15 posts tagged “reading”
Ah! Something I can write about that doesn't require too much thought, but is about a favourite thing: lists of books. (Actually reading said books is a close second ;)
Below is a list of the 106 books most likely to languish, unread, on the bookshelves of people who only want to seem cultured and well-read. If you want to play along:
bold the titles you've read on your own,
underline the ones you had to read for school,
italicize the ones you started but didn't finish,
bold and italicize the ones you hated,
bold and underline those you'd recommend
strike through those you'd like to/plan to read
[*I'm not going to mention ones I actually hated. There are very few, though I will make some comments as we go. And as to recommending - I'll just asterix those I loved in particular.]
Let the List begin
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Similalliron
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Ulysses
Don Quixote
The Odyssey
Moby Dick
Pride and Prejudice*
Jane Eyre*
A Tale of Two Cities*
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair - The thing with this one, is that I got the point within the first 150 pages and spent the rest of the time wishing Thackery would just kill everyone off already!
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Illiad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Memoirs of a Geisha*
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales - Excerpts
The Historian: a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray*
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver's Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the
Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
A People's History of the United States: 1492-present
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita - A tough one for me, not so much the writing, but the content.
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers
The book chronicles the food adventures of Kingsolver and her family as they seek to eat just local, available food for one year. There is plenty of information about why this kind of approach is useful, with parts contributed by both her husband and daughter. One thing I think Kingsolver managed to do was to avoid getting preachy: she fully understood that not everyone has a couple of acres of arable land in Virginia upon which to raise all manner of fruits, vegetables and turkeys. To still inspire, there are ideas and ways in which those in urban places can obtain food without it having to have been trucked miles and miles and miles away. (In some cases, that means growing it yourself; in others, it means asking your grocer where things come from and just buying the stuff nearby.) All in all, a recommended read: you get to learn about turkey copulation, why heirloom seeds are a great idea, and why 'tomato' can become a dirty word, and that living without bananas ain't so bad, after all.
My other non-fiction reading this month has been a mixed-bag of potty training ideas, pregnancy info (it's amazing what I forgot from the first time around) and a swath of curricular stuff for school. But I did run back to my current ficitional fave and completed two more Fforde books, but this time from a new series. The Nursery Crime Mysteries stem from the plots of the Thursday Next novel and Fforde has all his lovely puns, allusions and satire. I really appreciate how this guys is willing to engage with the reader and have fun with his own stories, like making fun of plot holes within his own plots or directly (though subtly) addressing the reader. So go read them!
And now, I must get off to work soon. I though my cold was regressing, silly me, and I could take another day off today without a guilty conscience at all. But no. Preparing for my sub is more work than going. And so I go. Cheers.
For the second night in a row, I'm dealing with insomnia. What a great time to catch up on some posting! It's also prime time for typos and I won't re-read. Forgive the tired English teacher.
Last month I finished reading "Buy, Buy Baby:
Thomas is a journalist and this is apparent in her writing. I was expecting to hear things rather slanted, but I believe she does an ok job of striving for some balance. In fact, after completing the book, I was surprised at its subtitle: it almost struck me as something the publisher would slap on instead of something she'd come up with. Thomas does finally lets her guard down in her conclusion and you hear what she really thinks, but by then she's laid out all sorts of info and she's made the shift clear. You can't fault the lady for having her opinion.
I wholeheartedly recommend this read for any parents with young'uns. At any rate, it is educational and gives you something to consider, even if you can't turn back the clock, or even care to.
The book covers all sorts of information:
- the baby video craze (can it truly be 'educational' for a 12 month old?).
- how marketers target and yes, manipulate, Gen-X parents (who are far more likely to spend money on house and kids than their own parents were) who apparently will only buy toys that have a 'learning' component.
- explains the marketing brilliance behind the princess craze, Elmo, and Thomas the Train, among others.
- explores how marketers try for (though it's ethically dangerous territory) brand recognition in toddlers (btw - the top 5 brands recognized by kids, and some as young as 18 months, include Disney, Macdonalds, Cheerios, Barbie and Pop Tarts (!!!)).
- examines how brands have made their way into early educational childhood curricula.
Thomas's conclusions certainly lead one to realize that TV isn't great for kids (sending home Baby Einstein with new moms is 'unconscionable') and brands are no great shakes either. Her last chapter advocates doing "Nothing" - that is, just playing, without any agenda.
At Christmastime, we made 2 requests of family members who wanted to purchase toys for Gus: please, no batteries (usually, it's just noisy!) and no brands - especially characters. It's not that we have it in for Diego and Dora, but we know it'll be tough to fight this one down the road, (imagines 5-year-old Gus having a tantrum because I won't buy Bob the Builder rain jacket, lunchbox, curtains, and cereal - and the box would be right at his eye level at Extra Foods because marketers are smart that way) and it would be nice to at least not start the battle this young and right at home.
Now, I know there are far worse things out there for a kid than Winnie-the-Pooh plastered on every piece of furniture, clothing and toy-thing imaginable in their room, but like I alluded to earlier, it's important to at least consider the possibilities. Happy Reading.
Things were a little spare this month. Mostly I'm plugging away on Fforde's stuff and really enjoying it. I'm a chapter or 2 away from finishing another one, but that will just have to be part of February's update.
White Rapids is a graphic novella that charts the rise and fall of the power company town of Rapides Blancs in Quebec. It's very well done, doesn't overwhelm and also a little interesting. A quick read. I was sad when the town is closed when the running of the plant is switched to computers. It made me think of my home town. It's been around a long time (the oldest settlement in BC to be continually inhabited by white folk) but with forestry heading south and the the fluctuations that the mining industry can bring, well, I just don't know. But I guess if all else fails, the lake will still be there. One of my hopes (that has a very small likelihood of ever coming to fruition) is that we would be able to purchase a cabin on the lake and every summer spend 4 weeks there. If only...
And finally, what would a month be without having finished another Fforde. The Well of Lost Plots sees us in the world of fiction with Thursday Next as she becomes a Jurisfiction agent and have to solve all sorts of other personal and public dilemmas, all the while trying not to forget about her never-existed husband. Lovely.
So I don't get to posting for a long time, and it has been awhile since I checked in on the 'hood but you know what I found out - everyone else is sick too! (Ok, not everyone, but it features prominently.) Instead of the details of my flu, here are my December reads.
They're bizzare and fun and if you're familiar with traditional English lit, you'll get a kick out of the many allusions.
I alternated the Fforde books with more of Tempe. I really, really shouldn't finish these novels when my husband is out of town!
I tend to agree with is politics more than not, so maybe that's why I like the book, but I found that my CBC radio habit has kept me up on the basics of Canadian politics and that certainly helped me enjoy the book to. If you'd like to get a slice of this guy, check out his show (including archives of past shows) here.
No Bones tonight! I blame the strike. But not the writers. Bones is the only show I regularly watch during the week, though I'd watch House more religiously if I wasn't at care group those nights (do other 'religious' things!) So I'm going to avoid attacking that mass of marking on the floor and post the books I read in October.
I hadn't been paying attention to my holds list at the library when this one appeared - I'd been on the list for about 4 months. Go read it.
More Korman. An easy read that is part of our local "Battle of the Books" at the public library. This had its moments, but I didn't find the same laugh-out-loud moments I do in many of his other books.
More home organizing and decorating. Great ideas and I doubt I'll ever really get around to many of them. Our house does fine as it is, usually. Everything may not always be in its place, but I find I need things too often to always keep them there!
I did just finish Deja Dead by Reichs (full circle back to Bones) this evening, but I'll include that one in next month's update.
Ok. Back to my marking...
I was quite upset about the loss, almost embarrassingly so. I lamented it to my 5-person carpool during Monday's trip to school, also the beginning of our staff's Secret Santa week. I had an exceptional secret Santa who plied my with candy and tokens all week. And Friday, she (for I later learned for certain which of my poolie's it was!) allowed her generosity to shine through. Not only did she replace that which was lost - a smaller book for carrying around - but she also purchased a paperblanks book - larger with a faux leather finish and a wrap-around magnetic cover. This book was for keeping safer than the smaller one. It also came with a copy of Bacon's Of Studies, a favourite essay of mine (and hers). One who appreciates Sir Francis is certainly a friend of mine!
And since that December, I've kept track of the books I've read. It shows me patterns in reading (I'm a little embarrassed at how often I've reread Harry Potter or LOTR in the last years - though not too embarrassed: I've just begun The Fellowship of the Ring this week!) And since I sometimes feel I lack posting ideas - here's a recap of books I finished reading in September. Some are worth commenting on, others are not.
After watching an older WWII movie - The Battle of Britian - I decided I wanted to get a bit of brush up on the details of WWII history and found this book at the library. Deciding to read history can be a tricky thing: you can get incredible thorough and well written books, but I just wanted an overview and this one did the trick - lots of mini-essays, voices, pictures and maps.
For some lighter reading:
I've read others in this YA series. I enjoy the different settings. The plots are typical: Girl goes oversees and learns about herself and her world in the process & becomes all the
I also chose this murder mystery, Irish Tenure, for some more lighter fare. I'm enjoying learning about Notre Dame from the novels in this series.
I begin each of my English classes with a minimum of 10 mins of silent reading. The students must have a novel they enjoy. Usually this time goes longer, depending on how engrossed I am in my own reading. I couldn't find images, but I've been re-reading some more YA fiction - one I enjoyed when I was younger and still thorougly do: Gordon Korman's The Joke's On Us, and The War With Wizzle. Who wouldn't want to read about the innocent antics of the boys at Canada's finest (and fictional) boarding school?
As a teacher, Sahara Special hold a place in my heart. It was good to ponder, given that I have students (I imagine) as like the protagonist here.
This last one has been inspiriational as I've just moved into a new place and am still working on decorating and filling the spaces, figuring out how they all work for us. It's a beautiful book - textiled cover, gorgeous photos and thought-provoking essays.
Cheers.
Budgets are strange things: you must spend your allotment within a certain period of time in order to ensure receiving funds in the future.
It's an English teacher's dream: money to spend on books!
I'd love some input.
What are those high school kids reading?
What do you think they should be reading?
Suggestions please!
(And I'm putting this in the Oh Canada [this is eh!] group because Canadian content in always a good thing!)
And I do wish I was able to be at her reading. I knew Jill only by name for a long time - a friend of a friend, lived in the next town over. But we learned how to sew together one summer. And a few summers later we worked together. That was just before she had her first baby. The same summer was my last in the Fort. Sadly, I haven't seen her since, though we catch snippets of our lives through my mother.
I read her poems - her first full collection, though she's published a chapbook before (yes, I have a signed copy of that, too) - and I love the sense of place because many of her places are mine, too. She lived in the town of the river,and I grew up on the lake, but she knows them both. And when I read these poems, I do feel I am there in spirit.
When I returned to my hometown two months ago for a few days, I noticed the smell of the place, especially the smell of the lake which for me is a odd composite of water, fish guts and cottonwood trees.
And I can smell these things through her verse, though she does not mention them directly. But I understand completely how "the water's yellow with pollen after the weather / and it coats your legs." And when the speaker says "I never knew a lake that wants to kill you so bad" I remember that last summer, looking up the lake with her when things weren't busy and watching the huge dark clouds roll down bringing with it wind and whitecaps and Jill talked about the lives that lake has taken, whether you're on it or not. And suddenly the lake rose up in my imagination and grew a character, a malevolent one, though I still love it. But I see how she's right: death seemed to happen too often around there. I tell myself it's just because it's a small town and it's easier to know about the lives of others in small towns instead of cities. Statistically, I think, we're no different that the cities. That's it. (isn't it?)
I know the bridges, the muddy water, the geese, the wind, the cottonwood, the red-plagued pine, the Carrier, (among other things) that she brings to the page. These poems prompt in me a longing for a place that I miss, for senses responding to the familiar, and a bit of sadness that I don't have that sense of place in my new home. Not yet anyway.
That (and a bit more) just from reading some poems.
And people wonder why poetry is worthwhile.
small-town girl grow, then come home when it moves you, move
with the current and come back by the way of that feeling in your
arm when you sleep on it, follow the voices in your head, that
goodbye goose, goodbye song, the pull of the river in september,
its scaly rib cage showing, breathe deep that full feeling of push
and pull the salmon feel spawning, throwing their used bodies
upstream against the current - small girl, blue-eyed and born
in the north, there's no escaping the feeling of freedom coming
upriver home, rock over rock, wind current, whorl, small townor not, the river moves you.
from the poem Small Town Canada Goose Flyway by Gillian Wigmore.
On Friday, August 20th, I was #56 on the wait list for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at my public library. On Saturday, I was 18th. By Wednesday I was 11th and watching as they placed some "Quick Reads" into circulation. (Quick Reads = for popular titles, no holds allowed, 7 day loan, no renewals and $1/day fine). I dropped by our local library to return some things and to let my boy crawl around and pull board books off the shelf (don't worry - they aren't alphabetized there or anything!) and THERE IT WAS - a copy of the coveted book, just waiting on the shelf.
"That's a Quick Read," said the librarian. "It has to be back in 7 days."
I replied, "No problems."
And it's true: About 28 hours after checking it out, I finished it.
Staying up 'til 3 am might have helped, but in my defense, I did try to sleep. In fact, I spend about 1 1/2 hours trying to doze off. And no, it wasn't because my brain was swirling with Potterish stuff - at least not after a little while. Just wouldn't sleep. Since I've been leading a life of getting up a few times a night for the last (almost) year, it's not uncommon for me to have bouts of insomnia.
Don't worry - no spoilers here. It was in someone's blog post that I found out about the significant death in HP and the Half Blood Prince last time and it really irked me. They didn't warn!
What I will say, and it turns out I"m echoing others, is that I am quite pleased with this conclusion: it holds to the story and characters and general style that Rowling has established. No major departures that I'm aware of.
If there's anyone out there who wants to hash it all out - message me - I'd love to share, too!