Discover more from The Fainting Couch
I love to read, which is probably not a surprise. And I’m a very good reader of other people’s work, when I’m doing it professionally. (If you’re looking for a nonfiction book coach, you know whom to email! It is me! Me whom you email!) When I’m doing it as my job, I read with great care.
But when I read for fun, it’s chaos.
I read way too fast. I inhale books. I have so many books queued up on my library app (oh, sweet Libby! How did I survive before you?), and I want to read them all at once. Which would be impossible, so instead I read them quickly, in rapid succession. Typically I read at least two books a week, but I’ve been known to read a book in a day, easy. This sounds like I’m bragging, only the results of my sprint-reading suggest that my brain don’t work good. As soon as I’m done with a book, it leaves my head, poof, and all I have left is a vague good feeling about said book, or a bad feeling. Maybe a phrase or an image, if I’m lucky. I either shove good books at my friends while inarticulately grunting or I shove bad books in the garbage, also while grunting. (Figuratively speaking. In a literal sense, I return them to the library, or leave them outside for someone else to take. While doing this, I employ only the grunts needed to get the job done.)
I try to slow down, but it’s like when I order a delicious slice of cake, and I tell myself that I’m going to savor it, and then five minutes after it’s set before me there are crumbs everywhere and my friends are looking at me with grave concern.
I’m the Cookie Monster of book reading, is I guess what I’m saying. (And also of cake.)
That said, I want to recommend some books to you. I read these recently enough that I can remember things about them! (None of these are affiliate links, as I don’t know how to do that. )
What I’m reading right now
Crossroads, Jonathan Franzen. I resisted this one because, well, Franzen always struck me as kind of overwrought and annoying (I know it’s not original to think he has a punchable face) but goddamn, he is a talent. This has sucked me in. I’m about 3/4 of the way through and I wish I were reading it instead of doing anything else. It’s about a Midwestern family making a real mess of things, and how we’re all idiots when you come right down to it. Highly relatable.
What I just finished
Smile: The Story of a Face, Sarah Ruhl. About a long, protracted struggle with Bell’s palsy, but it’s also about motherhood and creativity and, well, faces, and how we’re perceived, and it’s funny and touching and I want to be Sarah Ruhl’s friend.
Less is Lost, Andrew Sean Greer. The sequel to Less, which won the Pulitzer in 2018. Wherein our protagonist embarks on a messy and hilarious road trip. I love Arthur Less and I love this book.
The Hero of This Book, Elizabeth McCracken. About a daughter’s relationship with her complicated mother. Who is dead. The mother’s not a ghost — the narrator is just remembering her, while traveling around London. It sounds boring! It is quite the opposite! I promise.
I’m Wearing Tunics Now, Wendi Aarons. Wendi, in case you don’t know, is extremely funny. Just this week my therapist recommended her McSweeney’s piece to me, and I was like, she’s my FRIEND, I went to her BOOK PARTY, which we DISCUSSED, I thought you were paying ATTENTION. Anyway you should read this book. Right now.
Books written by pals (#humblebrag) waiting for me on my nightstand that I will read as soon as Franzen gets his hooks out of me:
We All Want Impossible Things, Catherine Newman
A Heart That Works, Rob Delaney
Am I putting off reading these (by all accounts fantastic) books because I’m leery of all the crying I’ll do? A little bit. But I’ve stocked up on tissues, and I’m ready.
And now you tell me: what did you read recently (or not-so-recently) that you loved?
I want to read all these books! Just finished "Haven" by Emma Donohue - historical fiction which was surprisingly gripping about three monks living on an island in early Christian times (yes, I can't remember which year!). Currently reading "Maps of our Spectacular Bodies" by Maddie Mortimer, beautiful, unique, I'm already worrying about being finished with it. Finally "Mystic & Pilgrim: The Book and World of Margery Kempe" as I'm somewhat obsessed at that moment with women mystics of the medieval ages.
Those all sound really interesting but I have a problem: I buy a lot of books but I'm terrible at actually reading them, so I literally have about 30 I need to start or finish reading. But then sometimes I buy them and read them immediately, and that would be anything by Samantha Irby, David Sedaris, or Allie Brosh. As for books I love besides those, I read the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls twice - it's amazing. And Sarah Silverman's book, The Bedwetter, is also a favorite.