Five for Friday #8: Animated mice, reading goals, curling and folk horror

Hello there!

I had a great response to my Lochby Field Journal post on Tuesday – which also inspired my pal Gareth L. Powell to share on Instagram how he organises his notebooks. The Weekly Dashboard notebook he uses is tasty!

Let me know if you'd like more stationery posts – or a deeper dive into how I'm embracing more of an analogue life in my planning!

Away from all that, the last week saw me starting a new term of my lino classes, reaching a much-needed milestone in my latest WIP, and sharing news about spooky Star Wars shenanigans.

But what about the usual Friday recommendations? Well, I have those for you, too!

Let's go...

1. Book life: Do you set yourself an annual reading goal? I do, although this year the tally isn't going up all that fast, as I'm currently reading King Sorrow by Joe Hill, which is roughly 4,876 pages. *
   
   Emma Loffhagen has written a great article in the Guardian about the gamification of reader goals and whether it's good for you or not. I do it, mainly to remind myself to stop scrolling (which I hate) and pick up a book (which I love).
   
   But what about you? Let me know in the comments.
   
   
2. Finding what you love: "There was a shift from human taste makers... to this very data-driven system in which only what is popular gets more popular and what does get that immediate attention is pushed into the shadows."
   
   So says New York Times columnist Kyle Chayka in a fascinating chat from 2024, which seems all the more relevant as our algorithm-run world repeatedly tells you what's cool. There's a lot to think about here, from how to develop your own taste to the importance of curators in 2026.
   
   (Funnily enough, I found the chat – which is also available as a podcast for NYT subscribers – via one of my favourite curators, Austin Kleon, who mentioned it in his recent post: 'How I get into something new'.)
   
   
3. Animation: Last week, I visited the new Cosgrove Hall exhibition in Sale and came face to face with so many of my childhood heroes. Danger Mouse. Duckula. Jamie and the Magic Torch. Chorlton the Happiness Dragon.
   
   Heaven! You can read about the collection here to plan your own visit.
   
   Best of all? It's absolutely free!
   
   
4. Sport: Like most of Great Britain, I become obsessed with curling every four years thanks to the Winter Olympics. Milano Cortina 2026 was no different – other than finding out that the sport is a full-time job!
   
   Is it too late for me to switch careers?
   
   
5. Folk Horror: “The way I see it, folklore is much more than a nostalgia act. Folklore connects us — supposedly material, supposedly logical beings — with the mad beauty of the natural world and its processes; this includes dreams, emotion, the imagination, and whatever’s beyond the veil.”
   
   So says Bryn Chainey, director of Rabbit Trap in Ritual issue 2. A fanzine celebrating folk horror TV and film, the new publication from Weird Walk had me reaching for things to watch or listen to, from a 1970s drama series I've never heard of before – The Mind Beyond – to an eerie new soundtrack for 1968’s Whistle and I’ll Come To You.
   
   The latter has already become a new writing soundtrack for my work. I have the LP on the way, and can't wait to play it alongside the original film.

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Let me know if any of those catch your eye — or reply in the comments with something I should be reading, watching, or listening to next. You can also just hit reply to the email.

I'm back in the word mine at the moment, digging through my current novel, but I won't abandon you, I promise. I'll be back on Tuesday with a short post inspired by a quote by Rick Rubin.

Until then, look after yourself and each other!

* this is a lie, but it is very long. And, to be honest, absolutely brilliant.