the rest of it

Books The reading year started out well, then I started learning Mandarin. At least that's my excuse. I read 12 books, mostly in the first half of the year and many of them very, very light—plus much of the Oxford Handbook of Typology , as part of a reading group.  The best (and meatiest) of the book bunch was John Higgs' Stranger than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century . Each chapter takes a BIG IDEA, like relativity or identity, and spells out how thought on that matter developed. So lucid, with a great sense of humo(u)r. Much recommended. Films Only 17 films this year! Tiny compared to normal, but the next section holds the explanation. If I have to choose one film of the year, it's Wim Wenders' Perfect Days. So quiet, so perfect. Of course, I don't have to pick just one, so I'm also going to choose The Holdovers   and Devo   as my top films.   Honorary mentions to:  Poor Things (though I have reservations) and  Kinds of Kindness...

It's time to navel-gaze! My favo(u)rite time!  2024 Resolution Round-up My resolutions for this year , and how they went: Health : spend some time on the floor each day . Success.  It was a minimalist goal, but put a reminder in Omnifocus and it generally happened. I'm going to keep the reminder in, and try to stretch more while down there. Interpersonal :  ask more interesting questions when I'm chatting with people I don't know much . Minor success?  I kind of forgot about this one, but I think I inadvertently did it. I'm getting better at chatting with some people at least. I have found that in some contexts it is very hard to get anything but the smallest of small talk going—there are lots of people for whom that is the comfort zone. We are in the midst of 'small talk' season now...I am coping. One and done : prepare for death In progress.  I really left this for the last minute, and I have done some of it and have other things on my to-do list for the r...