Catherynne M.  Valente‘s mother, a Broadway singer, often used “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” as a lullaby. Cat called it the “Tina Song.”

Cat’s grandmother chose The Arabian Nights over showtunes when she offered bedtime entertainment. Someone once said of The Arabian Nights that “through reading these stories, my mind became habituated to the vast.”

It’s a good quote. Charles Dickens might have said it. Patrick Rothfuss tells us that the quote belongs to Dickens, but Wikiquote insists that Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote it in a letter about giants and magicians and genii. The internet gives conflicting answers. It’s possible that a magician masquerading as Charles Dickens pretended to be Coleridge in order to forge that letter about giants and genii.

Regardless, reading Cat Valente will also habituate your mind to the vast.