when do people find time to read novels?? it's always been a mystery to me. books require such committment.
i have gobs and gobs of magazine subscriptions, though (several of which * i think i'm going to give up):
the sun
bitch
bust
entertainment weekly
real simple *
budget living *
harper's *
utne *
cuisine at home
stay free!
yes, i do like my magazines... primarily because they consist entirely of brief nuggets that are easy to read in bed before the lights go out. with magazines, i don't have to worry about remembering what i read the previous night because they're all just short articles requiring no continuity.
but i am going to read a book. yes, i am! i just learned about this book today, and i'm not going to order it from amazon (big brother and all) but i am going to stop by the regulator this very evening and buy myself a copy.
years ago (when i apparently had loads of free time), i read nicholson baker's "the fermata" (ooh la la!) and "vox" (ooh la la la LA!) and loved them both. they're all short ("checkpoint" will make excellent bedtime reading at 128 pages) and conversational. just my style.
(of course, if i were really worried about big brother i wouldn't be blogging this, would i?)
That novel sounds interesting. I'm the opposite of you in my novel selection. I gravitate towards big fat books that will keep me company for a long time. I recently started subscribing to Time and The Economist (free with my frequent flyer miles with an airline I will NEVER fly again) and I find that they sit in a pile on my coffeetable. It's like if I don't get to them right away there's ANOTHER one in my mailbox. It's sort of discouraging.
Posted by: lainey at August 12, 2004 2:06 PMI had a subscription to Real Simple for a year but most of their advice seemed to have no connection to a life like mine. I gave up on them after an article about "reclaiming the morning," which listed the a.m. schedules of 3 women, two of whom worked at home and the 3rd was a grad student whose first class was at 10. At the time I was leaving for work at 7:30, so that irked me a bit :)
Also, once upon a time I temped for the Sun and applied for a permanent job but they turned me down. I used to call them "The Sun, Who Would Not Give Me a Job."
I have no comment on the rest of your magazines except I'm impressed that you can keep up with so many :)
Posted by: Sarah at August 12, 2004 3:57 PMindeed, i am hard-pressed to keep up with bust, a slender volume that only comes out four times a year-- and that's a good year!
i figure blogs count as reading, so really, i read a LOT.
Posted by: lisa at August 12, 2004 9:14 PMI am so interested in knowing how this book is. I love Nicholson Baker. If you liked those 2 you should get "The Mezzanine"--even shorter and quirkier!
Posted by: minty at August 13, 2004 7:19 AMoh, man! i, too, was going to recommend "the mezzanine" so there's really no point in my comment here. oops.
but, wait! why are cancelling harper's???? it's cheap, and there's at least two good laughs and one thought-provocation per ish!
Posted by: rick! at August 13, 2004 9:40 AMsarah, i agree... both 'real simple' and 'budget living' seem too, uh, "trendy" or something to really be effective at their mission.
and rick!... i'll agree with your statement that harper's is always worth two laughs & one "hmm, that's interesting". but each month there are HUGE portions of the magazine that i don't read, and it seems like a waste of money at this point. i'll miss it, though.
Posted by: christa at August 13, 2004 10:08 AM