Joseph F. Radosevich

Some of my kids and I are doing a challenge in the month of June to only read books that we are already own. The rules is that we have to read or reread books that are in our house or that are in my office--no buying of books or reading library books. I don't remember who came up with the idea, but something like it had been bouncing around in my head for the past several months.  We have the blessing of a good library near us that can do interlibrary loan, so we get just about any book that we need. We also budget money so that we can buy books each month. I often buy books for $4 to $6 off of eBay. I'm also given stacks of books as a pastor--from conferences or from other pastors that are clearing out their libraries.  This is a chance for us to just read and reread the things that we have. Since I may only read two or three books this month, I might extend the challenge a while longer. I'm reading Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose because the Lewis and Clark expedit...

I've noticed a trend that many writers are moving to newsletters away from blogs and magazine-style websites. I have several concerns about that and reasons that I still write for my blog instead of writing a newsletter. One of the downsides to newsletters is that it means it is harder to find good things to read on the internet--especially free writing. Everything is sliced up and behind many different paywalls and subscription funnels. Blogs were free and RSS readers gathered them together easily. Even though you might have to buy or subscribe to a newspaper or a magazine in the past, you got a lot of different writers in one place for a very cheap price. Even mid-sized newspapers and magazines had several good writers. Now, good writing (and editing) is more fragmented than ever. I also have concerns about how newsletters turn readers into a commodity. It eliminates the relationship that a writer and a reader can have. I wonder if it affects your writing for you to be getting yo...