Matthew Berkman

I’m here because books have saved my life. Literally. More than once. When I was in college and alone and life felt too heavy to carry and whatever future I imagined for myself seemed not just impossible, but laughable; I remember sitting down on a bench in a small green space and getting lost in The Diamond Age by: Neal Stephenson. An hour later, when I came out of that world, all my problems and everything I didn’t like about myself was manageable again. I could find solutions. I could find and achieve goals. The weird thing is The Diamond Age isn’t really even about those sorts of things. It’s…