The Dog Ate My Book Report

Oh, I'm having 4th grade nightmares all over again. We had to record the number of books we read and our totals were posted prominently on the wall. Despite being the best speller in the class, I didn't do speed reading. I've never excelled at reading "competitions". I just read whatever, wherever, whenever.

I could peruse an atlas for hours, go through hundreds of National Geographic magazines, pour through volumes of recipes - but ask me to count the number of books I read and I just fall short.

And now with Day to Read, I've failed at even the simplest thing - reading a page. I wanted to, really I did. But I spent a whole day in an intense office retreat and then went to a concert (I read the program!) and at the end of it all my brain was mush. Mush mush mush.

I promise, tomorrow is DEFINITELY Day to Read for me! And no excuses about the dog eating my homework. But there will probably be a cat reading over my shoulder.

Retreating

What will I be reading on January 10th? Well, for the past few weeks I've been telling everyone that it will be The Princess Bride - which is true. I'll be reading it at night when I go to bed.

Alas, the rest of the day I'll be reading minds.

I have an all day staff retreat on the 10th. For my new job. I'm somewhat famous for my ability to avoid such retreats - somehow I have magically either arrived at a job just after or departed just before a staff retreat. So, you see, I've never been on one. But I have heard horror stories.

At one retreat a friend was asked for one word that described her office. "Toxic" she replied.

I think the odds are that this will be a good day - alas, no bowling or karaoke like some retreats I've heard of. But maybe avoiding heavy projectiles objects and public singing aren't such bad ideas.

I'm fairly optimistic that this will be a productive exercise - for sure I'll learn a lot about my office and how it functions. I'll get to meet all the new people and learn a bit more about the current staff. I hear they're serving lunch too.

And later on that night I can retreat to my bed, forget it all, and be whisked away to a magical land with princesses and pirates.

The New Yorker

Here's my weekly plug for Day to Read. This week it's all about The New Yorker magazine. Oh how I love it.

I grew up "reading" this magazine - mostly the cartoons when I was younger. They have by far the greatest cartoon collection of any magazine. Perhaps the only one. Legendary. They were my funny pages (seeing as the NY Times didn't have comics). My Dad had a few of Peter Arno's cartoons on the wall in his office. When Dad retired he gave the cartoons to partners in his practice. It's the one item in his office I was truly sorry to see go.

In DC, the #42 bus is also known as the New Yorker bus. Every morning as it wound its way through Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan, and Dupont Circle, you could see all sorts of people reading their latest issues - I always knew when mine had arrived late just by looking at the cover of other people's magazines.

One thing I remember very distinctly about first meeting my husband is that he had a subscription - as did I. When we married, we merged our accounts and now we have to share. Good thing he's better about sharing the New Yorker than he is about sharing the NY Times.

My favorite writers are David Sedaris for his acerbic wit and Seymour Hersh for his unrelenting criticism of this administration. On occasion there is also Atul Gawande with medical conundrums and Malcolm Gladwell on sociological phenomena.

The covers are equally legendary - sometimes a quaint comment on reading or weather and sometimes a strong criticism on our world leaders. Always a painting or drawing - never a photograph or list of contents. Truly, a work of art.

Many people look to the groundhog as the harbinger of spring. I look for Eustace Tilly on the cover of the New Yorker - the guy in the top hat with the monocle. Then I know, it's only six more weeks of winter.

My Sunday Ritual

Putting in another plug for Day to Read. Don't get all freaked out if you can't read a book for whatever reason - screaming kids, pounding hangover, spoiled Christmas egg nog - there are other things you can read with a shorter attention span. Like the newspaper.

With the internet, newspaper reading has become a lost art. There's something not quite the same about scrolling around, jumping from page to page, reading "what other people emailed". I read more of the paper when I'm reading a PAPER. I'll be focused on one article and out of the corner of my eye I'll spy a word or a headline or a photo which grabs my attention - "ooh, go there next!"

In our house we get both the Washington Post and The New York Times delivered daily. It makes for a lot of paper. During the week my husband and I sit in bed and read the Post - he gets the front section first and I start with Style. It's the ritual, I can't change it. When he leaves for work (I work from home) he picks up the NY Times outside our building (seems only the Post has keys to the place), and takes it to work with him. So Monday through Friday, I get only the Post.

But on the weekends, oh the lovely weekends, we share the NY Times. I love the Saturday crossword puzzle and often have to fight him for it - it's generally in the Arts section. And Sunday, heavenly Sunday, is hours of entertainment.

Here's my ritual:

First I hit the wedding pages in Sunday Styles - on more than one occasion I've come across people I know and it's fun to see what they're doing (and who they're doing I suppose). I also like to read about people I don't know and place odds on the union. Some combos are just too hard to believe. Some I imagine ending badly in some torrid affair. Some have nothing in their biography but their parents' professions. Yours truly had a better announcement - although the lead line "Ms. Rose, 38, is keeping her name." seemed to indicate I was destined to be a spinster. Grrrrrrr.

Next I like to go to the Ethicist in the magazine. Love the conundrums and while I love Randy Cohen's writing style, sometimes I bristle at his advice. It is possible to be both an ethical and a horrible human being at the same time.

If there's a medical mystery in the magazine that week I go to that next. "Yes, Addison's disease! That's what I suspected too!"

Finally I hit the Week in Review. With the writer's strike the late night jokes listed on page 2 aren't as good. But the collection of political cartoons (the only time you'll ever see cartoons in the Times) from around the country are wonderful! After that it's some Frank Rich to get me all pissed off at Bush (yet again).

Then I move on - maybe travel, maybe real estate, perhaps the business section.

Whatever tickles my reading fancy.

What Do You Do?

When your bush pilot in Africa is reading...



Heart of Darkness?

"Not to worry" I told my husband, "he's only on page 23."

______________________________________________________

Read this short classic or another one on:

Books Are Free

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." - Scout Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird

In our house, full of many children and limited funds (all spent on education), there was one thing that was always free. Books.

You could beg beg beg for clothes or records or toys and pray your hardest that Santa, the Easter Bunny, or the Birthday Fairy would bring them. And they might. You could beg beg beg mom and dad every time you went into a store - "oh please please please can I have it". And you might get it.

The one place you never had to beg was the bookstore. Books were free. They didn't fall under any limit. They were "extra-budgetary" as the federal bean counters might say.

Summer evenings on Cape Cod in a house with no TV we listened to baseball games on the radio and read. Our favorite bookstore - The Compass Rose - kept us in good supply. I miss that place. It had a feel to it that no other place had.

When I went in there with my parents it was FREE.



***********************************************************
This is part of the DAY TO READ campaign:

January 10, 2008 has been designated as the DAY TO READ.

On that day we join the collective challenge to spend some time with our noses stuck in it. A book that is. If you are a blogger, join us by stepping away from the keyboard for all or part of the day and spend that time reading something you enjoy.

Next, report to us (check out Jenn in Holland or Gunfighter - this guy reads EVERYTHING) and others what you've read. You can do this in a dedicated post or a comment at Allison's blog--Soccer Mom in Denial--after the DAY TO READ has passed.

Post the DAY TO READ button at your blog. Pass it on! The button, the news about the day, the challenge to others to read, read, read, read, read!

Leave me your suggestions for books to read - not sure what I'm interested in? Check here and here.

That's it. Make DAY TO READ a Happily Ever After kind of event.