I was thinking about my reading material, and the choices that I usually make between fiction and non-fiction, classics vs. contemporary, etc. Although I have not performed any type of analysis on my collection over at LibraryThing, my guess would be that I generally prefer historical non-fiction… although more recently I’ve been reading fiction, so go figure.
This past week I finished a book that I had bought 10 years ago, after reading a review in the Sunday New York Times: Lying Awake, by Mark Salzman. It is the story of a cloistered Carmelite nun, who experiences painful headaches which proceed into ecstasies of the Lord Jesus Christ; due to the severity of the headaches, she seeks out medical attention, which reveals a small tumor located behind her ear which may be the cause of the headaches. She is presented with the difficult choice of surgery to have the tumor removed, and potentially ending the intense closeness she obtains with her Saviour, or leaving the tumor, experiencing a state of grace that may actually be delusional, as well as risking her own health. Although I’ve recommended this book to my wife and to others, I’d never actually read the book myself, until two weeks ago when I finally pulled the hardcover off the shelf. It was a relatively quick read, but I found it to be thought provoking and worthy of all of the recommendations I’d made over the years.
Somehow thereafter, I started to think about my casual reading interests, in the form of magazines and periodicals, and started to put together a list of some of the various magazines to which I’ve subscribed over the years (current subscriptions marked with *):
- American History
- Backpacker*
- Better Homes and Gardens
- Country Home
- Country Living*
- Family Fun*
- Film Comment
- Linn’s Stamp News
- National Geographic*
- The New Yorker
- Outside
- Philadelphia
- Playboy
- Scientific American
- Sierra
- Ski
- Skiing
- Sports Illustrated
- Time
- Vanity Fair
- Yankee
In addition to these, I usually pick up from the newstand Mojo, National Review, Utne Reader. I’m not sure if this all means something, but it’s just kind of interesting, I think.