Book Date No. 15
A trip to Books Are Magic with writer Hunter Harris.
Today’s newsletter is sponsored by Hinge (they took me and Hunter on a book date!). Beyond that, I’m not affiliated with Hinge or any of the books mentioned in the post. #HingePartner
For the latest installment of Book Date I met up with Hunter Harris, writer of the truly hilarious newsletter Hung Up and author of the short story ‘Worth It’, which is part of Hinge’s No Ordinary Love anthology series, which tells the imperfect love stories of couples who met on the app. “Worth It” is a story of timing—following Lia and Ola, a couple who fall in love during an imperfect moment. Read it here.
Hunter and I met up on a sunny afternoon in Cobble Hill at Books Are Magic, where we talked about her favorite love stories, the best American Girl Doll, and her hottest literary take. Read about our date, below.
Please state your name for the record.
Where are you from?
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
How has being from Tulsa shaped you?
It shaped me in the way that I always wanted to live in New York. Very Lady Bird. I had a real desire to get out of Tulsa when I was growing up there. I felt like it wasn't a place with any culture. I wanted to go to college in Boston. I wanted to live in New York City. Those places seemed to have a deep sense of place and identity. Now that I'm an adult and have gone back to see my family and reengage with Black history in Tulsa, I feel kind of sad for my teenage self. There is so much there, it just wasn't a place that I was looking for it. Like I said, very Lady Bird.
When did you become a reader?
It was the summer before, either first grade or second grade. I remember hating to read. I felt like I wasn't very good at it. I was a very frustrated reader when I was really, really young. Then one summer Auntie, my great aunt who I am really close to—sat down with and was like, you're going to love to read. We worked on reading all summer. From there I was reading two books a day.
What kind of stuff were you reading?
I loved picture books when I was really young. There’s one called I Can Dress Myself which I loved. Also The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear. That pivotal summer where I really learned and loved to read, Auntie kept one of her school books from Catholic school from, basically integration. I read a lot of that book with her and that was really meaningful to me. When I was a little older it was the American Girl Doll books.
Who was your favorite American Girl doll?
Well, Addy of course. And then after Addy, probably Molly or Samantha. I liked Samantha. She was pretty, and she was rich girl pretty. I liked Molly because she would've been around Auntie's age and I liked feeling connected to that sense of history.
Later, when I was a preteen I would read all of the Harriet the Spy books, A to Z Mysteries and Harry Potter, which my mom was against. But by the time she was actually against it, I had already read almost the whole series. Then the Meg Cabot books and all of the books about teenage diarists. I ate those up. The Princess Diaries of course, but just girls who would record their lives on blogs or longhand. It really formed my identity as someone who wants to record her life. I wonder if you can draw a straight line between me reading those books and me always writing to be read. I'm rereading one of my childhood journals right now, and there's a real sense of me writing this for an audience, which is insane.
How many books did you read last year?
Maybe six or seven.
Any that stood out?
Honestly, no. Last year was just not a very good book year for me. This year I started off the year by reading Haley Mlotek’s divorce memoir No Fault and that really took my breath away. I read it as I was going through the early stages of a breakup, so it really hit home. But I also liked the idea of divorce as inheritance or a lineage. Haley's grandmother was divorced, her mom was divorced and then she got divorced. It was interesting to think about these women as a unit together navigating this across timelines, across cities. Then the prose, sentence to sentence was really beautiful.
Who in your life has the best book taste?
Probably my dad, because whenever I get him a book, he always likes it.
What's your reading routine?
I'm trying to be better about reading before bed or first thing when I wake up, so I'm not just scrolling, but mostly I'm reading either at the airport on a plane or on the train in a car when I'm on my way somewhere.
How would you describe your literary taste?
I like reading stuff about women. I like reading memoirs. I like reading books of essays. I don't read a lot of fantasy or sci-fi and I don't read a lot of historical nonfiction.
Onto the book we picked. Why this?
I was tired of being the last person in Brooklyn to not have read it. I also remember going to the Borders bookstore at 21st and Lewis in Tulsa, RIP, and I read the Miranda July book, No One Belongs Here More Than You because I liked the title a lot. It was the first book I bought that was not in the YA section. I felt very adult buying it. So I've always had an affection for her because of that.
What's your favorite love story?
I really like Phantom Thread. Conflict is at the root of the romance and it is a push-pull dynamic of who's in charge but also very keenly aware of the other person's feelings and emotions and needs. I also like Before Sunset, the second one in the trilogy. It’s really sexy and charged with a different emotionality, like maybe can this happen again? Can we find it? Which I think is really lovely. Also Mississippi Masala when they're on the phone—I love that you can talk about nothing and be in love and it feels like talking about everything. Then The Ghost in Mrs. Muir. It's a 1940s movie. I watched it two years ago and wept after. It's about a woman who falls in love with a ghost who's haunting her house. I know it sounds crazy, but it's really, really moving.
How have those movies shaped your perspective and how you write about love?
I like the idea that if one small thing had gone differently, this would not have worked out. So many things have to be in sort of divine alignment for us to find each other, which I think definitely applies to Lia and Ola’s story. They had a mutual friend who had given Lia the co-sign that Ola was cool. If that friend had not texted back immediately or hemmed and hawed, maybe they wouldn't be together. Before Lia had been in a long relationship. Ola really hadn't. The idea that all of these things led them to exactly where they are. And I like that a lot.
What was it like to write about the couple? Tell me a little bit about the process.
We had quite a few zooms. They're both young, black living in London. Lia is a photographer, Ola works in the Warner Brothers universe. They love the same movies and TV. They have so much natural chemistry and love between them, even just the way he would look at her as she was talking and the way that she would prompt him was really sweet. They finished each other’s sentences.
What did writing this story teach you about love?
When I wrote it I was going through a breakup, so a lot. But, being open to different. I don't think I have a type, although obviously movies, TV, all those cultural things are very important to me. I want someone who's at least curious, if not as invested. I really liked the part of Lia that was like, Instagram tells me a relationship should look one way, but the experience of it feels so different with Ola and that she trusted that over what other people say her love should look like. That was really special.
What is your hottest literary take?
I never want to know what auto fiction means. That's for someone else to know. Not me.
Hardcover or paperback?
Paperback.
Why?
Because I’m a girl on the go.
What do you use as a bookmark?
It's always either an invitation or a receipt or usually I just don't use a bookmark and I just flip through and try to remember where I left out until I find the last page I read. Chaotic, I know.
How do you carry your books?
I have one or two canvas totes that have enough structure that I like. One of them is this Japanese brand Shin + Na. It is a perfect book size bag that's all just a traditional canvas tote. And then I also, I really love my Loewe bucket bag. It’s the perfect size for a book and for my laptop and whatever else I need.
What are you thinking deeply about right now?
I have a script idea. It’s kind of a romantic comedy. It's about weddings, because I've been to so many. I have a lot of boots on the ground intel. It’s kind of like My Best Friend's Wedding meets Deliver Us From Eva.
What’s your favorite extracurricular activity?
Dog. Remy is my hobby.
Love the insight into how Hunter wrote their story!!
love Hung Up so much. love this book date!