It’s been a rough couple of weeks all around, hasn’t it? I’ve decided to turn to bibliotherapy to cope.
Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic technique which uses literature to support good mental health. Bibliotherapists do a sort of readers advisory therapy session with readers, with the goal of providing a suggested reading list which will help the reader through challenging times. Ceridwen Dovey talked about it over at The New Yorker last summer.
I decided to come up with my own list of books which make me feel better, either by distracting me, making me laugh, or providing some hope. Yours, of course, would probably differ. There’s always the book mentioned in Dovey’s article, The Novel Cure, if you need some guidance.
Here’s my highly personal list of self-medication titles, which I am taking as needed:
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, especially Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Huge Book of Hell: A Cartoon Book by Matt Groening
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, the Death books in particular
Take it easy out there, friends.
