In this special series, we asked writers we admire to share a book they're giving to their friends and family this holiday season. Check back daily to see the books your favorite authors are gifting.÷ ÷ ÷
I've been no stranger to heartbreak this year, and many of my friends went through heart hell in 2012 as well. So many, in fact, that I created a list of splitting up advice to pass along — pieced together from advice given to me and gained on my own. One of the most important things on the list is #6: Keep your heart open. Don't close that fucker.
It's clear that Found magazine founder and author Davy Rothbart agrees wholeheartedly, as evidenced in his autobiographical essay collection My Heart Is an Idiot. I read it in two sittings and immediately wanted to catch a plane to whatever city Davy was in at the moment and find him. Alas, my own book was about to launch, so I was tied to travels centered around it.
Davy's essays are about wearing your heart on your sleeve and catapulting at breakneck speed toward everyone and everything that you strongly desire. Davy is the best kind of crazy, vital, and always hunting big love. Me too. I'll be giving this book to friends whose hearts have hurt like hell at some point this year. It's better than booze.
In a recent interview in the Believer, Davy sums up why I love the book:
I think it's just always being open to adventure, being open to other people. If you're not sure whether or not you should do something, you probably should. You don't have to make every single day a carnival ride, but it's generally about being more open. This old friend of mine, who hasn't had a drink in like eight years, said, "I try to live every day like I'm drunk." Which is kind of awesome.