nut free nerd

I love pairing my books to the energy of the season.

August is such an interesting month in this regard. Summer is still here, but autumn is peeking around the corner. At least where I live, the mornings and evenings are beginning to crisp, but the midday sun is still hot. I feel an underlying back-to-school excitement in the air, despite not having attended classes in a few years. More than anything, August feels saturated in nostalgia, a transitional month that inspires reflection and anticipation alike. It marks the beginning of one of my favorite times of the year.

The following books feel like August to me. I hope you find one or two that make it to your to-be-read list.

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (translated by Thomas Teal). “Every year, the bright Scandinavian summer nights fade without anyone’s noticing. One evening in August you have an errand outdoors, and all of a sudden it’s pitch-black. It is still summer, but the summer is no longer alive.” This book spans the entirety of summer, following a young girl and her grandmother as they live on an island. However, I think it is most poignant when read from the perspective of August, looking back on the shining, warm memories made in June and July. I have reread this book every summer for the past four years, and something new always strikes me as particularly thought-provoking, memorable, or funny.

The Waves by Virginia Woolf. “I do not know myself sometimes, or how to reassure and name and count out the grains that make me what I am.” I read The Waves last August and I’ve continued to think about it since. If you’ve read anything by Virginia Woolf before, then you know how poetic her stream of consciousness writing can be. This book, which follows a group a friends from childhood to older age, is no exception. It is both blissful and tragic, a conflicting sensation that I can still feel as though I finished read it yesterday.

How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell. “To truly be among nature, we cannot view it as a backdrop for our human activities, but as an ecosystem that contains and transcends all life forms.” For the reasons I mentioned above, I love being outside in August. Although I think How to Do Nothing is a book for all seasons, I think it could be especially helpful to read in August. August often makes me think about the passage of time, and Odell provides a valuable discussion about how we can exist in time more intentionally.

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. “It is the hour of pearl — the interval between day and night when time stops and examines itself.” I first read this book two Augusts ago (are you sensing a theme?). Cannery Row, which follows the every day lives of people living in the cannery district in Monterey, California, is one of my favorites by Steinbeck. It is reflective, beautifully written, and will make you look at dawn and dusk a little more fondly.

Which books do you think have August energy? I’d love to know.

Take care xx