Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books

Novelist Hwang (Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop) illuminates her ardent relationship with literature with this affable memoir in essays. In each entry, Hwang offers readers advice for interacting with books while reflecting on her own history with reading and writing. Subjects range from the lighthearted, as when Hwang advises on how to fit snippets of reading time into a busy day, to the profound, as in the essay “Read Books That Preserve Your Sense of Self,” in which she considers how to use literature to protect one’s individuality in a consumerist age. “The moment we welcome books into ourselves, we’re bravely opening the door to our hearts,” Hwang writes, making an earnest and convincing argument that the best antidote to cynicism is time spent inside someone else’s mind. She illustrates her point in the book’s penultimate chapter, in which she describes the vast array of books her family and friends are reading, highlighting how each one is quietly expanding their perspectives. Dedicated bibliophiles and casual readers alike will adore this. (Dec.)