Purse Books

The mark of a good purse book is that you can jump in and out of it, a few pages at a time, and you’ve read the book so many times that it doesn’t matter. You can always remember what was happening moments before. It should have characters you like to hang out with or a setting that you like to visit. It should not be too long, and if it is too long, then the publisher should have found a way to make it purse-size.

My purse book during college was really my backpack book: Crime and Punishment. (I know, I was a real hoot.) Other purse books include a now very smushed up copy of Good Omens, and an equally scuffed Dirk Gently.

I finally got a new A4-sized purse. I went with the Tom Bihn Side Hustle, which is the tiniest smidgen larger than a piece of paper.

It has a little book-holding space inside, so I decided to use it for a purse book. But what to get? The natural choice was The Magicians because I sometimes call it my bible. But there are three Magicians books—how could I choose which one? In the end, I went with One Day by David Nicholls. It always makes me happy and sad to read it, and I can jump in and out of it quickly. But mostly, I love Em and Dex so much that I thought it would always fill me with confidence to have a paper version of them with me.