All posts tagged with “reading”

February reading list

January was slow going, and February’s not looking too good, either. It’s been a busy time at work, and I’ve been trying (not so successfully, sadly) to get more writing done. That being said, here’s where I stand:

Fiction

  • Annabel Scheme — finished!
  • Tainaron — finished!
  • NEW The Things They Carried — in progress
  • The Yiddish Policeman’s Union
  • What is the What
  • Best Stories from the Indian Classics
  • And You Shall Know Our Velocity!
  • Love in the Ruins

Nonfiction

  • The Portable MFA in Creative Writing — finished!
  • Sickness Unto Death — in progress
  • Writing Down the Bones — in progress
  • The Artful Edit

Extra: I received the first issue of my Oxford American subscription, and love it!

So that’s three books in progress at the same time, which isn’t really all that unusual for me. Also I had to add The Things They Carried for a class I’m taking, making that the third time I’ve had to read the book as an assigned text. O’Brien is fine with me, but could a professor assign In the Lake of the Woods instead? That would be great.

January reading list

I received many books for Christmas, plus I already had a bunch sitting on my bedside table. Here’s where I am so far.

Fiction

  • Annabel Scheme — finished!
  • Tainaron — in progress
  • The Yiddish Policeman’s Union
  • What is the What
  • Best Stories from the Indian Classics
  • And You Shall Know Our Velocity!
  • Love in the Ruins

Nonfiction

  • The Portable MFA in Creative Writing — finished!
  • Sickness Unto Death — in progress
  • Writing Down the Bones
  • The Artful Edit
There has been a measurable cultural change in society’s commitment to literary reading. In a cultural moment when we are hearing nothing but bad news, we have reassuring evidence that the dumbing down of our culture is not inevitable.
Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, as quoted in this NYT article about a measurable increase in fiction reading. We can probably thank Oprah and Stephanie Meyer for this increase.
70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.