There’s something almost universally appealing to readers about having a comfy chair near a window with a cozy blanket, in a quiet room with a good book.
If you can picture yourself there, I want to suggest a title for the book you’re holding in your hands. So much the better if it’s a rapidly darkening November afternoon, with the window open and a cool, damp breeze flowing in.
Stamped was on my reading list before I saw it was the Nonfiction title for our library’s virtual book club in September. I meant to read the paper version, which I had out from the library, but listened to the audio instead so I could multitask.
I would leapfrog my bookmark forward in the paper version as I made progress. This helped me keep track of my progress visually so I could pace myself to be finished before book club, but also made the audiobook feel more like cheating than audiobooks usually do these days. I was reading a book that required a ton of emotional labor, and I was letting someone else do the reading for me.
Even listening to it rather than reading it myself, this is a really tough book to get through.
Have you been reading much? Or have my book posts been annoying because you’re not in the mood lately? Whatever the case, before you go any further, request this title from your library.
Such A Fun Age was so excellent that I read it in a day, a feat that probably last occurred in 6th grade. It’s not that it was super short or light reading, it was just so good I couldn’t put it down.
I hopped onto Instagram for some pretty pictures this weekend and found a lot of melancholy. People were taking stock of their lives and feeling sad and discouraged. It seemed to be a theme.
It makes sense. It’s Labor Day weekend, and according to a book I just read, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, by Daniel H. Pink, we tend to assess where we are and make big changes on significant days in our lives.
For me, fall is a heavy hitter – it’s the beginning of the school year, Labor Day, and my birthday. Three opportunities to launch into a fresh start, or flop over sideways with a weak wave.
It was fascinating to be reading about this phenomenon of significant days in our lives being a catalyst for change while seeing the real-time effects of Labor Day weekend play out on social media.
