Happy New Year!
We have reached 2020. I’m not big on new year resolutions, but I’m adopting them in the most general way possible.
- read more books (obviously)
- form new connections and cultivate existing ones
- give myself permission to say no and recharge
- limit my social media time
Feel free to drop some of your own goals for the year in the comments!
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Did you know there’s such a thing as a “penis fish”? I did not and I felt very uncomfortable reading this article on public transportation.
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As a cat lover and owner, there’s always a good chance Links will contain something cat-related. I am obsessed with this spectrum of cat personalities and my own cat, Linus, is deep in the “aristocratic bastard” quadrant.
Very rarely I wish I had more followers so that I could make everybody fill out a dumb meme. Please describe your cat on these axes pic.twitter.com/O3VbXEcsO5
— Miya (@pleasantchime) December 18, 2019
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I enjoyed this list of Boston wildlife sightings, from a hawk hanging out in a subway station to a squirrel eating a slice of pizza to raccoons emerging from the sewers.
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Before the new year, there was a popular meme going around to examine how your life has changed in improved in the last decade. Well here’s a piece from McSweeney’s on what popular literary characters have achieved:
- Didn’t catch any fish for 84 days straight
- Was shunned by my village
- Went fishing in the Gulf Stream to break my bad luck
- Became a spiritual brother to a giant marlin
- Hallucinated a lot
- Killed a bunch of sharks who ate my fish
- Sure, NOW I’m a hero, you mofos
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And let’s end this Links with something that is incredibly beautiful:
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Don’t forget to share what super cool things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
While I usually don’t make reading-related resolutions (because I like to read what I want when I want), I am going to try to incorporate more of the 125+ Harlequin Presents romances I snagged for a buck a bag at the Friends of the Library book sale. The books had been languishing in piles under my side table, but over the Christmas break, one of my daughters and I sorted them by author and put them in a small shelving unit in the den. My plan for 2020 is to try to read an HP every time I finish one book and before I start another…but I make no promises.
Also, I posted this yesterday in the comments for the review of LOVE LETTERING, but for those who may have missed it, there’s an interview with Kate Clayborn at Love in Panels:
https://www.loveinpanels.com/prose/love-lettering
Can’t stop scrolling through cat quadrants thread. Don’t want to stop.
Sorry—I linked to the wrong article. Here’s the link to the Kate Clayborn interview:
https://www.loveinpanels.com/prose/kate-clayborn-interview
@Discodollydeb – I, too, like to read what I want when I want. Reading challenges give me anxiety. Hard pass.
I like to set intentions rather than goals. Be kind to myself, respect my boundaries, do no harm but take no shit… that sort of thing.
@Escapeologist: I’m so relieved to see this. Reading challenges make everything in me seize like an out-of-oil engine. The idea of intentions is a helpful one, thanks.
I actually liked the Book Riot Reading Challenge last year (the first year I tried it) and I’m going to try it again.
For me, personally, it got me to explore a few genres and books that I wouldn’t have otherwise and I read two really amazing books last year because of it (there were also about 10 interesting ones and a few books that I’d always “meant to read” but could never find the time for. There were also some that were complete crap.)
Reading is my one “should-free” space. I used to do the Goodreads target number challenge until it occurred to me that you don’t get anything out of achieving it beyond your own satisfaction, and as a shallow person who is very motivated by prizes–even just a silly badge to put on my profile–decided it wasn’t worth it 🙂
That video is breathtaking.