Forest of knowledge: Winter '25

books, film, music, and essay recommendations for the season.

This is Forest of Knowledge, a series for paying subscribers. For those new here, every season I share books, podcasts, music, and movies that I am currently using in my research, or that have particularly impacted my thoughts and reflections through the years. If you like this stuff, don’t forget that under every essay in this newsletter, you can find an Inspiration Station, where I share two or three discoveries from my week.

You can find all previous editions of this Series here.

I am constantly being told not to be on blue screens, that it can affect my ageing, my fertility, and my sleeping patterns. “No blue screens after sunset!” said a health practitioner the other day telling me I needed to rebalance my Yin. But this stuff is inevitable, I am on a blue screen as we speak, and I love my nightly ritual of a series every night. A way that I have been tackling the problem is no screens in the bedroom, and no screens an hour before going to bed, and overall it has been working. Also, lately, I do not know how to be online, especially on social media. Bombarded by fake AI videos and algorithm changes no one asked for, it has become very difficult to trust these spaces. So I’ve spent a lot more time offline, reading and sometimes simply staring out of the window. In these winter months, which ask for rest and slumber, I have spent some days in a cocoon soaking up some truly beautiful things. The last book I read was mindblowing, it affected my dreams and art so much. Without further ado, here is a list of recommendations for the season.