Susan Cain

I think I knew that at the time, but like everything else, it has been memory hold.

So people join you on Substack and go cameras on for that or that's a Zoom call or how does that work?

Yeah, we do that on Zoom and it's live.

And so people can come on and talk to me and talk to our guest.

But then we also send out a replay later for the people who couldn't make it, especially because we have people from all over the world.

So, but I like to do it live.

How are you thinking about the future of books now, if you are thinking about the future of books as a writer?

Oh my gosh, I think about it all the time.

And in fact, I just went to a meeting of this author's group that I've been part of called the Invisible Institute.

We've been together over 20 years, and that was the huge topic.

So I don't know.

I mean, I'm aware that I myself read many fewer books than I used to, but that when I do read them, I still really adore the experience and feel like there's nothing else.

But in terms of... Well, talk to me about that for a second, because I think many people are feeling that it has somehow become more difficult to sustain their attention on anything, really, without getting interrupted by some self-interrupting device that is their smartphone.

But books in particular, it's just that the feeling of

sitting down to read for an hour, it almost feels like a heroic and anachronistic, you know, just plunge into the past for which we're all nostalgic for.

But it's just, it has gotten harder.

I mean, even, honestly, even for those of us whose job it is to read books.

I mean, you know, I can't say that I've

stopped reading books, but I do notice that reading for pleasure especially is something that is just in a zero-sum contest with everything else that could be done for pleasure.

Even when it's reading, there's just so much, there's an endless amount of material online that one feels