In Appreciation of Paid Subscribers

A free leatherbound book for Annual subscribers

At the request of some subscribers who wanted to provide support for what the Castalia Library substack does, as opposed to the books that Castalia Library publishes, we recently turned on paid subscriptions. However, since the prime objective of this site is, and will always be, efficiently disseminating important information about the Library to the various subscribers, putting any kind of paywall into place would be counterproductive.

So, no paywalls here.

As we cast about for what other options we have for those who wish to support the site, and what we can do to improve what the site has to offer both the free and the paid subscribers, we came up with a few ideas that we think will be of interest to the former and for the benefit of the latter.

First, we are offering a free leatherbound Castalia Library book to all Annual subscribers, including those who have already subscribed. We happen to have produced more of the two Taleb books that were not part of the Library subscription than we needed, and so that’s why we are offering a complimentary copy of the beautiful Castalia Library edition of THE BLACK SWAN to everyone who takes out, or has taken out, an Annual subscription to this substack between November 1 2025 and November 30, 2026.

THE BLACK SWAN by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

There is no need to do anything but sign up for a paid annual subscription to the site here; we will periodically send the list of Annual subscribers to the warehouse, at which point you’ll be contacted via email for your shipping address. On the off-chance that you happen to already have a Library edition of THE BLACK SWAN, let us know when you receive the email and we’ll send you the Library edition of FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS instead.

Now, as to what we can do to further enhance the site for monthly and free subscribers, what we’re going to do is use the resources we’re being provided by our paid subscribers to address one of the problems that has been created by the vagaries of international copyright law. The problem is that while most of the great historical texts of Asia are in the public domain, their English translations, having been created much more recently, are not.

However, a recent experiment has demonstrated that some AIs are not only capable of reading classic Asian texts in their original ideographic forms, but can even provide us with customized translations that are generally superior to the traditional translations we can’t use without obtaining permission anyhow.

I’ve also used the system to successfully test the translation of a famous medieval Spanish chronicle that has never been translated into English before.

Many other matters touching this subject are here left unsaid for decency’s sake, and to avoid writing that might be injurious to a royal person… Let no one think it a hard thing to believe what he reads here of this King or of any other who, following his appetites and giving himself to vices, loses the true understanding of things and is converted to a weak nature. For this is the fruit that carnal pleasures give to him who lets himself be conquered by them and knows not when young how to resist the temptations and assaults that weak youth receives, being poor in counsel through little experience of affairs.

So, if there is sufficient interest in these works, what we’ll do is put together a list of five or six possibilities, take a vote on what translated work is of most interest to everyone here as a second serial, and then decide how often that second serial should run. We will, of course, continue to run our primary serial on a daily basis; we would certainly not wish to deprive anyone of their edifying daily dose of Sir Charles Oman.

Please feel to share your thoughts on any of these things in the comments.