3.12.2009

What Are You Reading?


Library cards and pockets via paper valise…I’m dying to somehow use these for a birthday party.

Of course my favorite ladies Lynne and Melissa of the totally brill Sugar City Journal have this genius idea to pool their creative prowess and turn out a “quarterly”… because honestly there’s nothing better than real-life, book in hand reading, no?

In their words:

“Instead of bending over a computer with an achy neck to read from an artificially lit screen, we can hold the pages of the quarterly in our hands, snuggle up on a cozy sofa and read and think, uninterrupted and peacefully.”

Amen.

I always have a stack of reading material waiting in the wings for those spare moments (and I do mean moments) where I might actually have time to read. I like the security of knowing there’s something there…waiting to suck me in.

My typical mix is a magazine or two, usually Vanity Fair, Vogue, Cookie or Elle Décor (my M.O. is to do an initial scan and then read the entire magazine cover-to-cover over several weeks) and a few books – something fiction, something pretty/inspiring.

Here’s what’s in the stack right now:


Slim: A Fantasy Memoir by Cynthia Rowley


The Way of the Small


Molly of Orangette’s new food memoir


And the aforementioned The Tenth Muse (I’m having a bit of a food moment...)


What are you reading? Do you read one thing at a time or do you bounce between reading material?

26 comments:

Jennifer Wilson said...

Hi! I just posted about my latest read today: Diane Ackerman's Cultivating Delight (and it sure is!). I could not get enough of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society when it first came out either.

Ackerman writes: "There is nothing like wide thoughts in a small garden."

www.champagnewednesdays.com

Janssen said...

I am actively reading 8 books right now. Insane. . . .that's FAR more than usual. Four going on at once is most comfortable - one on my iPod, one in the car CD player, and two actual books.

the fabled needle (jen) said...

i'm really curious about orangette's book!

i'm reading the willoughby's (http://www.amazon.com/Willoughbys-Lois-Lowry/dp/0618979743), also poking around the cookbook Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes and some sewing books from the library. i either read a book really quickly and intensely (like staying up until 3 am reading) or i bounce between 3 or more books.

Kelly said...

right now i'm reading Revolutionary Road by Robert Yates. I have yet to see the movie and always like to read the book first. ;)

xo
Kelly

thehomebound said...

I always read more than one thing at a time and I don't really know why. Right now my main read is "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" by Sloane Crosley. It's witty and a pretty good read.

keely said...

I'm always reading at least 2 or 3 books at a time. Right now I'm plowing through The Chronicles of Narnia, plan on tackling some Jane Austen that I haven't already read (so, anything but Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility), just finished Atonement and Praise Her in the Gates. I read magazines just like you- in stages. Magazine mail days are the simply the best, and I love to make that feeling last as long as it can!

Joanna said...

I'm finishing up American Wife: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld and silmultanteously trying to get through One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which is proving to be more difficult than I realized. I can only read 20 pages or so per sitting.

Kim said...

I mix it up and usually end up reading in 15-30 minute increments at bed time. I have my favorite mags (AD, Vogue and InStyle every month - and Southern Living every once in a while) plus a couple books that are always nonfiction. I just finished reading "West with the Wind" an autobiography by Beryl Markham - a contemporary of Karen Blixen (of "Out of Africa" fame).

Heather Taylor said...

Wow - I love this post. I'm always reading Vanity Fair and the New Yorker and numerous other mags. In addition I usually have two books going. The Tenth Muse is currently on my bedside table. The book I am currently obsessed with is Katherine Graham: Personal History. I love reading about powerful, successful and inspirational women. http://www.amazon.com/Personal-History-Katharine-Graham/dp/0375701044

Cassie said...

I'm on the 5th book in the Outlander series....plus, my crafting books, a graphic novel from my brother, and several poetry books...

Andi said...

If I am reading a book I can't read anything like my magazines. I get a lot of magazines, so they usually stack up and when I am done with my current book it takes like a whole week to get through all the mags! Right now I am reading some chick lit called Galmour while at the same time reviewing a new book called The Tea Shopgirls. I am a book fiend and can't imagine life without them!

Anonymous said...

I have stocked up on books at my local half price. So I just finished Robin Hobb's Assasins Apprentice, and have to get through Once and Future King, Talerin, Lolita, Ender's Game. I also just finished reading Kate Mosse's Labrinth. I am going through a slight fantasy kick right now. Something I haven't been into since middle school and early high school.

Recently I enjoyed Distant Land of my Father and the Glass Castle. Both great reads. It really depends on the book how long I can read. If it is an emotionally draining book, I can only read a couple chapters at a time. But usually, I can sit reading for several hours. Something I can't seem to do with anything else.

Sherrie said...

Completely unrelated: I just came across a blog I think you may enjoy, if you haven't seen it already. :)
http://concretehoney.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

great minds think alike... no?

i just posted the very same question yesterday...

i'm gearing up to read a homemade life... it'll be a treat for myself this weekend.

i am, currently reading a patricia cornwell thriller and natalie goldberg's a friend from far away.

i usually read several books at a time...

Dallas Shaw said...

where do you think i can get these date due cards now? they would be cute for my deadlines..
dallas
http://dillydallas.blogspot.com

pve design said...

totally juggle - Reading "Trail of Crumbs" Kim Sunnee
"The Power of less" and the Bible, Romans -
I have a stack of others on my shelf.
pve

Stephanie said...

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry...

It's not a challenging read at all, but interesting if you enjoy Paris and want to know what it is like to take classes at Le Cordon Bleu. I am interested in both so I'm enjoying it.

Next up...Tess of the d'Urbervilles and possibly a re-read of East of Eden, one of my top 5.

Mrs Robinson said...

I am loving Eat Pray Love... actually I am finding myself savoring it - reading little bits at a time and marinating with all the loveliness. I posted the Big Read top 100 MeMe on my Blog... lots of great book suggestions there!

amy turn sharp said...

we are the same wave length- I am thinking about this too
rereading, naked lunch, war and peace, and then- Run...ann patchett.

Emily said...

I try to stick to one at a time as I'm a big believer in finishing what you start (with emphasis in personal reading). I also end up choking down one book a week this way instead of making small headway on 4. I'm reading an old but super interesting biography on Joseph Smith (founder of the mormon church) right now called No Man Knows My History but have recently read Cormac McCarthy, D.H. Lawrence, Michael Pollan--and I have a perpetual love affair with the works of Walt Whitman, and John Steinbeck...naturally

Amanda said...

"The Way of the Small" looks really interesting.

I've got some books on a shelf but I've been lazy about reading them. I carve a few minutes to go through the Bible at night because it helps me sleep, but that and magazines are the extent of my reading lately.

Hopefully I'll get some good books in over my spring break, which is the week after next!

~Amanda
http://onehappypanda.blogspot.com

kim said...

Reading The Wild Trees and Sewing Circles of Herat.

Thanks for this post - it's great to see what other people are reading & add to my ever-growing list of books I'll read some day.

Dora said...

I'm a bouncer. Never seem to finish a book these days. Currently reading "A Million Little Pieces" (i like giving it a while after one has been made famous on Oprah), Foxfire books (prepping for log cabin building), Waistland, Einstein Never Used Flash Cards, Discover Chocolate, SOS Help for Parents (on my second read of this one!) And in a bible study so reading a bit in the big book. Oh - and recently pulled out my old journals, so currently reading about my life as a 14-year-old. quite funny!

Jessica said...

I'm reading The Omnivore's Dilemma right now, even though I've already read In Defense Of Food. I love Michael Pollan though, so I'll probably read Defense again after. I usually read one book at a time, and then supplement with my Newsweek, Real Simple, Living and Everyday Food subscriptions.

Unknown said...

I'm DYING to read that ORangette book!

I just finished Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner - it's such a rich read, and every time I've read it - a couple or a few years apart - I get different things from it. SO GOOD!! And just started THe Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. It's really good so far.

Thanks for the Quarterly Plug, Joslyn! I hope it will turn out well!

Apt. #34 said...

I am totally the same way and always looking for good reading material - especially about food! I'm going to track down your entire list - and Im going to see Molly do a reading of her book in Seattle next week!