a lifestyle blog for book lovers

Happy weekend, readers. It’s been an unusual week for me, but today the Christmas festivities begin. Wishing you and yours a happy holiday, and a wonderful weekend.

My favorite finds from around the web:

The lost Christmas recipes of Gourmet—and how we found them. “When Gourmet magazine shuttered in 2009, a never-released December issue went with it. Nine years later, some of those pages are being published on Epicurious.”

Making the most of your trip. I read this evergreen post after I returned from Scotland, because I was looking for one Rick Steves’ specific travel rules to live by: “always assume you’ll come back.” But I appreciated this after the fact; it’s great advice for travel and life.

The bigger, badder book tracking spreadsheet. “In an attempt to give myself more stats about the diversity of the books and authors I was reading than what Goodreads could provide, I created a Google Sheets tracker two years ago.” (This sheet is epic and you can save a copy for your own use!)

My new book: Digital Minimalism. I loved Cal Newport’s Deep Work and am looking forward to this new one.

When everything seems difficult. “In my teens I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and stopped one base camp away from the summit because I just wasn’t enjoying it anymore.”

Favorite Instagram:

In Scotland we climbed a 500-year old tower. This is the view from the top. It was incredible, even though/because we did NOT accidentally fall through a portal into the 16th century, PHEW. (Follow me on Instagram @annebogel.)

On the blog:

One year ago: What worked for me in 2017. All of this is still working for me (hooray!) and earlier this week I shared what worked for me in 2018.

Two years ago: The best Christmas scenes in English literature. “For your holiday enjoyment, I present to you the (highly subjective) best Christmas scenes in English literature. (As you will see, I’m using the word “literature” loosely, because it’s more fun that way.)”

Three years ago: My favorite Jane Austen film adaptions. “It’s true: these Jane Austen movies have nothing to do with Christmas… except that Christmas vacation is a great time to watch one (or all) of them.”

Four years ago: Last minute gifts for girls. “Will and I reviewed our list last night, and I think we’re done—except for one more gift we’re picking up at Trader Joe’s. (Seriously.)”

Five years ago: The fancy-pants term introverts must keep in mind to keep from coming unglued this holiday week. “…it describes what you experience any time that you’re faking an emotion or an attitude that you don’t truly feel.”

On the podcast:

One year ago: Episode 111: A lifetime mother-daughter book club.

Two years ago: Episode 58: “You’ve hit your hold limit” and other disasters.

Have a great weekend!

3 comments

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  1. Susan in TX says:

    I didn’t know about the Cal Newport book – looking forward to that one! As for the bigger, badder, spreadsheet, I was all over that! 🙂 My family was laughing at my enthusiasm and I’ve already enlisted one of my daughters to help me add a column to also track “who recommended the book.” Can’t wait to start tracking my 2019 with this. I’ve used a spreadsheet for years, but don’t have enough computer knowledge to have added the tab for automatic production of charts — this ticked ALL of my book nerd boxes, and might be my best Christmas present from a non-family member.

  2. Nancy says:

    I am a fairly new to your blog but wanted to thank you for all of the hard work you do. Opening a new post is like having a wonderful cup of tea, gives me a happy warm feeling on the inside. Have a wonderful holiday season with your family and NEVER quit blogging, please.

  3. Liz says:

    I’m so excited about that spreadsheet! I already added a page with the MMD 2019 challenge and a page for tracking book club reads. I love how you can customize it so easily.

    I also can’t wait for that Cal Newport book. I just added it to my TBR. I’ve been reading a lot on minimalism lately and I definitely want to simplify all things digital.

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