“I menstruate a lot.” — Liz Lemon
In a not-too-terrible turn of events a la the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been reading a ton. I haven’t done a book post since last September, so before it becomes completely unmanageable to recount everything I’ve read to you since then, I figured it was time to give you a roundup of what I’ve been reading. Especially if you, too, are trying to lose yourself in books.
Get cozy and READ.
Sometime in the last few years I realized I was finishing books at a pace that truly alarmed me. I was always a voracious reader as a kid, and I grew up to be an editor, so the amount of reading (or lack thereof) I was doing ashamed me and frankly made me kind of sad.
Then I realized that 1) I spend most of my day reading at work (it just isn’t “fun” reading and I am usually fixing the writing), and 2) I was getting through the Outlander books, and at 1,000+ pages a pop, those aren’t exactly quick reads (though they are totally worth it).
Last year, inspired by my friend Katharine, I set a goal to read at least a book a month. A whole 12 books in a year does not sound like much. I finished at 13. I modestly bumped my goal for 2019 up to 15 this year, and in January, my friend Lindsay added me to her Google spreadsheet where a bunch of people track what they read and either recommend the book or don’t! I think of this as a book club without meetups or discussions; just a quick virtual way to get good ideas on what to read next, and I LOVE IT.
Toward the end of last year, I started hearing more and more people talking about Tina Brown's The Vanity Fair Diaries. The reviews were all glowing, and since I studied journalism in NYC, I particularly enjoy reading about other journalists doing their thing in my college town.
Find a cozy spot to settle in...
In my ideal world, I'd like to get you a weekly roundup of great articles I think you should read, podcast episodes you should listen to, documentaries you should watch. Alas, we do not live in my ideal world (yet), and there are so many hours in the day/week.
But for this week, I came across three particularly good, thought-provoking articles I think you should read.