Last week, the second subscriber letter went out and it seemed to be a good way to communicate news about the blog. I decided to expand this to make these subscriber letters a regular activity. The letters will contain any new updates to articles, updates about the site, people I want to thank or a brief topic which might be of interest. Sending article updates individually seemed to be too many needless emails and I preferred this letter format. Right now, I seem to be sending frequent letters because quite a bit has changed in the last few weeks. Going forward, these letters will likely go out once or twice a month as needed.
Substack suggests that it is in general good practice to post on fixed date/time. I guess because your readers know what to expect. That is to say, that it sounds like a good decision to post twice a week as you plan, instead of at random times ;)
On the subject of compilations of Vietnamese history and literature, may I suggest "Sources of Vietnamese tradition", by George E. Dutton? It is a selection of various bits of translated vietnamese literature from across many centuries.
With the amount you write Brian I am surprised you have enough time to read! Lol… I find with my writing and my art, plus reading over the week, posts from others I follow, I don’t get spare time to read anything extra
I bought my copy of Wandering Through Vietnamese Culture in 2005, when I was living in Vietnam (I left in 2006). It's a wonderful book. I'm delighted to learn that Hữu Ngọc is still with us!
I am happy you enjoyed the book too. I have only read a few sections so far. If you happen to write a review on your site, I would love to read your review and compare notes.
There won't be a review on my stack because it would be very off-topic. I deal with pre-Revolutionary life at the French court. The only Vietnam-related topic I might deal with someday is little Prince Cảnh's visit to Versailles in 1787 with his tutor, Father Pigneau de Béhaine. As for Wandering Through Vietnamese Culture, one of the great things about it is that you don't have to read it from cover to cover. You can open it to any page at random and dive in, or consult the contents to turn to a page about a specific topic. I think I might have read all the articles by now, but I'm not sure because I didn't read them in any kind of order. Btw, I've subscribed to Postcards from Vietnam because it reminds me of my years in Vietnam and I can learn about how it has/hasn't changed since.
I am so sorry. I confused you with a new subscriber who just popped up a few minutes before you posted. It was a little late at night for me when my brain was already starting to shut down.
I love your format. In a previous life, part of my job was to learn about old letters we received and write about whom they were going to or the interesting contents inside. It seems like an amazing amount of research to write such detail about each member of the court.
Substack suggests that it is in general good practice to post on fixed date/time. I guess because your readers know what to expect. That is to say, that it sounds like a good decision to post twice a week as you plan, instead of at random times ;)
On the subject of compilations of Vietnamese history and literature, may I suggest "Sources of Vietnamese tradition", by George E. Dutton? It is a selection of various bits of translated vietnamese literature from across many centuries.
With the amount you write Brian I am surprised you have enough time to read! Lol… I find with my writing and my art, plus reading over the week, posts from others I follow, I don’t get spare time to read anything extra
I need to get new ideas from some place. haha
😁
I bought my copy of Wandering Through Vietnamese Culture in 2005, when I was living in Vietnam (I left in 2006). It's a wonderful book. I'm delighted to learn that Hữu Ngọc is still with us!
I am happy you enjoyed the book too. I have only read a few sections so far. If you happen to write a review on your site, I would love to read your review and compare notes.
There won't be a review on my stack because it would be very off-topic. I deal with pre-Revolutionary life at the French court. The only Vietnam-related topic I might deal with someday is little Prince Cảnh's visit to Versailles in 1787 with his tutor, Father Pigneau de Béhaine. As for Wandering Through Vietnamese Culture, one of the great things about it is that you don't have to read it from cover to cover. You can open it to any page at random and dive in, or consult the contents to turn to a page about a specific topic. I think I might have read all the articles by now, but I'm not sure because I didn't read them in any kind of order. Btw, I've subscribed to Postcards from Vietnam because it reminds me of my years in Vietnam and I can learn about how it has/hasn't changed since.
I am so sorry. I confused you with a new subscriber who just popped up a few minutes before you posted. It was a little late at night for me when my brain was already starting to shut down.
I love your format. In a previous life, part of my job was to learn about old letters we received and write about whom they were going to or the interesting contents inside. It seems like an amazing amount of research to write such detail about each member of the court.
It's true that sometimes the shortest posts take the most time to research.