Hello readers!! My name is Nick Rizner and I love a good story.
It honestly doesn’t matter how the story is being told as long as it’s being told well. Movies, television series, a great song; I’m into all of it. Hell, you can probably even tie my love for sports into my love for storytelling, as the best moments are always the result of a great, compelling storyline. But that’s not what we’re focusing on here. Here, we’re talking about books. Books, baby!!
You know… those things you used to have to read over summer break when you were a kid instead of playing outside with your friends. Books! Now, it may seem like a bad idea, as I attempt to start a new community of book lovers, to tell you that I used spark notes to get through 95% of my reading assignments in school. But I’m trying to keep things as honest as possible here at the WeHa Book Club and I hope that’s a good start.
(In the spirit of transparency, “WeHa” refers to “West Hartford” as in West Hartford, Connecticut – a little town in central CT where I’ve spent roughly a third of my life and am particularly fond of. I digress.)
I also love to write which is partially how we arrived here. I’ll get to the other reason at the end of this post and that, ladies and gentleman, is called foreshadowing. Despite the many ideas I’ve had for writing a novel or something of the like, I’m yet to pull the trigger. That lazy attempt at foreshadowing is probably a good indication why.
In truth, I’ve mostly stuck to blogging, some newspaper/magazine features and podcasting, which isn’t precisely ‘writing’ but certainly seems writing-adjacent.
My first blog was something called Real Radio back in 2013 which started as a music review site and quickly expanded into a personal blog about pretty much whatever I was interested in at the time. That led to an opportunity to join an MMA site with a couple guys from England who were looking for an American writing/podcaster. That’s probably what most of the people in my life know of my online presence.
I worked on MMA Mad from 2014-2020 and have actually continued to keep the podcast live despite the website URL lapsing. If for whatever reason you’re like me and enjoy a good book as well as a bloody cage fight, feel free to check that out here.
I spent the post-Covid era doing a little bit of MMA content on the old feed, a little bit of TV and movie content over at a site called The Disorderly, but I’ve mostly just let my proverbial keyboard and microphone collect dust over the years. Life gets in the way, as they say.
But we’re back now and I’m beyond excited to launch this new venture! Unlike my illiterate school days, I’ve become a pretty big reader in adulthood. 2025 marked the biggest reading year of my life, coming in at an even 60 books-read and I don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
Which brings us to the other reason I’ve decided to start a new site focused around books. Reading is cool again! Haven’t you heard?!
There’s been a pretty substantial push from social media that has caused a whole new generation of devout readers to run out to their local bookstores; Barnes & Noble, for example, plans on opening 60 new stores in 2026. And Every time I go to a library, there seems to be plenty of other people browsing around. It’s not at all uncommon to overhear someone asking how to get their own library card, either.
Plus, I’ve always had an affinity for sharing things that I love with the people around me. My fiancé is undoubtedly sick of hearing me rave about The Dark Tower series from Stephen King or listening to me read excerpts from the latest Elizabeth Strout novel. So congratulations, you’ve all been selected as my new audience! Hopefully, you can at least get some good recommendations out of all this and perhaps even pass some along to me.
Keep reading. Never stop reading. And thank you for reading Chapter One of the WeHa Book Club story. I hope you like it.
WeHa Book Club 