Jason Emde, a fellow Canadian writer living in Japan, and podcast host of writers read their early sh*t told me about a wonderful NYT bestseller called The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. The author John Koenig makes up his own words for weird emotional maladies. It’s incredibly inventive. I bought a copy for me and another as a gift. My friend Michael Zizis told me, “I wish I’d written this book.” That’s the greatest praise one can give a book. That said, I can’t really sit down and read it cover to cover. It’s too melancholy. Or too intense and truncated. But I love to use it as an oracle… when I’m feeling gloomy or out of sorts I open it to a random page and see what pops up. It’s uncanny how right on the mood will be. Almost spooky. Koenig has definitely tapped into the zeitgeist. Here’s the latest one I pulled:
zeilschmerz
n. the dread of finally pursuing a lifelong dream, which requires you to put your true abilities out there to be tested on the open savannah, no longer protected inside the terrarium of hopes and delusions that you started up in kindergarten and kept sealed as long as you could.
German Ziel, goal + Schmerz, pain. Pronounced “zeel-schmerts.”
I think everyone needs a copy. It has the oddest effect of both acknowledging one’s pain while simultaneously cheering one up. John Koenig probably has a word for that too. Happy reading.
#fridayreads @dictionaryofobscuresorrows
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