I truly loved this project. I enjoyed it in a way that I have to say I didn’t love my Jane Austen project (sorry!) or even Shakespeare. Bach is truly my favorite composer, and it isn’t even close. Also, the way I did this project felt different than my past reading ones. Because I was listening to Bach, it massively upgraded the sound track of my life. I was sitting in my office reading Shakespeare but I was listening to Bach while shuttling my kids around or running errands. The opportunity for improvement in this time was just much greater!

I definitely feel more familiar with Bach’s work as a result of this (of course). From my years in choirs I was familiar with some of those masterworks (like the Christmas Oratorio, or the B-Minor Mass) but less so with his instrumental works. I think there are lots of ways one could construct this project, but since I listened to the major vocal works after listening to 200+ church cantatas, I learned more of Bach’s themes that he would re-use, and some of his favorite ways of composing multi-part vocal pieces. I was also reminded of some of the pieces I’d heard before but enjoyed getting to hear again (like the Brandenburg Concertos).

I have also found myself feeling grateful for the internet! When I started exploring how I would do this project last fall, I wasn’t entirely sure how I would find all of Bach’s work to listen to. I’d found a boxed CD set that one of the classical publishers put out there back in the day, so that was my back-up, and I sort of assumed I’d find performances of the major works on Apple music. But then I realized that the best source for performances was YouTube AND that the Netherlands Bach Society had done a project called “All of Bach.” I am not sure if they actually hit all of Bach, but they’d done enough of the more obscure works that I was only really hunting around for a few.

I’ll now spend the last weeks of the year revisiting favorites. Specifically, I’m listening to the B-Minor Mass on repeat as I’m planning to perform it with a local choir in late December. I’ll listen to the Christmas Oratorio too, just to celebrate the season. And I’ll try to figure out what project I’m undertaking next year. I’m not sure what I’ll come up with that will be as exciting to me as Bach, but I’ve got time to figure this out.

Of course, as we hit the last 100 days of the year, this means I’m nearing completion of this year-long project. Which leads to the question…what should I do next?

In 2021, I read War and Peace at the rate of one chapter a day. In 2022 I read all the works of Shakespeare (at a pace of about 3-4 pages with small type per day). In 2023 I read all the works of Jane Austen (at a pace of about 10 pages per day – I finished in September since it turned out I miscalculated on this one). And this past year I’ve been listening to approximately 30 minutes of Bach daily.

Whatever I choose for 2025 needs to fit a few criteria:

*It needs to be worth doing (as I believe all the previous projects have been!). I want to read or listen to work that is generally seen as classic and important.

*I need to be excited about it (I’m just not that into Mozart…sorry!).

*It also needs to be doable. Some people’s lifetime works might actually take more than a year to consume at a sustainable pace. I can probably read for about 20 minutes a day. Listening is a little easier to do more since I can have it running in the background (like in the car). Obviously there is some ambiguity here as I could have listened to performances of Shakespeare’s plays but…anyway.

So, I welcome suggestions! You can post or can always email me (laura at lauravanderkam dot com). My timeline for a decision is the Best Laid Plans Live retreat in early November, as I try to have a rough draft of next year’s goals by then…

In other news: We celebrated my 2nd kid’s birthday this week! He turned 15. After he finished a 5k in a cross country meet, we had his favorite foods for dinner, which included lobster tails, a caprese salad, and mac and cheese. He asked what time exactly he was born, and it turns out it was 10:07 p.m. (per the birth certificate). That reminded me that the same doctor delivered him and his older brother. After kid #2 was born, she congratulated me and told me “I’m so happy I could help you complete your family.” Haha. Of course, this was in NYC where the maternity ward was so crowded (we were 9 months after Christmas…) that the baby and I wound up staying in a room in the urology ward where they posted a guard in front of the door (as there was no other security, as there is in the mother/baby unit). It was like we were famous. Memories! It’s been fun watching him become a runner. He’s definitely faster than his mom.

I also listened to the Christmas Oratorio this week. I wound up listening more than once because the first video I’d chosen wasn’t really my favorite. It’s a frequently performed work so not everyone does it as well as it could be done. I wound up settling on the JS Bach Foundation version. I’m a big fan of the opening chorus to the 5th part. So catchy. That powered me through a strength training session the other day. I should be going to a Bach concert this weekend put on by an early music group, so I’m looking forward to that.

Meanwhile….I took my 14-year-old (almost 15-year-old!) to a running store last night to get fitted for better running shoes. He’s been running on the high school cross-country team for the last few weeks and his coach pointed out that he was over-pronating so we went to get some more stabilizing shoes. It was quite the involved experience (he tried on like 8 pairs!) but we left with one he liked. And several pairs of running socks because, hey, we were there.

It’s been fun to watch him do this sport, which I’m now realizing would have been a fairly accessible high school or middle school sport to do. Like on an average day they do some warm-ups then go for a 45-minute run. That sounds like a very pleasant way to end a school day! Not that dissimilar to what I do now.

Although I’ve actually been running in the morning more lately. Now that no one usually needs to be up before 7 a.m. if I pop up early enough, I will go run 2 miles on the treadmill. I’ve been aiming to do some speed work during these sessions. I’m really, really slow (my “speed” is like 7 mph) but hopefully it will help. I do another long run this weekend, but probably not quite as long because I’m planning to do a hike with an area trails association too. Hopefully tonight will be fairly chill (such as it ever is) because it’s been a long week. I went to two back-to-school nights this week, but those are now over. We hit all four! I also feel like I’ve been doing a lot of paperwork. The two high school kids will go to NYC with their school music program this spring and I need to register for that and I was somewhat blindsided by the paperwork volume for an activity for the 9-year-old. I signed him up for an after-school robotics activity, but since it’s run by the official aftercare provider, I had to do everything to register for that as a childcare agency – like the various agreements, vaccination record, getting the app from the childcare provider with a pin to check him out (as did everyone else who might check him out), etc. Whoa.

In the meantime, here’s this week’s content… Over at the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community page, I just posted the recording of our book club discussion on Jodi Wellman’s You Only Die Once. Membership is $9/month and we have multiple discussion threads going each week on issues related to work and life. Please check it out!

The Before Breakfast podcast featured my longer episode where I interview Sarah Hart-Unger about mornings and routines. I also have an episode advising to “Check if you’ll need to reschedule” and one on the idea to “Start a goal club.”

At Vanderhacks I wrote that “Complaining is boring.” I suggested that one might “Map out a busy season.” And behind the paywall I noted that “Procrastination happens” — but here are my tips for getting things done anyway. Next week I’ll be starting my video posts (I believe usually on Tuesdays but we shall see).

Thanks for reading!

This year I am aiming to listen to all the works of Bach. By doing a little bit every single day it’s never overwhelming.

Now, into August, it’s kind of amazing how much music I’ve listened to! For instance, I have listened to all 200+ cantatas Bach wrote. I listened to one a day, and we’re 200+ days into the year, so there we go. I also listened to all of his organ works. Many of these were quite short, but still, hundreds of pieces. That took us from BWV 525 to BWV 771.

August is going to be a fantastic listening month. Bach’s famous masses and oratorios are all coming up. My calendar has me starting the B-Minor mass tomorrow. Of course I’ve listened to this work dozens of times, but it will be cool to do in the context of listening to everything else. I have heard snippets of the B-Minor mass in lots of the cantatas that Bach wrote before it. Just because of the way I structured this listening I’ll also have the Goldberg Variations coming up this month, right after the St. Matthew Passion.

I’m still writing a sonnet a week too. This pace of two lines a day feels quite doable. Here’s a sentimental little one I wrote called “Peaches.” We didn’t wind up picking peaches this year, but oh well…

Remember, now, the walk into the field?
A basket in the hand, the blazing sun…
The orchard waits — what have the trees concealed?
I peer into the branches, first see one

and then another: peaches, plump and ripe.
We twist the stems, so many, stacking high,
as through the leaves the sunshine, in a stripe,
illumines all this flesh. A butterfly

drinks deeply, and we taste this sugar too,
on peaches, and each others’ lips. A while
will pass — and in the grocery store a few
new peaches, stacked, will conjure up a smile.

Remember now, the shade of summers past?
A kiss, that in the taste of peach, can last…

My husband and I had a short summer-y date night last night. We went to a beer garden (see: Summer Fun List) that was also on the Schuylkill River, in Bridgeport. This was a low key, nice place, and the beer and food were good and the summer night was great until a huge wind kicked up around 8:00 p.m. Fortunately we had to leave to go get a kid at parkour shortly thereafter so it was all good.

We are still figuring out what to do on our days off next week. I am wary of going into the week without a plan as I suspect if we wake up on those days and ask the kids what they want to do the answer will be…nothing. And it’s hard to get 7 people organized for much (or at least 4-5 people…I tend not to force the oldest kids to go to anything though they are welcome to!). My husband and I may also have slightly different ideas of what we want to do…

I spent some time this week creating the Bach listening calendar for the rest of the summer (in my project of listening to all of Bach in a year). The folks who are following this calendar are in for a treat in August. After wading through all the cantatas we get to the longer vocal masterworks, and we also have some great instrumental stuff that happens in the last 100 of the BWVs (which match up with how I’m organizing all this…). Let’s just say we get the St. Matthew Passion and then the Goldberg Variations back to back.

Anyway, on to this week’s content! Over at Before Breakfast, I shared some tips from Anna Goldfarb’s Modern Friendship book, including “Look for context friends,” and “Make invitations specific.” The latter is truly life-changing advice. “Let’s get together!” sometime, said to a potential new friend, is really hard to make work. Better to start with an actual activity that can be accepted, rejected, or negotiated, but gives everyone something to work with. I also note that “You can pivot.” Just as with media training, you don’t have to answer the actual question that was asked!

At the Best of Both Worlds Patreon page, we’ve been discussing our 2024 goals (how are we doing now, at mid-year?), and how to survive family road trips.

At Vanderhacks (my Substack newsletter) we’ve been discussing tips to “Upgrade your packed lunches,” and the mantra that “This is when you get stronger,” that can help for motivation in difficult moments. The paywalled post was a “Golden Hours grab bag” of suggestions to make your evenings a lot more fun.

My weekly newsletter (“A week’s worth”) comes out Saturday mornings, and my monthly newsletter (“Just a Minute”) comes out next week at some point (generally near the first of the month). You can subscribe to both by clicking the appropriate boxes here.

Photo: Cheery food truck parked near the beer garden. It wasn’t open but I appreciated the color!