Until I went away for two weeks, I had not realized how out of control my insatiable need for copious amounts of information was. When I got back, much of my 6 foot tall mail stack was filled with magazines. I’ve now spent the better part of the weekend trying to read and digest all the magazines. The only clutter and mess in the house is the four magazine piles (read now, read soon, read later, probably just throw away).
I subscribe to about 35 magazines and of those, 7 are weekly (The Week, US Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, Wine Spectator, Business Week, Puget Sound Business Journal, National Conservative Weekly). You might think that with all these magazines that I spend almost all my time reading. But, that’s not the case at all. I probably log about 2 hours a day reading, and that includes the books too.
I like to start my morning reading a business magazine for 20 to 30 minutes – almost like a morning meditation. I have many to choose from (Inc., Fast Company, Business 2.0, FSB, Fortune, Seattle Business, 3 regional/local business newspapers, and the new Conde Nast Portfolio). I usually manage to make it through a magazine per morning, reading two or three feature articles word for word and then skimming the rest.
In the evenings, after chores have been done and dinner has been cleared, I don’t watch t.v. I read magazines and books. And, if there’s a movie on, unless it’s subtitled, I have one eye on the movie screen and the other on a magazine. In the evening though, I read my lighter fare (Blueprint, Shape, Herb Companion, Natural Home, Scuba Diver, Elle, Lucky, National Geographic, Fitness, Shape, gossip rags, etc..) and catch up on all the fashion and gossip news. This kind of reading relaxes my brain. I usually keep a notebook beside me to take notes about ideas that pop into mind or web sites that I want to visit. I also get almost all my book suggestions and movie watching ideas from the reviews in the magazines. The last step to my reading in the evening is to turn on the computer and log into Netflix and add whatever new movies came out this week (that also reviewed well) and then head over to the library site and put the latest releases on hold in the library.
I’m sure that this well-organized life will come to a screeching halt once I have children but for now, I’m an information junkie and I love it. Of course, all of this reading apparently does not stick, because our Team Bramble Berry team did terribly (not quite last place but close!) at the local Whatcom County Trivia Literacy Bee!
