Things Become Other Things & A Physical Education

Fun day today: two of my online pals have books coming out. First is Craig Mod’s Things Become Other Things, a memoir of a walk (and a life) in Japan and on a childhood friend who didn’t have the same opportunity.

Photographer and essayist Craig Mod is a veteran of long solo walks. But in 2021, during the pandemic shutdown of Japan’s borders, one particular walk around the Kumano Kodō routes — the ancient pilgrimage paths of Japan’s southern Kii Peninsula — took on an unexpectedly personal new significance. Mod found himself reflecting on his own childhood in a post-industrial American town, his experiences as an adoptee, his unlikely relocation to Japan at nineteen, and his relationship with one lost friend, whose life was tragically cut short after their paths diverged. For Mod, the walk became a tool to bear witness to a quiet grace visible only when “you’re bored out of your skull and the miles left are long.”

Also out today is Casey Johnston’s A Physical Education, the subtitle of which is How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting.

In A Physical Education, Casey Johnston recounts how she ventured into the brave new world of weightlifting, leaving behind years of restrictive eating and endless cardio. Woven through the trajectory of how she rebuilt her strength and confidence is a staggering exposé of the damaging doctrine spread by diet and fitness culture.

Both Casey and Craig are wonderful writers who care deeply about their craft and passing their experiences, insights, and enthusiasm along to their readers. I’m picking up my pre-ordered copy of Craig’s book from my local bookstore this afternoon and I’m hoping there’s a copy of Casey’s book on the new nonfiction table so I can grab that too.

A Physical Education is available at Amazon, Bookshop, and at other booksellers. Casey is on tour for the book right now; check out the tour dates here.

Things Become Other Things is also available at Amazon, Bookshop, and other booksellers. Craig is currently on tour too; you can find his tour dates here.

• A Physical Education
• books
• Casey Johnston
• Craig Mod
• Things Become Other Things