What type of books do you return to a lot? Children’s Literature. They are comfortable tales that make me feel nostalgia, safety, bubbling happiness, joy, and hope. In general, I also return to books that had passages that left a mark on me. I may not reread the book in its entirety, but I have read certain passages hundreds of times. I’ll pull the book off the shelf, flip to the page (and I know where those pages are) and breathe in the words.
Themes: I like journeys, homeward bound stories, gentle giants, otherness, pacifism, anti-war.
Genre: Postmodernism, Fairy Tales, Mythology, Magical Realism, Drama, Picture Books.
Authors: Tove Jansson, Milan Kundera, A.A. Milne, Italo Calvino, Lemony Snicket, Lewis Carroll.
Have these types changed over the years or remained fairly constant? It has remained fairly consistent considering I started reading Children’s Literature when I was a child, but my interest in postmodernism and magical realism are definitely departures from what I read when I was younger.
Why do you think these things draw you to them so much? Possibly because they make me feel peaceful. I read plenty of more biting stories, but the ones that I pull off my shelf and hand to a friend saying “Here—you have to read this!” are almost exclusively Children’s Literature or books that reflect my core pacifism. Books are my safety net.