Reading. Sharing. Definitely Not Talking

I have two articles that are some of the year’s best I want to recommend.

One, if you missed it, is Barry Bearak’s NYT Magazine article on six tsunami victims. I thought about a way to link to it, but I can’t say I’ve figured out how to get you to those 18,000 words, or however many thousand there are. But try to find it if you can.

Two, also in the Times, Kurt Eichenwald’s “Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World.” Because if there’s ever personal, rather than just public-service journalism to be done, it seems Eichenwald has mastered it. This boy lost his childhood to the world of online prostitution, and may have waded right out of it with the reporter’s urging.

On a side note, I’m reading an interesting history of the making of aspirin, aptly titled, “Aspirin.” You get medical and pharmaceutical and chemical history in one package. Pretty interesting.

And on a note off to the side of that, I have laryngitis, which is intriguing. I know my job requires reading and writing, but, really, not being able to speak is a whole different thing. Scary, a little. What if I could never report again? You know, get on a phone and convince someone to tell me things, because I want them to? It hits a nerve. Or silences one.

Please tell me your favorite readings. I’m seeking articles and fiction or non-fiction books that I shouldn’t miss this year. In a vaguely viral haze, I will try to think of others to share. Then again, I'm not promising a well of thoughts. The rope that lowers the bucket into the well is a little stuck right now.

Do it for me. I'd do it for you.

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