Lists
Category
The Best Books I Read in 2022
I had a rather shitty reading year in 2022, thanks, of course, to Vladimir Putin. I only hit my 100-book Goodreads target out of spite, refusing to give Vlad the Small the satisfaction of ruining my challenge. So I went ahead and finished 32 books in December (most of them in the last 10 days of the month), including four volumes of One Piece*, which absolutely count, thank you very much.
On Holiday Wardrobe Perfection: A List
There is no such thing as a perfect holiday wardrobe, but I still spend considerable amounts of time every year trying to put one together. There is something so seductive about a well-curated set of items for a week or two. It’s difficult to get one’s entire life right, but surely one can nail that trip to Sicily! Or at least the clothes!
Things That Help
If you are a regular reader of the blog, you have undoubtedly noticed that I have not been posting anything for a while. Since the beginning of the war, I was at first unable to write and later on deeply conflicted about blogging as people kept dying in Ukraine. I am of course aware that there have been other awful things happening in the world during the years that I have had the blog, but it’s simply a fact that while many of these events (Syria and Afghanistan in particular) affected me deeply, nothing has come close to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Best of 2021: Science Fiction & Fantasy
I didn’t do a separate ‘best of SFF’ post for 2020 and now I regret it, as I don’t have a good reference point for my favourites and I feel like I haven’t praised them enough. I also keep getting confused about when I read what and the pandemic obviously doesn’t help with trying to sort this out. In case you are interested, there is a list of some things in I read in 2020 the end of this post – it’s not ideal, but it’s something.
Best of 2021: Fiction
Very broadly speaking, I read equal amounts non-fiction and fiction, but as my fiction reads further branch out into different genres, literary fiction doesn’t have such a central place in my reading as it has for many other people. Still, as my overall book-count was rather high last year, I ended up reading a fair amount of fiction – some of it very good.
Best of 2021: Non-Fiction
2021 was a stellar non-fiction year for me. I read almost 70 books in this category, which made this list very difficult to put together. Even after setting aside my absolute top favourites that I have already covered, I ended up with more than 15 books I wanted to highlight. I could of course have steeled myself and whittled the list down to 10 or something else more manageable, but as I didn’t do regular monthly round-ups last year, I prefer to include more books rather than less.
Things I Want: Birthday Edition
I occasionally like to write down things I am lusting after: partly as an exercise in wish-fulfilment and aspirational daydreaming, but also as a way to focus on things I really want. It is a constant goal for me to buy fewer, better things – it’s OK if they cost a bit more, if that means I will buy less random stuff that I’ll get tired of soon.
2021. aasta parimad: eestikeelne kirjandus
Eks ole üldiselt teada, et 1) varakal vallalisel mehel tingimata naist on vaja ja 2) Annikky loeb liiga vähe eestikeelset kirjandust. Eelmine aasta oli ses osas siiski pisut parem kui viimane dekaad üldiselt: loetu pealt saab kümne parima edetabeli ilusti kokku panna ja täitsa mitu teost jääb veel ülegi. Niisiis, rahva tungival nõudmisel (ehk siis umbes kaks inimest on küsinud) on allpool minu eelmisel aastal loetud eestikeelsed lemmikraamatud, suvalises järjekorras.
Best of 2021: Books
This has been a great reading year for me: I am currently finishing my 149th book and there’s more than a day still to go! This is a lot of books even for me and this outcome is mostly down to two factors: 1) the first months of 2021 being slightly less insane on the work front than usual, and 2) me discovering audiobooks, which added a significant amount to my ‘reading time’.
Best of 2021: Beauty, Style, Perfume
In the two years of the pandemic, my makeup, perfume and clothes purchases have slowed down – although not stopped by any means. Perhaps most irrationally, my habit of buying a few evening dresses per year is as strong as ever. But if you are expecting a proper ‘best of’ of fragrance or beauty releases, this I’m not able to provide. Still, perhaps this overview is useful as you are planning your own wardrobes or makeup buys.