Reading less, but better

Hey hey,

How has 2025 been treating you so far? I hope you've been keeping cool (or warm if you've stumbled across my newsletter from the Northern Hemisphere).

Last time I wrote to you it was 2024, and I was trying to figure out what to ease back on rather than trying to do all of the things. I really struggled to let go of the idea that just maybe I could do it all. But I came to the conclusion that I need to be intentional about what challenges I take on, because some of them I don't get a say in (kids that insist on growing up, for example).

Something I'm playing around with is reading less non-fiction, but more deeply. The internet is so full of information and I'm interested in so many things, and there is literally no way I can read it all. Even if I could, I wouldn't be able to comprehend or synthesise it all in any meaningful way. It helped to largely move off of social media, but even with the relative slowness of long-form articles and newsletters I'm jumping wildly between topics without a whole lot really sinking in.

I save quotes from things that resonate, but have fallen out of the habit of then weaving that new information into things I've already noted to reinforce them in my memory and allow new ideas and connections to brew. If I don't remember anything from a book or an article that I've read, was there any point in reading it at all? Maybe it's better to read far less, but get more out of it. At least, that's what I'm hoping to do. I'm currently revisiting all my unsorted notes, which will keep me busy for a while without reading anything new.

I wanted to "use up" some dried gouache on an old palette, and was surprised by how far it went. Gouache is still mostly a mystery to me, but I'm enjoying messing around with it like this when I have no expectation of making anything good. It helped that I now have a drawing board, my Christmas present to myself, so there's less distortion when doing the initial sketch.

Some things I added to the site recently:

• Reading things later - on how read later apps make the internet more friendly as a reader
• Photographing artwork with a phone - an app to circumvent the aggressive processing done in iPhone photos
• Getting the best out of Focus modes - making my phone what I need at the time that I reach for it
• To the drawing board - the difference drawing upright makes!
• Charcoal portrait - probably the best portrait I've ever done
• Perth Web Accessibility Camp 2025 in sketchnotes - sketchnotes from a recent conference
• Books I've read in 2025 - now with cover images and short summaries

I'll probably write again soon!

Teresa