Reading

With so much time to myself, I read a lot. In March, the New York Times published The New Vanguard, 15 remarkable books by women that are shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century. I decided to read all 15. Most are wonderful, some are more so, some not so much. I have read all by one book on this list.

Last week, the New York Times posted their 10 best books of 2018. For the fiction category, I have already read all by 3 books and will soon request these three. I have long since stopped buying books, not because I’m cheap – well, I am, but because I don’t want to hold on to the physical book after I’m finished and rather have someone else get a chance to read it. So I request books from my local library. When notified that my book is ready, I lumber out to the library like an old man, peruse the periodicals and pick up my book.

I borrow recommended books from my mother. She scribbles notes in them cutely in pencil. We may not have the same tastes, but I do like that we can share books. For some of the racier and violent scenes, I’m shocked that she has read these scenes too. I’ll take one or two books when I leave Wellesley to read on the plane. I return them to her bookcase when I come back the next time.

It’s not just fiction. I’ve recently read software engineering textbooks on React, microservices, HTML and CSS, Javascript and JQuery, and SQLAlchemy. Another text is in the mail for object-oriented Python. Now that I have a job in a particular field, I’m realizing that most of those computer textbook were irrelevant, but potentially useful at some future date and life.

Spinach gave me a book on the 2-hour job search (or how to lure informational interviewees into passing your resume on to the hiring manager). I did not need the specific advice of the 2-hour job search, but the book did kick off my job ramblings for the position I landed about three weeks later.

I begin soon the Moon Guide to Cuba.

It’s not just books. I wake, have breakfast, then read online the New York Times. Ruben and I battle each day for fastest score on the Times mini-crossword. He usually wins.

On Thursday, I read all of the SF Weekly newspaper to learn more about the city I live in, its politics and events. I quite like the writings of the head editor, Peter Lawrence Kane.

I read at every meal. I read before bed. I have read so much. When this period of rest concludes in January, this will have been the time of books and reading. I know well celebrated novelists of 2017-8.