It’s nearly midnight, so today’s post will be brief.
Even though it’s not possible to travel internationally right now, I find books capable of transporting me to different and faraway countries in surprising and experiential ways.
Last night, for example, it was extremely hot and so I decided to sleep on the third floor patio.
While I occasionally slept on the deck outdoors as a kid, what really brought this idea back to me was reading several books about the Middle East where it’s not unusual for families to sleep outdoors on the roof.
I recalled this anecdote from Nadia Murad’s book The Last Girl in which she wrote:
When the sun started to go down, we joined my mother at home for dinner in our courtyard and then slept shoulder to shoulder on mattresses on the roof of our house, watching the moon and whispering until exhaustion brought the whole family to complete silence.
Doesn’t there seem something attractive about that picture? I thought so. It’s neat to enter into books in experiential ways – however partial – to be taken held by their charm in ever deeper ways.
Amanda Achtman 