It’s three days until Christmas and the forecast for the day in Sydney is a slightly cloudy 28 degrees Celsius. I have finished work for the year — although a few tasks continue to niggle and I will be wrapping those up today, along with the pile of Christmas presents hidden in the wardrobe.

I am taking a time off. I will be reading, playing games, walking the dog, seeing family and friends, and having some adventures based on the family’s collective list on the fridge.

I have a pile of books at the ready—a mix of memoir, essays, poetry, short stories and novels (all from my unread shelf).

If you are looking for inspiration, some of my favourite reads of 2022 were (with links to Goodreads): Jennifer Down’s Bodies of Light, Charlotte McConaghy’s Once There Were Wolves, Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility, Larissa Behrendt’s After Story, Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under the Sea and Claire Oshetsky’s Chouette.

There is a lot of work waiting in 2023 — colloborative writing tasks, teaching development projects to launch, a PhD to examine, a journal special issue to co-edit, the launch of the redesigned Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching MOOC and more — but I can let all of that go for now. I will wind up some final work tasks and start winding down.

Thank you for reading the Slow Academic. I hope you and yours have an opportunity for rest and renewal after the challenges of 2022.