Jon Cousins

Who’d be bonkers enough to try reading 30 books in 30 days, all chosen for them by AI? Er, yours truly. Here’s more about it, and how you can help with some research to support this madcap enterprise.  joncousins.substack.com/p/30-books-in-…

More in this week's newsletter joncousins.substack.com/p/a-book-in-a-…

Ever experienced the amazing feeling of reading a whole book in a day? It's only ever happened for me on holiday. But I've been thinking about deliberately revisiting it, and it's also made me wonder about the opposite: books that deliberately limit you to chunks, often with cliffhanger endings.

A, B, C? joncousins.substack.com/p/a-little-hel…

You're in a bookstore, you pick up a book that seems intriguing. You flip it open to sample a little bit. How much would you need to read before you know whether it's for you or not? Take a look at an extract and let me know what you think, please.

Printed books are alive and kicking and in space joncousins.substack.com/p/5-4-3-2-1-bo…

In a world where you could read almost any book you want on a Kindle, it's comforting to know there are at least 100 physical books up there on the International Space Station. It costs an estimated $6,000 to get a single novel into space.

It's pretty likely you'll find something new to watch joncousins.substack.com/p/does-reading…

This week I built a little web app that shows your most compatible TV series, from Arrested Development to Westworld → 100 great British and American shows. Link below...

More, if you're intrigued: joncousins.substack.com/p/can-you-read…

I was in school last time I took a reading comprehension test. But last week I self-tested again. I’d been wondering how much correlation there might be between what you CAN read, and what you CHOOSE to read. There may be less than we think...

@kevin2kelly So true. I spent the whole of Year 2 of my four year degree course running my college's charity "Rag Week." A good pal shared carbon copy notes for all the missed classes, while I effectively learned how to start and run a business

College is not about grades. No one cares what grades you got in college. College is about exploring. Just try stuff. For more advice see my book Excellent Advice for Living amzn.to/3mQL4c4 #excellentadvice

The books were bound on their short edge with two columns of type on every page, and sized to fit in the pocket of a uniform. joncousins.substack.com/p/why-the-us-s…

In WWII the US Armed Services got magazine printers to produce millions of novels that were distributed to soldiers and sailors. There's a copy of one in the Stanford Library. I held it in my hands, so I've written about this brilliant initiative. See comments.

Chatted with librarians at San Mateo Public Library last week — they told me The Correspondent is their most-held title: 800 people waiting, and the county bought 147 copies! I haven’t read it yet, but wrote about it today: joncousins.substack.com/p/one-book-800…

Hey @KZSU - have you forgotten to remind people about your annual day of noise? Please don’t… it’s a remarkable 24 hours of radio that surely needs celebrating

Short stories on your phone... joncousins.substack.com/p/like-spotify…

25 years ago (before smartphones) I read a whole book on the tiny screen of a Palm PDA. Great to be able to read in small pockets of time during the day. Over two decades later, I'm trying something similar with short stories on my phone. I’ve written about it today.

So beat the blues with a good book! joncousins.substack.com/p/blue-monday-…

20 years ago the idea of Blue Monday, the saddest day of the year, was invented by PR people — to help a client sell more package holidays. But the idea lingers on, and this year BM is tomorrow, Jan 19. Even though it's pseudoscience, it still has legs because mid-Jan often feels drab...