So here's the long version...

Typically when I'd go to the library, I'd have a list of books ready, maybe 12 or so. Mostly non-fiction, a lot of history, and also some fiction. But I knew, out of those dozen or so books, I'd probably only select 1 or 2 to read. I called it "Book Farming".

Why? Because I found that I simply couldn't read 90% of them. Sometimes I couldn't stand how they were written, in terms of form, like the "For Dummies" books (too many subheadings, no flow), or I couldn't tolerate the style, as with most recent journalism-adjacent types of books (too much supposedly "concrete" fluff, which is really just a new type of purple prose), or...they were written so long ago that they might have well been in a different language. 

Or, sometimes, I really just couldn't parse the syntax. I couldn't wrap my head around what was being said, even though it was in English. Even though a lot of books written before the mid to late 19th century or so (later or earlier depending on the author), are technically in English, they might as well be in a foreign language.

Or, some books, especially in philosophy, that have actually deeply influenced my outlook on life, I have regrettably only read 10% of, because they're that difficult. 

Sorry for the tangent. This brings me to why I wanted to build this project: because all of these problems have limited my reading choices. And I wanted a way to transform these books that I was unable to read, or couldn't bring myself to read because it was too painful. 

There's truly incredible things waiting in these classic books. I hope if they're modernized, "translated" into modern English, they can reach a broader audience and influence more people.

I hope you find these modern english editions useful. Ebooks usually just come in epubs. The audiobooks come in mp3s. If you want another format, just let me know.

And if you have any other questions or comments, please send me an email at dan@bookmodernizer.com

Also, as I go through these books, I'm combing for interesting information, trying to connect people together, and trace ideas through history. I'm convinced theres a lot of secret knowledge buried in connections in history, just waiting to be found. I'm already finding a lot concerning the consciousness revolution, which we commonly associate with the 1960s, and how it really started about 1750. People were using mind-altering substances at parties in 1800. That's the kind of stuff I'm interested in, and I'm linking all of those figures together, finding out how they influenced each other, and how they influenced us. I'm also interested in finding obscure people who had an outsized impact and then were forgotten.

Ultimately, I'd like to make these essays into films. For now, I'll probably post half of them in "Original Essays" and make all of them available to subscribers. There should be some pop ups and a link at the bottom of the page for subscribing,

By the way, just because I love sharing what I like, here's some of my favorite books:

Non-Fiction

Kenneth S. Davis's FDR Biographies

Answer to Job by Jung

The Childs Conception of the World by Piaget

 The Assembly Line by Linhart

Being and Time by Heidegger

Fiction

Germinal, La Terre and La Bete Humaine by Zola

Manhattan Transfer by Dos Passos

Double Star by Robert Heinlein

The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

The Plague by Camus

MacTeague by Frank Norris

Cannery Row by Steinbeck

Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Thanks for reading!

-Daniel Silbaugh