Jurdwatching 🍉

Stoic, bardolater, PBHS Old Boy, Calvin and Hobbes fan, meat-eater, and actuarial analyst. Part of the problem. (He/him/his)

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

BOOKS I READ IN 2026

#1 H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

One of the most moving and memorable memoirs I've read. Highly evocative language, and informed empathetic thinking about our relationship with nature/other animals.

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

#9 “The Blind Assassin” by Margaret Atwood

I remembered the book as snide, but now see it’s Iris who’s snide. Very much enjoyed. Laura and Richard too thinly drawn. Would like to have heard more about where the blind assassin himself ends up.

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

BOOKS I READ IN 2026

#1 H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

One of the most moving and memorable memoirs I've read. Highly evocative language, and informed empathetic thinking about our relationship with nature/other animals.

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

#8 “Book of Lives” by Margaret Atwood

Very enjoyable memoir, spending lots of time on the early years, going faster and lighter in later years (until Graeme Gibson’s decline and death, movingly depicted). Made me want to read each of the books/poems/essays she mentions.

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

"Materialism" can be interpreted broadly. But perhaps "economic insecurity" is more apt? Even rich people feel insecure, which is usually why they want more

[Grant Bailey @grantjbailey]

This one surprised me. Teen girls now say "having lots of money" is important in life at the same rate as boys. There used to be a huge gap.

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

Culture is not an eternal, unchanging pristine state that can only look like pre-colonial times. If a food is traditionally eaten by a group of people, it's part of their culture, no matter where it came from.

[Jolie Cowslington @yomgqashiyo]

Don’t mean to be pedantic or anything but Pap is not part of our culture. Maize meal is a colonial imposition. Anywho, what are your thoughts on Sorghum, Pearl Millet, Bambara, Fonio and other African grains?

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

There's no such thing as good acting or bad acting. Only your personal response that a particular performance elicits.

[Mentally Disturbed Colts Fan @Najee_Joyner]

The general public really don’t know what good acting is

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

@tnyfrontrow Marilyn Monroe's centenary is this year. Do you know any good biographies of her that you can recommend?

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

Started my end-of-year list today

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

Makes me wonder what Europe would be right now if not for European colonialism.

[Matt Morse @MattMorseTV]

This would be half the planet right now if not for European colonialism.

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

#9 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Read for its 100th anniversary. I didn't remember how lyrical the language of this novel is, and I enjoyed every sentence. There's a big hole, though, in imagining the life of Gatsby before the story starts.

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

BOOKS I READ IN 2025

#1 "The Signature of All Things" by Elizabeth Gilbert

Not sure how much of the surrounding circumstances are based in fact, but the fictional story at the centre was quite pleasuable. Rolled my eyes at the sex scene.

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

#8 How to be a Bad Birdwatcher by Simon Barnes

If he defined what bad birdwatching is, I missed it. But there are a lot of enjoyable descriptions of the deep and memorable experiences that make it desirable.

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

White people keep saying they want things to work like Europe, but then refuse to stop for me when I'm at a pedestrian crossing

[Qhawe @Qhawe___L]

Normalize beating up politicians.

[Jurdwatching 🍉 @the_jurd]

As impressive as all these are, none of them is the best movie these directors made. Some of their greatest work lay decades in the future.

[bailey @baileylikemovie]

Orson Welles made Citizen Kane at 26 years old

PTA made Boogie Nights at 26

Kubrick made Paths of Glory at 26

Ryan Coogler made Fruitvale Station at 26

Chantal Akerman made Jeanne Dielman at 24

Jean-Luc Godard made Breathless at 29