Rebecca Reads » magazines

Political Reading

Rebecca Reid — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:00:08 +0000

As I mentioned recently, I minored in “International Studies” in college. I took courses in political history, U.S. international relations, anthropology, and sociology. I also took one economics class, but I don’t recall a thing about it. My minor was too broad, because I don’t remember very much, and it’s only been five years. I also didn’t read well.

When people started mentioning magazines they read for Weekly Geeks, I realized that I used to read The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and other political newspapers and magazines on a regular basis. Since graduation, I haven’t read them. But I greatly enjoyed political subjects: Why don’t I make time to read those things?

For me, this goes back to my ability to read. I’ve lost my attention span and I’m caught up in the quickness of Internet articles: why read the news when I can skim the headlines? It takes a large attention span to read Foreign Affairs, and I was ashamed that it was hard to read through an article by Secretary of State Condelezza Rice at first glance. I had to force myself to concentrate. I certainly shouldn’t find it so challenging: I studied these kinds of things in school!

Something Condelezza Rice wrote stuck with me:

We know that today’s headlines are rarely the same as history’s judgments.

I think my problems with reading newspapers stem from the fact that I’m not interested in “today’s headlines.” I’m much more interested in the big picture, the entire history of these things. My courses were mostly looking at the history of various political issues, not the modern-day situations, although those were an aspect of the courses I took.

I feel the need to read and study the events in the last 5-10 years of politics so I can understand where the world stands now. I feel very clumsy. And yet, I still don’t really look forward to “today’s headlines.” History’s judgments are so much more interesting.

Which do you find most interesting: today’s headlines or history’s judgments?

Related posts:

Magazines I Would Love to Read

Rebecca Reid — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:28:44 +0000

The only magazine I subscribe to is a religious one for church. I wasn’t going to respond to Weekly Geeks this week because I didn’t have anything to add. But reading the other posts has reminded me of what I’d like to read.

The New Yorker

The Bluestockings discussion of The New Yorker reminded me that I loved reading it the year I had a subscription. Unfortunately, it takes me more than a week to read it and it comes every week. At the end of a one-year subscription, I still had 6 months to read. Maybe I’ll give it a try again.

The Atlantic

I’ve never read The Atlantic regularly, but someone sent me a link to the article I talked about the other day and I found the entire magazine online! I’d love to read this. There are some good articles.

Foreign Affairs

I read Foreign Affairs regularly for a year while in college (5 years ago). I’m embarrassed to say that while I minored in “International Studies” I am very out of the loop these days in terms of political happenings. Eva reminded me of this magazine. I should read it; much of the magazine in online and it is important.

So, I’m going to try to read some of these things. Like I said, I used to. What’s happened to me? Oh, right: I quit work and had a baby. He’s now teething and learning to crawl. I guess that takes my time from me, and I wouldn’t change that for the world.

Related posts:

Booking Through Thursday: Mayday!

Rebecca Reid — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:39:44 +0000

Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do??

And, no, you did NOT have time to grab your bookbag, or the book next to your bed. You were . . . grocery shopping when you got the call and have nothing with you but your wallet and your passport (which you fortuitously brought with you in case they asked for ID in the ethnic food aisle). This is hypothetical, remember….

I have a hard time with the “did not have time to grab…” caveat. I always carry my handheld device with me. Usually, I use it for my shopping lists, etc. But I also have both texts and mp3 files with books. There has been some discussion about handheld devices for reading: I prefer books, but I’ll go with digital format if I’m reading a public domain work or I have more time to listen to an audiobook.

To play the game, let’s suppose that my handheld device is out of power. Most likely, I’ll be trying to keep my son entertained. If, by some miracle, he’s not coming with me on this trip, I I imagine I’d find a newspaper on an airport bench to read. If I can’t find anything and the flight is going to be more than an hour, I may buy a book. For example, if I had to fly from Australia back to the US, I’d buy two books and a magazine. That’s a long time.

I think sometimes it’s nice to just sit and enjoy silence and thinking and people watching. I enjoy the peace of flying and just resting.

Am I the minority there? Does everyone else go out and buy something right away, even for a short flight?

Related posts: