Solstice vibes

10 things worth sharing this 51st week of the year

Hey y’all,

Before I begin — if you need a last-minute gift for someone on your list, I’m offering 20% off subscriptions to this newsletter until Dec. 25th. No need for a special code or anything.

It’s bleak and rainy in Texas. Yesterday was the shortest day of the year. “I look out the window and it’s so drab,” my son said. “But then I look at the Christmas tree and it’s so cheerful.” That’s the spirit! This is the season when we need more light.

Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:

1. “Reading is first and foremost non-reading. Even in the case of the most passionate lifelong readers, the act of picking up and opening a book masks the countergesture that occurs at the same time: the involuntary act of not picking up and not opening all the other books in the universe.” After I posted my list of 20 books I didn’t read this year, I remembered Pierre Bayard’s book, How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read.
   
   

2. One reason I don’t make my best of year reading list until the end of the year is because there’s always some book that sneaks onto the list at the last minute. This year it’s Dwight Garner’s The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading. (The book is a better argument for a commonplace book than the actual commonplace book he published, Garner’s Quotations.)
   
   

3. Anni Albers’ On Weaving was one of the most gorgeous books I read last year. Here’s a look at her sketchbook.
   
   

4. When I’m sick of life, I turn to music; when I’m sick of my reading life, I turn to music books. This week I bought Marc Masters’ High Bias: The Distorted History of The Cassette Tape from him directly through Bandcamp so I could get it signed and bundled with a cool cassette of music from the book.
   
   

5. KUTX here in Austin starts their 3 days of holiday music today. I was delighted that several of you wrote to me about how much you enjoyed it last year. I am also delighted by this inside look at the recording of one of my favorite holiday treasures, Bob Dylan’s Christmas In The Heart. (I snuck “Must Be Santa” on a playlist I made for my 3rd grader’s classroom holiday party.)
   
   

6. Two hours of gravel-voiced joy: Tom Waits and Iggy Pop spinning records. (The BBC Sounds app is pretty excellent by the way: It actually shows you the individual tracks being played while the podcast is playing.)
   
   

7. My favorite TV critic, Phillip Maciak, on the year TV really put us through it. (Personally, I’m a “Forks” guy who’s burned out on TV trauma.) Phil’s top 10 of 2023 list is here and he also published a book this year about “screen time.”
   
   

8. TV probably not on Phillip’s list: Despite several attempts, I’ve never been able to crack Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books, but we binged the first season of Reacher with glee. Think Road House meets Rambo meets Sherlock Holmes. Dumb, violent fun. (I’m also, I admit, a fan of the first Tom Cruise movie — he’s totally wrong for Reacher, but Werner Herzog is perfect as the villain.)
   
   

9. Family-friendly viewing: You can watch the official Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special fully restored in HD on Youtube. (Unofficial sources for other favorites of mine: A Claymation Christmas Celebration and Muppet Family Christmas.)
   
   

10. I’m trying to keep up my holiday practice, but I’m also really looking forward to Dead Week.
    
    

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xoxo,

Austin

Treat yourself to my books — you can read them in a few hours and juke your year-end reading stats