I’m stealing an idea from Alan Jacobs, author of The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction and several other books. Jacobs regularly graces my inbox with his newsletter, which I thoroughly enjoy and which is part of the inspiration behind me writing this blog.
Most newsletters end with a brief status board, where Jacobs shares something like the current contents of his life. It’s reliably fascinating, and it seems a worthwhile exercise to replicate in some fashion, so I’m going to try it.
READING: I am going to Zion National Park in a few days, so I checked out a slew of books about Utah, Zion, and the southwestern wild lands generally. I’m currently reading Eating Stone by Ellen Meloy, a meditation on desert bighorn sheep and the ways that the loss of the wild harms the human. (Next up is Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven, which is coming along on the trip because it’s a paperback and therefore lighter.)
WATCHING: We watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, chunks of which are filmed in Zion National Park. It’s another meditation on an endangered species, on a way of life threatened and eventually destroyed by encroaching civilization, it’s just that this time it’s outlaws.
MUSIC: I’ve been listening to a lot of the soundtrack from Captain Marvel. It’s full of 90s throwbacks and rebellion, and I’m deeply tempted to buy a Nine Inch Nails shirt.
FOOD AND DRINK: Look, I know this chicken with figs situation sounds weird. Figs? Yogurt? Chicken? What? Trust it, though. Serve over rice with some bright, lemony greens to cut the heaviness and you have a perfect meal for a winter evening.