I think that there is that element of intense intimacy that people have when they read. And to get to sort of do that thinking and sifting and all the time feels just, yeah, it feels incredibly lucky. I am supine constantly. Supine or prone. You know, I can't really read when other people are around. It's something that really has to happen. Just so you have to start.You're basically just lying down all day. Like that was your experience with books, even when you didn't have to write something for people to read. Yeah. But in that sense, like that kind of relationship that all of us have towards reading and the fact that we
Parul Sehgal is a book critic for The New York Times.
“I write about books, I review books, but in a sense, to do my job at a newspaper also puts that pressure on a piece to say: why should you read or care about this? You’re trying to tweeze out what is newsworthy, what is interesting, what is vital about this book….My job is I think to be honest with the reader and to keep surfacing new ways for me and for other people to think about books. New vocabularies of pleasure and disgust.”
Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
parulsehgal.com
@parul_sehgal
Sehgal's archive at the New York Times
[17:11] “Mothers of Invention: A Group of Authors Finds New Narrative Possibilities in Parenthood” (Bookforum • 2015)
[17:20] “In Letters to the World, a New Wave of Memoirs Draws on the Intimate” (New York Times • 2019)
[17:33] “#MeToo Is All Too Real. But to Better Understand it, Turn to Fiction.” (New York Times • 2019)
[24:18] Longform Podcast #354: Jia Tolentino
[41:39] “Peter Luger Used to Sizzle. Now It Sputters.” (New York Times • 2019)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices