It’s always been my belief that you can tell a lot about a person from the contents of their nightstand. When I was a kid, I would frequently admire (snoop around) the nightstands of adults, with the belief that the messier the arrangement, the higher the pile, the more varied the materials, the more interesting the person. If there was a half-complete New York Times crossword puzzle, a Napoleon biography, a gardening catalog and a Jackie Collins novel, chances are the person had a pretty fascinating brain. If the only thing taking up room between the pillow and a lamp was a dog-eared Lilian Vernon catalog…well they were probably a great gift giver.
I think that some of the best nightstand collections are not so much “vertical”, or singular, in their interests, but ones that are diverse and all over the place; including non-fiction, novels, manuals, periodicals, biographies, medical reviews, the occasional pamphlet. I’ve been cultivating a nightstand menagerie since I was a kid, although back then it was more about Ranger Rick’s, fantasy novels featuring magical flying dragons (Anne McAfferey and the Dragons of Pern, if you’re interested) and a contraband copy of The Flowers in the Attic. My adult collections are—for obvious reason-no longer lean towards tawdry coming-of-age (I read Fifty Shades on a Kindle), and are instead a mixture of the-novels-I really-should-read-but-don’t-manage-to-finish, food-related titles, and Belle and Conor’s deposited bedtime storeis. As you can see above, right now it includes a guide to fermentation, Steve Rinella’s memoir about hunting and eating meat (fantastic), and an exhaustive reference guide to all things Ninjago. I hope that if the 12 year old version of myself were to look at my nightstand she’d say “pretty good, thank God you got over that dragon fixation”. The other thing that I think distinguishes nightstand reads from your regular old personal library, is that they’re meant to be read in sort of a hunt-and-peck fashion: a chapter here, an article there. Whatever mood you’re in dictates what gets read and I find that I’m always reading more that one thing at a time.
So in the spirit of nightstand excellence I would like to nominate the latest edition to the collection! I’ll be featuring a new book every week or so–a title that I promise will be worthy of your late night reading and that you should be able to get at your local library. And if you want to recommend whatever book/magazine/psychiatry journal that’s taking up space between a glass of water and the spring J. Crew catalog, please do! All genres are welcome.
So for my first pick…
SALT SUGAR FAT: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and climbing the bestseller list-I think it’s great and fascinating that a book about processed food and the American diet has become so popular. Have you read it? If so, what did you think?
