Writers Tell You What They Have Been Reading During Quarantine

On today's LitHub, Emily Temple published a list of what 100 different writers have said they are reading during quarantine. As Temple says:

The pandemic wears on. We are entering the fifth month of social distancing and generalized anxiety—that is, if we’re lucky. We’re also entering the fifth month of incessant pandemic reporting. Over the past few months, as part of that reporting, it seems like every publication that covers books asked a bunch of writers what they’d been reading in isolation. Not that I’m complaining: I’m always interested in the bookshelves of interesting people, and now more so than usual. This is why I have combed through a number of these roundups and interviews to bring you this treasure box of quarantine reading recommendations. NB that not all of them are actually couched as recommendations. Some are simply reports (see Ottessa Moshfegh’s list, which is the most Ottessa Moshfegh thing ever). But still, whether you’re currently in a pandemic-related slump or a pandemic-related tear through your bookshelves, reading like your favorite writer is never a bad way to go.

Temple also includes her own list.

Emily Temple (aka me), author of The Lightness:

Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle (via The Strategist)
Diane Cook, The New Wilderness
Claudia Rankine, Just Us
Peter Cameron, What Happens at Night
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
Mary South, You Will Never Be Forgotten
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Raven Leilani, Luster (via my 2020 reading log)

I have not had a chance to look at it yet, but in a few minutes I am heading to the public library where they are holding a copy of Temple's new novel, The Lightness.