Read Something Good
For the love of books, and yourself
I don’t know what to tell you except to read like your fucking life depends on it. Not only the dreadful news, but also poetry, and fiction, and the wisdom of those who’ve fought their own battles and who have long been dust and ash, returned to the earth or the sea or the sky.
Reading may not save your life. But it may save your sanity and your spirit.
Library books, books purchased at independent bookshops, books borrowed from friends, books found in little free libraries, books abandoned at the curb for trash day (handle with care, and do not take the free mattress next to the pile of books!) Audiobooks. Books the states of Texas and Florida tell you not to give your children. Books that big retailers refuse to stock in certain states, or across the nation.
Books you have to order online. Books you can only find in person. Books you can get for free. You still can do that, in most places. All you need is a library card.
I’m an author. But like most authors, I have other jobs, too. And when I need to calm down, find a way to laugh, or feel something remotely like peace, I often turn to books. In the most ill and desperate moments in my youth, I slept with books in my bed like talismans. They could not shield me from the outside world or even from my own demons, but they could comfort me. I could hold them when I was too weak to grasp at much else.
For me, these days, I usually choose an audiobook, because this replicates the experience of being read to by my mother, or by a mother, at night.
I am the daughter of a retired public school librarian and the granddaughter of a woodshop teacher who eventually became a school administrator in a small town. My partner is a public school teacher. I used to teach in public schools. I have a great fondness for school libraries and for the people who stock them.
Here are a few, just a small few, that I can personally recommend. Links provided go to Bookshop.org.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Bear by Julia Phillips
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn
I am tired, and so are you. Maybe we don’t have the time or ability to read a paper or electronic book. Audiobooks let others read to us. There are free versions available via your local public library on Libby and in other places.
Like I said, reading may not save your life, but it may save your mind and soul.
Rest well when you can, if you can. If you can’t sleep, and you are hungry, angry, lonely or tired, books can’t fix everything. But they can be your companions in that moment.
On this new moon, and this Lunar New Year, near the end of this month, as ever, I wish you the best.
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