I don’t know about you, but 2025 was a lot (and 2026 isn’t shaping up to be any calmer). And with all the tension, conflict and noise, it’s getting harder to concentrate on ploughing our own furrows. I frequently feel like everything needs my attention all at once. And social media/the rise of ai/fall of privacy are all making it worse.
So in an attempt to pull my over-distracted brain away from the chaos and steer it into a calmer state I fell down the YouTube personal curriculum rabbit hole.
If you’ve not heard of the trend, it’s been floating around for a while but really took off towards the end of last year. The idea is that you create an academic style curriculum of personal stuff for yourself based on your own interests and passions, rather than strictly following a university course.
Some people stay quite close to an academic model and study rigorous disciplines in semesters with lengthy reading lists and assignments. Others take it month by month and choose a different topic every four weeks. Some study hobbies or whimsical ideas over the course of a season.
And then there are the ones like me, who’ve taken to the idea but found the intensity of a structured period of study daunting. I just know I wouldn’t stick to it, no matter how much I’d enjoyed the planning.
So, I’ve decided to take my curiosity and channel it into a year long project.
A year long! Isn’t that more intense?
Well, ask me again at the end of the year but for me at the moment, it feels less intense. There’s a flexibility in being able to defer for a month if things get hectic or rough or double down during a period where it feels easy to do so.
Of course, this is a personal project, undertaken for fun and not being able to keep up with a plan shouldn’t be a cause for guilt, but I know myself well enough to know that I’ll feel like I’ve let myself down if I do that, and then the whole thing will start to feel like I’m playing catch up and stop being fun.
So what is my year long project, you may be asking (although you’re probably not, in fact is anyone reading this? Say hi in the comments if you are👋).
It’s my 26 for 26: A Year of Western Literature.
I had a broad plant the start of the year, but as I knew it would, things have already skewed the timeline so I’m not sticking too rigidly to the monthly plan. Just the overall, this is what I want to read this year vibe.
I’ve decided on eleven works of English (that is specifically UK) Literature, with seven from the United States and six from Europe.
Initially I had decided to read them in approximately date or order and, in order to more fully understand the world in which they were written, to study the art and music relating to each period as well.
Bold plans.
That did not materialise.