Your Favorite O’Nan of the Year

Posted by David Duhr in ABCs of Writing      35 comments

Dec
21

Discussion questions: Tell me about your favorite 2019 reading experiences. Does a particular book stand out as the best you read this year? Or if not the best, your favorite? Do any reading moments come to mind, where you weren’t necessarily reading your favorite book of the year but still had a memorable experience? Let’s talk about your year in reading in the comments below. And if you’re looking forward to any particular book(s) in 2020, I wanna hear about that, too.

It seems the older I get, the more I’m looking for memorable reading experiences, as opposed to simply memorable books.

I’ve tried to write about this before, and for some reason I have trouble articulating it. Maybe because I have trouble understanding it. But here’s what I mean: I’m more likely to remember a book I read in a unique place, or at a unique moment in my life, than a better book I read at home.

Let’s try it this way: Imagine two books, Book A and Book B. Book A is the best book I’ve ever read; Book B is so-so. But I read Book A at home, or in any of my other everyday reading spots; I read Book B on a train traversing Asia. Because of the unique environment, I’m more likely to remember, and more fondly, the experience of reading Book B, even though it’s not as good a book as Book A. And I’m also more likely to remember more about its plot, structure, etc.

I don’t know what this means. It’s just how my brain works these days.

Ian Crouch, in an excellent New Yorker piece about his struggle (which matches mine) with reading retention, writes this passage, which hits home for me:

“If we are cursed to forget much of what we read, there are still charms in the moments of reading a particular book in a particular place. What I remember most about Malamud’s short-story collection The Magic Barrel is the warm sunlight in the coffee shop on the consecutive Friday mornings I read it before high school. That is missing the more important points, but it is something.”

That’s a too-lengthy introduction to what my purpose here is: To tell you about my favorite 2019 reading experiences, and to ask that you share yours in the comments below.

Example:

At the end of March I took myself on a little writing retreat up the Hudson; I rode an Amtrak to Hudson, NY, and stayed in a dismal motel, where I knocked out about three chapters of a novel. The weather was atrocious, so mostly I stayed in.

When I did go out, I took along Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland, an excellent novel I’d read some years earlier. After one particularly fruitful writing session, where I wowed myself with some surprisingly artful passages about baseball, I skipped across the street to a deserted Chinese restaurant. I do mean deserted; I was the only patron, throughout my meal. Which should’ve raised alarm bells.

But I was riding high from my writing, and over a plate of Kung Pao chicken (which was delicious, and didn’t make me ill) (at least not deathly ill), I read Joseph O’Neill’s brilliant and sentimental (in the best way) reflections about his character’s love of baseball’s close cousin, cricket.

In my memory, the entire weekend coalesces into that one meal with that one section from that one book.

Another:

In June, after a weekend in Plymouth recording dozens of episodes of Yak Babies, including one where we discussed Stewart O’Nan’s Last Night at the Lobster, I spent a night back in Boston and visited the Brattle Book Shop, one of my favorite haunts from my grad-school days.

In the stacks I found a few more O’Nan titles. I hadn’t read any other O’Nan, but Lobster was excellent, so I figured I should try another. I settled on The Night Country, and went back to my hotel with my new toy. Over dinner at the attached bar, I read one of the creepiest and most unique opening chapters I’ve come across. I almost considered closing the book and saving it for the Halloween season.

But it was so good, I just had to keep going. And going. And going.

Hours later I stumbled out of the bar, drunk not on alcohol but on good literature, and alcohol. Up in my room, I put the book on the nightstand and flipped on the TV. Then I flipped off the TV, picked the book back up, and read into the middle of the night.

The next morning, on the bus back to NYC, I finished.

Since then, I’ve read more O’Nan. Of the four O’Nan books I read in 2019, The Night Country ranks only third. But as a reading experience — where I bought it, where I read it, what was happening with me psychically at the time — it’s my favorite O’Nan of the year.

I want to hear about your favorite O’Nan of the year. Figuratively if not literally. (If you haven’t tried Stewart O’Nan, browse his titles and strongly consider giving one a go.)

Tell me about your favorite 2019 reading experiences. Particular moments that stand out, particular books that dropped your jaw; your coolest 2019 reading environments.

Did you read as much this year as you wanted to? If not, why not?

Are there any books you’re looking forward to diving into in 2020?

Tell me about it below.

And then, if you haven’t already, hop on over to last week’s post, where we talked about our favorite 2019 writing experiences.

WriteByNight co-founder David Duhr is fiction editor at the Texas Observer and co-host of the Yak Babies podcast, and has written about books for the Dallas Morning News, Electric Literature, Publishing Perspectives, and others.

WriteByNight is a writers’ service dedicated to helping you achieve your creative potential and literary goals. We work with writers of all experience levels working in all genres, nationwide and worldwide. If you have a 2019 writing project you’d like a little help with, take a look at our book coaching, private instruction and writer’s block counseling services. Join our mailing list and get a FREE writer’s diagnostic, “Common problems and SOLUTIONS for the struggling writer.”