Structure

The structure of The Book of Delights is largely shaped by the format of Ross’ year-long project that he defined for himself before he began writing. This book is the result of a project with the following conditions: that Ross write a delight every day for a year, beginning and ending on his birthday, August 1; that he draft each essay quickly; and that he write them by hand. The book is therefore a collection of 102 of these essays which were all written on a different day over the course of a year. At the end of each essay, Ross includes the date on which it was written. The inclusion of this date helps to outline how the essays are connected to each other and shapes the structure of the book by grounding readers in its chronology and making it possible for them to note the gaps in...