Reference Desk

You have questions? Books have answers.

This one goes out to all the folks who are excited about being able to finally read alone in a busy café or bar again after so many months of reading at home.

Books are full of answers to our unasked questions. This exercise makes that abstract concept tangible. To begin, make a list of questions—they can be as simple or as complex as you like.

For example:
Why are poets obsessed with the moon?
What are bones made out of?
Which blue is truest?

For each question, pull out a different book from your shelf. Without thinking about it, open whatever page you wish and read the first sentence your eye lands on.

Why are poets obsessed with the moon?
Now let us turn our attention to things over which we have no control at all, such as whether the sun will rise tomorrow.

What are bones made out of?
Canaries in the morning, orchestras in the afternoon, balloons at night.

Which blue is truest?
For your eyes only.

This week marks 33 weeks of Lovely Madness. We plan to continue sending out weekly prompts until we reach 50 exercises. At that point, we’re going to take a step back and decide what’s next. So if you were thinking about sharing with your friends or colleagues, now is the time!