Words Like Silver Looks a Little Different

I've been running Words Like Silver for over half my life. Since 2011, I've read 100-200 books per year to review on this book blog, and my reviewing eventually created my (now) journalism career.

Since then, I've sharpened my taste and expanded my curation.

I now know that I crave a strong sense of place in both travel and books, that I'm fascinated by neuroaesthetics and can go down any rabbit hole of arts & culture. (My phone notes are truly spectacular.) I somehow became a maximalist in my style (???) and also a shopping writer (???) so have had the privilege of covering hundreds of products and trends. Plus, I wrote a book.

Aesthetics and creativity are the basis of my personhood, and it was time for my blog to better express my curiosities. This last year, I invested in a custom site and made some major changes. Read on for the summary.

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Ignore the resume vibes, but they're necessary to the explanation.

When I started Words Like Silver in 2011 at age thirteen, I had no idea what it would lead to. In early college, everyone assumed I'd work in book publishing, but I ultimately realized I'd rather be a book reviewer (and hopeful author) than work for one of the traditional publishing houses. Professionally, I actually wanted to work in travel to scratch the same awe itch. I didn't know then that blogging was technically considered journalism, or that actually, travel journalism was totally up my alley.

In college, there was a make-your-own-major program and I met with multiple professors about making my own field centered around aesthetics—a mix of history, studio art, psychology, English, and art history. I wasn't sure exactly what it'd lead to. Art direction? Marketing? I wanted some synthesis of writing and visuals and creativity—determining the core feel of something and analyzing how it could best provoke emotion.

It turns out that field exists! There are multiple research programs centered around neuroaesthetics and "your brain on beauty" (and now I've devoured as many books as possible on the subject, too.) I'm fascinated by how we encounter beauty and how it forms our sense of self. For me, books are one concrete piece of that pursuit. I firmly believe—and have plenty of studies supporting the claim—that books build up our empathy, expand our horizons, and are generally good for us.

“Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. — Mary Oliver”

Over the past few years, I've tried to figure out where exactly my blog fits into everything.

I've been running Words Like Silver for over half my life at this point, and have never ever considered putting it down. It's such a core of my life and identity. Even when it's been slow, I've always returned with new gratitude and appreciation.

It's weird to describe that I also write for profit and that exhausts me. But somehow, writing for the blog always re-energizes me. Even if I'm doing the same task list in my job, writing for the blog feels entirely different.

Still, there's been something missing from Words Like Silver. I've spent the past few years growing as a writer, but its straightforward, text-based format didn't fully capture the conversational aspect cultivated by my studio art and history studies too. I needed more opportunity to share visuals, to link to other thoughts and make it a little bit bigger and more expansive. I often connected my book recommendations to places I'd been or essays I'd read, so I eventually needed something more interdisciplinary.

I tried a new design myself on Squarespace. Maybe the platform was wrong; I'd already switched from Wordpress. I forked over $450 for a ShowIt account and another couple hundred for some funky templates that tried and failed to win me over.

Eventually, I realized I wanted to invest in Words Like Silver as an extension of my voice. It's still a book blog, at its very core. But I needed to expand in what I was covering and allow myself to synthesize various musings more effectively.

So this is me investing in my voice.

Originally, I built out an entirely separate blog called Place & Placebo focused on travel and sense of place. I thought maybe it'd exist as a newsletter. The inspiration behind the name was thus:

PLACE = sense of place

PLACEBO = the lightness of being elsewhere

When stalking other websites and writer-owned Substacks, I realized my problem. Substack is better for growth, frankly. I'd probably earn more if monetizing any content there. But I wanted my blog to convey a flavor and identity missing from such a simple text-based platform. Fundamentally, I needed to go for a custom blog instead.

The price was higher than I'd ever paid for website and maintenance, so the last year has been a lot of scraping and investment. Has it been stupid to fork over so much for something I'd always considered a passion?

I hope so. My incredible developer and I have spent the last almost-year working on this website, but I think expanding WLS is the right call for me both personally and professionally.

I've wanted the site to be explorable, for you to be able to click through books and always find your next read. I've wanted to be able to embed photos, videos, and accounts and see the full, sensory experience of whatever I wanted to convey.

My creative goal as someone who frequently word-vomits on their Instagram story about whatever they're thinking about was for Words Like Silver to be my default. I'd take whatever content idea I have here first before spamming my stories with songs and quotes and book recs and weird psych studies. Own your platform, baby.

Some site features I think you'll love—

There are so many small details I adore—which is why I hired Chris Oka to do the site—but I think these are a few that'll stand out to you as you poke through it. I'm very much still transferring over the entire archive (manually, so I can adapt old content for the times) and fleshing out the new categories, so you may stumble across some formatting inconsistencies or lorem ipsum placeholders. But for now, here are the features I'm most excited about having:

• Blacked out spoiler tabs for being able to "book club" reads I have many thoughts about. Click here to see what I mean.
• Highlights and hand-drawn underlines that feel like you're marking up your favorite book. I think best longhand, and I wanted that same personalized, artistic feel to what I share.
• Starred reviews á la Kirkus Reviews to indicate my favorite reads.
• A books slider on the home page with my most recent reads.
• Sign-up prompts for a weekly newsletter I'll release every Thursday with the site highlights.
• Expanded categories of books, travel, style, news, arts & culture, and shopping.
• The ability to support Words Like Silver as a patron if you appreciate my work! It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to maintain and I'd love to be able to pour as much of myself into the site as possible; your support makes that possible.

This new format will allow me to get a lot more detailed with my recommendations and musings, and I'm already loving how effortlessly I can connect all sorts of worthwhile experiences.

Here's how it works.

I'm going to post on Words Like Silver as frequently as I can, across categories. Once a week (by 2025 at the latest), I'm going to send out my Succinct-ish newsletter with the quick 'n dirty highlights of what went live on the blog that week—always under 1500 words total. Plus some exclusives, so you should subscribe even if you read the full content.

If you'd like to support Words Like Silver (which would mean the world to me), you can either sign up to support via a recurring or one-time fee directly on the website or via the Substack newsletter. It's the same source. (Don't worry; if you accidentally sign up for both, I'll let you know so you can cancel!) All WLS emails will come from Substack.

Nothing's behind a paywall, but it would actually mean so much to get even the donated equivalent of a cup of coffee. I've never tried this on the blog before, but contributions will go such a long way in allowing me to write. My goal for the first year would be to pay off the cost of my website design, but anything helps. I'd love to devote even more time and energy to Words Like Silver.

And thanks for sticking around!

In my past 13 years of book blogging, so many friends and fixtures of mine have dropped the pursuit. It can be thankless and time-consuming; a TikTok is more likely to go viral. Personally, however—I will still opt for reading a post every time over watching a video, so I love having text-based content.

And of course, I hope that whether you're here for the books or here for the rest, you'll love exploring my taste and musings across all the categories, too.

Let's see what this turns into, shall we?