Awake!: A Reader for the Sleepless

by Steven Lee Beeber

Although millions of books have served to help the sleepless relax, Awake! will make sleeplessness fun. Fiction (including previously unpublished stories by Aimee Bender and Arthur Bradford); essays (from Yale neurobiologists to Priscella Becker); the probably true fictions (like Jonathan Ames's masturbation solution to insomnia); comics (Howard Cruse, Seth Tobocman); poetry (Charles Simic, Rebecca Wolff); Davy Rothbart of FOUND MAgazine even chips in some found texts; and the editor finds some excerpts from the blogosphere — all combine to offer a nighttime companion for the sleepless reader.

Genres: Anthologies, Nonfiction

300 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 2007

Reviews

[Melanie]

At night I am an insomniac...at daytime I want to sleep and dream.
Maybe if I read this book at daytime I get tired so I can sleep at night.

[Steven Beeber]

Check out the following article in Salon, which refers to AWAKE contributor Roger Ekirch's groundbreaking research into sleep habits before the 20th century. As Ekirch discusses at length in AWAKE, people generally slept in two four-hour shifts, interrupted by a two-hour period of wakefulness. The period of wakefulness was called "The Watch" and was spent either praying, making love or visiting neighbors.

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/16/the_8...

[J. Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely not a sleeping-aid, this anthology captures the raw, jarring atmosphere of a night awake. The variety of the entries, ranging from fiction, to essays, to cartoons, to pictorials, is a boon for the scattered mind of the insomniac. Some subject matter may be a little abstract for the same, however.

[Roslyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of poems and short stories. True stories about people living with insomnia. Abstract and amusing.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd just like to iterate what a genius Aimee Bender is.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eclectic free-wheeling trip through the endless confusion, compulsions and complexes that those of us who find ourselves counting ceiling tiles late at night know all too well.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great theme and writing!

[Steven Brykman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially love the Sleep Study story! Hilarious!!

[Cortney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly a snooze. A couple standout pieces, but full of boring rants about how writers can't sleep. I already knew that. And some godawful poetry that I might have secretly written myself in seventh grade.