Ross Gay is a national treasure. His ability to find joy in moments, people, and creatures big and small is so entertaining and heartwarming. Reading these essays felt like opening letters from a trusted friend. Ross' voice is accessible, smart, empathetic, and lyrical. This was my fourth book of his this year and Ross Gay has become one of my favorite authors. Discovering his work has been a big personal delight in an otherwise tumultuous year.

I had read and enjoyed Ross Gay's "The Book of Delights" so I was definitely ready for more. I have to say I wasn't QUITE as delighted this time around, perhaps inevitably for a sequel or maybe because I read the book in a few sittings this time rather than slowly over months as I did the last one--these delights are probably best as small bites. In any case, both the original and this sequel have had the effect of making me consciously aware of and on the lookout for the many delights in my own everyday life, and for that alone they are worth the price of purchase.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Algonquin Books for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

I'll read anything Ross Gay writes - and The Book of (More) Delights was even more delightful than his earlier books. He has a wonderful way of seeing the world, and I want to embody his mindset more through life.

This is a sequel to Ross Gay's earlier book, The Book of Delights, and is similarly, as the name suggests, a collection of essays in which the author talks about his everyday delights. Some are random, some are well thought out, some make you nostalgic, some put a big smile on your face, and some others will make you wonder if everyone in the world is living the exact same life. Many are heartwarming and will settle in your heart for eternity.

But my gripe with this book - one I couldn't ignore - is that the writing felt disjointed to me, like the author kept stacking on things he kept remembering to the ends of sentences. That and that alone put me off the writing, bringing me to a grinding halt at 81%. The afterthought-style is so overwhelming that despite me being close to finishing the book, I just couldn't go on.

But that doesn't mean the book won't work for you. If you don't mind this kind of lengthy writing, if you want to read about positive, affirming delights, you should definitely try this one.

After hearing about this book on a podcast, I needed to read it. Within its pages I found a reminder of how important it is to pay attention to our natural world. To keep my eyes open to the beauty that can be easily overlooked. True delightful read.

I LOVED The Book of Delights so I was so excited to pick this one up! Much like the first book, the short essays had the same charm. It’s always fun to see how an essay starts but then lands in a different spot. I simply love how Ross Gay discusses being delighted in all its iterations and forms. The prose had a very familiar feeling to it, and I felt extremely comforted throughout many parts of the book. I will say, that unlike the first book, some of the essays did fall flat for me. Nevertheless, I did enjoy my time with this one.

Not quite as good as the first volume or inciting joy, but still, Ross Gay’s writing is both conversational and beautifully crafted, and I’ll continue to eagerly read everything he writes.

I am going to tell you that The Book of (More) Delights by Ross Gay was life altering for me. And, I’m not going to mean it in the way some book bloggers throw around the phrase “life altering” when they’re talking about a raunchy romance novel and you wonder just how much life altering that could provide and what was that life altering and do I really, really, want to know? What I mean is that in the two weeks I’ve taken to read the book, I have changed and continue to change. This book has brought something back into my life.

You may wonder why, for a reader like me who devours books like popcorn, it took me two weeks to read The Book of (More) Delights, I will tell you that it wouldn’t have–normally. I put the brakes on as I was reading because savoring words and experiences is something you must do when the quality demands it. To read this book quickly would have diminished its impact. So I chose to savor and read other books while slowly enjoying this one.

While we’re all acquainted with the idea of being grateful everyday, looking for the small things, the simple things, and finding joy, it doesn’t always take. Sometimes you need someone who has been doing it, living it, to show you the way or remind you of the way because sometimes we forget how to look, live, be. The Book of (More) Delights has done that for me.

This book has given me the gift of writing again because it made me think. It made me think about thinking, which is not, despite how it seems, over-thinking unless one does it far too long about something that just doesn’t need to be thought about that much. But rather about how I think and my thoughts and what those thoughts have become in the past seven years. That maybe I don’t need to keep the thoughts and way of thinking that judge or cancel or loom toward arrogance.

It made me think about people, the ones who stand out because they aren’t afraid of being different, who bring flavor and guidance to our lives by the mere fact of their otherness. How being different is not a curse.

The joy of throwing a child into the air and hearing the giggles, of putting ungloved hands into the soil as you garden to feel that texture of cold earth, coffee made your favorite way, exercising to feel the life in your body, the freedom, reading good books and listening to good people, and hearing old songs that make you dance in your chair, and being around people you love and who love you. These are the experiences Ross Gay shares with us through his essays, as well as others. Some more heartfelt, sad, angry than you might expect.

After reading a few essays, I texted a friend to recommend the book for his mother, although later I saw the f-bomb and had to find out if she would be put off because she is older and despite keeping current might be old-school enough to think another word might have sufficed. He told me it would be fine as long as its use was justifiable–and it was. Because sometimes, even in a book of delights, if you’re angry enough, no other word will do.

I am going to buy The Book of (More) Delights and the first, The Book of Delights (which I haven’t read), for myself because while I am not a re-reader, much, this I will re-read. And I’m also going to buy the set as gifts because delights, especially these, are meant to be shared.

Thank you to Algonquin for sending me a copy and allowing me to be a part of this book tour.

Blog Tour September 19

The 19th century English poet William Wordsworth wrote, "The World is too much with us." He spoke of the consequences of the Industrial Revolution. I think if he could experience the "always-on" globalization of this early 21st century, he might shout that in all caps. For unless we live completely off-the-grid, the world (technology and all its attention-grabbing concomitants) remains ahold of us 24/7/365. Yet poet and Ross Gay gently suggests a different (perhaps more Zen-like approach). In his essay collection THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS and his newest work, THE BOOK OF (MORE) DELIGHTS, Professor Gay infuses daily routine with exceptional lyricism, philosophy, gratitude, all in service to a rich interior life, one in which life in all its richness and continuum is indeed, a Delight.

I eagerly anticipate anything Ross Gay writes, because his work means so much to me. I remember when rereading Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude reversed a depressive spell. I remember rereading The Book of Delights when I was alone in the early days of the pandemic. This one is probably the most widely beloved of his works, so he wrote a sequel. It’s the same concept as the original: starting on his forty-seventh birthday in 2021, Gay spent a year writing “essayettes” on things that delighted him. They don’t come every day, but the birthdays are a great frame for gratitude. In the last one, Gay writes, “if you’re lucky, on your birthday you get to say thank you over and over.”

The delights are discursive, not always about what sparks the essay. I felt that, even more than in the first book, Gay reached back in time, thinking frequently about his childhood (and with an expansive gratitude for family). Ross Gay’s syntax, in poetry and prose alike, is characterizes by discursion—there’s nothing like a Ross Gay parenthetical, blooming into its own garden within a sentence that requires at least ten breaths to get through.

This wasn’t quite to the heights of the first book, which felt like a revelation to me, but I still loved it. Sometimes I disagreed with Gay, which was part of the fun. In 2021-22, many of my own delights and fears had to do with Covid, which only infrequently features here, which felt a bit weird. What did occur frequently were phrases that lifted my heart—as in, I could physically feel my heart rate changing.

“For the record, I do not think of this as looking on the bright side. I think of it as looking at everything.”

I can see how the work of Gerald Stern influenced Ross Gay’s essayettes and I’m delighted to learn that Gay repeatedly reads the work of John Edgar Wideman. Gay’s love of reading and his sharing of book titles, a delight we both share, is one reason, while after reading his first book of delights, that title a delicious allusion to Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, I’m back for more.

Gay remains the urban gardener, frequenter of his favorite coffee spots, at forty-seven still finding time for a game of hoops on neighborhood courts, and to hang out with friends at poetry events and his companion at home and on road trips. Accounts in his journal pretty much brings a delight, occasionally, hard found, when some negative event threatens to dismantle his mood, reminding us even trails with the most breathtaking views have exposed roots underfoot.

Ross Gay is back with a second book of essays on finding delight in daily life.

After completing his Book of Delights, Gay realized that the practice of daily essays could be a lifelong habit and continued the project.

The essays are quickly written by hand and unedited so that their immediacy and casualness feels like a conversation, complete with interrupting asides and clarifications.

I enjoyed so many of these essays. But others I was unable to connect with, being too old, too ignorant of sports or music that brings him delight. I lived just north of his Pennsylvania hometown for a few years and got a kick out of knowing the references.

He delights in his childhood friend and in finding the perfect notebook or spoon or cup. He puzzles over cars parked in the middle of the street and thinks about how boys rarely smile, as if there was a prohibition.

“Delight compels us to share,” Gay asserts, reflecting on his “basket of delights,” the letters received from readers of his book, particularly the one signed off with “Love.”

There is an Appendix of Brief Delights, pages of run-on things that many of us also delight in: walking arm-in-arm, goldfinches nesting in a flower basket, the word belong, walking at night in the dark. Also there is For Further Reading, a sharing of the books Gay “was in conversation” with while writing, some of which he mentions in the essays.

I commend anyone who helps us to focus on the every day encounters that uplift us.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

Part diary/memoir/journal and part social commentary. A sort of journal type book of essays of the things that the author found delightful. Obviously, what each of us finds delightful will be wide and varied, Gay has written his down here for all of us to share and enjoy. A book that is easy to dip
In a out of…

4.5 stars. Thank you to Net Galley and Algonquin Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. A delight this certainly is! Once again, the author finds a way to find the many delights in life from the mundane to serendipitous. I believe it's through his gifts of staying present and really noticing the facets in a moment. His writing beautifully simple and familiar as if hearing a story told by a friend, filled with emotion and discovery. There is appreciation, gratitude and love throughout, even when he encounters frustration and anger. This book is gift and a reminder to shift our perspective by hanging out for a bit to experience life's delights. I smiled throughout and even laughed out loud which is unusual for me. Loved it!

Ross Gay has perfected the concept of delight, showing readers that delight can be found in the smallest moments, of both happiness and sadness, and in place one couldn’t believe possible. Having read his first Book of Delights, I can also say that his writing has grown more fluid and comfortable in this follow-up, with more experimentation and fun in the act of writing.

Ross Gay is my first favorite. The very best. I like to read and savor his essays, read one a day and then pour over the end matter. It is a joy to read and a reminder to look for the delights around you in your own life. These books of delights are books to come back to again and again.

These delightful essayettes are ideal for reading while you watch the world go by. Bring the Book of (More) Delights to the airport, a café, or your front porch.

The Book of More Delights
By Ross Gay
Pub Date: September 19, 2023
Algonquin
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
This book is the sequel to The book of Delights, I enjoyed this book as much as I did the first one. Great collection of essays. I had to read this book in small doses to fully appreciate it. I’m recommending this book,
4 stars

Ross Gay is an auto-read for me (that's an autobuy for anticapitalists!), so i was thrilled to see this ARC. I really loved it when i settled into it--but i didn't settle in as early as i usually do to his books. I was more than halfway through before i really got into it, but it's just such a joy, and with really lovely footnotes (if they are numbered the same when the actual book comes out, number 9 makes me want to edit one of my tattoos). It feels even windier than *The Book of Delights* and *Inciting Joy* (he suggests calling it *The Book of Digressions*, which is... not wrong), but his writing makes me love him and the world more than before i read it.

If you're only going to read one Ross Gay book, i wouldn't make it this one (i think i might love *inciting joy* most?), but i suggest reading every book he writes so this is definitely worth it!

This was a NetGalley ARC.

Ross Gay has given us another collection of treasures. In each essay, he walks the reader through an ordinary 21st c. American experience, like eating in a restaurant or hearing music from cars passing by. In his voice, these simple daily events become sources of delight and joy.

Finding the pebbles of grace, pleasure, and meaning strewn through life helps us connect to joy in our everyday. Ross Gay shows us how.

So much gratitude to the author, to Algonquin Books, and to NetGalley for a free copy for review.