New Year On Reading

The stack of New Yorker magazines that fill my going out of town suitcase is always daunting.  How can I possibly read over 10 weeks of this magazine during a 6 day vacation is math I never do in my head.  Sitting in a cold house in Queens, I delude myself that somehow, time goes by much slower in Florida, and that I will be able to plow through 2 magazines a day while lying on the beach.  And just in case I finish the 10 plus back issues, I also pack a novel.  A nice long one. This trip it is Ragtime by Doctorow. I am delusional.

The second I hit the warm sand, the last thing I want to do is read about depression era NYC.  So I flip through the New Yorkers.  But this is also not satisfying.  

In retirement communities like this one, everywhere you go, there are stacks of books for the taking.  Most often they are Danielle Steel for women, and Scott Turow for the men.  Occasionally there will be children's books for Hiro in these amassings.  In the elevator lobby of our rented condo complex, there is such a take-one-leave-one library.  There are three Harry Potters for Hiro none he needs to finish out the series.  

 

I pick out two books. Nick Hornby's monthly articles for a magazine called Believer and the collected letters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Only in the sand strewn lobby of a Florida condo will you find these two books keeping company next to Danielle Steele and Agatha Christie.

And here I make my third New Years Resolution.  (First being eat less meat, second- to wear more fun necklaces) To read and record what I read.  In the same format as Nick Horrnby, I will record in list form what I buy, check out and then what I read.  And give some thoughts on them.
Happy New Year!