goodbye, january '25. we barely knew ya

Time moves at a criminally fast rate, which perhaps explains my tendency to scrawl, scribble, and in any way possible inscribe the many comings and goings of everyday life for future nostalgia. (Except for pictures. I’m a horrible photographer; I’ve no interest in “capturing the moment”; and I’d sooner read the dictionary than attempt to create a short-form video.)

Instead, here we are: Issue No. 001 of A Merry Loner’s Digest—your distillation of the last month’s articles, oddities, and assorted occurrences. Or as I chaotically like to call it: musings on finding merriment among the monotony, misery, and malaise.

Posts You May Have Missed

​The 5 Best Books I Read in 2024​

My 2024 books-read tally isn’t all that impressive, though I like to tell myself that that’s because I also spend a lot of time reading magazines and articles that don’t make their way into my precious GoodReads tracker. Then again, reading isn’t a numbers game. It’s for the art, the entertainment, the culture, the knowledge, and—above all—the pleasure. Out of the 17 books I shelved this year (from fiction to philosophy to history), these are my top five. READ​

​How to Live a More Analog Life: 5 easy, cheap (or free) ideas​

Like many people, I stare at my screen all day long for work (and too often, for pleasure, too), so I’m making it a point this year to rid myself of as many unnecessary machines as possible and live life more in the slow lane. And I don’t just mean intelligent machines like your smartphone or whatever creepy smart device has recently memorized the layout of your living room—I’m talking basically anything that uses power. Arbitrary as it may be, this is my new goal: to ditch the digital for the old-school and the manual (and, just maybe, cling to my sanity in our overflowing world of kaleidoscopic distractions). READ​

​How to Get Over Yourself and Go to that Damn Wedding, Gloriously Solo​

GUEST POST ALERT! Abigail Clarkin is a writer and social media manager from Providence, Rhode Island. Last month, she contributed a piece on the all-too-popular conundrum: being too nervous to attend a wedding alone. In her words: “I’ve had friends tell me point-blank that they’d be too nervous to attend a wedding alone. But I decided a long time ago that I never want to hold myself back from experiencing something wonderful just because of fear.” READ​

​9 Books on My 2025 Reading List​

Last year, I only read 17 books, which is nothing to be sad about, but it still leaves me with a reading list a mile long—and the unfulfilled dreams of being an extremely literary person. This year, I’m aiming to read 25 books (and I’m already three in!). Specifically, I’ve got my eye on a certain memoir, a few novels, and two translated works (one Japanese and one Polish). My books-to-read list is ever-growing, but these nine just got a fast-track to the top of the stack. Here’s why: READ​

​5 New Things I Want to Do Alone This Year​

Too often, our daydreams, goals, and quests get pushed to the side because we think we don’t have the right person to do them with—the right set of friends, the perfect partner, whatever. But if there’s something you want to do (or even just try out for the first time to see what you think), you really don’t need to waste time seeking out whom you might think is the requisite companion. You can just go ahead and do it, all on your lonesome. Because that lonesome can end up becoming your lifeline of wholesome in society’s chaotic maelstrom. This year, I’m not waiting. I’m prioritizing the new things I want to do and I’m going out there and doing them—by myself. This is what’s in the calendar. READ​

A Merry Loner’s Community

In January 2025, I contributed a piece to Hard Copy: “The Worthwhile Trend of Romanticizing Your Life.”​

Why Do We Save the Best Things for Later? And by "save them for later," I mean bestow upon them some inexplicable undue value, such that you feel like you simply cannot waste these sacred items on an ordinary Tuesday but must stow them away for some unspecified day in the future that never ends up coming.

What are we waiting for? What prize do we think awaits us if we only wear our most expensive dress once a year or keep our great-grandmother's pearl earrings out of sight until we get invited to a dinner party we can deem just the right amount of "special"? Does this make us better somehow? Does it show we have more restraint? Better impulse control? READ​

57 new Merry Loners joined our community.

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More readers sent us love letters.

And In the Real World…

• I drank too much wine during a weekend away in Jonzac to celebrate a friend’s birthday.
• I ate too much pasta in Bologna (for no reason at all).
• I went to a poetry reading in the 19th.
• I bought a new pair of red shoes to start the new year right.

That’s all.

Until next time, find me on Instagram.

ttfn,

Merry

🌻 P.S. I love to hear from you. What was your favorite moment from January 2025? (Or your worst moment that you need to rant about?) My inbox is open—for comments, questions, suggestions, and feedback. I appreciate you.