Serious downtime is something I’ve grown to cherish more and more as I’ve grown older. I take care to ensure that as little as possible is planned into the downtime, other than to spend time with my family and with myself.
When it comes to my own time, there are two things I plan in detail. What I’m going to read. What I’m going to watch.
The watching bit is easy. As little as possible.
The reading bit takes a little more work, it’s something I start preparing for months in advance.
Some of you have asked me to share my holiday reading list, so here it is, in no particular order.
- Alice Roberts, The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being
- Lou Beach, 420 Characters
- Cervantes and Davis, The Complete Don Quixote
- Jeffery Pomerantz, Metadata
- Michael Pearce, The Mouth Of The Crocodile
- Jenkins, Ito and boyd: Participatory Culture in a Networked Era
- Ilan Stavans, Quixote: The Novel and the World
- Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings
- Weisman, The World Without Us
- Brunton and Nissenbaum, Obfuscation
I’m quite excited by the list. I’ve already started the Ilan Stavans, reading it for the first time. Amazing. The Wiener and Weismans are both second time around. I’ve skipped through Metadata as well as Obfuscation, this time I’ll be giving them a serious read, fountain pen and notebook ready to hand. The rest are virgin territory.