Friday Favorites 14

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Happy Friday,

Cue the music, brew that pot. We’ve had some gorgeous spring weather this month, but I think it’s about to feel like full-on summer next week — so I’m squeaking in more time outside before the bugs come out.

Here are 10 interesting things worth sharing this week:

My favorite part of big book round-ups like The Guardian’s 100 best novels of all time is how many people react with that old internet adage: why wasn’t I consulted?
I agree with David Byrne that creativity comes from following what you’re passionate about. I can tell in my writing what I’m finding interesting and not!
Cal Newport’s book “Deep Work” had a big impact on me, and his latest op-ed about how social media has shrunk our attention spans so people are relying on AI to do their thinking for them seems on the mark.
New American Masters about Mary Oliver coming out in August looks very good. Wild Geese is of course one of my favorite poems of hers, along with Sleeping in the Forest. I have a CD of her reading her poems in my car that instantly chills me out.
I wasn’t familiar with Brad Neely but his typewriter interview with Austin Kleon is my favorite in the series so far.
Still thinking about this woman who lived alone in a cave for 500 days, lost count of the days after a few months, and whose response to completing the challenge was “Already? No way. I hadn’t finished my book.”
New Olivia Rodrigo song reminds me of Disarm by Smashing Pumpkins and I will not patiently wait for some loud live versions to confirm.
TV and movie adaptations are never as good as their books — but there are still adaptations I love (Little Women, Lord of the Rings, Fight Club), and the new East of Eden miniseries looks pretty good.
While I haven’t yet started a Big Summer Book, I am enjoying Crime & Punishment (which should really just be called Crime & Overwhelming Guilt) — but Raskilnikov’s guilt and misfortune is actually just really funny to me? I must not be alone because apparently they made a comedy stage adaptation in 2023.
I love how many people are into birding these days, and I loved the Listers documentary and am very, very excited the duo is working on their next documentary about the ivory-billed woodpecker.

See you on down the dusty trail,

Calnewport on Isak's Blog

Friday Favorites 14