How to Read More -- and Some Favorite Books From My Home Library

Please join me in putting down your phone, and starting to read again!

Okay, this is not my home library. It’s the Reading Room at the NY Public Library (photo via Roger Boylan). The photos below are home-grown, though!

Like everyone else, these days I spend too much time doom-scrolling on my phone, and too little time reading actual books.

But I’ve been inspired by our teenaged sons - who are suddenly putting down their phones and reading long books about history and politics — to change my ways, and to get back to my first love: reading.

I’m guessing that you might feel the same way. So, in case it inspires you, I thought I’d share these favorite books from my home library, plus some suggestions for disconnecting from your phone, and reading more.

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First, some fave books:

Sacred Therapy: Jewish Spiritual Teachings on Emotional Healing and Inner Wholeness, by Estelle Frankel: This book is so full of wisdom and insight. I pulled down my copy just now and it’s filled with underlines and margin notes. Frankel draws on tales and teachings from the Bible, the Talmud, Kabbalah, and Hasidic tradition to offer insights on healing broken hearts, and living life as a sacred narrative.

The Power of Myth, by Joseph Campbell: I discovered Campbell’s work during that great transitional period of my life (in my early 30s, when I left the wrong career and the wrong relationship, and set sail into the unknown) and it has been a mainstay ever since. This book (as with most of Campbell’s work) is an exploration of how the world’s myths — ancient and modern — reveal the shared patterns of the human experience. Drawn from a series of conversations with journalist Bill Moyers, it shows how stories from diverse cultures illuminate universal themes such as the hero’s journey, the search for meaning, the tension between individual destiny and social roles, and the encounter with the sacred.

My friend Kara Henderson Snead recently sent me a coffee table version of the book (she loves it too), and it graces the table in my office.

Gone: A Girl, A Violin, a Life Unstrung, by Min Kym: This is one of the most extraordinary memoirs I’ve ever read. World-class violinist Min Kym recounts the bond she formed at seventeen with a Stradivarius violin that became, for her, something like a lover, a child, a twin. These were not just fanciful metaphors: Min happily lived in a tiny apartment so she could pour all her financial resources into maintaining her instrument. But when her violin was stolen one day, her world collapsed. She stopped playing for years, fell into a deep depression. Eventually, though, she began to emerge — full of insights on loss and rebirth — and she wrote this magisterial book. When I first read the manuscript — which was sent to me by our shared editor — I stayed up all night to finish reading. I think you will, too.

Min later became a family friend, and my husband Ken has a poster of her book on the wall of his office.

And, here are a few suggestions of how to disconnect from your phone and read more:

*As with all habits you want to encourage, make them easy and inviting. Turn reading into a beloved ritual, with a “clean and well-lighted place”: your favorite armchair, a cozy lamp, a special reading snack or cup of coffee.

*Again, as with all habits you want to encourage, start small: fifteen minutes a day is fine, and so is ten minutes. So is five. Any amount of minutes is better than zero minutes!

As always, I’d love to hear from you:

*I’d be curious to know which one(s) of these books, if any, appeal to you.

*And, would you please share some favorite reads of your own?

*Do you think that our boys’ recently rekindled interest in book-reading is part of a wider trend, or a quirk of our family? I suspect the former, but am curious about your experiences.