A Personal Update

Libraries, translations, what I'm reading

Hello,

In these new “behind the scenes” updates I will share things of a more informal and current nature - as distinct from my longer essay-style pieces such as The Success ‘X’ Factor Few Will Talk About and Sartre’s Philosophy of Success.

Let me know if you enjoy these shorter pieces!

Add a Comment, or simply click ‘reply’ if you’ve received this via an email subscription and write me a few words.

Lady Librarian

First off, I loved a January visit to the John Rylands Library in Manchester, which opened on January 1, 1900.

You enter from a busy modern street into a neo-Gothic world to find a huge collection of rare books. There’s a whole wall of stained glass windows which, unusually, are devoted to philosophers.

The driving force behind it was Cuban-born Enriqueta Ryland, heir to her husband’s textile fortune.

Enriqueta spent a decade intimately involved with the new library’s design and collections. So it is really her achievement.

I was fortunate to get a guided tour from the director, including his office which is virtually unchanged since 1900.

The next day, I went on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Manchester City stadium. That was great too.

John Rylands Library, Manchester

The Borrowers

Every years I receive a statement on borrowings of my books across UK libraries.

I get a similar statement for Australian libraries, but alas not for the United States library system.

The UK Public Lending Right scheme does not pay out much to authors, but it’s nice that it exists.

For the period July 2023 to June 2024 my books were borrowed 1,626 times. I received a total of £176 (or $220) for these borrows.

Snapshot from UK PLR statement

It’s interesting to see which ones are more popular. The top three borrows (including first and revised editions) were:

50 Economics Classics - 250

50 Philosophy Classics - 229

50 Psychology Classics - 200

Interesting 50 Economics was top, as it has not sold as many copies as the other two. And among the Capstone Classics (my other series) Think and Grow Rich is way more borrowed than other titles.

That means the most borrowed titles are money/economy based. Does it suggest a deep need for education in this area? Or do people just want to become rich?

The Buyers

For years I kept detailed records, based on royalty statements, of how many copies of my books were sold. Then due to time pressures I let things slide.

But I think around 600-700,000 copies of the 50 Classics series have been sold in English. Most of the titles have gone into multiple languages, therefore sales in all translations are over 1 million copies.

The Capstone Classics series, which is now 26 titles, should go over the 1 million mark next month or April.

What’s interesting is that neither series was designed as a series. Rather, an initial book did well, and we wondered if it could be replicated with a similar idea.

This is an example of the power of indirectness which I wrote about in the last newsletter. That is, the best way to succeed is sometimes not to have a goal, but just to explore a thing in great depth - simply because you’re fascinated by it. What you discover often turns out to be useful to others.

Psychology in Ukraine

There’s a new hardback edition of 50 Psychology Classics: Your Shortcut to the Most Important Ideas on the Mind, Personality, and Human Nature (John Murray/Hachette) in Ukrainian.

I’m chuffed at the idea of anyone reading and benefiting from this book in such hard times.

The publisher in Kiev is Bookchef, who've also published George Orwell, Barack Obama, Tina Turner, Matthew McConaughey, and Yuval Noah Harari among others.

I’m proud that the series is also published in Russia by Eksmo:

Chinese Classics

Friends in China sent me pics of the Mandarin editions of 50 Philosophy Classics and 50 Psychology Classics.

Most of the 50 Classics series titles are also published in Chinese Traditional in Taiwan.

Here they are in my study:

What I’m reading

Lately I’ve been doing research into the nature of mind and reality, from Buddhism to quantum physics.

Watched an incredible 4 hour, 41 minute interview between Curt Jaimungal and Dutch engineer and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup.

Kastrup argues against the materialist view that consciousness is something manufactured by brains. He says that consciousness is fundamental to the universe and pervades it; brains are just discrete points of consciousness within the larger whole, and give us the illusion that we are separate.

Seems to me this is the view of all religions. Natural science, including quantum physics, is just starting to find evidence for what the saints and sages already knew.

Kastrup is a fan of Thomas Kuhn and his theory of how paradigms are overturned. Kuhn became central to my thinking too after reading The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. If you are not familiar with Kuhn, you can read my free commentary here from 50 Philosophy Classics.

I’m enjoying Kastrup’s book Meaning in Absurdity, which looks at apparent anomalies such as ufos, nature spirits, ghosts, and what they tell us about reality and consciousness. If it’s of interest, I can post a summary of it when I finish it.

For years I was a reading machine, averaging one non-fiction book a week. I was also taking notes and writing them up as chapters in my books. These days I’m reading a lot less, but can’t seem to give up the habit of making lots of notes and wearing out pencils with my underlining.

I can “just enjoy” a work of fiction, but with non-fiction I hate the idea of losing a good idea forever, or not comparing it to other ideas.

“Gather up the fragments, so that nothing may be lost.” John 6:12.

AI Me

Are you continually astonished at what AI engines like Chat-GPT, Gemini, Claude, and DeepSeek can do?

Even five years ago it would have seemed miraculous to get the answers and solutions they provide in less than a second.

A company called CloneYourself approached me with the suggestion to turn myself into an AI, and the result is “AI Tom”, an intelligent search engine that has been fed with over 1 million words of my content.

I can answer any question you have on philosophy, psychology, economics etc - or just be a sounding board on issues in life or work.

AI Tom - like this newsletter - is totally free.

At the moment I’m not even requiring an email address, so have a play around with it … and let me know what you think!

Click on the image to start:

If you’d like to create something similar from your own body of work, let me know (email or message) and I can put you in touch with the people that helped me build it.

Thank you, as ever, for following me.

Very kind regards,

Tom

Tom Butler-Bowdon

Author - 50 Classics

Bestselling series in 26 languages

Editor of the Capstone Classics

Making wisdom accessible - 1 million copies sold

Find me:

Explore my website Butler-Bowdon.com with free book commentaries and interviews.

Thank you

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