The Happy Reader - #2

A fabulously sprawling chat with the artist and rock star KIM GORDON, and an investigation of an intoxicating, century-old read, THE BOOK OF TEA.

CONTENTS

PART 1

A timeless image, a gust of gossip, and KIM GORDON holds forth on memoirs and memories.

A reader reading

Snippets

The Interview: KIM GORDON by Sadie Stein — A literary sit-down with the Sonic Youth star

Spring reads

PART 2

The Book of the Season is Kakuzo Okakura’s THE BOOK OF TEA, with afternoon music, tea-room blueprints, astounding bouquets and brews behind bars.

Introduction: Hypnotised by a hot drink by Seb Emina

A serious cuppa by Nicholas Lezard — Proper tea requires proper faff

Builder’s tea

Around town: The exactitude of a bouquet by Thomas Chatterton Williams —Arranging waxflower and kangaroo paw in Montmartre, Paris

Manual: Perfect teas by Jeff Koehler — Eight of the world’s most sipped-at teas

Habitual layouts

Mania: We love Japan by Roland Kelts — But is the Japan we love the real Japan?

Interlude: In prison by Noel ‘Razor’ Smith — The tea in jail is very much its own thing

Playlist: 4pm eternal by Alexis Taylor — From A Tribe Called Quest to a bath containing Prince

Three stages of boiling

Letters

In Summer