January 6 — February 13
The 39 Days
One short note a day. Two minutes to read, one thing to do. Jump to any day — nobody is checking whether you started on the sixth.
1Jan 62Jan 73Jan 84Jan 95Jan 106Jan 117Jan 128Jan 139Jan 1410Jan 1511Jan 1612Jan 1713Jan 1814Jan 1915Jan 2016Jan 2117Jan 2218Jan 2319Jan 2420Jan 2521Jan 2622Jan 2723Jan 2824Jan 2925Jan 3026Jan 3127Feb 128Feb 229Feb 330Feb 431Feb 532Feb 633Feb 734Feb 835Feb 936Feb 1037Feb 1138Feb 1239Feb 13
Gold = a feast day · Red = a film night
Days 1–6
Setting Out
Epiphany, and the honest naming of January. You open the oldest book on the shelf and stop trying to keep track of the names.
Day 1 · January 6The Star Comes First
Read Matthew 2:1–12. Light something.
Day 2 · January 7Why This Season Exists
Name the thing that has gone grey on you.
Day 3 · January 8Open the Silmarillion
Read the Ainulindalë. Ten pages. Don't track the names.
Day 4 · January 9The Music and the Discord
Reread the first four pages. Slowly this time.
Day 5 · January 10Two Accounts of a Beginning
Read Genesis 1 straight after last night's pages.
Day 6 · January 11Sub-creation
Read Tolkien's essay On Fairy-Stories, or as much as you can.
Days 7–13
The Making
The world gets sung into being, twice. Then an onion, a sunrise, and the discovery that mundane never meant boring.
Day 7 · January 12The Fellowship of the Ring
Watch it. Extended edition if you have the evening.
Day 8 · January 13The Shire Is the Point
Notice what the whole war is actually for.
Day 9 · January 14The Onion
Read the second chapter of The Supper of the Lamb. Then sit with an onion.
Day 10 · January 15Do It Again
Read The Ethics of Elfland from Chesterton's Orthodoxy.
Day 11 · January 16Watch the Earth
One episode of Planet Earth. Phone in another room.
Day 12 · January 17Mundane Does Not Mean Boring
Sit with one sentence: it means expected.
Day 13 · January 18The Faun's Bookshelf
Start Charlie Starr's book, or just look at the shelf again.
Days 14–20
The Long Middle
The dreary stretch, met head on. Small people, ordinary courage, a long defeat, and a painter who never finished his tree.
Day 14 · January 19The Two Towers
Watch it.
Day 15 · January 20Ordinary Courage
Find Sam's speech at the end of The Two Towers. Read it as prose.
Day 16 · January 21The Long Defeat
Sit with Galadriel's phrase for a while.
Day 17 · January 22Niggle's Leaf
Read the first half of Leaf by Niggle. It is very short.
Day 18 · January 23The Tree Is Real
Finish it.
Day 19 · January 24Handing It Down
Tell somebody younger one true thing you know.
Day 20 · January 25Names
Learn the actual name of one thing you see every day.
Days 21–30
The Turn
The sudden joyous turn, a walk at Oxford in 1931, and the claim the whole season rests on: that this one is true.
Day 21 · January 26The Return of the King
Watch it. Let it run long.
Day 22 · January 27Eucatastrophe
Learn the word. Then go looking for the feeling.
Day 23 · January 28A Walk at Oxford, 1931
Read about the night on Addison's Walk.
Day 24 · January 29Myth Became Fact
Read Lewis's short essay of that name.
Day 25 · January 30You Are Not the Reader
Reread yesterday with one change: you are in it.
Day 26 · January 31The Rumour of Home
Read The Weight of Glory. The first few pages will do.
Day 27 · February 1Far Too Easily Pleased
Ask what you have settled for because it was nearer.
Day 28 · February 2Candlemas
Light every candle in the house tonight.
Day 29 · February 3A Few Paragraphs
Look at where the War of the Ring sits in the Silmarillion.
Day 30 · February 4Star-Chart Distance
Stand outside for five minutes in the cold.
Days 31–39
Coming Back
You return as a visitor from a different land, and find the place you left full of gods and titans doing the dishes.
Day 31 · February 5Gods and Titans
Look hard at one person today.
Day 32 · February 6Under the Sun
Read Ecclesiastes 1 and 3.
Day 33 · February 7A True Fairy Tale
Say the claim out loud once.
Day 34 · February 8The Scouring of the Shire
Notice the chapter the films left out.
Day 35 · February 9A Visitor From a Different Land
Walk through your own house as if you had never seen it.
Day 36 · February 10Make Something
One made thing today. Small is fine.
Day 37 · February 11Read to Somebody
Out loud. Twenty minutes.
Day 38 · February 12What You Will Keep
Write down one thing that survives the season.
Day 39 · February 13The Handoff
Set the table for someone.