Meet the Shy Guy - An Interview with Don Boivin
A Story from Beyond the Bookshelf
Welcome to Beyond the Bookshelf, a community of readers and writers exploring the intricate relationships between life and literature and the profound narratives that bind them together.
Dear Reader,
In the not-too-distant past, I wrote about wanting to explore stories of all kinds, including the personal stories of readers and writers. As much as I love literature and reading, I also love talking about books and stories with others who read and write them. Over the past few months, I have been privileged to meet many others on a similar journey of exploration in their own lives, people who are getting outside their comfort zones and sharing their creative energy with the world. This week I am excited to introduce you to a reader of Beyond the Bookshelf who shares my passion for reading and writing. I hope you enjoy his story.
The Taunton Green is the central square of Taunton, Massachusetts, a factory town of just under 60,000 residents. Established in 1637 and incorporated in 1639, it is known as “Silver City” for its essential role in the silver industry. Over the intervening years, numerous Taunton companies have produced fine silver products, the most famous being Reed & Barton, whose cutlery is used in the White House. In the second half of the 20th century, our subject today, Don Boivin, was born in this historic locale.
These days, you can usually find him a short jaunt down I-495 and U.S. 6 on the beautiful Cape Cod peninsula, where he makes his home with his wife, Jennifer. A carpenter by trade, Don has been interested in making things his entire life. When not remodeling homes, he puts his creative skills to work building guitars, boats, and furniture. He also loves to make greeting cards, bookmarks, and origami.
He and Jennifer love attending concerts and plays together, exploring the culinary scene, and adventuring in the great outdoors. As avid nature lovers, they can often be found on a walk in the woods, on the beach, or on hiking trails in the Southwest U.S., where they visit Jennifer’s mom.
Don earned a Bachelor of Arts in English in his forties as part of a life-long love affair with the written word. Piles of books waiting to be read can be found on the seat of his truck, by the side of his bed, and stacked atop the dining table. Library returns wait on the kitchen counter for the next trip out.
Over the past few years, Don has taken the opportunity to focus more on his mindfulness and meditation practice. Recently, he combined this passion with his love for reading and writing as he set forth on a new adventure, writing Shy Guy Meets the Buddha, a newsletter of reflections on work, love, and nature. I hope that you enjoy learning more about him and that you will give his newsletter a read.
Could you tell us how reading came into your life?
I like sharing this story. I was in third grade. I’m sure I had read plenty of picture books by this time, but as far as real “chapter books,” I hadn’t yet made the connection between the faded spines packed side by side on the shelves of my elementary school library and that vast imaginary universe of kids like me enjoying endless adventures and solving great mysteries.
My class visited the library once a week, and I would just sit at a long table and draw pictures on blank pieces of paper with the other boys. But one fateful day, out of boredom, I lay my finger on the top of one of those spines and tipped the book out of its slot. It was that incidental act of a fidgeting eight-year-old hand that would be a major turning point in my life. The book’s cover art showed a boy and a girl on a horse ranch with the Rocky Mountains in the distance. The sun shone on those mountains in such a way that the shape of a cross was illuminated on an outcropping. I regret that I cannot remember the exact title: Mystery at Cross Mountain, or something like that. There was some sort of treasure or clue at the base of that cross. I dove deep into that book and I haven’t come up for air yet.
How have your reading habits changed over the years?
These days I read with more intentionality and purpose than I did when I was younger. I choose an author or book based on past reading, a recommendation, a connection made, or on my own research, and based on how I want to feel at the time. Do I want to be spiritually uplifted? Connected to a shared experience of pain or loss? Do I want to explore the difficulties of marriage or career or meaning-seeking as experienced through the lives of fictional characters? Or do I want to learn something totally new and unexpected, travel to worlds exotic to me, or learn about the history of life on earth?
Could you share a book that influenced you and how it did so?
As a young man I was insecure, foolish, and unsophisticated, raised to believe you accept your lot in life and don’t complain (though complaining is all anyone around me seemed to be doing). I needed the influence of someone independent and self-assured, sensitive to nature, highly intelligent, and who was a passionate nonconformist, who heard the music of “a different drummer.”
I’ve written about Walden in several of my essays, and I’m sure the book and its author will find its way into future works as well. Henry David Thoreau was the mentor I needed. His courage to turn his back on the traditional path of status and wealth building in order to spend time in the woods, communing with the white pines or contemplating the rain or some forest critter, gave me the strength I needed. It helped me to believe that my own dissatisfaction with the life that was laid out for me, my desire to spend time in nature with no ulterior goal whatsoever, was not irresponsible or abnormal. It was noble and worthwhile, and though my path was still strewn with financial obstacles and emotional complexities, Walden provided me with the spiritual strength I needed, that spark of self-belief that kept me from losing myself in a world of conformity and meaningless pursuit.
Though, as a carpenter, I’ve been literally hammering and “sawing” all my life, I continue to find validation and comfort in thoughts such as this one from Thoreau’s journal:
“The man who does not betake himself at once and desperately to sawing is called a loafer, though he may be knocking at the doors of heaven all the while.”
What are your thoughts on the importance of stories culturally?
Well, even this interview is a story you and I are creating! The face I present to the world is a story. Story is the entire constructed realm we live in, so it’s not surprising that humans have invented pens and paper and the written word and libraries. I think it’s more important to reflect on the ubiquitous nature of story in our lives—to understand just how deeply it defines us as a species—than it is to place a value judgment on it. Story just IS. Thank goodness.
What genres do you prefer to read?
I read literary fiction mostly, and also enjoy popular science, sociology, nature, memoir. I really liked The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall, and Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Over the past five years I’ve been reading a great deal of Buddhist and mindfulness literature, with books by Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chodrön, and Ajahn Sumedho at the top of the list. Some favorite contemporary fiction authors include Paul Auster, José Saramago, Edwidge Danticat, Anne Patchett, Russel Banks, and Barbara Kingsolver. I could easily go on.
What book do you think nobody should die without reading and why?
What a funny question! I have sent copies of You Are Here, by the Buddhist monk, peace activist, poet and teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, to some family members who were suffering from stress, depression, or emotional angst. And I have recommended it to quite a few others. None have read it. Or at least I have not heard back from them. And even if they did read the book, they may not be in the same state of mind as I was when I first discovered the author’s teachings. You know what they say: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
For me, it was a copy of one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s other books, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, that finally, after years of attempts at a meditation practice, set me on the right path, one in which I learned that deep looking, through reflection and meditation, at both myself and the immediate world around me, was the way to understanding and peace. Just constantly remembering that it is my own runaway thoughts, feelings, and emotions—mistaken for permanent reality—that distract me from the present, which is where real life is actually taking place.
So, I say it’s a funny question because I know that everyone is different, and I have no idea which book would move the stranger sitting near me at the coffee shop, the harried mother at the grocery store, the ambitious corporate consultant, to greater serenity, deeper understanding, and the kind of inner harmony that can emanate in ever-widening circles and help make the world a better place. If I knew there was a single book that could do that, I would surely recommend it to everyone!
How do you pick the next book you want to read?
I use goodreads.com to keep track of the books I’ve read and to add to an ongoing list of books I want to read. I recently won a giveaway on Substack and received two books by the British author Tom Cox, a fiction and a non-fiction, so my to-read list has gotten even longer! I also keep an eye on the three big literary prizes: the National Book Award, the Pulitzer, and the Booker Prize. Runners-up are often better than the winners, so there are a host of books to choose from there.
What book are you reading right now?
I am currently reading Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward. Ward is exactly the kind of author I like. Deeply in tune with the people and the hardscrabble life of the American Deep South, where she grew up—the poverty and racism, violence and territorial disputes and broken families—she creates stories about characters who survive these and other hardships, and find meaning in love and relationship, memory and hope and connection.
Oh, and I just finished the beautiful and sad On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. I gave it five stars!
Where can people connect with you online?
The best way to connect with me is on Substack or Facebook. (Or email me at woodnstone64@yahoo.com)
Until next time…
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I enjoyed reading this interview very much! I love how varied Don's interests are, and felt a connection in that I, too, did not study for my Bachelor of Arts in English until I was in my late thirties/approaching forties. Thank you for sharing and introducing me to his writing :)
Thanks for doing this, Matthew! It's great to get to know Don a bit more.
Don (I'm sure you'll find this despite the inability to tag you here), your story of the first chapter book you picked at random reminds me of a parallel but different story from my own boyhood. I was at a bookstore with my grandparents, and I was maybe 8 or 10. I saw the cover of Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson and was so enthralled by the art and the title that I decided to buy it. My grandma mandated that I read every day of the summer, for one hour. Though that book looked cool, I didn't like being forced to read. I remember that I would sometimes just sit with the book open and stare at it, not actually reading at all, just to pass the hour in defiance, so I could go back to playing Nintendo. A few times I did make an earnest attempt to read it, but I found it quite difficult for my reading and vocabulary level of the time. I remember reading a few pages over and over (the text seemed so tiny!), trying to absorb every word individually and make sense of it. Now, I read and write poetry with much the same painstakingly slow pace and attention to low-level detail. My attention span still struggles to complete books. Anyway, that doesn't stop me from being a windbag when I write! Talk soon.