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Big Reader: Essays
A book about memory, loss, and a love of books from one of Canada's finest essayists
Ever since childhood, Susan Olding has been a big reader, never without a book on the go. Not surprising, then, that she turns to the library to read her own life. From the dissolution of her marriage to the forging of a tentative relationship with her new partner's daughter, from discovering Toronto as a young undergrad to, years later, watching her mother slowly go through every experience, Olding crafts exquisite, searingly honest essays about what it means to be human, to be a woman--and to be a reader.
Big Reader is a brilliant, achingly beautiful collection about the slipperiness of memory and identity, the enduring legacy of loss, and the nuanced disappointments and joys of a reading life.
Ever since childhood, Susan Olding has been a big reader, never without a book on the go. Not surprising, then, that she turns to the library to read her own life. From the dissolution of her marriage to the forging of a tentative relationship with her new partner's daughter, from discovering Toronto as a young undergrad to, years later, watching her mother slowly go through every experience, Olding crafts exquisite, searingly honest essays about what it means to be human, to be a woman--and to be a reader.
Big Reader is a brilliant, achingly beautiful collection about the slipperiness of memory and identity, the enduring legacy of loss, and the nuanced disappointments and joys of a reading life.
- GenresCanadaNonfictionEssays
304 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 1, 2021
5 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 12, 2021
I have to really like an author's voice to read an entire single-author collection of essays--and I love Olding's. Warmly intelligent, gracefully analytical, and deeply human, I first discovered her when I accepted her essay for publication in my anthology "Body Breakdowns: Tales of Illness and Recovery." I savoured each one of her essays in this collection, delighting in our commonalities (yes, I love Keats too! yes, I have "East of the Sun and West of the Moon"!) and being privy to the intimacies of her life as they are braided together with the books she loves and the reading that shapes and is shaped by the events of her inner and outer life.
June 7, 2022
A book of essays about reading? Sign me up! It will come as no surprise that I loved Big Reader by Susan Olding. Each piece revolves around a particular book, a form of reading, a page in the life of being a writer, and reading experiences evolving over a lifetime. There are even a few poems thrown in, as well as an essay at the end that summarizes each section in relation to the author’s personal library. There is so much to enjoy, and it’s all wrapped in a beautifully-designed package with a leaf motif that runs through it. Many of the books discussed are classics, but Olding attempts to weave in modern-day examples as much as possible so it feels like a balanced, fair portrayal of a life spent reading books – a life path I can most certainly relate to.
Book Summary
Arranged into a Prologue, Verso, Hinge, Recto, Epilogue and Addenda are 22 different pieces, some longer at 20+ pages, while others are a simple one-page poem. We begin with a poem from Ursula K. Le Guin all about leaves which is a motif spread throughout, and then a short meditation on the exciting possibilities that reading brings us as children, tucked into bed with a flashlight late into the night. One of my favourite essays is “In Anna Karenina Furs”, the first long form essay of the collection. It tells the story of the author’s dissolution of her first marriage alongside a new and burgeoning relationship, set amongst the chapters of the famous titular novel as Olding draws parallels and references to Anna’s experiences. We come full circle to the very end of the book, where Olding analyzes Middlemarch by George Eliot, and the consequences of her version of a ‘fallen woman’ within her own life’s circumstances. One essay talks about the strained relationship she has with her father, running parallel to explanations of different kinds of blood types, how they were discovered, and Japan’s obsession with placing people in personality categories based on their blood type. There are a vast array of topics touched upon in these essays, but the explanations are neither didactic or tedious as she weaves fascinating tidbits of information into personal stories from her life as a reader.
My Thoughts
Olding follows a similar structure in most of her essays where she moves back and forth between a book/concept/topic, and her own life. This seemed odd to me at first, but I quickly fell into a rhythm where I easily followed along and came to expect it for the remaining pieces. The benefit of coming in and out of her personal experiences is that the somewhat drier subjects of literary criticism were broken up into easily digestible pieces. Even myself, an English Literature major can only take so much analysis of hundred-year-old texts, and Olding instinctively knows this, even with the assumption she is talking to readers who have likely read these books at some point, so I really appreciated her formatting her writing in this way – it was just one more reason the pages flew by for me.
The title of the collection is referenced in the essays where Olding describes the vision problem, and eventual blindness of her mother. She loved reading but was reluctant to purchase aids to keep her independence. Her kids finally bought her something called a ‘Big Reader’ which looked more like an old-fashioned bulky computer, and it was meant to magnify each line, but because it forced reading at the dining room table (an uncomfortable place to settle in with a book), it was eventually sent back.
“To lay a page in that device, to see the words taking shape on that big screen, would have stripped a veil from the past and reminded her of all she had lost.”
-“Light Reading; A Triptych”, Big Reader by Susan Olding
Although it may appear as though this collection jumps around, I want to assure my readers that this collection is one of the most carefully thought-out books I have ever read. It flows in a way that’s not necessarily linear, but still organized and understandable. The last essay ties everything together well; as Olding unpacks her personal library in a new home (right at the beginning of the pandemic) she revisits each book and essay that came before, viewing these stories of her life in a reflective way. This tactic simultaneously reminds us of what came before, and provides a summary that offers us a conclusive way of looking at each piece on it’s own, and as part of a whole. I’m excited to recommend this book to others because it’s the perfect gift for any true book lover, and a nice way to spend an afternoon in the company of one’s bookshelf.
To read the rest of my reviews, please visit my blog:
https://ivereadthis.com/
Sign up for my newsletter here: https://ivereadthis.com/subscribe/
Or follow me on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ivereadthis/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivereadthisblog
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6E...
Book Summary
Arranged into a Prologue, Verso, Hinge, Recto, Epilogue and Addenda are 22 different pieces, some longer at 20+ pages, while others are a simple one-page poem. We begin with a poem from Ursula K. Le Guin all about leaves which is a motif spread throughout, and then a short meditation on the exciting possibilities that reading brings us as children, tucked into bed with a flashlight late into the night. One of my favourite essays is “In Anna Karenina Furs”, the first long form essay of the collection. It tells the story of the author’s dissolution of her first marriage alongside a new and burgeoning relationship, set amongst the chapters of the famous titular novel as Olding draws parallels and references to Anna’s experiences. We come full circle to the very end of the book, where Olding analyzes Middlemarch by George Eliot, and the consequences of her version of a ‘fallen woman’ within her own life’s circumstances. One essay talks about the strained relationship she has with her father, running parallel to explanations of different kinds of blood types, how they were discovered, and Japan’s obsession with placing people in personality categories based on their blood type. There are a vast array of topics touched upon in these essays, but the explanations are neither didactic or tedious as she weaves fascinating tidbits of information into personal stories from her life as a reader.
My Thoughts
Olding follows a similar structure in most of her essays where she moves back and forth between a book/concept/topic, and her own life. This seemed odd to me at first, but I quickly fell into a rhythm where I easily followed along and came to expect it for the remaining pieces. The benefit of coming in and out of her personal experiences is that the somewhat drier subjects of literary criticism were broken up into easily digestible pieces. Even myself, an English Literature major can only take so much analysis of hundred-year-old texts, and Olding instinctively knows this, even with the assumption she is talking to readers who have likely read these books at some point, so I really appreciated her formatting her writing in this way – it was just one more reason the pages flew by for me.
The title of the collection is referenced in the essays where Olding describes the vision problem, and eventual blindness of her mother. She loved reading but was reluctant to purchase aids to keep her independence. Her kids finally bought her something called a ‘Big Reader’ which looked more like an old-fashioned bulky computer, and it was meant to magnify each line, but because it forced reading at the dining room table (an uncomfortable place to settle in with a book), it was eventually sent back.
“To lay a page in that device, to see the words taking shape on that big screen, would have stripped a veil from the past and reminded her of all she had lost.”
-“Light Reading; A Triptych”, Big Reader by Susan Olding
Although it may appear as though this collection jumps around, I want to assure my readers that this collection is one of the most carefully thought-out books I have ever read. It flows in a way that’s not necessarily linear, but still organized and understandable. The last essay ties everything together well; as Olding unpacks her personal library in a new home (right at the beginning of the pandemic) she revisits each book and essay that came before, viewing these stories of her life in a reflective way. This tactic simultaneously reminds us of what came before, and provides a summary that offers us a conclusive way of looking at each piece on it’s own, and as part of a whole. I’m excited to recommend this book to others because it’s the perfect gift for any true book lover, and a nice way to spend an afternoon in the company of one’s bookshelf.
To read the rest of my reviews, please visit my blog:
https://ivereadthis.com/
Sign up for my newsletter here: https://ivereadthis.com/subscribe/
Or follow me on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ivereadthis/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivereadthisblog
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivereadthis
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6E...
June 30, 2022
Canadian writer Susan Olding has a real talent for literary essay-writing. She links personal stories—a parent’s descent into blindness, her relationship with a teenage step-daughter, and the dissolution of her marriage—around books and literary experiences that have been meaningful to her.
Big Reader is smart, relevant, and deeply personal. It’s no wonder this latest effort by Olding won an honourable mention for the 2022 Fred Kerner Book Award.
Favorite Quote: But this time, my immersion in his [Keats] work was deeper. Reading his poems, I felt I was inside them. I could have repeated them in my sleep.
Big Reader is smart, relevant, and deeply personal. It’s no wonder this latest effort by Olding won an honourable mention for the 2022 Fred Kerner Book Award.
Favorite Quote: But this time, my immersion in his [Keats] work was deeper. Reading his poems, I felt I was inside them. I could have repeated them in my sleep.
May 10, 2025
this has been sitting on my shelf for about 4 years. I got this copy through one of Goodreads giveaways. one of the best books I've read this year. sometimes the right book just comes at the right time. I recommend this for librarians and other book lovers, people who fell in love with reading very young and read adult books years before they became adults themselves.
January 19, 2023
Absolutely fantastic!
November 8, 2023
With each essay, I'd think: "this one is my favourite." Then I'd read the next one, and love it just as much.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews