Some links for a Friday

I haven’t posted links in a while, but I’ve been reading fun things this month and wanted to share. Enjoy!

• I would love to take a class on notebooking
• Great books from banned countries
• Prose at the cheese counter
• How one bookstore survives in the age of Amazon
• It’s the end of an era
• How to get an email response with three simple words
• Hand-drawn infographics (this is on my wishlist)

Final Friday Five

1. My crazily smart friend Emily is writing an excellent series of posts on creating healthy work cultures. Check out the first three here, here, and here.
2. When it comes to writing, is procrastination really just shame?
3. Doing nothing has become a sport. What will they think of next?
4. Mongolia is getting a new postal system, and so could the whole world. I live at endearing.plunger.whisper. (On this map, I live in Tampon Thorn. I prefer the former.)
5. A grandma conducts the most polite Google search ever.

Final Friday Five

1. Everyone has imposter syndrome except for you
2. What people are actually working on in coffee shops
3. Scrabble upset! Are shorter words better than longer ones?
4. Some hid secret poems in Boston’s sidewalks
5. How busy are you, really?

Final Friday Five

1. Which Buddha family are you? A quiz.
2. I wrote about my SFS (secret freelance shame); here’s the Atlantic on SMCS (secret middle class shame)
3. The Czech Republic is changing its English name
4. Meanwhile, in Cambodia, a fight for the comma
5. Give a listen to this Haruki Murakami playlist

EDITED TO ADD: This Saturday, April 30, is Independent Bookstore Day. A wonderful weekend to go out and buy that book you’ve been eyeing—or several.

Final Friday Five

1. Letters in the news: relieving guilt and renewing diplomacy
2. I could use one of these
3. Ever wonder how the NYT picks its best books of the year?
4. A subway design to encourage reading on the go
5. This is essential: a guide to buying unnecessarily large and small things

Leap day

An extra day –

With a second cup of black coffee.
A friendly but businesslike phone call.
A mailed-back package.
Some extra work, but not too much—
just one day’s worth, exactly.

Excerpt of “February 29” by Jane Hirshfield

Final Friday Five

1. An oldie but a goodie: George Saunders and Colbert on the short story
2. Changes in French spelling are causing controversy
3. Is this guy the world’s first microblogger?
4. Why people go crazy over the overhead bin
5. Syria’s first free library, and how to start your own little one

Final Friday Five

Some reading for your January:

1. In honor of David Bowie: his top 100 books, and 1 great book about him
2. My reading list has nothing on this woman’s
3. #sorrynotsorry – a new app takes the apologies out of emails
4. I admire these cycling nuns
5. Money advice in brief

Reading Resolutions

Strand Book Store recently posted their 2016 reading resolutions on Instagram:

1. Read a book that intimidates you.
2. Read the book before watching the film.
3. Read a collection of poetry.
4. Read a book in a day.
5. Read the book you’ve lied about reading.
6. Take an honest look at that TBR pile.
7. Set a reading goal.
8. Try to stop falling asleep with books in bed.

1–4 = I’m in.
5 = I try never to do this, so I will interpret this my own way and resolve to read a book or author I always squirm when admitting I haven’t read.
6 = Necessary.
7 = As much as possible!
8 = Honestly, I don’t see a problem here.

These are great reading resolutions, but in the end I think there’s only one that counts: Read books you love.

Final Friday Five

The last Final Friday Five of 2015:

1. This is funny (and very accurate)
2. Grammar meets sports
3. Approving the singular they
4. I’m totally guilty of this bad habit
5. In honor of the season (if it ever arrives): a love letter to winter

Enjoy!