The book: A few weeks before his 42nd birthday, Ross Gay decided to try to write a daily essay on delight, starting on his birthday and ending one year later, when he turned 43. Although he ended up not writing every single day, there are about 100 short essays in here, some only a paragraph, some several pages. They cover all kinds of thing that delight Gay, things you might think of, like hummingbirds or flowers, and sometimes things you really, really might not think of (there’s a memorable chapter about the time he peed in a Gatorade bottle, but I don’t want to spoil any more of it for you).
Why I read it: I can’t remember how I found this book, but I found the premise interesting and then I saw that Gay is a professor at Indiana University, my alma mater. That was enough to convince me.
How I felt about it: Although I found some parts of it a bit tiresome (these aren’t poems, but Gay is a poet, and sometimes I just wasn’t in the mood), I feel a lot of affection for this book. It took me a long time to read it, because I saved it for when I needed it. I would read an essay or two and realize I was grinning from ear to ear. “Delight” is a word we use a lot on the internet, but considering the topic it does seem appropriate to say this book delighted me and I would like to read more of Gay’s work.
