Published in the Sunday Times
It’s cool to be seen reading again. The trendy folks are putting down their smartphones and picking up a book. It’s hip to be square, to be seen having an identity outside the digital world, even if it is only to Instagram that you are reading in the real world.
The settings are important – gastro pub/coffee shop, yacht/rowing boat, beach/lake/pool, bus/train station, or just on your couch with your dog/cat.
And the cool authors have books out now – one can be a total lit geek and be trendy at the same time.
Jonathan Safran Foer’s first novel in 10 years has just been published, Here I Am. Set in a period of three weeks, it focuses on a family in Washington DC going through a moment of crisis (marriage, life, existential) and how they are connected to a massive earthquake that has devastated the Middle East. It is filled with hefty themes of identity and political crisis and is 571 pages long – so it ticks all the boxes for lit bragging rights. And there is also Foer’s mind-blowing exchange of emails with Natalie Portman that The New York Times has published. Some say it’s painful and pretentious. That’s just more ticks.
Dave Eggers is loved for many of his literary endeavours. McSweeney’s has a page that is one of the most irreverent and funny sites to go to daily and have a laugh, but it is also his not-for profit publishing house. His latest novel, Heroes of the Frontier, is about Josie, a woman who takes her two children on a road trip into the Alaskan wilderness. It’s an examination of modern life with Eggers’s keen sense of observation and humour.
If you want non-fiction, and still want the literary street cred, Teju Cole’s Known and Strange Things is a collection of about 50 pieces on his thoughts from politics to photography. His book is filled with references to Seamus Heaney, Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare, James Baldwin and more. Plus the cover is totes beautiful for Instagramming.
Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens (which was praised for cleverly explaining where we came from), has written his follow-up called Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. It asks the ultimate question: where do we go from here? Besides delving into our scary digital future, the cover is also simple and beautiful and worthy of being on your Instagram.
And if you really want to impress, there’s always the Man Booker shortlist to get through.
Follow Jennifer Platt on Twitter @Jenniferdplatt
Book details
- Here I Am by Jonathan Foer Safran Foer
EAN: 9780241146187
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers
EAN: 9780241289938
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Known and Strange Things by Teju Cole
EAN: 9780571331390
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
- Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
EAN: 9781910701881
Find this book with BOOK Finder!