Earlier this year, I had to end my relationship…with television. After making sweet love to my Tivo all winter, I decided to break it off with my remote and go back to the books. I went literal, literally.

I have been an avid reader all my life, but for too long saying those words was cowpie. Living in NYC, I exhibited all the symptoms of a real reader – my four room apartment had but one television, on which I watched Seinfeld and the occasional rented video. I finished a book a week MINIMUM and frequented lit lovefests. Now my home has two more TVs than bedrooms, all but one have DVRs and my two-year-old can wield the remote with the best of ‘em. It’s just wrong.

My problem is/was that I had gotten out of the habit of reading. My TV and magazine addictions and their lure of good/bad, drama/suspense/conclusion wrapped in 22 minutes or 2 pages really jacked me up. Read the titles and you know the full story.

I took my book project seriously. I knew that, because I was rusty, picking up Cormac McCarthy’s The Road was probably going to be abandoned at the driveway. So I created categories, from the Brain-Candiest to “The Impressives.” Herewith, my report card (categories in italics, actual works in bold:

1. Chicky but Not Chick Lit. (Suffering through 2 hours of rom-com onscreen is agonizing enough. I couldn’t bear giving my nights and nail appointments over to it in print.) I read Valley of the Dolls. What a fun romp. Must have a dinner party with the girls to watch the DVD. Maribou slippers required. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Shanghai Girls both by Lisa See. Enjoyable easy reads that made me treasure my friendships.
2. True Classic. As I do once a year, I read Their Eyes Were Watching God, and as I do once a year, loved it. I’m reading Wuthering Heights, which I haven’t done since 1989. The only one not completed, since other books keep cutting the line. Case in point…
3. Parenting. I read Nurture Shock, and it was indeed a shock. This book blew my mind. I have a lunch date-slash-discussion about it later this week and I cannot wait. This book rocked the San Andreas fault of my parenting ideals, and the aftershocks keep coming.
4. The Impressives: Outliers. Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The End of Overeating – also a mind-blower. Another look at how the food industry has coopted and irrevocably altered the way, the amount and the quality of we eat.

So I give myself an A- for taking on and almost completing the challenge (damn you, Wuthering!!)  I’m starting it up again for winter. Want to read together? Here are my new categories, books yet to be selected:

• Something sentimental, a story that will remind me how precious and fleeting this all is. Love Story perhaps?
• Biography – I’m leaning towards Jackie O, probably because I just saw a doc about the Kennedys that got me all hyped
• An underappreciated gem
• A new voice. I read Uwen Akpan’s Say You’re One of Them last year and was reminded how delicious a new discovery can be.
• Domestic bliss – I’ll be home cooking and entertaining guests from now until January. I sure as shit better figure out how to make it pleasurable and presentable.

Happy reading!
Sxxoo

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Swagger (SWAG-uhr): Noun.

It’s a FEELING: the ability to remain above it all, focused. Keeping your head about you when all else is going to hell in a handbag. It’s believing and acting like the chaos dumped at your heels was your stepping stone to a greater and higher place.

It’s a FORM OF CURRENCY: yet unlike most monetary units, it isn’t subject to the peaks and valleys, whims and whimsies of the global marketplace. You can’t buy with it, but it can buy you lots…respect, loyalty, and power, to name a few. At home and in the home.  Abroad, as a broad, among the broads.

It’s a POWER POSITION: the corner office of cool. That DESIRED place we all strive for. It’s knowing what you’re worth and commanding full price, down to the last penny, pound or Euro.

It’s a CONSCIOUSNESS: Being fully aware of where you stand, who you stand with, who you can’t stand and what you won’t stand for.

It’s a MYSTIQUE: Choosing when, where, what and how many secrets to share. Chicks with swagger manage their magic well. They may live their lives as an open book, but they keep the juiciest parts password-protected.

It’s a LOOK: Ultimate comfort in one’s one skin, whether that skin is faux or fur, nude-colored or au naturale. You’re aware that fashion’s favorite new hue is violet, but when you rock it, rest assured that the word “shrinking” never enters anyone’s mind.

It’s a SKILL:  It’s being bold enough to step up to the plate, to admit one’s missteps, and most importantly, to step aside when the situation requires.

So now you know why it’s covetworthy.

Know someone with swagger? Share this with them.

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