📚 Remarkist's 2022 summer reading list: 5 must-read books about television 📺

Kick back and shore up your pop culture and television trivia skills with these five books

We’ve finally reached August, that magically sleepy month of out-of-office vacation responders and back-to-school commercials. While everyone tries to suck up those last precious days of summer, it’s almost always too hot to do anything strenuous. In addition to watch parties and Jukebox Jam 🎵 sessions with my Remarkist pals, I generally choose to spend most of this time curled up in front of my A/C with a good book.

If you’re anything like me, the traditional romantic beach read won’t do, which is why I’ve put together this special pop culture reading list. Check it out and you may learn some fun facts to share with your friends the next time you watch your favorite show. Happy reading! 😎☀️

I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution by Emily Nussbaum 📼

If you enjoy the snappy, cutting wit of Lorelai Gilmore ☕, you may love the writing of Emily Nussbaum. A long-time New Yorker staff writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, Nussbaum’s criticism follows the stunning evolution of television over the past two decades. Though many of her essays are freely available online, I Like to Watch wraps all her best work up into one neat anthology. If you’d like to try a sample before picking up a copy, I recommend starting with Nussbaum’s 2013 essay on Sex and the City and Carrie Bradshaw as HBO’s first female anti-hero.🍸

Published by Penguin Random House.

Phasers on Stun!: How the Making (and Remaking) of Star Trek Changed the World by Ryan Britt 🖖

This book caught my eye on the new nonfiction table at Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago and I’ve been hooked ever since. A lifelong Trekkie, Ryan Britt has interviewed countless Trek legends for publications like SyFy Wire, Den of Geek, and Tor, and now, he’s compiled all the space wisdom he’s gained into Phasers on Stun! This comprehensive history of Star Trek features interviews across the many generations who have brought this groundbreaking sci-fi franchise to life, including William Shatner, LeVar Burton, Dorothy Fontana, Brent Spiner, and many more. If you’re a Star Trek superfan or simply interested in how one show with humble beginnings changed pop culture forever, this book is for you.

Published by Penguin Random House.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling 😬

Very few people in Hollywood are capable of moving seamlessly between the roles of actor, writer, producer, and showrunner, but Mindy Kaling does it all, and to great critical acclaim. 💁🏽‍♀️ She’s written several books, but if you ever wondered how she got her start, I recommend Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? This 2011 memoir covers her early years growing up in Boston with TV-loving immigrant parents (Mork & Mindy was the inspiration for her name), interning for Conan O’Brien, slogging through her thankless early 20s as a production assistant and writer, and eventually rising to fame. If you want to learn a lot from one of Hollywood’s most successful women in TV, this is a great place to start.

Published by Penguin Random House.

When Women Invented Television: The Untold Story of Female Powerhouses Who Pioneered the Way We Watch Today by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong 🎥

To understand the world as we know it, it’s best to have a good grasp on history. 📖 This applies to television as much as it does current affairs. Known for her fascinating deep dives on cultural phenomena like Seinfeld, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Sex and the City, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong profiles four female trailblazers in When Women Invented Television: Irna Phillips, Gertrude Berg, Hazel Scott, and Betty White. If you’re under the age of 40, you may only recognize the last name on that list. Even so, you’ll learn that there was so much more to White’s legacy than kickin’ it with Mary Tyler Moore, the other Golden Girls, and Sandra Bullock later in life. Though Armstrong’s list is limited to the scope of just a few women (I would have loved to see a profile of Lucille Ball, but hey), When Women Invented Television is the kind of history lesson that will illuminate your understanding of genre conventions that still exist in media today.

Published by HarperCollins Publishers.

Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson 🧠

If you feel bad about your media consumption, you can turn off your screens… or let author Steven Johnson assuage your guilt for awhile! Everything Bad Is Good For You busts through myths about modern media and our so-called “instant gratification culture,” illustrating how some of the world’s most popular franchises are making us sharper and more thoughtful. While there is such a thing as too much screen time, this book will help you better understand the impact TV and online media has on your mind. Perhaps you’ll feel relieved to know that your choices are just fine, or it’ll inspire you to refine your viewing habits. Either way, you’ll come out of it a more conscientious consumer.

Published by Penguin Random House.

Want to start a book club or chat more about pop culture with others? You can join Remarkist, our fandom app and ecosystem, to do just that.

Not a Remarkist member yet? Here’s how to get started: 

• Step 1: Join our beta as an early adopter and grab your unique @membername. Install our app using the instructions here, and be one of the earliest to collect our KRNL token while earning rates are high. KRNLs fuel Remarkist’s fandom economy of events and collectibles.

• Step 2: Join our Remarkist Clubhouse Club—Clubhouse is a separate mobile app on iPhone and Android that we use right now to meet and watch content together. You’ll need it to actually join us for our real-time events, and you’ll need to be a member of our club there to see those chat rooms.

• Step 3: Join our Discord Server—this is where hundreds of Remarkists are geeking out over the shows we love 24 hours a day, and it’s where you can get the latest developments on the project. 

• Step 4: Check our website at remarkist.com for a splashy birds-eye view of the biggest stuff happening in our ecosystem.

• Step 5: Subscribe to future newsletters so you can stay up to date on all the exciting stuff coming to Remarkist in 2022!