by Dan Ketchum
Sometimes, two great flavors taste great together. According to the University of Sussex and Reading Partners, reading for just six minutes reduces heart rate, muscle tension and stress levels, while the Journal of Cannabis Research reports that 95.51% of cannabis users experience a decrease in stress-related feelings after inhaling the flower. Whether you read to learn, take flights of fancy or just to unwind, a good book, the right strain and a warm beverage might just be your ticket to paradise — and we have a few suggestions for starting your journey.
“The Colors of Nature” by Alison Hawthorne Deming and Lauret Savoy
On those days when you can’t experience nature, taking a mental trip outdoors from the comfort of your favorite reading chair is the next best thing. The Los Angeles Times calls this digestible collection of essays “a marvelous, textured demonstration of the immense benefits of diversity in meeting great challenges.” Pair this earthy anthology with the piney sativa strains, which’ll help put you in a clear headspace for contemplating how identity intersects with environmental awareness.
The Wormwood Trilogy by Tade Thompson
Consisting of “Rosewater,” “The Rosewater Insurrection” and “The Rosewater Redemption,” Tade Thompson’s Afrofuturist Wormwood Trilogy will set you up for the long haul, but you might blow through it quicker than you expect. From a futuristic Nigeria, soak in the cyberpunk-flavored tale of a fungal alien being reshaping the globe by swallowing earth’s most dominant cities whole. The wildly inventive, genre-smashing Wormwood books made NPR’s list of the 50 best sci-fi and fantasy books of the past decade for good reason.
“Daisy Jones & the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Whether it’s for accessibility, convenience or relaxation reasons, a well-told audiobook can be truly transportive. In this case, the voices of Jennifer Beals, Judy Greer and Pablo Schreiber — performing Reid’s glowing language — transport you to a freewheeling slice of 1970s rock n’ roll culture by way of a fictional band that feels downright real, from the sex to the drugs to the egos. Pair it with a focused, creative Houdini triple-strain pen to help crystallize the imagery.
“No One Is Talking About This” by Patricia Lockwood
One effective method for pairing of-the-moment nonfiction issues with cannabis? Frame it in colorful, scrappy, lively fiction. That’s just what “No One Is Talking About This” does, rattling off the profound tale of a viral celeb whose online presence takes her around the world on the back of frivolity until real life tragedy grounds her in revelatory ways. Epistolary style injects this boundary-breaker with memes and texts alongside traditional paragraphs. Esquire says it’ll “scrape your guts out, in the best way possible,” and sometimes, that’s just what we need.
“The Acid House” by Irvine Welsh
No matter the strain you choose, cannabis is well loved for its ability to heighten the imagery in our mind’s eye, and “Trainspotting” author Irvine Welsh provides that eye with so very much to see, from footie hooligans to acid trips to protagonists literally getting struck by lightning (which is kind of what reading this feels like). Among the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Margaret Atwood and Roald Dahl, The Independent dubs “The Acid House” one of the greatest short story collections ever written.
“To the Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf
There’s always time for classics, and especially when you’re experiencing positive shifts in consciousness, “To the Lighthouse” is a perfect fit. Woolf’s psychologically introspective 1927 novel deftly jumps from the consciousness of one character to another as she explores themes of loss and subjectivity amid the Scottish countryside. As the British Library puts it, “Lighthouse” “ultimately asks the reader to reflect on their own ever-changing experience of being in the world.”
“Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robin Wall Kimmerer describes her book as consisting of three strands: “indigenous ways of knowing, scientific knowledge and the story of an Anishinabekwe scientist trying to bring them together in service to what matters the most.” “Sweetgrass” explores how humans forge relationships with the natural world, and it comes from a place of authentic mind and heart — Kimmerer herself is a biologist and a member of the Potawatomi Nation.
“Norse Mythology” by Neil Gaiman
From the Sandman series to “American Gods,” Neil Gaiman has always loved playing with mythology, toying with a distinct combo of grandiose visions and philosophical quirks that pairs perfectly with a nighttime high. Here, Gaiman presents his melodramatic reinterpretation of the Norse gods with sweetly digestible prose and wonderfully human characterizations, prompting The Washington Post to call the work “a gripping, suspenseful and quite wonderful reworking of those famous tales” that’ll nimbly draw you in with “the rhythm of its glinting prose.”
“The Comfort Book” by Matt Haig
Two recommendations for a balanced day: the serenity of a CBD-THC blend and Matt Haig’s voice reading you the audio version of his “The Comfort Book,” which New York magazine calls one of the best audiobooks of 2021. Perfectly digestible in 10-minute bits, this 3-hour-ish listen delivers mental health-oriented self-help in an unpretentious, witty and anecdote-rich container that focuses on imagination and optimism — which is something just about every person on earth needs to hear.
Dan Ketchum is an LA-based freelance lifestyle, fashion, health and food writer with more than a decade of experience. He’s been fortunate enough to collaborate and publish with companies such as FOCL, Vitagenne, Livestrong, Reign Together, Out East Rosé, SFGate, The Seattle Times and more.
References:
Reading Partners – Four Compelling Reasons To Shut off Your Screen and Open a Good Book
Esquire – The 40 Best Books of 2021 (So Far)
NPR – NPR Books Summer Poll 2021: A Decade of Great Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Libro – Top 20 Most Recommended Audiobooks of All Time
Los Angeles Times – 21 New and Classic Books To Keep You in Touch With the Natural World
New York – 7 Great Audiobooks To Listen to This Month
Independent – The Top 20 Short Story Collections
The British Library – An Introduction to “To the Lighthouse”
The Washington Post – Neil Gaiman’s Suspenseful and Surprising “Norse Mythology”