January 19, 2026 –

8.79% “Long convoluted sentences that demand the reader’s attention at all times!”

January 21, 2026 –

11.59% “Ch 4: With this level of detail…this book is going to take forever!”

January 21, 2026 –

22.43% “Read ch 5-8: I will NOT give up and concentrate on every word.. Mann overwhelms the reader with endless chapters about the blend of solid music theory and reflections on musical beauty. I had to ask “AI” where did his musical knowledge come from? Mann immersed himself in musical specialist literature and intensive collaboration with T. W. Adorno, who was both a philosopher, musicologist and composer. Unbelievable!”

January 22, 2026 –

30.84% “Read ch 10-11-12. Don’t read too much of this book at a one time…it can overwhelm you. While this is not my favorite of Thomas Manns works, it might be his most important and personal.
Audio narrated by Scottish stage David Rintoul is the best way to read Dr Faustus. I keep an online version available just to check some passages. Rintoul does a masterful job bringing this very complicated material to life.”

January 23, 2026 –

39.25% “Read ch 13-14…dense digressions during Adrian’s theological seminars are smth you just have to get through. There is a lot of “blah, blah” but Mann wants to show us how Adrian is absorbing his studies but foreshadows at the end of ch 14 that A. is about to make a huge U-turn…towards his music. How theology, music, Adrian and the devil all mix together we can only guess!”

January 24, 2026 –

47.66% “Read ch 15-16-17 (90 min audio) – Ch15 was a metaphysical rant about art. Adrian (A) feels it is dependent upon the personality of the times. Heavy stuff before breakfast! Ch16 A. moves to Leipzig for music study sends letter to narrator Servenus (S) a/b apartment, city etc. Ch17 was S’s analysis of letter. TIP: A’s Faustian pact with devil symbolises Germany’s cultural descent into fascism. 29 more chapters to go!”

January 25, 2026 –

56.07% “Ch 20-21-22: What? Ch 20 is a dialogue b/t A. and the devil. I didn’t hear him come into the room. So beware, this is just a hallucination. Ch 21 What? SZ suddenly has a wife…so flash forward to 1943. Did not see that coming. Ch 22 Everything is a debate b/t A and the narrator (SZ): marriage, nature, music. Exhausting to read and probably just as exhausting to write!”

January 26, 2026 –

61.68% “Ch 23-24: Rather easy to read chapters….not “debates” ! Adrian has moved to Munich. Goes for a walk in the country and finds a lovely house perhaps rent it in the future? Ch 24 Narrator (SZ), his wife, Adrain and his friend Schildknapp vacation in Italy. (SZ) remembers that Adrian has been infected with syphilis years before…and begins to see his friend change: he abhors contact with others “Touch me not”!”

January 27, 2026 –

65.42% “You have to get through ch 1-24 …but the pivotal chapter 25 describing the devil, Adrain and the “demonic pact’s negation” is worth it! Devil explains the conditions, changes outward appearance 3 x (spooky) and seals the deal with: “Time you have taken from us, a genius’s time, …full 24 years. When they are finished…then you shall be fetched !”

January 29, 2026 –

76.64% “Ch 26-27-28-29 are relatively boring after the “Devil Chapter (25).
Adrian composes an opera, symphony and there is a love triangle brewing:
Dr. Helmut Institoris, Inez and Rudolph Schwerdtfeger (violinist). This is not the easiest book to read…I never see it on reading lists…now I know why.”

Start: December 27, 2025 –

4.83% “Read: 2/33 essays and am impressed by Larissa Macfarqyhar! Staff writer at the New Yorker since 1998 and is known for her sharp, insightful profiles. She interviewed Jason Calcanis (Internet entrepreneur. I’d like to find her essays on Hilary Mantel and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the magazine’s archive. NETFLIX docs (2025) New Yorker 100 years is excellent!“

December 30, 2025 –

13.66% “Read 4/33 essays:

The post enjoyable so far is Mark Singer’s essay 1997 “Trump Solo”. I had to laugh at one quote from Trump:
“Whatever complicates the world more, I do,”
Aint’ that the truth!”

December 31, 2025 –

26.26% “2/37  essays “The Gilder Effect” (about George Gilder, who?) and Hard Core Bill Gates Microsoft vs the Government trial.. Interesting at the time (1998)…but pales in comparison to the tech-bros of our times. The only thing that kept me awake were the ” Pre New Years ” fireworks that are currently exploding in my neighbourhood! 2025……If ever there were a year whose end could not come soon enough, this was it.”

January 1, 2026 –

29.2% “Read 7/33 essays – Reading Malcolm Gladwell “Clicks and Morters” is like reading ancient history. MG delights in the benefits of e-commerce (barcodes, internet web stores, tracking packages) but still wants to highlight that ‘people’ are still necessary for business. Poor MG he did not see AI chat customer service, robotics in warehouses and…drones …coming! Fun to look back to 1999, ancient history!”

January 2, 2026 –

31.51% “Read 9/33 essays: “Kids in the Conference Room” (1999) looks at management consulting jobs that were once a top aspiration for college graduates, prestige, high pay, fast-track career growth. By reading about the past I wondered if AI could replace these young people? AI reinvents consulting as higher-value..but does not make it obsolete. Nothing can replace empathy.”

January 3, 2026 –

34.03% “Read 10/33 essays: Today is a look at Mary Meeker (1959) “The Girl in the Bubble”. Who? In 1990s She was celebrated for her stock-picking acumen. Now, Mary Meeker digests vast amounts of data to highlight the unprecedented pace of AI adoption and innovation and how businesses can create an explosion of wealth. Mary just keeps on ticking…like the Duracell bunny!”

January 4, 2026 –

37.82% “Read 11/33 essays: “Marisa and Jeff”….how insider trading on Wall Street feels good at first …then turns into a hot mess. Most of these essays were written 25 years ago. So I wonder if employees using AI tools to plan or conceal insider trades…could escape detection? We’ll have to wait and see.”

January 5, 2026 –

39.92% “Read Essay: 12/33: “No Man’s Town” about Willard Rouse. Who??
Exactly…this was the MOST boring article I’ve read/skimmed in a long time. A recipe “how to boil an egg” is more interesting! Bah.”

January 6, 2026 –

44.12% “Read 13/33 essays: Today’s essay by Malcom Gladwell about Lois Weisberg (Chicago) …was the best read so far! This profile was the basis for his book The Tipping Point: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
EXCELLENT …writer M. Gladwell!”

January 7, 2026 –

47.27% “Read essays 14/33 “The Quarter of Living Dangerously (24.04.2000) by D. Denby. It feels that the world has shifted in 2000 to the “New Economy”. It produces “…a new kind of personality —the man or woman who is morally promiscuous, whose character has the liquid properties of cash..”

January 9, 2026 –

51.05% “Read essays 15/33: “Landing From the Sky” by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc is the basis of her 2003 book “Random Family. Essay was a snapshot of an extended family in the Bronx as they navigate poverty, drug dealing, abusive relationships, teenage motherhood, and repeated incarceration over more than a decade. Excellent writing….”

January 11, 2026 –

54.83% “Read essay “Moby Dick in Manhattan”( 16/33). Nice read….about the author James Wilcox. It detailed his struggle to survive as a writer devoted purely to literary fiction in 1994.”

January 12, 2026 –

58.19% “Read essay (17/33) ” Sweat is Good” . This was a fascinating look at the garment district in NYC written 25 years ago. It is a narrative nonfiction, typical of Buford’s immersive reporting.”

January 14, 2026 –

59.03% “Read essay (18/33) “A Sense of Change” by John Updike. Updike was a poster boy for The New Yorker. He submitted 153 poems and 179 articles fiction (highest count) and reviews. His work spanned over 50 years, totaling nearly 850 pieces. This little gem (very short essay) was wonderful…bringing back memories of a childhood in which I was dazzled by coins, Buffalo Nickel, Lincoln Penny and remember the Mercury dime?”

January 15, 2026 –

59.03% “Read essay (19/33) “Metamoney” Adam Gopnik continues to write for The New Yorker as a staff writer, a role he has held since 1986. He’s a a real Duracell bunny…still ticking! Although this topic about US money the look of  the bills…whose on what? dd. 1998…it is in 2026 a very entertaining read. Gopnik always gives his writing a engaging whiff of humour…I love it!”

January 16, 2026 –

62.39% “Read essay (20/33) “Display Cases” by Adam Gopnik. Pleasantly written, this article is easily read. Alas that is its only quality…
…empty, useless superficial chatter!”

January 17, 2026 –

66.18% “Read essay (21/33) “After Seattle” by W. Finnegan. This was a look at the early protest movement a/g I.M.F., the WTO., and the World Bank “the iron triangle of corporate rule”. Does anybody ever protest globalism these days? Yes, but it does not get amplified much on social media. Annual protests a Davos…ho hum…and if there is a protest it is usually linked to a local issue (Yellow Jackets in France). #Boring.”

January 18, 2026 –

69.96% “Read: essay (22/33) “They Like Me” by Connie Bruck. Profile of mob lawyer who became mayor of Las Vegas! Laugh moment: When FBI agents get the better of Oscar Goodman… he says…with a look and a tone that bespeak the company he has kept for nearly thirty-five years… “Drive safely” . Bruck is a staff writer at NY’er since 1989 and has won several writing awards. Profiles on… Newt Gingrich, Tupac Shakur.”

January 19, 2026 –

69.96% “Read essay (23/33) “What Would You Do If You Won the Lottery?” (Rebecca Mead, 24.04.2000). Very quick read, a puff piece. It was a soft focus anecdotal stories...about a “Mr Lucky” who won the lottery. He won a $45 million lottery jackpot in 1999 and opted for the annuity option, receiving payments over 26 years. I still think he is a millionaire but can’t confirm this!”

January 20, 2026 –

73.95% “Read essay (24/33) “The Inn Crowd”. Another “puff piece” about a restaurant (1978) in Washington, Va. (embattled outpost of gastronomy and the surreal impact on the townspeople) Difficult to enjoy it while I follow the “news” in Davos World Eco Forum on TV. The world is nervous b/c DJT arrives tomorrow. There’s no diplomacy with Donald Trump — he’s a T-Rex, you mate with him or he devours you.“

January 22, 2026 –

75.63% “Read: essay (25/33) “My Misspent Youth” by Meghan Daum. She is a young struggling freelance writer and describes her total financial mayhem trying to keep her head about water. Very entertaining and good news….Meghan is thriving in the literary world 2026.”

January 23, 2026 –

77.94% “Read essay (26/33) “A Hazard of No Fortune” by Adam Gopnik. Good writer but the essay is about looking for an apartment in NYC. Not smth that interests me. Lightweight, boring and difficult to enjoy after a night w/ just 5 hrs sleep. I guess the wrong essay at the wrong time but Gopnik remains one of my favourite New Yorker ‘s staff writers.”

January 24, 2026 –

79.83% “Read essay (27/33) Another ‘puff piece” about apartments NYC. (buying/selling). It feels like people in NYC are obsessed with real estate !
Article has only “local” appeal….I’d rather read smth with more substance.”

January 26, 2026 –

82.56% “Read essay (28/33)…almost finished!! “High-Heel Heaven” by M. Specter. It was a wonderfully informative and entertaining profile of the shoe designer Manolo Blahnik (1942). “What will happen to your brand when you stop? They’re just shoes. I’ll make as many as I can, and when I die I suspect the world will survive.””

January 27, 2026 –

82.56% “Read essay (29/33) “A Party for Brooke (Astor)” (21.03.1997) by Brendan Gil. Having a lot of difficulty reading the last few essays. There is so much happening in the world that I cannot get excited about another puff piece about the 95th birthday of a “grande dame” of New York society.”

January 27, 2026 –

84.66% “I keep forgetting to update the page number!”

January 28, 2026 –

85.29% “Read essay (30/33) “Conspicuous Consumption” by David Brooks. Who knew Canadians had such a great sense of humour? David Brooks is an exceptional writer and of all 30 essays…I enjoyed this one the most. It was short and laugh-out-loud funny! You can find essay/articles/opinion pieces by Brooks at The NY Times and The Atlantic.”

January 29, 2026 –

85.29% “Read essay (31/37) “Our Money, Ourselves” (19.04.1999) by D. Merkin. It was a frank autobiographical article covering family dynamics and wealth on Park Avenue. Very enjoyable reading and impressed with Ms Merkin’s vocabulary…really good!”

January 29, 2026 –

88.03% “There I go again…forgetting to alter page count!”

January 30, 2026 –

89.5% “Read essay (32/33) ” Who Speaks for the Lazy?” In these essays, Arthur Krystal (1947) finally reveals his cantankerous persona, and engages in an impassioned defense of the work he does…and doesn’;t do! Very good read…loved his writing style and kept reading waiting for the next great turn of phrase.”

January 30, 2026 –

90.76% “Read essay (33/33) !! “Restoration Hardware” by David Brooks  (18.01.1999) .…delightful profile of the owner and the store: ransacked his childhood memories and turned them into nostalgic inventory. He sells the old classic Boston Ranger pencil sharpener (see Google images) , which you probably haven’t seen in decades. He sells vintage gyroscopes and the classic plaid thermoses. Loved this walk down memory lane!”