very simple

I used to be a completely voracious reader. I was the kid in junior high school that other kids would make fun of, because I’d bring extra books to school to read during my free time (and during class, when the teachers were too boring for words). I’d say that, through college, I kept up that level of leisure reading. But once I hit law school, and even moreso when I started working full time (or more realistically, more than full time by any normal standards), I slowed down a lot. I’ve largely limited my book reading time to vacations and long weekends.

As a consequence, the quality of the books that I started reading went downhill – I have a stack of books sitting on my shelf that i haven’t gotten to yet, because I know I can’t finish them in a day or two. Sure I read the Harry Potter books and a few of Oprah’s picks, and I read 6-8 magazines a week, but nothing that really challenged me as a reader. Up until recently the only long "intellectual" book that I read was The Power Broker by Robert Caro, and that was in the summer of 2000. I mean, in college I used to read everything from postfeminist theory (for fun!) to Pynchon.

But recently, I’ve started reading like crazy again. It started with my vacation to Mexico in March/April. I ended up reading 6 books, and sure, some of them were fluff, but one of them was Seabiscuit. Quite possibly the best book I’ve read ever. It made me cry, and I read it from start to finish with no breaks. And currently, I’m almost done with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which totally deserved its Pulitzer. I’ve been dragging it with me everywhere, opting to take the bus instead of the subway so that I have more time to read.

I’m actually beginning to think that I’m ready to tackle that copy of Infinite Jest that’s been sitting on my bedside table since 1996. Of course I may need a crane to get it on the bus, since I actually own it in hardcover.

Tags: books