How should we read? The S-word makes it sound, like it or not, like a moral injunction—deep, passionate and enthusiastic readers we may well be, there nonetheless remains something about the way we transform marks on a page or screen into images and ideas in the mind that leaves us feeling like failures.

I AM NOT sure why―when it happens every year―I am so unprepared for winter. The cold. The dampness. The continual overcast skies. And most of all, the darkness. Yes, the days have been, happily, incrimentally longer every day since winter solstice, but tonight, the sun still set 4:17pm. 4:17pm! On Sundays, everything moves a little more slowly …

It’s hard to imagine the internet without Wikipedia. Just like the air we breathe, the definitive digital encyclopedia is the default resource for everything and everyone — from Google’s search bar to undergrad students embarking on research papers. It has more than 6 million entries in English, it is visited hundreds of millions of times per day, and it reflects whatever the world has on its mind: Trending pages this week include Tanya Roberts (R.I.P.), the Netflix drama Bridgerton, and, oh yes, the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

JANUARY IS A funny time: on the one hand, we’re drawn to all-white and minimalistic interiors for the clean slate that they represent, and on the other, it’s such a dreary month that anything colourful instantly lifts our mood and brightens these long dark winter days.

The past few days I’ve been enjoying a slower rhythm of life: some time with friends and the empty and rainy streets of Paris. I’ve also been particularly enjoying American author, Fran Lebowitz, in the series Pretend It’s a City, biographical documentary created in collaboration with filmmaker Martin Scorsese. The series captivates―not only with her wit and way with words―but with the bond between her and Scorsese, talking and laughing together on the streets of New York. And I’ve also become very fond of her style and endlessly inspired by it, especially by her choice of her blazers.

Three decades ago, Tim Berners-Lee devised simple yet powerful standards for locating, linking and presenting multimedia documents online. He set them free into the world, unleashing the World Wide Web.Three decades ago, Tim Berners-Lee devised simple yet powerful standards for locating, linking and presenting multimedia documents online. He set them free into the world, unleashing the World Wide Web.

These days feel like they are moving in slow motion for some reason and today, had thought that it was Friday, but it is only Wednesday. I am not sure what it is we are waiting for—perhaps the vaccines are creating a hope that things might get back to normal soon, even as the news here in Britain warns that we are approaching our worst and most dangerous time ever in this pandemic …

WE’RE STILL in the process of repopulating our archives after the technical disaster that was 2020 saw the obliteration of thousands of images from our hosting site; many personal images were also lost from our external drives due to another (un-related) catastrophe, but that is another story. And in the process of fixing a 2017 article by Daniela featuring the work of Lázaro Rosa-Violán—the interior designer responsible for many of the chicest hotels and restaurants around the world …

One day a number of years ago, I was deep into a game of draughts on holiday with my daughter, then almost four, in the small library of a beachfront town. Her eye drifted to a nearby table, where a black-and-white board bristled with far more interesting figures (many a future chess master has been innocently drawn in by “horses” and “castles”).