I typically post about once a week on various books (old and new) that I’m reading (hence, this is usually called What I’m Reading Now)…However, I’m interrupting this important posting schedule to bring you something a little different. Because, okay, it has dawned on me that perhaps you don’t care what I’m reading…NAH, I’m just kidding. That’s NOT really dawned on me… Anyhow, here’s the topic for today: Not WHAT I’m reading but, rather, HOW I’m reading. The importance of this information was brought to my attention when at least a couple of friends made remarks along the lines of “How do you have time to read?” “When do you read?” “I can never manage to read” etc etc.  And then an author friend recently made a Facebook plea to have people post pictures of themselves or others in public reading books. Her message was that we need to flaunt our books so that people are aware that humans still read. I thought that was very interesting. Yes, I know that people say the novel is dead, that we don’t read anymore, etc., etc. But I guess I’m in denial. Or maybe my nose is buried too far in a book to notice that all of you out there aren’t reading??? Could it be true?? In the hopes that it isn’t but perhaps you just need a little help finding more reading time, I’ll share with you my list of HOW I read (some of it isn’t, you’ll see, paper books…but I believe anything counts):

1. I read in the car if I’m a few minutes early picking up my son from school.

2. I watch very little television…there isn’t that much that interests me. And, yes, that means I entirely missed the cultural revolutions that were Sex In The City and Lost (plus a bunch of other HBO shows that I heard were really great). Note: I often sit next to my son and husband while they watch their show (sometimes I watch with them, but usually I’ll have a book so I can read instead.)

3. I read at the park when my son is playing with his friends. Sometimes I have to stop, of course, to referee, etc.

4. I read in the bathtub.

5. On airplanes, of course.

6. I DON’T usually read at our local pool because I want to keep an eye on my kid. Instead, I listen (with one earphone in) to downloads of short stories from The New Yorker fiction podcast (I’ll post about these podcasts at some point).

7. I listen to short stories (see above) while walking my dog.

8. Sleepless nights… though I like the Elizabeth Hardwick book by this name, I’m talking about my own. After I’ve mentally contemplated all that one should at 3am –the wording of this post, how to redecorate the entire house, why BP can’t fix the oil disaster, the best way to freeze the leftovers in the refrigerator etc– and if I really, truly can’t get back to sleep I’ll go to the living room and read until I’m tired again. This usually works but just this morning it backfired…I overslept and, because of that, my son was late to school. Be careful with this one.

9. I read in the doctor’s office waiting room, in the dentist chair waiting, on the table waiting for the doc, etc., etc. I always have some book nearby whether I’m clothed or unclothed.

10. My son has participated in rock climbing classes (an hour and half long) and various other classes. I usually stay for the class, but I’ll read (and occasionally look up).

11. I always bring a book when I’m meeting a friend at a restaurant. If I’m not late, the other person will be so I’ll get a few pages in. Actually, I bring a book along for almost all appointments. I find people are so often late.

12. Friends, enemies, my mother, salespeople, etc. will attest that I don’t answer my phone very often. I’d rather read than talk on the phone! If you call often enough or come over to my house, though, I promise I WILL talk to you!

You might notice that I didn’t say I read before bed. I sometimes do but often by the time I get my son to sleep, etc., I’m zonked. Also, I didn’t list reading on the treadmill at the gym. When I go there, I sometimes do read but it’s usually junk magazines so I’m not counting that. It brings me to a good point, though…I actually don’t believe that people don’t read. I think it’s that people often don’t read good stuff.. And maybe when they say they never have time to read, that’s what they’re talking about. Just for fun, though, the photos are  of real, live exurbanites READING! That’s me, above, this weekend at Lake Casitas water park, preggo but NOT reading What To Expect (It’s actually One Art: The Letters of Elizabeth Bishop…don’t worry, you’ll hear about it soon enough). My hubby was watching our son in the water. The other picture is of a woman waiting at the Toyota dealership (like me, probably also waiting for the recalled floor mats of her Prius to get fixed).  The picture below is my favorite: Exurb contributor Debbie Miller reading while her boys decide how to spend their birthday money! That’s just the kind of multi-tasking mom I like!

Today, I should actually be asking you if you voted. But I’m not. I  really want to know if you read…and, if so, WHERE??

I, like you probably, watched the coverage in 2005 of Hurricane Katrina on CNN. And later, yes, I also lamented how the Bush Administration seemed to fail the victims. However, I had no insight — actually, I had no idea of –the injustice suffered by some of the citizens of New Orleans. Dave Eggers’s book Zeitoun gives us a riveting look at that. It follows the Zeitoun family, mainly Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-born American citizen, father and owner of an extremely successful painting and contracting business in the heart of New Orleans. We quickly learn that Zeitoun (everyone calls him by his last name) is a stand-up guy. He built his business from nothing, owns several properties in the city and, basically, works like a dog. His family members adore him, though wish he’d take a vacation with them once in a while; Many neighbors and clients gladly give over their house keys to him because he is the guy they trust implicitly.

At his urging, Zeitoun’s family (wife and four children) flees New Orleans before Katrina hits. Zeitoun, however, decides to foolishly stay on to do what he can to save their properties. The hurricane ends up being much, much worse than he anticipated. Still, he survives and is able to help some stranded victims, pets and properties. He eventually adopts a canoe and even takes off on a course of daily patrols of his neighborhood. During one of these patrols, he is brutally apprehended by the police and military forces that — sorry for the pun — have flooded into New Orleans. The rest of the story you must get from reading Dave Eggers awesome book Zeitoun. Anyone who questions whether serious injustice and human rights violations could happen right here under our noses, won’t after reading this fascinating book. If you have males in your house who generally go for books like Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, etc. I think they’ll also really love Zeitoun. Further encouragement: all the author proceeds from Zeitoun go to the Zeitoun Foundation, an organization formed in 2009 to aid in the rebuilding of New Orleans and to promote respect for human rights in the U.S. and abroad. Like Zeitoun, it seems Eggers is also a stand-up guy!

A Gate At the Top of the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

Did you know you can download a free Kindle application for your phone from iTunes or Amazon? It’s true! That means you can read electronic books right on your phone.  I typically like regular old paper books but, since I’m also not one to stand in the way of progress, I gave it a try. Several months ago I downloaded the app and selected A Gate at The Top of The Stairs by Lorrie Moore in which to read.

The combo of Moore’s book and the Kindle for iPhone was, well, overwhelming. At first.  I had a feeling I sometimes experience when watching Keith Olbermann. That is, it was a bit disconcerting to have so much truth and passion come out of such a small box. I read it in bits, a screen or two was all I could take. The narrator of Moore’s book is Tassie Keltjin, a 20-year-old college student in the Midwest. I’ve known a lot of 20-year-old Midwestern college students (hey, I was one), but none like Tassie. Her opinions seemed so fully formed and intense that I was convinced that either all her sentences were filled with multi-hyphenated words and exclamation marks (they were not) or we would find out that she was actually a 40-year-old posing as a 20-year-old (she wasn’t).

Yet I love Lorrie Moore’s writing. She is, quite frankly, a prose god. I treasure her short stories in The New Yorker and her book Who Will Run the Frog Hospital is one of my favorites (she’s also the author of Self Help and Birds of America). I know that she’s a funny, brainy and compassionate writer. So I stuck with it.  Eventually either Tassie calmed down or I did. Very soon I was able to stay up until 2am flick, flick, flicking away, thoroughly engrossed in A Gate at the Top of the Stairs.

The setting is a post-9/11 liberal-ish college town in Wisconsin. Tassie is hired as a between-classes nanny for a college professor and restauranteur who adopt a mixed race child. Moore hits every beat: love, hate, heartbreak, racism, classism, sibling relationships, adultery, friendships, precious restaurants and the popularity of baby vegetables, to mention a few. Even when the book is extremely funny, which it often is, there always seems to be something sad lurking in the corners.

I admit that “What I’m Reading Now” is a bit of a misnomer. I actually recently finished A Gate At The Top of the Stairs. It took me some time because while I imagined it would be easy to read while, say, waiting for my son during a park & rec class, it wasn’t. This was not Moore’s fault. I found that reading a book on your phone is convenient, but can also make you look like one of those obnoxious parents who are always checking his/her email and compulsively text messaging. Since I’m aware that I do enough of those tasks at inappropriate times, I didn’t want to add to my parental image problem.  A paper book never makes a reader seem obnoxious and uncaring like an iPhone does! Alas, on my last flick –by myself in the privacy of a doctor’s office waiting room — I felt sheer relief that the sad thing lurking in the corner was just ordinary life; Things didn’t turn out as bad as they could have for Tassie. Thank God — or, rather, Lorrie Moore. And guess what? As soon as I was done, I downloaded another book. I may not be able to read on my iPhone during those times I’m supposed to be posing as a good parent, but there are plenty of times when having a book on your phone comes in handy!

I often have friends ask me what I’m reading or ask for book/author recommendations. So in “What I’m reading now” I’ll simply be posting on, well, what I’m reading! Don’t expect much off the NYT or LAT best seller lists, though. There’s enough out there about those books, plus I usually buy used books or check them out at the library. Occasionally, I’ll do something newish. Like next time I’ll probably tell you about this book I’m reading on how to increase your psychic abilities (it’s gotten a lot of press). Anyhow, for this week, it’s the novel Stoner by John Williams. It was first published in 1965 and it’s a meticulously written story about William Stoner and university life from about 1910 to 1956. Stoner is sent to the University of Missouri by his farmer father to study agriculture. Ultimately, he’s smitten by literature, dumps the farm and becomes an undistinguished assistant professor of English (he also gets married, has a daughter, a mistress, etc. etc.). The “undistinguished” part, though, is key. This is a story about an average guy getting by. It’s a quiet book. The author’s writing style is direct and plain but his descriptions are beautiful and, moreover, his take on the inner life is beyond illuminating. Here I should give you a sample but my feeling is that you can pick up the book and randomly point to any passage and it will be brilliant. So, wait, I’m going to do that…Well, I pointed to the part where he’s getting with his mistress. It is a great passage but I don’t want you to think that’s what the book is really about. Instead, here’s a good Williams description:

It was winter, and a low damp midwestern mist floated over the campus. Even at midmorning the thin branches of the dogwood trees glistened with hoarfrost, and the black vines that trailed up the great columns before Jesse Hall were rimmed with iridescent crystals that winked against the grayness.

And here Williams describes Edith, who would become Stoner’s wife:

Her moral training, both at the schools she attended and at home, was negative in nature, prohibitive in intent and almost entirely sexual. The sexuality, however, was indirect and unacknowledged; therefore it suffused every other part of her education, which received most of its energy from that recessive and unspoken moral force.

Stoner is a somewhat lonely and sad book. If you like Dan Brown, for instance, you might not like John Williams. However, is you’re up for something that operates on a higher level, you’ll appreciate it.