I can’t believe how September is peeling itself away. It must always do this, but being fifteen days into illness makes it worse. I spent the week (once again) mostly coughing up this or that and wrangling (?) a sick baby. Nevertheless, it is Friday, and I’m feeling autumnal and hopeful, so here are ten things:
“Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals” by Oliver Burkeman.
My mentor and perennial favorite human Jill Riddell has been talking about this book for a few months now, in the context of, “Ever since I read that book, I have been feeling so much better.” Hearing this refrain for months makes a person curious, and so I put this book next on my reading queue. “Four Thousand Weeks” was a best-seller a year ago, and I totally get it. The profound effect it had on Jill has already settled in me, and I see this as being one of those seminal texts that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. It is a book that squarely takes on the impossible question of what to do about the fact that you are certainly going to die. Rather than being morose and scary, it’s absolutely uplifting. Some time ago, I visited a chiropractor to deal with years-old back pain. In one visit, he pulled my spine into alignment and suddenly, the pain was gone. This book is like that, but for the existential dread of being human.
“The Taylor Swift / Mountain Goats Truther Project” on Spotify.
The caption on this playlist is, “Every Taylor Swift song has an equal and equivalent Mountain Goats song, and I will prove it.” The result is not necessarily convincing, but you do get to listen to Taylor Swift songs next to Mountain Goats songs in a way that is INCREDIBLY PLEASING. I have this on right now, and it’s working for this season of less sun more leaves.
Katrina Roberts, who was my creative writing professor in college, and was also the human person my friends and I most wanted to be when we grew up (still is, tbh), has a new book coming out, and I’m BEYOND EXCITED ABOUT IT. Katrina introduced me to every poet I have ever truly loved (Jorie Graham? Li-Young Lee? Iconic.), and in her own rite, she is an unparalleled writer. Her poetry is whimsical, but not in a trite way; it appeals to the child in every adult and the adult in every child. Her work is always collaborative, and her collaborator is often the chaos of the universe itself. The results are exciting, fun, and beyond easy description. Her latest collection is all VISUAL POEMS, a medium that she’s all-but inventing here, and I can basically promise that you will love them. (I’m putting one below, and here are more.) Pre-order this book as a gift for yourself that will arrive at exactly the moment that you need this kind of beauty, just after the autumnal equinox.
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