Welcome to Sasha’s Stories.
Where do we even start? There’s just so much I want to share.
I guess this story should start with who I am and why I love reading.
Hi, nice to meet or re-meet you. I’m Sasha Gollish. I’ve been a member of Team Canada from everything from the 1500m to the marathon, and just last month the trails (miss you already Thailand).
Really, it’s not about the teams, the times or the distances, running, to me, is the community and all the amazing people you meet along the way. Books too are community and I want to bring these communities together.
Growing up I was not a reader. Maybe it was because at school they made us read books I just didn’t like. Then in university who had time to read between reading? Towards the end of my undergraduate engineering degree I found the books Gossip Girl (As Neil Pasricha says, no book shame!). It was the start of an escape from reality—no equations, no models, no labs—just New York City life through the eyes of high school kids.
Fast forward to now and reading is my main form of escape. I see you Netflix & Chill and I raise you a Book-Scape. I don’t think there is anything better than your mind getting lost in the characters of a great story. There is some emerging research on the benefits of Non-Sleep-Deep-Rest (NSDR) “practices that people use to direct their minds into a state of calm and focus.”
I think that research one day will agree that reading is a form of NSDR.
And so I’m excited to share this journey with you. Each month we’ll read a book together. I’ll publish a book review, give you some more time to read the book, and then ideally, we all meet with the author for book club where we’ll ask the author important questions about their life and their book.
Sound good? And what a perfect way to spend some time over the holidays and through the winter.
We’ll cover non-fiction and fiction, new books, cult classics, and some books that just demand a revisit. Of course, your book recommendations are always welcome—just fill out this form to let me know what you think we should all read. Running books, obviously, make sense, and I’m really looking forward to getting into Running While Black by Alison Désir and Lauren Fleshman’s Good for a Girl.
My first review will be out in the middle of next month. We’ll give you lots of time to read the book so that when we have our first book club with an author you’re ready with questions.
Happy early holidays and thanks for spending some time reading with me. Let’s have a blast.
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