Can it really be four years? It’s anniversary time again. I wrote a review of the year for 2015-16 here, for 2014-15 here and for 2013-14 here, so here’s another. It seems like a good way of guiding occasional readers to what I think are the best bits.
Looking back I see that I have taken note of quite a few books and the odd film, as well as the usual run of interesting articles in Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
* My favourite single post is this one about love. That’s partly because I have such a vivid memory of writing it, in a very good mood on a mostly empty flight (stealth boast) back from Geneva. It’s partly because it was nice to feel I was answering an invitation from the author of the article in question, to think about what poetry has to say about the matter.
* I got into a favourite topic with two posts on intentional mind-wandering (here and here), then rashly proclaimed an end to mind wandering here, before I inevitably got right back onto it here. And I am still thinking about wandering minds!
* I have a definite soft spot for the post on language repair and certain interesting sounds (‘huh?’ ‘ha’ …), which you’ll find here.
* And there is surely more to say in relation to the topic of cognitive offloading, which I merely nudged here.
Another year of more of the same, taking me up to five years, is quite possible, but I think I should try to think of ways of changing things (changing them up, whatever that means) before that point. I have some ideas. More guest posts would be nice. I am going to have A Proper Go at Twitter, to make it easier for a few more people to hear about what’s going on here. Most of all, many thanks for reading and please keep doing so.
I like to include a gratuitous treat in the end-of-year round-up. Last year it was Dexys’ cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’. This year, just in case it’s not something that everyone turns to at least once a week, it’s ‘Range Life’ by Pavement. In some ways (e.g. clothing) it could hardly be more different from the Dexys song, but actually in its general reflective mood, its way of mapping out the journey of life, it has some things in common. Shame they beep out the swear-word, but I am sure you can guess what it should be.