Faced with the cancellation of her book tour, a writer turns to books that evoke a sense of place — and recommends 8 books that might take you somewhere, too.
At the beginning of March, I experienced a new joy: I published my first book, a collection of essays investigating how Americans make meaning of their lives and what they do when their systems of meaning-making begin to break down.
This book was roughly seven years in the making. In writing it, I did quite a bit of traveling through America: I went to a Shaker colony in Maine; I flew down to Laredo to attend a borderlands debutante ball where the girls dress up to honor George and Martha Washington; I frequented autopsy suites in Cleveland; I drove out to a dust bowl in California. But mostly, I sat alone in my room and wrote.
Writing a book is fundamentally a solitary and stationary exercise. Some people are naturally good at this. I am not naturally good at this: I like movement and adventure and collaboration. I love the part of my job that puts me in contact with new places and people. I found writing a book to be many pleasurable things; I also found it lonely... (Jordan Kisner, continues)
This book was roughly seven years in the making. In writing it, I did quite a bit of traveling through America: I went to a Shaker colony in Maine; I flew down to Laredo to attend a borderlands debutante ball where the girls dress up to honor George and Martha Washington; I frequented autopsy suites in Cleveland; I drove out to a dust bowl in California. But mostly, I sat alone in my room and wrote.
Writing a book is fundamentally a solitary and stationary exercise. Some people are naturally good at this. I am not naturally good at this: I like movement and adventure and collaboration. I love the part of my job that puts me in contact with new places and people. I found writing a book to be many pleasurable things; I also found it lonely... (Jordan Kisner, continues)
When I was growing up I'd usually have a book, the worse my life felt, the more books I seemed to read, it was a way to escape from reality and see some other world. It was always a stress relief. I feel guilty any time I pick up the books from my personal reading list, since I have other material that needs to be read right now, but I always look forward to summer when I can just read a good book without having to worry about other work that needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteI prefer to think of reading as an escape INTO reality, the broader reality of the variegated universe. As young Willy James reminded his despondent friend, always remember on December's darkest days that somewhere the sun is shining and the gulls are skimming the mouth of the Amazon etc. The immediate and local reality is never the only reality.
DeleteSome times mind traveling is better than physically traveling. When I was on vacation in Thailand all i could think about was telling others about my adventure aboard so I didn't really get the most out of my trip . However I find that when i read a book and it takes my mind on a trip I feel it with all my senses and I am able to enjoy it more.
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