Why I Read What I Read

My reading habits have evolved over many years and were directly influenced by my mother. I remember flipping the pages of National Geographic on the living room floor and visualizing how I would write about a lost tribe treking in the steamy Amazon. But I became a cop and my interests shifted to reading police magazines like Law and Order and Police Chief to keep up with police policy, investigative techniques, and dreaming about getting a Sig Sauer so I could have a competitive edge over the shooting scores of my fellow officers (although the gun doesn't make the man nor the woman). I was self-employed in construction later and subscribed to Handy Man magazine to learn how a woman could build a better bathroom. Now I am an academic - an aspiring journalist. I have to read as much as I can. I subscribe to U.S. News and World Report, Texas Monthly (that was for a writing class- not my favorite), The New Yorker, Selecciones - Reader's Digest in Spanish to practice the language and improve my writing and The Columbia Journalism Review. I subscribe to the Denton Record Chronicle to learn about the local folks (I'm new to the area), the Star-Telgram and the Dallas Morning News (dropped it, but need to re-start it). I log on everyday to various news sites (American and foreign) and I watch CNN News Robin and Company , and chill with the weather guy Van Dillon who is more professional and not as goofy as Robin in the morning at 5:15 a.m. I watch Brian Williams on the NBC evening news.If I could, I'd subscribe to Al-Jazeera to top this off. NO - the reporters with Al-Jazeera aren't terrorists.

This is much toooooo long - but that is why I read and what I read and view because as a journalist I need to be up on the news and scrutinize what is put out in print, on the web, radio and TV. And about those I-Reporters who post shaky video.....hmmmmm. That's another story. That's all folks.