Rest and Relaxation

The first book I finished reading in 2024 was Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, which is about a privileged young woman in New York who uses prescription drugs to sleep as much as possible. This was one of ten novels I read last year, in case any op-ed writers are keeping score. This was admittedly a dark choice of book to start the day after Christmas 2023, but Moshfegh had been on my to-read list and being on holiday break, I was in the right mindset to take on new fiction.

When I paid $13.77 (including tax) to “own this item,” the terms and conditions did not state that “Kindle Content is licensed, not sold, to you by the Content Provider” as it does now after the September 2024 passage of California Assembly Bill No. 2426. I appreciate the clarification, but wonder if this change had any connection with Amazon’s recent decision to stop allowing users to download Kindle files for backup.

Would it have been better had I used a library copy? Considering how publishers charge libraries more money to loan books to users for less time than a Kindle lease, I honestly don’t know. And when I checked today, the public library’s two audiobook copies, two ebook copies, and one hardback copy were all checked out.

I generally follow the principle that Alan Jacobs describes in his book, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, which is to Read at Whim. In most cases, I agree with Amanda Mull’s opinion that online shopping is much too fast and frictionless. But reading has never come easily to me, so when it comes to books, it helps to have access to a given book as soon as my interest appears.