The Book of Delights Essays

There's a really lovely book by the author, Ross Gay, called The Book of Delights. And he used a delight practice where every day he not only had to find a delight, but write a short essay about it because he's an author. And it's just hilarious. It's like one of my favorite books.

I heard a rumor from you just now that you actually, and you've never told me this before in the history of our lives together, but that you are so inspired by the Ross Gay book, the book of delights that you actually wrote a teeny essayette about a delight in your life.

He portrays delight and joy as necessary for our very survival and also as acts of resistance.

He has written a book called The Book of Delights in which he cataloged one item or experience every day that gave him delight.

I was just taking a walk and having a delightful day. And I was like, oh I should write a little essay about this moment of delight. And then very quickly it was sort of given to me by the wind or something to do it every day for a year right a short essay about something that delights you.

I interview this author Ross Gay who has this book called the Book of Delights and he decided that every day for a whole year he'd write a new essay on something that delighted him.

so you define these delights every single day and they're kind of funny, there things like, you know, lilacs are a delight and he is one that's like trust on planes, like why don't people steal people stuff on trains, like that's kind of a delight.

I interview this author Ross Gay who has this book called the Book of Delights and he decided that every day for a whole year he'd write a new essay on something that delighted him

Beginning with his cherished essay collection, The Book of Delights, he began to accompany many in learning, I would say, as an everyday spiritual discipline to practice delight and cultivate joy.

So you grew up between, you were born in Youngstown, Ohio and grew up in Leavittown, Pennsylvania. A lineage of farmers and teachers. So interesting to me also, your parents were a mixed race couple. I guess they got married in the era of Loving vs. Virginia.

Your last two books are the Book of Delights and the Catalog of Unabashed Gratitudes.

You promised yourself to write a mini essay every day starting on your 42nd birthday, going to your 43rd.

And you love words and I love words, so I just want to... We're going to get into the book, but I'll just tease this out because I did not know that the word essay in French means to try or to attempt.

This is from the Book of Delights. Yeah. Among the most beautiful things I've ever heard anyone say came from my student Bethany, talking about her pedagogical aspirations or ethos, how she wanted to be as a teacher, and what she wanted her classrooms to be.

It's like you developed a delight radar or a delight muscle.

That was really quick, you know? And I wasn't sure, like, I was a little bit like, this would be hard, you know, to just like have something delightful happen every day, you know?

how quickly the, the study of delight made delight more evident.