Let's wrap it up — the best of 2021
ICYMI — here are some reader favourites for your holiday reading!
Hello hello! 👋🏽
I know this is a day late — I’ve got nothing but a holiday brain to blame for that. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks finishing up work and still overshot my capacity by two days. Good lessons for my 2022 break, I guess.
I debated whether I wanted to pause the newsletter for two weeks while I went on break. So, I turned to Twitter, and 30 folks1 (and I’m sure some of those were you!) vehemently told me to take a break.
Colour me thoroughly impressed that not a single vote went to me writing this newsletter on holiday — we stan those who respect breaks!
But before I disappear from your inboxes until Jan 11, I wanted to wrap up 2021 with you. Over the last seven months, I’ve written 26 issues and here are your top five2 and my top five editions — with a bit of bts!
2021 Reader Favourites 💖
This one made an impression on you guys. This was the first in my issues exploring money and conversations about money. I wasn’t nervous writing this, but I definitely rambled on and had to cut a few chunks (never fear, they’ll be reused in another edition) for brevity.
Highest opens — either y’all forwarded this one a lot or went back to read it a few times. Either way, I hope you’re more encouraged to take your PTO or go on a break (like me) because you deserve it after the hellish 24 months we’ve had.
This one has the highest views across all my issues. Both this and the previous issue and things I struggle with personally, so it was nice to know that I’m not alone when so many of y’all related heavily to these topics. I also think that’s pretty telling of how fucked up our society has gotten because we constantly feel the need to be productive and “on the grind.”
Tied for likes with #1 — I honestly thought this issue would flop, but I guess we all need book recommendations, whether we’re reading or not. If you read anything from that list because of me, I’d love to know what you thought — bouquets and brickbats are both welcome.
Want more book recommendations? Here are some comic books and graphic novels to check out during the holidays (or you can gift them from your favourite indie store or Amazon!).
2021 also marks my first year of freelancing full-time — what a leap to make in the middle of the pandemic. I’m grateful to have landed on both feet, but that wouldn’t have been possible without developing an abundant mindset — knowing that work and opportunities will continue to come through is what kept me going. It’s also why I can take a break without worrying or feeling guilty.
Your fave Perceptive Madness didn’t make the list? Please reply & tell me what it is — you’ll make my day and it’ll take you five seconds.
Nia’s 2021 Favourites 💝
A few of my favourites (toxic productivity, vacation guilt, and abundance mindset) already made it to the other list, so here are those I value more than numbers:
Sure, every edition of Perceptive Madness is my baby and dear to me and blah, blah, blah, but we all have favourites — this one’s mine. This one is a pure labour of love. In fact, I added the pop culture section (instead of just keeping it freelancing & books) because I felt so strongly about how teen girls have been disrespected in mainstream media. I also wanted to talk about how much BTS appreciate their fans (I have so much more to say, but maybe I’ll keep that to my blog or my Medium page).
When I wrote this issue, I was legitimately concerned some of my readers might unsubscribe3 because a lot of folks hear “BTS/K-pop” and check out of the conversation. Thank you for keeping an open mind and being fantastic readers!
I’ve always loved fanfics. So I was more than thrilled to write this issue exploring why they deserve more respect as a creative medium. The success of the teen girls x BTS issue gave me hope that this one would also be appreciated — and it was.
Fun fact/ICYDK4 — Kudos are “likes” on AO3 (Archive of Our Own), my favourite platform to read fanfiction/transformative fiction.
Also an audience-fave, I had plenty of fun writing this issue. Since I want to help my readers and friends talk about money more openly, I’m trying to make money conversations and information less taboo and more accessible. So as we go into the new year, remember to ask for your bonuses, year-end raises and charge your worth!
In this one, I explored my disdain for forcing people to read “classics” — whether it’s for school or pleasure. This issue also had a more personal tone to it. It’s the first time I’d spoken about feeling inadequate (about my reading) to such a large and dedicated audience. It was also the gateway into a bunch of ideas and future issues about elitism within reading.
This one is remarkably timely now that we’ve got a new year coming up. I wrote this when I was recovering from covid and felt guilty about missing a couple of issues. I hope you and anyone you share this issue with can set smaller, more realistic goals that don’t make you feel too bad about yourself. I’m still figuring this out as I go too, so let’s be kinder to ourselves in 2022, yeah?
Honourable mention: Did you ever think you’d relate to Death? I didn’t either.
Starting a newsletter is a daunting thing — you’re literally going to be in people’s inboxes fighting for your life, among other emails. My first issue was nerve-wracking for many reasons and because I was writing (for myself) after a very long time. Thank you for loving this issue (highest open rate, pre-Apple policies), giving my newsletter a chance, and sticking around.
I appreciate you so much.
Stay safe and healthy — I’ll be back in your inboxes in two weeks!
Love,
Nia
(Metaphorical) Penny for your thoughts?
You can treat this anon feedback thingy to tell me what you think about my newsletter! What can I improve? What do you want to see more of?
If you enjoy this newsletter, then I’d love your support — please share this issue with a friend and/or buy me a few coffees. For less than the price of a coffee, you can make me feel like my words are having a real impact — thank you to all my current supporters, ily.
Things to check out until I’m back! 💌
I'm always curious about what's entering the public domain in the new year. Here's a cool list that compiles books, movies, music, and more that will be in the public domain come Jan 01, 2022!
If you're as distracted as me, you also probably move from task to task, trying to complete as much as possible while multitasking. Turns out, that's a form of context switching, and it's not good for your productivity — in fact, it's straight-up detrimental.
Bloomberg had mercy on those of us catching up on all the best reads — their 2021 Jealousy List is an excellent collection of articles to read, things to watch, and maybe even podcasts to check out. I'm gonna spend my break reading and catching up on the riveting Bad Art Friend discourse (yes, I'm months behind).
I haven't watched it yet, but Landscapers looks phenomenal, and I'm always sold on anything with Olivia Colman anyway. Colman + my love for British murder mysteries = a winner in my books. Will tell y'all my thoughts when I'm back from my break!
Here's a rather lovely and interesting list of words from around the world's languages that won't translate.
My find: "Nja" in Swedish, which sounds very similar to my name. It combines no (nej) and yes (ja); neither yes or no (or both yes and no); expressing uncertainty.
Does anyone else feel like 2021 passed like this?
Finally, as we go into a new
schoolyear:
Don’t forget to press the little heart (it sends some festive cheer right back to me! ❤️
See you in January!