Better things ahead.
I can think of no better way to end the year than to tell you about the year-end review from Brainpickings.org which you can find here (and the link at the bottom if this doesn’t work for you.)
There is much to savor here. Among those I have reserved time for are
How to Grow Old: Bertrand Russell on What Makes a Fulfilling Life
Zadie Smith on Optimism and Despair
On Truth, Lies, the Power and Peril of Metaphor, and How We Use Language to Reveal and Conceal Reality
Elizabeth Gilbert on Love, Loss, and How to Move Through Grief as Grief Moves Through You
Iris Murdoch on Storytelling, Why Art is Essential for Democracy, and the Key to Good Writing
and those are but a few of some delicious reading and thinking ahead of you if you choose to wade..
HOWEVER, I have saved the best for last.
Maria Popova, who creates and shares Brainpickings each week, has collaborated in “a collection of original letters to the children of today and tomorrow about why we read and what books do for the human spirit.” Letters are written from the likes of Mary Oliver, Judy Blume, Ann Patchett, Neil Gaiman, Anne Lamott, Alain de Botton, Ann Patchett, a 98-year-old Holocaust survivor, Italy’s first woman in space and many more artists, writers, scientists, musicians, adventurers who believe their lives have been shaped by a life and love of reading
FURTHERMORE:
WOW. 100% of proceeds go to the New York public library.
Might you consider a New Year’s Resolution to get on the mailing list to be notified of new posts and new things at the shop? There’ll be some free downloads of my artwork this year to subscribers, too, and a chance to get Early Bird savings. And, of course, your information is never, ever shared with anyone else.