what i love right now #5 + sneak peek of upcoming posts
hello little winter poppets. how are you?
i have a few posts in the hopper but they’re incubating for a little longer. wanted to give you a sneak preview!
a few upcoming posts:
a book review of a certain very “in” pop(ular) psychology book about “addictions”, actual addictions, and habits
my 2024 “buy rules” about what i am/am not going to buy, with the goal to only purchase 20 things in 2024 and why i’m doing this at all
an exploration of my relationship to, and analysis of, panic-buying/stress-buying/emotional shopping
a response to the very memeable throwaway comment/selfcare philosophy bumper sticker of “we don’t have to do hard things” with, well, maybe we benefit from practicing doing hard things, actually (not in a capitalist way, but in a soul-affirming way)
some apps/programs i like to help curb smartphone, technology, “very online” use — cuz not everyone is going to get a dumbphone, i get that
If there’s something you’d really like to see, please let me know!
Okay, on to what I love right now.
1. Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina
Since September, I’ve been reading Anna Karenina. It’s been a wonderful book to move through fall and into winter with. I have lately been finding myself drawn to “classical” literature of all kinds. I was always a reader, and I enjoyed much of the classical (mostly Western, European-, and Anglocentric) literature I read as a kid and teenager. But reading Tolstoy now, I’m struck by how much of what I read did not apply to a fifteen-year-old person. Questions around societal duty, meaningful work, industrialization. . . I was privileged enough to be able to analyze some of these in literature but not really know them internally. I loved literary analysis as a teen and young adult. (I thought I’d get a PhD in English, and if I didn’t care about having to survive in late-stage capitalism, I probably would have.) But the analysis of my youth was largely forensic and mathematical. I could take apart a sentence and follow a motif, but it was rarer that I was deeply moved by what I read—even regarding work I really loved.
I know that revisiting and visiting the Western canon of literature is not without its problems. (When I don’t read classics, I read very diversely anyway.) But reflecting on these, and other, meaningful pieces of literature that endure through time has, as of late, been super rewarding for me.
2. Happiest Season (the gay Christmas movie with Kristen Stewart from 3 years ago)
I never watched this when it came out. I finally did! It’s bad in the best ways, good in some great ways. Some underrated actors in this lil gem!
3. Listening to the radio
Recently, my dad visited me and brought a radio/CD player. I’d been on the hunt for one because while Spotify and YouTube music are fine, I miss the randomness of the radio or playing an old mixed CD.
We plugged in this baby. It’s been nice to have music on that’s not pre-determined by an algorithm and listen back through CDs I gave my partner in college.
4. Well-narrated audiobooks
I’m listening to My Dark Vanessa — trigger warnings a million, please read the blurb of this book before you pick it up—and it’s excellently narrated by Grace Gummer. I got 75% of the way through the book thinking, “Who is this? I know this voice…” before looking up the narrator. She really adds a whole emotional layer to the book that I think is incredibly well-done, especially given the subject matter.
5. This pooch, Smudge
Here’s a shot of her magnificence in the summer rays of sunshine.
I’ll be taking a few weeks off from posting in January due to some life stuff. While I do that and work on some of these longer-form posts, please take care of yourself.
Stay hydrated! Hug a tree!