Wednesday warblings

(I hope you are enjoying my alliterative titles. I may be pushing my luck with today's title, but I do consider my writing to be a melodious succession of low, pleasing sounds.)

Because of what I do for a living, I could argue that I read new writing constantly, on topics ranging from acquiring graphic novels for libraries to psychotherapy for college students to religion and spirituality in social work. However, editing and reading are two different tasks. I'm actually embarrasingly out of touch with current literary fiction* and creative nonfiction. I've decided to begin changing this status.

Like many people, I don't have a lot of time to read for fun . . . and I want to watch Glee and Lost and 30 Rock and football and go to a play and a museum and a bar and for a run and for baked goods. So, more accurately, I don't choose to spend a lot of my free time reading for fun. Since moving to New York City, though, I've consciously acquired more so-called free time, and starting today I will use more of it to read. In fact, I've just applied for my New York Public Library card. Once I finally finish Love in the Time of Cholera, having made it 29 years in life without reading this book, I'm going to start reading new books, new to me at least. I'll aim for contemporary but won't limit myself. I've decided to start reading books about or set in New York City (indulging obsessions isn't always unhealthy). First up, which I want to buy because the main character is a proofreader, is No Lease on Life by Lynne Tillman, "the chronicle of one ordinary woman's day in the East Village." I'll wait until the week of November 15-21 and buy it from an independent bookstore for Independent Bookstore Week NYC.

I'll, as always, keep you posted.


*And I especially don't know anything about popular fiction. Like music, if I don't like it I don't pay attention to it, even for scholarly value or street cred. Pop fiction just doesn't do it for me. Refer back to my discussion on how I like character more than and sometimes to the detriment of plot. I would own up to being a literary snob if this were the case, but it's not - if I liked pop fiction I'd unashamedly like it, and I score far too poor on literature questions in trivia games to ever be considered a snob. But I do hope someday to add "literary snob" to the list of reasons I'm unpleasant to be around.