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I’m extremely jealous of people who still read 20, 30, 50, or more (!) books a year. I was an obsessive reader as a kid, tearing through anything and everything so long as it had words in it. But now, like so many other phone-addicted, child-distracted, simply tired adults, it takes me weeks and real, concentrated effort to finish a simple novel. It would be pathetic if it weren’t so sad. Actually it’s both. So I’m intrigued by writer Naomi Alderman’s “Couch to 5K for Books” which she wrote about
on her Substack last month and
in the Guardian this week. Alderman lays out three paths for three different types of wannabe return readers and we all probably fall into one of those categories. I’m tempted to say that this is all very inspiring and it’ll jolt me back into reading more on my own, but that’s exactly what someone with a reading problem would say, isn’t it? So, I’m going to declare reading rock bottom and start from scratch. (That said, I
do have a few book recommendations saved up for future emails.)
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Even a week later,
the discourse around
Emily Wilson’s scathing review of Christopher Nolan’s
The Odyssey is a
good excuse to share
this feature by
Foster Kamer from
Gossamer Volume Five: Flower—now online for the first time ever. “Morning’s Glory,” while ostensibly about Kamer’s lifelong quest to become a morning person, opens with an epigraph from Wilson’s translation of the Greek epic and references Homer,
The Odyssey itself, or Wilson close to a dozen times. I never thought a personal essay about sleep habits pegged to an almost 3000-year-old poem would be timely, but here we are.
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On a somewhat related note, if you like a clear-headed, energizing high that’s as fun for a night out as it is effective for Sunday errands,
Snoozy’s New Morning Highs are for you. Each gummy is infused with 10mg of THC and CBG for a palpable boost rendered smooth and free of anxiety thanks to the therapeutic benefits of the latter.
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New York public arts organization Creative Time is
bringing back its summer sandcastle competition after over a decade of waiting. I attended one of the original competitions back in 2012 or 2013, I honestly can’t remember which, but I do know that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and being significantly younger then than I am today. You can read the
Times’ coverage from that, er,
time here to get a sense of what it’s all about, or just plan to head to Rockaway Beach on Sunday, September 13th, from 1-4 PM.
RSVP here, though I don’t know if you actually need to be registered to attend (I doubt you do).
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If you weren’t already familiar with photographer Christopher Anderson’s work, you probably saw the
White House portfolio he shot for Vanity Fair late last year. Or, barring that, the
2015 portraits of Jeffrey Epstein he unearthed in January, which made headlines for both Anderson’s story of the experience and the damning email exchange about payment owed to Epstein by the former Prince Andrew he inadvertently captured in the process.
Index is an 11-volume box set that spans 30 years of Anderson’s career, the first run of which sold out in just a few weeks. Both of the aforementioned shoots are included, as well as a series shot from a sinking ship of Haitian migrants, tender portraits of his family, and his work as a journalist in Afghanistan in the lead-up to 9/11. I suspect this run will go even faster than the last.
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I’m not expecting everyone to be traveling to Lake Annecy this summer—or ever—but if you just so happen to be visiting that absolutely stunning area of the world sometime soon, allow me to throw one (for now) suggestion your way:
La Terre de Bellevarde. Overlooking the lake from the hills of Duingt, this fully outdoor restaurant and drinks spot offers an incredibly charming experience that sums up the reason you traveled so far to this place to begin with. The food is rather simple—grilled meats, fish, and vegetables on open flame with some sides—and the drinks are just as good or bad as most any other decent place in France. But the act of taking in the view of the water, the defunct castle below, the mountains across, well, it’s sublime. So, mark this down and save it for your itinerary whenever that may be, and go.
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