I am happy to receive postcards. I am looking to use the non-art side of postcards I receive as part of the head images for this year-long series of posts. If you are interested in sharing one, I would love that. I'll follow up in email.
Good morning Amy. Enjoyed this morning’s read. Love the drawings of your sweet mom. The Jan. 5th (I think) one with her legs coming toward you is my favorite (and not easy to capture an angle like that). You’re beginning this new (and strange already) year with Proust and I’ve begun it with Long Island by Colm Toibin and followed with Where Coyotes Howl. I think I’m up for the Postcard Challenge. Is there a prompt list (other than books we’re reading)? I’d love to send you a postcard (mailing address?).
Hi Carol, thank you for reading and commenting here. It was a nice surprise to see this pop-up. And thank you for commenting on one of those drawings from the Sunday post. I think the ones with feet in the foreground are sometimes difficult to pull off so I really appreciate you mentioning that one. I don’t know the book Long Island. I will have to take a look just to see what it is about. But I hope that you are enjoying your start with it. I know that you write so many postcards! This is the fourth in this series and they are all in separate posts, one per month. You can find them here https://illustratedlife.substack.com/t/postcard-series. This is currently planned as a series of 12 monthly cards. You might find that you just want to catch up with the first two or even three when you reach that point next fall where they might seem relevant to the calendar. I would love to have you send me a postcard that I can use in these head images. I will follow up an email.
A very inspiring weekly letter/post! I started off completely identifying with needing to take a break from the race I have been running (completely in my head mind you, my body has made no movement forward). I am leaving inspired to take small steps towards setting my year in motion! Austin Kleon said we can consider February 1 as the start to the year, so there is that.
I admire your interest in reading Proust. I want to read more this year, but not read harder.
I don't read harder in general. I am really not thinking this will be that, but we'll see. In general, I am VERY much read easy for enjoyment, so do that if that is what you love! And yes, small steps all add up. We don't even need someone else to tell us it's okay. That's the thing. It simply is okay.
I love the idea of making two of these - one for myself of my first read (A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer by Maxie Dara) or maybe my overly ambitious loans on Libby) and then your idea of the reading tracker for the postcard I send my niblings!
I have done the BookRiot Read Harder challenge for the past 10 years and highly recommend it. I’m feeling a bit like you this year, wanting to read my own bookshelf backlist and my own curated lists in various apps (Libby, hoopla, my library, my audible library, my kindle).
I love reading and love this post (I am still in my avoid reading white men era but hope you share more of your Proust adventure!!)
Yes to the self-curated lists, but that's cool about your experience with the BookRiot Read Harder challenge. Thank you so much for the kind words here -- and for even being open to hearing about the Proust adventure. I feel like that is what it will be, so thank you.
I'm so glad to see your comment. I was thinking about you when I was crafting this and thinking that your first book might not (or might) work well for sharing with your younger recipients. So, I love seeing that you have multiple avenues!
How did I miss this? I somehow followed the link to the short version of the postcard prompt, but had no idea there was a whole post to go with it. Granted, I have been slacking on my Substack routine. I’ve been a huge reader and book nerd my entire life. Too many stories and spirals and reflections to even begin. Here’s one snapshot from what now seems like a bad dream: I woke up one day a year or two ago and realized I had stopped reading (except research for my wonky soul-sucking job). It was shocking. I knew I was close to breaking, but that told me I was broken. Starting to read again coincided with my discovering your Substack. It’s all mixed up in the same reawakening.
But I have decided to devote a separate postcard to this (up to now I’ve been combining your prompt with another postcard series I’m doing). I have an enormous pile of books to read, and have been experimenting with how to organize my digital library.
Glad you found this post. It’s the only one for this postcard prompt, but I am not necessarily sending these as separate inbox posts, so they may be less obvious than the post that goes out in email each week. I think that is a really powerful moment of recognition and breaking that you reached, and I am glad that you obviously pushed forward from that point and rekindled something that matters to you. I am glad that you have a plan for your postcard for this, and I hope that your other postcard series has been fulfilling and that you are enjoying it. I think these questions of organization are so pervasive and can be so overwhelming and are so often the kinds of things that we think about a lot and don’t make as much progress as we would like. This is something that’s really high on my list-of-things-that-are-staring-at-me for this year, too.
Whoops, fat thumbs hit sent too soon. I was going to say that I want to revisit that break, and this postcard will be a start — a fun way to map some of my piles, to celebrate my Amy & Books rejuvenation, and to document my restless everything. It’s also a good Forest/trees exercise, because I typically lose myself and my daily rhythms once I open a cover.
We should have a longer conversation about what it means to collapse into another world. Also: translation. I recently read a fascinating series on gender and classical translations. Will try to dig it out and send you a link. Love the image of you down the Bruce translation rabbit hole. So apropos.
Well, it is a delightful line… “To collapse into another world.” I look forward to seeing what you do with this tracking and idea of mapping or surveying a point of break or a point of, as you put it, rejuvenation. I think that sounds pretty fascinating in terms of mapping reality. I had to laugh about the Bruce comment!
I would be happy to send a postcard to you from across the country, if still needed!
I am happy to receive postcards. I am looking to use the non-art side of postcards I receive as part of the head images for this year-long series of posts. If you are interested in sharing one, I would love that. I'll follow up in email.
Good morning Amy. Enjoyed this morning’s read. Love the drawings of your sweet mom. The Jan. 5th (I think) one with her legs coming toward you is my favorite (and not easy to capture an angle like that). You’re beginning this new (and strange already) year with Proust and I’ve begun it with Long Island by Colm Toibin and followed with Where Coyotes Howl. I think I’m up for the Postcard Challenge. Is there a prompt list (other than books we’re reading)? I’d love to send you a postcard (mailing address?).
Hi Carol, thank you for reading and commenting here. It was a nice surprise to see this pop-up. And thank you for commenting on one of those drawings from the Sunday post. I think the ones with feet in the foreground are sometimes difficult to pull off so I really appreciate you mentioning that one. I don’t know the book Long Island. I will have to take a look just to see what it is about. But I hope that you are enjoying your start with it. I know that you write so many postcards! This is the fourth in this series and they are all in separate posts, one per month. You can find them here https://illustratedlife.substack.com/t/postcard-series. This is currently planned as a series of 12 monthly cards. You might find that you just want to catch up with the first two or even three when you reach that point next fall where they might seem relevant to the calendar. I would love to have you send me a postcard that I can use in these head images. I will follow up an email.
A very inspiring weekly letter/post! I started off completely identifying with needing to take a break from the race I have been running (completely in my head mind you, my body has made no movement forward). I am leaving inspired to take small steps towards setting my year in motion! Austin Kleon said we can consider February 1 as the start to the year, so there is that.
I admire your interest in reading Proust. I want to read more this year, but not read harder.
I don't read harder in general. I am really not thinking this will be that, but we'll see. In general, I am VERY much read easy for enjoyment, so do that if that is what you love! And yes, small steps all add up. We don't even need someone else to tell us it's okay. That's the thing. It simply is okay.
Someone told me yesterday that Les Miserable has 365 chapters and would be perfect to read as a chapter a day...I am considering it.
I think the chapter-a-day approach is a fun challenge. If you do it, I hope you enjoy it from the start!
I love the idea of making two of these - one for myself of my first read (A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer by Maxie Dara) or maybe my overly ambitious loans on Libby) and then your idea of the reading tracker for the postcard I send my niblings!
I have done the BookRiot Read Harder challenge for the past 10 years and highly recommend it. I’m feeling a bit like you this year, wanting to read my own bookshelf backlist and my own curated lists in various apps (Libby, hoopla, my library, my audible library, my kindle).
I love reading and love this post (I am still in my avoid reading white men era but hope you share more of your Proust adventure!!)
Yes to the self-curated lists, but that's cool about your experience with the BookRiot Read Harder challenge. Thank you so much for the kind words here -- and for even being open to hearing about the Proust adventure. I feel like that is what it will be, so thank you.
I'm so glad to see your comment. I was thinking about you when I was crafting this and thinking that your first book might not (or might) work well for sharing with your younger recipients. So, I love seeing that you have multiple avenues!
How did I miss this? I somehow followed the link to the short version of the postcard prompt, but had no idea there was a whole post to go with it. Granted, I have been slacking on my Substack routine. I’ve been a huge reader and book nerd my entire life. Too many stories and spirals and reflections to even begin. Here’s one snapshot from what now seems like a bad dream: I woke up one day a year or two ago and realized I had stopped reading (except research for my wonky soul-sucking job). It was shocking. I knew I was close to breaking, but that told me I was broken. Starting to read again coincided with my discovering your Substack. It’s all mixed up in the same reawakening.
But I have decided to devote a separate postcard to this (up to now I’ve been combining your prompt with another postcard series I’m doing). I have an enormous pile of books to read, and have been experimenting with how to organize my digital library.
Glad you found this post. It’s the only one for this postcard prompt, but I am not necessarily sending these as separate inbox posts, so they may be less obvious than the post that goes out in email each week. I think that is a really powerful moment of recognition and breaking that you reached, and I am glad that you obviously pushed forward from that point and rekindled something that matters to you. I am glad that you have a plan for your postcard for this, and I hope that your other postcard series has been fulfilling and that you are enjoying it. I think these questions of organization are so pervasive and can be so overwhelming and are so often the kinds of things that we think about a lot and don’t make as much progress as we would like. This is something that’s really high on my list-of-things-that-are-staring-at-me for this year, too.
Whoops, fat thumbs hit sent too soon. I was going to say that I want to revisit that break, and this postcard will be a start — a fun way to map some of my piles, to celebrate my Amy & Books rejuvenation, and to document my restless everything. It’s also a good Forest/trees exercise, because I typically lose myself and my daily rhythms once I open a cover.
We should have a longer conversation about what it means to collapse into another world. Also: translation. I recently read a fascinating series on gender and classical translations. Will try to dig it out and send you a link. Love the image of you down the Bruce translation rabbit hole. So apropos.
Well, it is a delightful line… “To collapse into another world.” I look forward to seeing what you do with this tracking and idea of mapping or surveying a point of break or a point of, as you put it, rejuvenation. I think that sounds pretty fascinating in terms of mapping reality. I had to laugh about the Bruce comment!
Bruce?! Another voice-to-text usurpation 🤣
The fatal flaw of text to type. Apple can’t keep up with my head. And doesn’t know Proust.