In this episode, we're hearing passages read by Al Jazeera journalists and fellow bibliophiles from the books they're turning to during this pandemic. We often read to be transported, and at this time when we're very stuck in one place, we're looking to our bookshelves — and bookshops under threat — to travel to new worlds and return to old memories.

In this episode:

Al Jazeera senior correspondents Mohammed Jamjoom, Stefanie Dekker, and Imran Khan; Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath, Americas editor for aljazeera.com; Kyle Burk, co-owner of Capitol Hill Books (@capitolhillbooks) in Washington, DC; Tawney Bevilacqua, The Take listener in Melbourne, Australia; and Akinolo Davies, The Take listener in London, UK.

The reading list:

The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead

The Plague by Albert Camus

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz by Hafez, Jahan Malek Khatun, Obayd-e Zakani, Dick Davis

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

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