nourishncherish

Beauty in the Eyes of the Beholder

This was an idea for a children’s book and also a pair of creature glasses that I wanted to make: You could choose the animal in your app settings, wear your glasses, and voila! You would see the world around you as the animal does: an ocular device that transported you into the alternate reality of that creature. But as most good ideas of mine, they festered in a document of Potential Ideas.

So, I was intrigued when I saw this book in the library.

Eye By Eye – Comparing How Animals See – By Sara Levine, illustrated by T S SpookyTooth

Even as you open this whimsical book, you realize that seeing the world like we do can be a unique gift. That is not even considering perspective, personality and all the rest of it: just the ocular aspect of it.

How would an animal with eight animals see the world?

A Spider’s Vision

The illustration of a woman bespectacled in all 8 eyes is endearing, but it does make you think of a spider.

A Spider’s Vision

I noticed a spider has really taken a liking to our car’s external rear-view mirror. Everyday, there is a fine web spun there – I wonder whether the little creature sees itself spinning its beautiful web, and admires itself for it.

What if you had six eyes, one located at the end of each of your six arms?

Shapes & Colors

The book not only considers creatures with differing number of eyes, but differing eye shapes as well: like that of an owl.

Pupil shapes matter – goats have rectangular pupils. ( I confess I have looked into the eyes of plenty of goats and never noticed this.) Cuttlefish’s pupils are W-shaped.

Small hexagon shapes in an eyeball ( like in a bee hive?) Well, flies have that.

Then we come to colors, but we can have colorful differences in our outlooks as well. Butterflies and hummingbirds, we have known for some time, see the world very differently than we do. As do dogs, and cats.

So, whether or not I make those creature glasses or some company comes up with such ubiquitous VR that it seems like it was always there, it is a fascinating world out there. Go outside and imagine life as a hummingbird, or a jellyfish. Glasses or not, your thoughts will transform your mood.

Embracing the Tranquility of a Summer Evening

The day could have been better. My to-do list gave me reproachful looks all day long as I took care of many different things and accomplished nothing. It was time for this and time for that, not yet time for this-and-that, and oh-so-past-the-time for this-or-that. Finally, I wrapped up for the moment and headed out. It was a beautiful summer evening after all, and moping about not doing the work was not going to get it done.

That’s how I found myself that beautiful summer evening, doing yoga in a friend’s garden that she had kindly invited us to. The sun’s rays danced through the maple leaves in the west, the mild breeze provided much required respite and made the italian cypress trees in the east look like they were dancing and swaying to the breeze too.

The pink bougainvillea in the south leapt from fence to tree with such freedom of spirit, that I couldn’t help feeling a bit wistful at not being able to boldly leap and catch hold the way those plants did. How did creepers know whether they’d make it to the next branch? There must be a bold vision and a willingness to let go of safe harnesses that we never really stop to think about. I wonder how that feels – it certainly seems to be something we struggle with as adults more than as children.

To complete the bucolic yogic scene, was the neighborhood black cat. Well-fed, preening its coat, gleaming in the evening sun and stretching every now and then to show us what a good stretch looks like, she lay there looking perfectly happy with the way her evening was going (or her days were going) by the looks of it.

I told my friends about the state of to-do-ness that had ailed me that evening, and how the evening completely transformed it. My friends seem to have been in similar states of mind – and it all came spilling out the moment I said so.

We smiled and drank in the scene: The cat did not care, the trees continued to sway, the leaves shone and the parched earth settled down to a cooler evening, the birds above made their way home. The purpose of life was right there, for those willing to take it.

The best part of the evening was the various angles from which we took in the garden – upside down, sideways. While breathing hard, while taking deep breaths. I tried taking the picture of the garden upside down, but of course all our tools seem to want to correct all our ‘mistakes’ and would not allow me to. So, I rotated the pic manually to retain the beauty of the world seen upside down.

Dancing in the wind, with the sun on my face.

Playing hide-and-seek and eating a treat.

It reminded me of Dr Seuss’s quote on looking at life

Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.

Dr. Seuss

Embracing Summer: From Scorcher to Serenity

Hot , Hotter, Hotter Still …

One hot summer’s day, I tried turning on all the car’s air conditioning vents towards myself. It was no use. The sweltering heat was unrelenting. I sipped some water from the water-bottle I’d left in the car a couple of hours earlier, and it felt like very bland tea – warm, but still better than nothing. This is going to be the reality – I thought to myself miserably as I heard the climate doomsday sayers in my head. Every progressive summer heads towards hotter and hotter temperatures.

Even the phone seemed to be prickly and finicky with the heat – sporadically dropping and picking up the CarPlay. That’s when I noticed the car’s options for nature sounds. I picked Rainy Day – yearnings for a wonderful rainy day even if the drops of water would evaporate the moment they hit the earth that parched day.

I didn’t expect to feel much – but I was mistaken. We do not really give each of our senses its due in how it makes us feel. My ears pricked up at the sounds of the rain even as the car itself was dry as brush. Maybe it was the effect of the air conditioning kicking in, but everything felt suddenly cooler. I fumbled for my cooling glasses again – I could not wear them because they were too hot earlier, but that made a difference too.

raindrops

It was miraculous, the transformation from parched to a feeling of summertime abundance. Life felt sweeter.

SummerTime Sweetness

Watching the flowers sag on the trees,

Even as the fruit trees are breaking off with the weight of their fruit,

The joy of filling your home with fresh fruits and vegetables from a summer bounty.

Having friends to share all of this with

Nurturing the garden

Watching with amazement as butterflies and bees flit happily.

Indulging in summer activities

Reading great books,

Having wonderful fellow readers to discuss them with.

The joy of grocery shopping that includes ice cream 🙂

The abundance of books from the local library

The night-time adventures with every protagonist and idea sharer

Those are the joys of summertime abundances.

summer-COLLAGE

If listening to rain sounds in the car when the weather outside is blistering can bring out all of the above, we are blessed indeed. What are your summertime sweetness feelings?

“The world smells of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside” – Maud Hart Lovelace on Summer

Maps of War: A Fascinating Insight into Historical Warfare

Maps of War

I picked up the huge tome titled Maps of War – Compiled by Ashley & Miles Baynton-Williams, and started browsing. The book had been the fascinating battleground to Avengers and superhero battles, not to mention the hours of entertainment and insight into the son’s latest hobbies of drawing maps of the world at various points in time.

I saw the lure of the book. It had beautiful imagery, interesting ways to depict maps, and drove home the point that war was such an integral part of humanity’s history. This book only covered 130 wars between 1547 – 1902.

The foreword mentions why every conquering army was so keen to put out their own maps of war. That was their key to proclaim victory, garner public support and justify the wars. For every major map that made it to the book, imagine the thousands of skirmishes and conflicts that did not. The battles that were turning points in the wars, but were too minor to mention because it did not fit into the story being spun for the conquerors. It certainly was not a comprehensive look at all major wars during this period.

“Lovely it is to witness great battle-plans of war, carried out across the plains, without your having any share in the danger.” – Lucretius

The maps of war are the larger picture of generals, and kings playing their games of strategy.

Impacts of War

What is not depicted is the culture, love, and familial struggles depicted as a map on a page.

It is hard to imagine the individual lives of millions of lives lost. Yet, every single one of them were flawed human beings too. Some heroes in the eyes of their comrades; some troubled youth finding their way to vent their violence; some gentle souls caught up in another meaningless war; some hoping to gain power for themselves, some spying and hoping for the best outcome, some hoping their livelihood could be provided for if only they managed to make it back in one piece. Almost all of them terrified at the loss of peace in their individual lives, pining for the peace and love of their loved ones in faraway places while they hoped for probability to work in their favor every time they poked their heads out of the trenches, victims to random throes of arrows, or minefields.

Well – The problem with society’s revolutions as Haruki Murakami mentions in his book, Novelist as a Vocation, is that in the world of war nothing makes sense as time goes on. Even if there is justification in the original act of going to war – remaining there is a whole different set of sacrifices. Yet, time and time again mankind goes in for that. Centuries of warfare and careers, egos, lives lost in the eternal quest for what?

For in war, people never win. Maybe countries do, ideologies maybe.

Though I wonder whether we’d have come up technological innovations such as we have if not for warfare: war has spurred technological innovations – fireworks, firearms, tanks, artillery, radar, sonar, cryptology, drones, nuclear power, chemical weapons, space travel. (We’d have come up with different ones if wars weren’t providing the impetus, for sure)

What is the Solution?

Is there a way to know how many wars started as peacekeeping missions and remained so? We may never know. The son & I were discussing these very things one evening on our walk, when we fell to discussing another species that is just as war-mongering (maybe even more so) : Ants.

Do we ever stop to think of territorial conquests of ants? Isn’t that how our own wars must appear in the scheme of the universe?

The only saving grace I could think of was to be grateful that we probably do live in one of the peaceful eras of history (“Touch wood!”, I said, grabbing a passing tree trunk, which made the son laugh) .

“Yes Mother! You grabbing tree trunks will stop World Wars!” I heard the children’s voice chuckle in my ears, and I laughed too. May not be a bad suggestion to the United Nations Security Council, would it?

雰囲気 Fun’iki: Embracing the Japanese Concept of Catching the Vibes

We watched fireworks exploding in the skies far away. There is something special about standing on a beach in the dark and watching light come in unexpected bursts from far away. Is that how the creatures of the deep dark pockets of the ocean feel when their own or those of other organisms around them lights up their world with their bioluminescence? I wonder.

Nevertheless, that night felt more surreal than usual. For it was replaced with tiny pulsing lights of drones. Hundreds of them forming and reforming into beautiful shapes – there a jellyfish, then a statue of liberty, and a whale. In spite of the beautiful shapes, I did miss the crackling sparkling sounds of the fireworks. The drones (far away as they were) were entirely silent, and lacked a certain ‘oooh—aaah’ factor as a result. (I could’ve stooped to pick up something and missed a jug or something. ) But the drones were more environmentally friendly, so …

The next day, we felt a slow start was essential – and so we meandered around an island neighborhood.

“What do you want to do?”

“Nothing much – just catch the vibes of the place, maybe?” said the immensely-cooler teenage daughter to her younger cousins and brother, who agreed fervently. I did not know what catch-the-vibes meant exactly, but nodded along. Vibes would reveal themselves. Vibes are like waves – you just have to experience them, I told myself.

It turned out that stopping to admire art galleries, meandering through neighborhoods with picket fences overlooking the ocean, admiring gardens bursting with flowers, watching young adults laugh and make loud jokes, slurping ice creams before they melted – everything belonged to the category of “catching-the-vibes.”

Catching the vibes, I realized, is a fun activity that can include book shopping, picking up curious art from local art galleries, gasping at the prices of some art pieces, admiring gardens, and 4th of July decorations.

Why am I not surprised that the Japanese word for vibes contains fun?

雰囲気 Fun’iki

Fun’iki sounds like something we do all the time on trips, without the cool name of course. We resolved to add Fun’iki to our vocabulary and trips henceforth and meandered back home.

What are some of your favorite 4th of July week-end activities on trips?

Not Pristine, Prim, & Proper!

The week-end was marvelous. The 4th of July week-end usually is. Summer is in full swing which means long days, and flowers bursting forth everywhere. This time, it also meant waterfronts and beaches with the children in tow.

One day, as we walked on the beach, playing with the little waves against our feet, stopping to pick a shell here, and a conch there, I reveled in the ordinary happiness that a simple day like that gives.

beach_surfers

We saw teenage boys play spike ball for hours on end, little children squeal and run to and from the waves, sand castles being built, and surfers ride the waves again and again.

One child was picking up wet sand to return to the ocean, and squealed when the sand squirmed in his hands, and went running back to his mother.

An inflatable giraffe that did not look happy out in the ocean. The ridiculousness of finding a giraffe bobbing in the waves was enough to get people to laugh.

beach_giraffe

I usually am not in favor of crowded beaches, but that day, it felt good. People watching felt lovely.

The son and husband were covered in sand building their little sand castle with a moat around it, tunnels through them etc. I had taken several walks letting the waves splash around me, and the sea looked amazing. The day was not too hot, and the waters were not too cold. The beach was noisy, but not too loud. The people themselves were in various states of imperfection – In other words, it was perfect.

It all felt all the more special because I had an excellent book to read at the beach. The daughter had her trusted ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ trilogy with her. It was a bit dog-eared, but she looked at it fondly and said, “That is exactly how a beach book is supposed to be. Not pristine, prim and proper.”

I threw my head back and laughed so hard at that. “That should be the theme of our day here, huh? Not pristine, prim and proper.”

beach_waves

As we made our way out of the beach, we looked like a good hosing down would do us all good. “But before that – some gelato!” said the husband, and we all hailed our hero as we made our way to the little gelato store with brilliant flavors and fantastic names for gelato explorers.

What are some of your favorite beach reads, and beach activities?

Meeting ‘Loki’: An Enchanting Encounter with a Mysterious Fox

What was That?

The other night, I was out on a walk around the neighborhood, reveling in the fact that I could. The neighborhood was quiet for a week-end evening, and the stars were twinkling just so. The waning moon would not be rising for a while, and the sound of crickets had been replaced with the occasional croak of a toad.

I was thinking of all the laughter and camaraderie of the evening spent amidst friends, and was cackling to myself reminded of this or that.

That’s when, I saw a fox running really fast. The back of my mind knew I ought to turn back, or at least be more scared. But I couldn’t do any of that whole-heartedly, for I was in a flippant mood – an evening laughing with friends does that to one.

But for another, it was a surreal experience. A glimpse into a magical realism – there was a spring in the step. Like its feet only used the ground beneath to provide the bounce required to leap and bound away. I stood there stunned at this movement. It must also have been quite young – for it’s size was not large. Rather frisky.

Usually, night time naturalist explorers in our neighborhood might find a cat scratching itself and yawning. I was prepared for not much else.

It was Scared!

It ran away from me at first, and then towards me with the same frenzied gait. That’s when I realized I would be in trouble if it did try to attack me. For you see? The fox’s run was brisk. If we were both to compete in a 100 metre dash, I have no doubt it would leave me in the dust well after the 5 meter mark. This one already had a head start too. Me? I had three plates of excellent biriyani, naan, kofta curry, etc followed by equally sumptuous helpings of dessert tumbling about in the old stomach. Stuffed, in other words. I was dragging my feet so I could soothe the old digestive system to start digesting and I could sleep.

Thats when I caught sight of the animal’s face.

It had clearly taken a risk leaving the river trail nearby venturing to the nieghborhoods nearby, only to find a pesky woman out on a walk. What was more, the thing that made it jump and start running was the sound of me cackling to myself about some inane joke. Probably thought it had a nutcracker on the loose. This creature was clearly alone and figuring out a way out of this mess. So, I stood still, and acted like a GPS to it. “Go away! That way! Off you go!”

The fox (or could it have been a coyote cub?) gave me a terrified glance, and I continued heartened. “That’s right – after about 100 meters toward the ursa minor constellation, turn right – you’ll be on the river trail again.”

Loki

It turned swiftly and gave me a look that said, “If foxes could certify people, I would!” and took off into the night. That flighty temptress of the night might’ve looked like Wily E Coyote, but it did have a Loki-like look on its face.

I shall call you ‘Loki’ I said in its general direction, and continued with my walk – but prudently decided to head homewards.

I wonder what Loki thought of the interaction.

I was glad – I had a glimpse into the life of a fox. Seeing the creature’s nimble gait had energized me. There was something immensely laughable in the way it turned and gave me a look too. All too often we are weighed down by the worries of the world (or in this case, good food satiated with good memories), and forget to prance about the world. “You must prance!” is what Loki seemed to have been saying to me that night, and I did try.

Emotion in Art: Unveiling the Power of Creativity

Art is about capturing a feeling

T’was a few days before the Inside Out 2 movie was released. The husband was making me watch a thought-provoking interview. (He knew the distractions at hand on a beautiful summer evening. I needed to watch bees flit, deer graze, geese squawk, herons fish, dogs bark. As I cradled my evening cup of tea wondering when to get out on my evening walk, he swooped in. “Won’t take longer than the time it takes to gulp your tea” he said cheerfully and I gave him a skeptical look. I do not take ½ an hour to drink tea.)

Anyway, in the interview, they spoke of suffering and how one needed that pain in order to emote well as an artist. It is not a new sentiment. I remember listening to an interview by J K Rowling or Stephen King (I don’t remember which) that one needs to have had a sufficiently terrible time as a teenager if they were to write anything worth writing at all.

Problems Are Steady

I am not sure I agree with that. Suffering can be acute, agonizing and astonishing in its effects even as adults. In fact, much like our boggarts tend to change through life, so too does our ability to imagine and empathize, don’t they? Also, for many of us, problems tend to be a steady stream in life – we get jittery and nervous if there aren’t any. Can it really be that we are having a perfectly peaceful time – do you think something awful is going to happen? This can’t be true. Maybe I should call the children, see if they are okay. Oh – what about the old parents, the siblings, the nieces, the nephews, our friends, colleagues, neighbors? Work? No? All well – is this really so?

Then, you tend to the heart like an overwrought bee in summer and soothe it down. “Yes my dear – there really are flowers everywhere! Believe it or not, managing plenty is as much work as managing long distances for some nectar. Just relax, will you?!” Problems like to steadily hum along like background music. We all need problems at some level, do we not? At least that’s what I tell myself when things get a bit clammy.

Does Art Capture Emotion?

So, does art need to be about capturing emotion – whether through direct suffering or empathetic suffering? I thought Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh was brilliant because it captured the frenzied anxiety of the artist’s mind. But, was that what everyone thought? How about those moments of bliss, joy, anger, disgust, repulsion, serenity, contentment, love, and all the ones that Pandora so generously released from her little box of troubles. Hope?

Screenshot 2024-06-29 at 3.32.19 PM

A couple of days later when we went to watch Inside Out 2, we sat spellbound as the movie captured Anxiety’s frenzy so perfectly in this animated movie. How Riley’s imagination spewed up every little thing that could go wrong and let her sense of self develop into a skewed sense echoing, “I am not good enough!” was tragic and Oh! So Well Done!

Screenshot 2024-06-29 at 3.28.31 PM

When you observe a piece of art, do you concentrate on how it makes you feel? Or do you appreciate it for the skill of the artist?

P G Wodehouse on Art

What’s a post on Art without one of my favorite quotes by P G Wodehouse – only I feel a little like Bertie Wooster himself writing this – it has something to do with a painting looking like ‘summer blew up in your face’ – but I cannot remember it. Gemini threw up its hands and said: P G Wodehouse is not an art critic, but an humorous writer, without a trace of irony. I did spend an enjoyable few hours since then

(a) looking for the quote and reading several good ones on the internet,

(b) perusing my own PG Wodehouse collection opening books at random looking for the quote

Which is to say that I had a marvelous time, but still not find the quote. If anyone remembers it, please let me know. But the art of remembering the quote and imagining the painting itself made me laugh, made me feel joyous, so by that standard, it is already a piece of art. What do you think?

I would love to hear all the different ways in which you appreciate Art.

The Birds of Paradise

The World Around Us

I don’t remember when exactly we start noticing birds and animals around us as being separate from human-beings. If there is a conscious point in time when we say:

This is us, that is a bird.

Don’t eat those – they’re mosquitoes &

Keep away from man-eating tigers – they want to eat us.

Keeping the neuroscience behind it all aside, the world around us is fascinating. Even if you see a bird everyday, the little chirp, and the flutter of its wings cannot help but take us out of ourselves for a bit can it?

What is it about this diversity of life that is so appealing?

I was sitting one afternoon engrossed in books. Books on beautiful beasts and fantastic features of the creatures we share our planet with.

As I flipped through the colorful pictures and the accompanying text in the book, Astonishing Animals – Extraordinary Creatures and the Fantastic Worlds They Inhabit. – By Tim Flannery & Peter Schouten, I couldn’t help being drawn to the birds of paradise in the book.

Rarely do we stop and just admire the beauty and precision of a bird’s structure. The birds themselves are flighty. Our attention spans are even more so. Plus, these birds are all in exotic places. But it made me wonder – even the less exotic birds around us, how long and how often do we study them? Ornithologists do. Bird photographers do. But otherwise? Those of us who love nature stop to notice them. The rest of us are too busy to notice.

Birds of Paradise

I was admiring the different birds of paradise illustrations in the book, and I felt myself drawn to the Himalayan Satyr as much as the blue bird of paradise.

The blue bird of paradise is illustrated beautifully in the book – long side up taking up two pages and you can see why:

“he dances upside down, hanging from a branch. As he begins his display, he flexes, sending waves of blue and violet shimmering through his feathers. At the center of his chest is a dark oval patch lined on its lower margin with red. This is rhythmically expanded and contracted so that it resembles a huge, slowly expanding eye whose effect, even on humans, is hypnotic. All the while the performer’s own eyes are closed, revealing white eyelids, which lend him an unearthly air.”

Like a little opera singer, dancing on the stage. How marvelous!

The Satyr Tragopan, another beautiful Himalayan bird, drew me for another reason.

“It is often the case among birds that a gorgeous cock is a poor provider. Beautifully adorned males may put on a wonderful courtship, but all too often contribute nothing to the raising of the chicks, leaving that duty to the dull hen-birds. The satyr tragopan is a stand-out exception here, for not only is he dashingly handsome but he seems to be monogamous and a dutiful father as well. … The father contributes equally to the upbringing and care of the young.”

The Himalayan Monal, and other birds of paradise are equally dashing.

Split into beautiful sections about creatures who live in the ocean, tree dwellers, mountains dwellers, the book journeys across continents, landscapes, ocean surfaces and deep surfaces. The artwork, though, is spell-binding.

One cannot help feeling like the world is beautified and expanded just a little after an hour just looking at these beautiful creatures and reading about their curious lives.

Recommended Books:

The Ease & Malaise of Literature

The Literature Malaise

There was a strange sense of malaise and I could not put my finger on it. It had nothing to do with the body – a blood test could’ve told you that. It had something to do with the literature I was reading.

I have felt like this many times in the past – especially when reading some writer who has the gift of ripping our hearts out, crushing it, and then putting the raw, bleeding thing in gingerly again. You gasp to regain control over the poor organ again, and soothe it back into action: “Never mind – that was just a book!” and the heart contracts, beats, pumps and does its thing again. How the writers themselves write it, I do not know.

Then, there are books that take one particular theme: shame, guilt, horror, anxiety, or grander themes like social injustice, and play on the heart-strings. J M Coetze’s Disgrace comes to mind.

That was how this particular book was. The narrative tone is never upbeat. It is wrought with anxiety. The reader is quite caught up in the frenzy of the social media world, its harsh realities of unraveling reputations, and the fate of the protagonist in YellowFace – by R F Kuang. ‘The mechanics behind the popularization’, as she puts it in her novel. The world of popularity has always been a high-stakes game (Or at least as far as I’ve read about. I wouldn’t know.) It is interesting to see the publicity stakes in the publishing industry . The book says something to the effect of : Best sellers are chosen long before they make it to the stores.

The illusion of an image built up through social media engagement can be a frightening monster indeed. For how do you find the imaginary?

I had decided to dedicate the week-end to catch up on some reading, and was I reading?!

After a few hours, I stepped outside. The world outside was basking in the summer sunshine. The bees were buzzing around my shaggy lavender patch. The patch needs trimming, but right then, the faint smell of lavender was soothing, and oddly endearing. It was a tug to reality, a reality in which not everything felt so grim as in the book. That was grounding – I took charge.

I made a cup of tea, and shook myself like a dog after a swim. Literally – I went for a swim and shook myself as I got out of the water. I had been drowning in the book all morning, and the cool swim in the hot sunshine worked wonders.

The Joy in Literature

I mused to the husband. “It is like Nobel Prize winning literature. You have to be serious-minded, have plenty of suffering and drama. You cannot bung in humor and hope and write about light and all that and expect to find literary acclaim, can you? “

Why can’t people write like P G Wodehouse? I said forlorn. What was it that P G Wodehouse said on Writing?

https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/frivolous-empty-and-perfectly-delightful/

“I go in for what is known in the trade as ‘light writing’ and those who do that – humorists they are sometimes called – are looked down upon by the intelligentsia and sneered at.” – P G Wodehouse

So what is it about taking ourselves so seriously that appeals to humankind so much? I’d like a serious response please.

The book was critically acclaimed -a lot of serious books are, you’ll notice. It is like the world is looking to see – “Ahh – this particular kind of anxiety and loneliness, let’s see which writer can crush the essence of that most succinctly.”

So, I did what I do best: I bull-dozed through the book, sitting up till 4 in the morning, finishing the book, before soothing the heart to sleep. I refused to put myself through another day with that feeling.

Something Fresh – By P G Wodehouse

The next evening, I resolved to do the opposite. I picked up books where the overpowering mirth or joy of the writer exudes from the pages and envelopes the reader in a warm, cocoon. A trip to Blandings Castle seemed nice.

“This is peculiarly an age in which each of us may, if he does but search diligently, find the literature suited to his mental powers.”

― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

I laughed, and I grinned at the turn of phrase. I anticipated the next laugh – because I had read the book several times of course, and I still hung on. Laughing – matching the glorious summer outside. Later that night, the son & I thumbed through an illustrated copy of a favorite book as the silvery light of the full-moon filtered in through the night.

All was well. Knowing all will be well in a book is a wonderful feeling. It is why I turn to authors like Miss Read, P G Wodehouse, R K Narayan, Alexander McCall Smith, Jacqueline Winspear etc like plants turn towards the sunlight.

Recommendations Please

Please recommend some authors you turn to for light, joy, hope, optimism and magic.

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Maps of War

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Loki

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Art is about capturing a feeling

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The World Around Us

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The Literature Malaise

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