A life hack for slowing down: libraries

📚 April 23rd is World Book Day, and also happens to be the date* a number of literary luminaries — from William Shakespeare to Miguel de Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) — all died
Also today: A year in the life of a poet laureate, an electrifying theory about bees, and why you should play video games at work
By Carly Rose Gillis

Where were you when you fell in love with books?

I was a child at my local library. The spicy-sweet smell of dust; the rough and cardboard-like feel of pages well worn by myriad readers before me; the provocative feeling of having unlimited access to stories wildly unlike my own — these instilled a deep reverence for books and libraries that I still try to tap into when I can.

On Medium, the library appreciation vibes are strong. Essayist Steph Lawson is in the midst of a 100-day personal experiment of visiting her local library. Her dispatches are not only beautifully crafted slice-of-life reads, but hold poignant celebrations of the tomes that surround her. And as the trend of banning books in schools continues in the United States, writer/therapist Amy Kaufman Burk muses on which books may have found safe harbor in her alma mater’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and reflects on how the space was an important refuge for her younger self as well: “I returned to Beinecke multiple times during those four years, through ups and downs, calms and storms, disappointments and triumphs.”

From a data perspective, the enthusiasm continues: I was thrilled to see a recent study by two professors at Portland State University who found that 54% of millennials and Gen Zers visited a library in the past year. One reason, according to the report (the whole thing is worth reading), is that these generations “still see libraries as a kind of oasis — a place where doomscrolling and information overload can be quieted, if temporarily. Perhaps Gen Zers’ and millennials’ library visits, like their embrace of flip phones and board games, are another life hack for slowing down.”

What else we’re reading

• Do you know what being a poet laureate actually entails? Wendy Van Camp, 2023 poet laureate of Anaheim, California, graciously shares her experience from last year, breaking down the whirlwind of social obligations (over two dozen live and virtual appearances!) and educational resource building that filled her days, such as the process of building an anthology of poetry (which she described as the “most impactful” part of the job) and designing community workshops that empower new and seasoned artists at local libraries. This workload came at a sacrifice — her personal relationships, time to write, her watercoloring hobby — which gave me a deeper understanding of the toll this role takes.
• Discovering this theory of how bees and flowers communicate has given me a renewed appreciation for our essential pollination promoters. Turns out, it’s all about electricity: “One interesting observation is that pollen will hop from the flower to the bee when a positively charged bee approaches the negatively charged flower.” And this interaction oh-so-slightly changes that flower’s electrical field, which acts as a signal to any new bees to avoid that flower, as it’s likely been depleted of nectar.

Your daily dose of practical wisdom (about team bonding)

Struggling to break out of a creative rut with your team at work? Set up a time to play a multiplayer video game together.

*An earlier version of this Daily Edition used “day” instead of “date.” We made this change because, as one of our readers Matthew Clapham pointed out, the actual day of death is different among authors depending on which calendar was used. For a deep dive on this, check out “Love & Literature — Catalonia’s Unique Take on World Book Day.”

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Edited and produced by Scott Lamb, Jon Gluck, and Harris Sockel

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