#Our Reading Lives

Our Reading Lives features stories about how books and reading have shaped who we are and how we live.

How I Lost and Found Jane Austen

Jane's books illustrate not just love overcoming societal odds, but growth and understanding between people, and that is why they endure.

Don’t Make It a Monster: Overcoming My Toxic Relationship with the Library

How the library because a toxic habit for one reader and the ways they found a way to make it a safe space again.

3 Things That Happen When I Read Books Based in My Home State of Rhode Island

While New Yorkers can read about their home state any time, books set in Rhode Island are more of a rarity — and usually involve murder.

I Let My TikTok For You Page Pick My TBR

I decided to let the TikTok For You page choose my TBR! Three books later, here are my thoughts on the whole experiment.

On Having Bookshelves That Reflect Who I Am

"If you walk into my house knowing nothing about me--my books will tell you who I am."

Why Did You Read So Much More as a Kid?

What made it possible for you to read nonstop as a kid, especially if now it's hard to read more than a handful of pages before falling asleep?

We Have Books at Home: How I Decide Which Books to Buy

I have come to think of my current book buying strategy as the “we have food at home” approach. Here's how it works.

Why Difficult Books Matter: How One Line from a Book I Read as a Child Helped Me Heal

One writer recounts how a book she read as a child— that would be deemed inappropriate by book banners today— helped her heal from trauma.

Sometimes I Choose to Read Books About Straight People

The best part of being a queer reader in the Golden Age of Queer Lit is that I get to choose when to read about straight people, on my own terms.

An Ode to Translator’s Notes

Translator's notes are not just fascinating windows into the work of translation, but crucial extensions of the actual work in question.