Reading? and other Musings

Do people read anymore? And if they do, in what form? That seems to be a issue getting discussed lately. The piece by Roger Ebert mentions that the Associated Press has now put a 500 word limit on all articles. I can recall a web outlet to which I contributed wanted its writers to follow a template that limited the number of words we could use, including a one-sentence plot description. Now, some of the more serious feature films cannot be summarized in one sentence, so it was always a challenge. The thought behind the AP decision is that people are so pressed for time that people don't want long essays.

What does this mean for literacy in the U.S.? We're gradually moving away from a society that reads toward one that is viewer-driven. You Tube and its competitors suck up a lot of time. I know I spend far too much time on the computer than I should. And it has taken a toll on my reading.

The last few years I was living in Manhattan, I didn't have cable television -- just had an analog set and the choices were the major networks and PBS. Consequently, I didn't watch as much TV. Now I've got cable and there are shows to which I've become addicted. "Mad Men", "Damages", "Chelsea Lately", "Ace of Cakes", to name a few. (Yes, it's an eclectic group, but then I've been that way most of my life.) I rarely watch the major networks and when I do, it's generally for pure entertainment. I really liked "Pushing Daisies" for a number of reasons: it was clever if a bit twee, but the cast more than made up for it. Anna Friel is a terrific actress and I have fond memories of an interview I did with her years ago. Lee Pace is one of the best actors working today. Don't believe me? Rent "Soldier's Girl", "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" and even "The Fall" and then tell me otherwise. Truthfully, I wasn't much of a Kristen Chenoweth fan when I saw her on Broadway (her vocal shtick was like nails on a chalkboard) but in this show, she's entertaining. Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene -- both stage veterans -- are in a class of their own. And the guest actors have been stellar. It's a quirky little show that got pummelled by the writers' strike and has now been consigned to the cancellation pile. Well, maybe I can put that one hour to use in January reading.

Yes, reading. Books. I was chatting with someone recently and was asked the last book I'd read, and I realized it had been a while since I actually had FINISHED a book. The last novel was called The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer (who had written one of my all-time favorites The Confessions of Max Tivoli which in turn owed a lot to the F. Scott Fitzgerald story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" which is one of 2008's Christmas movies. I'm surprised that no reviews I've read note that some of the liberties Eric Roth took with the short story mirror some of the things Greer did -- but then again, do film critics have time to read?)

The last non-fiction work I completed was Everything Was Possible by Ted Chapin, a behind-the-scenes story about the making of the landmark 1971 musical Follies with a book by James Goldman and a sublime score by Stephen Sondheim. In synchronicity, there were not one, but two stagings of the show here in the Boston area in the fall, so I had finished the book and then went to see the two shows. The first was at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, a small house with a stage the size of a postage stamp. Yet, the director, Spiro Veloudos found nuances in the book and staged the show in a very intimate but enlightening manner. The cast consisted of local talent and it proved to be an enjoyable evening. About a month later, The Boston Conservatory did a full out staging of the show, recreating Michael Bennett's choreography. Because it was performed by students, the cast was enormous -- very much like the original production -- and that too proved to be a very enjoyable afternoon. (I should mention that I also saw the infamous 2001 Broadway revival which had its moments but I missed the Encores! production in 2006.)

One of my eccentricities is that I tend to start several books at a time, reading them in various places. In New York, I'd have the books I'd read during commutes on subways and busses, the ones I'd read at the laundry, the ones I'd take to a cafe, etc. Here in Cambridge, things are very different, so I find that I'm doing more reading at home than anywhere else. Still, right now I've got three or four books going at once. The novel Loving Che, the memoir The Glass Castle, and the nonfiction For the Thrill of It. I did try to read Twilight but I found that Stephenie Meyer's writing was puerile at best.

So what, if anything, do people read (beside blogs). From my own blog reading, I discovered something called the Cannonball read but I'm too much of a wuss to try to participate. Plus, my job drains me so when I do get home, I just want to relax and not be intellectually challenged. Nevertheless, as part of an early New Year's resolution, I'm going to try to read more books and to write more about movies and other things of interest.