The Bookish Life of boygenius

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Addison Rizer is a author and reader of something that may be described as bizarre, unhappy, or scary. She has an MA in Professional Writing and a BA in English. She writes for Book Riot and Publishers Weekly and is at all times on the lookout for extra methods to gush in regards to the books she loves. Find her revealed work or contact her on her web site or at addisonrizer at gmaildotcom.

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boygenius, an indie band comprised of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus, was fashioned in 2018. Their first album, The Record, got here out earlier this yr, and their second, The Rest, was launched October 13. Their music is massive on lyricism and wealthy with feelings. Each member brings their signature sound to the group, which was fashioned and named as an antithesis to the tortured genius male songwriter trope and the way in which the music business pits ladies towards one another.

But do you know, in response to their Rolling Stone profile, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker met as a result of of a e book? As they inform it, Baker walked into the dressing room earlier than a present they each have been taking part in and noticed Dacus studying The Portrait of a Lady. After chatting, Dacus ripped a web page out of the again matter of the e book to jot down down her electronic mail, the pair sending e book suggestions forwards and backwards. And this isn’t the one bookish factor about boygenius.

Together, the trio share a love for studying of their Rolling Stone profile, during which they share their ideas on Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg, Elif Batuman’s Either/Or, and Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch, to call a couple of.

They’re a readerly bunch collectively, it appears. So, let’s discover the bookish lives of boygenius’s three members.

Lucy Dacus

Dacus is probably the most public about her love for books, posting ceaselessly on her Instagram in regards to the books she’s learn, particularly between 2014 and 2018. She additionally runs an energetic Goodreads account the place she has, on the time of scripting this, 10 books on her currently-reading shelf, together with Cry Perfume by Sadie Dupuis, Earthsea by Ursula Ok. Leguin, and Springsteen’s Born to Run.

In an interview with Penguin, Dacus joked her first phrases have been “bible, bubble and book,” calling herself a voracious reader with an embosser that claims “From the Library of Lucy Dacus.” Which is one thing I believe many of us readers yearn for someday. She reveals she’s a multi-book-at-a-time reader and says she realized classes from Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke and James Baldwin’s Collected Essays.

In 2018, Vogue launched a summer season studying record from Dacus, the place she shares that she reads greater than she listens to music whereas on the highway as a strategy to escape the sameness of touring. Her summer season suggestions embrace No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July, Think on These Things by Krishnamurti, and Tenth of December by George Saunders, displaying her all-over-the-map tastes.

In an interview with Clash, she says her favourite e book is House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski and names Elena Ferrante, Maggie Nelson, Leo Tolstoy, and James Baldwin as fellow favorites. When requested if her literary loves affect her songwriting, she says she doesn’t pull materials from books however has realized loads from “eloquent writers and well-said words.”

Her love for literature is obvious and out loud, however she’s in good firm with fellow band members who even have been public about their love for books.

Julien Baker

Baker, in true bookworm style, studied English at Middle Tennessee State University whereas recording her album Little Oblivions. In an interview with Vulture in regards to the album, she put collectively a syllabus of types, pairing her songs with books they evoke. She recommends Minima Moralia by Theodor Adorno together with her tune “Hardline,” each a glance into the futility of the world and the accountability we have now for one another. With “Faith Healer,” she pairs The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon, each in their very own methods about how weak we’re to excessive ideologies. For “Relative Fiction,” she selected East of Eden by John Steinbeck; for “Crying World,” Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams; and for “Bloodshot,” the poem “I want a president” by Zoe Leonard.

In an interview with The Irish Times, Baker shares her favourite books, naming Exit West by Mohsin Hamid and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. She recommends The God of Small Things once more in an interview with Billboard, additionally naming Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, which was really useful by bandmate Dacus.

On the highway in 2018, in response to a Rumpus interview, Baker was studying Evicted by Matthew Desmond, which she described as “one of the best nonfiction books I have read in a very long time.”

In an Instagram publish from 2020, Baker shares a photograph of a paper excerpt of Walt Whitman’s preface to Leaves of Grass from 1865. In the caption, she shares the excerpt has moved together with her from dorm room to residence since she was a freshman in faculty.

Dacus additionally posted a photograph of Baker studying Robinson Crusoe, canine in lap, which is many a bookworm’s excellent afternoon exercise.

Phoebe Bridgers

Bridgers seemingly has much less bookish content material on the market, however that doesn’t imply she doesn’t speak about her favourite books every now and then. In an interview with Far Out Magazine publish her Punisher launch, she shares that studying helped her together with her writing abilities, naming The Night Kitchen by Sendak as a formative e book in her childhood. Her all-time favourite, although, is The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, a e book about the way in which trauma lives in our our bodies and tips on how to begin to heal. Other books on her favorites record embrace Modern Tarot by Michelle Tea, Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, and Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (which you’ll be able to see featured on one of Dacus’s Instagram e book posts, too!).

In the Rolling Stone profile, Bridgers shares her favourite Joan Didion quote: “Was anyone ever so young?” from Slouching Towards Bethlehem, a lyric that’s quoted of their tune “Anti-Curse.” More of the band’s music is presumed to have been impressed by literature, just like the riff on Letters to a Young Poet with their tune “Letters to an Old Poet,” for instance.

As you’ll be able to see, boygenius are a readerly bunch! For extra appears into the bookish lives of celebrities, try this take a look at the bookish life of Zendaya or this one on Pedro Pascal!

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