There are few things that excite me more about the end of the year than David Brooks’ Sidney Awards. He gathers the best-written pieces from the year in journalism (not necessarily political). Often they are familiar, but more often than not I never would have found them if not for his curation. There’s nothing more hygge for me than grabbing a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, huddling into my reading nook, and disappearing into these stories for hours at a time.
This year, I thought, why not do something similar? I’m no David Brooks, but I do try to find interesting, well-written, edifying pieces out there in the wasteland of the internet to share with you all on my facebook page. And based on your interaction with them on facebook, some of them you loved, some… not so much. So here are six of your (and my) favorite posts and articles from the past year:
- Illustrations of The Lord of the Rings in Medieval Iconographic Style
- How Narnia and Harry Potter Wrestle with Death and Christianity
- Marcus Aurelius on How to Motive Yourself to Get Up in the Mornings
- Fairy Tales Could Be Older than You Imagine
- Skim Reading is the New Normal. The Effect on Society is Profound.
- The Average American Worker Takes Less Vacation than a Medieval Peasant
As for my own blog, here are the top five posts from this past year, based on the number of people who read and commented on them:
- Seven Superhero Warriors of Russian Fairy Tales
- “Moscow is the Third Rome”: a Pivotal Moment in Russian History?
- 15 Russian Expressions You’ve Never Heard Of
- Cossack Family Values
- Five Epic Fantasy Series to Read after The Lord of the Rings
There you go! If I can be allowed a personal choice, though, I would say that this is my favorite post from this past year:
Happy New Year to everyone! I’ll also have a post coming up about my favorite reads of 2018, so stay tuned for that.
Did you know that I created an exclusive audio miniseries on the power of stories? Give it a listen!