LibGuides: UCSB Reads 2025: The Book

Selected Book: "The Book of Delights: Essays" by Ross Gay

UCSB Reads 2025 book A New York Times bestseller, The Book of Delights is a genre-defying collection of short lyrical essays that celebrate the small, ordinary wonders in the world around us. Written daily over one tumultuous year, the humorous, poetic, and philosophical essays cover a wide range of topics that will feel familiar to readers.

Among Gay’s delights: a high five from a stranger, cradling a tomato seedling aboard an airplane, the silent nod of acknowledgement between the only two black people in a room. Gay never dismisses the complexities, even the terrors, of living in America as a black man or the ecological and psychic impacts of our consumer culture or the loss of those he loves. Yet the book serves as a powerful reminder that staking out a space in our lives for joy brings us closer together.

Praise for the Book

“Ross Gay’s eye lands upon wonder at every turn, bolstering my belief in the countless small miracles that surround us.” —Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer Prize winner and U.S. Poet Laureate

“The delights he extols here . . . feel purposeful and imperative as well as contagious in their joy.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Perfect for this tense and distracting moment—beautiful, small bites you can consume when you need some sustenance for the soul.” —Time

“What emerges is not a ledger of delights passively logged but a radiant lens actively searching for and magnifying them, not just with the mind but with the body as an instrument of wonder-stricken presence.” —Brain Pickings, Favorite Books of 2019

“These charming, digressive ‘essayettes,’ in the manner of Montaigne, surprise and challenge . . . Gay, an award-winning poet, knows the value of formal constraint: his experiences of ‘delight,’ recorded daily for a year, vary widely but yield revealing patterns through insights about everything from nature and the body to race and masculinity.’” —The New Yorker

“Ross Gay’s poems are little celebrations of joy, and this book of mini-essays—each centering around a particular 'delight,’ from sleeping in your clothes to planting tomato seedlings to the nod of greeting between the only two black people in a room—is a pure balm for your soul. Savor one at a time every morning, this summer, or wolf them all down en masse on a gorgeous sunny day.” —Celeste Ng for GoodMorningAmerica.com

“You’ll find that the delights of Gay’s world illuminate the delights of yours, that his wonder is contagious and has caused you to deepen your own.” —GQ

“From cover to cover, the beautifully written essays highlight the little miracles that happen all around us. It encourages the reader to slow down, take in each moment and find joy in the everyday.” —Today

“Ross Gay is able to use as little language as possible to populate a world where his memories are your memories, intertwined, reaching out of the pages.” —Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America

“I am indebted to this book for reminding me, reminding us, that there is so much to celebrate in the world.” —Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed

“His delight is infectious. It’s hard to read Gay and not to be won over.” —The Seattle Times

"I was lucky enough to go to a writer camp led by Cheryl Strayed years ago, and on this camp, we talked about “glimmers”: noticing the beautiful or note-worthy things in everyday life, and using them as inspiration for insightful or beautiful writing. This is an entire book of such glimmers, in which Ross Gay notices tiny moments in life and nature, so that we too may delight in them." — Book Riot

"His delights might inspire a To Do List for the Aftertimes, which is a form of hope." — "These 3 books are like a big, deep hug from a friend to help you through tough times," — San Diego Tribune

"The first thing you should know is that the title is not a misnomer. In a climate of serious thoughts about serious subjects, Ross Gay truly does delight, bringing more poetry than usual to an essay collection that challenges the conventions of the form. Some of Gay’s essays are a mere paragraph, others are longer, but they are all about aspects of life worth celebrating. A worthwhile break from the monotony of worldly worries, The Book of Delights reminds its readers to treat themselves to a bit of beauty. We all deserve it.” — The Undefeated

"The Book of Delights is a most delightful book by a most delightful human." — Friends Journal

"Let’s be delighted. Let’s go out and find things that delight us. And let’s ask Ross Gay along — he’s an expert. . . you read him with a smile that makes your face tired because it stays for hours . . .This little book is a summer companion — it will make it summer no matter the season." — The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Gay’s zest for life bursts forth on almost every page." —Bookreporter

"It’s hard not to reach for religious language when describing Gay’s work. It’s filled to the brim with spirit and the temporal allegiance with dailiness that abides at the root of mortality and spiritual practice alike…In Gay’s ecumenical view, delight is found in the poignant and the loving, the light and the shadows, and the intentional process of tuning into all the places — expected and unexpected — where it may reside. His delights are wide-ranging and unrestrained, the greater of them often interrupted by smaller ones in a chain of digressions…Throughout the collection, Gay’s voice is inimitable, his essays as particular as a fingerprint…Stamped with their own rhythm and frequency, each essay is equally thoughtful, cogent, and interesting…Gay’s essays sparkle with charm, wit, and laugh-out-loud funny bits jostling cheek and jowl against eschatological explorations and philosophical concerns. No matter the emotional timbre, Gay’s thoughts unfurl with a lush beauty, delight the terroir of the writing and reading alike."c — Orion

"Everyone could use a bit more delight in their days (particularly during the doldrums of winter) and Gay, who is the winner of the NBCC Award for Poetry, is here to provide just that, with essays celebrating everything from air quotes to candy wrappers to pickup basketball games." — New York Post

"Gay’s journey ambles back and forth in time. He feels his losses but imbues them with gratitude; people here and gone remain his delights." — BookPage

"The Book of Delights restores pleasure as a site of serious thought and, even more, as a mode in inquiry in itself, while Gay’s wholesome (but never saccharine) voice convinces us that a mode of inquiry, a way of thinking, too, can be a pleasure itself." — Ploughshares

"An altogether charming and, yes, delightful book." — Kirkus Review

"(Gay) is a remarkable expositor of the positive, and his writings serve as reminders 'of something deeply good in us.'" — Publisher's Weekly