#6: Splashing around
Footpaths • Tuesday 24 June 2025
welcome | book guides | slow reads | library
Footpaths is my journal on reading and writing at Footnotes & Tangents. Edit your notification settings here to get Footpaths in your inbox.
I realised this morning that I have published 700 posts on Substack since I set up Footnotes & Tangents, around two years ago.
It’s been a colossal amount of work – but also immensely rewarding. I think I narrowly escaped burnout last year, and this year I have reduced the time I dedicate to writing the book guides. Next year, I aim to cut back a little more, and make more time for my own writing. My advice to anyone starting something similar is: beware! It can take over your life.
Today I finished watching this interview with Robert Macfarlane:
Wonderful, spellbinding stuff. Mostly a discussion about language and constructing sentences, but also insights into Robert Mafcarlane’s writing process.
Today’s highlight happened far away from reading and writing. Zack’s swimming lesson was cancelled, so we went to the pool anyway. We splashed around for half an hour, he grinning from ear to ear. Sheer delight. He’s found so much confidence in the water since I wrote about his first swimming lessons back in January.
My bedside books
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, Penelope Fitzgerald by Hermione Lee, A Short History of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart by Terri Ochiagha. John Mullan’s How Novels Work and How Fiction Works by James Wood.
I'm halfway through listening to that intervew with Rob Macfarlane, thanks so much for sharing it! It's quite a treat. How did this David Perell guy get so lucky??
My favorite line so far is "Rainbows are the charismatic megafauna of wonder." I laughed out loud on my bike commute!