AN HOUR WITH MY BOOK THERAPIST

Reading fiction has always been essential to my life. It has helped me, more than any other genre, to get closer to understanding the meaning of life. As one of my favourite writers, Tim O'Brien, has said, "That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth."

For me, summertime is all about reading. But this year my usual go to sources weren't speaking to me - "20 Best Beach Reads", "The Ultimate Summer Reading List”, "Bill Gates Summer Reading List" ... an endless selection -- I hankered for something different.

I’d recently heard of “Bibliotherapy”, offered at English writer/philosopher Alain de Botton’s School of Life. He believed today’s school system had forgotten to teach much of the stuff we need to get by in the world. Out of his beliefs sprung The School of Life, and in 2008 it began offering innovative courses to help people deal with the daily emotional challenges of existence.

In addition to addressing such issues as how to find fulfilling work, how to master the art of relationships or how to understand one’s past– he was convinced by fellow Cambridge University classmates Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin to include a Bibliotherapy Clinic.

The two of them had long advocated the restorative power of reading fiction and had been recommending books for each other and to friends and family for many years to help “cure” life’s ailments.

I was immediately hooked by the idea of a consultation that “would guide me to life-changing, eye-opening but often elusive works of literature, both past and present, the books that truly have the power to enchant, enrich and inspire”, and I went online to book my therapy session.

https://www.theschooloflife.com/london/classroom/bibliotherapy/)

My first email correspondence with the Bibliotherapy Department explained how it worked. Appointments would take place during the work week between 10AM & 2PM- British Time. Speaking remotely by Skype was available if you couldn't make it in person and sessions would last around 40 minutes. Included was a two page questionnaire to be completed in advance of our session.

Some of the questions were predictable: your reading habits, likes and dislikes, if there was such a thing as the perfect book for you what would it be like, but then came the more therapeutic thought provoking questions, such as “What is occupying you at the moment?”, “What is missing in your life?”, and “Where do you see yourself in ten years’ time?”

I confess it was the “therapy” part that appealed the most to me. Always looking for “answers to life”, the idea of being “guided to books that can put their fingers on feelings that you may often have had but perhaps never understood so clearly before; books that open new perspectives and re-enchantment for you” was irresistible. And the fact they tended to focus on fiction appealed to me.

After a bit of back and forth via email, my bibliotherapist, Simona Lyons, who’s bio described her “as having spent as long as she can remember with her head in a book and spent over a decade running an independent bookshop in North London before starting with The School of Life in 2010”, and I were able to find a time for my session – 5:30 AM. Remember they operate on British Time. I didn't care – I couldn't wait to get started.

Last Friday the alarm went off at 5:00 AM – to ensure I’d be at my best and ready for Simona! She started by explaining that the idea was to chat in order to get a better sense of what I read for her to sketch out my unique “readerly” identity and to see what different directions my reading could take. I’d be given an instant prescription to take away and my full prescription would follow within a couple of days.

Simona asked, “Was I the type of reader who felt compelled to finish everything I picked up, or was I a serial abandoner? Kindle or hard copy? Poetry? What about fantasy?”

“If a dragon appears anywhere in the narrative it’s not an option!” was my reply to her last query.

I shared that over the last year I’d been drawn to books on the legacy of the AIDS crisis and reliving the horror many of my friends and my parents’ friends experienced. This lead to sharing my story about my unconventional upbringing by two gay men, adopted unofficially 50 years ago.

“Have you ever read ‘Fun Home’ by Alison Bechdel?” Simona asked.

Given my background she felt this would be a memoir that would interest me. It tells the story of Bechdel’s gay closeted father who committed suicide about the same time she came out as a lesbian. It was a form I had admitted to never having attempted or, more accurately, really didn't like – the graphic novel. Basically, it is a novel in comic-strip form. This was my first prescription, and not at all what I expected – a comic book?!?!!!??

“Come to it open minded”, explained Simona. “Balancing words and images would be using your brain in a different way.”

By now my forty minute session had gone on for well over an hour and sadly my time was up. Now I eagerly await my full prescription. If you’re curious about what books were recommended, please email me at sandra.pierce@rbc.com and just say BOOKS!

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” --- William Styron, Conversations with William Styron