Topic lists over book lists

I’m no longer going to maintain a list of Books to Read. Instead, I’m going to start a list of Topics to Explore.

For the last several decades, I’ve set out each year with the goal of reading more books. Some years I do well, some years not so much. I keep several actual lists of books, as well as a few mental lists, and get regular recommendations from others. But it seems I never actually achieve my goal. I only ever add to my list of “books not read”.

My Topics to Explore list so far is as random and far-reaching as the old book lists, but something feels better about this approach. In exploring a topic in this list, I’m going to count all forms of media, not just books. In this model, reading a Wikipedia page or a NYT article, or watching a Youtube video all “count” towards my goal. Instead of feeling guilty about the books I’m not reading, I can feel good about the topics I am exploring. I’m only a month or so in, but it’s already going well.

Here’s a slice of my current topic list, in Notion:

I’ll obviously report back on the good stuff I find along the way.

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