May 2025 Reading Journal

Short stories, essays and memoir to get you thinking, but in manageable chunks (+ a prompt for a mid-year reset.)

It’s mid-June, which means that 2025 is now half-cooked, but possibly under-seasoned. I don’t know what your NY resolutions look like - were you going to get fit? Make changes in your life? Get a new job? Yeah. I dunno, man. It might be time to do a bit of a reset for the rest of the year.

My car was broken into back in March and it threw me off. It spawned eight weeks of admin hell, and they nicked my notebook with all my 2025 plans - pages filled with starry-eyed optimism about the person I was going to be, the spacious ease I was going to have, my transformative sabbatical, and so on.

It felt vaguely ominous at the time, but I shook it off, determined to get back on the life-direction horse. I should have paid more attention. My year has, so far, been hijacked by uncertainty, regret, and drama. Selling my family home and moving to a new spot which is not quite what it seemed. Swings between frenzied uncertainty and slothful inertia. Physical injuries. The common denominator, as it always is, being me and my shit. Classic.

I started the year big - had a huge cleanout, changed up my finances, made new commitments - but so far, those decisions have been a bit of a flop. Which is not what’s supposed to happen with personal development. You’re supposed to be rewarded for your bravery, but the universe doesn’t much care. Some decisions simply go badly, and you’ve got to make things work from a different starting point. The job, house, choice, person, hire, car, parenting decision, whatever it was, might be the wrong choice for you. You might not be able to go back. But a good decision isn’t about the outcome, it’s about the process used to make it. So, here’s to cracking on.

It’s worth a recap of what has gone well and been great (because we tend to forget that and focus on the fuckery), plus a new intention for the rest of the year, before we get spit out at Christmas wondering what happened.

One thing we can always rely on to be there for us: books.

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OK, book time

May highlight: The Auckland Writers Festival - over 80,000 keen readers packed into buzzing venues. We love books! How good. Asako Yuzuki, author of Butter, was so blown away by the festival she told the crowd her friends in Japan wouldn’t believe it. Cam jumped on stage to capture her in front of the adoring crowd, as proof:

Asako Yuzuki on stage at the Auckland Writer’s Festival. Source: Cam Fink.

But, not all rosy. I left a panel on Being a New Zealand Writer Today equal parts grim and cranky. The message was clear: there is no money, there will be no glory, so be grateful for a half-chewed pencil and a wonky desk, mate. If you’re a writer in New Zealand, be prepared to lower your already humble career expectations further.

Our gratitude for mediocrity is a national disease.Ambition is fine in rugby, but bad in books. I have thoughts. Stay tuned for a longer piece on this.

May’s reading was mostly short-stories and essays. My brain was fried, so I avoided novels. If you’re in a rut, lack the concentration for long stories, and/or want to mix up your reading but not make a huge commitment, this might be the reading journal for you. Onto the Pick of the Month.