It's so good. And honestly unlike any other literary podcast out there. The host really seeks a deeper understanding of the book, the author, and the interviews are much, much more intense than one might expect!
Do you want some unsolicited episode recommendations? If so, I loved, loved his interviews with Tess Gunty, Alice Elliott Dark, and Alexandra Kleeman (which made me think about writing and climate change very, very differently than I had).
I loved reading this! I relate so deeply to Rakoff's desire to read, not to escape—I also read obsessively as a kid!—but to feel more deeply curious and integrated with the world, and newly aware of all its possibilities. The intense emotions I get from a novel often make life itself more meaningful.
It reminds me a bit of this passage from Proust: "Real life, life finally uncovered and clarified, the only life in consequence lived to the full, is literature. Life in this sense dwells within all ordinary people as much as in the artist…It is only through art that we can escape from ourselves and know how another person sees a universe which is not the same as our own and whose landscapes would otherwise have remained…unknown."
Such a pleasure to read the mini book reviews, too—very intrigued by Espach's The Wedding People now! This was a wonderful column to read on a peaceful Saturday morning.
Okay, first, oh my gosh, thank you so, so much for taking a moment to say you enjoyed the column! This means so much to me and you've made my (not peaceful! kid craziness!) afternoon!!
And this articulates exactly what I was trying to get at, with more elegance than I could muster: "to feel more deeply curious and integrated with the world, and newly aware of all its possibilities. The intense emotions I get from a novel often make life itself more meaningful."
To answer your question, I don't read in order to escape, but in order to understand - the world, myself and others better. To understand things I didn't know I needed to understand. To find wisdom, humanity and beauty. Books are my lifeline. I wouldn't be sane without them... Thank you for these great recommendations.
This makes so much sense to me. And I think this is part of why I read, too. (It made me think about how whenever I visit a new place, all I want is to read books set there, or about it, to help me better understand it...)
Yes!!! Me too! How wild! I am the weirdo who reads Balinese mythology and history on the beach. And you have made me realize, this is also why I love learning languages!
This is me, too! I remember, as a child, visiting Hawaii for the first time and becoming so obsessed with its history that every school project--book report, research paper, etc.--was about Princess Kaulani or King Kamehameha or the horrors wreaked by missionaries. (And maybe because of this, we returned to Hawaii every August after that. My parents definitely practiced tolerant with my obsessions.) And this summer, visiting Barcelona, at a certain point, after walking every corner of the city, and talking to so, so many people about how the city had changed in the past decade, I walked to La Central and bought every book I could find on the subject.
I have always primarily read memoir and it has tended to be memoirs by white women around my age - usually related to mental health, intergenerational trauma, creativity. When younger, more about relationships. Lately more about midlife. I read to understand myself mostly.
But I also read books by LGBTQ+/BIPOC folx, to understand myself and others and our interaction. I read nonfiction books to know things about the world. I probably also read fiction books to know things about the world, transmitted in a different way.
But sometimes I read fiction books (psychological thrillers/mysteries by women seem to be a current fave) as distraction, as entertainment, as basically-like-TV.
I absolutely read to escape. Whatever book I’m reading sits on my nightstand like an invitation, a gift, at the end of each day. Yes, I absolutely enjoy a mental break from the chaos of family life, my daily grind, the dark headlines. Books can provide this.
And yet, if the story resonates with me in some way, it has undoubtedly cracked open a new understanding about myself and the world. You know those sentences that make you stop and marvel at how an author articulates a feeling or a chunk of wisdom you didn’t even realize you needed? I read for those moments, as well as to escape.
"You know those sentences that make you stop and marvel at how an author articulates a feeling or a chunk of wisdom you didn’t even realize you needed? I read for those moment."
"Whatever book I’m reading sits on my nightstand like an invitation, a gift, at the end of each day. Yes, I absolutely enjoy a mental break from the chaos of family life, my daily grind, the dark headlines." When you put it in those terms, I read to escape, too!
Oct 27·edited Oct 27Liked by Joanna Rakoff, Jane Ratcliffe
Do I read to escape? If I'm honest, I have to say yes, but I am trying to escape my own limited worldview. A good book pulls me away from the navel-gazing and self-absorbed focus and into another realm. Mostly I read to learn, to imagine, to deliberate, to interrogate.
For me it's neither to escape nor to learn. It's entertainment,recreation. I know some people may look down on that motivation,but I'd guess it's the most common reason for reading, based on the bestseller lists. It's the same reason I watch TV or go see a movie. I think there's something innate in human nature that lives a good story.
Yes you should read James Patterson. He's a master of pacing and writes interesting characters and intriguing plot twists. His books are quick reads so it's a low risk investment of time.
I think this is what my MIL was saying, too, and I don't at all look down on it!! As I've read through comments here, I've been thinking so much about my own entertainment-consumption habits and realizing that maybe because I tell stories for work--in addition to memoir and fiction, I also write for film/tv, etc.--it's hard for me to shut off the part of my brain that is taking apart whatever I read, watch, even listen to (as in, podcasts, which I used to make), and thinking about the approach, the tone, the style. It's perhaps only music--which my husband makes (he's a composer) but I know nothing about--into which I can completely, uncritically escape.
Recently, I was talking with a dear friend--a painter--about the show Nobody Wants This, which I really enjoyed, but also with which I had huge, huge problems (re: the depictions of Jewish women, as well as misrepresentations of rabbi-hood, intermarriage, and even Los Angelans), and my friend said, "I didn't even notice any of that! You're so right! I may have registered it but I just let it go and lost myself in the show." But while I definitely enjoyed the show, I was thinking, "okay, why did the writers have this upper middle class, progressive LA Gen Xer not know the words "shalom" and shiksa"? She would have watched Curb Your Enthusiasm! She would have gone to a zillion bar and bat mitzvahs, growing up in Brentwood or the Palisades or wherever!"
Great points, and you remind me of something I read once (I don't remember where) that said soft music can help most people sleep, but NOT professional musicians, because they start listening for key signatures and chord progressions and melodic motifs and so on, and it actually keeps them more awake.
So I have to amend my response to add that the more I write, and the more I "read like a writer," I notice adverbs and paragraph breaks and so on. It takes a bit away from the pure entertainment value of some books, but it does open up new ways to appreciate good writing.
I agree! I remember when I first start writing, I could no longer read for pleasure: I was just analyzing everything, breaking it down, studying what they did and how they did it. I wasn't doing this on purpose! My mind was just hyper focused. Luckily, over time, the pleasure reads returned!
I love this. When I've read books--like, more mass market fiction--to completely escape, I've so often learned so much about the industries and worlds depicted. Same with tv and film.
Oct 26·edited Oct 26Liked by Joanna Rakoff, Jane Ratcliffe
Why do I read? The answer has changed over the years or, rather, it has evolved. I used to think I was escaping -- that's certainly why I read every book I could find as a child and that feeling of being "lost in a book" remains a lure today. There was also the magic of finding a girl like me in a novel or a story or to read a memoir or biography of a woman who showed me possibilities.
The difference is that at some point, I began to notice how I changed when I read a book whether it was fiction or nonfiction. New ideas, new thoughts, new insights that helped me see myself and the world differently, perhaps more clearly. Reading became more a type of traveling for me. There were the settings they took me to, sure, but the real journey seemed to come with my passage through the book with people I would never have known, information that was new to me, ideas and opinions that might test me or energize me. I care more deeply about the world and the people and other beings in it when I read.
All of these remain true but now there is also a different curiosity - a desire to learn all the ways to tell a story or to use story to explain important information. I'm fascinated by language, structure, voice -- all the things I continually try to master as a writer myself.
It's only when I ask myself your question "Why do you read?" that I realize I don't think about any of this when I pick up a book. The impulse is so natural and such a big part of my life that I don't question it. I have wondered, though, why I reach for a certain book when I do or when it falls into my hands. I believe that this is part of the magic too -- the right book finds its reader and the right time. And it is wonderful.
I read this nodding my head and whispering "yes, yes," to the bafflement of my poodle and 15yo! Thank you for expressing so beautifully what I was, I think, trying to get at in this column, about why I myself read. So much of what you say rings so true for me, but especially these:
"There was also the magic of finding a girl like me in a novel or a story ..." So mass culture, until recently (hello, Rory Gilmore!), portrayed girls and women as vapid and superficial or badass and ultra-driven (Charlie's Angels, etc.), and as a child, finding characters like Anne Shirley and Jane Eyre and every Paula Danziger or Norma Fox Mazer heroine saved me from feeling like there was no place in the world for me. This must be true of so many of us, yes?
"I don't think about any of this when I pick up a book. The impulse is so natural and such a big part of my life that I don't question it. I have wondered, though, why I reach for a certain book when I do or when it falls into my hands. I believe that this is part of the magic too -- the right book finds its reader and the right time. And it is wonderful." YES. I sometimes, often, try to read in a directed way--this has been a big thing for me, in recent years, re: my new book, which is a memoir with reported elements, taking place in several different time periods at once--and find myself just following my interests, but this has served me well, actually, as it's helped me figure out character and tone and structure....
Took notes on this one!! I’ve been searching for a new podcast and Burned By Books sounds like the perfect pod to jump into. Thank you!
I took note of that one, as well!! It sounds so good!
We can all have listening parties!
Yes, please!!
It's so good. And honestly unlike any other literary podcast out there. The host really seeks a deeper understanding of the book, the author, and the interviews are much, much more intense than one might expect!
Joanna I am getting REALLY excited about this!! 😍
Do you want some unsolicited episode recommendations? If so, I loved, loved his interviews with Tess Gunty, Alice Elliott Dark, and Alexandra Kleeman (which made me think about writing and climate change very, very differently than I had).
How did I get so lucky to stumble upon the the reading fairy of substack?!
I will begin my listening tour tomorrow and report back! 🥳
I am one hundred percent getting myself a t-shirt that says Reading Fairy!! (Maybe my Halloween costume?)
HOW ADORABLE!!! 🥰 🧚🏽♀️
Next year we can all represent from our respective locations!
I loved reading this! I relate so deeply to Rakoff's desire to read, not to escape—I also read obsessively as a kid!—but to feel more deeply curious and integrated with the world, and newly aware of all its possibilities. The intense emotions I get from a novel often make life itself more meaningful.
It reminds me a bit of this passage from Proust: "Real life, life finally uncovered and clarified, the only life in consequence lived to the full, is literature. Life in this sense dwells within all ordinary people as much as in the artist…It is only through art that we can escape from ourselves and know how another person sees a universe which is not the same as our own and whose landscapes would otherwise have remained…unknown."
Such a pleasure to read the mini book reviews, too—very intrigued by Espach's The Wedding People now! This was a wonderful column to read on a peaceful Saturday morning.
Oh, I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Celine! And what a beautiful passage! I hope your day remains peaceful!
Okay, first, oh my gosh, thank you so, so much for taking a moment to say you enjoyed the column! This means so much to me and you've made my (not peaceful! kid craziness!) afternoon!!
And this articulates exactly what I was trying to get at, with more elegance than I could muster: "to feel more deeply curious and integrated with the world, and newly aware of all its possibilities. The intense emotions I get from a novel often make life itself more meaningful."
I think it’s really special and a real gift to help people feel seen/understood—your opening paragraphs really offer that to the reader.
Thank you for writing this column and for your kind words as well!!
Love this: "The intense emotions I get from a novel often make life itself more meaningful."
Yes, me too. Celine has perfectly captured it!
To answer your question, I don't read in order to escape, but in order to understand - the world, myself and others better. To understand things I didn't know I needed to understand. To find wisdom, humanity and beauty. Books are my lifeline. I wouldn't be sane without them... Thank you for these great recommendations.
I feel the same way, Imola!! Where would we be without books?! They deepen our empathy and compassion, for one thing. And, yes, strengthen our sanity!
This makes so much sense to me. And I think this is part of why I read, too. (It made me think about how whenever I visit a new place, all I want is to read books set there, or about it, to help me better understand it...)
Yes!!! Me too! How wild! I am the weirdo who reads Balinese mythology and history on the beach. And you have made me realize, this is also why I love learning languages!
This is me, too! I remember, as a child, visiting Hawaii for the first time and becoming so obsessed with its history that every school project--book report, research paper, etc.--was about Princess Kaulani or King Kamehameha or the horrors wreaked by missionaries. (And maybe because of this, we returned to Hawaii every August after that. My parents definitely practiced tolerant with my obsessions.) And this summer, visiting Barcelona, at a certain point, after walking every corner of the city, and talking to so, so many people about how the city had changed in the past decade, I walked to La Central and bought every book I could find on the subject.
We are not alone in our obsessions! :) how marvellous!
Definitely also someone who reads to understand.
I have always primarily read memoir and it has tended to be memoirs by white women around my age - usually related to mental health, intergenerational trauma, creativity. When younger, more about relationships. Lately more about midlife. I read to understand myself mostly.
But I also read books by LGBTQ+/BIPOC folx, to understand myself and others and our interaction. I read nonfiction books to know things about the world. I probably also read fiction books to know things about the world, transmitted in a different way.
But sometimes I read fiction books (psychological thrillers/mysteries by women seem to be a current fave) as distraction, as entertainment, as basically-like-TV.
Yes to all of this, Kathryn! 🌸
This makes so much sense to me: The difference you articulate between reading for distraction and reading for understanding.
I think I read for both reasons.
I absolutely read to escape. Whatever book I’m reading sits on my nightstand like an invitation, a gift, at the end of each day. Yes, I absolutely enjoy a mental break from the chaos of family life, my daily grind, the dark headlines. Books can provide this.
And yet, if the story resonates with me in some way, it has undoubtedly cracked open a new understanding about myself and the world. You know those sentences that make you stop and marvel at how an author articulates a feeling or a chunk of wisdom you didn’t even realize you needed? I read for those moments, as well as to escape.
So beautifully put, Maria! Yes to all of this!!
Yes to this:
"You know those sentences that make you stop and marvel at how an author articulates a feeling or a chunk of wisdom you didn’t even realize you needed? I read for those moment."
YES. Me too. And then you suddenly feel less alone in the world.
"Whatever book I’m reading sits on my nightstand like an invitation, a gift, at the end of each day. Yes, I absolutely enjoy a mental break from the chaos of family life, my daily grind, the dark headlines." When you put it in those terms, I read to escape, too!
Do I read to escape? If I'm honest, I have to say yes, but I am trying to escape my own limited worldview. A good book pulls me away from the navel-gazing and self-absorbed focus and into another realm. Mostly I read to learn, to imagine, to deliberate, to interrogate.
Beautiful! And the perfect combination!
For me it's neither to escape nor to learn. It's entertainment,recreation. I know some people may look down on that motivation,but I'd guess it's the most common reason for reading, based on the bestseller lists. It's the same reason I watch TV or go see a movie. I think there's something innate in human nature that lives a good story.
Yes you should read James Patterson. He's a master of pacing and writes interesting characters and intriguing plot twists. His books are quick reads so it's a low risk investment of time.
I think this is what my MIL was saying, too, and I don't at all look down on it!! As I've read through comments here, I've been thinking so much about my own entertainment-consumption habits and realizing that maybe because I tell stories for work--in addition to memoir and fiction, I also write for film/tv, etc.--it's hard for me to shut off the part of my brain that is taking apart whatever I read, watch, even listen to (as in, podcasts, which I used to make), and thinking about the approach, the tone, the style. It's perhaps only music--which my husband makes (he's a composer) but I know nothing about--into which I can completely, uncritically escape.
Recently, I was talking with a dear friend--a painter--about the show Nobody Wants This, which I really enjoyed, but also with which I had huge, huge problems (re: the depictions of Jewish women, as well as misrepresentations of rabbi-hood, intermarriage, and even Los Angelans), and my friend said, "I didn't even notice any of that! You're so right! I may have registered it but I just let it go and lost myself in the show." But while I definitely enjoyed the show, I was thinking, "okay, why did the writers have this upper middle class, progressive LA Gen Xer not know the words "shalom" and shiksa"? She would have watched Curb Your Enthusiasm! She would have gone to a zillion bar and bat mitzvahs, growing up in Brentwood or the Palisades or wherever!"
Great points, and you remind me of something I read once (I don't remember where) that said soft music can help most people sleep, but NOT professional musicians, because they start listening for key signatures and chord progressions and melodic motifs and so on, and it actually keeps them more awake.
So I have to amend my response to add that the more I write, and the more I "read like a writer," I notice adverbs and paragraph breaks and so on. It takes a bit away from the pure entertainment value of some books, but it does open up new ways to appreciate good writing.
I agree! I remember when I first start writing, I could no longer read for pleasure: I was just analyzing everything, breaking it down, studying what they did and how they did it. I wasn't doing this on purpose! My mind was just hyper focused. Luckily, over time, the pleasure reads returned!
I read as an escape, but also to learn 💚
Perfect combination!
I love this. When I've read books--like, more mass market fiction--to completely escape, I've so often learned so much about the industries and worlds depicted. Same with tv and film.
Why do I read? The answer has changed over the years or, rather, it has evolved. I used to think I was escaping -- that's certainly why I read every book I could find as a child and that feeling of being "lost in a book" remains a lure today. There was also the magic of finding a girl like me in a novel or a story or to read a memoir or biography of a woman who showed me possibilities.
The difference is that at some point, I began to notice how I changed when I read a book whether it was fiction or nonfiction. New ideas, new thoughts, new insights that helped me see myself and the world differently, perhaps more clearly. Reading became more a type of traveling for me. There were the settings they took me to, sure, but the real journey seemed to come with my passage through the book with people I would never have known, information that was new to me, ideas and opinions that might test me or energize me. I care more deeply about the world and the people and other beings in it when I read.
All of these remain true but now there is also a different curiosity - a desire to learn all the ways to tell a story or to use story to explain important information. I'm fascinated by language, structure, voice -- all the things I continually try to master as a writer myself.
It's only when I ask myself your question "Why do you read?" that I realize I don't think about any of this when I pick up a book. The impulse is so natural and such a big part of my life that I don't question it. I have wondered, though, why I reach for a certain book when I do or when it falls into my hands. I believe that this is part of the magic too -- the right book finds its reader and the right time. And it is wonderful.
A gigantic yes to all of this!!
I read this nodding my head and whispering "yes, yes," to the bafflement of my poodle and 15yo! Thank you for expressing so beautifully what I was, I think, trying to get at in this column, about why I myself read. So much of what you say rings so true for me, but especially these:
"There was also the magic of finding a girl like me in a novel or a story ..." So mass culture, until recently (hello, Rory Gilmore!), portrayed girls and women as vapid and superficial or badass and ultra-driven (Charlie's Angels, etc.), and as a child, finding characters like Anne Shirley and Jane Eyre and every Paula Danziger or Norma Fox Mazer heroine saved me from feeling like there was no place in the world for me. This must be true of so many of us, yes?
"I don't think about any of this when I pick up a book. The impulse is so natural and such a big part of my life that I don't question it. I have wondered, though, why I reach for a certain book when I do or when it falls into my hands. I believe that this is part of the magic too -- the right book finds its reader and the right time. And it is wonderful." YES. I sometimes, often, try to read in a directed way--this has been a big thing for me, in recent years, re: my new book, which is a memoir with reported elements, taking place in several different time periods at once--and find myself just following my interests, but this has served me well, actually, as it's helped me figure out character and tone and structure....
Sorry for such a long response and for forgetting to thank you for the recommendations. I'm grateful!
Never apologize for a long response! You're talking to the Queen of Long Responses, here, friend!!