Monday, June 22, 2009

I Read Something... : The Summer Has Begun & Random Reading Quotes


I haven't been doing much writing because I'm doing a lot of reading, probably at a detriment to my unskillful compositions. There was also a laptop-less bachelor party weekend in New Orleans thrown in for good measure.

I was trying to compile a list of magazines that I read offline outside the 20+ daily blog scans.

There is the weekly/bi-weekly:
1 New Yorker
2 New York Magazine
3 Newsweek (like the look of the redesign but hate the content since the change)
4 Entertainment Weekly
5 Business Week (discontinued but then I found a free subscription online)
6 Time Out
7 Forbes (Phasing it out)

The Monthlys:
1 The Believer
2 Wired
3 Fast Company
4 Writer's Digest
5 Website Magazine
6 Poets & Writers
7 Portfolio (discontinued)
8 PC World
9 GQ
10 Esquire
11 Strategy & Business

Don't forget McSweeney's Quarterly,
a couple of membership magazines (like Tennis, Sierra Club & Bnai Brith) and a couple more IT & internet publications that I read sometimes. Not to mention about 2 books a week so i guess I always have read something the other day. You'd think I'd do nothing else but I do (or at least I try). I just love the feel of a great magazine and the suprise of turning the page ( I never look at the page of contents).

So here's some funny, amusing, or interesting quotes from what I've read lately.

From Albert Camus' "The Plague" (not a book full of humor):

"...(the) Plague had killed all colors, vetoed pleasure."

I have a bunch more but while reading them over these quotes are not really as quotable as I thought. "The Plague" wasn't the best summer read and for a 300 page book it was very trying and not very rewarding, "an existentialist classic" that I was I could have stopped reading but for some reason I always persevere."

Here's an excerpt from a GQ Interview with the latest Fox News acolyte Glenn Beck in regards to his upcoming comedy tour (who the fuck thought that was a good idea?):

" So conservatives lack an irony gene?
Is there an irony shortage? Sure. But is there a sarcasm shortage? Sure. A pun shortage? That too.

Why?
I don’t know. It may be because there is a system set against conservatives doing comedy. But I’m not totally comfortable with that explanation, because I have never attended conservative parties where the doors close and somebody breaks out the funny. It may just be that conservatives, for one reason or another, haven’t developed a good funny. It could be just because…[long pause] I was going to say it could be because they are beaten all the time. But Jews are funny, you know?"


I can't find where I put the rest but I'll start putting them up as I mark them.

I'll also be reading David Foster Wallace's epic tome "Infinite Jest" (which I believe i previously mentioned) as part of the online Infinite Summer Campaign, the ultimate on online nerd reading meant to motivate people to read & enjoy lengthy Wallace's work in one beautiful, memorable & committed summer. Join up!

Fot instant links & updates, check out my more oft updated tumblr, Empirical Dynamite.


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