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A review by imogenrose97
Insomniac City: New York, Oliver Sacks, and Me by Bill Hayes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
First read - 2020
This book is beautifully written, heartache inducing and full of such beautiful depictions of a life spent observing the world. I finished it and felt deeply satisfied
Round 2 - 2023
Bill Hayes writing is unbelievably hopeful, it allows you to reflect on humanity and humans and how we all go about our days and how we might change them to be more delighted as both Oliver and Bill are and were.
Take 3 - 2024
A very well deserved third reading, I contemplated not picking Insomniac City up again for bookclub, after having just reread it last year. I am so glad I did it anyway. The feeling that book gives me was lost before I read it again. I had a vague feeling it, yes, I knew that it was a book I loved deeply. But if I had not read it again I would have been missing the intensity of how pure Bill Hayes and Oliver Sacks are, the way they view the world with child like wonder and optimism. At times Hayes verges on weird in his pursuit of life, a 50 year old man hiding behind a tree to watch if someone will pick up a dollar bill is both ridiculous and astoundingly sweet. It grew to feel like the kind of weirdness I would like to pursue, to look at life with so much (okay so here I wanted to include a word I couldn't think of so I went to use Bard, Google's chatgpt, and asked it this I'm writing a review and would like to have a suggestion for a phrase for wonder, that isn't used often and encapsulates a sense of childlike enthusiasm for the world, it didn't give me anything I liked so please use my description as fodder for your imagination. And let me know if you think of something), to view insomnia so kindly; and instead of suffering in bed alone, walk through the ever moving streets of New York City, making art and meeting people. People whom he is interested in talking to, interested to know what they are thinking about, how their days are, who they spend their days with and why. That kind of weirdness felt unsettling in my anxious brain, it is the kind of weirdness you are picked on for and in my head, to be avoided. Hayes makes me want to be weird, or not weird but maybe more myself.
When I first read this book I did not know who Oliver Sacks was, I am so grateful to have had such an introduction to him as this. Sacks is painted in the most beautiful light. He is loudly curious and deeply loves what he loves and with such visceral joy. I am so happy to glimpsed Oliver Sacks through Bill Hayes eyes.
This book is beautifully written, heartache inducing and full of such beautiful depictions of a life spent observing the world. I finished it and felt deeply satisfied
Round 2 - 2023
Bill Hayes writing is unbelievably hopeful, it allows you to reflect on humanity and humans and how we all go about our days and how we might change them to be more delighted as both Oliver and Bill are and were.
Take 3 - 2024
A very well deserved third reading, I contemplated not picking Insomniac City up again for bookclub, after having just reread it last year. I am so glad I did it anyway. The feeling that book gives me was lost before I read it again. I had a vague feeling it, yes, I knew that it was a book I loved deeply. But if I had not read it again I would have been missing the intensity of how pure Bill Hayes and Oliver Sacks are, the way they view the world with child like wonder and optimism. At times Hayes verges on weird in his pursuit of life, a 50 year old man hiding behind a tree to watch if someone will pick up a dollar bill is both ridiculous and astoundingly sweet. It grew to feel like the kind of weirdness I would like to pursue, to look at life with so much (okay so here I wanted to include a word I couldn't think of so I went to use Bard, Google's chatgpt, and asked it this I'm writing a review and would like to have a suggestion for a phrase for wonder, that isn't used often and encapsulates a sense of childlike enthusiasm for the world, it didn't give me anything I liked so please use my description as fodder for your imagination. And let me know if you think of something), to view insomnia so kindly; and instead of suffering in bed alone, walk through the ever moving streets of New York City, making art and meeting people. People whom he is interested in talking to, interested to know what they are thinking about, how their days are, who they spend their days with and why. That kind of weirdness felt unsettling in my anxious brain, it is the kind of weirdness you are picked on for and in my head, to be avoided. Hayes makes me want to be weird, or not weird but maybe more myself.
When I first read this book I did not know who Oliver Sacks was, I am so grateful to have had such an introduction to him as this. Sacks is painted in the most beautiful light. He is loudly curious and deeply loves what he loves and with such visceral joy. I am so happy to glimpsed Oliver Sacks through Bill Hayes eyes.