If we can't look back, then I guess we must look ahead, so here's what we have on tap for the coming month of TOA...
Email transition
The good news is that if you've already dealt with the email situation, then you can ignore any and all future reminders. This is for the best because I think everyone is getting sick of these "posts", but let's not forget that we're all suffering in this situation. I mean, what do you think, that I'm enjoying all of this for some reason? If you don't like getting my "ACTION NEEDED" messages, imagine the pure delight of writing those "posts" or of setting up the email process on the backend. The moral of this story - the admin of life never stops, and one day it will kill us all.
Pods
It's always been a bit of a struggle for me to write about podcasts, which is why my decision to (mostly) stop writing about them feels like a permanent solution as it applies to this little space. However, podcast episodes may prove to be an entirely different matter. I exchanged a few emails this spring with a friend loosely describing my favorite episodes of all time, and I think I'll start to turn those emails into posts sometime in July.
Reading reviews
I had a notion around this time last year that I should try and post reading reviews within three months of finishing a book. I think that remains the long-term goal, but in these confusing days of the New Normal the road to this elusive target is proving to be full of (highly tedious) twists and turns. At the moment, I have three books I completed before April that are nowhere near a TOA appearance, and then there is the pesky matter of writing something, anything, about those books I skipped back in 2019.
Tales of too-racist cities
It might be time to dust off the venerated TOA series, which for new readers means equal parts memoir, travel guide, and "get off my bike lane" rants that I cook up while I cycle back and forth over the Charles. This post would think about why treating everyone equally is an elusive concept for those who forget that good intentions are far from good enough.
Email admin, podcasts, reading reviews, Hubway, maybe racism... so nothing interesting to write about?
I don't know if that's strictly the case. I've always referred to the reading reviews as the bread and butter of TOA, but somewhere in the joke is a certain truth about writing, and perhaps about any craft - you need to practice, and 95% of practice is just a matter of doing it. I feel writing a reading review is in many respects practice for producing a real essay, requiring among other things that I think deeply about the topic, find connections across a wide range of ideas, and have faith that if I keep working a logical place to stop will emerge at some point.
Like there!
Correct! Thanks for reading, see you in July!
