Read
The Reading Room
A shelf is never really finished. This is the corner of the journal where Nicole Junkermann keeps the books and essays that earned a second look.
Back to the journal
Reading well has less to do with speed than with attention.
Some books are read in a single weekend and others sit on the table for a month, opened a few pages at a time. Both kinds belong here. The aim is simply to notice what a writer does well, to mark the sentences worth copying out, and to leave room to change one's mind.
There is no syllabus and no ranking. A novel might sit beside a slim book of essays or a history picked up for a single chapter. What ties them together is the pleasure of paying close attention to good writing, and the quiet that a steady reading habit brings to an ordinary week.
When a book stays in mind long after the last page, it tends to find its way into the notebook as well, where a few lines try to hold on to why it mattered.
Margins
Notes in the margin
A pencil and a clear margin are the only tools this room really needs. Underlining, a question mark, a star beside a strong paragraph; these small marks turn a finished book into something to come back to.
A good book is a place you can return to. Nicole Junkermann
Recently on the blog: Nicole Junkermann on reinforcement learning and the value of patience, Nicole Junkermann on what India's AI moment signals for long term investors, and Nicole Junkermann on patient capital and the autumn restart. Earlier, Nicole Junkermann on what October 2026 asks of long term investors.