The School of Life

This is for You: We All Need Words on Dedications and Acknowledgements.

When I was five, I lied.

I told friends at my primary school that an author had dedicated a book to me. In print. And everything.

This white lie got me in a bit of hot water. “Bring it in and show us then”, they said. “OK.”

Except the book didn’t exist. One fib led to another and I decided to write my own dedication in a way that (I thought) looked like type: For Molly Mackey.

(I wrote it in pencil, because I wasn’t old enough to write in pen.)

The book was Terry Jones’s Fairy Tales, which included a story called ‘Brave Molly’, so it made sense to me that it would be dedicated to a real life Molly. I wrote it on the inside page, hoping my friends wouldn’t get to the actual dedication: these stories were written for Sally Jones in the summer of 1978.

I still have the book. And you can see my hand-written ‘dedication’, along with the very faint ‘for’, rubbed out after my super sleuth friends quickly discovered the truth:

It’s a laughable forgery. I think I knew it at the time, but I really, really wanted to have a book dedicated to me. I thought it was the Best. Thing. Ever. That someone could write a book and say, “here, this is for you” blew my mind.

 It still does. The first thing I do when I pick up a book – any book – is look at the dedication in the front and the thanks at the back. If I’m in a bookshop, browsing the three-for-two mounds, I don’t read the blurbs. I head straight for the names, the little bit where the author writes in their own voice.

Sometimes they tell you how they’re connected to that name on the first page (for Kate, my mother). Mostly I have to settle for the bare bones. For… but then my brain goes into overdrive (“must be his partner/wife/sister/mum/best friend”). I swiftly make up my own stories about how the name in print is connected to the name on the front cover.

Sometimes authors give you a little more, like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous Once again to Zelda. In Nicole Krauss’ The History of Love, the dedication reads: for my grandparents, who taught me the opposite of disappearing, next to their four photos, as well as and for Jonathan, my life. You don’t have to be a Nobel prizewinner to know that’s Jonathan Safran Foer. Ahhh. Lovely! Two authors! Together! In love!

All the time I search for scraps of information. Something, anything, about the author. Why? I don’t know for sure, but what I do know is that I spend a lot of time with an author when I read their books. I hear their voice. I’m in their head, and they’re in mine. Even if it’s outlandish fiction, their book becomes like a familiar friend. And as the book goes on I want to know more. So much so that I feel a bit of disorientated when I pick up a book written by someone else. And although it’s exciting to read a new book, I have to get to know the writer’s little wordy eccentricities and foibles all over again. And each new dedication gives me a teeny tiny glimpse into their real life. 

And then there are the acknowledgements. Tucked away at the back, it’s often where you can find out where the author put pen to paper (thanks to such-and-such-research centre, writers’ retreat or Starbucks), who helped them get their facts straight, who edited their book and who they relied on to look after the kids while they wrote it. I love these sneak peeks into an author’s real life. There are books I’m just not interested in reading, but I’ll always have a look at their acknowledgements. Just a few little words, but they’re a story in themselves – admittedly one that’s often made up by me.

Three years after my playground dedication debacle, I finally got what I’d boasted about. My mum’s friend was writing a book and her illustrator needed some children to photograph to help her draw the pictures. If by any (small) chance you have a copy of Rose Impey’s Scare Yourself to Sleep, you’ll see it’s For Tom, Molly and Alice (me, my brother and my best friend). Too late to prove my point to the five-year-olds, but a fib come true all the same.

We All Need Words dedicate this blog post to the people who’ve come to our Words for Life class at The School of Life (there’s another one on 3^rd December).

Fact: Reading Fiction Makes You A Nicer Person

 ...Or at least a more empathetic one, according to studies carried out by Buffalo Univeristy, USA.

The trick seems to lie in reader's absorption into fictional stories, and the tendency for readers to emulate the 'situation' of the characters in their novels, indicating that on some level, they can 'put themselves in their characters' shoes... or, in other words, have some empathy towards that character.

"It is the first empirical finding, so far as I know, to show a clear psychological effect of reading fiction," says Keith Oatley, a professor in the Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology at the University of Toronto.  
 
"It's a result that shows that reading fiction improves understanding of others, and this has a very basic importance in society, not just in the general way making the world a better place by improving interpersonal understanding, but in specific areas such as politics, business, and education. In an era when high-school and university subjects are evaluated economically, our results do have economic implications."

Read the full article at The Guardian online.

If you're keen to find more great fiction reads, visit our Bibliotherapy page to get some assistance with your book list.

 

Dear Bibliotherapist......

Dear Bibliotherapist

As the summer comes to a rather pitiful end, I am feeling a horrible back-to-school feeling coming over me. Well do I remember the feeling of only having a few days left before I had to return to the routine of school, after the slippery summer weeks. New teachers had to be faced, spontaneity was dying, and impending doom generally descended like the axe in Poe's Pit and the Pendulum. Can you suggest a literary remedy for this feeling?

 

 

Dear Sinking Feeling ,

 

There are few things more enjoyable than reading about other people's suffering, if you know that a happy ending is guaranteed. Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes fits the bill perfectly. Tom Brown leaves an idyllic country childhood to attend Rugby School, where he must learn to survive the bullying attentions of Flashman and his cronies. He endures a deliberate burning by these brutal older boys, and experiences countless humiliations before  getting his own back with the moral high ground.  With his friend George Arthur, he grows into a hardworking, kind, morally upright young man. The author has been accused of being a tad on the preachy side, but the tortures endured are certainly painful and therefore gripping, and you will surely be taken back to your own schooldays to compare them favorably.

 

A tale to lure you into the rythm of the academic year gently, but with a shiver in your spine, is The Secret History by Donna Tartt. If you have miraculously not read it yet, you are in for an absolute treat, and if you have, a re-read is almost as good as your first time. Tartt seduces you with her slow, polished prose, into the University world of Hampden College, Vermont. Six students studying Classics form a closely knit group, all in awe of their charismatic tutor. Things begin to go wrong when they discover that one of their group recently killed a farmer in Italy, and their least popular member, Bunny, threatens exposure. The events that ensue have you glued to the book, and you will hardly notice the fall of the leaves outside. Your stomach will lurch for other reasons than a reminder of classroom nerves.

 

Now pick up a book that will show you the horrors of a permanent holiday world. Cocaine Nights by J G Ballard is a wonderfully depressing book about a gated holiday community in Spain, where the seemingly perfect balance of leisure and play is shown to exist on top of a labyrinth of dark secrets. The novel hinges around Charles Prentice, who ventures to the resort in order to rescue his brother, who has oddly confessed to a series of crimes, and is to be found in cheerful captivity. As Charles investigates, he discovers a multilayered criminal underworld that seethes beneath the charming life of peaceful hedonism. Read this, and you might never wish to take a holiday again, indeed you will have a spring in your step as you head to your comparatively unthreatening work place.

 

Now that you are resigned to the safety and routine of work, you could happily fall into the acutely observed "Office Hours" by Lucy Kellaway. Set in the London Offices of Atlantic Energy, an oil giant with a marble atrium, the action centres around two women who have passion-driven but doomed affairs with men in the same office. One is a single mother, one a 43 year old, and the conspiratorial excitement of the clandestine encounters is fabulously breathless and tense.The book is in three parts- 'Temptation, Addiction, Withdrawal' - which might give you a full dose of what you need to relax happily back into your work seat, where you can watch the encounters around you with renewed insight.

 

 

Ella Berthoud is a bibliotherapist at The School of Life.  For more information about the service click here.

Lizzie Shupack on Anger and Synchronicity

Week 3 of The Artist's Way, is all about emotions.  The chapter starts with Anger.  It continues with further discussion about Synchronicity.  I found the passage about Anger extremely synchronous, given that prior to reading it, I had just had a blow-out argument, centered around my struggle to make decisions about what I want, what I need, and what I am striving for, both in this process and beyond.

Helpfully, Cameron explains that Anger is useful, and is there to be listened to.  That said, she does note that it is "to be acted upon.  It is not meant to be acted out." Oops…  Nonetheless, I am glad that the emotional turbulence that surrounds me, has some context, and I am relieved that I'm not an anomaly in my confusion.  

In my first post, I wrote that one of my motivations for embarking on this process, was to become unselfconsciously creative, and find clarity around what it is in life that makes me fulfilled, makes me feel excited, makes me feel proud of what I do.

It's a big ask to be honest.  Those are big questions.  In my case, they are also complicated by the fact that as I write this, I'm sitting in Kaffe 1668 in New York, which means that in the three weeks since embarking on this course, I've travelled to five cities; cities which are all inspiring, creative and full of people and opportunities which all contribute to my decision-making process.

However, despite all that, the biggest thing that's holding me back, is without doubt, me.  Cameron spends some time talking about Shame, which I think is deeply tied to self-esteem and confidence.  Shame is often what prevents people from pursuing creative projects; "What if my work/my idea isn't any good?", "I can't write about that, it's too embarrassing!", "If I'm not honest, this won't have integrity, and I'm too scared to be honest".  They are all understandable fears, but fears that keep us wedded to analytical work, and logic-based activities, which are all very safe.  And very boring.

Cameron therefore suggests, that you find a couple people who can nurture and protect your early work.  Your prototypes, test-cases, scribbles, stories.  They are probably not the people you go to for constructive criticism - that’s a whole different thing - but instead they are simply proud of you and your aspirations, and have the creative and emotional intelligence to help you along.

Throughout all this, Cameron advises you to be nice to yourself.  To not beat yourself up, and to accept compliments and nice things from people along the way - things like an invitation to dinner, or new socks.  She acknowledges that yes, you will be babying yourself, but that thinking positively, and kindly, will go a lot further towards aiding your productivity; creative or otherwise, than tough-love or deprivation.

Next week, Week 4, is about Integrity.  And it requires a whole week of reading deprivation!!!!!!  A whole week!!  Beyond the books, magazines and newspapers I read, I have at least 50 RSS feeds and hundreds of bookmarked articles that I look through all the time...  Help!

 

'The Artist's Way' is by Julia Cameron and can be found at amazon.com

Lizzie Shupak is a Digital and Brand Strategist.  She is also one half of the international social experience, Wok+Wine.  She is currently on a journey of creative discovery, which may or may not affect her biography, in the weeks and months ahead.

Wok+Wine - The World's Most Delicious Social Network

Global Lifestyle Project - A Global Experiment in Lifestyle Design

Lizzie Shupack on Becoming Comfortable in Your Own Skin

So here I am, at the end of Week Two of my 12 week programme, as outlined in The Artist's Way.  Despite misgivings about its spiritual undertones, I am determined to get to the end, would love something enlightening to happen as a result, and continue to remain slightly doubtful about the probability.

This week has been challenging, not least because I've changed countries three times.  My week began in Amsterdam, continued in London and Los Angeles, and ended yesterday in San Francisco.  That kind of travel schedule is a killer for Morning Pages.  

Actually I take that back, that’s not true, it's really just a killer excuse for not doing Morning Pages.  Consequently, I’ve fought the urge to skip (multiple) days, and have stuck to the routine relentlessly, despite doing myself a huge disservice in buying myself a lovely, over-sized but annoyingly thin-lined, moleskin notebook.  In any event, in spite of myself, I am diligently filling it, as per Cameron’s instructions.  

Second to Morning Pages is The Artist's Date, another compulsory activity to be done throughout the programme.  It's a weekly creative adventure, that is for you alone.  It's time set aside to do something fun, that constitutes as "play".  Aside from the fact that I generally feel too guilty to play - "There's "proper work" to be done!" - I also tend to feel too self-conscious to even allow myself the chance.  

I like the fact that Cameron writes that if you find going to an art gallery boring, then it can't constitute an artist's date, and that perhaps you should put on a purple wig and dance around your kitchen to Lady Gaga, enjoying yourself instead [*my suggestion, not hers].  As such, my own excursion to Amsterdam's Dance Valley, where I unselfconsciously lost myself in eight hours' worth of music, pretty much did the trick!

Beyond that, Week Two of the programme is about becoming comfortable in your own skin, and protecting your creative identity.  That begins by identifying the people in your life who are a negative influence on your self-esteem.  Who is it that takes up your time, who drains you of energy, whose needs come before your own?  The sound advice Cameron gives is to ditch these people.  Or at least put them on hold until you've completed the twelve week course.

She also emphasises the idea of synchronicity, of setting aside as much skepticism as possible, and as a result, allowing yourself to be open to new possibilities.  The idea is that the more open-minded, confident and curious you can be, the more interesting opportunities will arise, of which you should be prepared to take advantage.  

Synchronicity, skepticism or whatever else aside, all I know is that this week my partner and I were approached by the Amsterdam Film Festival about a collaboration, and a design team that I've been itching to work with called me back and said "we have a project for you".  Both made me happy.

Next week I embark on the chapter called "Recovering a Sense of Power" and I'll let you know what that entails.  In the meantime, I thought I'd end with a few points, well-made by Cameron, that I have started to take seriously:

- Stop waiting until you make enough money to do something you'd really love.

- Stop telling yourself that creativity is a luxury and that you should be grateful for what you've got.

- Stop telling yourself that your dreams don't matter, that they are only dreams and that you should be more sensible.

Lizzie Shupak is a Digital and Brand Strategist.  She is also one half of the international social experience, Wok+Wine.  She is currently on a journey of creative discovery, which may or may not affect her biography, in the weeks and months ahead.

Wok+Wine - The World's Most Delicious Social Network

Global Lifestyle Project - A Global Experiment in Lifestyle Design

 

Lizzie Shupack on Discovering Her Creative Self

Last week, a friend told me that she'd started working her way through a book called "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron.  She suggested I might want to take a look at it as well, talking as we were, about the stressful subject of career paths and prospects.  

Our stories shared much in common; we both went to the same fiercely academic independent girls' school in North London, we both went on to study Theology at Cambridge, and we both continue to struggle with the fact that our mutual rejection of careers in Investment Banking, Law, Management Consultancy and Medicine, has left us in a pretty confusing place.  

Between us we'd lived in the US, Zambia, New Zealand, India and the UK, gaining experience in Brand Strategy, Cooking, Psychotherapy and Digital Development.  We both acknowledge that it’s not a bad CV, and yet we both remain concerned about what it is exactly that we do at the moment, and what exactly it is that we want to do in the future.  Enter The Artist's Way.

It's not the kind of book that I'm naturally drawn to, because it's written with a continuous spiritual undertone, something I find quite off-putting and difficult to stomach.  (And yes, I did say that I studied Theology, but that was from an entirely academic rather than a personal perspective).  As a result, my eyebrows rose numerous times, on reading the book's first few chapters, confirming my position as a "cynical reader".

Nevertheless, The Artist's Way does have some solid psychological principles behind it, and author Julia Cameron, is herself a success as an international screenwriter and author.  That it hasn't been written by a "Wellness Guru" or "Life Coach", I find reassuring.  

The basic idea is that over a twelve-week period, you develop the confidence and the discipline, to pursue whatever creative activity you choose.  Consequently, much of the book is about building self-esteem, through perfectly sensible exercises, and focuses on getting you past the "I don't feel like painting/writing/singing/designing today" excuse.  

The first step is "Morning Pages", which comprises three continuous pages of writing, done first thing in the morning, falling somewhere between a stream of consciousness and a journal entry.  In essence it's about becoming comfortable with producing large amounts of rough-and-ready content that you are not allowed to re-read, edit, or polish in any way.  For "Type-A" students such as myself, the idea of putting pen (and yes it has to be pen, no computer typing for Morning Pages), to paper, without knowing that the result will be perfect, is a real challenge.  The willingness to iterate, to acknowledge that anything is better than nothing, and the recognition that being a good writer-in-your-head is not actually being a writer at all, is fundamental to the creative process, and a substantial hurdle to clear. 

But I think I'm off to a good start.  I have twelve pages of handwriting to show for my efforts, and I decided on Saturday to start a Tumblr blog of interesting things that inspire, amuse or pique my curiosity in some way, as a public record of my journey with the book. 

Next week is all about "Self Definition" and learning to assert yourself as a Creative without feeling like a fraud, which all seems pretty close to home…  I'll keep you posted!

Lizzie Shupak is a Digital and Brand Strategist.  She is also one half of the international social experience, Wok+Wine.  She is currently on a journey of creative discovery, which may or may not affect her biography, in the weeks and months ahead.

Wok+Wine - The World's Most Delicious Social Network

Global Lifestyle Project - A Global Experiment in Lifestyle Design

We All Need Words go Jackanory in our bibliotherapist’s chair

Dear Bibliotherapist,

Bam! Just like that, the summer holidays are upon us. Six loooong weeks of paddling pools or rainy days on rotation. Story time crops up more often in the summer nine-to-five, so which picture books are at the top of your list?

 

Dear Audio Book (as your kids see you),

Yours is a common ailment. Luckily, We All Need Words are obsessed with kids’ books and they’ve rustled up this picture-book prescription just for you. The dosage? Again. And again.

TO ANSWER LITTLE ONES' BIG QUESTIONS:

The Lost Thing

“So you want to hear a story?” It’s just an ordinary day in suburbia when the little boy finds the lost thing. Where did it come from? Where will it go? What does it mean to belong? What’s happiness, anyway? This story mixes the surreal and the everyday to ask - not answer - some of life’s big questions. The answers are up to you… by Shaun Tan

 

The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes, illustrated by Laura Carlin
“Where did he come from? Nobody knows.” This is a new version of Ted Hughes’ classic with brilliant illustrations. It tackles belonging (again), fear, war and, eventually, peace. Good to give Dr Who fans their first taste of science fiction.

TO REMEMDY FEARS:

Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears by Emily Gravett
Whatever your children are afraid of, Little Mouse can top it. Sciaphobia (fear of shadows), ablutophobia (fear of bathing) and even panophobia (fear of everything), he’s one fretful, scaredy-mouse. Part story, part therapy (“everyone is scared of something”) and part diary for kids to write, doodle and record the things that scare them. 

The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark by Jill Tomlinson
“I don’t want to be a night bird…I want to be a day bird.” Plop is a little owl who hates the dark. Over seven chapters he learns that the dark is exciting, (you can’t have fireworks without it), wonderful, beautiful and kind. An oldie (it was first published in 1968), but a goodie. Especially for kids who insist you leave the light on.

TO BREAK THE HABITS OF A LITTLE LIFETIME:

The Boy Who Hated Toothbrushes by Zehra Hicks
First off, we should point out that we know this author and we wrote the biog on her website… Billy will do anything to get out of cleaning his teeth. Until the horrified tooth fairy sends him a toothsparkler and things get interesting (and his teeth get cleaner). Good for adding a bit of magic to the daily toothbrush tussle.

The World Champion of Staying Awake by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Jimmy Liao
Stella’s toys are wiiiiiide awake. So she invents adventures to cure their insomnia (and fingers crossed, insomnia everywhere). A story where kids step into their parents’ shoes – you never know, it might prompt some empathy.

TO BRING BRECHT TO BABIES:

Brecht demolished that fourth wall, and these books have a go too. Ok, we exaggerate. But these stories play with the idea of what a book is.

Limelight Larry by Leigh Hodgkinson
Meet Larry, a peacock with more attitude than most. He wants to be the star of these empty pages, but other animals keep appearing to spoil his fun. A cautionary tale for any prima donnas in the making…

There Are No Cats In This Book by Viviane Schwarz
Tiny, Moonpie and André are three cats who are desperate to get out of this book to see the world. They push, they jump and they ask for your help. Perfect with its sister book, There Are Cats in This Book (they’re very friendly and they want to play).

TO GET UP TO SPEED WITH WHERE BOOKS ARE GOING NEXT:

If your kids are kissing goodbye to a good old-fashioned book in favour of the computer, fear not. Here’s a book that’s an app, and one that most definitely isn’t.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore by Moonbot Studios
An app that lets you play the piano, flick pages, change the colour of the sky, read books-within-books and screams: PLEASE TOUCH to small hands… Created by a designer who used to work at Pixar, this ‘book’ will get kids used to the idea of interactive tales in a jiffy.

It’s A Book! by Lane Smith
It doesn’t scroll. It doesn’t have a plug. It doesn’t need a password. IT’S A BOOK, silly. A media-savvy donkey questions an old-school monkey about the relic that is the book. (We have a sneaky feeling that this book is actually best for parents who are surgically attached to their Blackberry.)

 

We All Need Words run the Words For Life weekend workshop at The School of Life and children’s books crop up in one of their lessons. Join them next term, in October or December. Click here for further details.

Mark Vernon on spirituality, not machinery

You Are Not A Gadget, the new book by Silicon Valley luminary Jaron Lanieris, he says, fundamentally a book about spirituality. He is at pains to stress that humans are not machines, though the digital revolution has developed the habit of assuming we are. So, he advises, "We should assume supernatural specialness to people." Supernatural? Specialness? Spirituality? It seems misplaced language for the man who coined the term "virtual reality" and is routinely included on lists of leading public intellectuals. Is it anything more than West Coast hippie-speak?

Lanier's central complaint can be stated in more humdrum terms: software design is, for the most part, dehumanising. Think of websites like this one. They routinely play host to trolls, individuals who post abuse behind veils of anonymity. Lanier believes the problem is not anonymity per se, which is sometimes necessary to protect people, but transient anonymity, which removes the personal consequences of posting. He does not mean that people should be fined for, say, threatening an airport with destruction. He means that anonymous posters collude with a web 2.0 culture that doesn't treat people as people, but as the mindless generators of fragments of stuff.

"Don't post anonymously unless you really might be in danger," he advises, because you dehumanise yourself too. And it must be a principled stance you take. Everyone has an "inner troll". No-one, given the right circumstances, can otherwise resist the pleasures of "drive-by anonymity". It's a serious issue, he believes. Two factors came together to allow the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany: economic humiliation and adherence to a collectivist ideology. "We already have the ideology in its new digital packaging, and it's entirely possible we could face dangerously traumatic economic shocks in the coming decades."

Indeed, the new ideology is already entrenched. Web 2.0 culture is embedded in the most celebrated internet phenomena of our times: Open source, Wikipedia, Facebook. Wikipedia, for example, aims to be a single book containing all knowledge. It lacks the context that informs reader discernment, and the authorship that informs reader trust. Compare that with a lesson of history: societies that follow a single book are totalitarian. "Any singular, exclusive book, even the collective one accumulating in the cloud, will become a cruel book if it is the only one available." Our civilisation is built on libraries and authors, not portals and fragments. Web 2.0 puts both of the former under threat.

Or consider Facebook. It segments people: you're defined by your relationship status, gender, age, location and so on. More importantly still, you have no option other than to present yourself in ways the interface allows. Again, that's dehumanising. You are locked-in by the design – and this is a site used by 40% of all internet users, and counting.

At base, what Lanier believes technologists distrust are notions of quality, of meaning, of mystery. They believe the reductionist models of consciousness that sees the brain as a computer. This has two consequences. First, it interprets experience is the processing of bits, which means "you hope to become immortal by getting uploaded onto a computer." Second, it treats people as computers too, who will one day be ousted by superior computers. "The ideology has encouraged narrow philosophies that deny the mystery of the existence of experience."

Individuals like Larry Page, one of Google's founders, expect the internet to come alive quite soon, Lanier reports. (Google's website already says it was "brought … to life in September 1998.") Such personal details could be ignored as eccentricities, except that the people who hold them wield power. Their missionary preference for machinism over humanism is imposing limits on the world in which we live. "If a church or a government were doing these things, it would feel authoritarian, but when technologists are the culprits, we seem hip, fresh, and inventive."

He's no Luddite. Rather, "Enlightened designers leave open the possibility either of metaphysical specialness in humans or in the potential for unforeseen creative processes that aren't explained by ideas like evolution that we already believe we can capture in software systems." So, he prefers a mysterious view of life over a materialist one, not out of any prior metaphysical conviction, but simply because it works – works in terms of enlarging, not restricting, our humanity. It's a pragmatic advocacy of a religious attitude to life, and no doubt shaped by his Californian context. But it's a strikingly religious attitude, no less.

Mark Vernon is a member of The School Of Life faculty. His new book, The Meaning of Friendship, is published by Palgrave Macmillan.

You Are Not a Gadget is available for purchase in The School of Life shop.

This article originally appeared on The Guardian's Comment Is Free website. 

Spring Reading Prescription

With the sensual awakening that is spring at last upon us, we bibliotherapists are pondering the visual delights of reading.

Reading is such a sensual experience. I remember my first books, which were old and fusty, not by their content but by their smell. The mixed aromas of age, ancient scents of my grandparents mingled with the perfume that came from the very paper and ink. But the thing I remember most from these times was the illustrations: full page and lovely, glorious and extravagant, I held my breath as I read, hoping to see The Tower of Babel, The Mountain Troll,  The Elephant’s Child. And I realise now, it was this that punctured through the intervening time - the image was the thing.

When I found The Diamond Fairy Book  online I was faced with my past, and discovered a book I had thought consigned to my memory. But there it was, and the images brought back the time and place that I last read it. And then I wondered, why do we stop reading books with images? For most of us who are over 25, we will have given up illustrated books by our early teens. Some us would have moved from Tin Tin and Asterix, to Marvel comics, but from there we would probably have leapt to the delights of James Herbert or Jilly Cooper, before moving on to more serious literature. However, the younger readers among us will be more familiar with Graphic Novel in all its forms; to those of us who still took O levels, the illustrated book still seems just a little bit, dare we say it, childish? It’s time to put your prejudices behind you, and embrace the graphic form.

If you thought the Graphic Novel was simply a grown up version of a Marvel comic, now is the time to shatter that illusion. First look at Maus; an eloquent and unsentimental exploration of the holocaust by Art Spiegleman.  Then turn to  Tove Jansson’s Moomin:  The Complete Comic Strip, Volumes I and II ,for the dry humour and wit of this consummate observer of the foibles of humans.

Moving from the Scandinavian wisdom of Jansen, you could now discover the African artistry of Aya by Marguerite Abouet . Set in the Ivory Coast, in 1978, this is generally unreported story of an untroubled Africa where working class teenagers worry only about homework and boys, rather than genocide and AIDS.

From this beautifully told story, return to our own shores, to the wonderful Gemma Bovery by Posy Simmonds who skillfully mis-works the Flaubert classic; and finally, for your Graphic education, enjoy the fabulous reimagining of classic novels such as Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, now beautifully retold in graphic form by Tim Hamilton.

Look if you dare at Robert Crumb’s Book of Genesis: All 50 Chapters where his thickly thighed ladies and hirsute gents tell the tale of all tales. Or eschew the word altogether and read Arrival by the deeply talented Shaun Tan. 

Dive deeply and fulsomely into the arms of Isabella Rossellini and her visual feast that is Green Porno complete with DVD! She is a woman of no vanity, as you will see. This Is For You by Rob Ryan is a gorgeous visual and tactile feast, a masterpiece of cut-out complexity that tells a simple universal tale of love and longing in a supremely different form to almost any other book commonly available to all.

And what of the books themselves, the look and feel of the books, the typeface, the paper, the cover, the smell of it all? My favourite books are just that because of what they look like; I want the right edition, or else it simply won’t do. Remember Winston in 1984 obsessively caressing his diary, because it smelled so beautiful, and felt so lovely, that he is compelled to write in it despite risking his freedom in doing so.  In this age of the e-book and the Kindle, we should revel in the sensuality of the book itself. Find some wonderful editions of books that you have strong memories of, and enjoy the craft of a finely made book. Take off its dust cover and hold it lovingly to the light: delight in it for this is what reading is: the sum of all our pleasures.

By Charlotte Raby and Ella Berthoud  

Check out our class How to Read for further advice on how to make the most of your reading life or for a personalised reading list try our bibliotherapy service.

Valentine's Day Reading Prescription

As February 14^th looms ever nearer, we are compelled to ponder love in all its forms. The love of beasts is a subject we bibliotherapists feel doesn’t get enough press.  This Valentine’s Day, find an animal to love.  As George Eliot said, ‘animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms'.

Whether it’s the guppies in your fish tank, the next-door neighbour’s cat, or the most exotic monkey in the zoo, find a way to tell the beast you love it. Here are a few writers who have shared their love of animals with the world.

 

The book that got me panting down this track was Flush by Virginia Woolf. This is a canine classic that describes the companion of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a spaniel of the highest pedigree. Woolf tells the tale through the dog’s eyes, from his arrival at his mistress’s house, to her slow romance with Browning, leading to their marriage and move to Florence. The narrative spans the dog’s lifetime, offering social commentary on the refined Bloomsbury existence of the pampered pooch, as well as his kidnap and grim experiences in the East End. Woolf uses Flush as her window on the confusing world of human romance, and we gain intriguing insights into the Barret Browning households. Love between dog and human is undisputed, and the deep romance between the humans is also explored with great humour and pleasure.

 

A more visceral approach to the canine crush is Melvyn Burgess’s Lady: My Life as a Bitch. This describes the confusion that follows when a sexually active and rowdy teenage girl is magically transformed into a dog. She experiences all the joy of a dog’s life, from scrounging and stealing food, to finding herself on heat. Her mongrel brain then has to deal with dilemmas over whether it is better to be human or mutt. Burgess explores the horrors of adolescent morality and desire through the device of doggy daring do. It’s a pacey read, gritty and darkly amusing.

A classic of the dog-loving genre is Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley. Just after winning the Nobel Prize for literature, Steinbeck felt the call of the road, and set off ‘in search of America’ with his large, ancient French poodle. This novel provides a great insight into the America of the sixties, and the presence of Charley in the books is a gentle, uncomplicated presence. Steinbeck is intensely critical of the America he finds, and at times it is an angry polemic about he small mindedness he encounters, but the book is ultimately life, and poodle embracing.

Let’s not stick entirely to the canine companion. Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is a classic to be read at least once every decade of your life. This year, read it thinking about the love the old man has for the marlin. The marlin is as big a character in the novel as the old man, and the pursuer’s respect for the fish that he insists on catching is as immense as his love for nature and life. This is a true love story, of the love of the old man for his own nature as a human, and his love for the beast that he must slay.

Gerald Durrell is a man who had a realistic relationship with animals. In his words, ‘Animals generally return the love you lavish on them by a swift bite in passing — not unlike friends and wives’.  He loved animals with a vast respect, and played a vital role in the spreading of knowledge about the barbaric practices in zoos of his time, and the need to conserve endangered species. His book My Family and Other Animals, set in Corfu, is the most glorious revel in the joy of natural life, enough to inspire you to keep creatures in all your nooks and crannies, or take off to untamed nature to begin your own romance with Beasts and Beasties.

 

Talking of Beasts and Beasties, Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White is a perfect book to give to your children to encourage their love of arachnids and porcine playmates. It will encourage them to question our relationship with animals while shedding new light on the marvels of nature – can a spider be beautiful? Even an arachnophobe like me is forced to feel the love of the eight-legged spinner when I re-read this wonderful book.

Finally, for a more risqué exploration of the love of beasts, read The Woman and The Ape by Peter Hoeg. I love it for its descriptions of the ape passing through the streets of London, unnoticed; the ape knows how to hide, but he also uses our mental blindness to his advantage – we don’t expect to see him, so we don’t. More than any of the others, this book puts you in touch with your inner beast.

This reading prescription has been tailored for you by The School of Life's bibliotherapists.  For more information about individual bibliotherapy consultations please visit us here.