I’ve got no new travels on the horizon, which is really just as well. It seems just about the whole country is snowed or iced in at this point. We were certainly spared the brunt of the storm here in DC, but we have a pretty, treacherous icy sheen on everything now.

As I stomped through the heavy snow-mush yesterday on my way to work I pondered what to write about this week. I’m kind of between books right now, having had an unprecedented read-a-thon last week while I was away. By “between books” I mean I’ve started about two or three new books and I haven’t yet decided which one I will favor with continued reading.

I’m leaning towards the new Paul Auster, Travels in the Scriptorium. It’s a clever little novel with a man who wakes up in a rather blank room with just about no idea who he is or what he’s doing there. Having just finished an excellent book that starts out in much the same way (The Raw Shark Texts, which I promised to go into in greater detail closer to its date of publication, and I will) perhaps I ought to figure out what my preoccupation with amnesia and identity before I get any further.

What I have been reading in the absence of books lately are magazines. All this airline travel and the indoor exercise forced upon me by the nebulous “wind chill factor” have steered me to the world of the article. And I have to say I’ve been pleasantly surprised. What with everyone turning to the web (myself included) for their dose of pithy article length missives on culture and politics, I wasn’t sure how it would be. But a few weeks ago I picked up the New Yorker and read a hilarious and blasphemous (two great tastes…) story by Shalom Auslander about the conflict between his religion and his love of the New York Rangers. The Rangers win. So I’ve been picking up the New Yorker every week since then.

Another magazine I’ve been enjoying is The Believer. Yes, that’s the one all tied into the whole McSweeney’s thing. Though sometimes they indulge in short goofy pieces that are goofy in a difficult way, the magazine puts most of its considerable efforts into their long form articles and its interviews. In their most recent issue they have interviews with the National Book Award winner Richard Powers and Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Cheryl Hines among others. I haven’t read the Powers interview, but the Cheryl Hines one was a delight. Her interviewer was Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein and they get to the heart of the matter, which is Florida, Larry David, and women comedians in that order.

Lastly, there is a magazine called ReadyMade that’s been around for a couple of years and fills both the junk collecting and the “I should be able to wire a lamp” need that I like to look through with the vague promise to myself that one day I’ll actually make one of these projects and it will revolutionize my life. Of course, I am still waiting for that day. They also, conveniently, put out a book (ReadyMade: How to Make [Almost] Everything: A Do-It-Yourself Primer) that has a whole host of Do-It-Yourself projects bound up in a clever package.

Perhaps next week I’ll discuss the finer points InTouch Magazine or the nuances of UsWeekly and how it captures what People Magazine cannot. Or maybe, I’ll have read something a little more substantial.