Network Down

The happiness of a successful January 1st was short-lived. 😭

Days later we started experiencing slowdowns and outages. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I hadn’t deployed any code that would cause such problems and Rob hadn’t touched the infrastructure.

Turns out, a third party we rely on had a network issue that was impacting communication between our database servers. It wasn’t our fault at all. Though, it doesn’t look that way to our users. 😫

The problem has since been resolved and we’re working on long-term mitigations on our end.

Side Quest: Beta Testers Needed 🏋️‍♀️

I’ve always got at least one side project on the go. It’s in my nature. After all, StoryGraph was born out of one of my side projects!

This time, I’m helping my friend, Jacinda Tayler, build up her fitness business, and I want to apply the same principles that have contributed to StoryGraph’s success.

To that end, we’re looking for five people to beta test her new 4-week programme that we plan to sell as a PDF on her (upcoming) website.

Whether you’re a lifting pro or a gym newbie, if you’re looking for a new strength and conditioning programme (and want to help build up a new business) then this is for you!

For $24, you’ll get access to the PDF, weekly 10-min check-ins (if you want them), and a 30 min consultation call with Jacinda at the end, to discuss the next steps in your fitness journey, followed by a short report/assessment.

Hit “Reply” and let me know if you’d like to be part of this!

Since Last Time…

As per the roadmap, I’ve been focusing on Giveaways and Plus for the last couple of weeks.

It’s been going so well. I’ve been incredibly productive. 😎

Some things that I’ve done include:

• Giveaways: The chance for hosts to configure whether they want a giveaway with multiple draws (the only option up until now, which leads to a more active winner pool, as winners have a week to claim their prize before new winners are drawn) or one single draw
  

  

• Plus: A new read/unread/DNF chart on the Tag Stats page
  

  

• Giveaways: A new Country setting in the app, which is currently only used to filter giveaways, but we plan to use it for several other things later on.
  

  

The last week of the month has really snuck up on me though. I think I’m going to have to prioritise Giveaways so that we can finally launch the platform next month.

Hopefully I can make more time for Plus later on in the year. 🤞🏾

How Many Books Left?

My friend, Andy Croll, sent me an article this week because of this chart:

What a rather fascinating, yet kinda scary, visual. 🫣

It really ties into our company motto: Because life’s too short for a book you’re not in the mood for. 😅

My Top Ten 2025 Reads

Since 2021, I rank every book I read over the course of a year. Now that I have a YouTube channel, I decided to share my top ten reads of 2025 there:

That’s Part 1 and you can find Part 2 on my page.

I’m going to be filming a cheeky vid of my bottom 5 reads later today. Subscribe so you don’t miss when it goes live! 🤭

What I'm Reading

I’ll be starting Girl on Girl by Sophie Gilbert this week for The Stacks Podcast Book Club’s first pick of 2026!

Have a great week,

Nadia