Mid-Year Review: reading, art writing, notebooks

We’ve reached the midpoint of the year and I thought it would be appropriate to share a review of where things stand for me right now. I already did a little video version of this — a slightly more spontaneous take on the subject — and I am so glad I did because prepping for it and speaking off the cuff helped me realize that things don’t always have to FEEL good in order to BE good.

2026 is a professionally challenging year for me — in a good way — but as a result I have felt busy, overloaded with big challenges and lots of nights of “catching up” on work. That in turn cut into my leisure time — my reading has felt a little less smooth sailing and more catch it when you can, in any way you can. It almost feels like a miracle that I have been able to keep going, in large measure due to the fact that I claim reading as my default state. But still. It’s been an effort.

📚 READING: the intertexts of Checkout 19

However — thank you, past self — when I went mad and made a list of all ~300 books mentioned in Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett, I did my future self a huge favor. Not only did I find a way to stay within the mindscape of a favorite author but I also made myself the best TBR // Reading Syllabus I could probably have wished for. Some of my best reading of the year so far has been pulled directly from that list of texts. Specifically, I have become singularly fixated on reading the Swiss novelist Fleur Jaeggy. I recently recommended Sweet Days of Discipline (tr. Tim Parks) — a dark, moody, ethereal story of friendship and desire set in a posh Swiss boarding school — for Regan’s excellent collection of Ten books short enough for summer afternoons. I also loved her SS Proleterka — a short novel about a young girl and her father as they set off on a cruise through the Mediterranean. Her work is so sparse but atmospheric and it captures the oddness of girlhood and young womanhood so perfectly.

Jaeggy was very close to the Austrian superstar Ingeborg Bachmann — who also happens to feature prominently in Checkout 19 and, I am gathering, is also a Claire-Louise Bennett favorite. So much so that three of the epigraphs in Checkout 19 are quotes from the book and Bennett’s blurb for it goes as follows: “If I was permitted to keep one book only it would be Malina. Malina has everything.” I am working my way through the book right now — it’s not a breezy read but it is so incredibly rich and thought-provoking — and I keep thinking, wow, sometimes you don’t realize you are in a conversation with a set of minds across time and space and you don’t even know how any of that is possible. But it is. It is.

[Another author I have absolutely loved discovering this year is Gwendoline Riley and I was convinced that I found her work through the Checkout 19 list as well… but after I recorded the video, I checked my references and she’s not on it. Yet, she belongs to it. I plan to read The Palm House later this month and really look forward to it. I think that Riley is getting better with each book.]

📚 FRIEZE + ART WRITING

Another one of my desperate moves in an attempt to linger in the CLB universe was to subscribe to Frieze where Bennett is a contributor. I even gushed to Clara about it. As you can probably guess, I have yet to read a new piece by her in the magazine but six months into my subscription, I feel forever changed by the magazine. Not only have I loved reading about new art shows around the world, I have found myself completely surprised and captivated by the work of incredible artists AND have discovered — at the tender age of 45 — that I am fascinated by contemporary sculpture as an art form.

As I mention in my video, this discovery has made me feel quite sad at times — Why on earth did it take so long?! What path could my life have taken if I had discovered that I enjoyed reading about visual art earlier in my life?!... But, once I sober up, I am able to actually see how beautiful it is to discover such a meaningful corner of one’s heart so late in life… like… how cool to be surprised and so moved?! And, how EXCITING it is to grow older and know that there are so many surprises ahead, still.

📚 NOTEBOOKS et al.

No update of mine would be complete without making at least a brief mention of how my notebook life is going. The one big revelation that I wanted to share is that after thinking of myself as a pretty steady A5 or larger notebook person for my whole life, I have just realized that all of a sudden, I love something smaller. Part of this has been influenced by the fact that I now go into my office three times a week and for portability reasons, a smaller notebook makes sense. I have been partial to the thick but compact Stalogy Editor Series 365 Day notebook which I have been using for work notes and loving that it’s bigger than a tiny passport // pocket size thing but small enough that I can place it between my laptop and me while I work.

I have also been using this fantastic hard-cover Kokuyo Sketch Notes notebook that Jenovia 🕸️ sent me a while back — I just set it at my desk and use it as my scratch pad for capturing random, fleeting thoughts as they pop into my head. It’s essentially a book of lists — grocery lists, newsletter ideas, books that caught my attention here on Substack. I am using it in the same way that people capture notes in their Notes App but I like this better because of how tactile it is and also it does not distract me in the same way that picking up my phone does.

I have, of course, continued to play in my small, pocket-sized Paper Republic notebook for my junk journaling time and continue to learn and enjoy so much because of that practice. As a paper lover, I have been getting a lot of satisfaction out of these small books because they give me that giddy sense of completing a notebook and moving on to the next one much more quickly and we know how much we love that feeling. DOPAMINE.

Thinking about all of this, I am feeling that happy-tired-optimistic feeling that one gets at the end of a good beach day. It’s been an exhausting half of the year but all of this activity has felt enjoyable, productive and wholesome. I love when I feel confident in my track — doing my own things, following my own beat — but also being able to experience the expansive nature of my very personal idiosyncratic choices… yes, in many ways it all feels very much like same ole, same ole…. BUT at the same time, I am noticing that I am pushing my own edges and I am feeling my heart and mind growing in surprising directions which feels really, really good.

• What have you been reading and loving? What invisible string has been holding all of your favorite books together?

• What has surprised and delighted you? Have you stumbled upon any unexpected interests or hobbies?

• If any of the above has felt hard or challenging — how can I and/or this community support you?

July Zoom Coffee with Petya
Sign up directly on Calend.ly or email me at petya.grady@gmail.com if the open slots don’t work for you! I will try to be flexible!!!
xo,
Petya