Every week we ask an interesting figure what they're digging into. Have ideas who we should reach out to? Let it fly: info@seattlereviewofbooks.com. Want to read more? Check out the archives.

Aaron Bagley is an artist, illustrator, writer, and bookseller. You may recognize his name from his weekly Seattle Review of Books comic Aaron Bagley's Dream Comics. He's the co-author, with his wife Jessixa Bagley, of the children's book Vincent Comes Home. Aaron and Jessixa will be signing books today at 2:30pm, at the American Library Association Seattle (that's at the Convention Center, but if you're attending, you probably already knew that). Find them inside at the SCWBI booth.

What are you reading now?

A while back someone dumped a bunch of zines at Mercer Street Books. I took home three Esther Pearl Watson zines with silkscreened covers. My favorite is Hero Land - a survey of superheroes’ daily lives - Wonder Woman’s invisible ship’s dirty windshield, Batman’s fat hand, and Superman’s pathetic, potted strawberries. Also took I Want You by Lisa Hanawalt, which is delightfully crass, and a Seinfeld fanzine by someone who goes by Uno Foto. In the introduction to the Seinfeld fanzine the first line states, “I’m probably the only brown person to be as obsessed with Seinfeld as I am”. Zines are the best.

What did you read last?

How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, which is about the use of psychedelic drugs to help with addiction, depression, consciousness, dying, and transcendence. I started this last summer on the heels of a psilocybin trip. I didn’t plan to do research before reading this book, but it really helped my enjoyment of it. My main takeaway from How to Change Your Mind is that there will always be a stigma about psychedelics despite their authority to help people break out of unhealthy ‘default mode thinking’ - which is happens in depression, addiction, and dying. Funny thing - it took 377 pages before a mention of a ‘dud trip’. Needless to say, I laughed out loud on page 377.

What are you reading next?

Probably something to my son, Baxter. He’s only four but enjoys listening to a longer book. My wife is going through all of Roald Dahl’s classics with him. Anyway, after Baxter goes to bed I’d like to read some James Baldwin. I haven’t read Baldwin yet, I’m really looking forward to it.