Karen - Heck, if I'd know it was about fountains of youth turning the characters into red-eyed mutants, I'd be all over it. Thanks for the heads up. It IS summer, after all!

I read the Michael Palin "Himalays" book, too, and enjoyed it very much.

A good friend (retired librarian, God bless her) runs a book group. I burned out on reading for pleasure in graduate school (many moons ago) and so much technical reading in my job (have comments back on these 8 documents totaling 1200 pages by tomorrow morning - ugh!!). The reading group has finally sparked my interest in pleasure reading. Old habits die hard, though .. I get busted at book club because I read the first chapter or two, read the last chapter and then decide if I'm going to read the middle. Tough not to give away the ending when that's all you've read.

I'm a Wall Street Journal girl (duh!) with once-in-a-while online Chicago Tribune, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Newark Star-Ledger and, as a very occasional treat, The New York Post. Either the Daily News or the Post are the perfect unwind newspaper. Magazines are "Bird Talk" (very funny - ways to train your bird (like that's going to happen) and my favorite, the centerfolds of the bird of the month); "Food and Wine" - always a good recipe or two I can manage; and "New York" - a way to daydream about a nightlife.

The birds love to chew up those magazine postcard inserts. Dual duty - recycling and bird entertainment. No, "Bird Talk" doesn't include that particularly helpful suggestion for bird owners.

Cheers, Anne