Reading the paper

This morning I did something I don’t remember doing before: I read the newspaper. When I was growing up my parents read the paper after dinner because the delivery was made in the late afternoon. I don’t remember being interested even in the cartoons or the ‘funny papers’ as my dad called them.

In high school I looked at the paper as much as I needed to for the current events component of Social Studies but I didn’t see a reason to keep up the habit. The only use we’ve had in our house for newspapers is as a liner for the bottom of Odie’s cage. We’ve asked friends to pass on their papers rather than recycling them and they have been very generous about this.

Recently Richard commented that both of us were stopping, newspaper in hand, to read one or more articles before consigning them to the birdcage. He decided to try a subscription and the first paper arrived on Saturday. Of course there’s a huge difference from the papers I remember as a kid. They were huge thick things every day of the week and I was surprised at how slim Saturday’s paper was.

It has been fairly easy to remember to check the mailbox when I get up. The first morning I didn’t think of it and didn’t find the paper until late afternoon. Today I made a cup of tea and sat down at the table with the paper. Normally I’d be looking at my cell phone for news and updates or I’d be watching the latest videos YouTube had flagged for me. I found the paper surprisingly calming. I could read a bit of the article and then abandon it, flip to a new section, read most of a section that interested me and skip the stuff I already knew about from online news reports. Of course, I can do these things online but somehow it's different.

My reaction surprised me. I’m pretty much of a digital gal when it comes to reading material. My preferred form of book is audio. If there’s something I really want and can’t get on audio, I’ll try digital and if that isn’t available and I really, really want it I’ll buy a physical book. I still have way too many books and I struggle constantly to get the number down.

Luckily with the newspaper, I don’t have that problem. Odie always requires papers and I use them in the shop when I’m gluing things up or putting finish on projects. In some ways, it will be nice to have a constant supply delivered to the house. We’ll see how many pages are left over at the end of a week. And, it’s also interesting to read bits of local news that don’t necessarily hit my electronic feeds. Don’t hold your breath though. I don’t think I’ll be going back to physical books anytime soon.