Out on the road again

10 things worth sharing this week

Hey y’all,

I’m writing to you from the Nashville airport. Huge thanks to the kind folks who packed BookPeople and Parnassus. I had a blast. Both stores have signed copies you can order online, as does The Painted Porch. This weekend I’m in Ohio to visit family and friends before our event in Cleveland on Monday.

Here are my 10 things worth sharing this week:

1. In case you somehow missed me shouting about it: My new book Don’t Call It Art is out in the world! Here’s a peek inside. The response has been amazing so far. Really exciting. People get this book. (And kids get it too, it turns out? More on that later.) Also: the magenta cover looks rad in person. If you haven’t got a copy yet, I think you’ll really love it. (If you do love it, a 5-star review on Amazon or Goodreads goes a long way!)
   
   

2. “If you feel like your notebooks could use a jolt of creative energy, look no further than this guest post. I dare you to read about Austin’s notebooks and not come away with an idea to steal...” I wrote about my 4 notebooks for Jillian Hess’s excellent Noted newsletter. (Happy birthday, Jillian!)

   

3. I was delighted to answer The Reading Life questionnaire about what I read, how I read, and why I’d rather talk about books than recommend them.
   
   

4. I was on a ton of podcasts this week! Really fun conversations. If you’re interested in parenting, check out Slate’s Care and Feeding and 1000 Hours Outside. If you’re more interested in creativity and business, check out Proof To Product and Learning Leader. If you’d like to hear me talking to an old pal who knows how to pull good stuff out of me, check out Chase Jarvis.
   
   

5. Cinema Sugar asked me to recommend four movies that pair well with Don’t Call It Art.
   
   

6. I usually hate writing blurbs, but this one was fun: “Ten years ago, I was watching a 1996 episode of Reading Rainbow with my son when I found myself captivated by the intensity of a bespectacled 8-year-old violin prodigy. I desperately wanted to know what became of this kid—did he conquer the world or have a complete breakdown? The kid was Vijay Gupta, and Restrung is his story: a memoir about classical music, family, and surviving what we call ‘The American Dream.’”
   
   

7. TV: Widow’s Bay is a “menacing and hilarious mash-up.”
   
   

8. I loved Rachel McAdams in Sam Raimi’s horror/survival movie Send Help.
   
   

9. “I like to become emotionally involved in a movie: I want to be scared, I want to cry.” RIP film editor Marcia Lucas. (Mark Hamill famously said she was the “warmth and heart” of Star Wars.)
   
   

10. “What we wanted to say is, if these people scare you, look closer: They have parents, they have lovers, they have hope, they have stories.” RIP cartoonist Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis.
    
    

Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled, AI-free, anti-algorithm publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. The best way you can support my work right now is to buy the new book!

xoxo,

Austin