Book People
I love books. Reading them and writing them and collecting them. Having them in my house, perusing them in book stores, sending them as gifts to friends.
I will be honest and admit that I usually assume anyone that loves books has a relationship to them that looks like mine, which is a wild thing to assume since a relationship to books is highly personal!
As a nosey person with a newsletter I decided to right that wrong and do a bit of a survey; I ask some of the book people in my life about their own book collections and buying habits. Reading their responses was really delightful and now I'm tempted to send these questions out to everyone I know (if you're so moved, I encourage you to send me your responses).
Below are answers from Grace Mackson (who I worked at a library with!), Zan Romanoff (a recurring Casually Obsessed guest!), and Nicole Antoinette (one of the first people I told about Casually Obsessed, way back in 2019!).
In a few sentences, can you describe your relationship with books?
Grace: Whew. I’d say at different points reading books functions as escapism, idea-seeking, or just an activity I really enjoy doing! It’s one of the only activities I do where I can get really focused on it to the exclusion of other things and I become like fully immersed in the world of the book and it almost feels jarring to come back to reality sometimes, in a nice way, almost like I’ve meditated.
Zan: To paraphrase one of the great poets, all I do is read, read, read no matter what. (I also sometimes write them.) (If you want to be literal about it, I'm the author of three young adult novels, an occasional literary critic, and I try to read at least a book a week.)
Nicole: I don't think I can describe it any better than Annie Dillard: "She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live."
Do you primarily read physical books, digital books, audiobooks, or some combination thereof?
G: Primarily physical, but I will read digital books on occasion. Not audiobooks.
Z: Almost exclusively print, though I will make an exception for digital ARCs (advanced reader copies) because sometimes I just need to get through 100 pages to know I'm not gonna write about the book in question, and then I don't have the book cluttering up my house, mostly un-read. As soon as I know I am going to write about something, though, I request a physical copy so I can take notes in it. I don't think I've ever bought an e- or audio book in my life. I'm a luddite, baby.
N: I mostly read digital books from the library. As a semi-nomadic person without a consistent home base for the past few years it's been impractical for me to own many physical books, although now that I'm settling down (a bit!) I have recently bought some of my favorite books in hardback and paperback. It feels so comforting to be surrounded by cherished words in such a tangible way again!
Is there any explicit difference between what you consume in one format versus another?
G: I read digital books if the copy will come faster from the library or sometimes I’ll get them if I know I’ll be traveling.
N: I try not to buy things on Amazon whenever possible, so if the library doesn't have a book I really want that can be delivered to my Kindle I will then buy a physical copy elsewhere. For audiobooks, I typically only listen to those while on long-distance backpacking trips, because in general I prefer the experience of reading vs listening.
Do you know how many books you own?
G: lol no. About a tall bookshelf’s worth?
Z: I thought about counting during a recent move but then... didn't. I can tell you that my roommate and I keep track of how many books each of us brings into the house each month (she runs a podcast where she interviews authors, so we both get sent a good number of ARCs), and in the last three months I'm up to twenty-six.
N: If you're asking about non-digital books, until very recently it was zero! I've intentionally ordered some beloved books in the past few weeks though, and pulled some interesting-looking ones from Little Free Libraries around town, so the current count of what I have on my bookshelf right now is 31 books.
How many of those have you read?
G: Optimistically I’d say 80-90%. I did a pretty good job of purging unnecessary books when I moved across the country.
Z: Almost all of them. Anything I haven't read lives in a stack by my bedside table-- well, one of three stacks actually: books I have to read on a deadline, in order from soonest to latest, and then non-deadline fiction, and non-deadline non-fiction. There are, uhhhhmmmmmm, about forty books across those three piles at the moment.
N: 15 of them are books I've read at least once, 3 of them are in-progress reads, and the rest are in my to-be-read-soon pile.
Where do you usually get your books from?
G: The library! Libraries are the best man.
Z: Skylight Books in Los Feliz, though now that I'm closer to Padadena Vroman's might come into play more often. Also publishers sending me ARCs. I now read contemporary fiction almost exclusively from the library, because I rarely love those books enough to need to add a copy to my already substantial personal collection. I'm really embarrassed how long it took me to get into library life. It rules.
N: The library or Elizabeth's Bookshop & Writing Center, founded by Rachel Cargle.
Anything you’ve read recently that you recommend?
G: Aside from Gideon/Harrow… A Memory Called Empire, Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing.
Z: I keep a list of everything I read specifically so I can answer this question without my mind going blank. I wrote about a short story collection called Speculative Los Angeles earlier this year, and I still think about those stories all the time. Readers of Casually Obsessed will likely be into The Scapegracers, by Hannah Abigail Clarke, which has high-key Francesca Lia Block vibes and is about queer teen witches. I loved Joss Lake's debut Future Feeling. And most recently, Christina Hammonds Reed's The Black Kids just totally, totally knocked me out.
N: The most impactful book I've read recently is Mariame Kaba's We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice. On the fiction side I devoured the Veronica Speedwell mystery series by Deanna Raybourn, and a memoir I can't stop thinking about is Lisa Donovan's Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger.
Grace Mackson lives in New York, is a public health bisexual, and an avid reader of both canon and non-canon fiction.
Zan Romanoff writes essays, journalism, and fiction, with a particular focus on and interest in areas of culture that don’t always get the respect they deserve: stuff like fandom, food, and the Kardashian clan. She write novels for teenagers but she bets you’d like them, too.
Nicole Antoinette is a writer, podcast host, & long-distance hiker. Her preferred love language is to read quietly together in the same room because omg is there anything sexier than that?!
A Note:
I’ll be taking two weeks off. You can expect your next email in the third week of November.
The Vibe
ICYMI
On The Bi Pod we put out an episode with our strategies for handling the holidays. We’ll be taking a break from publishing episodes until the new year, but we’ll still be sending out our bi-weekly newsletter!
National Novel Writing Month is quickly approaching. If you’re trying to write a lot of words and you want a co-working buddy or someone to cheer you on, let me know!