Books to Read From a Social Distance
No man is an island, but in the thick of COVID-19 season, it’s probably best to keep your distance from those around you. Luckily, we have books to fill the social void!
Here are some books on loneliness that might, paradoxically, help you feel less alone.
1. The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing
Have you ever packed into a rush-hour MRT ride or sit at morning assembly, surrounded by people, and somehow still felt alone? Don’t worry, you’re not alone in feeling that way.
“You can be lonely anywhere, but there is a particular flavour to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by millions of people,” writes Olivia Laing, in her mid-thirties and newly arrived in New York City. Feeling disconnected from the people around her, Laing turns to art appreciation. It’s not exactly the most social activity, but by puzzling through paintings like Edward Hopper’s famous Nighthawks and Andy Warhol’s pieces on isolation, Laing gets to the heart of what it means to be lonely, but also how we might find each other again.
Get the book here: Physical Copy, eBook
2. Nobody Hugs a Cactus by Carter Goodrich
We all have our anti-social days when all we want to do is cancel plans, stay home, and ignore the backlog of unread messages from well-meaning friends. Hank the Cactus is all of us on those days. As his fellow desert dwellers walk past his windowsill, Hank shouts at them: “Private property!” and “Keep off the grass!” and “No dogs!”.
Before long, he starts to find that no one wants to hang out with him. However, it’s never too late for a change of heart. Carter Goodrich (who designed characters for “Despicable Me” and “Ratatouille”) has written a touching picture book, perfect for prickly children and grown-ups alike.
Get the book here: Physical Copy, eBook
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
This book goes out to the misfits. True to its title, One Hundred Years of Solitude traces the Buendía family over generations, and the many ways they are isolated from their society. The Buendías are an eccentric bunch, some peddling magical scientific inventions, others speaking only in Latin, so they’re an easy target for ridicule by their community. This book makes for good mental exercise — characters’ names begin to repeat and recycle (thankfully the book includes a family tree), and political allegiances and relationship status alike get muddled. But the humanity at the heart of the Buendía family compels us to keep giving their stories a chance.
Get the book here: Physical Copy, eBook, Audiobook
4. This is Where I Won’t Be Alone by Inez Tan
If this title triggers serious National Day vibes, that’s because it’s a #singlit short story collection, which speaks to our uniquely Singaporean loneliness. Inez Tan’s stories range from heartbreaking to hilarious.
In “The Colony”, unemployed Boon grows distant from his wife and social life as he begins to obssess over the trail of ants in his apartment. “Tragic Flaws” contains idiosyncratic diatribes and dictionary-style entries like “The Internet: There are a lot of weird people out there. Don’t anyhow make friends.” and “The Young People Nowadays: They haven’t gone through *real* suffering.” Read this if you’re looking for a sense of home in all its complexities.
Get the book here: Physical Copy, eBook
5. The Arrival by Shaun Tan
Language is one of our strongest connections to each other, something that’s most obvious when we struggle to find commonality — in a foreign country, across a generation gap, attending a language class. What better way to capture that distance than with a wordless book?
In Shaun Tan’s graphic novel on the immigrant experience, we share in the protagonist’s language loss as he fumbles through an unfamiliar city, where even the showers and the vegetables are alien. But the warmth of strangers is not so different from that of home. The Arrival is a beautiful collage that shows us how we can communicate that we care even without words.
Get the book here: Physical Copy
Stay in good health and good spirits, and happy reading (within a safe, social distance)!
All books featured are available via the NLB Mobile app or at our public libraries.
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Text by
Nathaniel Chew
National Library Board
