The Author & The Book
About Xessentialism
A collection of personal essays about the grit, resourcefulness, and unwritten rules of the last generation to grow up entirely offline.
About the Book
What can a $20 bill, a generic TV Guide, and a quarter graveyard teach you about surviving the information age?
In Xessentialism, author Brent Simeon takes readers through the 1980s and 1990s streetscapes of Brooklyn, NY and Charleston, SC. Written with the conversational rhythm of an old friend telling a legendary story, this collection of personal essays explores the grit, resourcefulness, and unwritten rules of the last generation to grow up entirely offline.
Presented in four parts — Commerce, Acceptance, Patience, and Autonomy — it turns everyday analog moments into lessons for navigating the modern digital world. The full manuscript lives in the book; here’s a look at how it’s built.
Inside the Book
The four parts
Part I — Lessons in Commerce
The Infamous Store Errand: navigating grocery aisles with a crumpled paper list, a crisp Jackson, and zero digital safety nets.
Part II — Lessons in Acceptance
The Saturday Morning Lineup: forging tripartisanship among three siblings sharing seven channels and exactly one TV set.
Part III — Lessons in Patience
Waiting for the DJ to Shut Up: holding Record and Pause at the ready to capture music off the radio via cassette tape.
Part IV — Lessons in Autonomy
Adventures at the Library: what you learn from an institutional babysitter when public stacks and card catalogs taught real independence.
The Author
Brent E. Simeon Sr.
Brent E. Simeon Sr. is an independent author, publisher, and storyteller. Think of him as a grown-up Kevin Arnold (The Wonder Years) or Gordie Lachance (Stand by Me) — mapping out the tangible reality of the analog era to remind us how to navigate the modern digital world.
From the Manuscript
A look at the table of contents
A peek at the contents, straight from the manuscript.
Read it now
Analog lessons for a digital world.
Read the e-book on Amazon — free with Kindle Unlimited — or join the waitlist for the print edition.