I finished rereading A.S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book. Last time I read it I wrote myself a hangover cure: visit the V&A museum, take up pottery, frolic in the English countryside, read Peter Pan, drink tea, sleep.

So, behold, a collection of cures for that book that made you suffer: the best of the reading remedies.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation Remedy: sleep, watch Whoopi Goldberg films, consider your own beauty with unashamed arrogance, critique modern art

Atonement Remedy: pick wildflowers, have sex in a library, write letters, wear a green silk ball gown, watch the hot sun dry wet footprints

How to be Both Remedy: watch the ripples in a puddle, go to Ferrara, sit on a wall, be a moody teenager, let your ceiling fall to pieces

The Bell Jar Remedy: eat figs (more than one), throw your clothes from the rooftop at dawn, stare at yourself in the mirror

The Lonely City Remedy: move to New York, stare into illuminated windows, create art, ditch technology

Motherhood Remedy: learn the i-ching, track your menstrual cycle, pace in the sunlight, call your mother, be selfish

Hot Milk Remedy: smash a vase, contemplate the nature of memory, watch David Bowie videos on youtube, wear embroidered blouses

Circe Remedy: take up gardening, be content in solitude, wear your hair in braids, move to an island off the Greek coast

Autumn Remedy: befriended your elderly neighbour, renew your passport, read Brave New World at the post office, go to a protest

We Have Always Lived in the Castle Remedy: throw out your sugar bowl, live alone, muse upon the unreliable narrator

Read Reading Remedies (Part I) and (Part II).