May 2023 Reading List! (Patreon)

Hi everyone! Welcome to this month’s reading list! I’ve still very much been in audiobook mode but there are a couple of podcast recommendations this month. Also, I wanted to ask for YOUR recommendations, especially for newsletters that focus on topics I love thinking about e.g. sexuality, relationships, parenting, work, productivity etc.

Articles

The Food Lie We Have All Been Told  - this comes from Michelle Elman’s newsletter and is about the idea we should all have 3 meals a day. I’m not sure where this comes from, maybe industrialisation and the invention of the 8 hour work day??? It’s an interesting thing to consider, especially as I am very much a 3 meals and multiple snacks a day kind of gal and now with Rowan also giving him 3 meals and getting him to learn and expect and eat 3 meals a day. But why?! A lot of the time he just throws his food on the floor. I think a lot of it is about making your life easier when you go out into the world (school/work) where there are set times for meals and if you don’t eat then, then you can’t eat at all. What do you think? In an ideal world, how many meals/snacks would you eat a day? Would you stick to the same food schedule or would it be different?

Is There Life After Influencing? - I was influenced to read this from Lucy Moon’s newsletter and then finally gave in to subscribing to the new york times to read it (got an “introductory offer” though so it’s only costing me £2 every 4 weeks instead of £8) so if anyone in the next year reads something interesting you want to share in the new york times lemme know!! Anyway, I was obviously morbidly curious by the title of this article as I always am with things to do with what people do if they move on from youtuber/creator jobs to something else… the main subject in the article though, still feels like she’s an influencer? Or at least still creating some content for the public? Anyway it’s interesting to hear that most of the jobs that the journalist thinks influencers could do with their transferable skills are ones that do not appeal to me at all 😅

Videos

24 hours with a baby & toddler! - when we went to visit Mel and Thomas in Ireland I was honestly gobsmacked by how much work having a baby AND a toddler is. Tbh I don’t think I spoke to Thomas for more than 5 minutes and we were there 4 DAYS 😅 I love watching Mel’s parenting vlogs and I love that in this video she talked about how parenting is something she actually feels really good at (and she’s right!) but it was cool hearing someone (especially a woman) confidently state that they think they are good at something.

You’re Stuck in Your Comfort Zone - Nathan Zed once again just making me snort with some of the lines in this video. My favourite being when he’s talking about trying to discover new music but not really liking anything and he says, “nothing hits harder than what I already know” 😅 but you have to watch the video because writing that out it doesn’t read as funny as when he delivers it!

AI tells me if AI will write novels - loved this vlogbrothers/John Green video! So fun!

video essays have melted my brain  - I was making notes throughout watching this video because I found it so relatable and didn’t want to forget! This stuff about how you learn to anticipate criticism before it occurs and how that changes your brain, yuupppp! And I don’t think that’s super healthy or good for us. I was watching it on the TV and Dan was listening to it too and even he said that Tiffany sounded a lot like me 😅 Tiffany also talked about how IG stories without DMs open, feels like screaming into void, which is why I turned my DMs on after never having them on before. Yes it’s opened me up to hearing many many strangers opinions on things but actually I feel way more connected on instagram than I did before. The void felt worse. But it is a constant balancing act. Another random note I made whilst watching the video: “Maybe my momentum is gone?” and I’ll just leave that there. And also hard relate to the year of posting and marketing myself less - does have an impact! WHO KNEW?!

I Know How to Fix YouTube Rewind - another vlogbrothers, this time from Hank. And HARD AGREE. I feel like I said this a couple years ago but I need YouTube to make me a Spotify Wrapped. I wanna know which YouTubers I’m watching the most of - most videos but also number of minutes spent with which channels?!? So curious to know!

I read ALL 16 women’s prize books: here’s your deep dive -  women’s prize for fiction coming up and Leena has got you covered! I added a few of her recommendations to my audiobook wish list and hopefully will get round to listening to some of them before the awards but I am still knee deep in Brandon Sanderson fantasy at the moment 😅

The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling | ContraPoints - another feature length video from Natalie diving into this podcast series about JK and how it’s framed to make JK look like the victim and media literacy in general.

Podcasts

Book 7, Ep. 9 | The Deathly Hallows Wrap Up - I feel like I completely lost interest in Witch Please towards the end of this reboot series but I persevered and finished all the main book episodes but don’t think I’ll bother with the Appendixes or whatever next. Glad I saw it to the end though! Especially for this line in the episode: “one cannot simply peg their way into Mordor” 🤣🤣🤣

How I Got Over My Fears & Invested In Myself: A Self-Publishing Q&A with Chelsea - I am SO fascinated by this whole process, I feel like I’ve shared something about this already? But I am giddy with excitement about the full financial breakdown she’s planning to do about self-publishing and also I am so happy for her, it sounds like she really enjoyed writing this book and is really proud of it! I’m not sure if it’s for me, but I do like me some romance fiction… is anyone planning to read it???

The Biggest Financial Flops Of Last Year: A Live Q&A With Broke Millennial- whilst I was listening to the financial confessions I went back and checked if there were any episodes I missed that I was extra keen on listening to and I found myself gravitating towards this live event one with Erin from Broke Millennial and there is something slightly more unhinged about two friends answering money questions in front of a live audience that I AM HERE FOR.