August New Yorker Readathon

The idea is to read as many as you can.... I haven't counted my pile but it's pretty bad, something around six months (at least it isn't six years.....). I hope to knock off three or four a week.

So tomorrow is August... I have a stack in chronological order on the dining room table. Feel free to nag me if I don't appear to be doing anything.

I'm slightly terrified -- I have the first two on my LR coffee table. And ditto. What issue are you starting with?

I purged in February during a major housecleaning in preparation for guests, so I'm starting with March. Of this year. I am unworthy of this group. In my defense, however, the problem will only get worse if I don't acquire better habits, the New Yorker is not the only magazine in this predicament, and other magazines go further back.

It's great we are starting with the same month!
March 7 I had to sit around a bit today while daughter was busy with an appointment, so I finished one. I did not seriously read the Soccer article, the Frank Gehry piece or any of the reviews at the end..... I did not even pretend to read the piece about a New York 'hot spot' however I did read the poems. Out of the rest, I was fascinated by Mo Ibrahim and his work in Africa - critics of his plan seem short-sighted and small-minded to me, but what do I know. The memoir was moving and the David Wallace story disturbing in the extreme, but since I've read Oblivion I wasn't too rattled by it. The piece on the writer Theodor Fontane made me very curious to read him -- I wish they'd put in more info about translations, but I guess I can figure that out for myself. The Fontane and the Ibrahim were the two 'worth its' for me -- both people I knew nothing about.

Three to go this week!

March 7: Yesterday began late and ended early, but about 9pm I decided that skipping a day would be a bad indicator for the month, so I got halfway through - I am on the page with the staples. Skimmed letters to the editor, read Hendrik Hertzberg and James Surowiecki, skipped the dying mother as too emotionally demanding for the moment, began but abandoned Ian Frazier as meh, glanced at the art bar story but it's too New Yorkish, and now I'm at Mo Ibrahim.

Yah, Mo is worth it. Upon reflection that was the 'it' article in there, I think. I skipped the Frazier too. Since my own ordeal with my mother I often skim those things, just to see where my own experience was similar or diverges..... it can be reassuring, I guess. I've only read a little of March 14 Tina Fey talking about her tv work and her life..... showbiz folks sure do love going on about themselves. Or maybe we all do, just some get more opportunity?

I've finished up the March 14 issue. Trying not to feel daunted by this project, but I only have two more to read by Sunday evening. I think I can do that. The best articles in this one were the Tina Fey piece (it started slow but the last two pages had me more or less snorting coffee everywhere), an odd piece about this fellow G. Stanley Hall, first pres. of Clark Uni who
'invented' the concept of adolescence in the late 1880's as well as pioneering studies of 'senescence', eg. old age -- starting the change in attitude that led to today's approach to growing old as a 'disease' - that article would fit the 'never heard of him' category. Finally a long piece on the Gulf Oil Spill -- my takeaway is that many many good people worked their butts off, some got credit for it, some didn't. The biggest problem of all, as usual, is communication. The biggest remaining unknown are the long terms effects of the dispersant used on the sea floor wayyyyyyy down there.

I had about a solid half hour of reading time yesterday, and will have about the same today. Made slight progress on the current book, read another page of the Mo Ibrahim article as a token gesture. Should have more time toward the end of the week. Glad you're forging a path ahead. I may skip or skim Tina Fey, but the other articles are the reason I subscribe to the magazine.

I am so glad you are reading w/ me! Skim (or even skip) the Fey til the part where she talks about men vs women and what they think is funny.

I subscribe really for the long articles, the stuff about important folks I've never heard of and the cartoons. I'll read the fiction and poems and an occasional book, movie or tv review..... but they tend overall to be a bit more exclusive and fussy than I am in that regard.

March 7 is as done as it's going to get. The Mo Ibrahim article was interesting in part because of him, in part because of the troubles of assessing / ranking governments. I started the soccer article, "the most surreal team in the world" vaguely intriguing, but not enough so to inspire me to continue beyond the first page. I suppose I should read David Foster Wallace someday. I read the article about Gehry's building with "Bernini folds". The bit that stood out was the software program to design the panels. I wished for an example of the floor plan. I skipped Theodor Fontane, too long and not likely to mean much to me. I'll keep an eye out for one of the "briefly noted" books: The Invisible Line. Another is about the Chalabi family; curious, but I doubt I'll read it. So that's enough to make the subscription worthwhile: a couple of articles and hints about other happenings in the world.

The Wallace is definitely skippable, and I only glanced at the soccer -- I wouldn't have at all except that I recently read The Dervish House which is set in Istanbul and in which soccer fandom does play a role.... or at least.... many of the characters in it are avid soccer fans and belong to various of the teams mentioned. I think between the two of us we have that one covered!

I'm into Mar. 21 -- the article on the connection between childhood trauma/stress and health, both in childhood and later is wonderful and sobering. That's all I've read beside the 'toons. Might be all I get to today. Yah, didn't find any reason to read the Chalabi piece.....

Istanbul was a plus. Soccer dragged it downward...
March 14 Read letters to the editor re Malcolm Gladwell; of interest is the one mentioning Arrow's impossibility theorem. Read Talk of the Town re Tunisia / Egypt / Libya; of interest is the note re unhelpfulness of 125 million dollars spend on computer models of political unrest. Tina Fey... loooong, which suggests I'm not a good candidate for her book, but yes, amusing at the end. Returning to my regularly scheduled book reading for the evening.

No reading of anything whatsoever so far today......

To my amazement (and by skipping the big article on Magnus Carlsen the chess champ) I've finished all I want to read in the March 21 issue. "The Poverty Clinic" about a doctor in San Francisco doing some great medicine and research on the link between stress and disease among children. Ian Frazier on the seals around New York (I love the urban nature essays that the NYer has come to specialize in), I was thinking of skipping the 'Letter from Los Angeles' but then I thought, no I like the way Dana Goodyear writes -- and it was my 'aha' article this time -- very funny and insightful and, to me, a writer who procrastinates a fair amount, useful. I'm going to tear it out and save it. The story "Rollingwood" was dreary, but weirdly compelling, the kind of story that while you read it you think, are people really really that awful, and knowing that, yes, in some ways they are. Something can be exaggerated but still true. I read the poems, loved the Donald Hall. I should have read about Modernist cuisine, but I didn't feel like it. On to the final mag of the month! I might just make it through this week.

I'm merely hoping to get through March 14 this week. Nothing yesterday, and I doubt much today -- it's been a week of unusual/unexpected events.

I've had a week with lots of sitting around in parking lots or driveways while my daughter does math tutoring or gets her cavities filled -- some weeks I manage things better for my life in general but it was ideal for NYer reading!!!

Fourth March Issue (28th) - I don't know if it was me, but I wasn't interested terribly in reading about the inventor of a clever slimming line of underwear, or a naughty frenchman who designs shoes. I did read about the earthquake -- it seems long ago now -- and I found myself wondering what is the state of the various damaged reactors and how are people doing in north Japan these days? The story was a Murakami set during an earlier earthquake -- I wasn't swept up in it. Tomorrow I will begin April.

Your diligence is persuading me to read more of March 14. Can I finish this evening? I kinda doubt it.

Rah Rah and all that, I am cheering you on, you can do it!

Remember that I do not, not, not read every word. I'm quite selective. Today I have done zip -- last night I did read the cartoons for the first April issue, but that's all.

20: Oh, I do not not not feel obligated to read every word either, but I do feel that it's kind of cheating to skip articles that I would read in a hypothetical world with ample time. I read the G. Stanley Hall article last night. The name didn't register at all, which seems a little surprising considering he was prominent enough to get Freud and Jung across the ocean. Then I skimmed to the end, cartoons and such, so what's left is the oil spill and one other article that seemed to have potential.

The oil spill was a good read -- I got my husband to read it too.

I'm decreeing March 14 done. I read about halfway through the oil spill article, then read less thoroughly, then paid more attention to the section on dispersants. I started the article on the OSS, but when I turned the page and saw how long it was, I ceased to care. I'm not up to it tonight, and I do not want to drag this magazine into another day.

Well done! Moving on is KEY.

I apologize for copying this direct from my regular thread -- but it seems to sum things up nicely:

Now, for the record. If you want to know how to speed up reading that mouldering pile of magazines? Take them, one at a time, to a library or cafe, take it out of yr. bag, get your coffee or whatever, and then, notice you are late and leave in a hurry, leaving behind the magazine. This is what I did with the April 1 issue of the New Yorker. I had read the cartoons. And I can't admit to being the least bit regretful. I still have something like 9 to read before the end of August.

The next issue, which I started last night, has a great article (this was back in April, mind you) about people waiting for the next George R. R. Martin installment of his fantasy opus about the continent and people of Westeros. I hugely enjoyed it, and am glad for him that he got this latest book out on schedule. I was intrigued by the article actually -- how rude people were to him, how utterly callous -- if he hurried and published a book full of mistakes then he would be criticized and he admitted that he had to write very slowly and carefully for just that reason, had a heck of a time with his own chronology.

Oh, what an excellent method!

I have not read any of the George R. R. Martin books, so the article may be inspiration.

So now I'm going to be away (in Boston) for several days... thinking I may take a few NYers with me (because really, if I don't, I'll be tempted to buy just-in-case reading material at the Philadelphia train station bookstore).

Read the March 21 article about stress and illness -- the connection is unsurprising, but it's encouraging to see how the clinic is tackling it systematically at the stress end. (Also read some shorter pieces before this one.)

I've got an hour to decide what I'm taking along for the train...

I hope you will remember to leave a few of them behind as you go...... and be sure to take of your name and address in case anyone is tempted to send them back to you! he he.

I have finished what appears to be the April 4 issue -- the one I lost must have been the April 11 issue, which I must have mistaken for April 1, oh for heaven's sake. So it was the 11th that I left somewhere.

I mentioned the GRR Martin article, let's see, what else was there, lots of articles I felt no desire to read closely, corruption in Russia and political upheaval in Tunisia and a weird convoluted murder story in Guatemela -- a story so weird (I did get the gist) that it wouldn't be out of place in a mystery novel. A 'meh' story and a less than interesting Gopnik, which is a rarity about computers and intelligence..... I read wayyyyyy too much sf for that sort of article......

So due to my 'unfortunate loss' I am reet on schedule.

Enjoy yr. trip!

Finished March 21 with the chess article, not sure why I read the entire thing because I'm not fascinated by chess, though discussion of human elegance and creativity vs computer was mildly interesting if unsurprising. Briefly Noted book reviews include The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene, which I have because an acquaintance passed along a duplicate, and feel somewhat obligated to read, but I find multiple universes aesthetically displeasing so it's low priority, and The Magnetic North by Sara Wheeler, which I've added to my wishlist.

Began March 28, read Talk of the Town re nuclear energy and knives, skipped Barry Bonds, read about underwear because... what a peculiar world and I was on the train seeking distraction from tedious delays (announcements re "rebooting the computer" and "police activity"). So I've reached the earthquake.

I'd vaguely hoped to finish March. Oh well. Vague hopes are not enough. I did manage to finish one book and get 2/3 through another, but aside from the train, I had little reading time.

I'm so glad you are soldiering on -- and I love it that we read different stuff. I'm intrigued that you find the multiverse idea 'aesthetically displeasing' -- I sort of know what you mean, it is awfully inelegant and messy. My feeling about it is that once 'choices' have been made, what was 'theoretically possible' narrows, dramatically and permanently, no other universe possible. The future, however -- scarily complicated. But that's just how I see it, no logic beyond common sense involved there.

I have had a disappointing week in that I only finished two -- I'm valiantly trying to finish April 18 but for me this issue was almost all articles I had to read -- I still have three or four more pieces to go, and I've read the piece on traveling with a Chinese group through Europe, the piece on 'Land Art' - the Lightning Field and Spiral Jetty, skipped the cabbie piece, and am now reading the Franzen on his odd trek to a very hostile little island off the coast of Chile. After that I still have a piece on Kazakhstan which I will probably skim, a short story and an article about Freya Stark, a favorite travel writer of mine -- her book about Greek ruins in Turkey are beyond wonderful. So I doubt I'll even get through that today.

I hate falling behind. I hope the last April issue will be full of very uncompelling articles about finance and musical theatre and Hollywood, all topics that usually either go right over my head or just don't interest me much!

29: I like Brian Greene though, so I'll get to the book eventually. There's an article about multiverses in a recent-ish Scientific American, another magazine that has been piling up on my dining room table. I am in no position whatsoever to evaluate whether this theory is actually true.

April 18 looks interesting. I however have not had the good fortune to lose April 11, so it'll be awhile.

It is a little sad to be hoping for unappealing articles.

Yes -- it is a little sad -- but I think it is OK. One of the NYer's enduring virtues is that the editors do make the attempt to make it interesting for many different kinds of readers, so it is inevitable that one won't like everything. I really think it would be oppressive and unreadable if I felt I had to read and care about every piece in it. I do sometimes try out a piece I think I'm not interested in -- and now and then -- I'm glad I did, but usually I decide pretty quickly that I truly am not interested.

Managed, during daughter's spanish lesson, to polish off April 18 . What a terrific issue that was for me. I'm part way into the 4th one; it's possible since it is supposed to pour rain all day that I'll find a little extra time to finish it. The article that Franzen wrote about his sojourn on this little island was very moving -- the core of it was his grief over David Foster Wallace's suicide a two-three years ago; they were good friends. The piece about Freya Stark was also tip-top. I'm going to report about it in a little more depth on my thread since I know there is wider interest, esp in Wallace.

I think I encountered that multiverse piece -- or something similar about it in Science News -- I have an image in my head of a graphic that went with it. But alas, nothing else!

Onward!

I must say, it is a bit more grueling than I thought it would be....

Zipped through the last issue at lunchtime -- a piece on oil drilling in North Dakota, a fantastic short story by Thomas McGuane, the best story I've read in the NYer in forever, and a short book piece on Malcolm X -- basically concluding that the auto bio of said is still the best read on the subject.

And so on to May, but not, I don't think today! I'm 50% through, however, which is heartening, especially as August does have 31 days, so I have a bit of leeway. 8 issues to go!!!!

You are an inspiration. I hope to finish March today or tomorrow, but I also want to finish the current book, and I will be out for awhile this evening, so free time will be limited.

I totally forgot (which is particularly funny given the subject matter) to report a good essay about the work of a neurophysicist named David Eagleman -- works on how the brain apprehends time...... calls himself a "Possibilian" and has made himself quite a little following..... amusing and also very interesting. There was also an essay about a woman basketball coach that was enjoyable.

March 28 is done. Read the article about the Japanese earthquake. Memorable bits: the emperor speaks "in a courtly language that most of his listeners do not understand", a former diplomat who says "we forgot the need for struggle" and perhaps "we will regain the strength of the sixties and seventies, when we had a concrete goal", a reporter who says "the Japanese public has become accustomed to receiving no information". Underwear and shoes is too much for one week, so after a glance I skipped the shoes. I did read the article about the book about the cosmetics business though, the polar opposite entrepreneurial styles. Then I sort of read the Japanese art show "Bye Bye Kitty!!!" because the picture caught my attention. There's a web site: http://www.byebyekittyart.org/artists.htm.

Onward to April!

Oh! Congratulations for having finished March!!!!!!!! Hooray!

This May issue I'm reading has a bit about the quantum computer - multiverse idea...... you'll have fun with that.

Keeping the old thread alive, as it's been two days since either of stopped in.....I did finish the May 2 issue, but haven't made much headway with the next one.....I'm in the home stretch with Wolf Hall and so am mostly reading that.

April 4 is done. I read letters to the editor about Mo Ibrahim, w/ what seem to be valid criticisms / concerns, though OTOH he's only one person and can't do everything. Talk of the Town re Libya, Robin Williams in Baghdad, memorizing pi (caught my attention because my niece memorized pi to 50 digits for pi day). Skipped the long article on Russian corruption. Read the long article on Tunisia. Skipped the long article on murder in Guatemala, because after scanning the first few paragraphs its significance wasn't at all clear to me. Skipped the fiction as usual. Read the article about computer intelligence: "organized dumbness", which mentions that author Adam Gopnik's mother was a linguist and "early Fortran speaker". Nothing in the brief books reviews of interest. Read about "The Book of Mormon" out of curiosity, but it's a style that does not remotely appeal to me. Read about "The Kennedys", meh.

You were right to skip the Guatemala piece -- although it could be categorized under the 'life is stranger than fiction' category which has a way of suckering me in.

Weirdly my Science news just had an issue raving about all the smart and sensitive robots various labs are working on creating...... not sure what to make of that. Probably the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

You are catching up with me, although somewhere in there was an issue of which I read almost every word. I wonder if it'll grab you the same way. That seriously slowed me down and wore me out, actually. Might be time to somehow 'lose' another issue?

Finished up May 8 a slightly lackluster issue -- nothing really grabbed me here -- a piece about a popular blog by a woman who lives on a ranch, ho hum, a more interesting piece about the 'mitigation' strategy to get serious criminals off of death row and into 'life without parole'. I'm all for it, for reasons both ethical and practical. Then a piece on Jane Fonda which I whizzed through as celebrities don't really interest me. BTW the unmentioned 'co-writer' on Barbarella was my uncle. The Antrim story was.... I don't know..... I couldn't care at all about the protags., as in, I can't even imagine bothering to spend time writing about them, which is I suppose, the point. I loathe reality tv so I skipped that -- although I get the point that 'regular' tv is now OK compared to the loathesomeness of reality tv (used to be tv itself was simply loathesome altogether)..... David Foster Wallace writes at length about tv in the book of essays that I have listed in my Currently Reading column (which I am not actually reading, but which I was reading for awhile) that is insanely smart like everything he writes -- but given I don't even watch tv anymore reading about it is sort of pointless, innit? Ok, that was a bit of ranting, forgive!

Working on April 11. Read Talk of the Town re campaign financing, and Grameen Bank in the US. Read James Surowiecki on managed distractions, or what businesses are doing re internet access for employees. Maybe I should read about the friend of Rupert Murdoch, but seven pages is about six pages beyond my capacity. Skipping to the end, read the article on two interpretations of Bach, intriguing enough that I tore it out for reference. Briefly Noted reviews To a Mountain in Tibet, which I might someday be inclined to read for its historical/cultural parts, but there's maybe disproportionately much about the landscape for my taste. Scanned the remainder and put mini post-its on the articles of interest: GRR Martin, Yemen, architecture, Italy.

I'm ahead of my book quota for the month, which bodes well for the NYer, but I have four book reviews oppressively nagging me to be written.

Are you up to date with Science News? I get Scientific American, but I'm even more woefully behind with it than with NYer.

I suppose, re TV, it's useful to check in every so often to be reassured that you're not missing anything.

Read the GRR Martin article, which is... weird. Soooooo much invested in one person's creative artifacts. I haven't read the books, doubt that I will. I can admire his ambition in the abstract, but "epic" is a word that numbs me. (I've never read JRR Tolkein either. I've tried, multiple times, never got far. Tried watching the 1st LotR movie, and it was painfully dull.) So I can't quite grasp the intensity of the antagonism, and yet, there it is.

One of my friends, immune to the charms of LOTR book and movie, said of them, to her it's all 'Tromp, tromp, tromp, fight, fight, fight." I don't know why, but I fell under the spell of all of it. But the sheer venom of the Martin people is scary! Such bad form!

I'm humbled and amazed every time you post -- it proves how wide a net the NYer tosses out that we can find completely different things to interest us, isn't it? I didn't even notice the Bach piece... or the one on Murdoch although I did scan the internet one and then forgot all about it.

I do keep up with Science News. I keep it in the WC and faithfully read it. We used to get both SA and Science News but the thing is SN is so do-able -- and you can follow up any really interesting story on the internet nowadays on the various science sites. In fact I wish there was a weekly NEWS magazine that summarized the latest nonsense in so few pages. Actually I think SN is bi-weekly now, a wee bit thicker, but still very manageable and totally readable. They do a great job at explaining difficult things lucidly. I always know EXACTLY where I've lost the thread! I highly recommend it, although I suspect your science education goes a good deal deeper than my own.

Your friend's description about sums up my reaction. Re GRR Martin critics, it does seem to be partly a sense of entitlement, and partly a rather bizarre attachment to an imaginary world. Seriously people, go write your own story.

April 11 is the one you left behind, and Bach is near the end.

My science education, like the rest of my education, is woefully limited. I can generally work my way to reasonable understanding when I'm motivated, but that's about the extent of it.

April 11 is done. The Yemen article is long, 13 pages minus pictures, useful for getting a sense of the factions. The architecture article is about the organization Living Architecture (http://www.living-architecture.co.uk/), which commissions houses designed by modern architects in experimental styles, and rents them out. The Italy article refers to several books, primarily The Failure of Italian Nationhood, and was more than I really wished to know.

Alas, "read" doesn't necessarily mean "will remember tomorrow". I'm hoping that with enough repetition, the gist of various world upheavals will sink in.

Now onward to the daunting April 18 issue.

Well, here it is nearing the end of the month, and I just found this. Alas, for probably a year I've mostly looked at the cartoons with an occasional article. In fact, I'm off to look at the cartoons in the last 2 issues now.

No furries*, CJ, I plan to do this every few months -- I'll let you know about the next one??? And, of course, feel free to make a mini-goal and join in now?? Or no goal at all, just whatever!

I'm confessing to feeling a bit weary, for all that it has also been, as always, great...... I've read 10, I think of 16.... I'm pleased and my pile really does look better. This next issue doesn't have a lot in it, at least in the TofC that is immediately grabbing me. When there is one that does I often start with it.

*This is an expression that means 'no worries' that I picked up from my bro who lives in Australia, that I love and want to propagate!

Citizenjoyce, I may continue in September. I'm getting through them at only half the rate of sibyx, and I'll still be nearly 4 months behind at the end of August. I'm encouraged that now I've gotten into the habit, I'm finding it not difficult to chip away one article at a time in between other things. I have two other magazines in a similar state of backlog, so maybe a generic magazine group would be a useful thing too. Somehow documenting progress keeps me going. (I do this for running too, force myself to go outside at unpleasant times in unpleasant weather so I can add another line to the spreadsheet.)

If you like Q, we can do that here -- I'd love to hear yr. comments on anything you read in SA, for example. I'll put in a new thread for each month -- and maybe I can at least keep up by reading one NYer a week (like I'm spose to)!! It doesn't really have to be a marathon, just a habit. I'm glad the noting works for you too -- it certainly does for me and it helps to have company. I think it is possible to change group titles, let me think .... MSG? (Magazine Support Group?). Maybe not.

I think it's possible to change the group title, but the original URL remains. But I don't want to hijack your group, unless you're truly interested in expanding it. I wouldn't be at all averse to adding Scientific American comments and also seeing your Science News comments. I'll guess there's a fair amount of overlap in topics. (My 3rd magazine is The Atlantic. And my brother has offered to pass along his Economist, but at this stage there's no point, I'd never get to it.)

Today, sigh, my primary task is to make progress on book reviews, now that I've gotten the back yard weeds somewhat under control.

I LOVE the idea -- I tend to focus on the anthropological, behavioral side of things.....

Cool. Maybe September can have a thread for NYer (at whatever pace) and a thread for science.

I'm about midway through April 18, enjoyed the article about Chinese tourists in Europe, was intrigued by the photo of the spiral jetty but not by the accompanying article so I merely skimmed a few paragraphs, and then (repeating the theme of different strokes for different folks) I read the article about the Taxi Workers Alliance -- attention caught by the photo of the founder, a young woman of Indian descent. Twice I've been in India when pretty much the entire country shut down because of a transportation strike, an actually pretty incredible event in terms of organization and cooperation, if a tad inconvenient for the foreign traveler.

I was happily engaged in unpacking boxes from our move last year, oh yes, lots and lots left to be done (or undone, as the case may be) when along came a big huge thunderstorm, so I had to stop. I finished up NYer #3 -- although I can't claim to have read it very attentively -- let me see, a piece on Clarence Darrow that was quite interesting -- as in -- what a complex person he was, a very interesting piece on making edible meat in a lab -- mentioning the 'chickie-nobs' in Oryx and Crake which I read recently. But really, I'm all for it. A piece about a fellow named Drake who tried to blow the whistle on some bad practices (why am I not surprised?) at the NSA and is getting hammered for it and a piece on a hip-hop star whose mother 'disappeared' him to Samoa to get him out of the bad climate and then this whole sort of 'Where's Waldo' thing ensued.... at the end are some emails that the kid himself wrote to 'everyone' to let him be, basically, and to not threaten his mother. It made me think of the George R R Martin animus -- it's quite strange how people whip themselves into these frenzies. Finally I really really skimmed a piece about Joseph Brodsky. Unlikely that I'll finish the 4th NYer today, but I started the week in worse shape than this I think, so I'm happy.

I'm not sure how or when, but I had already read the story. Or, I knew exactly what was going to happen. Same diff.

I still have things in boxes from my move two and a half years ago. Apparently not anything crucial to my existence. There's still much cosmetic work to be done on the house, but between spurts of domesticity I avert my eyes. Are you renovating as well as unpacking?

I'm nearing the end of April 18, should finish tomorrow, sooner than expected but at a price: I read 0 pages of my current book today. And I wrote only one of the four backlogged reviews.

April 18 done. The first item that caught my eye was a tiny image of a David Altmejd... assembly? (http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/artifacts-the-cute-and-the-gross-david-altmejds-gorgeous-gothic/, http://www.andrearosengallery.com/artists/david-altmejd/), surrounded by words such as "evolutionary biologist" (he once considered becoming one), "taxonomy", "mutation". I usually turn the pages from cover to articles, but rarely pause. I read Talk of the Town re Guantanamo (sigh), and James Taylor. I read all of the Coming to America pieces. Several seemed to end with peculiar abruptness, chopped to a single page. The most resonant is by Teju Cole (http://www.tejucole.com/about-2/), who has written a novel and is now writing a non-fiction book about Lagos, Nigeria, but I was also reminded that I want to read Azar Nafisi. I read the Jonathan Franzen article, entwining all sorts of things -- Alexander Selkirk, the origin of the novel, the demands of the book promotion tour ("Substantial swaths of my personal history were going dead from within, from my talking about them too much.). Re David Foster Wallace, I've never read anything by him, and now will almost certainly steer clear, it's just too painful -- he reminds me of a friend, extraordinarily talented and able to run intellectual rings around anyone who approached her interior, who died, not of suicide, but after decades on a precarious line between self-medication and self-abuse. I read about Kazakhstan, because of the striking yellow pyramid in the bleak landscape, and an architect friend once worked on a project with Norman Foster so I recognized the name, and wow, the buildings, but it's oil money in a dictatorship. Briefly Noted reviews The Fear by Peter Godwin, about Zimbabwe, which I've added to my wishlist, though "wish" is so the wrong word. I read about Freya Stark, who was new to me, but books by and about are now on the wishlist. Curious that two biographers Jane Fletcher Geniesse and Molly Izzard disagree about family circumstances; I wonder what is tied to tangible sources and what is interpretation. I skipped music and TV and art, all actually seemed peripherally interesting but this issue is already too dense with stuff to pursue. I read the movie review of The Conspirator for its historical information, not so much for the movie aspect. Phew! (I'm adding all these links for my own reference in some imagined future of sufficient time.)

Great links! Happily (just in terms of wading through the mags) the next few issues don't seam as 'meaty' which is a pathetic pun (see 55). I'm reading the woeful story of a schizophrenic woman who fell through the cracks - a 'how could this happen?' story.

I don't blame you at all for planning to steer clear of DFW -- however -- you might be interested in the book of essays that I am fitfully reading.

Had a fair amount of 'waiting around' time today and was able to finish up the last NYer May 30. I sort of read the piece on the techno-artist Cory Arcangel (what a name!) - is he the next big thing? Could be. Then a piece about the rise and fall of the a-sah-eee berry, (acai) in American consciousness -- as much as anything I feel very clever indeed that I now know how to say it!
Skipped the Mets piece, happily, as I am a Phillies fan all the way. The story did strike a nerve -- young mother in a crowded store with her two children, loses track of one for a bit.

Overall a good issue -- the best for me since the one on the 18 April. June has one of those double issues -- so there are 'only' three to read. Ha.

I read the little stuff in April 25, flagged longer items to read later: definitely brain & time and Malcolm X, maybe sorta oil in North Dakota, and I'll try the short story since you raved about it. I skipped the basketball coach and fashion design.

That's how it's pronounced? I'll have to change what I'm saying in my head; I've never said it out loud.

Moi non plus -- I always say Ah-kai (long i sound). Luckily I don't think anyone else knows any better either!!!!!!

Just reporting that I have only tackled the comics so far in the first June issue.....

But -- fascinating pieces in the latest Science -- one on graphene's interesting properties and potential and the other on some recent early hominid finds in South Africa.

I'm still on April 25, read a bit more yesterday but was mostly concentrating on a book that I want to finish by the end of the month -- 550 pages, and I can manage about 50 pages per day. Hoping to get midway through May NYer by the end of August. I'm not touching Scientific American until September. I fear that you may tempt me to subscribe to Science News too, but I'll see how September goes.

April 25, and thus April, done. Read Talk of the Town re budget, the Loud family, Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. Read a bit about oil in ND, feel I should pay attention to this sort of thing, but 11 pages is way beyond my attention span so I spot checked several paragraphs and moved on. Read all about David Eagleman, may look for Sum one day, though he has another book Incognito that is specifically about his research. The short story... I tried... I got through a page and a half... I'm curious about your reaction: "fantastic". Can you elaborate? My brain seems not to work properly, and I don't have the remotest idea what I could be looking for. Read about Malcolm X. I read the Alex Haley version circa 1970, when I was a kid, completely clueless about context. Dunno that I'm interested enough to reread and delve further, so the article is a useful summary. Skipped music, theater, film.

Congrats on finishing the month of April!

Why did I like that story.... so many short stories count on using some 'device' to shock or make them 'relevant' and what I liked about this one was that it was so quiet, just about a man struggling with the adjustment of being older, of discovering his vulnerability. I thought that story went deeper than most without being clever, but with great emotional 'trueness.' Believe me, rare!

I polished off June 6, a not terribly interesting issue and I have to confess I did not read a single article with any real intensity. Iran and the Bomb? Probably they're not up to much, but who knows. Romney? Trying to distance himself from his term as gov. of Mass when he pushed through universal health insurance..... Berlusconi 's appeal fading: well about time! Exploitation of workers by ourselves truly: How shocking and unexpected. Reasonably ok story. Prob. the best article was the one by Louis Menand on What is College For. What indeed. As someone who has taught English Comp and Basic Writing etc. at a Community College it resonated.... but I don't think tracking is a good idea even if college isn't going to do much for many people.

May 2 done. First, I noticed the ad for a harp t-shirt, because you had posted about your harp activities in a 75er thread. Read Talk of the Town re Trump/birther (why is there no emoticon for eye-rolling?), and the military reading list. Skipped the royal wedding. Read about quantum computing / multiple universes. I do not understand either one, but quantum computing is a real theoretical and technical problem with actual functioning primitive machines, and multiple universes are... a leap I'm not prepared to make. Maybe I should read something by David Deutsch. Maybe my September science reading will help clarify. Read about Obama's foreign policy re developments in Tunisia/Egypt/Libya, feel responsible to keep tabs on such things though I'm glad other people have the job of actually making decisions. Skipped the FBI. Read about Gandhi, doubt I'll read the books it refers to. Briefly Noted includes The Crimean War (no touchstone) by Orlando Figes, about which I know zip, so maybe should keep in mind. Skipped fiction, music, art, theater, film.

Thanks for the explanation. I don't have the experience with a variety of short stories for comparison.

Re tracking... I'll be interested in the article. Dividing HS (and earlier) students into college-bound and voc-tech (which is how it was done when I was in HS) is too drastic and an artificial division of humanity into intellectual and manual. OTOH, I did a stint of teaching HS math, and it was damn difficult to adjust a one-size-fits-all required curriculum to the range of students in each class.

Just stopping by -- didn't bring any NYers on this trip, trying to pack 'lite'. I bet HS math was hard. My dau's school even tries to accommodate with math study-halls, where teachers are available to help (there is one happening every single class period of the day) - but frankly, the students don't take as much advantage of it as they could, and some of the teachers 'pretend' to care around parents, but subtly discourage the students from bothering them. I don't know what more her school could do to encourage and aid kids, I'm saying. I had my daughter tutored one on one all summer to prepare for this year's Algebra 2 just to give her a boost. She's good at math when she feels 'safe', but when she panics, her mind goes blank. Only happens with math, not other subjects, but it's a confidence thing, I think.

I'll get back to work Monday night! I'll have a lot of reading to do to make my goal!

My niece (age 11) has a similar reaction to math. She is imaginative and verbal and artistic and wants to take intuitive leaps, and although her mathematical intuition is actually quite good, it tends to fail with multiple steps if she doesn't record the result of each step, which she viscerally and dramatically hates to do, and then she panics and may as well be a random number generator, and goes into spiral of self-reproof.

Sounds v. familiar. One-on-one tutoring seems to do wonders with it. Just moving step by step with someone sympathetic, who can help her slow down and see the sense that makes, makes all the diff.

Yeah, I was tutoring my niece this past year, and the trick was a bit of friendly teasing through the horrible awful writing of numbers, which nips the emotional stuff in the bud, and she gets a real boost at the end when it's done, and took only a few minutes, and wasn't complete torture, and is perfect.

Just reporting in that I'm not reading NYers yet and it is certainly looking dire for reaching my goal by Thursday...... Three NYers in one day is not something I've ever even contemplated in my worst nightmare! I might give myself an extension over the weekend -- but the fact is, I want to keep on, two a week once I finish June. I think that would be a reasonable goal. I will start a September thread for reporting on magazine reading on the first.

I have one article to go in May 9, the long one about Libya. And one more day to finish that plus 60 pages of my current book. Which is not the same current book as the one I mentioned last week. I set that book aside, information overload, and picked up another that I could zip through to remain on schedule.

I think September should get two threads -- one for NYer so other people can join (Citzenjoyce, I hope you're watching), one for science which I'll be happy to start (I have Scientific Americans neatly stacked and set to go on September 1).

I don't have a goal for the magazines aside from reading them faster than they arrive so there is a theoretical plausibility that someday I'll catch up.

(Three NYers in one day? Yikes. I'd vote for the weekend extension.)

May 9 done. Read the first couple pages of the pioneer blogger, then interest waned. Read about Danalynn Recer and death penalty mitigation in Texas, which surely needs it. Read about Libya, a bit of history but mostly the reporter hanging out with the rebels. Skipped Jane Fonda. Read about books about reality TV, not sure why. Skipped fiction, music, theater, TV.

Thus ends August, with 10 old NYers read, and 4 new NYers arrived.

And I finished my book.

Oh Congratulations! I did not even finish one of my three NYers although I have managed very very slyly, to once again misplace one of them. I might have even read most of that first June issue, but I can't remember a single thing!!! And I know, if I did read it, that it has been recycled. Maybe I can find an index on line to double check. Or if you have it around you could remind me of the articles..... it's just been too long since last week.

I'm off to start the new threads!

Post 63: "I polished off June 6, a not terribly interesting issue and I have to confess I did not read a single article with any real intensity." So you sensibly put it in recycling for a reason.

Oh thank heavens you found that for me, I thought I'd looked through my past posts, but I missed it somehow -- that is sort of what I thought had happened -- but it was so drab I couldn't even remember that. I'll be curious how that issue strikes you.

I have the last June issue beside me and I've read the cartoons and the poems (the Huddle is not bad although a bit melancholy) and I'm about to read the article about Alice Walton's Museum -- it's such a great way to spend some of that moolah! A woman I know who runs a gallery at a college near Philly is connected with a woman who is one of the big buyers and has been doing some advising -- Walton will be having some of the kind of sculpture my husband is into, temporary, environmental (think 'performance' not permanence, using what is around, being sensitive to the surroundings) but so far nothing has come of it, but maybe it will. So I will be reading this with great interest.

Dropping by to cheer you on!