69. Motivation by lists and structure

The other day I wrote about my Project 365s—a way of continuing to move forward, and to stay somewhat focused, by doing a particular task, no matter how small, every day. That day I (hopefully—as in, full of hope) started a new daily photo project, and so far, ten days in, I'm doing it. I already took a picture for today ☞, but I will see how the rest of the day plays out, it being early (8:45) yet. Something better may come along. (Later: it did.)

A friend of mine (one of the Howlers) has what seems to be a long list of actions she tries to accomplish every day, a daily haiku and journal entry among them, but I'm sure I've heard her mention more.  

Me, I'm good with one expected activity a day. 

But I also like list projects. Just now—that time of year when lists are sprouting up everywhere—I got sidetracked by a NYT list of the best thrillers of 2025, which steered me to the writer William Boyd, whom I've heard of but not read, and who seems to be highly admired, and who I decided I probably must read, and oh! he has a new series just started, and yes! I do love book series... and then the Amazon page I'd gotten steered to to find out more about Boyd mentioned a book by Michael Connelly, whose Harry Bosch books I'd started reading one by one, and I got to wondering how far I'd gotten. 

I happen to have a handy list of all my blog entries, which includes the book reports I started doing with regularity back in 2016. So I searched for Connelly, and it turns out the last one I read in the series was the seventh (having somehow skipped the sixth), in May 2023. That report also mentioned that I was trying to read books in alphabetical order:

Martha Wells, All Systems Red (loved that one)

Aleksandar Hemon, The Book of My Lives

Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land (also loved)

John McPhee, Draft No. 4

Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life 

Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers (this one too)

Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet (as well)

And then, right about the time of that seventh Bosch book, I forgot about that project, distracted by something or other. But just now I'm thinking, hmmm, I still like that idea. It can be tricky to find a new title among the many (many) hundreds that I own. The alphabet can be a handy filter/decider. So I scanned my shelves, and found a fetching title starting with I: Impossible Owls, a collection of essays. Only it turns out that the novel I picked up just yesterday—coincidentally? providently? eerily?—also starts with I: Imagine Me Gone. 

So yes, I think I'll head back to that project, after a little gap of a year and a half. Let's see how far I can make it this time. 

My other alphabetical list project, which is still but an idea—I've only ever tackled A—is a cooking endeavor: the national dishes (loosely defined) of the world. A was for Aruba and its wacky keshi yena, or meat-stuffed cheese. Maybe I'll pick that up in the new year: one letter every two weeks. Starting with B... is for... Belgium (moules-frites, or perhaps stoofvlees aka Flemish stew)? Burundi, Bahrain, Bermuda? Bosnia (Bosanski lonac aka Bosnian stew)? I'll think about it. One project at a time is probably more than enough for my poor distractable self...