I'm an open book...

At least, on the topic of how I find books to read.

Hi! I’m Hannah James, journalist, writer and editor, and this is where I talk and think about books. Thanks for reading!

How do you know what to read?

Books beget books. I read a lot, and sometimes people ask me: how do I know what I want to read next?

The books tell me: in their bibliographies, in their epigraphs, in their acknowledgments and references. And the people who talk and write about books tell me. I get the Times Literary Supplement posted to me from England, because there’s something so delicious about reading a newspaper at the weekend. Online, I subscribe to The New York Times and The New Yorker for their books pages; I refresh the Guardian reviews page and check The Paris Review whenever they tell me on Instagram they’ve unlocked a story (can’t subscribe to everything). I read the Sydney Review of Books (that one’s free) and Kill Your Darlings (that one I pay for).

The New Yorker, Aug 22, 2022

Back in print, my parents’ regular Christmas gift to me is a Slightly Foxed magazine subscription – another postal present in print. Their podcast is an entirely separate and equally magnificent book-recco beast. And while we’re on podcasts: I listen to the Backlisted podcast and the Literary Friction podcast and the You’re Booked podcast, to The Garret and In Writing with Hattie Crisell and Katherine May’s How We Live Now. Of course I listen to Chat 10 Looks 3. I listen to Marlon & Jake Read Dead People and the LRB Bookshop podcast and the Shakespeare & Company podcast. I comb through the BBC Sounds app searching for programs about writers I love, or let the magic of live radio waves drop pearls at my feet. (Radio 4X is best for books, I think.)

I talk to bookish friends (thanks Genevieve for lending me the new Curtis Sittenfeld – I would never have got round to reading it myself, but I loved it!). I browse bookshops. I go to the library a LOT, and that’s a whole other topic. And yes, sometimes I let the evil empire of Amazon make suggestions.

My local library, Manly Library (image by Kayapa Creative Studio)

I put the time in, is what I’m saying. I do the work.

Not that it feels like work. It’s pure pleasure to listen to and read smart people talking about books. And though reading itself isn’t always an equally simple pleasure – because it’s harder – it’s what it’s all about. You can’t endlessly read restaurant reviews and then never eat out. And like eating out, reading is, for me, a physical experience. I feel scratchy and uncomfortable if I don’t read enough books; I feel bombarded with sharp fragments of worthless information that stick in my skin, tiny but irritating. (Get off Instagram, you say? Ye-esss…)

It isn’t always easy to get back into the rhythm of reading long novels when you’re stuck in the social-media swamp. I’m half-way through Anthony Trollope’s The Eustace Diamonds at the moment, and only now (and this is a LONG book) have I reached the point of sinking into the warm bath of it, instead of chafing at its slow pace and low stakes. And it’s sometimes hard to summon the attention span good non-fiction requires – I’ve found reading physical books rather than on the Kindle helps, and so does taking notes, even if just on my phone.

Backlisted’s brilliant episode on The Eustace Diamonds (aka why I was reading it).

But when you do return to reading, it’s a balm to soothe that social-media scratchiness. It’s the feeling of a healthy but delicious meal instead of fast food. It’s always been my home and I think it always will be.

Where do you find your book recommendations? What am I missing?

What I’ve been reading

So far in July, I’ve loved:

Robert Gottlieb, Avid Reader

Miranda France, The Writing School

Laura Shaine Cunningham, A Place in the Country

Nona Fernández, Voyager

You?

Thanks again for reading! Feel free to hit reply to this email to have a chat (I always write back!), press the heart button if you liked this, or comment.

Also! Follow me on Instagram @hannahjameswords, on Twitter @hannahjamesword and check out my website at hannahjameswords.com.