Reading We Recommend: Casey Hannan

We used to read a lot. Like, a lot a lot. We read to escape our life when we were a child, when we were grown we read to learn things, filling our head with something less painful than what was in there...then after our car accident The Other Girl didn't read much for many reasons. It got harder to do, to concentrate on books and texts. She had a minor brain injury and things changed for awhile. Writing, reading and comprehension became harder for her, she couldn't focus; which made her second attempt at University, after the accident, a lot harder - despite the fact she had been admitted into a disability program granting her private rooms and longer testing periods, it only helped a bit. It made her feel like weak. The person who used to edit her papers from her first time at a different University even said they could tell the difference in the quality of her writing.

We look forward to the day we can read a whole book, cover to cover - we tend to be distracted, we have inherited her brain and body, and all the problems that come with it.

We've attempted to read library books, but since it's hard for us to leave the house it usually ends in fines of insane proportiones. We usually take out too many books because we are hopeful to be able to read like we used to, and there are so many books we want to read. Recently we had $100 in library fines. You can buy a lot of books for that kind of cash, if you bought them from Amazon.com (we added the link as a shameless @NickSilly plug, he helps us out with content on bad days, is an Amazon affiliate, and a friend on Twitter).

We've tried to read fiction, nonfiction, Emily Dickinson, blogs...we love to read, as much as we love to paint, and write, do all sorts of other things; we have a lot of interests.

We got a new follower a couple of weeks ago over on Twitter, and that night he followed us we were "melancholy". (for this, read: woke up, after briefly passing out following a few drinks with the man we love(d), then sobbing into our last glass of scotch, cursing ourself over our life of misfortune)

Anyway. 
We got this new follower and clicked onto his blog...something we are occasionally known to do; we were somehow able to get through an entire entry...and then another. We were surprised to be drawn into his words, so smooth...something comforting about the way he wrote, the way he constructed his sentences and made them melt off the "page", like a warm blanket over our heart. We continued to read his entries as long as we could, we read his coming out story on SmokeLong Weekly and went back to the blog. We read his March, we have since read much of his work.

He presents links to off-site work under 'Places To Find Me Naked', we appreciate the truthfulness that exists in that statement. Writing sometimes makes us feel exposed...naked.

“Sometimes a surprise isn’t a surprise,” I say. [a line we really enjoyed, taken from Fabulous Lightening]

In Fabulous Lightening Casey makes you want to be at that restaurant with him and his mother, at that table; observing. Luckily in just a few sentences he makes you feel like you actually could be there, or the table next to it.

We like his writing, and though some of our readers might like it too. This is our first blog/book review...it's a start. It's more of a recommendation though, so check him out, or don't - it'll be your loss.

More of Casey's writing...

http://www.casey-hannan.com/ (more links on his blog)

The Devil Took My Language

http://www.decompmagazine.com/skyburial.htm

http://amphibi.us/all/copy-editing/

Follow him on Twitter @poetyrduh