Print

Carol has been an avid consumer of print media from a young age. Growing up, her family received the New York Daily News, New York Daily Mirror, and Life. All were morning newspapers and magazines, respectively. When it came to reading the papers, there was quite an interesting rotation. "The kids got the funnies. My dad got the sports. We all read the newspaper one at a time: first dad, then mom, and lastly us kids."

A picture of a front page of the New York Daily Mirror that Carol might have seen.
https://willstraw.com/united-states-sunday-mirror-new-york-1930s-1940s/#jp-carousel-3291

They got each of their newspapers and magazines from a local corner store called United Cigars. (Carol and her siblings referred to the building as the corner candy store where they could purchase cigarettes for a penny.) Carol said the newspapers were five to ten cents each, which was cheap.
"[The New York Daily News and the New York Mirror] could not have been too expensive, or my father would not have bought both of them." Her favorite content was the comics, or as she called them, "funnies." However, she always looked at the headlines first. She still does this to this day. "Maybe it was because of the war," Carol said. Despite her enjoyment of newspapers, Carol never sold newspapers as a job.

A picture of a front page of the New York Daily News
that Carol might have seen as a young girl.
http://www.nydailynewspix.com/sales/largeview.php?name=6le07kic.jpg&id=123984&lbx=-1&return_page=searchResults.php&page=5

When I asked Carol if there were ever magazines that she was not allowed to see, her facial expression changed immediately. "Yes, and I found them," she said after taking a deep breath. However, she said that they were not as graphic as some magazines are today. "Back then it was not sex or nudies but more like skimpy negligees."

As for books, there was no doubt that Carol loved reading. One of her childhood favorites was the novel "Black Beauty." This influenced her because she always wanted horses as a child. Eventually that dream came true when she moved out to Missouri with her late husband. She also enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes series. There were no books that were restricted for Carol since they never had dirty books in her house. When it came to acquiring books, Carol got most of her books from the local library. She was seven or eight years of age when she got her first library card. She spent a lot of time in her local library. "It was one of my hangouts," she laughed.  

"Black Beauty" was Carol's childhood favorite book.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Beauty

Over time, Carol believes that content has changed in newspapers and magazines. By content, she means the increase of nudity and cussing. "They just don't care if real young people see that stuff." In addition, she said that there are a lot more advertisements in newspapers and magazines today.

Nowadays, Carol has a Kindle with over 300 books on it. Some book series that she has on her Kindle are Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series, Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels, and Jeffrey Archer's Clifton Chronicles series. Tom Clancy novels happen to be her favorite currently. She spends most of her time reading on her Kindle. Carol was outspoken on e-books versus paper books. She prefers her Kindle. "I have over three hundred books on this little thing. One hundred physical books would take up a lot of space."

Carol's favorite author currently.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/405746247655906810/