"I read a lot. But it’s very scattered and I have these vast blind spots. I think part of the reason is that I am very susceptible to internet rabbit holes and free-associative dives, I get easily distracted with weird schemes, and writing a book has offered a lot of excuses to indulge these parts of me. An initial draft of my book was twice the length of what’s being published, and the half that was cut consisted largely of digressions into the history of telecommunications, recording/repro technology, the music industry, a long section on Nicholson Baker’s discussion of zippers in The Mezzanine. ⁠ All of which is to say I wrote Stay True (a story of friendship, teenage ambition/boredom, world-remaking loss) because, on some molecular, spiritual level, I had to — but I have treated the rest of the process, as it’s been converted from a bunch of thoughts/feelings in my head into a commodity, as an excuse to make merch. I used to make zines, and writing about that process in the book got me back into making them again (though now they are about other people, not me). I dubbed a few cassettes, weaving audiobook excerpts with nineties music/sounds. I used to smoke and writing about smoking made me miss the ritual of it. So I stayed up very late recently looking into how to make custom cigarette packs for my book party and then, thinking that might be irresponsible, I switched my research to matchbooks." ⁠ ⁠ @huahsu shares his search history with us at the link in bio. His newest book, STAY TRUE, is out today from @doubledaybooks.