t use. I had made (for the most part) peace with the fact that I was going to lose the ability to connect further with the folks who followed me there. Well, the app went down as anticipated, but what I didn’t anticipate was how quickly it would relaunched. And that its relaunch would come with a very strangely worded message directed to folks living in the United States.
The message boldly extended gratitude to someone I will be referring to as The Big Cheeto (for safety purposes) for its return. Days later, the news would hit that Meta would be eliminating third-party fact-checking, and their CEO proudly shared on a podcast interview that he felt workplaces needed more ‘masculine energy’. Then there was the photograph that circulated showing tech moguls front and center at The Big Cheeto’s inauguration.
All of this has made me question my presence on these social media platforms. I go back and forth daily about continuing. I could get into the layers — the pros and cons — but that would be an entire newsletter issue in itself. I bring all this up to say that part of what I think might help ease my anxiety is to figure out how to connect with folks outside of those platforms. How do I connect more directly? I recognize that no place online is safe from tech moguls banking on collecting our data to turn a quick few bucks on us but is there a way to slowly divest?
I’ve had this Substack since 2021. I started it with so many hopes to connect further and more directly with folks, but social media apps have always distracted me. My hope with this new series, THE SUNDAY SHELF, is to find a way for me to pull back from the apps and plug in more here. That’s the “why” of this new series, so now let’s get started………