Come read with me… Interview with Margate author Daisy Buchanan
Columnist Zahra Barri chats to Margate author Daisy Buchanan about Reading Yourself Happy, breaking the spell of social media and studying hip-hop
Daisy Buchanan by Sarah Kate Photography
Daisy Buchanan has written a book about books. Is that like when Collin wrote words about words (the dictionary), I hear you ask. No. Or when Seinfeld’s Kramer made a coffee-table book about coffee-table books? Also, no. For Read Yourself Happy is so much more than a book about books.
It’s really about the synergy between reading and improved mental health. This is Buchanan’s call to action: reading enables us with the power to rid ourselves of anxiety - transforming us from within.
In a world where most of our reading comes from instantly-dismissed social media posts, Buchanan reminds us of the importance of getting lost in a story (not an Instagram story). She is more than qualified to author this book, for she is not only a voracious reader but also an exceptional writer.
Fusing her encyclopaedic literary know-how with first-hand experience of suffering from anxiety, she harmonises the constant and indisputable links between reading and well-being.
The thing about this book is that it proves its own hypothesis, because while reading it I became happier and calmer, while the screen-scroll dent in my thumb rapidly reduced in depth. I owe this woman my thumb! Here’s our literary chat…
1. You’re a literary powerhouse! Bestselling author, long-listed for the CWIP prize, of both fiction and non-fiction and a ghost writer for celebrity memoirs. What do you prefer?
Ultimately, if anyone said ‘You’re only allowed to write one more kind of book, we’re taking the others away’, I’d choose fiction. I love losing myself in the universe of a novel - I think fiction is my favourite thing to write because it’s my favourite thing to read. That said, I loved writing Read Yourself Happy because it gave me the chance to celebrate something I feel so passionately about, and I love talking and writing about the books I adore!
2. I adored it. I loved your whole philosophy that reading is the antidote to anxiety. I wish I knew that before I forked out hundreds of pounds on CBT therapy, gong baths and acupuncture. Not only do you brand reading as the antidote to anxiety but the antidote to social media. What inspired you to write it?
I wrote a short book called Burn Before Reading about burnout and how making time for my reading habit helped me to survive, and even thrive, during lockdown. When I was little, I instinctively reached for stories when I was struggling. I don’t think we’ve ever needed the magic of reading more. And I think so many people feel that it’s something they should do, rather than being something they want to do. I feel so passionately about reading for pleasure and I want people to read for themselves and to discover the wonderful things that happen when you build that core of calm into your day. I also want readers to know that reading is hard when you’re out of the habit, but it’s well worth persevering with!
3. It’s also divided into different chapters for different moods, such as ‘read yourself calmer’, ‘read yourself funnier’ and the one that I took the most notes on, ‘read yourself sexier’. As a comedian, people are surprised to hear that I love a book that makes you cry. Do you have a favourite book that surprises people?
Great question! The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop, by Jonathan Abrams. I’ve been talking about it to everyone I know and I’m discovering that a lot of people aren’t quite as interested in hip-hop as I am, which is a surprise to me! (I mean, come on! Who doesn’t want a 10,000-word deep-dive into Roxanne’s Revenge?!)
4. Your podcast, You’re Booked, interviews writers on their favourite books. Who has been your favourite guest and which book has been discussed the most?
I’d have to say Marian Keyes because she’s my very favourite writer ever - and she’s so warm, generous and gorgeous and enthusiastic and smart. She inspires me as a writer, and with her Big Fan Energy. Bookwise - the work of Marian Keyes?! Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood has been coming up a lot, I haven’t read it yet. One of my very favourite recommendations from a guest came from Bella Mackie, who had been reading Chopin in Kentucky by Elizabeth Heichelbech. Loved it.
5. Read Yourself Happy is incredibly well researched from both a literary and mental-health perspective. What was your favourite stat or fact you discovered?
Favourite isn’t quite the right word, but this is the one that sticks in my brain: psychology professor Alison Holman studied a group of people who watched six hours or more of news every day for a week after the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 and found that as a result they were more traumatised than the people who were actually there. What we allow into our brains has the most enormous impact on us and our mental well-being. A reading habit gives us back some control when it comes to making our minds a positive, safe place for us to live in.
6. What books or authors are your inspirations?
MARIAN KEYES! But also Sophie Kinsella because her writing is energetic and hilarious. Anne Lamott, especially Bird by Bird, because she’s patient, wise and kind. Anita Brookner because she’s so sharp and unafraid when it comes to observing people - and she’s so funny. And she started writing novels quite late in life - I’m about to turn 40 and I’m very excited by people who do their best work after 50. And I love any book where nothing happens. It feels like permission to write quietly.
7. Your Substack Creative Confidence Clinic inspires both readers and writers. Now you’re doing writing mentorship retreats in Greece - tell us more.
The Greek Island Retreat is a Read Yourself Happy retreat with Aweventurer at the end of September, and there are still places left! I love a retreat and this is going to be a space for people who love the message of the book and want even more of a sense of the way that reading can make us calmer and more joyful and change our lives. Basically, every retreat I’ve ever been on has resulted in one of the all-time great WhatsApp groups. I think it’s going to be the trip of a lifetime and it’s a way for all of us introverts to make friends.
8. Finally, favourite Kent literary fact/activity/thing?
I was completely stuck in the middle of [writing] Insatiable and I didn’t know how to end it, and I worked it out as I walked past the TS Eliot shelter, in the pounding rain, soaked and sweaty from the gym and carrying two heavy Bags for Life from Morrisons. That, and interviewing Tessa Hadley for Margate Bookie.
Read Yourself Happy is published by Penguin (£16.99)
FOR THE WEB https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/772156/read-yourself-happy-by-daisy-buchanan/
ABOUT ZAHRA BARRI
Comedy Women in Print runner-up Zahra is an Egyptian-Irish writer, comedian and PhD researcher. She has featured on and in Channel 4’s Only Jokes a Muslim Can Tell, BBC Radio and Harper’s Bazaar Arabia. Her debut novel Daughters of the Nile won the Unbound Firsts Writers of Colour competition and is “a bold multi-generational debut, exploring themes of queerness, revolution and Islamic sisterhood”. Daughters of the Nile by Zahra Barri is published by Unbound (£9.99) - Substack @zahrabarri
