Sports, Literary Journals, and Strange Bedfellows

My husband doesn't read much; you know, opposites attract and all that. That is, he's not a reader. He does devour each month's Consumer Reports, the newspaper sports pages, and sometimes the stuff I write – that is if I put it in his hands before I sign off on the final proof because it happens to mention him.

Which brings us to my latest publication – an essay in a literary journal I have a feeling my husband will actually read. The journal is Sport Literate, whose tagline reads: Honest reflections on life's leisurely diversions. My essay, "A Well-Jumped Fence," appears in the current print edition (Winners and Losers 2008, vol. 5, issue 2).

So, next time I see hubby headed into his "reading room" (don't we all know where that is?), I'll hand him the journal (at 132 pages and an easy-to-handle 5x7 size, it's not so overwhelming), and see what happens. While I’m hoping he enjoys the entire fine issue, I'm wondering if, once he discovers the other essays and articles – about golf, tennis, archery, baseball and other sports – he'll even get around to reading mine, which is a look back at the huge role horses and competitive equestrian competition once played in my life, and how I feel about its absence now.

I don't often tout journals here, and try not to tell my readers what to buy, but a subscription to Sport Literate strikes me as a win not just for the writer-reader in a household, but for anyone else in the clan who may need a bit of a literary palate expander that speaks their language.