The Sunday Digest 164
"The best thing about New Year's is the Christmas lights."
Welcome to The Sunday Digest — a free Sunday newsletter featuring long (and some short) reads, original columns, things I’ve saved over the last week, relaxing playlists, episodes releases, exclusive product drops, and more. Yes, you can reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you.
Sunday Read: I opened a bookshop. It was the best, worst thing I’ve ever done
by Chloe Fox for Financial Times
I’ve been in stores my entire life. Most of my time was spent being an adolescent nuisance in my dad’s store, but I continued that trend into my twenties as I worked somewhere else in town. “I can tell you like retail,” an old coworker once told me. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but I can see how he came to that conclusion.
While I don’t miss the days of passing time while the same playlist drones on over and over, I do look back at them with at least some happy nostalgia. Every once in a while, I’ll even daydream about opening a Sunday Scaries-esque studio — a place where I can work from but also offer products that will make people’s Sundays better. Maybe one day.
This week’s read, however, is about someone who did something that often gets talked about in Sunday Confessions: opening a book store. Here’s an excerpt:
I dim the lights, turn the sign to “Closed” and turn to take a last look. A bookshop. My bookshop. Full of stories and thoughts and the smell of new paper and fresh paint. As I’m about to leave, my eye falls on an envelope on the doormat I now own. Inside it is a £20 note and a scribbled letter. “Dear Fox & King, I’d like to order a book. I’m not in very good health and books give me a reason to keep going. Please keep the change and give it to someone who needs it. Someone who can’t afford to buy a book for themselves. A child, maybe? Or someone who just wants to learn something new about the world. I wish you every good fortune with your new venture. When the book arrives, please leave it in the window. I don’t have a telephone, you see. And that way, when I see it, I will know that it is for me.”
Read in full here.
I also wrote a short column over the holidays about all the takeaways and trends I saw from this year’s Sunday Confessions. You can read that here:
The Sunday Haiku: i just need some time okay
I just can’t right now,
probably not tomorrow,
the next day either.
New Episode › Retail Therapy 137: End-of-the-Year In/Out Lists
Please note that this episode is audio-only as we recorded over the holiday break.
To close out the year, we figured it would be the perfect time to talk In/Out lists. From restaurants to style to ~vibes~, we go through everything they consider to be "In" and "Out" as we look toward 2026.
Listen to Retail Therapy on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and anywhere else podcasts are found. You can also follow Retail Therapy on Substack.
Things I Saved This Week
And, of course, this week’s Sunday post:
My Sunday To-Do List
The laundry I said I was going to do yesterday so I could get ahead of it today.
Take down the Christmas tree, perhaps my least favorite chore of the year.
I’d love to acquire a fresh sandwich for lunch. Something with sprouts on it. Something that will make me feel healthy even though it’s not.
I’m writing this while watching Leeds vs. Manchester United. I’d love to leave today’s match happy.
I upped my reading over Christmas so I intend to continue that trend this afternoon.
There’s been talk in our house about swapping around some art on the walls, but this feels lofty given the type of Sunday it is.
If I accomplish all of it, great. If I accomplish nothing, I simply will not care. Today we collectively need to do everything we can do to make sure the first Sunday of the year is not the worst Sunday of the year.
Will
I told myself I'll take down my tree on the 7th, I'm dreading it. I will miss the extra warm light.
Going to need the link to the Huey Lewis concert referenced on CB