Writer and artist, author of Steal Like an Artist; publishes a weekly newsletter and an annual list of the books he read.
lovedaffiliate link
I love Tolstoy because you get a third of a way into his book about a lady having an affair and the best chapter is about a dude experiencing a state of "flow" while mowing a field with his country peasants.
His annual "my reading year" post, an unranked chronological list of the 2025 books worth noting to him; the site discloses it participates in the Amazon Affiliates program.
Writer and former Man Repeller features director; writes the weekly newsletter Maybe Baby on culture, consumption and modern life.
loved
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: Made the random choice to listen to this and loved the experience (especially for getting through some of the boring parts, sorry). Shout out Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Her annual 'My favorite things' list, which she states carries no affiliate links or kickbacks; free gifts are disclosed item by item.
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Hardware, services4 years
Software5 years
Podcasts, courses, other8 years
Books25 years
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.