Dear readers, *this will be long (and fun!) because somebody in the office decided it was a good idea to let me do this lol follow your dreams
the mess i made searching for these recommendations (ur welcome)
The year began rainy, gray and quite sad, but amid all this tedious January darkness I'm happy to be writing to you from my new temporary apartment, a small wooden attic lent to me by a dear friend who's living abroad for a bit. I spend most nights going through shelves filled with tons of books he's collected over the years, flipping through pages and reading a few lines when on a work break.
Books have been a common language and built a bridge between the two of us: we lend each other books (and apparently houses!) then give them back filled with little handwritten notes tucked on the inside. These secret letters found between the pages are quite the gift and stretch our friendship into a profound intimacy, one that only small, seemingly meaningless bits of paper hold.
The art of writing notes and letters seems like it's slowly fading in our fast-paced world. So with St. Valentine's coming up (and since thankfully by 2026 we're all pretty certain that love isn't relegated only to romance) I'll be sharing a few correspondence books (or alike!) I loved an think you'll enjoy. Consider this my little love letter to you tucked inside a book.
I Love Dick, by Chris Kraus
Read this exactly a year ago while in Paris for a job, and had the greatest laugh alongside my best friend (at the time, she was reading Aliens and anorexia, also by phenomenal author Chris Kraus). Kraus' sharp wit, humour, and honesty bleed through the pages of this mad book, written as a collection of obsessive unsent letters to the author's crush, Dick, who shifts from love interest to a screen onto which Kraus questions about female desire, women writers and power dynamics within the literary world. The book ultimately turns away from Dick himself and toward the act of writing as survival and self-definition. (1. Don’t we all, deep down, care less about our crushes themselves and more about how they mirror what’s already in ourselves?) (2. Oh, what obsession arises from us, Dear Dick!) (Good books, apparently!)
Index Cards by Moyra Davey + images from her exhibition 'Visitor' the images as a letter
This incredible book by Canadian artist Moyra Davey is not a correspondence book, but rather an essay on art, photography and life, that reads like a diary full of short, fragmentary notes (note the title, index cards). I've included her work on here 1. because this is one of my all time favorite books and 2. some essays read like drafts of correspondences (do I remember it like this, really?). Davey is also known for her 'mailing' photographs, where images become the envelopes and the artwork itself: she folds, tapes, stamps, then sends them away.
A literate passion, Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller. from friends to lovers to friends
As a teen, I found solace in reading Anaïs Nin’s diaries, and stemming from my obsession with Nin, I found this book which collects her lifelong correspondence to author Henry Miller, her ill-fated lover and long-life friend. Her letters are full of doubts, longings, writer's advice, and became a shelter and a place where I sought the comfort I'd later find in friends. The book offers a great insight into their lives and bodies of work; to understand what they feared, what they longed for and how they sustained companionship throughout the years.
Envelope pomes by Emily Dickinson.
A classic collection of short poems and notes handwritten by Dickinson herself on the sleeves of envelopes. This was a gift from my mother’s partner, who also happened to be a poet, and even though we never fully understood each other, I found the edition given to me marvellous. Dickinson, far ahead of her time, breaks traditional poetic forms and turns envelopes into personal poems that offer both a good read and a great, beautiful artwork. (Also, quite a good gift idea for those who are not yet keen on poetry!).
Spring and Autumn Annals: A Celebration of the Seasons for Freddie, by Diane di Prima.
In the year following her friends Freddie's suicide in 1964, di Prima established a ritual of daily writing: she would light a stick of incense, sit down at her typewriter, and write continuously until the stick burned out, she’d write letters reflecting on grief, work and friendship addressed at her late friend. A brilliantly put diary that navigates love, loss, creation and portrays the role of a woman artist at the very center of the Beat generation (another great obsession to have when you're 15 in school, oopsss).
If you made it to here, hope you get 1/8 as excited as I was while writing this, and let me know if you've had the opportunity to get your hands on any of these books or if you read them before!
Enjoy your St. Valentine reading by candlelight by yourself, with a friend or a lover, and send a love letter with a book rec (or anything you love in fact!) my way too <3 Be sure my evening will be spent devouring a Jean Genet book I found on M.’s flat!
Love, books and bread forever (a personal holy trinity),
x
love!!!