From the archives: #4 Truth

First sent 3rd March 2019!

In that uncanny Shelf Improvement way, as I reread this back issue I’m seeing lots of echoes, from the serious (the plot of Hide, in many ways so hopeful about progress, now looking sadly rose-tinted in light of Section 28 2.0 - a rose-tint made even more melancholy as Hide seems to be out of print now, at least in the UK) to the light-hearted (I’m racing through the ridiculous new season of Selling the OC, which is full of amazing lines like At the end of the day I’m sleeping like a baby because I have the truth and I know my truth from Sean or Alex Hall’s It’s my truth and if my truth isn’t good enough for you that’s a you problem.) The Lucille Clifton quote is still one I think of often, and the fiction/nonfiction line blurring continues, a blurring that feels especially relevant since the recent release & aftermath of Richard Gadd’s Netflix series Baby Reindeer. The four books mentioned here are all ones I still own and encountered while unpacking this week like a reunion with old friends, each copy full of time-capsule tickets and notes and receipts from 2019, when I first wrote this instalment - part of the magic of physical books, I think.

Shelf Improvement #4: Truth

Sent on 3/3/19 at 10:08 am