Some things I wanted to show you

This January is not at all what I expected, but I‘m not complaining. On New Year’s Eve I was offered a full-time, fully remote job (no applying, no interview) that will allow me to put my book business on sabbatical for a bit and get out of burnout (you’ll probably hear more about this over time).

Very excited about the new season of The Pitt. Started reading Wuthering Heights for the first time with this read-along. Love looking ahead to movie release times and making plans for Sunday matinees.

I am so excited for all the things my brain will be able to manage again once I’ve had a chance to get out of burnout.

Together holding onto the ideas that last a lifetime : “Over the course of these conversations though each guest shared the one thought they kept they also shared so much more and I started to notice how some of the episodes started to talk to each other. Key themes began to emerge and these highlight where we all are right now: What we’re thinking about. What we’re struggling with. What we’re excited for.”

Ten philosophical ideas that secretly change how you live : “philosophy rarely changes your life at the moment you encounter it. however, it tends to change your life later, when something goes wrong and you realise you’re responding differently than you once would have. your reactions change, even if you can’t trace exactly when or how. philosophy works underground. it alters what you expect from life, what you tolerate, what you panic about, and what you stop taking personally.”

Taking On Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge for 2026? Here Are Suggestions for Each Category : From the New York Public Library. I’ve read three of these. Guess I’d better get started.

The slow death of the love of learning : “Do you wonder sometimes what would our present day be like, if only at a particular place and pivotal era, the past had taken a different path? Is history as clear and comprehensible as it appears to be when we watch a discerning documentary crafted with intelligence and wisdom that only hindsight provides, or is it instead composed of myriad coincidences, fragile and easily breakable moments that could have unfolded in countless ways other than the one we have come to know and accept? Small questions such as these can motivate writers and poets—sometimes they can even be an inspiration for a novel, poem or short story.”

We really are entering a new age of Romanticism : “In the old days, movie villains were mobsters or crime syndicates. Nowadays they are tech innovators. This kind of shift in the popular imagination does not happen by chance. Now let’s revisit the (even older) history. Back in the 1700s, ruthless algorithms had a different name. They called them Rationalism—and the whole Western world was under the sway of the Age of Reason. But like today’s algorithms, the new systems of the Rationalists attempted to replace human wisdom and experience with intrusive and inflexible operating rules. It didn’t work.”

WATCHING :

Christmas movies (of course); Mad Men S4*1 (love this show so much); Marty Supreme* (better than I expected, v much recommend); Pluribus S1 (I need more asap); Welcome to Derry S1 (absolutely incredible, can’t wait for more); One Battle After Another*2 (love PTA)

READING :

Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone* (so fun, meta murder mystery, I’ll read all the books in this series); Everyone this Christmas has a Secret* (murder mystery tropes + “Christmas special” tropes, very smart); This Book Will Bury Me*3 (true crime / internet sleuth pulled into a thriller story); Vanity Fair magazines (I tend to save these up for reading slumps)

( *these are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through any of these links I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you )