I Bought a Book Today — Sunday Thoughts 17/11/2024

So, I bought a book today. And I am quite happy with the choice, you know? But, I suppose, before I tell you all about it, I need to address something.

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. That’s right. It has been close to three years since I last wrote an entry for my newsletter. Two years and eight months, give it or take. I would call you a straight liar if you told me it has been this long. I’m having a real eyes-rolling-back, life-montage moment here as I go from memory to fleeting memory of all the stuff that has happened in that time.

Damn. Nearly three years. As far as life updates, you can’t complain. This week will be a meaty one. Grab a cuppa and get a blanket because summer is long gone and autumn is waning into winter. Let’s get back to it, shall we?

reading📚

As I was saying before I rudely interrupted myself, I bought a book today. Of course, there is a bit of backstory to it.

Recently, I have found myself doing this annoying little thing. I aimlessly walk around the fantasy and science fiction section of my local Waterstones (the British Barnes and Noble for my American friends. In fact, a while ago Waterstones bought Barnes and Noble, so they truly are one and the same, but I digress) and I feel a powerful sense of meh. Why is it that I look at the shelves with disillusionment, glancing from one spine to the other with overwhelming apathy?

The answer only struck me today. In a weird turn of events, being involved in the online “book community” has had the unwanted effect of knowing just a bit too much. Now, I’m not a philosopher and you probably don’t much care, so I’ll spare you from the burden-of-knowledge tirade that was about to ensue. What I mean is that I find myself trapped in a maelstrom of Tolkien, Sanderson, Rothfuss, King or some contrite “TikTok hit” and I’m simply burnt out.

Yet, I’m nothing if not resourceful. Once I knew what the problem was, the solution was obvious. I forced myself to keep looking until my eyes landed on a book I knew nothing about, one whose author was completely new to me. The mission was to go old school, blind and blissfully ignorant, and I dare say I succeeded. I saw The Bone Ships by R.J. Barker, tentatively turned the paperback and was instantly hooked by the synopsis.

Mission accomplished. Today, I got a book and I am once again ecstatic to sink my teeth in a fantasy story.

🖋writing

Two years, eight months and some change, and you know what? I both self-published and self-unpublished my very first (and excruciatingly, stomach-churningly bad) novel. Bet you weren’t expecting that, huh? The whole saga could take up the whole newsletter, but luckily for you, I have made a video where I rant about my ill-fated debut into the publishing world (head here if you want to know more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-hrhBCz3qs). Nowadays, suffices to say my writing time is mostly concentrated into the editing of The Broken Oath to attempt to publish traditionally. So far, I have absolutely shredded the original text, expanded the role of some characters, added some more of them, and done a whole lot of necessary worldbuilding. This enterprise warrants a separate update of its own, so watch out for a new post in The Writing Corner. As a bit of a morsel, I can tell you the original book was just shy of 80k words, and my new word count projection comes close to 175k…

🚑medicine

Last time you heard from me I was in my fourth year of medical school, and my mind reels thinking about the changes in my life since then. After sitting my final exams at the end of fourth year I progressed to fifth and final year. It was gruelling, long, demoralising, and painfully unremunerated adventure, but I came out the other end unscathed.

Wait, no. I came out very much scathed, but I did manage.

Five years later and I am the proud (and extremely exhausted) owner of the title Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery with Honours. You could, if you were so inclined, call me Dr Suarez, and even though I have been a fully-fledged doctor for a year and half, that still feels very alien to me.

I will be starkly frank with you, though. Medicine is the sole reason I have been largely absent from my YouTube channel, and have not written as much, and neglected my newsletter. It is fair (and truthful) to say that this past couple years have been the most difficult of my life, requiring enormous amounts of attention and cerebral power. Like a jealous lover, medicine has been utterly toxic, and I have had little to no life outside it.

I will say this, though. I can see a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel as I come closer to the end of my Foundation years (the first two years of residency in the UK). It is getting undeniably easier, leaving room for other things. I persevere, sometimes even thrive. I focus on every day small things to keep going, like how I bought a new book today.

Catch you (hopefully) next week✌🏼