To My Readers

             

For the past decade I have published my thoughts on the many weird books I read.  In that time, RXTT’s Book Journey has grown in ways I never imagined, reaching readers worldwide.  The blog arose because of my love of the old, weird, out of print, and reference books, and my wife’s desire that I share my thoughts on them with the world at large, as I always do with her.  She is my inspiration.

If I believe in anything, it is the power of the wisdom, stories, and information contained within humanity’s writings.  The ancients assured us that language and written words were powerful tools.  “In the beginning was the word,” and all.  Our thoughts may or may not shape the world around us.  The mystics still debate.  However, our spoken and written words most definitely DO shape the world around us.  I am not the man I am, and this world we share is not the world it is, without the words handed down through the thickness of time. 

An example, nearly one hundred years ago, a man named Vonnegut witnessed the fickle whim of man’s inhumanity to man.  Decades later, after many stories and books, he wrote a novel called Slaughterhouse Five, or The Children’s Crusade.  In it, using the constructs and themes of science fiction (time travel, aliens, dimensional travel, lunatic fringe, etc.), Vonnegut vomited out his vitriol, pure and choleric, upon the vast, unchanging, and overwhelming stupidity of man, the stupidity that would allow for war, slaughter, pain, and terror to be the tools used to bring “peace.”  He told the rest of us what many tried to, but none had done in words which both a bright thirteen-year-old, and a deeply wise octogenarian would understand.  It is the saddest and funniest book I have ever read.  It changed who I am deeply, altering everything I have ever done, and every interaction I have ever had.  If that is not power, then nothing is.  That is just one book.  One among thousands published in my country that year alone.  It is said that most of the words written by man have been lost.  The works humanity is aware of existing are nearly infinite.  Thinking about the vast oceans of lost works is like mental torture to a book lover like me.

It is a mindboggling thought as I desire to know as much as possible, to understand as much as possible, at least about what interests me.  Because of this desire, I also flatly understand the impossibility of my dream.  I stare bluntly ahead, facing my own wall of ignorance, the mountain of books and wisdom and teachings lost to time, but specifically to me.  I think this is something all book lovers face sooner or later.

It is because I love books that I wanted to create RXTT’s Book Journey.  Each new book is a new world to explore, or a new idea to ponder, and I have travelled deep and wide, reading what interested me, when it interested me.   I appreciate a well-written, insightful review, whether it be of a film, book, or kitchen appliance.  It is a pure communication of ideas.  The feedback I receive from the authors themselves, sometimes concerning a decades-old book of theirs, is precious to me.  Corresponding with, and hearing sincere appreciation, from giants such as Freeman Dyson and Alan Moore was a never-imagined dream come true.  Meeting and reading brand-new works from young writers is an equal thrill, and I have been very fortunate in that regard as well. 

Writing a novel is another story.

While not many of the books I read are fiction, I love the power of a well-crafted story to illuminate, entertain, and enlighten its reader.  Most life-long readers dream of writing their own novel, and many try.  I joined them.  I wrote daily.  My story grew.  The world I created filled up, the story flowed like a glacial stream, slow but steadily building, and I managed to complete it.  IN CRED is my first novel.  I wrote it mindfully, wanting to present a self-contained world, a story entertaining and intelligible, to any clever reader willing to explore the mindways.  The tens of thousands of readers I have worldwide showed me that there are many like me, many who want deep dives into old texts, who are curious to know what the source materials are like.  Readers whose favorite reading experience is not the self-satisfaction of a driving plot, or the florid oscillation of word and language, but the quintessential feeling of having one’s mind BLOWN AWAY by a new idea.  I want my readers to experience that as often as possible, and I wrote IN CRED with you in mind.

Once finished, I had to share it with someone.  The magic and power of words truly spark up when they are shared.  I handed IN CRED to my wife.  I shared it with some close friends.  I reached out to a couple of authors I call friends and asked them for their opinion.  Their feedback and appreciation mean everything to me.  It took some internal literary courage, but I worked diligently to make IN CRED available to readers. 

It is available on Amazon, in Kindle eBook, glossy paperback, or hard cover versions. (I used my B.F.A. in Studio Art and drew the cover artwork also.)

IN CRED’s dedication page may speak of my wife and parents, but IN CRED would not exist without the readers of RXTT’s Book Journey.  I so greatly appreciate that you are out there, wherever you may be in this beautiful world of ours.  I hope my reviews have enlightened and informed you in the same way that the books I love have enlightened and informed me.

If you love science fiction that explores intimate segments of what it means to be human, you will enjoy IN CRED.  If you seek speculative fiction with big ideas told in intimate ways, you will love IN CRED.  If you enjoy original characters and settings, and a clever story whose progress is constantly surprising, you will love IN CRED.  If you appreciate literature that is honestly edifying without being sentimentally trite, IN CRED is for you.  If you enjoy stories where daily experiences go batshit crazy, and regular people are forced to deal with it, you will enjoy IN CRED.

This is just the beginning.  The spigot has been opened.  Further stories are in the works, and I am very excited about it.  If RXTT’s Book Journey was an initial stab at sharing my thoughts with the world, IN CRED is a mighty cannonade.  I would love for you, my fellow readers, to dive into IN CRED and let me know your thoughts!  Stories are magic, as my man Neil Gaiman says, and I have just begun the show.

 

Sincerely Yours,

 

RXTT