I hadn’t read a book in two months since I got my diagnosis….there, I said it….man that felt good to get off my chest! As a humble reader (only 78 books finished last year), I thought it was okay to take a break as I deal with the mental Hurricane Katrina going on internally. However, as I picked up and finished a book recently (in a day and a half, NBD), I remembered that reading is my therapy in a lot of ways. There’s a peace of mind I get from closing out the multiple screens that dominate my daily life and losing myself in a novel. Similarly, I close out a lot of that anxiety avalanche that can take over when dealing with cancer on a daily basis. Setting and tracking my reading goals gives me a sense of accomplishment that I can’t typically find in the regular routine of my work and personal life most times. It also helps to keep me from constantly thinking about when the next treatment is, or how long before I get my pump disconnected, or what’s going to happen when I get my scans taken in a couple of weeks. Those thoughts are always on my mind, but so is the plot twist in the latest thriller I read, or the will-they-wont-they plot of a romantic novel (yes, I have a sensitive side as a bibliophile…no that doesn’t mean I have sex with books)
Recently, my mom had been pushing me to read this book called Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds. Now I’ve always had trouble with getting myself psyched up to read anything related to self-help, personal growth, even business/entrepreneurship/etc. Maybe I’ve just become too accustomed to mind-numbing fiction rather than broadening my literary horizons. Maybe I’m just dumb and need pop-up books with flying dragons and space battles. Either way, I didn’t want to fight a losing battle with the Queen Bee so I agreed to pause reading about the hot literary agent avoiding ripping off the hot and brooding writer’s clothes off to read about my other favorite topic…..CANCER!
Now there are some key lessons and facts that stood out in reading this book like glucose feeds cancer so all the Sour Patch Kids and Reese’s PB cups I’ve been asking for in my care packages are actually killing me? Thanks guys. MY BAD.
Some of the reading material borders on the side of overly spiritual talking about harnessing energy, using dreams to help figure out which foods to eat during chemotherapy, and using intuition to make changes in our life/work that can help heal the physical aspects of our body’s fight against cancer. When I read things like harnessing energy that sounds like this:
I usually think more along the lines of this:
One of the sections actually talked about “sending love” to cancer which causes the cancer cells to heal and revert back to healthy cells. I prefer this approach:
Now I’m not going to insult the many people either living with cancer or living with someone going through cancer who have taken comfort in this reading material. I believe everyone has their own process of dealing with this both physically and mentally and respect the choices that everyone makes in this journey. I personally think that at least by staying positive, trying to change a lot of my previous dietary bad habits, and sticking with the treatment plans that my oncologist and team have put forth, I can beat this thing as equally as some of the individuals who took more unconventional paths. However, this is the least bizarre, annoying, or unconventional reading material that I’ve been gifted or made to read in my life. Let’s explore:
Christmas Kama Sutra
Now I appreciated the effort in an ex-girlfriend trying to spice up the love life, but I’m just trying to pinpoint where exactly in the time that we were dating that I gave off the impression that I was Stretch Armstrong…
The Gas We Pass
A gift given to me by my uncle at an age far older than the cover and illustrations would imply. However, it really taught me a lot about the inner workings of my bowels so you can’t fault him for that.
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Basically a book about how being an asshole works way more than you’d think and girls only like fuckboys?
How To Be A Gentlema
I just want to imagine that this guy and the other author above had a literary feud and just talked shit about each other at bars or maybe had a duel with pistols somewhere…
On the other end of the spectrum I wanted to share my top 5 favorite books I’ve read and some honorable mentions because the rotation changes from time to time.
A short read that I like to bring on quick flights when I’m not ready to start a new book. This is one of those books where I could plot the cast of the movie version out in my head easily.
This one just broke me inside, but an incredible book overall and caught me at a time I was in my political science phase and fascinated by the Middle East
One of the books that re-ignited my love for reading after a long hiatus and also one of the first books that had a plot twist that put my brain in a fucking blender.
The best of all the HP books in my opinion and one of the coolest cover illustrations ever. This is where the story took a huge leap into awesome in my opinion.
One of the most underrated, underappreciated, awesome comic strips of all time.
Honorable Mentions:
Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Red Moon by Benjamin Percy
Normal People by Sally Rooney
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
You and Nan… you guys amazed me, you both would read for hours on end. I remember hearing that Nan read 50 Shades of Gray. “What’s the big deal there’s nothing so new in there”.
Love you Andrew. Love than you intuitively are returning to your passion as a refuge. Love that you respect that each health challenge journey in a personal one and yet is powerful to share. And I Love that you acknowledge that The Gas We Pass holds wisdom for all the chapters of one’s life. It’s your generation’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull.