Hello!

About Me

Hello!

Welcome to my first blog post ever! I think it’s only fitting to make this an introduction post– you should know who is writing (though I’m sure you’ll get to know me better through future blog posts). This post will also cover my intentions for this blog, why I’m making it, and the topics I plan to discuss.

I’m Sam Cote (pronounced KO-tee)

I am a college student at Syracuse University, and planning to spend this coming semester in Prague, Czech Republic. I’m majoring in International Relations and anthropology, focusing on Asia and Intercultural Communication (ICC). I’m endlessly interested in these subjects, and they will frequently come up in future blog posts– they’ve shaped the way I interpret the world and the media I consume. I promise I’ll keep it interesting!

I grew up in a suburb of Boston, and spent many afternoons, evenings, and weekends of High School teaching myself photography and videography; if you scroll way back on my Instagram and YouTube pages, you’ll see the artistic growing pains from that time. It took a while for me to settle into my own style of online content, and it’s something I’ll continue to do for years to come.

Most recently, I’ve found myself on TikTok, and been loving being a part of the BookTok community. The people there have been motivating me to keep reading with all of their recommendations and enthusiasm– it’s fantastic that reading the books I love to read can help me find a community online. Since getting involved over there, I’ve decided that “books” as a niche is exactly what I want to focus on.

This Blog

Blogging, as a whole, is very new to me. Other than being assigned a blogging project in middle school by a ~tech savvy~ teacher, this is my first real attempt. I’m finding WordPress tough to use, but slowly making it work– I’m not in love with my homepage layout right now, but it is functioning; that’s good enough for the time being!

This blog/website is going to serve a couple functions:

1. It’s a place my entire internet presence can link back to. Ironically, Squarespace’s marketing on every YouTuber’s videos motivated me to get a domain– just not with their service ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. And having samdcote.com snuggled right up with all of my matching socials handles feels *immaculate*
2. Thought collecting and idea generation. When I make YouTube videos, I generally type out a rough script beforehand– essentially blog-post-versions of my videos. That got me thinking: “why not make a blog with all of my thoughts on the books I read so I have something to pull from when it comes time to make a video?” Essentially, the blog is going to make it easier to make book content, while simultaneously being book content. Genius.
3. WordPress seems like the most scalable option, so if I ever want to sell books or merch or anything like that I’ll, theoretically, only have to update my website to accommodate that. Theoretically.

Thanks!

As I say at the end of my YouTube videos, thank you for being here. Thank you for being you. I can’t wait to really get the posts flowing, and see what this blog grows into. If you subscribe, you can expect high-quality book reviews, rants, releases, updates, and more delivered right to your inbox. See you in the next post, friend!