One of the keys to being a good storyteller is that you never stop consuming stories. You never reach a point where you say, “Good enough,” and then start on your own work. You’re always seeing what others are doing and revisiting past works so that you’re constantly thinking about the medium where you make your art.

Every year, Steven Soderbergh releases a list of everything he watches and reads in a given year, and now he's released his 2020 list. While I would love it if Soderbergh had a Letterboxd account where he could throw shade if he were so inclined, this is still a good list of all the movies and TV shows he’s viewing in addition to books he’s reading. There are also fun details to suss out like how he watched Let Them All Talk a month after filming, how he was watching Mank back in March and May probably to give some notes to David Fincher on various cuts. I also like seeing that I was not the only one who suffered through all of The Vow or that Soderbergh really loves his episodes of the Bravo series Below Deck.

Ultimately, these lists are good for everyone, and I encourage folks to keep their own so you can have a record of everything you’re watching and reading in a given year. You can do that through social media sites like Letterboxd and Goodreads, or just do it with a simple list like Soderbergh because at the end of the year it’s neat to look back at the stories you watched and read.