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penguin classics

• My new favorite instagram feed: 5ftinf. Can you see why? (This makes me want to start a vintage Penguin Classics collection STAT.)

• Let’s be very clear about the goal. On running and depression, and outrunning depression.

• Forget business books: why reading fiction is better for your business.

• What kids around the world eat for breakfast. I’d make an excellent Brazilian. Or Turk. (Amsterdam’s national breakfast is shocking!)

• What Jane Austen taught us about finding love. Some of these are stretching a bit … but it’s Jane Austen, so I’ll let them get away with it.

B. J. Novak reads The Book With No Pictures. My kids literally collapses in laughter watching this. On the first time, and the second, and the third.

Most popular from the blog:

“A Diamond is Forever” and other fairy tales. Fascinating (and lengthy) comments section. I especially love the commentary from industry insiders.

How to keep a great series from ruining your life. These simple tricks to “just say no” to one more chapter (or one more episode) aren’t obvious, but they’re effective. (It’s also fun to hear what series everyone is hooked on.)

Let’s talk about stress baking. When life is tough, baking is a different kind of hard. That’s precisely the point.

• More thoughts on our move, like how I’m coping with living more than 100 yards from the library. (Sniff!)

Have a great weekend!

13 comments

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  1. Saskia says:

    It’s pedantic but I’m going to say it anyway: Amsterdam can’t have a national breakfast, it’s not a country.

    Hagelslag is a part of many Dutch lives: generally, kids are told to eat something savory on toast first (generally cheese). Hagelslag is considered along the lines of jam here, or Nutells spread, or another favorite: peanut butter and honey, as a sweet breakfast. I don’t know why you think it’s shocking–have you seen the American breakfast aisle lately? Or just the typical American grocery store? /end critique. Thanks for the link, it was fun to see cultural differences in what’s considered normal!

    • Kim says:

      Thank you for saying this! I’m Dutch too and though I’m not offended in any way, the ‘shocking’ comment on this website and by the author of the column Motherlode of the New York Times struck me as odd.

    • Anne says:

      Ha! Of course you’re right: Amsterdam isn’t a country.

      Maybe “shocking” is the wrong word—how about “endearingly surprising”? And I was definitely surprised I’d never heard of hagelslag before.

  2. Tim says:

    The Jane Austen post looks more like someone has some advice and shoe-horned it into Austen’s characters. Oh well, it fit well enough. Ont eh breakfast piece, the writer lost me by characterizing one country’s breakfast as “putrid soybean goop”; it come across as xenophobic, and I stopped reading at that point.

    BJ Novak’s book reading is a hoot. I made the mistake of watching that during a break at work this week. Good thing no one was nearby to hear me laughing. It’s a hoot!

  3. Jeannie says:

    Thanks for the links; I esp loved the Novak clip. (I see a Christmas present coming up (hopefully for me! 🙂 )

    About those breakfasts … my husband is of Dutch extraction and I had never seen or heard of “chocolate hail” before meeting him. But having been to Holland I can say that that’s not necessarily a typical Dutch breakfast, any more than a typical American breakfast is Cocoa Puffs or Pop-Tarts (which don’t seem any better than chocolate hail). It’s just something some people/kids eat for breakfast there. But overall that’s a really interesting article — thanks for sharing it.

  4. I love reading about what people eat around the world. Thanks for that link!

    Takeaways: Kids eat what they’re expected to. American parents give in to pickiness, but it was mentioned a couple of times in the article that parents around the world don’t withdraw a food from a child’s diet just because they initially don’t like it (the baby eating natto, babies eating fermented veggies, etc). They just keep offering it and lo and behold, the baby eventually eats it, just like his countrymen!

    I’ll take the Parisian breakfast. Although it doesn’t agree with me. I don’t understand how people who come from “light” breakfast countries (France, Italy, Latin countries…) deal with no protein in the mornings. I would be crashing by 10 AM! But would my body adjust if I was accustomed to eating that way?

  5. Esther says:

    We currently live in Japan and I have to say the one thing that we find at breakfast when we eat out is salad (just mixed greens) with a phenomenal, light vinaigrette. It always hits the spot. However, the bean paste (natto) is super popular here and just doesn’t mesh with our Western palate.

    I can’t wait to show my kids the B.J. Novak clip!

  6. Kyla says:

    Nice list! I love the breakfast link too. I’m half dutch and grew up eating hagelslag for breakfast as a treat sometimes (sometimes I would even get a hagelslag sandwich packed in my lunch) 🙂 Vruchtenhagel is also wonderful, although we always called it muisjes but that’s technically the round ones. Anyway, thanks for spurring the great memory!

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