Happy Birthday, Podcast
If I had been paying attention, and possibly not going senile, I might have noticed that Have You Read This? turned one year old recently.
A good friend recently sent me a text congratulating me on one year of podcasting.
Caught off guard, I doubted his ability to count and was certain my meager 26 episodes did not represent a full year's worth of work. As is normally the case regarding my memory, I was wrong. On September 22nd, 2023, I decided to join the other 958 billion people who spew thoughts into a microphone and started this podcast. My love for reading was not a lifelong affair. The real flame was sparked in 2018 after I stumbled across a blog by Jon Acuff and thought I would give it a shot. My wife and I had a chance encounter with Jon, at Dollywood of all places, and found him one of the coolest people we have met.
Anyway.
I always wanted to be a reader. Though I could not tell you what she read, I have many memories of my mother reading. I wanted the same. Thankfully, Jon's words stuck and through the ups and downs over the years, I have managed to continue reading, turning it from a task to something I enjoy.
So few around me have the same reading preferences as I do. I once even questioned why my wife follows me on Goodreads given the disparity between our tastes of novels. A microphone will always agree with you and listen, even if your audience tunes out after 5 minutes. The process of creating a podcast was not extremely difficult for me. By that, I am referring primarily to the technical side of things. Having spent countless hours using the Adobe Creative Suite over the years, my instinct told me that editing audio would be vastly less time-intensive than editing video. My instincts served me well and I have managed to record and edit my voice, a grueling task in and of itself, to produce 26 episodes. Since birth, my voice has now reached nearly 40 countries. I imagine those at the bottom of the analytics list accidentally tuned into my show long enough to register the listen and high-tailed it out of there to a podcast more interesting or relevant or both.
The podcast now boasts a small, but mighty audience who thankfully enjoys reading enough to tune in and listen to some middle-aged fart ramble about his favorite novels. If you are picturing Clint Eastwood's expression in Gran Torino, you'd be at least 80% accurate. Despite a terminal case of sarcasm, I am grateful for anyone willing to subject their earholes to 15-20 minutes of my voice. Thank you.
This is normally where one might mention goals, future merchandise, big brand deals, exciting plans for what is to come. With one year under my belt, I do have plans to make the podcast more fun and more interesting, tapping into the occassional co-host or author interview. But I am tired and need a nap and people pay attention to long articles as much as they do Kathy Griffin's career.
Happy birthday to me!
Top 10 Episodes as of October 15, 2024
Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry [Episode 14]
Let's Talk Splatterpunk [Episode 13]
If He Had Been With Me [Episode 11]
Blindness by Joe Saramago [Episode 9]
The Painted Bird [Episode 3]
David Joy Should Be Your New Favorite Author [Episode 17]
Introductions [Episode 1]
The Darkest Book I Have Read to Date [Episode 12]
Beginnings from the Roof of the World
Tampa by Alissa Nutting: Why You Shouldn't DNF This [Episode 18]