Fish Magic by Paul Klee I like to whittle away time reading on the subway or in the park, waiting for a latte in a little Soho cafe that sells delicate jewelry, during calm dinners and violent movie previews. The best feeling is being in the middle of a book or right at the beginning. I don’t like endings—once I finish a book I move immediately onto another. I enjoy novels the most but really I’ll read anything at all.
This really spoke to me, as someone struggling to cope with having to make myself and my writing marketable. I feel the same way as you about reading, and stories, and I don’t want them to turn into a job. Just to be in love.
This is so incredible, Ava! I love reading about your relationship with writing and books, I also equally love reading about your thoughts on love. I applaud your ability to combine these worlds and remind us that they're one and the same. Reading is an act of love and love is understood through reading/writing.
"Of course love is just being able to talk to someone and talk to someone and talk to someone and never get sick of their words." This is just... such a simple life truth. Wow. I love it so much.
"Because reading is just brushing up against someone else’s mind. Sometimes you’re so enamored that you want to read everything they’ve ever read just to be a little closer to them." I felt this part in particular - infatuation as this sensation of wanting to crawl into someone else's head and open them up from the inside, and the books they like being a portal to that, in a way.
I love this piece Ava! I was also very awkward at 6 (and for many years afterwards) and used books as a portal to another life, other than the one I was living. I started reading mostly adult books when I was 8 and I remember helpful bookstore employees redirecting me to the children’s book section. I was too shy to tell them I was already where I belonged so I would sneak back to the adult section after they were out of sight. Even now, one of my favorite pastimes is to read a great book and then go through the bibliography and checkmark which ones I’ve already read and which ones I want/need to order.
//all awareness is a linguistic affair// //Serial monogamy!// //I think the ultimate act of love is to be able to describe someone very specifically. And of course you can usually be more coherent and articulate in writing than you are in conversation. So in that way love on the page is more genuine than love in real life.// 🖤🖤🖤
"...the Argonauts and thinking that I needed to understand every reference Maggie Nelson made..." I love this. Then rereading the original book you fell in love with having read a bunch of new works that it led you to is a such a rich experience, both new and familiar...
Four years after reading A Dance to the Music of time I'm still working my way through Nick Jenkins' literary allusions which have led me to flings with Lermontov, Choderlos de Laclos, Balzac, Stendhal, Dostoyevsky, Svevo, and now Burton.
This really spoke to me, as someone struggling to cope with having to make myself and my writing marketable. I feel the same way as you about reading, and stories, and I don’t want them to turn into a job. Just to be in love.
This is so incredible, Ava! I love reading about your relationship with writing and books, I also equally love reading about your thoughts on love. I applaud your ability to combine these worlds and remind us that they're one and the same. Reading is an act of love and love is understood through reading/writing.
"Of course love is just being able to talk to someone and talk to someone and talk to someone and never get sick of their words." This is just... such a simple life truth. Wow. I love it so much.
"Because reading is just brushing up against someone else’s mind. Sometimes you’re so enamored that you want to read everything they’ve ever read just to be a little closer to them." I felt this part in particular - infatuation as this sensation of wanting to crawl into someone else's head and open them up from the inside, and the books they like being a portal to that, in a way.
I love this piece Ava! I was also very awkward at 6 (and for many years afterwards) and used books as a portal to another life, other than the one I was living. I started reading mostly adult books when I was 8 and I remember helpful bookstore employees redirecting me to the children’s book section. I was too shy to tell them I was already where I belonged so I would sneak back to the adult section after they were out of sight. Even now, one of my favorite pastimes is to read a great book and then go through the bibliography and checkmark which ones I’ve already read and which ones I want/need to order.
//all awareness is a linguistic affair// //Serial monogamy!// //I think the ultimate act of love is to be able to describe someone very specifically. And of course you can usually be more coherent and articulate in writing than you are in conversation. So in that way love on the page is more genuine than love in real life.// 🖤🖤🖤
"...the Argonauts and thinking that I needed to understand every reference Maggie Nelson made..." I love this. Then rereading the original book you fell in love with having read a bunch of new works that it led you to is a such a rich experience, both new and familiar...
Four years after reading A Dance to the Music of time I'm still working my way through Nick Jenkins' literary allusions which have led me to flings with Lermontov, Choderlos de Laclos, Balzac, Stendhal, Dostoyevsky, Svevo, and now Burton.
this was so lovely!!
What a great piece!