How Do You Read?

Nearly every conversation I’ve had over the past month has involved some variation of this question: What are you reading right now? The question isn’t about fiction, or even books — it’s about news. Most of my friends and colleagues are trying to avoid reading (or watching) too much of it — we all know the Trump playbook, and if he’s going to flood the zone with shit, well, best to stay out of the zone.

Yesterday I was having lunch with a fellow islander, a man whose built his career in marketing and communications. He asked the same question, and mentioned he’s been dissatisfied with the usual fare consumed by members of our tribe — the Times, the Post, the New Yorker et al — the “mainstream, liberal media” as defined by our current leaders. I agreed — and told him I’d recently cancelled my Post subscription (the whole Bezos thing is getting to be too much) and that I rarely read full Times pieces unless they’ve been forwarded to me, usually via email or text. I’ve been off Twitter for over two years, and BlueSky is better, but my feed has become a litany of complaint, which isn’t exactly helpful.

So what do you read, he asked again? I mean, really read? And that’s when it hit me: I read my inbox. Over the past decade or so, it’s become my morning (and afternoon, and evening) paper. I want a filter between me and the media, and I wanted that filter to be made up of humans and brands…