june 2026 - a smol reflect
With the end of June, my time of hospitalization leave comes to an end. I'm sad to leave behind languid days of space to choose what I want to do. However, being still gave me an opportunity to turn inwards, and to plant some seeds of ideas. It was strangely exciting.
Anyway, this is a record of where I'm at, how I am finding it, along with some musings on where I want to go, if you want to read :)
Reading
Confessions, St Augustine: My aim was to read Books 1-6 by the end of June. I actually ended up getting carried away and read up to Book 8. I was surprised at how engaged I was by him. Perhaps it was because I tried to read him first (usually at the start of the day). The style of his writing also meant that when I read him, it started to feel like I was meeting up with a friend.
How To Read A Book, Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren: It's exciting to report that I have finished this book - my first book of my literature challenge reading list. I liked how practical this book was - I'm happy to report that I have been talking back more to what I'm reading, and even responding to my past self when I reflect on notes in my diary. I find myself slowing down and digesting what's been said, rather than moving on to the next paragraph/chapter/book.
Iliad, Homer: I'm currently on Book 8 and my original plan was to read to Book 12 by the end of June. I am still very confused by all the gods and their backstories. I also find the parts when they name all the men in the war quite tedious... sometimes it is difficult to keep up. I don't know if I can catch up, but I will do my best in July.
Social/Community
Book Club: I wanted to find a place to discuss what I was reading. Ideally it would have been a classics book club, but I could not help signing up for a discussion of Things In Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li. It felt serendipitous because I had just picked up another YYL book at the start of June. I enjoy her writing, which is simple and unadorned. But her ideas / arguments are challenging and require consideration. So I am curious as to what the discussions would be like. It's also my first time in a long while attending an event with strangers...
Fitness
Step count: My aim was to build up to hitting 5k steps each day by the end of June. I would say that it's generally there if we are talking averages, but I think that I will set up a tracker to try to incentivize myself to hit it each day. There are other activities I'm planning to integrate back into my life in July. We shall see if I throw caution to the wind and just jump back in 100% to gym sessions and other activities.
Music
De-streaming: I was curious about leaving Spotify and I got influenced after reading these articles. I've been wanting to revert to how I consumed music as a teenager - grabbing albums off friends and listening through them, even the songs that weren't my cup of tea. Over the weekend, my husband asked me what song reminded me of "growing up"... and I honestly could not put my finger on a particular song. I wonder if it's because of the rise of lo-fi/ai bgm, or whether my listening attention was shaped by my ability to pick and choose singles on Spotify.
Anyway, I've not yet deleted my Spotify account as yet, but I have started making use of my local music player more. I tried downloading Foobar2000, but I'm having some trouble loading music from my hard drive directly - I found that I needed to import it from my hard drive to my iTunes then to Foobar2000. If I dragged and dropped songs from my HD to Foobar2000, the songs would "stream" but disappear when I unplugged my HD. If anyone has any tips, please let me know.
For the time being, I'll just use iTunes. I'm planning on checking out my Dad's CD collection and doing a recce on the local library's media offerings... the prospect of new music is exciting. But I will do my best to move slow.
Stray Curiosities
I feel like a revamp of my commonplace book is due. I realized that I'm caught between wanting to organize by chronology (a la Austin Kleon's commonplace diary). But... I also want to find a way to locate quotes via theme (!!) - is this where the Zettelkasten comes back to haunt me?
Montessori schools, after watching this video from Unjaded Jade.
Oh, I couldn't resist buying a copy of Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy.
Also saw that Ann Patchett has a new book out - internal squeal. But I have so many TBRs. Help.
So that's my June update ...we'll see how it goes, my brain can't seem to manage to stick to a routine for more than three months. Constant recalibration is the name of the game. I also go back to being a corporate hamster in a wheel, so I'm going to learn how to accept and work with the shift in rhythms.
If you have any thing to suggest in re. the above (esp. commonplacing + destreaming) write to me here. Guidance is appreciated.
Until next time,
N