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December 23, 2005

Opinions are like...

_____________, everyone has one.

Feel free to fill in the blank with your own ideas.

Whilst you're pondering the noun for this simile, consider offering up an opinion laced recommendation or two for my 2006 reading project.

My blogobud Roxanne is in search of some good book titles for her 2006 reading list. Roxanne's is an admirable and ambitious project indeed.

I'm a little less motivated than she (possibly because I have two teenagers--ok, one is 12, close enough-- a job, a dog, a good sized hobby garden and an aspiration to write more journalistic style stuff) to do a lot of heavy lifting in the book realm. Or maybe I'm just lazy.

I don't want 2006 to whittle by for me however without doing some worthwhile reading. I'd like to set aside a portion of my measly salary to purchase two or three subscriptions to good periodicals.

I already get Newsweek. It arrives every Wednesday (which is a problem as its released on Sunday. Usually the news is old by then...but some of the lesser current events and indepth pieces are very good). Half the time I don't get to finish the magazine because my son snags it up as a resource for Extemporaneous debate.

I also subscribe to the monthly Sunset Magazine which I consider an invaluable gardening resource for those of us out west. Sunset's lesser value to me (but no less interesting) include recipes, architecture, information on wines, great western vacation spots and profiles of various western regions.

Lately I've been purchasing Vanity Fair at the exorbidant newstand price. The writing is very good and I've found myself reading it pretty much from cover to cover. VF is on the top of my periodical consideration list right now.

I'm also considering a subscription to Portland Monthly, mostly because I feel like I don't always keep up well with my home region and I'm guilting the hell out of myself about it. But every time I read it I feel like I'm getting the cotton candy version of the city...where's the beef?

Essentially what I'd like to have is at least one good periodical that covers international/national news, one that covers the western region of the US and one that deals with my locality: the Portland, Oregon region.

Suggestions?

Posted by Carla at December 23, 2005 08:09 AM