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I read this a few months ago, but it stuck with me because I keep seeing commercials for the Olympics, which opens in one month on February 6.

Studies have been done that people who win bronze feel better than people who win silver (with people who win gold obviously feeling the best). They explain,

…Pre-event expectations affect reactions. One finding was that silver medalists may have higher expectations, which amplifies disappointment when they don’t get gold. Bronze medalists often have lower expectations (or different comparisons) so their emotion is less dampened.

In other words, silver people thought they should be able to get gold and are disappointed they didn’t. Bronze people feel lucky that they beat out third place and got on the podium.

Two different reactions, even though the two winners are standing next to one another. I feel like there is a life lesson in there. That we’re happier when we notice what we’ve achieved (made it onto the podium in life) vs. what we missed (silver instead of gold). I’ll definitely be thinking about this at next month’s medal ceremonies.

It may or may not be International Blog Delurking Week. The first full week of January (January 4 – 10, 2026) is when we’re supposed to slither out of the reading closet and check in with an “I’m here” comment. Barely anyone does this anymore. In the olden days, people would pop out of the woodwork. Nowadays, not so much.

So let’s see what happens this year.

So welcome to International Blog Delurking Week. I make a badge every year to mark the occasion, giving you full permission to right-click and grab it for your own.

My reward for remembering to do this (when I could have just as easily forgotten) is that you have to delurk for this worldwide holiday, which is super serious and important. Right?

It is relatively easy. Leave a comment in the comment section below, admitting that you’re here. You can raise your hand and meekly acknowledge that you’re here with a simple, one-word “here” comment; or you can proudly raise your hand and tell us all a bit about yourself (my preferred method); or you can tell me the last good book you read (see, I’m trying to make it easy for you by even providing a comment prompt). The point is that I want to know about the people who read me since there is a huge discrepancy between the number of readers in actuality and the number of readers I actually know are reading. Or a tongue-twister like that.

And that’s all you have to do to celebrate.

So (clears throat to nudge you along), who is here?

For the past five years (2020) and (2021) and (2022) and (2023) and (2024), I set reading goals tied to the year — 20200 pages, 20210 pages, 20220 pages, 20230 pages, 20240 pages. As of December 30th (which is the date GoodReads last updated my reading stats), I hit 22,745 pages with 66 books. So definitely beat my goal.

I still wish GoodReads would give you a running page count throughout the year.

To stay on-brand, I set 20260 as a goal for 2026.

My favourite things I’ve read this year:

• You Be Mother (Meg Mason)
• Mr. Wilder and Me (Jonathan Coe)
• The List of Suspicious Things (Jennie Godfrey)
• Proof of My Innocence (Jonathan Coe)
• The Rachel Incident (Caroline O’Donoghue)
• Sunrise on the Reaping (Suzanne Collins)
• Fair Play (Louise Hegarty)
• The Impossible Thing (Belinda Bauer)
• Probably Nothing (Lauren Bravo)
• Consider Yourself Kissed (Jessica Stanley)
• Bitter Sweet (Hattie Williams)
• What a Way to Go (Bella Mackie)
• Bring the House Down (Charlotte Runcie)
• Marble Hall Murders (Anthony Horowitz)
• The Killer Question (Janice Hallett)
• What We Can Know (Ian McEwan)
• The Queen Who Came in From the Cold (SJ Bennett)
• The Impossible Fortune (Richard Osman)
• The Rose Field (Philip Pullman)
• The Heir Apparent (Rebecca Armitage)
• That’s Not How It Happened (Craig Thomas)
• The Correspondent (Virginia Evans)

What is on your list of favourite reads this year? (Feel free to list movies or television shows if books are not your thing.)

Flying is usually my chosen superpower (not that anyone is bequeathing me with superpowers). I used to think that invisibility would be a close second, but I could also see a lot of issues with invisibility, and I wouldn’t actually want to overhear conversations.

But more and more this year, I’ve been thinking that optimism would be a more useful superpower. I’m not talking about ostrich-like head-in-the-sand optimism (which, apparently, ostriches do not do). I’m talking about hearing all of the facts and still holding hope that things will be okay.

It has been a hard year to have hope.

It is so much easier to get swept up in the chaos — everything feels in flux, and it has been a long time since I’ve read the news and felt any positive emotion. So it feels like a superpower to be able to see everything happen and still feel like everything will be okay.

So while I would still choose the ability to fly — it just feels so useful — always being able to access hope would be a close second.

I’ve been holding onto a Dan Harris post since this summer because it had a lot of advice that spoke to me. Nothing new, just well-said. It’s a nice set of advice if you are navigating difficult moments or feeling overwhelmed by the news (either from the larger world or more personal) or just remembering that it’s best to never worry alone.

Passing it along to you in case you can use it, too.