Long time reader Holly Mthethwa writes:<\/p>\n
This summer, I read Bandersnatch on your recommendation and it became one of my all time favorite books. I loved everything from the thorough insight to the practical structure.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Soooo many revelations and kicks in the tush. A few months ago, I finally started a weekly (don’t screech it\u2019s not daily) email newsletter to women and am working faster on my yeaaaars-in-the making book, realizing \u201cOh my gosh, I\u2019m slow and sidetracked on hobbit talk like Tolkien.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Fast forward a bit, and a group of about 6 of us women between Virginia, Kansas, and Washington state decided to gift the book to a friend. We each took turns reading it, writing our notes in it, and passing it along until we gifted it to her.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Rather than \u201cThe Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,\u201d it became the sisterhood of the traveling book.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve ever wondered how influential your book recommendations are\u2014well, you might just have a Ben\u2019s Book Club in the making.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Thanks for always giving great recs.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Holly ain\u2019t the only one over the years to request a Ben Settle book club.<\/p>\n
And while I do talk about certain books in these emails and in the paid Email Players newsletter and in my free Settleheads Facebook group at times, the reality is, most of the books I currently read would be of zero interest to the rank & file in my Horde.<\/p>\n
Take, for example, these books from the past year or so:<\/p>\n
* \u201cSargon The Magnificent\u201d – about Cain (from the Bible) and his wanderings that fills in some \u201cgaps\u201d – Biblical, archeological, historical, cultural, etc. \u201cPolitically incorrect” doesn\u2019t even begin to describe it.<\/p>\n
* \u201cTracing Our Ancestors\u201d which\u2019d definitely be banned by ICE protesting librarians.<\/p>\n
* \u201cThe Abrahamic Covenant\u201d – which I’ve seen some Christians with foreign flags in their bios call abhorrent, but they never call it incorrect.<\/p>\n
* And the Bible itself – which I read cover-to-cover 3-4 times per year, and often a different version each time<\/p>\n
So as you can see:<\/p>\n
A Ben Settle book club wouldn\u2019t be of much interest to most on this list.<\/p>\n
Nobody opted-in to hear about those topics, after all.<\/p>\n
I do still sometimes dip back into business\/marketing\/copywriting books like Eugene Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising, or Ken McCarthy\u2019s System Club Letters, or Joe Vitale\u2019s 7 Lost Secrets of Success (original version from 1990 only), or a Joe Girard book, and a few others I revisit, but rarely any new ones.<\/p>\n
If I did have a \u201cbook club\u201d though?<\/p>\n
I\u2019d shamelessly & egotistically make it for my Enoch Wars novels.<\/p>\n
They ain\u2019t exactly Tolkien-level writing or even Stephen King-level writing. But I daresay they\u2019re fast paced, entertaining, and born from my childhood love of 80\u2019s action movies, esoteric Biblical interests, and years of mindlessly playing Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs as a teenager.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve also been gaining a small, but rabid, fanbase, over the years.<\/p>\n
And it’s big enough where they inspire me to keep spreading the word.<\/p>\n
So that’s that.<\/p>\n
As for business?<\/p>\n
You can learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter here:<\/p>\n