Add to List - #30 (Italy Edition)

Views, rivers, salads and Margo's Got Money Troubles

Jul 28, 2024

How many times do people give you a recommendation and you say ‘Oh, really? Cool. I’ll add it to the list!’ and then you go away and do not add it to any list anywhere?

Well, I present you with Add to List: the Sunday newsletter containing small things that brought joy, evoked an emotional reaction or became some short-lived stability for me in the past 7 days.

Obsession

This view.

No words needed. This place holds magic.

Confession

I once tried to be a salad influencer.

It was 2015. Deliciously Ella was only just becoming a household name. I was trying to build a non-diet centric view of healthy eating. I loved salads and hosting. I like the feeling of a well-balanced, filling (operative word) salad. Anyway, after this week, I wondered temporarily if I should bring it back. See ‘Cook’ section below.

Shook

Substack subscriber Count increase.

Really moved to see the progress I’ve made in the last month on this newsletter. 13 of these followers found me directly in the app which means something is working in terms of discoverability. Hosting and attending meet-ups also seems to fuel the fire and more low key word-of-mouth also seems to be doing some of its charm. It’s a multi-faceted approach.

I can also see that recommendations from other writers seem to be working their magic. So, big thank you to

and

who have me listed on their profiles and are coalescing our reader audiences.

This does mean, I am beyond the subscriber goal I set before I would switch to paid. I have conflicting thoughts about what that will do for my writing and relationship with my subscribers but more on this soon.

Book

By the River: Essays from the Water’s Edge by Multiple

Something happens to our brains when we stare at moving water: a sort of broad, effortless attentiveness, the effects of which are regarded as restorative and pleasurable. Psychologists call this ‘soft fascination’ and suggest that in it we might find relief from anxiety and mental fatigue, and open our minds to free-wheeling patterns of thought. Spend a quiet hour on a riverbank watching water slide by and you might find yourself wondering where it comes from, and where it might be going. You might even ask yourself ‘What is a river?’

This is the beautiful opening to Amy Jane Beer’s essay ‘What Is A River?’ in which she weaves a philosophical question about what rivers hold for us, our existence in society and how they form us as people. She discussed the way ‘people have been making watery journeys of physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual forever’ and talks about how ‘a river can be a giver and taker of life’ and well as how ‘they can be barriers, obstacles and boundaries, but more often they are corridors, portals, thin places or confluences’.

Something about reading it, in a quiet on the banks of a free-flowing natural swimming spot beneath a railway bridge this week did exactly as the words beckoned to question my own thoughts on rivers. I see them as cleansers, joy-bearers and re-setters as well as navigators, cautionary tales and healers.

Some of the other essays also caught my attention: Jo Hamya’s eloquently uncovering of Virginia Woolf’s drowning and Niellah Arboine’s ‘River Mumma’, a meandering question on if the force of the water is a mythological female woman, dangerous to those who cross her or a necessary force of natural protection.

What do you think a river is?

Match your book jacket to your surroundings

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

I saw Rufi in conversation with Monica Heisey at Waterstones earlier this month and bought this book because she was so smart, funny and one of those writers where you just want to try and understand how her brain works, even if it’s only 5% of it.

I am astounded at how many niche topics of interest overlap in one place in this aberrantly brilliant novel. Reading it feels effortless and natural, leaving you wanting to do nothing more than submerse beneath the surface of niche, offbeat topics. Think Bridget Jones’ Baby except it’s filled with LARPing, ex Pro-wrestling parents, OnlyFans, TikTok viral activity, Vegas weddings and student-teacher relationships. Rufi writes forcibly yet empathetically in a way and humanises extreme characters to attributes that are so intrinsic to all of us. It’s really a novel in where the central question is one about where we draw the line on judgement and what it is that makes any character redeemable. I am LOVING it so much that I read near two-thirds yesterday next to the pool. I will probably finish it today because it’s an addictive, beguiling and ultimately, an incredibly touching read.

Cook

Italian spreads on the terrace.

Tomatoes out here hit different. Every vegetable can be drizzled in lemon juice, olive oil and a bit of parmesan and it is immediately transformed into what tastes like a rare delicacy. This salad spread was served alongside thin chicken breasts, topped with salsa verde.

Oh, and some gelato of course.

not pictured: this dripping all over my hand

Can’t Stop Scanning

The view.

Did I mention I was in Italy?

Forward Planning

Morning pages, actual pages and an Instagram hiatus.

I’ve been so lucky to have one of my best friends, Harriet with me for week one out here. She’s the perfect travel companion. We’ve not stopped laughing, we’ve slowed down our pace, everything is relaxed. We’ve had some gorgeous moments getting fizzy on fizz, staring out at the mountain vista (including me beckoning to the hills for the universe to deliver her a man for her who is ‘equal parts boujee and feral’ — it’s a really valid request, I think). We’ve been swimming, purchased goods at the local market, done day trips to cities where we’ve and cycled around, had delicious lunches and afternoon walks fuelled by ice cream. I feel fully acclimatised to Italian way of life (though my Italian definitely needs some work — time to get that Duolingo streak back up).

Next week I’ll be alone in the mountains, trying to find that creative thing writers call ‘flow’. I’ve started Morning Pages this week and it’s getting easier, though some of my thoughts are totally unhinged and chaotic. I can’t seem to write at the speed my brain jumps from thought to thought.

Next week my primary focus will be the WIP progress novel I have been talking about (and quitting my job to write). My previous two weeks in London were something a Gen-Z cool-kid would describe as ‘living for the plot’. Now, with many plot points to hand, I feel ready to create. Wish me luck!