The book is in the wild! We’ve found copies on bookstore shelves, had people spot them at swim meets, and have had a ton of fun tracking where people are finding and getting them.
After it was released, Shayla set up a beautiful little book launch party, where we got to share the moment with some friends, and eat some delicious cupcakes.
Marketing for the book has been wonderful. We’ve been doing podcasts, YouTube interviews, Zoom conversations, and even a (virtual) book events with Boswell Book Co., the independent bookstore I worked at while I was attending school in Milwaukee.
The best part of this has been to share philosophy with a broader audience. Of course, we knew this is what we were doing when we were writing the book (we “knew” it in some intellectual sense), but it’s so much different to actually have those conversations; to actually connect and see people thinking through these ideas, sometimes for the first time.
We’ve got more planned with the book. One horizon I’m especially looking forward to exploring is the possibility of building up some more secondary ed. curriculum around the book, and to making some of our teaching materials more accessible to those who might want to teach it in their college courses. So stay tuned for all that. In the meantime, I just wanted to share a few things that have come out of the book launch so far, and to express gratitude for all who helped us get to the point of publishing it.
-pb
Deep(ish) Thoughts
Here’s one interview I thought was particularly well done, and that’s generated some attention:
And if you want to know more about the book itself, here’s a quick explainer on the philosophical approach behind it:
(As always, if you like what you see here, feel free to subscribe to my channel here.)
Parting Recs
I used the Geuss book on the philosophy of work in my Working Life class this semester, and it was wonderful. I really recommend this little book, especially if you’re a philosopher thinking, “Huh, philosophy of work. That’s interesting…”
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman is the latest iteration in the (anti)productivity literature, and I enjoyed it. It’s like “Deep Work,” but if it were written by Alain de Botton…
The Right to Sex is Amia Srinivasan’s essay collection on feminism then and now. It’s okay.
God Human Animal Machine is a fun book of essays about the relationship between persons and technology. It feels very much like it was written by someone with an MFA.
Please send recs my way, or leave them as a comment below. I’m on a binge right now, reading almost exclusively books about work (and there’s lots of good ones coming out). I’ll probably do a whole post about that soon.
It’s here: