Books smell good.

We know this for a fact. Not only because we can smell them ourselves, but because booksellers everywhere have a lot of evidence. Customers cross the threshold of a bookshop, breathe deep, and exhale with a hearty, “it just smells so good in here.”

As a life-long reader and bookseller of two years (so far), Annie Keig can confirm: nonfiction or fiction, paperback or hardback – they all smell delicious.

Annie has worn many hats. She’s been an aquarium guide, prep cook, retail worker, writing adviser, conference co-chair, field researcher, barista, writer, and bookstore event coordinator – but she has always been a book fiend.

She tells us what she’s reading now, what’s next, and what she recommends.

So take a big sniff.

Currently on my bedside table

Underland: A Deep Time Journey
by Robert MacFarlane
(Non-fiction, Natural history/science)

Underland is about history –geological history and human history all wrapped up in one fabulous book. I’m loving this read as a self proclaimed science nerd that would like to get into a bit more human history.
John Duke from Unity books says, “Robert Macfarlane, in describing landscapes on the page, renders them visceral in the mind, while seated in a deep, transcendent sense of time. Though rooted in rock and earth, this is intimate writing with the power to illuminate and expand human experience.” Who can say no to that?

Next on my list

Somewhere: Women’s Stories of Migration
by Lorna Jane Harvey
(Non-fiction, gender politics/Essays)

Despite the halt of international travel, migration is still at the forefront of the global conversation. In the midst of political unrest, a global pandemic, and climate change, Lorna Jane Harvey brings us Somewhere: Women’s Stories of Migration, a book of 20 different women’s stories of migration or displacement.

A book I’ll read again and again

Jitterbug Perfume
by Tom Robbins
(Fiction)

It’s hard to explain Tom Robbins. Imagine Dr Seuss if he boogied around the 70s writing raunchy novels that featured fantastical humans (or flamingos and ancient gods) as his main characters instead of whimsical creatures. Jitterbug Perfume is four narratives that all occur at different times and places, and all intertwine. They centre around these central themes: immortality, perfume, beets, and the god Pan (who has spectacularly bad BO).

The last book I recommended

No time to Spare
by Ursula K. Le Guin
(Non-fiction, Essay)

For the reader that’s feeling a good mix of melancholy and humours about the current state of affairs, Ursula K. Le Guin writes about having more years behind her than she has in front of her, the passage of time, and simple moments in life. I just recommended this book to my Mum and she loved it.

All these books are available at Unity Books

Sniff out a good read