Sunday, May 10, 2020

Comfort Reading

I'm experiencing a lot of reading cycles during this time.

First, "Fuckedupness". I wanted anything new and fresh to read, and if it had a twisted element, so much the better.

Next came the "Good Girl" phase. I strove to be diligent and finish the TBR stack on my coffee table. This is how the month of April went.

Now it is May. After hitting a brief (but they never feel brief, do they??? They feel like endless falling on jagged rocks!) slump, I am in a phase that I'm surprised didn't show up earlier: Comfort Reading.


Yes, it's true. I'm reading my 20-year-old yellowed, taped copy of The Complete Tightwad Gazette once again. Amy Dacyczyn would be proud that I haven't replaced it.

Although some of the advice is obsolete, and much doesn't pertain to my life anymore, I can't tell you how good it makes me feel to dive back in and revisit these pages: Bread crumb cookies! Refrigerator stew! Tightwad courtship! Dumpster diving! Jamie's plum-colored boots!

Before she became famous for frugality, Amy Dacyczyn was a graphic designer. Every page still looks great. I love her illustrations. I sort of had a crush on her husband and (literal) tightwad-in-arms, Jim, because let's face it: the way Amy drew him, Jim was a snack.


I don't know how long I'll be in the Comfort Reading stage, but I'm obviously having a good time.

3 comments:

Marg said...

And having a good time is what really matters right!

Unruly Reader said...


Oh, I'm so delighted to hear you love The Tightwad Gazette! I read it at least twice in the 90s and copied some pages I still have in my frugality folder. It gives me the good feeling just thinking about it. Sisters in frugality, lady...

Sam said...

Not a bad phase to be stuck in at all, Susan. I think I'm inching my way dangerously close to that one myself. In my case, rather than re-reading comfort books I've already read, I'm going back and reading the earliest books from several detective series I was a late-starter to. Turns out it's kind of like reading a bunch of "prequels" and I'm really enjoying it.