Dia: Beacon

I've been back in New York - back from a few weeks at home after school ended - for a month now, and haven't had a chance to do much outside of my apartment, where I'm usually applying for jobs, watching The West Wing (as always), reading, or avoiding the cold. Otherwise, there has pretty much only been my usual time spent in the theatre district and uptown around Columbia. On Sunday, though, Meena and I hopped on a Metro North train from Grand Central.



We went up the Hudson line to Beacon, New York. Along the way, we had a view of the foggy, icy Hudson River. Just under an hour and a half outside the city, Beacon is home to the Dia: Beacon, a modern art museum in an old factory building beside the river. The quick trip was a great way to get out of the city for a little bit, and a perfect rainy day activity.

Winter & Spring Reading

In 2017 I shocked myself by reading 100 books, despite a busy two semesters and three busy internships. This was the year that I fully kicked my reading slump and made sure I found more time to read, especially when I wasn't just on a break from school. Thankfully, audiobooks and the NYPL (and my internship at a publishing imprint) kept me reading throughout the spring and fall semesters, not just during the summer months. I also read so many wonderful books last year, so overall... a great reading year. Now, in 2018, I have another long, ambitious reading list to start out the year. I'm excited to pick up some of the newer books I missed last year, catch up on a few books that have been sitting on my shelves for a while, and get to read some upcoming releases that I've been awaiting for a long time (I'm dying to get my hands on Circe by Madeline Miller).

Brooklyn

On a summer afternoon in Brooklyn, I wandered solo through Cobble Hill, spending a lot of time checking out the new (ish?) bookstore Books Are Magic and then walking around the lovely neighborhood. I ended up at an entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Promenade, so I headed over to Brooklyn Bridge Park to see the always great skyline view while catching the sunset.

Fall Reading

Another season, another busy few months, another too ambitious reading list. This fall's list is far too extensive, but I'll be happy to read even a handful of these books when I have a chance between classes, work, and anything else going on. There are a bunch of recent and upcoming releases that I'm really looking forward to getting to in between reading for school (such as Little Fires Everywhere, Artemis, They Both Die at the End, and Sing, Unburied, Sing). I'm also excited to continue flying through Megan Whalen Turner's fantastic Queen's Thief series, hopefully picking up more Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman, and reading some books that feel perfect for fall.

Whitney Museum

From a summer Sunday spent at the Whitney Museum with Shae, my favorite museum and photo partner -- photos from the museum's terraces, mostly from the outdoor installation.

Summer Reading in Review

Unfortunately, my summer has just ended for me with the start of school this past week. I'm hoping to continue reading as much as possible during this semester, in addition to my heavy school reading list, but for now I'm thinking about the books I read this summer. Unsurprisingly, I didn't read everything on my ambitious summer reading list, but I did read 35 books this summer, so I'm pretty pleased. I'd like to think I made a dent in my extensive list of books to read and my piles of books in the rooms at school and at home, but I probably balanced out all progress by just adding more and more books to the list. Getting a library card in the spring has also made me even more of a book hoarder - I constantly have a long list of holds and a stack of library books to tackle. Anyways, I read some excellent books and it was a wonderful three and a half months of reading overall, spent in sunny parks and at the beach, on the subway and lazy days in bed. It was great to get a lot of time to dedicate to reading, as well as to see that my big jump out of a long reading slump in the beginning of the year was not a short-lived return to reading book after book. I did reread a handful of books - finishing my reread of Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle, listening to Stephen Fry's audiobook of the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes by starting with A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four, and flying through Ally Carter's Heist series once again - but the rest were new releases and books that had long sat on my to-read list. So here you are - a reading roundup highlighting almost half of the books I read this summer, complete with thoughts and recommendations.