The agony of reading

bookszzzzzz

It’s been a production-heavy couple of weeks (including!: writing a bunch of essays for the graphic novel, starting an editorial illustration assignment, revising sketches for a picture book, sending a picture book pitch to my agent), so I thought I’d take today to make a dent in some books and remind myself what other people sound like.

Reading is still so… so hard. I only started reading for pleasure again after quitting the law in 2020 because of how much effort it takes. and i DO love it, once I can get past how exhausted I immediately become and how slowly it goes. Please send tips for staying awake if you have them, lol. (I do listen to audiobooks but sometimes you just gotta read a physical book!!)

ANYWAY, I rotate my books in “sets” because I can never stick with just one at a time. I put the last set at the end of this post. Here’s this one! I’ll probably read these for another week and switch back to the other ones, ha ha ha.

• “Either/Or” by Elif Batuman. It’s so funny and dry, and parts of it are such a meta exploration of what it means to fictionalize your life for a book.

• “The Faraway Nearby” - essay collection by Rebecca Solnit. I picked this up in a second hand bookstore in Edmonton because I’ve wanted to read more of her. The internet says it “explores the way we make our lives out of stories.” Loving it so far and it’s only 250 pages.

• Then, a bunch of graphic novels/books to finish before they’re due to the library this week.

  • “Beloved Dog” by Maira Kalman, beloved New Yorker illustrator

  • the Wendy series by Walter Scott - self-deprecating, irreverent, hilarious, absolutely perfect comics about a young (Canadian!!) woman trying to make it as an artist. The fourth book is coming out in the summer so read them now!!!

  • A bunch of semi-autobio graphic novels by Michael Rabaglati, a Quebecois cartoonist

  • Rereading “Tangles” by local cartoonist Sarah Leavitt - a graphic memoir about her experiences with Alzheimer’s. Soon to be a movie!! (CanCon! CanCon!)

Thanks for reading, and happy reading.

xo Zoe