How to Escape

New prompt and events.

The newspapers are piling up around here. (Yes, we still have a paper subscription. I like the smudgy columns at the breakfast table. Plus, we have a woodstove hungry for crumpled starters.) I intend to stay informed and then feel the death drop (anger + anxiety + existential crisis) after reading page one. I prefer escapism with my oatmeal and yogurt—brilliant writing that takes me away from here and now. Which is not to say I advise tuning out permanently. But if it’s necessary on a temporary basis, so be it.

I just finished Mark Haddon’s Leaving Home, a memoir filled with the author’s sketches and cartoons. It’s a book that makes me want to get my butt in my writing chair.

If I could distill the advice I’ve received and given during the past 25 years of teaching, it would be this: Read the books that make you want to write. If I’m not reading something delicious or surprising, I feel off. Like I’ve only had tea for breakfast. Not quite sustained.

Haddon’s memoir is quirky, sad, fun…