the february report

a round-up from this short, snowy month with what I've been reading, eating, playing...and more

Hi, friend.

Today is the two year anniversary of Closely Reading!

February 28, 2023 was the impulsive day I shared my very first essay here. As I revisited it this week, I realized how often I continue to circle ‘round the same basic set of ideas I set out to dedicate my time to. I was feeling a little spark of pride and a lot of gratitude to have (pretty accidentally) created this space that is meant to push and think and stay invested in knowing something, like the art of closely reading, really deeply.

Thank you for being a reader here, and for all your lovely comments and messages. They have inspired me to keep this project going — and I’m continually excited about what we find here together.

Sigh. It’s good energy!

Okay: now onto something decidedly silly.

Today, I’m trying out a new format to share what I’ve been up to this month and it is all inspired by some “report”-style posts I’ve been seeing on TikTok. Of course, I made a few changes to better align to what I actually want to share, and I didn't make any kind of video content about all of this because I genuinely feel like an Elder Millennial when I try to do anything with video.

(We like written longform around here anyway, right? RIGHT?)

Here’s the REPORT:

• Reading

• Eating

• Playing or Pinning

• On all the time

• Raving or ranting about

• Treating

Here’s what I’ve been up to this February…

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Reading

Obviously I’ve been reading all-things Pride and Prejudice. (Hi book clubbers!)

This is only my second time ever reading the novel even though I’ve watched the 2005 film adaptation at least 500 times. So as I’ve been reading with our book club, I’ve also been reading about the novel thanks to the Cambridge Companion to Pride and Prejudice.

I also visited the University of Utah’s campus library and wandered my way to the Austen shelves so I could see some of the titles and topics that scholars have explored.

That library has those crank shelves with the giant wheels you have to turn to open up the shelves you want to examine and though they make me mildly claustrophobic, I also love that you can pack a veritable bajillion more volumes into a single area by having that “collapsible” space. Plus: spinning those giant wheel things is oddly satisfying.

(Talk about feeling like an Elder Millennial!)

Anyway.

Browsing academic library shelves of a specific author is one of my favorite ways to get more familiar with text by that author.

Even just taking a look at the tables of contents and some of the “Notes” sections in academic books about a specific author can help you gain stronger footing or even discover a few new themes or ideas you want to watch for as you closely read. As I was scanning titles about Jane Austen, it was a lot of fun to see the differences in titling conventions in the older titles (1980s) versus today’s more “hip” academic studies, which usually have a tighter niche onto a specific topic (like fashion, a specific philosophical lens, or cultural studies connection).

I also recently delighted in two enormous book hauls (thanks, online indie book sales and Valentine’s Day!) More on that below.