Rituals for Hard Times

During this pandemic, Street Books has suspended our onsite library hours and outdoor bicycle library shifts, but we remain hopeful that we can be back out in time for our shifts this June, which will mark ten years of delivering books to people living outside and at the margins in Portland. We are currently working from behind the scenes to get books and reading glasses to our patrons via folks distributing food and blankets from NW Enforcement.

When life as we knew it spontaneously combusted, we implemented new rituals that would mark the time and help shape a day. Enter Uncle Hodge's Story Hour, a daily habit we formed when the pandemic began. Each afternoon around 2, Ben “Hodge” Hodgson reads a short story aloud over the phone to Executive Director Laura Moulton and her children. Some days he goes on distance walks with Community Outreach Director Diana Rempe and reads another story while ambling along. Thanks to Hodge, the crew has been exposed to short story masters like Shirley Jackson, O'Henry, Somerset Maugham and Damon Runyon. [For a complete list of short stories curated by Ben Hodgson, see the bottom of this page].

What rituals have you created to make it through this hard time? What books and stories do you lean on?

We hope that you and yours are staying healthy and well during this unprecedented time. Love to you from all of us at Street Books headquarters.

Story at Six Feet

Reading aloud in the age of social distancing

The Foreigner - Francis Steegmuller

Over the Hill - John Steinbeck

The Ant & the Grasshopper - Somerset Maugham

Friends in San Rosario - O’Henry

How Grandpa Came Into the Money - Elsa Zantnef

The Open Window - Saki

The Last Leaf - O’Henry

Slipping Beauty - Jerome Weideman

Butch Minds the Baby - Damon Runyon

Code of the Underworld - Jim Kjelgaard

Kong at the Seaside - Arnold Zweig

The Hottest Guy in the World - Damon Runyon

Charles - Shirley Jackson

Compliments of the Season - O’Henry