About this video

• Video Title: Q & A (Part 1) | 1,000 Subscriber Special
• Channel: Travel Through Stories
• Speakers: Sean
• Duration: 00:32:20

Overview

This video is a Q&A session hosted by Sean from "Travel Through Stories" to celebrate reaching 1,000 subscribers. He answers a variety of questions from his audience, covering topics such as book recommendations, reading habits, writing, music preferences, and academic pursuits, with a particular focus on literature and medieval studies.

Key takeaways

• Book Discovery: Sean primarily discovers new books through social media by following well-read individuals, exploring publishers he trusts (like Archipelago, Deep Vellum, New Directions), and seeing what his favorite authors recommend.
• Bookstores: While he doesn't live near many good bookstores currently and does most of his shopping online, he has fond memories of browsing in physical stores and uses websites like Abebooks for used books.
• Reading Preferences: Sean is drawn to lesser-known or overlooked books and authors, describing his taste as eclectic and contrarian. He also has a deep appreciation for contemporary Icelandic literature and medieval literature.
• Misunderstood/Ignored Books: He feels Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and Beowulf are often misunderstood, while contemporary Icelandic literature is generally ignored by a wider audience.
• Literary Taste Representation: Heaven and Hell by Jón Kalman Stefánsson is highlighted as representative of his literary taste because it elevates the mundane to cosmic significance, a quality he admires in literature.
• Poetry Collections: His favorite poetry collections are The Exeter Book of Old English poetry and the Poetic Edda.
• Publisher Aesthetics: He prefers indie publishers like Archipelago, Deep Vellum, and New Directions for their focus on translated and revived literature. He also favors Oxford University Press publications over Penguin's for their academic rigor.
• Medieval Spanish Literature: Sean acknowledges limited knowledge but suggests that the complexity of medieval Spain's linguistic and cultural landscape (including Islamic and Hebrew influences) might explain why a clear lineage to Cervantes is not always recognized. He mentions El Cid as a known work.
• YouTube Channel Goals: His initial hopes for the channel were to have a voice in the book community and receive free books, both of which he feels have been realized. He hopes viewers gain a different perspective on literature from his content.
• Reading Habits & Video Creation: Since starting the channel, his reading has become influenced by potential video content, sometimes making him hesitant to read books already covered extensively by other creators. He also feels a slight guilt if he reads a book without planning to make a video about it.
• Challenging Books for Videos: Very long or experimental books, like The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili, can be difficult to cover effectively in a video format.
• Hobbies: Grad school and channel creation have limited his time for traditional hobbies, though he enjoys hiking in the summer.
• Long-Term Reading Goals: He aims to read more widely and in original languages, specifically contemporary Norwegian and Icelandic literature.
• Writing Aspirations: He used to write fiction but felt he wasn't skilled enough, intending to revisit it after further study.
• Success and Advice: For those seeking success with a literature-focused channel, his advice is to "just put yourself out there" and start making videos consistently, without overthinking it or focusing too much on algorithms or elaborate thumbnails.
• Music Preferences: He doesn't listen to much music but enjoys Björk's "Bachelorette," Icelandic neoclassical music (like Ólafur Arnalds and Jóhann Jóhannsson), and mentions Nirvana for classic grunge.
• Icelandic Sagas Reading Order: He recommends starting with the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda for mythology, then moving to the Family Sagas (like Gísli Saga, Egil's Saga, or Rannváell's Saga), before exploring the more legendary sagas. He suggests a specific Penguin volume for Sagas of Icelanders and recommends Rannváell's Saga or Gísli Saga before tackling the longer Njáls Saga.
• Note-Taking: He primarily uses index cards or cut paper to jot down page numbers and thoughts, sometimes marking important passages. He uses the Cornell method for academic reading.
• Medieval Literature Content: While acknowledging the excellent "Saga Thing" podcast, he plans to create more approachable content on medieval literature for his channel.
• Bookshelf Tour: A future bookshelf tour is possible but would require significant organizing due to his current extensive and somewhat disorganized book collections.

Yes, Sean discusses his reading habits and how he takes notes in the transcript.

He mentions that he sometimes uses tabs but finds he doesn't often go back to them. He also occasionally writes in books but admits he doesn't always revisit those notes.

His most frequent method currently is to use index cards or pieces of paper, cut in half, where he jots down the page number and his thoughts or quotes. This way, almost every book he's read in the past couple of years has a note inside. He sometimes uses stars to mark particularly important passages and occasionally uses a separate piece of paper for more extended notes. For academic reading (essays or primary sources), he uses the Cornell method of note-taking.