I have a bit of a problem.
And the only two possible solutions for this problem, in my opinion, involve time. Either there needs to be more hours in the day, or I need some time-stopping device like in that movie Clockstoppers¹.
The problem, of course (and this is when you accuse me of being an elitist a-hole), is not having enough time in the day to read all I want to read. There are magazines to read and lengthy online features² to read, and that doesn’t even count the actual news I try to stay on top of.
Right now, I have print subscriptions to Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Harper’s and, recently, The Oxford American. I’m usually reading the last issue of Rolling Stone when the new one arrives, usually just about finishing one edition of Harper’s when the next comes in the mail, and failed to finish the first edition of The Oxford American I received before the next one came today — and that magazine comes quarterly!
That’s just the print stuff. I subscribe to The Best of Journalism, a service that sends the six best pieces of journalism on the Internet to my inbox every week, which is curated by an editor at The Atlantic. Another best-of email I get is from Longreads every Friday. I have the website Longform in my RSS app. There’s a lot of good stuff out there.
Obviously, these are supposed to augment the sites I visit regularly, plus articles or stories I find on Facebook or Twitter. So far, I haven’t found a good system to read everything with the time I have. Does such a system even exist? I haven’t found one yet in all my years of reading.
Since I was a kid, I loved to read. And since I was a kid, I loved to write. Sometimes, when I rummage through old stuff at my parents’ house, I find folders of my writing from when I was 6, 9, 13. It was during one of these campaigns this past summer that I found one of my most prized possessions: a postcard from Carl Hiaasen.
Hiaasen, if you don’t know, started out as a reporter for The Miami Herald and eventually started writing a weekly column for the paper. He also writes novels and is best known for being a very adept satirist. My dad is a big fan of his novels.
In the fall of 2004, when I was in 6th grade in Boulder City, Nev., my English teacher gave us a very cool assignment. We had to write a letter to a favorite celebrity. I wanted to write mine to a writer (obviously), and, because I had just finished Hiaasen’s YA novel Hoot, I chose him.
I don’t remember specifically what I wrote to him, but, based on his answer, I must have asked for advice. Most likely on how to be a better writer.
In his cursive scrawl, he wrote the following in black ink on the back of a postcard:
Dear Sky —
I’m so glad you enjoyed Hoot.³ I started writing when I was very young, and I haven’t stopped. The best way to learn about language usage is to read, read and read some more! Good luck with your writing!
Carl Hiaasen
I took his advice to heart, and that’s why I’m in this wonderful predicament I’m in now, having so many great things to read and not enough time. Thank you, Mr. Hiaasen, I won’t forget it.
1. Isn’t that movie awesome? …I mean, like, wasn’t it awesome when we were twelve?
2. You know I like long form journalism, right?
3. Hoot was actually underlined.
Behind Blue Skies 