Besides the wit and the anecdote and the brilliant descriptions of masquerades and midnight revelries his friends drew from him something superficial yet profound, something changing yet entire - himself shall we call it in default of one word for that which friends elicit but the public kills? From that sprang his immortality. For a self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living.

Love this observation of public writing vs private letters. Being a famous author is sometimes viewed as a path to "immortality," being remembered by the public (temporarily) after you die, but being famous for a book might be closer to a premature death than immortality, being stuck at a certain point in time whereas private correspondence allows for more spontaneity and growth - more life, in other words.

It's striking that Woolf is nostalgic about all the letter writing of the 19th century before phones were invented, since her generation was still quite prolific at writing letters. It does feel like a loss that we no longer have paper trails of a person's life. Emails and texts are faster, but they lack the vivacity of letters treasured by Woolf (and me).

I'm Dutch and can confirm that we plug our dams with chewed-up bubblegum.

I wanted to share my recent and not so resent dnfs, try and convince me to finish them agree with my dnf or let me know what books you could not or would not finish:)

My list ( some of these will be unpopular)

. Call me by your name, André Aciman Dnfd today 2 chapters in, uncomfortable relationship dynamic, found out the author is a icky human.

. Meaty, Samantha Irby Dnfd earlier this month 1 chapter in, I only had it as an audio book and i wasnt a fan of the narrorators voice, would be open to trying again as a physical book.

. She's allways hungry, Eliza Clark Dnfd mid last year, half way thru. Just wasnt engaging to me and was right out of a reading slump so that may have had something to do with it.

. Intermezzo, sally Rooney. Dnfd mid last year, 2 chapters in. My first sally Rooney book and honestly just could not get behind the writing style.

Those are the books I dnfd last year and this year so far 🫠 same amount in one month as i did all of last year ahah

Guys I need help. A while ago, around December or so, I decided to cut my screen time in half, I was spending way too much time on my phone, it was taking time off my hobbies, and I wasn't even having fun, spending that much time on the internet was more stressful than anything. I was successful with it, in less than 2 weeks I went from 10 hour screen time (no judgment please) to around 4 hours or less.

But then things went south, I had problems with health in my family, problem with work, travelled and got my lost in the chaos of things and now my screen time is atrocious again and my attention span us shorter than never. Any tips to fix it again?