HOW TO BE ALONE
Since its video debut, Tanya Davis’s beautiful and perceptive poem, How to Be Alone - , visually realized by Andrea Dorfman, has become an international sensation, garnering over five million hits on YouTube. Davis’s inspiring poem has now been adapted for print in a charming book, HOW TO BE ALONE (Harper; November 2013; Hardcover; $17.99), filled with lovely illustrations by Dorfman.
My review
What a great, inspiring book. I just flew through the book in a matter of moments. Not just because it is wonderful but also because once you crack open the pages you can not help but just read the book from page to page. Besides the way this book is written like a poem it just flows to the next page.
All of the illustrations were colorful and helped to protray what Tanya was saying in that moment for each page. My favorite had to be the socks. All of the different socks. Tanya shows it is ok to be alone and sometimes it is even welcome in places like...the bathroom, coffee shop, library, movie theater, and out to eat as it is always better to have your own dessert without having to share it.
From sitting alone on a city park bench to going to the movies to eating by yourself in a fancy restaurant to dancing solo, Davis reveals the joy and fulfillment we can experience by being on our own. This powerful poem calms fears of being lonely and celebrates the act of being alone as a means of changing the way we view ourselves and the world. Davis writes that being “alone is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless and lonely is healing if you make it.”
HOW TO BE ALONE is the perfect gift for those who have never been alone, or those who find themselves alone for the first time, or those who are alone but lonely. In this small but deeply moving book, Davis demonstrates that when removed from the noise and distractions of other lives, we can find acceptance and grace within.
Tanya Davis is a Canadian singer-songwriter and poet. Since bursting onto the Halifax music scene in 2006 with her debut, Make a List, Tanya has garnered praise from industry, audience, and peers, as well as multiple award nominations, including one for her sophomore release, Gorgeous Morning, for the 2009 ECMA Female Recording of the Year.
Andrea Dorfman works as a filmmaker, animator, cinematographer, and artist. A graduate of McGill University and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, she has made numerous experimental and dramatic short films as well as two feature films, Parsley Days (2000) and Love That Boy (2003). She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
My review
What a great, inspiring book. I just flew through the book in a matter of moments. Not just because it is wonderful but also because once you crack open the pages you can not help but just read the book from page to page. Besides the way this book is written like a poem it just flows to the next page.
All of the illustrations were colorful and helped to protray what Tanya was saying in that moment for each page. My favorite had to be the socks. All of the different socks. Tanya shows it is ok to be alone and sometimes it is even welcome in places like...the bathroom, coffee shop, library, movie theater, and out to eat as it is always better to have your own dessert without having to share it.
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