Week 2 of managing to write for 15 minutes each day! It’s incredible how much of a difference 15 minutes a day of something can make. For example, the 100 press-ups has helped me keep in shape (even when I can’t go climbing), I feel noticeably more stressed out when I regularly miss my 15 minutes of meditation, and now the writing has rejuvenated my creativity and ideas. The reading is much easier to fit in here and there, I must remind myself that reading is fun and something to do to unwind. Recently I read the first third of J.M Cotzee’s *The Heart of the Country* and I had to put it down. Whilst the prose is amazing and the story (or at least the narrative structure) is compelling, it was too depressing to continue. And I feel no shame for putting down an unfinished book, life is too short. Even if I continue at this reading pace of 4 to 5 books a month, that’s 60 books a year MAX. Assuming I live to 80, that’s 3,000 books in my lifetime. It’s literally (heh) impossible to read everything and having a completionist nature to reading is only going to ruin enjoyment for the hobby.  With that said, I am massively looking forward to reading Pushkin’s *Eugene Onegin*. Pushkin’s poetry is so emotive, charming, and funny, so much so that I almost want to learn Russian so that I can experience it in it’s original form. Fucking Pushkin, I had this idea of getting really obsessed with him and reading every translation of *Eugene Onegin* so I could understand why Nabokov’s mate fell out with him over Nabokov’s translation of the work (which is said to be accurate in lexicon but not in vibe). It’s tough not to be inspired by reading. Yuval Harari’s *21 Questions...* has been a goldmine for Sci-fi concepts to explore and write about (although the ideas I had yesterday have now escaped me). I should really get back to self-publishing my own collection of short stories (what’s my excuse today?) but so far haven’t for the simply reason that I haven’t. Alas, it is definitely on my list of things to do this year. #books #literaryreview #reading