Inside The Mind Of A Psychiatrist – A Reading Club, by Art Smukler, MD

by artsmuklermd, posted in MY NOVELS, Psychiatry, Self Examination, Writing

A great piece in The Sunday LA Times, front page, column one, caught my eye. Shhh. The Silver Lake Reading Club. Every Tuesday from 6 pm till 8:30 pm at Lamill Coffee, a few dozen people pay $17 for the pleasure of sitting quietly and reading. Helen Bui, the reading club’s founder, and daughter of Vietnamese refugees, supplies pastries, coffee and tea to the lucky readers. 

You bring your own book and get a chance to enter the author’s world without any distractions other than sometimes hearing a page turn. There’s a 15 minute break to get a chance to share. 

Who would have thought that our world has become so chaotic that people would flock to a place where silence prevails and fantasy reigns?

As a pre-teen I hung out at a nearby library in Philadelphia and obsessively perused the stacks looking for my next reading adventure. My obsession to read continues – untreatable and an integral part of my life. When was the last time I didn’t have a book to read? Never.

I’m rereading Tom Wolfe’s, A Man In Full. It’s still engaging, riveting, and so well written, even after 25 years.

Have a good read, Art

#readingclub, #silverlake, #Tomwolfe, #amaninfull, #insidethemindofapsychiatrist, #psychologicalsuspensenovels,

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Published by artsmuklermd

Art Smukler, MD was born and raised in Philadelphia, went to college and medical school in Pennsylvania, and completed his psychiatric training at UCLA. He is a board-certified psychiatrist, specializing in the treatment of adults with a subspecialty in adolescents. As a member of the UCLA faculty, he ran an award-winning psychotherapy conference for psychiatric residents and received the coveted “Golden Ear” award. He has published in psychiatric journals, and won the award for excellence in creative writing at The Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Now a full-time author, he applies his deep understanding of the human psyche to the motivations of his fictional characters.

2 thoughts on “Inside The Mind Of A Psychiatrist – A Reading Club, by Art Smukler, MD”

  1. Reading my favorite past time since I learned to read. 12 books from the library for 2 weeks. Some returned, others renewed as I needed to re-read them to ensure I hadn’t missed a word, premise, theory, or thought-provoking turn of phrase. I’ve written three, with another in the works. I don’t mind if they don’t sell, I know I haven’t hoarded my words and can leave at the end, when it comes, without regrets. I thinned out my pile of thousands a couple of years ago by a few hundred. Those I decided I had either re-read enough or were not going to be in my group of left behinds. Result of the culling of books, means I still have about two thousand instead of three. Always several books to be read, researched, or re-read. At nearly 84, I’m looking forward to getting through my old friends and my new ones, many more times.

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    1. Thanks. It’s lovely to hear that you are surrounded by all your old friends. We moved a short time ago so most of my old friends were donated to the local library. My reading is now done mainly on my iPad mini. Best Wishes. Art

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