I was asked to riff off, and onto, my newsletter (Five Things), which invariably has book and music recommendations; it’s also taking a break for the last three weeks of the year. I read a lot, and I listen to a lot of music (including new music), so this should have been easy.

Only, 2025 is such a unique number that it seemed criminal to usher it in without doing my own version of a mini-speech-on-a-soapbox. Those who would prefer book and music recommendations may go directly to the two boxes alongside.

For the rest, here’s my question: What are you going to do in this very unique year?

I’m not looking for an answer that involves food, sleep or exercise, although all three are important. I am over-indexed in terms of food and exercise, and severely under-indexed in terms of sleep. Not that I am complaining.

Nor am I looking for details on the number of books you plan to read or the number of countries you plan to visit, although I would recommend both reading and travel. Both broaden the mind — and are the perfect cure for the small-mindedness that has become painfully common.

Instead, I am looking for details (or hints) on how you plan to address three critical issues.

One, how do you plan to reduce your carbon footprint?

Two, how do you plan to reduce your social-media consumption?

And three, is this going to be the year when you finally call out the nonsense on your alumni / family / neighbourhood / office WhatsApp groups?

The first is critical to the well-being of the Earth — and in case you haven’t heard, things aren’t really going well on that front.

The second is critical to your mental well-being — with an adventitious benefit being that it will result in the collapse of several business models.

And the third is critical to your integrity.

You could frame these questions whichever way you like. For instance, you could aggregate them into a larger question: How exactly do you plan on being a better person in 2025?

Or you could break it up into smaller ones. Can you avoid quick commerce (to the extent possible)? Can you get something repaired instead of replaced (difficult, given how rare it is to find the breed that repairs)? Can you stop passing the time by looking at Reels (and perhaps do nothing instead)? The next time someone you know says something hateful or bigoted, can you tell them that we all need to be better than that?

Can you try and base everything on first-principles thinking, leaning only on science and data (and not your everyday social-media influencer)?

I could go on.

In some ways, these are not very different from the ubiquitous dead-by-February resolutions on exercise and diet, but the results (even if you were to do these for just a couple of months) could surprise you. And make for a better 2025.

Books

1. We Will Not be Saved. Nemonte Nenquimo (with Mitch Anderson). A very personal account of the climate crisis.

2. Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth. Ingrid Robeyns. Because there is such a thing as excess.

3. Raising Hare. Chloe Dalton. Open yourself up and let a bit of the natural world in.

4. Brown Skins, White Coats. Projit Bihari Mukharji. Because race science is real.

5. The Search for India’s Rarest Birds. Shashank Dalvi and Anita Mani. Because I like mysteries, am a birder, and Anita is my wife.

6. Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, And Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. Alex Pappademas. Came out late last year (unlike most of the others on this list, which were published in 2024). But it’s Steely Dan — and no one produced cooler music.

7. Praiseworthy. Alexis Wright. A difficult read (also from 2023), but funny, and larger in scope and lingering impact than even its 700-odd pages.

8. Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI. Anil Ananthaswamy. Beautiful math, and wondrous AI.

9. The Great When. Alan Moore. That’s why.

10. Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality. Renee DiResta. Because they are everywhere.

.

Music

1. Dance of Love. Tucker Zimmerman. Will soon be a cult classic; features my current favourite band, Big Thief.

2. The 1968 Tapes. Jazz Sabbath. For the backstory, and the jazz.

3. The NID Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969-1972. Compiled by Paul Purgas. For the history. And a glimpse of how cool we once were.

4. Only God Was Above Us. Vampire Weekend. A contemporary classic.

5. Live at the Greek Theatre. Goose. The best jam band today.

6. From the Mars Hotel (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition). Grateful Dead. A remastered studio album by the best jam band ever.

7. The Power of the Heart: A Tribute to Lou Reed. They had me with Keith Richards’s version of I’m Waiting for the Man.

8. Million Voices Whisper. Warren Haynes. One of the best guitarists today; and features another, Derek Trucks.

9. Endlessness. Nala Sinephro. The best Britjazz of the year.

10. Natural Elements. Shakti. For obvious reasons.

(Send in your bouquets and brickbats to sukumar.ranganathan@hindustantimes.com)