We Bought Nooks!?

You all probably have an impression that I am a bit of a luddite when it comes to reading. I don’t think this would be an unfair or inaccurate assessment, but perhaps it’s not entirely true anymore. For our anniversary, Jen and I got Nooks.

Week With Winston

This has been a lovely week for us here - I have had the week off from work, and have spent the workweek at home, chauffeuring Jen about, and spending some quality time with Winston. This time with him has been lovely, and there are a few things after spending so much time with him I want to share.

Commute Podcasts

Jen, Winston, and I all live in Fayetteville in the house I imagine you all have read about. Fayetteville is a great town – it’s a college town, and has the feel that we really like. People are friendly and have a different mindset than that of other towns in northwest Arkansas. The downside of this is that I have to commute into work. Now, if this were a nice commute (think light rail/subway) I don’t think I would complain too much. But this being the south with an intense aversion to almost all forms of public transit, I must drive to work.

Four Months Later...

Hi readers,

If you've found your way back here after our four month hiatus here at the files, welcome back. If you're a new reader, I am glad you are here. In sitting down to write this post, I see it has been far too long since my last post. I thought perhaps I owe it to you all to fill you in on some of the happenings around here at the files...

Reading in our Home

One of the joys of our new home is reading. I’ve read two lengthy nonfiction books since we moved in - and that is with the work we have done to get everything in the house usable and accessible. Just about the time we were moving in, I heard a piece on Fresh Air on NPR about habits and how we form them. According to the author, the times when we can form new habits are times of major change - birth of a child, or moving. With this in mind, I have been making a special effort to create a reading habit in our new home.

Long Form and the Tablet

By my count, it has been a bit over a month since posting here at The Dean Files, and it's nice to be back. My hiatus was prompted by Jen and I buying and moving into our first home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I know Jen will want to tell you all about that, but here's a photo from a couple of weeks ago of our new living room:



On my commute into work today, I was listening to a story about The New Republic on Morning Edition. Chris Hughes, one of the founders of Facebook purchased that nearly century-old magazine, and hopes to use it to re inspire reading long-form writing and journalism. A couple of things piqued my interest that he mentioned. Hughes seems to think that there is a real lack of that kind of reporting out there, and that The New Republic will be one of a few in a vastly under served market. Also, that tablet computers are the best new way to consume long-form writing.

His implication that his newly purchased magazine will fill a void of long-form, insightful writing and journalism just does not hold water. I subscribe to two paragons of this genre - The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books. It's all I can do to keep up with these two, but I am tempted by the wiles of Mother Jones, The Atlantic, and Harper's about every three months. Those are five magazines that regularly publish long-form works that I can name off the top of my head, and I am sure there are many more out there. I am curious to see how TNR will establish itself in a niche that is already fairly full.

However, what bothered me more than Hughes' assertion that TNR will be the only publication in this niche was his statement that the tablet is uniquely well-suited to reading long-form periodical writing. It makes little difference to me what people choose to read from - a book, a Nook, an iPad, or a Kindle, but making this statement with Hughes' reasoning bothered me. This was his reasoning:

And he sees a growing ability to connect long-form journalism to digital users, thanks to tablets that allow users to "pause, linger, read and process very important ideas."

As someone who has used a tablet to read long-form journalism, I take strong objection to this argument. Indeed, in an article published this week in The New York Times, some cogent and insightful thoughts were shared on just this very topic - reading on a tablet/ereader. To quote from that article:

Can you concentrate on Flaubert when Facebook is only a swipe away, or give your true devotion to Mr. Darcy while Twitter beckons?

People who read e-books on tablets like the iPad are realizing that while a book in print or on a black-and-white Kindle is straightforward and immersive, a tablet offers a menu of distractions that can fragment the reading experience, or stop it in its tracks.

As someone who has used both - I really still prefer the print version of a magazine for long-form journalism and writing. I read the Times on my iPhone in the mornings, but for anything longer than that, I think that the print version just cannot be beat. I think my coworkers ask for my read copies of The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books for that same reason - to read in print that which (for the most part) can be accessed online or in tablet format.

Library Day in the Life: Day 5

Readers, this is my final post for the Library Day in the Life, Round 8 project. As you can imagine, Friday was a day with all sorts of different tasks to accomplish, and I have even included some more photos as it's Friday.

Library Day in the Life: Day 4

I am a day late on this, the fourth installment of my Library Day in the Life project this week. It was a busy day yesterday, and I am excited to tell you about it. I am slightly altering my list format from last time, and I will try to include approximate times.

Library Day in the Life: Day 3

Well, it's my third post this week of Library Day in the Life and today has by far been the busiest for me. And, rather than some repetitive narrative for my day, how about a list to change things up.

Library Day in the Life: Day 2

As I stated yesterday, I am participating in Library Day in the Life, Round 8. Today is much more quiet than yesterday, as Tuesday is our "dark day" at the museum. This provided me an opportunity to do something a bit different with my day today.

Library Day in the Life: Day 1

Well, readers, from now until the Friday, I am doing my best to participate in the Library Day in the Life, Round 8.

Here’s the brief about the project, taken from their website:

The Month of Letters

Readers, you probably know all too well by now our penchant for letters at the Dean house - we try and write a couple each weekend. I have started replying to personal emails (if I have not replied during the week) with a letter so that I spend a bit less time in front of a screen. Jen and I usually write at least one postcard or letter to a friend or family member. However, I feel as though I might "step up my game" in the letter writing department and a challenge posted recently online prompted me to commit to writing 24 letters in the month of February. If you'd like to participate with me, send me your address (email, twitter, facebook, etc) and I'll put you in line for a letter! It might be on fun paper, might be long or short, but either way I will hand-write a letter to you. Also, we have fun stamps to put on the envelopes as well!

Colleagues

2011 was a year in which I met and maintained professional relationships with many people I am proud to know. Writing about mail last week set me to thinking about what I have learned about making contacts (but more personal than that) with colleagues inside and outside your profession. I think this has become very important for both Jen and myself, and I feel as though we are much better at meeting people and initiating relationships than we once were. So, indulge me as I share five brief thoughts I have after meeting some great people and making new relationships within my profession.

The Power of Mail

The holiday season (which is just about over as of this writing) is quite the time for mail. Holiday cards and letters, thank-you notes, and packages filled with presents. It’s amusing, then, that it appears that the postal service is ending next-day delivery and shuttering many of its locations across the US. Of course, as pointed out recently in The New Yorker, the rise of email and other forms of electronic communication are largely to blame.

Still, receiving a piece of mail is far more exciting than an email or an “@” mention in a tweet. Our many holiday cards on our mantle reminded me of this, and set me to thinking about why “analog” mail is such a joy to receive.