Books I wish I could read again for the first time

A newsletter borrowed from Something Nice

My friend Hannah of Something Nice published a beautiful newsletter of the same title in April. I felt so inspired by it that I wanted to make my own list. I feel like when someone gives you a heartfelt recommendation for a book, what they're really saying is, "I LOVE THIS, AND IF YOU HAVEN'T INTERACTED WITH IT, MAYBE YOU'LL LOVE IT TOO." I love the idea sharing what you love through the lens of being jealous you can't experience it again for the first time. You should read Hannah's list. Thanks to her newsletter and recent Texas Monthly piece, I'm adding Lonesome Dove to my TBR and ready to be emotionally compromised. My dear friend Jon has also recently fallen in love with the Larry McMurtry Literature Universe and has been insisting I read it, too, so my first reading of it is long overdue.

All these titles have in common the fact that I love them and that they all have something buried under the surface. I was shocked that all of the books on this list fall into two categories.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

In my experience, this is the kind of book everyone evangelizes after reading it. I find it interesting because it is a mass-market science fiction novel with the chops to draw in anyone. My best elevator pitch for this is that it is a heartwarming story about being lost in space. I audiobooked part of it, and without any spoilers, I can tell you that the audiobook really makes for a brilliant experience.

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib

I don't consider myself the biggest nonfiction reader, but occasionally, I go on a tear. When I dip my feet back into nonfiction, I usually start with whatever Hanif Abdurraqib has published most recently. The way he writes feels like a dream– it is vivid, expressive, and so immersive that you think you might be hallucinating because you feel so present in the moments that he is describing. My first introduction to Abdurraqib was this piece about Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On. I had no clue that music journalism could feel like that. Shortly after I picked up They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, I fell in love. It’s a collection of essays told through the lens of human experience.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

I once thought I was not a science fiction fan, and wow, I was mistaken. There were several books I read before I got to Sea of Tranquility that paved the way for my experience, like This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno and Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. After I finished Sea of Tranquility, I just wanted more books like that. I read Station Eleven next and was equally astonished.

How to Do Nothing by Jenny O'Dell

There are few books that I could say changed my life and really, really mean it. Sure, I'd say it in a hyperbolic way, but my heart wouldn't be in it for real. Jenny O'Dell's How to Do Nothing changed my life and challenged how I look at social media, productivity, and what it means to actually enjoy life in big and small ways.

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee

This book came to me so nonchalantly. A friend handed it over to me during the pandemic after 6 months of writing each other letters. He just said, "I think you'd like this". No reason why, no context. He was right, I did like it.

No book means more to me as a writer than this one. I don't think I had any confidence in myself as a writer in any professional capacity until I read Alexander Chee's How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. After I had read it, I realized I had no choice but to write. I knew that writing was just a part of me because I found this person to look up to, who wrote beautifully about the joys and griefs of his own life and was a fiction writer. I revisit this book all the time.

It is a brilliant collection of essays that every single person I've recommended it to has loved.

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