📚💬 " …a good hobby probably should feel a little embarrassing; that’s a sign you’re doing it for its own sake rather than for some socially sanctioned outcome." Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

📚💬 " In order to most fully inhabit the only life you ever get, you have to refrain from using every spare hour for personal growth." Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

📚💬 “…if you’re procrastinating on something because you’re worried you won’t do a good enough job, you can relax—because judged by the flawless standards of your imagination, you definitely won’t do a good enough job. So you might as well make a start.” Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

📚💬 " The real measure of any time management technique is whether or not it helps you neglect the right things." Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Finished reading: Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis 📚

The first novella in a series of three. At first I thought it might not be the right moment for me to read this, but I’m glad I stuck with it. The payoff is great.

Finished reading: Dark Russian Angel by Odette Stone 📚

📚💬 “… there’s no reason to believe you’ll ever feel ‘on top of things,’ or make time for everything that matters, simply by getting more done.” Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

📚💬 “… once you become convinced that something you’ve been attempting is impossible, it’s a lot harder to keep on berating yourself for failing.” Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Finished reading: Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell 📚

I really enjoyed this! Sad boys falling in love in space.

Finished reading: Whiteout by Adriana Anders 📚

Like if The Thing, that Antarctica episode of The X-Files, and a Michael Crichton book all had a baby with a romance novel. So, you know, pretty great.

Finished reading: The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath 📚

A wild premise deftly handled.

💬📚📝 “…a story’s as much house or garden as song.” Jane Alison, Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative

Finished reading: Falling Into Bed with a Duke by Lorraine Heath 📚

Lorraine Heath knows the job. Minerva Dodger is a delightful heroine.

Finished reading: Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes 📚

A very useful and straightforward book about romance novel structure.

Finished reading: The Heroine’s Journey: For Readers, Writers, and Fans of Pop Culture by Gail Carriger 📚

This is a great book about story structure that helped me understand, among other things, why Jean-Luc Picard is my favorite Star Trek captain.

📚💬📝 “…what are we writers but Machiavellian manipulators of a stranger’s emotions?” Gail Carriger, The Heroine’s Journey

Finished reading: A Duke Worth Falling For by Sarah MacLean 📚

I love Sarah MacLean so much.

Finished reading: The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa 📚

Cute rom-com with a heroine who has put walls around her heart and has to learn when to open the gate and let someone in.

Finished reading: To Catch a Raven by Beverly Jenkins 📚

Another awesome heroine.

Finished reading: Anything You Want by Derek Sivers 📚

Finished reading: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott 📚

A classic for a reason.

💬📚 “Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

💬📚 “Don’t be afraid of your material or your past. Be afraid of wasting any more time obsessing about how you look and how people see you. Be afraid of not getting your writing done.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

💬📚 “You wouldn’t be a writer if reading hadn’t enriched your soul more than other pursuits.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

💬📚 “… everything we need in order to tell our stories in a reasonable and exciting way already exists in each of us.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life