The Book of Delights – Ross Gay
An uneven but occasionally rewarding listening experience, “The Book of Delights” is structured as a yearlong project in noticing joy, in the form of short essays — some only a paragraph, others a few pages — each documenting a small delight from Ross Gay’s daily life.
From Botan Rice Candy wrappers dissolving on the tongue to pickup basketball games, bumble bees and unexpected moments of human connection all make a gentle argument for attentiveness.
In an era obsessed with “old lady hobbies,” Gay made a convincing case that delight is entirely subjective and worth honoring. I appreciated how deliberately offline the book felt as very few delights involved technology, which read less as nostalgia and more as a quiet critique of how much life we miss while scrolling.
While overall enjoyable and quick to finish, some delights felt stretched thin, more like placeholders to meet the constraint of one per day than fully realized reflections. While I admired the discipline of the project, the pacing occasionally suffered from repetition.
The audiobook benefited from being author-narrated. Gay’s warmth and enthusiasm carried the material, often smoothing over weaker entries and helping the listening experience feel more generous than the text alone might have been.
As a fellow Midwesterner — and Hoosier — I especially appreciated Gay’s references to Indiana and his reflections on being mixed-race in largely white spaces while still building community. Discussions of racism and injustice appeared throughout, never dominating the book but always present, underscoring how these pressures weigh continuously rather than episodically.
My favorite moment involved Gay traveling with a tomato plant, delighting both himself and the strangers around him. While I don’t feel compelled to read the companion volume, I’d gladly seek out Gay’s poetry, where his voice might feel more concentrated and purposeful.
Rating (story): 3/5 stars
Rating (narration): 3/5 stars
Format: Audiobook (personal library)
Dates read: January 21 – January 23, 2026
Multi-tasking: Good to go. You could finish this in one setting but it’s best to listen for 30-minutes (perfect for housework!) and then taking a small break. If not, everything starts to run together.
