Welcome to the Charlie Becker Letter—
In a nutshell, I tried to be a lot of other people and sucked at being them all before I realized I’m exceptionally good at being myself.
My rules here are to follow my curiosity, try and write really well, and try not to spend too much time overthinking what I'm doing. I'm a Houston-based writer, builder (figuratively of businesses and literally of houses), and second-generation secondhand bookseller.
My target audience is people who:
Love the idea of reading good books (whether or not they actually get to)
Go “ooh I should see that” when a movie trailer says A24 but haven’t seen most of them and can only name a few
Love to journal in their designer notebook but sometimes only writes in one once a month or so
Will get the omakase with their bonus AND have strong opinions about which Costco wine is the best
Say they prefer “Art” over “Content” but has hundreds of saved TikToks & Reels
Dream of being a creative dilettantes doing it for the love but would for sure monetize their own Substack with enough pledges
In other words: people who are thoughtful but not joyless, ambitious but not careerist, highbrow and lowbrow in equal measure.
I write essays, personal stories, book reviews, fiction, and pretty much whatever else seems meaningful or makes me curious. I will be starting a podcast soon. Everything is named after me because it's a name I don't have to think about (see my note earlier about overthinking).
People who like what they read here say that I'm authentic and vulnerable, plus I give them new ways of seeing things.
To see some of the essays where I (and my readers) think I nailed this best, check the "Best Of" section of the blog. (To see some of my more idiosyncratic favorites that I think really capture the “vibe” of what I’m trying to do here, check out the “Deep Cuts” section.)
Everything here is free, but I will someday put out some books and do other stuff like launch courses and businesses.
If you are generally supportive of introspective, idiosyncratic, daydreamy writing and you want to help me do this better, more often, consider an $8 per month paid subscription.
