READ ALL ABOUT IT
Since 2012, I’ve been writing about books. And the act of reading. And the importance of story and narrative. But, mostly, the underlying theme of all I write is how taking a moment to stop and digest some longform text — instead of scrolling, instead of watching a video, instead of multitasking — can be one of the most grounding things we can do for ourselves. Here’s the one-stop online home for all this writing.
You can read more about me and my work by moseying over here. Want to peruse periodic “essay drops” — excerpts from my work-in-progress essay collection about Homesickness? Here ya go.
New Words Coming Soon
I hadn’t walked this part of First Ward in a while; last time that I recall, this building was adorned with “New Words Coming Soon!” So, I guess the words have come — and they are good.
Robert Munsch, Not Celebs
What makes a good children’s book?
Shelfies: My Mom and Dad
From Newsletter Issue No. 22:
I’m not on TikTok (thankgoodness) or on this particular “side” of Instagram, but I know that “Day in the Life” content is popular. Everyone likes a good, soup-to-nuts look at the benign details of someone’s life, because — let’s face it — it’s the supposed “benign details” that provide the structure for everything…
I Have a New Website
From Newsletter Issue No. 21:
About seven months ago, I was sitting in my parents’ living room and pounded out the following statement on my laptop…
Special Books
What makes a book (meaning, the object itself) special?
A Parlor Read
Have you noticed publications (Atlantic, NYT) touting the benefits of reading aloud? I’ve enjoyed seeing these headlines because the first community literary event I produced in 2019 was just that: a read-aloud. It was called Book Covers (like a cover band, but “cover readers”), and there was a theme and a panel discussion following the readings — which were done by prominent community members and authors — + a run sheet + a sound system + press releases etcetcetc.
The Secret Apartments Hidden Above Carnegie Libraries
What does it mean to live in a library? There’s sort of a cachet to co-habitating with so much art, culture, and knowledge, á la From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, isn’t there? In the 21-st century this would take the form of a quick-edit video posted to social media: “Come with me as I tour a library-turned-apartment!” Or “POV: You live in an old library.” (And then cue all the book-lovers responding with 😍😍😍 [🙄])
RAWTS: Amy’s Take on The Nix
My husband and I read a book together. (Wow, cool, cue massive applause.) This is of interest because Matt is pretty much a self-professed non-reader of books. But back in 2020, he declared he wanted to read an “Amy book” with me. It was awesome, and we read The Overstory by Richard Powers. Fast forward to 2024, and I said, “Let’s do that again!” I had started The Nix and was enjoying the breezy style. So I declared it so.
RAWTS: Matt’s Take on The Nix
From Matt:
My boss at a college internship thought I was funny, and remarked that I should try standup comedy. I’m glad my ego didn’t take the bait. I’m the worst storyteller. Since then though, I’ve thought about how fun it would be if I were to jot down comical scenarios & observations that I’ve come across over the years in a notepad. I could workshop them with Amy, and have multiple hilarious bits at the ready when hanging with friends, or maybe even, one day, on stage. I never did that.
Connected. Curious. Good.
From Newsletter Issue No. 20:
“Reading deepens. Social media keeps you where you are. Reading makes your mind do work. You have to follow the plot, imagine what the ballroom looked like, figure the motivations of the characters—I understand what Gatsby wants! All this makes your brain and soul develop the habit of generous and imaginative thinking. Social media is passive. The pictures, reels and comments demand nothing, develop nothing. They give you sensations, but the sensations never get deeper. Social media gets you stuck in you. Reading is a rocket ship, new worlds.” — Peggy Noonan
Taylor Swift and the Publishing Industry
A book depository, a book wishing well, a land of forgotten books?
Here’s a supposedly click-bait-y article from The Atlantic — I mean, with Taylor Swift as the focal point, how can it not be? — that is actually a look at some of the pitfalls of the publishing industry as it stands today. And a booster of sorts for not just raiding your own books (both read and unread) but for checking out used bookstores as well.
Becoming a Peach
While I’m not so sure about this transitive peach logic, I adore the rest of this sentiment by Natalie Goldberg. (I love her books about writing so very much. I think it was a teacher who first introduced me to the classic Writing Down the Bones — and I’ve never looked back. This excerpt’s from Old Friend from Far Away.)
Reading is Grounding
Until we moved, we were daily newspaper subscribers — meaning actual, physical papers. (We’ll get back to it!) I have a hard time keeping up digitally (we have a handful of digital news subs) partly for the reasons that Cal Newport discussed in a newsletter about unplugging (for a bit) after you vote: “I suggest you switch to a slower pace of media consumption. Don’t laugh at this suggestion, because I’m actually serious: consider picking up the occasional old-fashioned printed newspaper (free from algorithmic optimization and click-bait curation) at your local coffee shop or library to check in, all at once, on anything major going on in the world.” Personally, I like to see the news laid out in one place, not click around on some rabbit trail.
More wisdom-seeking
A plaque in the vestibule of Bowdoin College’s former library:
“Books are not absolutely dead things but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are.” This is from John Milton’s “Areopagitica,” which (I’ve learned) is one of the standard-bearer prose polemics (basically a speech/argument — which I’ve also learned) in defense of free speech. It was written in 1644, but of course like other persuasive writings packed with wisdom, lives on. For better or for worse, there’s not much new under the sun, right?
Reading Our Way to Better Taste
From Newsletter Issue No. 19:
In July, the New York Times published a comprehensive roundup of “The Best Books of the First Quarter of the 21st Century.” How were these titles agreed upon? Well, they were “voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.
Put a Little Book House in Your Soul
It’s that time of year 🍂🍁🍂🍁
A Beautifully Furnished House
Two days wandering New Orleans, and I think this is my favorite picture? (Ok, that’s not totally true…so many bright, beautiful, and interesting things to see!)
But 2 days wandering New Orleans = 3 bookshops visited. I try really hard to not buy new (meaning new releases) books these days. (This is why I currently have 20 books out from the library. OMG.) But I do like to support independent bookstores, so my new book-buying philosophy =
RAWTS: The Nix
I shared this a few weeks ago in stories, but it needs to be here on the grid. Matt is back. Meaning, he’s back in his Reader Era. Figured today — our 24th anniversary — was as perfect a time as any to post.
Reading as Work
Writer Mireille Silcoff has done just as the NYT Opinion headline says — bribed her 12-year-old daughter with $100 to read The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han — and I mostly do not have a problem with that. (I know you — or she — didn’t ask, but oh well.) Silcoff admits right off the bat that the payoff is “excessive” (it is) and that she felt like a “parenting failure” when she acknowledged that her daughter didn’t read for pleasure (she’s not).
Who’s a Critic?
Latest pet interest = criticism. As in literary criticism, not me rolling my eyes at that weird thing you said. (Am I projecting on myself??) It started with me re-discovering the work of Stanley Fish, whose book Is There a Text in this Class? helped provide the framework for my masters thesis so long ago. I then read Claire Dederer’s much-lauded Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, an exploration of how to reconcile liking good art created by people who have done really not-good things (i.e. Woody Allen) that partly — and perceptively — shifts into how Dederer approaches her career as a critic. (In a nutshell, “…a never-ending flow of judgement, which nestles together with subjectivity.”)
