Granta has a new issue out with a group of writers they say are the best of the younger (ahem …. that would be under the age of thirty-five…. I suppose that still pretty young… I know this fifty-five year old thinks it’s young…) writers

I bookmarked this list of them for future reference. I recognize a couple (Foer, Budnitz) and as I started investigating I recognized works by some of them.

I know the sheer act of reading anything seems to be falling out of favor. Better to scan quickly, looking for pictures and video links. Whippy skippy. I do that. But I still like to read. And am on the lookout for new books.

I drove up to Barnes & Noble (after checking our local bookshop) and bought David Mitchell’s first nove, Ghostwritten. I finished Cloud Atlas by him last night. I like this guy a lot.

Yesterday standing in the cold, I was talking to my friend Michael Fegel who sometimes lurks here. I introduced him to a pompous dude as a “reader.” It’s true. There are some readers left.

By that, I mean someone who enjoys the sheer act of reading and does it. Virginia Woolf called them “Common Readers.” I like that a lot.