ontag kept lists of things she liked and disliked in her journals. I’ve always found that to be a profound and special act.
Melodrama, my favorite album of all time, closely followed by Hawaii: Part II; Mousse Illuminée, by Rogue Perfumery; Novak Djokovic’s tennis; chess; Guillaume Néry free-diving, filmed for National Geographic; melodysheep’s Timelapse of the Future; tinned fish; potato leek soup.
Books:
The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson; Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer; Ender’s Shadow and Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card; Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes; Red Rising, Pierce Brown; A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin; The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller; The Green Bone Saga, Fonda Lee; A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine; Unsong, Scott Alexander; The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie; The Secret History and The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt; The Kingkiller Chronicle, Patrick Rothfuss; Twig, Wildbow (a web serial); House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski; The Tapestry, Henry H. Neff; Dune, Frank Herbert; Neuromancer, William Gibson; The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks.
Essays:
Dwarkesh Patel, “Lessons from The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro”; Scott Alexander, “Matt Yglesias Considered As The Nietzschean Superman”.
Inspiration:
¶ Scott Alexander, “The Colors of Her Coat,” in Astral Codex Ten, which taught me the beauty of ultramarine.
¶ Will Slattery, “Pray and Work,” in Essay Daily, on Pentiment, a game in the style of an illuminated manuscript.