What I read/watched/played in December 2025. The season of Advent and Christmas is always hectic but this year, with a one and a bit year old it was even more so. Between singing in 2 Carol Services and 1 carol gig, shopping, travelling, seeing friends and family, I managed to read quite a lot. Maybe the more you do the more you can do, I dunno.
Books Read - 61/52
On Paper
The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki
This is a romance novel with talking cats that are “catifications” of the planets who explain a persons natal charts to people. This is astrology fiction and it is exceptionally cosy with plenty of delicious deserts and drinks described and a gentle tour through the lives of several individuals who are going through some heavy stuff.
Recommend if feeling the need for a light read but it is quite short, I read it in two days.
The Greeks by HDF Kitto
An excellent little book on the Ancient Greeks. Mostly concerned with the life and character of the Greeks covering their religion, the form, purpose, and structure of the polis, alongside a brief look at various wars. Eminently readable and conversational with plenty of niche information and insights all wrapped up in 250 pages.
The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time book 2)
This was incredible, rich worldbuilding beyond anything I expected but never feeling like it was a drag to read. Polar opposite to how I felt about The Eye of the World when I read it 8 years ago. Now 8 years ago I had only been reading fiction regularly for 2 years let alone massive epic fantasy series which likely had something to do with my opinion of the first book in the Wheel of Time but on a whim I came across Daniel Green’s 11 hour summary video of the series and decided I liked the sound of it so picked up where I had left off.
My favourite chapter was 37, What Might Be, where Rand attempts to travel via a Portal Stone but instead subjects himself and about 20 others to living alternate lives for 4 months. Jordan writes all these snippets of possible worlds where single decisions shift the entire narrative and the Dark One keeps whispering at the end of each failed cycle “I win again…” and no character really knows if these worlds are real, historic, future, or merely imaginary similar to the trio of arches that serve as a test for a potential Aes Sedai to ascend from novice to Accepted which show a person’s greatest fears. These chapters show a depth of worldbuilding where the magic system and nature of the world are tightly entwined.
The Burnout Society by Han Byung-Chul
Han Byung-Chul proves again that he has a unique understanding of our late-modern era. The thesis of this slim tome is that our society has moved, or is in the process of moving, from an obedience-society to an achievement-society and that this shift has altered our psyches in a profoundly damaging way. From the 18th-early 20th century people worked and were subject to authority and hierarchy to incentivise or exploit them to produce more stuff, to work harder and for longer hours, but this is no longer the case and now we have entered into a society were each individual is at once worker and foreman, exploited and exploiter, slave and master. The contemporary focus on self-improvement, career progression, and the framing that all of this as freedom results in a great deal less actual freedom as one is dogged by their own conscience that time spent not working, learning, or improving is somehow wasted or a guilty-pleasure or not as worthwhile. Han does not make the connection explicit but this does come from the “protestant work ethic” that parts of Europe and latterly America have as part of their zeitgeist even though from a Christian standpoint, and Han does make this point, the Holy Day of the week is the day with no work. Leisure is Holy, not labour.
This focus on constant self-improvement, either through a job with performance reviews and goal setting or the myriad of self-help and hustle culture podcasts/books/videos/etc., prevents catharsis as the destination is moving ever further away and the end result of this state is depression and burnout caused by the violence to the self that is the non-stop demand to improve, learn, and become rather than actually living. The idea that more production produces more life is false and as a result our society is not geared towards the good life, eudaimonia, and instead aims us all at the bare life where health becomes a focus merely as a means to productive ends. Living is removed from life.
Han Byung-Chul is Korean but has lived and worked in Germany for over 40 years, he writes in German, does not own a smartphone, only listens to music in analog, refuses interviews, and is Catholic.
On Film
Under The Silver Lake
Sam, an out of work actor, ogles his neighbours, who also seem equally out of work, until one of them, Sarah, invites him into her apartment. They have a drink, get high, and are then interrupted by a pirate and two other women. Sam has to leave but Sarah invites him round the next day only when he goes the apartment is empty and Sarah is missing. He sets out to find her.
A Scooby Doo episode with only Shaggy doing the investigation, well not exactly but it is surreal and at times David Lynch adjacent. It could be a film about Hollywood and how the place makes people crazy, it could be a film about hidden messages in media, it could be a film about nothing, it could be neo-noir mystery film as the box claims, it could be a lot of things.
A film about conspiracies, hidden codes, media messaging, covert and overt, and wasting time on stuff that is meaningless while ignoring what is actually important.
It’s A Wonderful Life
The greatest Christmas film ever made.
Thanks for reading.
I finally managed to finish The Mage Hunter and if you have yet to read the last chapter, here it is: