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"What are you reading?"




I get asked that question a lot. How often? Sometimes, it’s the question I get asked immediately after someone has approached me and said, “Are you who I think you are?”. It always makes me excited to talk about books and reading with people. But I always feel panicked about WHAT book to recommend. Sometimes my mind goes completely blank- as if I’ve never read a page of anything in my life.


SO, I’ve decided to post the ever changing answer to “what are you reading?” here. Perhaps a monthly blog and a simple list that anyone seeking inspiration for new titles can refer back to at www.teganandsara.com/skqreads. Traveling and touring over the last decade has meant that I’ve supplemented my life with reading. Books, magazines, graphic novels… without their company, education and stimulation it’s inconceivable how I would have managed to pass the miles and time sanely. Thank you for being so interested in the answer and enjoy!


For this initial post, I’d like to tackle “what are you reading right now?”. But, why not “tweet” us other suggestions?


For example:


What were you reading when you were in Grade Nine and still had long banger hair and wore pants the width of tree trunks?


or


What were your favorite horror novels or non-fiction true crime accounts that you bought at a used paperback store in the early 1990’s?


——


What am I reading right now!


I just got off of an airplane and spent much of my day reading this week’s Harper’s Magazine. My two favorite magazines are The New Yorker, and Harper’s. I have much gratitude for the time in my life needed to properly read both of those magazines cover to cover.


A lot of this year has been spent “at home”, with real people, doing normal “living in a city and not touring” type things. This has meant that I’ve spent less time reading novels and more time reading articles or essays on the subway or before bed. Some of my favorites this year: (I’m not going to say anything very critical, and I likely won’t include any of the books I didn’t finish, hated, or couldn’t recall without looking through my bookshelf).


– The Moronic Inferno, Visiting Mrs. Nabokov and The War Against Cliche, all by Martin Amis and all very excellent.


– (Woman) Writer by Joyce Carol Oates


– The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides


– Paying For It by Chester Brown


– Bossy Pants by Tina Fey. I read this on the beach and aboard a Greyhound bus to and from Atlantic City, laughing all the way.


– I got through 34 percent of the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. A delightful start, now I must finish before the films are released!


I currently have no other books on the go. Which made me feel panicked, so I just stopped writing this and ordered three books online. Curious aren’t you?


1. The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc. by Jonathan Lethem
(Lethem’s last collection, The Disappointment Artist, is one of my all time favorites)


2. The Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes


3. Pauline Kael: A Life In The Dark by Brian Kellow


Okay, I’m off to read. No, I’m actually not. I just said that because it’s a blog about reading. Maybe I’ll watch a subtitled movie! I’m not. I’m actually going to have a glass of wine and watch Brothers and Sisters.


Good night! Good luck with the reading!


skq