Don't Sleep on These Perfect Books for World Sleep Day

As someone concerned about his fraught relationship with sleep, I know a considerable bit about the optimal conditions it seems to require--considerably more it seems than I am able to actually implement. In practice I favor a ‘whatever it takes’ approach in which 30 Rock has autoplayed me to sleep more times than I care to count, more effectively than the sheep I care not to count and in full knowledge that it is precisely that type of bad sleep hygiene that Arianna Huffington, et al suggest is keeping me from a sustainably healthy relationship with sleep. No blue light--create for yourself a darkened kingdom of sleep, look at ‘sack time’ as vital to your waking power, etc. I know, I know.

But habits are hard to break, especially when there is no new behavioral replacement. And what could possibly be as dependably anesthetizing as the rapidfire punchlines of seven seasons of Lemon and the TGS crew? Fortunately, as is often the case, author Barbara Pym has a solution. Mildred Lathbury, Barbara Pym’s protagonist of Excellent Women, makes mention on several occasions of her personal prescription for a pre-sleep reading ritual. “I stretched out my hand towards the bookshelf where I kept cookery and devotional books, the most comforting bedside reading. My hand might have chosen Religio Medici, but I was rather glad that it picked out Chinese Cookery and I was soon soothed into drowsiness.” By all means, she suggests, keep a diverse range of excellent books close by on your shelf--one is advised after all by sleep science’s thought leaders to discontinue blue light for two full hours prior to bedtime. But the right choice, she suggests, will disentangle the madness of the day, might actually make you a better, more informed person and never emanates that mortal enemy of good sleep: blue light. To this purpose she exhorts you to select "an old [book] of recipes and miscellaneous household hints...about the care of aspidistras and how to wash lace and black woollen stockings..." rather than poetry--the implication being that as cares and anxieties have a tendency to visit during the quiet hours before sleep, reading material with the capacity to distract without inciting passions is the best choice.

So, with Mildred’s advisement taken to heart and in honor of National Sleep Day, I am this year resolved to abandon my media stream in favor of a healthier mode of pre-sleep ritual. For the benefit of those who want to come with me on this journey, here are a few additional suggestions to guide you in the assembly of your own soporific reading list:

• Krazy: George Herriman a Life in Black and White by Michael Tisserand; Tisserand’s impressively-researched tome is first on my list, both because it succinctly illustrates my interpretation of the Pym method and because it most nakedly betrays my priors as a librarian. The subject matter of this book, a compendious ‘passing narrative’ about the life and context for George Joseph Herriman (1880-1944)--the New Orleans born author/illustrator of the influential comic strip Krazy Kat, which ran from 1913 to 1944, is unquestionably fascinating while Tisserand’s evident disinterest in editing for concision renders this 545 page, uniquely-American, biographical epic impossible to digest outside of short sittings. The book is interspersed with selections from the comic strip, so you can open to almost any page and find something interesting, while feeling no compulsion to remove it from your nightstand and drag it on the subway with you.
• All the Time in the World: A Book of Hours by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins takes a medieval concept--the books of hours, prescribing readings and contemplations for various parts of the day and year, and updates it offering a miscellany of customs, traditions, and pleasures people have pursued throughout the ages. Jenkins’ book features witty bon mots, interesting etymologies, and arresting anecdotes, encompassing an array of cultures and eras, that delight without exciting. Essentially, readers can use its contents as future conversational fodder. (And consider also checking out Rilke’s Book of Hours, despite Pym’s warning against poetry before bedtime, for a gorgeous addition to this tradition.)
• Our Noise: The story of Merge Records, The Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed Small by John Cook; to anyone familiar with the label’s cultural output, including but not limited to the Magnetic Fields, Neutral Milk Hotel, Spoon, Destroyer and Arcade Fire, the value of diving deeply into the history and product of this label is self-explanatory. For everyone else, the story of Merge is the story of three decades (1989-2019) of music history occurring parallel to but distinct from mainstream radio. Cook assembled this book in coordination with label (and Superchunk) founders Mac Macaughan and Laura Ballance, who contributed interviews, stories, show flyers and photos and it is equally enjoyable whether read straight through or opened at random. This quality, much like the improbable stability of Merge itself, alleviates any concerns over nodding off and losing your place.
• The Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown is equal parts devotional text and cookery book, which makes it perfect for our purposes. Originally published in the late 1960s as a way for the author to express his gratitude to the Big Sur-area Zen retreat that both contributes its name to the book instructed him in its arts, it is aptly characterized as the Ur text of ‘hippie food’ bread baking and the Artist’s Way for bread. In it Brown meditates on both his relationship to bread and his practice in kneading and preparing the dough by hand, which is as soothing to read as it sounds.

It is worth mentioning as well that although for reasons of time and space Mildred Lathbury expressed no opinion on audiobooks, they reportedly make excellent bedtime companions, especially for those employed in fields that require them to read all day (doctors, librarians, etc.) and enjoy having someone finally read to them. I have it on good authority that Pride and Prejudice is a good pre-bed listen, but I leave it to reasonable people to choose for themselves. Be sure to seek out narrators with voices you find personally soothing and, as in all cases, choose nothing that incites your passions or is too difficult to put down!

Leave a comment and let us know what books are on your soporific bookshelf.