My Appointment with the Literary Doctor

Bibliotherapy: “the prescribing of fiction for life’s ailments”. For each person at each point in life, there is a book that, when read, can cure. I obsess over the question “What on Earth should I read next?!” and find tremendous comfort in this thing Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin call The Novel Cure. Their book indexes ailments from “abandonment” to “zestlessness”. It includes antidotes cures for the “flu” and “obesity”, for “dinner parties, fear of” and “superhero, wishing you were a”, all found through fiction. They cover also Reading Ailments, such as “skim, tendancy to” and “shame, reading-associated”.

And if that lovely tome weren’t enough, I had the special pleasure of a one-on-one session with Susan to talk books and life. [Thanks Foyles!].

Walking down Charing Cross, I wondered – what was my “ailment”? None came to mind. I pictured the conversation: “So what seems to be the problem?” “Well. To be honest I’m quite thirsty. And I forgot my camera.” Switching bags before heading out, I had left my water bottle and all three of my cameras at home. Bad blogger award.

But I didn’t need to waste my precious fifteen minutes on water. Stepping through Foyles’ front door I met Andy, the events manager, who, because it’s such a hot day, handed me a water bottle. Ailment cured before the session even began, and Le Petit Prince, with its section on appreciating the quenching of thirst, stayed off my list.

I was the first appointment of the day. “Hello, are you my patient?” asked the lab coat-ed, stethescope-d, and fabulous orange dress-wearing Susan. I had never been so excited for a doctors’ appointment. This totally beat appendicitis.

We talked books, and I mentioned that I was suffering the over-excitement of having finished my literature degree – the terrifying freedom of being without a reading list for the first time in ten years. Susan and Ella met at Cambridge, so understood the post-grad syndrome. We talked about my literary faves, and my current situation of spanning two homes. Here’s what she prescribed.

Ailment: Just graduated, and wants to get her head around contemporary fiction – where to start!?

1. On Beauty by Zadie Smith – because it’s set in Boston.

-> Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.

-> Jonathan Franzen.

2. The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard.

3. The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer – for if you’re missing Jane Austen.

4. So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell – ref. Fitzgerald.

5. The Group by Mary McCarthy – for starting out post-uni.

6. Chasing the Rat by Al Alvarez, & Touching the Void (climbing books)

Before I left Foyles, Novel Cure and On Beauty in hand, my second bashful ailment – being camera-less – was also cured. We were invited into the front window for a picture on Susan’s iPhone. Giddiness forever captured, serendipitously matching the orange display.

For us bookworms, the world of fiction can be a daunting place. We get wrapped up in what we should be reading because it’s famous or new or classic or whatever. But really, books are like friends. When you find the right one, the one that seems to get you, the one that helps you grow and understand, life simply glows, like the brilliant orange of The Novel Cure‘s endpaper.

miss xandra bee

What on Earth Do I Read Next?

I’ve grappled with this question for years. For the past three of these years, the answer has been What My Tutor Tells Me To. But now, graduated and reading list-less, I am faced with finding an actual answer. So,

I asked the owner of the Albion Beatnik bookshop how he chooses what to read next.

He said he just reads what he wants. I guess when he practically lives in a bookshop that can be life. And I guess it is that simple – read what you want. But eh, no way am I chill enough for that to satisfy me.

I asked Andrew Sean Greer.

[author of The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, and other stuff. He was at Palo Alto Lit Quake.]. He said “I normally go to City Lights Books and Daniel Handler throws books at me.”

I asked Danier Handler.

[aka Lemony Snicket, who was also at Lit Quake]. He said, “The problem with choosing what to read next is that I haven’t read it yet.” He didn’t really answer my question, but…It Isn’t Just Me. That’s nice to know.

Then I read an interview with Brix Smith-Start.

She’s the owner of Start London, “where the cool girls go to shop” [according to the book in which she’s interviewed – London Style Guide by Saska Graville. Love!]. She said that on most weekends she and her husband go to Daunt Books and each buy a book for the week. This struck me as utterly lovely. What a luxury, to pick out a new book every week! I wish I could do that!

Then I realised… I can do that. Right now I feel overwhelmed by my cluttered mental “to read” list. Everything’s shoved in there, from my friends’ “you HAVE to read this!” books to the Orange prizewinners to the rest of Virgina Woolf to maybe I should read Harry Potter again.

Finally, a wander through Trident Booksellers gave me an idea.

Perrine and I scanned the shelves, with our usual “have you read this?”…”I’ve been meaning to read this”…”Oh my professor wrote that” [always hers, not mine]. We browsed the self-help section and I attempted to distinguish the kind of self help I liked from the kind I didn’t like. “Actually,” I realised, “I don’t see anything I wouldn’t want to read.” Perrine explained, “It’s not that you wouldn’t read them. But you would read other books first”.

I would read other books first.

The aim is not to read the entire library [unless you’re Matilda, or Klaus Baudelaire]. It’s to find the perfect book for you in the perfect moment. Go to Daunt and find a book you want to read right now.

So here’s what I’m kind of doing.

I like schedules and order and systems, so I’ve implemented one for my reading too [structured fun time!]. I’ve decided to read one book each week, and to choose that book based on my life that week – do I have lots of free time, will I be traveling, do I feel like reading about wizards [named Harry]. I have a “To read” file on my Notes app organised by who recommended what, as well as titles taken down from bookstore browsing and magazine features. I use iCal [for this and nothing else] to schedule when I’ll read what.

Now, so far I’ve stuck to the iCal schedule two out of five times. One book I had to put down, so I hastily read another before my Sunday deadline. I don’t think I would have done that if I hadn’t made the Book-a-Week rule. A few times I finished way early, so picked up a new book or started ahead on the next week.

I’m handling my freedom. It’s exciting but scary too, so this is my strategy for focusing on the exciting part more.

Now I must ask…

How do you choose what to read next?

miss xandra bee

Seattle Part 3. Cap Hill, Coffee, Conversation, and Cooookie

Seattle Part 2. Cap Hill, Coffee, Conversation, and Cooookie

Capitol Hill.

Growing up as a Washington DC regular, I kept picturing Capitol Hill like this, when really, in this Washington, it looks like, well, that ^. Cap Hill, as the cool kids call it, apparently, is rather funky. It’s lined with quaint and cool indie shops, but is still in the heart of the downtown area, unlike its alternative cousins Ballard and Fremont who live in the north. That’s all I’ve got for personality. Seattlites, anything to add?

Coffee.

The rumours are true. Seattle and coffee are a happily married couple. And more importantly, the awesome coffeeshops are a-plenty. I hung out in Black Coffee Co-op, where I was greeted by a conversation of warm welcome to Seattle [I got this a lot actually – the locals are so friendly! Whenever I said I was in town because I got to choose one city in the world to visit for my graduation present and I picked Seattle, they were so grateful! I feel as if New Yorkers would be like “well obvs” and Bostonians would be like “it is a very beautiful and historical city isn’t it”. Or “wickeeeed!”.]. Anyway, check out the above – the tables are decorated with zines and books, and my favourite – the Black Coffee community book series, for your own doodles and poems! There’s also a lending library and a “Read a Book!” board in which you can post notices for existing book clubs or request to start a new one. Looooove!

Conversation.

Capitol Hill was where I met up with old friends and new – the perfect place to wander around. That said, my fellow bookworms and I had lunch in Oddfellows‘ secret back garden (which I simply could not get over. Fairy lights not pictured, so use your imagination.) then hopped over to the Elliott Bay Book Company and didn’t want to leave ever. Afterwards Angela [live hi up eco-fashion blogger] and I browsed the ethical and adorable NuBeGreen (all products made in the USA) and got coffee, as again, one does in Seattle.

And Coooookie!

Looking for a vegan green tea chocolate chip cookie? Seattle is your place. [also from Black Coffee Co-op].

Now for some miscellaneous images that don’t start with C. I guess they’re Cute? Cool?

Well, for this one at least I’ll go with “completely addictive”.

miss xandra bee

P.S. More Seattle, and what I packed in my fashionably light suitcase :)

What to Read on an Urban Adventure

It was my first day back in Boston.

The plan was to wander and reacquaint, the only item on the agenda being a visit to Trident Booksellers, because I simply must visit Trident Booksellers.

I packed Thomas the DSLR and my new Muji umbrella because of the forecast. I wanted to bring a book to read, but which one?

I knew I would be too excited, too high on Beantown-invoked adrenaline to stay put long enough to write a postcard let alone read a novel.

So I discovered a new Micro-Pleasure: Poetry on a Park Bench

For me, poetry is like a party I don’t really feel like going to, but when I get there it’s pretty awesome. I rarely go, hey, I reeeally feel like a poem right now, preferring to delve into stories, fiction or non.

But I finally found a place for reading poetry, a new literary companion to my urban adventures. Sylvia Plath’s early poems were the perfect pocket size for my darting attention, perfect for reading on a park bench and pondering whilst staring onto the Common. It didn’t matter that every five seconds I was distracted by my surroundings, because five seconds was long enough to drink in another string of words, and my distraction was coloured by reflections of what I’d just read.

I assume, Reader, you are as familiar with the genius of Gilmore Girls.

Well, then you’ll remember the early episode in which our bookish heroine Rory packs a book of short stories, a biography, some poems, and a novel for her commute to school. Her baffled mother asks why she doesn’t give her shoulders a break and read one book at a time. Rory explains that she might feel like reading a certain genre over another depending on circumstances.

I finally understand.

What am I reading?

Maureen Johnson’s Girl at Sea sits on the coffee table for longer chunks of free time during the day.

Gisèle Scanlon’s The Goddess Guide rests by my bed for flipping through in the few minutes before I fall asleep.

And now, Sylvia Plath’s Poems lives in my backpack.

And what are you reading?

by miss xandra bee

P.S. Happy birthday to my 할머니! :)

Jekyll & Hyde

Creation Theatre, gem of Oxford, and indeed, of the theatre world en general, charms me once again with their latest, a one-man rendition of Jekyll & Hyde. One of my favourite quirks of the company is its choice of unusual locations, and nestling this production among the thousands of books in Blackwell’s Norrington Room was a success yet again.

I was invited to the production by a small newspaper-print pamphlet that was sent to my pidge [as a proud Creation subscriber], complete with tiny articles to style with its matching Victorian-eqsue posters. On the night they sold programmes on normal paper, but tied up with a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel on which the play is based. Clever!

As usual, I dressed to theme, channeling the black, white, and red of the poster. A Betsey Johnson corset-inspired top is kind of Victorian too I suppose…

Here I wear also the sleeves of The BU Dress, but as a jacket. Even more transformative than perhaps intended!

miss xandra bee

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