Weathering Book Slow Read Week #0
Start here for all the information you need on the 9-week read-along beginning next week
Before I jump in to introducing the Slow Read, a quick notice or two:
Firstly, if there is anything else I want to share with you - especially with my paid supporters - over the next 9 weeks such as essays, short thoughts, travel journal etc. I will post those to you alongside the slow read posts, most likely on Sundays to break things up a bit! I hope that’s OK? I’m really excited about this slow read, but there is other stuff I want to keep writing to you about too!
Secondly, I will be closing my online shop for around 7 weeks on Friday 21st March. If you would like to grab a copy of my limited edition run of Zine # 2 An Innate Waveform, then please do so before then! Otherwise it’ll be May time before I re-open. Thanks everyone!
Slow reads are having a moment on Substack, so I can’t claim that this idea is in any way original. What is perhaps a little bit different about this one is that I wrote the book that I will be walking you through, and given that it’s non-fiction rather than fiction I will be rooting each week’s discussion in how you can transfer the themes within its pages into your own life. This is my approach, rather than a literary one.
In this way, it might be an exploratory thing, or even a tiny little bit therapeutic. Either way, think of it like an expansion pack, or a companionable guide designed to help you get the most from the pages I wrote for you. There will be journal prompts, questions to ponder, short activities and even the occasional writing craft prompt (for the writer-readers) and, of course, ‘on location’ photos of the places in the book to help situate your imagination.
Weathering has been out for a year now, and I have tied this slow read-along with the release of Weathering in paperback. Doing it now, rather than a year ago, has three affordances:
1. Weathering is now at a more affordable price-point than hardback, which hopefully opens it to even more people! Which is great, because the world isn’t any easier a year on! We all need supplies for the ride.
2. A year of touring the book and hearing wonderful feedback has given me insight into how readers are approaching the book, which I can use here in my reading guide for you :)
3. Another year of distance from the writing of it has given me the perspective of space, and when I look over the pages again now with ‘today’s mind’ I can see new things worth sharing with you. A book is always a more formal snapshot of time, and so it’s nice to revisit it with different eyes and everyday chattiness! I hope you can hear my voice clearly in this slow read. If you want to hear my actual voice you can listen to the audiobook too :)
Weathering lends itself well to a slow read because each chapter covers a different theme/aspect of life, as well as a different place. It also goes into some fairly depthful stuff, so benefits from giving it (and you) the space to digest. You might choose to dwell in the theme of the chapter for a week, letting it soak in, and speak to you as you go about your day. You might even choose to space the weekly posts out into a fortnightly thing, or really at any frequency you wish. I’ve chosen weekly to create a sense of momentum, but you don’t have to read at this pace. The posts will always be here under their own tab when viewed on my Substack website.
What do you get if you are a paid subscriber?
Everyone has access to all of the main chapter notes, prompts, photos etc. I offer these freely and hope they will be useful and bring additional depth to your reading. Please share liberally using the links I will place mid-way.
But if you are a paid subscriber you have these additional benefits placed at the end of each week:
You can ask me questions and chat in the comments section. There is no requirement to share anything or ask questions, though you are very welcome to do so as I always love hearing from readers, writers and fellow therapists etc. I keep the comments section for paid subscribers only, which allows me to focus my attention on you and I always aim to answer everything even when I am a bit slow.
Additional recordings or media to listen to/watch. I thought it would be fun, in places, to tie in some bits and pieces from my first book Grounded, for example. This is available on audiobook too, but is not narrated by me.
Writer-specific insights. Given many of my paid supporters will also be writers I thought it would be nice to include, where relevant some ‘writerly’ insights for you along the way. I have made these ‘additional’ because most readers will not be writers, so I don’t want to load anyone with irrelevant stuff!
I would be delighted if you choose to join my paid community so that we can chat, you can ask questions etc. You can join for as little as £4 per month/£40 a year. You will also have access to everything in my Substack archive as well as other regular personal essays on here outside of the read-along! I publish every week. Of course, I hope you will stay after the slow read has concluded, but I don’t keep tabs on Subscriptions so if you want to upgrade your subscription for the duration and leave after then I hope that £8 represents great value!
Structure of our slow read
We begin our read-along at Spring Equinox (next week when you receive this). My Substack goes out weekly on Thursdays, which also ties in with the official release date of the paperback, so it seems like an auspicious time to begin. It will run through until the middle of May (9 weeks) and everything will be filed under its own heading on the website version of this Substack so if you do or don’t use the App to read Substack then it doesn’t matter. You can always go to the website and start there. The numbering is somewhat intuitive, but because the ‘Intro’ is worth spending some time with and it doesn’t have a chapter number then the numbering is a little off ;) See below for the schedule:
Week 1 - Thursday 20th March: Chapter 0 Introduction
Week 2 – Thursday 27th March: Chapter 1 Edges
Week 3 – Thursday 3rd April: Chapter 2 A Big Enough Container
Week 4 – Thursday 10th April: Chapter 3 The Resourceful Body
Week 5 – Thursday 17th April: Chapter 4 The Wild Intimate
Week 6 – Thursday 24th April: Chapter 5 Stone Stories
Week 7 – Thursday 1st May: Chapter 6 Land of Stories
Week 8 – Thursday 8th May: Chapter 7 Limestone Ways Part 1
Week 9 – Thursday 15th May: Chapter 8 Limestone Ways Part 2
Approaching the material
You can read my notes in each weekly Substack piece before or after you have read the chapter. But I recommend reading the chapter first and then coming back to these notes. Or even reading it alongside. For the longer notes in particular, you might want to print them out and digest them over time, away from your devices.
My notes are designed to aid your reading experience, perhaps giving you a bit more context, some thoughts I have now revisiting the text, and often some questions to journal or exercises to try. You can use them as you wish, and treat them like portals into further enquiry, though I will try not to bombard you with extra reading links because I know how nebulous that can become. Each chapter would have its own reading list! Instead, I will aim to keep you focused on consulting your own wise self (a bit more like therapy!) See where it takes you, there are no other rules than this! Enjoy!
There is only limited space to explore each chapter, so I will choose a few themes from each which capture the central ideas from my perspective, but I welcome any tangents you might want to go on, or to discuss any tiny specific details that might have captured you. I also welcome questions on writing process. Invariably, I will select things to write about that you might not have chosen, but this shouldn’t stop you from asking me about them if you wish, or bringing a whole new thread to the comments chat.
See you on the 20th March!
If at the end of the 9-week read-along you wish to leave the book a review somewhere (i.e. where you bought your book, or on Goodreads, Amazon, Google etc.) then please do. I am always delighted to read the good ones ;)
On location:
Really looking forward to this! My paperback of Weathering is ordered and I’ve got a lovely limestone grey notebook ready to journal in 🤍
I'm late to the party, but enthusiastic about it nonetheless. This will be my second reading and I am delighted to explore more slowly and in depth alongside you. I have been intentionally slowing down in various areas of my life and to be able to do so with reading and writing... What a gift!