A big hello to all the new followers who just discovered Not-Ship. Happy to have you! This edition is a bit different; it's the last regularly scheduled newsletter for a few weeks. I'm taking a much-needed vacation, but I'll be back at the end of August. I hope some time off is coming up for you, too. Thanks for reading!

💙 Amanda

There's something insidious about creating your own thing: You think you can't take a break.

With Not-Ship, there's no one to tell me I've earned a vacation, and no one to pick up the slack when I'm away. This is all reinforced by a stream of so-called experts who say a short content hiatus will slow growth and erode audience trust.

But, I need a breather. And so I'm taking one.

I've said from the beginning that I'm building Not-Ship to be here for the long term. Achieving that kind of sustainability means protecting my one employee — hi! It's me!

So, I'll be pausing Not-Ship's weekly dispatch until the end of August. However, a lot of that time I'll still be working for you. A weekly publishing schedule doesn't leave much room for deeper investigations, long-term planning and website upgrades — that's what I'll use the next few weeks for.

Being self-employed means no legally mandated time off. If I worked for someone else, I'd be entitled to 28 paid vacation days since I live in the UK. Honestly, that's not bad. It's low for Europe, but it's great compared to where I used to work: Canada and the US.

Most countries provide between 20 and 40 paid days off

Statutory holidays for each country include paid public holidays and paid annual leave days.

These numbers include both paid annual leave and national holidays. Ninety-three percent of countries fall between 20 and 40 days off, while the world average is 30 days. With zero legally mandated paid days off, the US keeps up with its tradition of being a statistical exception.

These data are from Moorepay, a British HR company. Based on its methodology, I feel relatively confident about its accuracy. However, a similar data set from another organization has a few differences. In particular, a few small island nations are similar to the US — no paid days off.

Anyways, what do I get from these data? My long-standing jealousy of the French still holds.

I'm ready for my vacation. See you in a few weeks!

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS — UPDATED!

In June I published the Not-Ship mega summer reading list. Today, it's updated! I've added a few hundred recommendations from places that didn't have their lists up earlier. We're now at 1,272 recommendations for 908 unique titles.

Use the dropdown below to see all the books. Beneath each title you'll find a list of the publications that suggested it; click on one to read the recommendation. Happy reading!