Trail Mix: An Iditarod reporter’s ambitious reading list

Trail Mix is Alaska Public Media’s trail reporters’ inside perspective on covering the Iditarod.

Whenever I travel, I bring something to read. Even when I know the chances of finding time to finish an article or a chapter are slim to none. Usually on work trips I try to quiet my mind in airport lounges or onboard planes with a book or magazine article. Or else it’s something else to slow down my thoughts when I’m tucked in for bed.

For my 11 days away from home/office/bed, here’s what I’m bringing:

• Fire by Sebastian Junger, a reporter who writes about conflict and calamity (the name comes from a story about wildfires). Junger was about 30 when he walked away from a somewhat unmoored life pruning trees in Massachusetts, and pretty soon was out with fire-crews and reporting from Sarajevo during the Balkan War. I read his seminal book War, about one small American military unit over the course of a year, when I lived in Nome (I bought it at a tag-sale in Unalakleet), and it left a big impression on me. I’m bringing this along because I’m hoping that like War, Fire has a few lessons for how to focus on a meaningful story when there is activity and chaos all around. Luckily, chaos for me the next few days just means mushers and dogs.

•  Pastoralia by George Saunders, a collection of short stories by my favorite contemporary fiction writer. Saunders writes funny, unsettling prose that sometimes feels like it’s written in the short-hand of emails, text messages, and hurried stream-of-consciousness that I think many of us can relate to. Particularly if we’re communicating rapidly, if not substantively, for much of the day. A lot of his stories turn that style back in on itself as he probes deep human feelings like loss, insecurity, and failing amid great effort. It’s really compassionate, and extremely funny, because so many stories are set in fantasy worlds that feel unlikely but still possible. I’m taking this one along in case I need something whimsical and escapist before bed. Or “before sleeping bag,” as the case may be.

• Two recent issues of “The New Yorker.” I love the New Yorker, but I’m taking these along mostly as reminders that there’s a world beyond the trail, with big, important events a-plenty. Sometimes I get pretty myopic in my thinking, especially if a lot of my attention is going towards rushed logistics and timelines. And magazines are great for rolling up and shoving into a jacket pocket when you’re moving from place to place, building to building, plane to plane, and don’t want to be repacking and fishing out a book. Plus, they can get smudged and spilled on with minimal consequence.

We’ll see how overeager this provisioning was in a week-and-a-half.