My year of reading with author Rob Walker

A dispatch from my end-of-year rest stop

Hello readers,

Do you know what day of the week it is? No? You must be celebrating betwixmaka, the weeklong holiday of mismatched attire, leftovers, and losing track of time that occurs during the end of the year.

Other than the Bookstack Directory I created in September, the December dispatch about letting inspiration guide my reading from my piles rather than from a list of new books has been most well-received this year. Linking here in case you missed it or are new (hi!). Changing things up a bit this month has been good for The Booktender, and for me personally.

December: Reading from our piles

Normally, in December I do all the things to make this time of year magical. This year, I opted out of anything no one specifically asked me to do for them unless it brought on a full-body “hell yes” when I thought of doing it for myself.

Maybe this is another example of something I recently talked to a journalist about: how in important ways over this past year, I’ve freed myself from accommodating to structures, instit…