Newspapers and books

I haven't been reading quite as much as I ought to.Ever since I stopped the newspaper subscription due to monetary concerns , I've rarely read the news.Now , I live in a bubble of ignorance.I miss those delicious Sunday op-eds.

You'd think that it would be just as easy to visit the newspaper's website - but there's nothing like poring over a crisp sheet of paper , coffee mug in hand.

It's also been quite some time since I picked up a book- I tried reading Magic Seeds by Naipaul,but he gets tiresome. He loves harping on the same old themes-Gandhi, the repressed Indian psyche,and so on.

So , in lieu of actually reading books , I've begun listening to you-tube lectures on them. Yale University lets you become a fly on the wall in it's classrooms.I listened to Amy Hungerford's class on Nabokov's Lolita as part of her series of lectures on the American novel since 1945.It can be a little abstruse, and much of it doesn't make sense unless you've actually read the book, but it can be an interesting diversion.

As for reading newspapers , I've decided to haul myself down to the hostel lobby where they keep the newspaper, often dismembered and daubed with tomato sauce .This will entail climbing down two flights of stairs - so I will get a free work out in the bargain.So much for keeping myself well informed!