“Then would you read a Sustaining Book, such as would help and comfort a Wedged Bear in Great Tightness.”
—A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh is speaking to Christopher Robin while stuck in Rabbit’s doorway after—as usual—he’s eaten too much honey. I’m feeling a bit like Pooh these days, wedged in a time of “Great Tightness” and looking for something to sustain me. And the thing that Winnie the Pooh and I both need right now is a good book.
During this time of social isolation, I’ve become an even more voracious reader, relishing two suspense novels, an engaging memoir, a British spy novel and, most recently, a drama set in the Scottish countryside. I have more time on my hands these days, and one thing I want to do with it is read (and read and read some more). This sustaining hobby allows me to lose myself in someone else’s story, in a time that feels more “normal” than this pandemic. Reading invites me to let go of my anxieties and heartbreak about our current world and get lost in another time.
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
―James Baldwin
Perhaps that’s what I love most about books: their ability to connect me with other people I will never meet, with times and places I will never see. In a time when I cannot be with my friends in person, I can make new friends between the covers of a good book. And in this time of Great Tightness, that’s a real gift.
If you, like me, value the sustaining power of a good book, I invite you to ponder:
How are we wedged in a time of Great Tightness?
What books are helping us get through this time?
How can books connect us with all people, especially now?
—Andi Lewis, Prairiewoods marketing coordinator