Sunday, January 20, 2008

Dissecting the Times

While I'm pretty sure I stop shy of being obsessive compulsive, I do like to put things in order. I like alphabetizing my records. When catching up on reading back issues of magazines, I read them in date order. And, if this morning's read of the New York Times is any indication, I like to read my Sunday newspaper in a specific order.

Struck by that observation this morning, I took note of how I organized the various sections of the newspaper before reading it. Half of the paper is delivered on Sunday. I don't know how the following list falls out in terms of what section was delivered when, because I don't read the Sunday Times on Saturday. It's the Sunday Times.

Regardless, before reading the paper, I unbag both days' deliveries and arrange them in the order I plan to attack the sections. Here is that order:


  • Book Review
  • The City -- I'm especially fond of the FYI Q&A column
  • The Metro Section
  • Magazine -- I look for Rob Walker, Dan Clowes, and I save the Acrostic for Caitlin
  • Sunday Styles
  • Arts & Leisure
  • Real Estate -- the first section. The second is all listings and less interesting
  • Week in Review
  • Business
  • Automobiles -- a quick flip
  • The front section
  • Sports
  • Travel -- usually my least favorite section, and therefore, the last to be read


I don't know how consistent I am Sunday to Sunday -- I'd imagine there's some variance -- but I found this interesting.

What Sunday newspaper do you read -- and how do you do so?

2 comments:

Tope said...

Interesting post... made me semi-wistful for the days I looked forward to getting a newspaper delivered. I finally canceled my subscription some years back when I realized the papers were just piling up, creating my own personal living room landfill. Nowadays if I have a hankering for the Sunday paper I just go buy it. The ritual I once had, however, is long gone.

RiCkW said...

So, to play a little bit of devil's advocate, do you also read books in the order in which you wanted to read them? Oh, and a big hello to Tope!!!