Quarantine Reads: Four Books to Read in a Pandemic By Danielle Van Meter What do we do when our worlds get smaller—
Literature has always allowed us to expand our
when our entire life shrinks to the four walls of a
minds and worlds, even when our physical worlds
house? For most of us on this half of 2020, we
shrink; with one library visit we can see the search
know what that’s like.
for the sublime in the 19th century, a glimpse into a new land, or a reflection of humanity’s deepest
According to new research from The Reading
shared desires.
Agency, a British literacy charity, there has been a significant uptick in reading during quarantine— almost a third of people have read more books this year than previous years. Major booksellers have similarly seen their online sales of fiction increase astronomically. It seems that being
“Literature has always allowed us to expand our minds and worlds, even when our physical worlds shrink…”
forced into our homes has given us a global craving for the written word.
Here are four book suggestions that may allow you to see the current pandemic in different ways.
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