We don’t strut here at 30-Second Read except when referring mockingly to our World Headquarters, which is my laptop computer. We just get on with publishing writers’ essays, each with exactly 180 words.
But today we boast, because we’ve hit a milestone. Forgive us.
First, some history. I launched 30SecondRead.com in May 2020 to quell boredom during the darkest period of the Covid lockdowns.
A friend, Emily Toth, soon suggested I accept submissions. She was the first contributor and the most prolific, with 74 essays. We’ve now published pieces by 21 writers, including dozens by another friend and former colleague, Thomas Gunning. All are a blessing.
And the milestone? We’ve published enough essays that today 30-Second Read surpasses 100,000 words. The 100,000th word is in the previous paragraph, in bold type.
A hundred thousand words is a lot – more than “The Hobbit” (95,022) and just shy of “To Kill a Mockingbird” (100,388).
To get here, we’ve needed five-plus years and hundreds of essays. Today’s is No. 556.
Of course, writers need readers. 30-Second Read thanks you for sticking with us.
Our Writers
30-Second Read thanks these writers for contributing their talents to this quirky endeavor: Max Badger. George Cranford. Victor Epstein. Gracelyn Farrar. Dave Gauger. Jeff Gauger. Liz Reardon Gauger. Thomas Gunning. Neil Henriksen. Tala Hopkins. Ron Javorsky. Sue Lincoln. Don Luoma. Anthony McCune. Stan Myers. Wayne Parker. Mike Patton. Kaye-Ailsa Rowan. Emily Toth. Nahar Trina. Donna Yelverton.
Links to their essays are on the “Who We Are” Page. Click here if you’d like 30-Second Read to publish your essay.
My college-freshman daughter told me the other day that in a 2-hour test, she had written about 950 words, which I complimented as a journalist-worthy feat. But doing rough math — dangerous — that means she could have matched 30-Second’s benchmark in roughly 200 exam hours — or 5 average-person (non-journalist) work weeks. But, as a long-winded writer, I get it. The average journalist would need a 40-hour week to trim anything down to 180 words. Congratulations.
Steve, your daughter will best us both soon in just about every endeavor.