I think it is not uncommon that avid readers read all sorts of things, not just books. Non-book reading I think of as extracurricular. Reading like blogs, news and magazines (print and digital). I’ve been considering my extracurricular reading of late since it has been piling up as fast as my books have it seems.
I subscribe to the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books in print. I am so behind on these that the date of the one I am currently reading is the end of June. I enjoy reading these but I have managed to get so far behind some of the essays are old news at this point and seem hardly worth reading so I skip right over them. You would think that it would help me get through them faster but somehow it doesn’t.
And then there are the digital magazines I get through my public library. Ever since I got my iPad in April and discovered this lovely service I have been sampling the various magazines on offer. They are quite diverse and most of the time of no interest (motorcycles, hunting, skiing, skateboarding, celebrity and fashion magazines), but still I manage to find plenty to read. I currently regularly get Harper’s, The Vegetarian Times, Smithsonian, Discover, Organic Gardening, Mother Earth News, American Poetry, Poets and Writers, and The Writer. I make occasional forays into New Scientist, Mother Jones, Knitter’s, Interweave Knits, Publisher’s Weekly and Earth. Most of these I just browse through and read an article here or an essay there, copy down a book title or a new recipe. Nonetheless, I have several I haven’t even looked at yet.
So why, why did I subscribe to the Paris Review two weeks ago? I got a one-year digital subscription. When I subscribed it was still the Summer issue they were sending out and I got a bonus older issue too. Then, three days later the Fall issue came out. I should have waited because I suspected the Fall issue was not far away but the Summer issue has a couple essays on the art of writing biography and one of them is by Hermione Lee so I didn’t wait. And now I am already behind. At least they are digital so there is nowhere for the dust bunnies to hide. And they only come quarterly so I have a remote chance of catching up.
I am not sorry for subscribing to the Paris Review. I have so far read a pretty good short story by Ben Lerner and since I don’t read many short stories in general I am thinking this is a good way to do that. And since each issue also has lots of poetry I might also discover a new favorite poet or two. So it is good. Except where do I find the time? When the choice is between reading a book and reading a magazine even one as good as Paris Review, I go for the book nine times out of ten. And that is why I am so behind on my extracurricular reading. I could cut back on the amount of extra reading, after all, I got along fine for years without all those magazines I get now through my library. But oh, there are so many interesting things out there to learn about especially in those science magazines. I will have to work a little on practicing restraint because I definitely won’t opt for reading fewer books.
What about you? What sort of extracurricular reading do you do and how do you find the time to fit it all in?
I used to refer to the physical stack of New Yorker issues as “New Yorker guilt “. As a practice each issue goes in the trash the following trash day after I recieve it because I almost always read it online. Since there is no physical stack, voilà, there is no “New Yorker guilt “. That is, until I get the renewal. I like the idea of thinking of extracurricular reading. I tend to not think of things I read online – blogs, news sites, magazines – as reading at all. Sometimes it seems like it has been days since I have read anything when really it is only been days since I picked up a book. Your post, though, is tempting me to see what magazines are available at my local library. I should resist!
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Anne Camille, Oh yes, when you can see the pile of unread magazines it is very guilt inducing! And oh, I know that renewal angst too! The library’s digital magazine subscriptions are a dangerous treasure so if you look into what you library has, be careful!
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In general I have been disappointed by extracurricular (non-book) reading. The more temporary the media, the more temporary the ideas and opinions. It is hard to ever remember a newspaper (paper or online) story that remains important to me a year or two later. There may be a few magazine articles that have made an important impression on me but most of them eventually led to a larger treatment in a book. Blogs fair a little better. There are many people who have worthwhile things to say in blogs, although much of that too is ephemeral.
I try to keep a limit on this kind of reading by restricting it to a limited time. If I’m eating alone I will read a magazine, blog or catch up on news. When I’m done eating, I stop. I don’t really feel like I’m getting behind or missing out. It feels more like being liberated from a large amount of distraction and I am grateful. I end up reading just enough to feel confident that I’m not missing out on much. It seems to allow more time for reading that, in the long run, really matters to me.
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severalfourmany, oh how I admire your restraint! It is true, much extracurricular reading is ephemeral but I get enough little nuggets here and there that it keeps me going back for more. I read the extras mostly when I am eating too and that is probably why I have so much extra stuff piling up! Thanks for sharing your habits!
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Hmm. . . I like the term “extracurricular reading”–and I guess I do my share of it. I’m currently subscribing to 5 magazines–Vanity Fair, Time, Smithsonian, Psychology Today, and Yoga Journal. If you’re looking for a theme there, I don’t think you’ll find one–except maybe “extremely diverse interests!” I keep up with Time pretty well, but as for the others, since they aren’t really time-sensitive, they do tend to pile up. Like you, I tend to pick up a book far more often than a magazine. What I find myself doing is going on a magazine reading binge a couple of times a year and just inhaling the piles that have been accumulating in one sitting. Then I start all over again . . .
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bookmammal, ha, yes, inhaling the piles a couple times a year! I do that sometimes too. It has been awhile though and I keep thinking maybe this weekend but then I always end up being in the middle of a good book and, well, the magazines never get read. I like your diversity of reading!
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Have followed your book blog for years. Tonight’s entry really hit a nerve. Mostly because I spend 2-3 hours a day on book blogs, news sites, Facebook, health news, real news [!!] and personal email. That leaves very little time for my favorite book at the moment. It is a very tough choice: the brief pleasure and the lasting pleasure.
Your blog rises to the top every time. Should stop here only – every night !!
Thanks for your efforts at keeping us well informed and always seeking the next best read.
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Ellen, you are so very kind! Extracurricular reading takes up a lot of time, doesn’t it? I agree that it is a tough choice between brief pleasure and lasting pleasure. There is something to be said about the merits of each. 🙂
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I don’t know how you find the time to read all that you do!!
I’m the opposite of you in reading priorities. I read blogs & magazines first then the book becomes my choice which is sad bc it takes FOREVER to finish a book. I never have enough time to read, ever! I haven’t even managed to find time to write to a good pen pal of mine……… Maybe that will happen this weekend since volleyball was cancelled. But of course I’ll be biking instead ……..
I used to commute an hour each way into the city & THAT is when I did much of my book reading. I miss that!
Great post Stephanie!!!!!!!
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Luckily I don’t have an urge to collect a lot of magazines (although bound sets have a bookish attraction). I once had a year’s sub to the London Review Of Books and I did enjoy it but I never managed to finish an issue- once a month would have suited me more than the fortnightly format. Very impressed by the range of periodicals you enjoy – reading them must inform you of interesting books coming up.
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Ian, you are very lucky to not have such an urge. I do like the LRB and the NYRB and in the beginning it seemed like I could keep up with them since they mostly come on alternate weeks but within two months I started falling behind and now it is pretty hopeless. Once a month for each would be great even if once a month meant there was more in each of them. I do learn about all sorts of interesting new books that’s for sure!
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Hellen, ha! I don’t, that’s why I am so far behind on all the extracurricular reading! I never have enough time for reading either, never enough time to read as much as I want to. If only I could buy the winning powerball ticket! Ah, you are a very social person, when you are out to dinner with friends or playing volleyball, just think of me at home reading 🙂
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I am a complete pushover when it comes to paper magazines and journals! I hate to admit the part of the draw is knowing there is going to be something nice in the mailbox when I come home from work. Sometimes the offers are so good that it feels like the are just giving the magazines away. I get quite a few (TLS, NYRB and the New Yorker and Vanity Fair are my faves, but I also get things like Marie Claire and Vogue which are mostly for browsing and reading the occasional article–those I can recycle pretty quickly). But I know what you mean–I have fallen far behind in my reading, too. I can get access digitally to the New Yorker archives, so I don’t mind recycling that sooner than later but my goal is to at least always read the short story in each issue. I drag two or three around with me on the bus to work thinking I will look at them on my break or at the gym or at the bus stop, but inevitably I always pick up a book instead. It is quite a dilemma! I go in phases where I will stop all subscriptions but then feel bereft (silly I know). Maybe it is a good thing I don’t have an ipad as I am sure my public library offers the same sort of free online subscriptions which I have not yet explored! It is a little overwhelming, but I guess it is overwhelming in a good way? I have come to the conclusion I will never ever be caught up with my reading and so just go with the moment and whatever appeals or feels most pressing. But it is a bounty and variety I like and feel very lucky to have! 🙂
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Danielle, oh I must agree it is very wonderful to have something nice in my mailbox when I come home from work! I’ve done that too, not renewed a subscription and then felt sorry for it later. It is fun to have them and I guess I just need to work on not worrying about it since the only things that really get dated are the current events essays, book reviews, not so much. The library’s digital magazines are a great reource, especially the gardening and vegetarian times. Poor Bookman gets innundated with new recipes each month I tell him we should try sometime. I’ve had to create a recipe database for him so he can keep track of it all! Now if I could only get him to cook it all! So many magazines to keep track of are a little overwhelming but as you say, in a good way 🙂
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This is such a vexing question! It’s a good problem to have, I guess, but I’m always looking for a better method of dealing with periodicals. I would really like to be willing to read fewer books and more essays and stories from periodicals — I mean, if I’m reading, does it matter whether I’m reading a magazine or a book? — but I haven’t been able to shake my desire to keep the number of books I read a year high. I generally read my magazines over meals, and I keep from getting too behind that way, but I’d like to add more magazines — especially online ones as there are so many good ones! — and that would threaten my chances of ever staying on top of things. I’ve decided to drop my LRB subscription, as I find I don’t read many of those articles. I’m tempted to stop my NYRB subscription and perhaps others and write them a letter saying I’m doing it because they don’t publish enough women, but I’m not quite sure I want to give them up. But maybe someday I will and instead turn to online journals that publish more diversely.
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Rebecca, judging from everyone’s comments it is something a good many of us find vexing! I agree with you, it should make no difference if you read that Jenny Diski essay in a magazine or a book, but there is something about being able to say I read XX books a year. Have to keep up our credentials as avid readers and all that which is just goofy but I’m stuck there as much as anybody. I’ve thought of dropping both LRB and NYRB because they don’t publish enough women but it is a dilemma since in spite of that large flaw, I still enjoy them.
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I’ve cut down on newspapers and magazines since my kids were small, but I still have lots of different websites to read through and what I think of as “car books,” which are books I can stand to leave in the car and read only when I’m waiting for something.
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Jeanne, I suppose kids might force one to cut back on things a bit. Still sounds like you have lots of extra reading though!
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I have to do a great deal of work-related reading, which is probably not considered “extra-curricular,” but time consuming nevertheless and can be exciting or boring, depending on the subject. I used to subscribe to Bon Appetit and Martha Stewart Living, and my sister gifted me subscriptions to Saveur and Garden Gate. I loved them all, but they eventually piled up because they are not the magazines one tosses – so I cancelled them. I do like to read book catalogs, when I find them. Oh how I miss the A Common Reader catalog!! Just the review blurbs were enough to tempt an avid reader into bookish desire. It is how I discovered Wilkie Collins.
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Grad, oh I miss the Common Reader catalog too! It was fun reading all on its own. I think there are a good many readers who miss it very much. I don;t envy you your work-related reading!
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I would never be able to follow so many magazines! I don’t subscribe to any myself, but my boyfriend gets National Geographic so whenever a new issue comes in I read that in bits and pieces over the course of a few weeks. I also read some of their articles and news items online. I keep picking up gardening magazines (from the grocery store mostly, where they look particularly enticing for some reason) but then never get around to reading them and feel dissatisfied. I guess you could call the children’s books I read “extracurricular” as I don’t get them for myself, but end up reading plenty!
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Jeane, it helps that I don’t all the articles, only the ones that look interesting which is still plenty! I had hoped my library had National Geographic but sadly they don’t. It is probably just as well though. How do grocery stores make the gardening magazines look so enticing? I have fallen for that too.
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There was a time when I took so many literary publications that there was practically one falling through the letter box every day. But then I realised that I spent so much time reading about books that I no longer had the time to read the books themselves and so I’m very selective these days. I have just taken out a subscription to Litro but that is to get me reading more short stories. Of course the other thing that takes up time in a similar way is the podcast. Again, I have had to cut down and for the same reason, but I’ve got round part of this problem by buying an adapter that allows me to play my iPod through the car radio and now listen to them while I’m on the move.
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Alex, heh, one does have to find a balance even if reading about books is pleasurable it is definitely more fun to read the books. Though sometimes I enjoy reading a long essay about the book without having any desire to read the book. I have not fallen for podcasts and I am staying very far away from them because they sound dangerous! 🙂
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I once caught up on more than a year’s worth of “New Yorker” short fiction and features in one go, setting aside all books until I had finished; I, too, have a terrible habit of letting the “extracurricular” reading pile up. I’ve tried a number of different ways to manage it (many of which others have already discussed) including private vows that I would read the magazine on the evening it arrives (regardless of what else I was already planning to read), or that on a given day of the week I would only choose such reading rather than books. But as for making it a natural, comfortable habit…that hasn’t happened yet. Still, I keep trying (and subscribing). NIce to know that so many others are struggling to fit more words into their reading lives too, so one feels less alone in the matter. Maybe I’ll try that day-of-the-week thing again….
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buried, wow, that must have been an exhausting catch up session but enjoyable too I imagine! I keep thinking the extracurricular would be good at filling in the odd five minutes here and there but then I either want to read the whole article or it ends up getting so broken up that I get nothing from it. It is definitely nice to know that so many struggle with the same thing!
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Huge fan of The Paris Review here. The best part for me are the often fascinating author interviews. The ones from the past are all archived online. They date back to the 1950s and are arranged by decade: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews. Be careful though, or you’ll get sucked in and never be able to extract yourself!
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Rizwan, oh yes, the interviews! I am very grateful to them for having all of them archived online too. I have the Paris Review app on my ipad and it has all the interviews A-Z. I read The William Gibson one not long ago and it was great. Reading through all of them would be a wonderful project. And so far I am very much enjoying having a subscription to the whole magazine.
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Stefanie — this is such an interesting posting. I subscribe to three magazines, Harpers, The Atlantic, and Free Inquiry — but honestly, I have found that I really have very little time to actually ever get to them. They sort of stack up around here, unread mostly. It’s sad, because they are such excellent mags.
I am always amazed at HOW MUCH you are able to read, Stefanie — it’s so impressive, and wow — do you ever subscribe to a lot of magazines. If you want to add an excellent one to your overflowing mailbox, I recommend Free Inquiry. If you like New Scientist, I think you would really enjoy Free Inquiry. It contains relevant articles about… hmm… a critical look at religion. It’s like a monthly re-incarnation of Christopher Hitchens!
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