Strongly Worded

Literary Saturation

As I look over my credit card bill, I see, as I do every month, the $23.50 charge that I get from the New York Times. When I was younger, hipper, and less financially secure (meaning, last year), I used to go to my favorite cafe on Sunday mornings and drink a small coffee (for $1.00) and read the Sunday Times, which costs $4.50 if you officially buy it, but is free if you don't. So in those days I was saving $3.50 and being young and hip in the process. However, the choicest morsel of the Sunday Times is the magazine, and there was no guarantee that I'd snatch it out of the withering, coffee-stained pile, and also, even if I did score it, I'd have to devour the whole thing right there in the cafe, since neither the paper nor the magazine belonged to me.

Last year for my birthday, my friend N. got me a gift subscription to the Times, such that, for a year now, I've gotten a bundle of joy on my doorstep every Sunday. This has fostered a lovely ritual. I "make" Pillsbury cinammon rolls and coffee, and then, I parse out the paper. The business, sports, and book review are diverted immediately to the recycling bin. The magazine is lovingly set aside. Then, in an array across my bed: the Arts & Leisure section, the Week in Review, the Sunday Styles (particularly the "Vows" column), and finally, the Travel section. In a nod to being informed as well as cultured, I also keep the first page and the actual news.

To be frank: I rarely read the actual news, and I wish I could just subscribe to the magazine, because that is the part I love, and the part that I reliably read, because it's so interesting and beautifully written, and also because it's in a format that is amenable to the subway or bus or gym (unlike the huge unwieldy sections of the actual paper). I have a rule that by recycling day all the unread portions of the paper must be gone, because it gives me guilt to have them lying around all week. And I have to say, that the last few weeks, with all the work and visitors and shopping, have not afforded me much time for my Sunday morning ritual. And therefore I have two weeks of newspaper in my living room, and also Gourmet and Cook's Illustrated, and several books I just got from Amazon, as well as a memoir about a British guy's childhood in an Indian cult which I started on the bus back from New York.

It is too much! I love all of this stuff, and I really do want to read it, but lately my attention span has been waning, and it's great to read all the magazine articles (especially the ones about food) but it's been weeks and weeks and I still haven't read the entire Times explanation of why Social Security isn't really in jeopardy, even though I have it hopefully and prominently placed it at the top of my intended reading pile.

I'm wondering whether I need to relax more on the weekends or cancel my subscription ...

Posted by Dori at 9:39 PM