Close Reader: An interview with Christine

On weird lit, braking for crones, and owning an indie bookshop

In this series, I ask some of my favorite Substack essayists, Bookstagrammers, and writers to share their reading and writing processes and habits, and tell us about the literary ideas they’re spending time with these days.

Today’s post is too long for most email clients, so, if you run into issues reading the essay in full, click over to the web or app experience.

Today’s interview is with Christine, a dissertating literary scholar and indie bookstore owner. (Basically: she’s living my dream life!) Christine and I met on Bookstagram and have since bonded over a shared love for weird stories, especially those written by women like Shirley Jackson.

I’m beyond happy to share her answers to our interview today and give you all a chance to get to know this unbelievably wonderful human being. Here goes!

And please note, photos come from Christine’s bookstagram.

Let’s start with an introduction. What’s your name and where are you currently living? 

Hi! I'm Christine, and I am variously located i…