In a bid to make ourselves read more, and so you can see some of the literature that inspires our travels, and our London adventures, we’ve decided to do a monthly recap on what we’ve been reading. Here’s May’s for you!
Tim
Anxiety For Beginners: A Personal Investigation by Eleanor Morgan
Throughout my life I have been an anxious person, but I wouldn’t say I understand what anxiety disorder or a real panic attack feels like. I have also been close to a lot of people, friends, family, band-mates, girlfriends who have struggled with anxiety in a way that can dramatically effect daily life. The word anxiety has multiple contexts, and I think that this makes the magnitude of the kind of anxiety spoken about so candidly and descriptively in this book seem far less encompassing than it is. I say all this because I have battled enormously with an inability to understand what it must feel like, and subsequently not been as supportive and understanding as I have always aspired to be to the people I love that experience it. This book has in a way that I have previously found impossible, described what suffering with anxiety feels like, and has truly helped me understand what it really is and how it affects people. Eleanor Morgan’s unmatched honesty, her descriptive, personal, and often hilarious way with words makes this book accessible and surprisingly enjoyable(given thesubject at its core). I would recommend this book to anyone with with anxiety themselves as a means of reassurance, and to offer a potentially new vocabulary that may help those close to you understand how you are feeling, and I would recommend it to absolutely everyone else because it is written so well, and would help make everyone more aware of how large the effect of the A-word is on those who struggle with it.
Jess
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Schaeffer and Ann Barrows
Not only is this a book with a weird name, but it’s about travel and History. Perfect for me! This story is written in a series of letters between different people about something that happened in the not too distant past from when the novel is set: the Nazi invasion of the Channel Islands. The story so far covers an author, who during the war was writing humorous columns from London to keep up morale. She, post war, and single, embarks on a double journey, one to Guernsey to find out what exactly happened on the island in the war, and what the The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was about. The other journey is a personal one of love and happiness. It’s since been made into a feature film with an exceptional cast, but the book is great. I feel a trip to Jersey and Guernsey coming on.
What are we reading now?
Tim: Existentialism: a graphic guide by Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate
Jess: The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry
What are you reading? Is there anything you’ve read that you think we should read next? What’s on your bookshelf waiting to be picked up? Let us know in the comments below!
