Getting Lost .... in Books

Ellen Novack

Sep 23

3 min read

I can't remember a time when curling up with a book wasn’t one of my favourite things to do. I consider it a gift.

I have a confession. My name is Ellen and I am a bookaholic. And I have some great reads to recommend. Fellow bibliophiles, feel free to share your favourites in the comments.

I inhale books. I buy them, I stalk the library like its an ex-boyfriend.I borrow them in bulk because reading is a not-so-mild addiction. I cannot sleep without reading. I get anxious if I don't have at least one backup book waiting in the wings.

I even keep a document listing all the books I read, with a small paragraph beside each one to remind me what it was about and who wrote it. My social media algorithm has now fully surrendered and simply sends me book recommendations (thank you, Ann Patchett). My reading list is endless, which I find deeply comforting.

I'm also a writer. Although, after reading certain novels, I occasionally vow never to write again because the author is so powerful and the characters so real that I feel unqualified to share the same oxygen.

As a writer I know that I should read analytically, determinging how the author creates the

structural magic -- character arcs, transitions, varying points of view. I do start that way. But usually I step so deeply into the story that I vanish entirely, resurfacing only when I reach the last page, disoriented and emotionally rearranged. Lately though, I've been re-reading to analyze, now that I know how things end and don't have to read compuslively all night to find out. In the past couple of weeks, two books I read totally captivated me. How do the authors do it?

What I’m Reading Now: Books That Made Me Laugh, Think, and Panic as a Writer — Amazing books I have read recently that have made me laugh, think and wondering how the authors did it

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason is a dark and funny, book about a woman navigating mental health and relationships. The reader feels the turmoil of the main character Martha. She can be hurtful to those who love her most, doesn’t know what is "wrong" with her, and gradually alientates her family and devoted husband. It's painfully real.

The writing engages you immediately. I find myself trying to figure out how Mason so effortlessly shifts between narration, innerthoughts and dialogue.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans is a quieter book, slowly unfolding the life of a determined, accomplished and formidable woman through letters spanning decades. Through corresspondence alone, we discover she was a brilliant lawyer, a harsh mother, and a woman shaped by loss. She finds the right words—except when they matter most.

And again I find myself asking: how does an author create such depth, such fully realized characters, through the vehicle of written letters?

Below are some other books I've read recenlty and loved.

Nightshade by Lynn Hutchinson Lee

Ghost-Eye by Amitav Ghosh

The Genius of Trees by Harriet Rix

The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

And two excellent reads I used as comparable titles to The Cauliflower Ear Club when securing an agent:

Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein