Books as guides: Fall books: Reading habits

I  am seldom without reading material—the Economist is my staple for doctors’ waiting rooms—but lately I find it more difficult to concentrate on reading that requires sustained attention, like poetry. I have to work at making time and a quiet heart. I begin and end each day with prayer, using Give Us This Day. Designed for Catholic readers, it contains daily mass readings and scripture reflections by many contemporary women.

I dislike reading online, but consult my local paper and the New York Times daily. I read the New Yorker, Image and Vanity Fair. I use Facebook to keep up with my nieces and a nephew.

Books are my travel companions. A canceled flight is an opportunity to browse in a bookstore, and when flight attendants instruct me to turn off anything with an on/off switch, I keep reading while the e-readers go dark. I’m more likely to read history than theology, and the latter is often from ancient sources. I’m now reading On Living Simply, excerpts from the sermons of John Chrysostom.