Dispatch from the Paper Portal

A Rainy‑Morning Ramble Through Strata, Reading Lists, and Substack Realities

One rainy morning, when a fluffy bearded guy was standing next to me, smiling his mischievous smile, I held paper Adam Smyth in my hand. He seemed to be praying to his paper overlords to release him - to bring him to his home - to his Strata.

Paper worlds - they are so fascinating, so textural, so expectant. And yet, I am still at the entrance to the paper portal, wondering if I should go in.

Would you like to hear about the reading list of this particular creator?

Hahahaha. I am laughing because I am very well aware that nobody reads Substack unless you promote yourself aggressively. I just watch other people do it. I haven't done it myself.

"Follow me, I follow you."

"I promise I will read all of you. (I have lots of spare time on my hands to read thousands of posts and articles.)"

Ok, let's say you follow a thousand people. Each person has an article about 500 words. Let's say it'll take you 3 minutes to read each of them. So, 3 x 500 = 1,500 minutes. 1500/ 60 = 25 hours.

Well, I guess it's not impossible. It's like a part-time job that pays nothing.

So if you dedicate 5 days per week to reading those posts and articles, you will spend 5 hours per day doing so.

That's totally doable… I guess.

Back to the reading list. I started with Adam Smyth. He's a character in my SOHAIP universe. I named him so simply because the name came to me. Still, I had this nagging feeling I'd heard the name before. And, what do you know, Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, popped up in my Hoopla suggestions. That's what I am reading/ listening to now. I am about 3/4 done.

Let's say what I have read before that:

Quantum by Manjit Kumar (awesome book, really enjoyed it)

Why Does E=MC2 and Why Should We Care? By Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw

Black Holes by Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw

Quantum by Manjit Kumar (yes, I read it twice)

Quantum Physics by Michael G. Raymer

Relativity by Albert Einstein (4-5 times)

That's enough for now. There are more, of course… actually, you know what, I'll share my favorites from Hoopla.

Here we are. You can come to your own conclusions… hahaha.

Oh-oh, I made a simple math mistake… no brownies for me… haha.

Here's the corrected version.

Here’s the corrected version: