Hey, it’s Luke from Unwritten Tomes.

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Today’s topic: How books can become your strongest tool for building up focus (and why you should care).

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

The video I’m talking about today

Books as a way towards a one-pointed mind

Based on a Buddhist philosophy of focus

***

There’s a lot of discourse around the topic of people losing the ability to focus and the severe drop in reading for pleasure.

In my last two videos I’ve talked both about the difficulty of fitting books into a busy schedule and problems with focus that happen during reading (especially in the boring parts of the story).

But I think both can be distilled into the same problem and both can benefit from the same answer.

The problem is our scattered mind that is constantly jumping from one thought to another and our inability to force it into a one-pointed state.

These concepts of one-pointed and scattered minds originally come from Buddhist philosophy. Though it’s important to mention that they recognize more than just these two distinctions. If you’d like to explore the topic yourself you can read about it here.

To summarize the main takeaway: a one-pointed mind is a focused mind – free from worries and distractions. While a scattered mind is a mind that jumps from one thought to another like a monkey, resulting in anxieties and distractions.

As you might guess reaching a one-pointed mind is something to strive for. But how do we do that?

Here’s where we get back to the topic of books. Books naturally train your focus – the format itself requires your full focus on every sentence. Otherwise you’ll end up having to re-read a page because instead of focusing on the action you were thinking about your shopping list.

Obviously it’s far from the only way to train your focus (meditation also immediately comes to mind and is definitely recommended). But books seem like one of the most approachable and practical options, considering that many of us aspire to read more either way.

But hold on… What book will train my focus the most?

Whatever you’re drawn to will do. The time to read boring classics (and question your choices) will come, there’s no need to force it.

Personally I’ve been reading YA fiction most of my life, and only recently (after building up a strong habit of reading books) have I tried reaching for some classics.

And even now they can be quite a challenge.

If you’re interested in my approach towards reading – I’m currently in the stage of trying out all kinds of works of fiction and philosophy (I just ordered The King In Yellow, The Alchemist, and my friend gifted me Zen on The Trail).

I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

***

Thanks for reading,

~ Łukasz Skoneczny, Unwritten Tomes

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Today’s topic: book ratings – and why we should be careful how we interpret them.

Based on my experience of spending too much time with goodreads reviews on one evening.

Watch the video here

Book ratings warp your perspective

You should trust your own opinion ↓

***

Have you ever loved a book and looked it up online only to find out that it has an average rating of 3.4 stars?

In this week’s video I talked about how ratings aren’t a good metric for finding out whether you’ll enjoy the book.

Whether that’s because reviews can be really divisive – people’s opinions are all over the place – or because the very fact of looking at the rating is going to influence your experience of the book. After all we’re naturally looking to fit in.

But I would argue that the best books can be the ones that you either love or hate. Simply because they tend to make a strong point or more brave decisions that not everyone will enjoy.

If you want to listen to my thoughts about the topic – watch the video.

But there’s one point I didn’t mention there, due to the fact I only heard about it today.

The 3.5 star theory. An approach to choosing new books which argues that the best books are not the 4+ rated ones but instead the ones you find in the 3.5–4 star range.

Why would that be the case?

Well the books with high ratings are often very famous and widespread bestsellers, but that is often tied to “mass appeal”. Now this doesn’t mean those titles are bad – not by any means – but they’re rarely titles that introduce new risky concepts or nuanced deeper stories.

But what I really appreciate about the 3.5 star theory is that it takes away the pressure of picking the right book (at least for me). It assures me that there is nothing wrong in loving a 3 star book. Or hating a 4.5 bestseller. Just because your taste doesn’t always follow the popular opinion, doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it.

Quite the opposite, if you have no niche or opposing opinions then that’s a sign you might be too agreeable.

Either way, choose your next book in accordance with your own curiosity, not what the ratings told you to enjoy.

See you next week,

~ Łukasz Skoneczny, Unwritten Tomes

Hey, it’s Luke from Unwritten Tomes.

Last week I’ve been talking about launching a “Chill Reviews” series.

In a 2am recording session it turned out to not be as simple as I thought it would be...

(this post was imported from my previous newsletter host and as a result might look different)

Watch on YouTube

Chill Reviews

My experience of launching a new series ↓

***

Talking about a book series on a channel related to books and stories?

Seems obvious.

But what do you ACTUALLY talk about? That’s what really got me stuck.

In the previous issue I discussed how I didn’t want to do a typical book review and I landed on the idea of “Chill Reviews” – low pressure book rants where I share my experience and look for interesting themes in the story instead of passing judgment on it.

But still, this only created a direction and not structure.

And the more I tried to figure it out, the more the difficulties were piling up.

Will my current audience care about the book?

Will fans of the book want to hear my take? What if all of them disagree with me?

Who cares what some small-time creator has to say about it?

Should I avoid spoilers? Focus on themes in the story or whether the writing and narrative were good?

And I could go on and on about this…

“But hold on – aren't these supposed to be chill reviews?” I hear you say.

And you’d be right. The pressure of creating once again started consuming the passion towards books.

So who cares about the doubts? The series is supposed to be chill, and it wouldn’t do if the author of the series was stressing over it.

So despite the obstacles (and even my neighbors who were arguing at 2am – during my recording session) the video is out.

And it’s not as bad as I was afraid it would be.

If you'd like to, you can check it out here – and let me know your thoughts after. It would really help me improve the format.

If you've ever struggled with launching a new idea and buried yourself with questions about what to do… There’s really no other way to find answers than trial and error.

But don’t worry, it’s probably much harder in your imagination than in reality.

See you next week,

~ Łukasz Skoneczny, Unwritten Tomes

P.S. If you want to fight mindless consumption and spread the love of books, send the video to a friend that might enjoy it too.

See you in the next issue!

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This week’s topic is the question I’ve stumbled upon by accident: “Do stories need to be deep to be meaningful?”

Here are the conclusions I came up with and what brought on the subject in the first place.

Watch on YouTube

Do Stories Need To Be Deep?

The thought process behind the video ↓

***

As I said earlier… The idea for this video was sort of an accident.

At first I wanted to do a video about the Red Rising series I’ve just finished reading.

But I struggled to fit it into the channel structure.

The typical book review wouldn’t do, and the usual angle of focusing on some sort of philosophical theme kept leading me away from the book.

Then finally… A solution struck me!

Firstly, what I was experiencing could be a video topic in and of itself (that’s how the video above came to be).

In that video I go into the topics of reading expectations, reading culture, and the depth of different genres and titles.

And secondly, what if I let go of expectations and simply start talking about the series, just like I would with a friend.

After all, I don’t seem to struggle to speak when someone asks me what I’ve been reading lately.

YouTube tends to get you obsessed with effectiveness, retention, and CTR… But I created the channel intending to make it a place where people can chill and take a break from the noise of today’s world.

That’s how I came up with an idea for a new series on the channel. Appropriately named: “Chill Reviews”.

Instead of analyzing characters, breaking down the plot, or researching philosophy, I’ll tell you about the book like I was talking to a friend.

I’ll be posting the first one next week – I’ll give you an update once it’s out.

***

And that would be it for this issue. You are welcome to shoot me an e-mail if there’s something you’d like me to talk about in this newsletter (after all you're currently behind the scenes of the channel).

And if you have a friend that would enjoy this content too, forward this email to them! (You gain my eternal gratitude as a bonus.)

See you in the next issue!

~ Łukasz Skoneczny, Unwritten Tomes

Sign up if you’re new here.

Hey, it’s Luke from Unwritten Tomes.

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In today’s issue:

• How do stories manipulate our perspective?

• How far can the protagonist go until we consider them evil?

• What would happen if the story was told from a different perspective?

…and as usual some behind the scenes updates at the end.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

How Stories Manipulate You

You can also watch this on youtube.

***

Good stories tend to manipulate you.

They control who you support using their narrative. Sometimes they make you forget morally gray areas and other times they can even make you root for someone like Light Yagami who by all accounts is a mass murderer.

And if fictional stories can have this effect, it shouldn’t be surprising that similar mechanisms are used in most modern media.

But before we explore this topic here’s how this all started.

While reading the Red Rising series I’ve been paying a lot of attention to the inner conflict of the protagonist whenever he did some clearly bad things “for the greater good”. Whether that’s killing someone innocent or using lies and manipulation to achieve your goals.

Of course it’s far from the only story where the main character enters some gray areas of morality. In general, black-and-white stories tend to be somewhat boring since they often lack deeper internal conflict and they don’t reflect the complexities of real life.

But these morally gray areas raise an interesting question: How far can the protagonist go until we start considering them evil?

Does it depend on the actions themselves or the motivation behind them?

Can anything become acceptable if the justification is good enough?

And how much are we simply being manipulated by the narrative? Naturally siding with whoever the story happens to follow.

It definitely seems to be some sort of balancing act between the actions, the justification, and our familiarity with the characters.

We judge based on the information we’re given. If we only see the outcomes, we’re going to judge based on that. But if we learn the motivations behind them and the worldview of the character, the situation becomes more complex.

Due to that there appears to be a very strong “protagonist advantage” – we pretty much always sympathize with the main character but is it because stories always follow the good guys or are the good guys good because they are the ones who the story follows?

We know that if the character’s motivation, pain and goal are understandable to us then it’ll be difficult not to empathize with them.

And since we’re mostly focusing on the protagonist, getting to know them the most, we tend to adopt their perspective and justify their actions.

That’s the reason we don’t want Walter White to be caught despite him being kind of a psychopath.

That’s why we root for Light Yagami, even though he’s a mass murderer.

And in Red Rising we forgive the lies and the death count of the protagonist.

The “protagonist advantage” becomes clear once we contrast such characters with really well-written villains. Those tend to be characters that seem to have an understandable reason for the evil acts they commit. The reason that they’re the villain is that their justification is something that exists in the past not the present, or they’re simply crossing the line of what we think their motivations can justify.

Or maybe the circumstances simply force them to commit evil acts and they must be stopped not because they themselves are evil.

But it’s not unreasonable to think there are some villains that receive that label simply because they’re not on the side we follow in the story.

Whether it’s fiction or real life – everyone’s the hero of their own story.

Many questionable actions can feel justified once there’s a narrative that supports them. That goes for the narrative you tell yourself, the plot of the story you’re reading, and also the news we get about the world around us (something the media is happy to make use of).

Shaping the narrative to fit what you want the audience to think is the bread and butter of politics after all.

Circling back to Red Rising, it actually does a good job at adding nuance to the narrative. Making us part of the main character's inner conflict, showing us the difficulty of his choices, while also providing fair justification for many of the opposing characters.

But even then we don’t escape the protagonist effect. The story wants us to root for Darrow so we end up rooting for Darrow. And while at the end of the day, I do believe him to have moral superiority, it’s difficult not to wonder whether I would still feel the same way should the story follow someone else and paint the characters a bit differently.

Behind the scenes

Hope you enjoyed today’s topic. I surely did until I tried recording it and after a 30-minute session it turned out the mic had ran out of battery (my fault for being too excited about trying out a new mic).

But at least I got a practice run. And the microphone turned out to work really freaking well once it was properly charged. The sound quality is much better and the recording process itself will be much easier in the future.

You can see the results I got in the new video.

See you in the next one!

***

Enjoyed this issue? Send it to a friend that might like it too!

And if your friend sent you this, you can sign up here.

~ Łukasz Skoneczny, Unwritten Tomes

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It’s been a while. There've been some changes and other side projects – and if you enjoyed reading this newsletter in the past you might want to check out this new issue.

Welcome back to a new look, a new YouTube channel, and a new mission for the publication: how books & stories can relate to our everyday lives.

In today’s issue: What happens when you delete social media and start reading instead of scrolling?

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Books vs Social Media (a 3 month journey)

Based on personal experience

***

Like many others nowadays, I owned a pile of books that I wanted to read but for some reason I kept getting distracted.

Looking at my screen time it wasn’t difficult to figure out the problem: social media.

I tried many different methods to try to trick myself into reading more and using my phone less, but I’ve reached a point where I was done with social media – it caused too much anxiety and pressure. So I uninstalled Instagram from my phone and over the last 3 months started seeing many benefits.

One of the first things I noticed was how big the immediate change was. The next day I was already feeling less anxious, focusing on my own priorities rather than my Instagram feed.

Over time, consuming books became the norm. A go-to entertainment format, and while reading Red Rising I got so engaged that I ended up finishing the book at 2 a.m. – just like I used to do as a kid.

The next thing I noticed was my focus at work. When researching longer articles I didn't have as much trouble paying attention and could process information easier. This impacted both my efficiency as well as my mood when leaving the office.

Another closely connected fact is how much you end up remembering from what you’ve read. Especially when compared to watching shorts (I dare you to list 5 reels you’ve seen 2 months ago). Once you spend 600 pages reading about a single idea or narrative, that’s something that can easily stay with you for years – if not for the rest of your life.

This satisfaction slowly became another driving force pushing me towards picking up more titles. A sort of hunger for knowledge and depth that drove me to finally try the dreadful classics and order an English copy of The Odyssey (for those who don’t know I live in Poland and English isn’t my native language).

Now it’s already been 3 months since I quit most of my social media usage. I still log in from my desktop sometimes or use the company account at work. But for the most part social media is out of my life, and it’s only brought me more and more benefits the longer I live without it.

There is way less outside pressure, my inner compass got much stronger, and I finally feel like I’m living my life – focusing on and appreciating what I actually care about instead of what the outside world was feeding me.

So if you’ve ever been thinking about doing something similar and leaving social media – maybe it’s a good time to try it? You can always install it again – but there is a decent chance you will not even want to.

I’ve talked a bit more about this topic in my latest YouTube video.

Closing words

Thanks for sticking around, if you’ve been a fan of this newsletter before the hiatus you might enjoy checking out the YouTube channel where I’ve been posting more content in the last couple of months.

In the meanwhile, I’ll be working on bringing you more content and more videos.

***

Enjoyed this issue? Send it to a friend that might like it too!

And if you’re new here you can sign up here.

Thanks for reading this issue. Now go pick up a book (I’m currently reading Morning Star by Pierce Brown).

~ Łukasz Skoneczny, Unwritten Tomes