“Read James Baldwin” my brother texted. “Why?” I asked. “Because he’s an artist and he’s brilliant!” he replied attaching a picture of the book he’d just finished. I sent the thumbs up emoji but wasn’t convinced.
James Baldwin was on a very long list of writers I’ve been told to read, knew I should read, but honestly probably never would read. Jane Austen, William Faulkner, Colson Whitehead, Jhumpa Lahiri … the list goes on and on, and people are always trying to add to it.
But my brother’s recommendation stuck with me longer than most. I puzzled over it. As far as I could tell, James Baldwin and my brother were about as different from one another as you could get.
I pictured them sat together in a Parisian café; a super stylish, gay, black, intellectual from Harlem across the table from an old bristly-bearded, cisgendered, white guy from Iowa. It made me smile, but I couldn’t see the connection.
And that’s the thing with great books; they speak to us on a deep personal level, in ways that aren’t always logical or easy to explain. Whatever differences I saw between the reader and writer, my brother related to James Baldwin’s work in a powerful way. He identified with the author, or characters, or both, experiencing something meaningful and important that he wanted to share.
Which makes me think I should actually thank people for putting themselves out there and giving their book recommendations (as long as they’re real people and not influencers or algorithms). It makes me want to try and actually read one all the way through, even if it sounds hard and unrelatable.
We know that reading books enhances our cognitive ability. Studies also suggest that reading fiction enhances our social emotional intelligence. But most important, reading books connects us.
So, I recommend that you ask your family and friends if they’ve read any good book lately.
Think of that list of great books you’ve been told to read. Or just come to the library and browse the shelves. But pick a book, maybe one that doesn’t fit your expectations or comes from a very different perspective, and see if you connect.
Personally, I’ll be taking my brother’s advice and reading James Baldwin.