Recommended reading from 2022
Nine great articles I read in 2022 and would highly recommend you check out
If you asked me to name the most memorable article I read last year, this one would most readily spring to mind: "My eight deranged days on the Gone Girl cruise". It really is quite deranged and a thoroughly entertaining and extremely well-written story.
In the Atlantic, writer Julie Beck asked, "Why did we all have the same childhood?". She explores how some folklore is handed down and spread around - without relying on social media or the internet. I can guarantee it will make you say, "wow, I did that too".
I used Mandy Brown's excellent blog post about the fundamental difficulty of communicating with another person as the basis for my post. I love these kinds of explorations of concepts we take for granted.
Salmon Theory is consistently one of my favourite newsletters to read, and I love how Rob continually plays with his formats and delivery frequency. I can also relate as Rob is a new dad like me, and his section on "connection capital" from August reminds me that sometimes you don't need a solution. Sometimes you need to shut the f**k up and listen.
On the theme of my favourite newsletters, I also highly recommend idle gaze. Written by a former colleague at We Are Social (although we only briefly crossed over), Alexi Gunner, it's my window into what's cool. Which, given I'm now 42, I sorely need. This edition on the used and much-abused term authenticity is a fascinating timeline of putting your "true self" online.
2022 was the year when the dream of social media ended for good. The utopian vision of social media from the early 2010s soured somewhat post-2016, but I agree wholeheartedly with Ian Leslie that we can't blame social media for everything.
A meta-trend across the Substack/blogosphere this year was curation. The increasing desire, as the social media dream mentioned above ends, to take more control over what we see/read/hear. This piece in the ever-excellent Are.na is probably my favourite - an exploration of the concept of "taste".
Cousin Greg from Succession is my hero. There are so many great YouTube clips of Cousin Greg being on a whole other level. He also features in this typically clever and quotable long read from Martin Weigel on the other c-word: culture. Brands talk about "shaping" or "creating" culture, but what does that mean? Let Martin be your guide.
Finally, among my favourite things I've read this year, George Saunders on art vs commerce is an excellent piece of writing on writing.
As mentioned in my last newsletter, I love making end-of-year lists. In addition to my favourite albums, I also catalogue the books I've read every year. I know reading isn't a competition, it's a leisure pursuit, but I'm still slightly disappointed with the number of books I read in 2022. Seven, compared to 20 in 2021 and 25 in 2020. And technically, I'm still reading the last one. But I figure I can always catch up in retirement. And the books I did read, I loved.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich
Behrouz Boochani - No Friend But The Mountains
Edward de Bono - Lateral Thinking
Pat Nevin - The Accidental Footballer
Stephen King - The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
Philip Norman - Shout! The true story of The Beatles
Stephen and Owen King - Sleeping Beauties
Thanks to you for reading my work, and here's to a great 2023.