Mission Statement

Coffee Stained Clarity is my personal reading project. A former literature student, I spent my early adulthood reading what some might call “Serious Literature”: from Tolstoy and Hemingway to Fitzgerald and Chekhov, reading, dissecting, and analyzing the world’s great books routinized my experience of encountering literature. I developed an apathy toward the thing I loved most, and my indifference to great works grew to frightening levels.

 

After graduating, I continued to pursue these “literary greats,” reading the complete works of people like William Gass, Thomas Pynchon, and James Joyce (yes—I even stumbled my way through the entirety of Finnegans Wake). Reading had become a chore and a way to fulfill my autodidactic tendencies; I wanted to be “well-read,” but I didn’t want to experience the literature.

 

Enter: Coffee Stained Clarity. I’m working to change my unhealthy literary habits, and I hope this project will hold me accountable. This is a blog about coffee and literature—specifically, literature that is best consumed over a morning cup of coffee. This will not be a platform to review and discuss “heavy,” or “pretentious” pieces of literature—I got enough of that as a college student, and I don’t think you need another blogger preaching the gospel of Infinite Jest. Instead, my reviews and discussions will focus primarily on narrative-driven, light-hearted (sometimes), and humorous reads. I will also prioritize women authors, who—let’s be honest—should comprise most of the cannon, anyway. If you’ve been wanting to get back into reading, this is a great place to start.

 

As we expand, we also hope to develop a few coffee guides—enjoying literature takes time, but you can learn to brew the perfect cup in just a few minutes.