The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

With all the alarming atrocities-–including planetary and societal collapse-–swirling around us, I am at times engulfed in a dark cloud of worry. So, I was delighted to discover The Book of Delights by Ross Gay. It’s a book of daily essays (or he refers to them at times as essayettes) written one every day, for a year, about something delightful. The book is filled with dark humor and irony which makes it perfect for the times that we’re in; and it's all woven together with delights through the eye and ear of a poet. You can read one essay a day or as many as delight you, and, as with any book, you can just open it to any essay and see what pops up, or you can read it from start to finish. Ross Gay observes in the Preface that with his daily writing discipline, the more you study delight, the more delight there is to study and that “my delight grows-–much like love and joy—when I share it.” I’m delighted that he did.

Recommended by Tom Kelly