rhythm of reading and publishing

I just finished a collection of columns Nick Hornby wrote for the Believer over a ten year period. I am near the end of a collection of short pieces E.B. White wrote for The New Yorker over a span of fifty years. I enjoyed both books and am glad I read them - I would do it again if I had it to do over - but I wonder if I read them wrong. I don’t mean I misread them so much as I got the rhythm wrong. These pieces were never meant to be read together all in one go like other books. They were meant to be read with a break between them, and alongside other writing. They’re olives, they’re raw onion, they’re great with other things and they’re less suitable for being the sole substance of a main course. I should have read them one piece day, or maybe two, alongside other books.

 
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Kudos
 
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Kudos

Now read this

I’m the man waiting for the phone to ring

When I was younger I didn’t realize how much of my adult life would be spent being bored. I’m bored by my job, by my health insurance paperwork, by waiting for the bus. Our society inflicts boredom on us so much, all the time, constantly... Continue →