Los Angeles, California
August 3, 2000

Dear Readers,

Today’s letter is by Kevin Patterson, a medical resident at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he is studying and practicing internal medicine.

Kevin is also the author of The Water in Between, a book about his travels through the south seas in a small sailboat; it’s a great book, both a sublime example of what travel writing can be when it’s at its best, and an intelligent critique of that entire genre. His American publisher has set up this nice web page where you can find out what Kevin’s favorite books are, send him email, and buy his book.

The book, happily, is doing quite well – it made the cover of the New York Times Book Review – and Kevin says he’s planning to write two or three more, both fiction and non-fiction, over the next few years. But he is also, and will remain, a full-time doctor, which gives him a unique perspective on the publishing industry, on writing, and on life. Those latter two are the subjects of today’s letter.

By the way: severe technical difficulties over the last 24 hours have prevented us from sending out the daily reminder to those who have requested it. Apologies. We’re trying to fix a little email problem (which may have something to do with the fridge strategy that was being employed by our technical team earlier this week). In any case, our goal is to get it fixed in time to send the weekly out to subscribers this weekend. In the meantime, we’ll be posting a new letter tomorrow, probably another on Saturday (our first mostly-illustrated letter), and then one every day next week – so who needs reminding, anyway? Please visit often.

And thank you for your patience.

Yours truly,

Paul Tough