The Book of Delights: Essays Kindle Edition

I feel I have found a kindred spirit in the protagonist of this volume. I myself keep a diary of delights in which I tally mine and also attempt to justify a life devoted to delight, “Delight soothes sadness, calms fear, assuages anger, lessens the tenure of horror, compensates loss, ameliorates humiliation, kindles hope, inspires love of life, fulfills a day’s experience. What shall we do today? What we did yesterday: create delightful homes, tend their gardens, cook delightful food, delight in friends, in family, and in language.”In his book, Gay delights also in nature, which should be in the list, for sure.So, from my perspective, Ross Gay’s book is profound. It is also poetic, in keeping with its subject. Gay doesn’t have to record that he is delighting in the language he uses. It’s manifest.This is the second book I have begun to reread as soon as I finished it. The other was Garrison Keillor’s Homegrown Democrat, another delight.A reader who cultivates delight may learn from this book that delight may be defiantly employed as a poke in the eye of racism, for instance, in Gay’s case. Or, if the president of the beautiful country in which you reside is an anhedonic (David Brooks’ word) teetotaler, defiantly lift your glass of first-rate pinot noir a little higher and taste with deep attention. You’ll feel better. In the rural setting where I grew up in the middle of the last century, delight was a bulwark against poverty, not an even match but often sufficient. About fabulous farm food my dad crowed, “Now that’s what I call eating!” He was delighted by it.I learned from Ross Gay that delight may be compounded by sharing. Thanks.

Ross Gay effortlessly flits between whimsy and reflection, humor and gravity. I highly recommend this book, and if you ever have a chance to see a reading in person, go for it! His authenticity and pathos resonate through his person and his printed words, and he is truly a delight!

While I am a big fan of Ross Gay's "Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude," a book of poetry, this book felt like it was trying too hard in some places. Gay is a fine writer, no doubt about it, but I could only tolerate the essays in small amounts. I love life but it has its ups and downs; its joys and sorrows. Reading this book is like eating an overly sweet dessert, a small slice is fine, but eat too much at one time and all you can taste is the sugar.

Ross' work is a celebration of everyday delights that are far too often overlooked in the negativity of today's news, political, and religious insanity. He finds delights, and in an interview on NPR he says that the more delights he found, the easier they were to find. Put down Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and the newspapers who are so busy dividing us for profit and find some simple joy. Written over one year, these are the best of his daily "essays" which he reminds us is the French word "To Try." Find some Delights in your own life. I read it one or two chapters (days of writing) at a time as a reminder that there is goodness, joy and delight in living.

all times are political. refusing to write about flowers, based on the politics of the day, is a fair dictum to which a poet should adhere, since every day is a political day.then there’s ross gay, a curious poet who found his own fiat. to read gay is to remember those classic roman consuls who toiled in their gardens until summoned to serve in the assembly. gay’s wealth is his knowledge, a knowledge he is generously shares in his book of essayettes.readers who open his Book of Delights will have several reasons to be grateful. his book is a glimpse into what a poet does on a daily basis, in his instance, for a year, acts the poet finds delightful. there’s william carlos williams’ tongue in cheek poem about plums and e e cummings’ boyish poems, their events recounted feigned or actual, enclosed within stanzas, that can be considered delightful, while neither of them offered insights in how a poet goes about the day, as does ross gay in his essayettes, day journal.given from his pages, are titles of books he’s read, not one of them less than delightful, and the documentary movie, A Man Named Pearl, the story of the black man in north carolina in response to derogatory remarks from white neighbors about the inability to keep up his property, turned his garden into a topiary showplace praised by university horticulturists and local politicians, which is a delightful story made movie.in the various cities gay has lived, he has cultivated and maintained a garden. from his essayettes he shares an array of flowers, plants and herbs. ross gay has taken it upon himself to be our latter-day linneaus.

I'm so disappointed. I've wanted to read this book ever since it was published. The premise was so promising: Ross Gay tasked himself with writing one essay every day about something delightful. His plan was to write quickly, using pen and ink. How could it not be a delight to read?For one thing, I don't think the word "delight" means what the author thinks it means. White scientists experimenting on black children with debilitating doses of radiation is most certainly not a delight. For another thing, writing the essays quickly without too much thought is a great discipline for a writer. But good grief, Mr. Ross! Before you publish something, you really should go back and do some editing.In the interest of fairness, I only made it through the first six essays before I gave up. It's entirely possible that he got better at the project as he went along. I'm just no longer interested in finding out.

I accidentally stumbled upon this book at the library. I renewed it twice, but eventually I felt bad keeping it from everyone else. Its can be hard to find delight and I am thankful for this book. I like to look at it as inspiration for my day.

Wonderful daily meditation that I had the pleasure to give myself every morning. Really wonderful way to start the day.

First of all, the concept of this book is lovely - writing down what delights us each day in a short, incisive essay is *ahem* delightful. And some of the stories are wonderful - particularly the story of carrying a small tomato plant through an airport.I think my problem was that I found it difficult to access the author's voice. It is clear from the writing style that the author is a poet, and he appears to be an utterly lovely human being. I just couldn't help wondering if the book would have been better suited to a volume of poetry rather than prose.I often stumbled over the writing style, which pulled me out of the story each time and took me away from the delight being expressed. I'm very glad I read this book and it has made me search for works of poetry by Ross Gay - which I highly recommend you do. He also has the most wonderful speaking voice which you can find on various podcasts - i tracked him down via This American Life.

Too small for us

Be inspired to write a delight book