What are you reading?
At the start of the year I made a commitment to read more. After a couple of weird COVID years, i’d basically stopped reading if it wasn’t required for work. Reading more is a good thing to do whichever way you look at it… new ideas, new perspectives but ultimately, it’s a massive help in getting to better writing too.
Central to realising this ambition was getting rid of some of the distractions which had begun to accumulate in my life.
I made a conscious decision to reduce or avoid social media, ditching Instagram (besides freeing up time, this had a surprising and quite immediate impact on my general happiness and levels of ‘life satisfaction’).
I weaned myself off the late-night Youtube videos which became such a prominent part of my lockdown media consumption. Goodbye to videos on fixing a nasty slice, Science Fiction fan theory, Watches and the SR-71 Blackbird.
Kicking these into touch, combined with the return to commuting, meant that I created the space - both in terms of my attention span and indeed time - to allow me to get back into the habit of regularly reading books again. My attention span took some time to recover sufficiently, but the routine of coming into the office and using the time sat on trains and tubes helped me slowly get back to a level of concentration somewhat resembling ‘pre-social media’ levels.
I also made a conscious effort to ask people what they were reading. It’s a great question to ask : when making small talk with strangers, when interviewing people, at dinner…. the answers are both informative; helping you learn more about the person you’re speaking to, but also instructive: the answers make for a great source of inspiration.
In the spirit of that question and as a small token of my gratitude for those who answered…. below is a list of the stuff i’ve read this year. I’ve thrown in some of the bits I’ve enjoyed watching and listening to this year for good measure.
Personally, it’s been interesting to compile this list and look back at what I’ve spent my time with. There is very little ‘work’ related material here and in terms of the fiction, Science Fiction has been very prominent. In other areas, I’ve found newsletters a really worthwhile addition to my diet: they’ve filled a gap left by the plannersphere and Twitter’s weird mid-life crisis.
I hope you find some things that you might enjoy yourself.
Books / Fiction
Rendevous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke
Never Let Me Go by Kizuo Ishiguro
Outline by Rachel Cusk
The Dark Forest and Death’s End by Cixin Lui
Augustus by John Williams
Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagen
Books / Non-Fiction
Go Luck Yourself by Andy Nairn
Brutal London by Simon Phipps
Dark Matter and Trojan Horses by Dan Hill
The Nolan Variations by Tom Shone
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Looking Back at Francis Bacon by David Sylvester
Newsletters
A to Z of Media Planning by Matt Prentis
Zine by Matt Klein
Salmon Theory by Rob Estreitinho
Brands and Humour by Paddy Gilmore
Sociology of Business by Ana Andjelic
Podcasts
The Lex Fridman Podcast (especially the stuff about Chess and Poker)
The London Review of Books Podcast (especially John Lanchester on ‘acceptable’ cheating in sport)
The Rewatchables
Film and TV Highlights
Andor
The Bear
Foundation
Severance
Taskmaster
Games
Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
