THE BOOKS THAT ARE TEACHING ME HOW TO SLOW DOWN
I have a problem where everything I enjoy eventually becomes an assignment.
Walking became steps. Fashion became work. The internet is obviously work. Even relaxing somehow became something I felt like I needed to be good at.
I refuse to do that to reading.
Lately, I’ve been leaving books around my apartment and picking them up whenever I feel like it. Ten pages before bed. Four pages while drinking coffee. Sometimes I read the same paragraph three times because my brain wandered off somewhere around sentence two. Nobody is grading me. There will not be a quiz.
And weirdly, that has made me want to read more.
The books I keep reaching for tend to sit somewhere between fashion, culture, memoir, and people simply paying very close attention to their own lives. I like reading about how somebody else saw the world before everything had to be condensed into a carousel, a caption, or a 45-second explanation.
Maybe that’s what I’ve been missing.
Not information. Not another way to optimize myself. Just enough time with one thought to actually have another one.
These are the books currently helping me do that.
5 Books We’re Recommending (Because Group Chats Can’t Raise You)
1. Influence by Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen
Why: It’s not a memoir, it’s a mood. Proof that you can say very little, mean everything, and still change culture. Read this if you’re allergic to oversharing but deeply committed to taste. Shop here.
2. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Why: Every girl needs at least one book that makes her say, “Wait… is it me?” A classic for feeling too much, thinking too hard, and realizing you’re not alone in it. Shop here.
3. Just Kids by Patti Smith
Why: For the girls romanticizing their creative era — struggling, dreaming, falling in love with art and people who don’t text back. It makes being broke feel poetic (temporarily). Shop here.
4. Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
Why: If emotional detachment were a personality trait. Short, sharp, devastating — perfect for girls who love Los Angeles, existential dread, and a good stare into the void. Shop here.
5. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Why: For when life gets real and you realize being “strong” is actually just continuing to show up. Not light reading, but essential — especially for learning how to sit with grief instead of glamorizing it. Shop here.
Reading won’t fix your life, but it will give you better language for it.
