I could really get used to this

This whole reading purely for fun thing, that is. :)

I know that I should start working on next year's school stuff. Though Annie will be taking many of her classes at the community college for next year, I will be handling English and history. I'll be using courses from The Teaching Company for both. Which should cut down on my work, but definitely won't eliminate it. I'll need to watch the lectures, do the readings so we can discuss them, gather up additional materials, and make up assignments and tests. Anyway, this is the course we'll be using for English (Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind: Literature's Most Fantastic Works). And it involves massive amounts of reading! But I've decided not to worry about that until next week...I deserve a few days off from school, right?

Anyway, yesterday I read the next 66 pages in The Lightning Thief. I probably shouldn't be enjoying this book as much as I am. Whatever that means. ;)  But I am enjoying. Completely. Thoroughly. Undeniably. I'm learning a little about Greek mythology. I'm finding it rather humorous. I'm getting so caught up in the story that I'm constantly wanting to pick it up for just one more page. This is probably a weird thing to say, but it's making me want to read American Gods again. Yes, The Lightning Thief keeps triggering memories of American Gods, even though the books are so utterly different. Just the gods as people thing, I guess.

I also started the next Fables last night. I've been *craving* a graphic novel experience lately. Hard to believe I only started reading them a couple years ago, because I swear I could not live without them anymore. I read the first 51 pages of Arabian Nights (and Days). Thus far, not one of my favorites in the series. But that's doesn't mean I'm not loving it! Seriously, I can't believe I've gone so long without a Fables fix!!!

Father's Day edition

Don't think I'll set any goals this morning. And not because I never meet them anyway. But because it's Father's Day, and Rich gets to pick what we do today--I see much eating and hiking in store. :)  I've no idea how much time there will be for reading. Though I must get through the 35 pages in The Encyclopedia of the Human Body that I was supposed to read yesterday. Beyond that, who knows.

Okay, I think it was just yesterday that I said I sucked. I stick by that assessment. :(  Afraid my "must" reading just didn't get done. Only read the first 14 pages I needed to in the human body book. I'm afraid my brain has gotten rebellious on me here. The closer we get to the end of the school year, the harder it is to make myself do what I need to do. I'm serious, I may just give up and wrap things up. Let her finish up her big assignments, get her final tests made so she can take them, and call it good. I know damn well she's had a fantastic year of learning as is. 

On the non-suck side, I finished up the last 74 pages of Field Notes from a Catastrophe. OMG. What a freakin' incredible book. While I'm obviously not a climate science expert, I'm not really new to the subject either. I've been enamored with Al Gore for decades because of his concern for the environment and his efforts at educating the world about global climate change. I was beside myself giddy when Bill Clinton chose him as his running mate all those many years ago. And still with all I've read and watched on the subject, I found this to be well worth my time! Seriously, I wish EVERYONE would read it. Elizabeth Kolbert simply did a wonderful job at laying it out there...both the science and the politics. Now, if only people would listen...

And finally, I managed to stay awake for another 24 pages of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. And I really wanted to stay awake even longer but my eyes just wouldn't cooperate. Seriously, could these books be any more fun?!! I'm almost glad I haven't read them before...so I get that thrill now. :)

not meeting goals

Have much school work to get done today, but I thought I'd make some reading goals anyway. I'd love to knock out at least 100 pages from Harry Potter. I'd love to finish Field Notes from a Catastrophe. And I need to a couple chapters from The Body Book and about 35 pages in The Encyclopedia of the Human Body. Hmmm...as I am the slowest reader on the planet, I guess I'd better get started...

Oh my. I suck. Seriously pathetic amount of reading got done today. One chapter in The Body Book. Sixteen pages. Which is fantastic when compared to how much I read of The Encyclopedia of the Human Body--zero pages. But about The Body Book. It's really an awesome little book about the human body and how it works. I'd say it's probably geared towards middle grades, but sheesh--I'm learning so much! It's written in a really fresh, interesting way. While it doles out all the important info about how our bodies work, it also talks about all kinds of stuff that is really of more interest on a day to day level. And it answers all these really cool questions that I didn't realize I even had until I started reading. :)

And I only managed to get five pages read in Field Notes from A Catastrophe. Yep, five. *sigh* I know, I know--it sounds like a lousy excuse, but I really would have knocked out a lot more, but Annie and I are both trying to read this book at the same time. I'd just gotten started when she asked if she could have it, so I relinquished control. After all, it is a school assignment for her. It's a super wonderful book though, and I'll be sure to talk about more on a day I get a bigger chunk read.

Okay, it's 10:30 already. And I got so freakin' little sleep last night that my eyes probably won't stay open for more than a page or two (if I'm lucky). But I'm going to go give Harry a go.

Well, I managed 22 pages. I'm now about halfway through the book, and I have to say that I think this is my favorite one yet. I'm so glad Rich picked this for me for family book club--if he hadn't who knows  when I might have gotten to it. And speaking of family book club, Rich finished his book--which means I'm the last to finish yet again. But finish I will. And I'm so excited for the next round, because Chris will be joining us! :D

*****
And in the dangerous world of blog reading, this book was added to my wish list:

*The Dark House Book of Hauntings, a graphic novel anthology (thanks to Chris's bad blogger post)

a little work, a little play

First up, I finished the last eleven pages of chapter 7 in The Century. I won't say much more, as I already gushed yesterday...but yes, it is very much enjoyable reading.

Next, it was eight pages in our environmental science textbook (Environment: The Science Behind the Stories by Jay Withgott and Scott Brennan). Covering efforts being made to mitigate global climate change.

Indulgent plans to give myself a couple of hours to read for fun before bed. But they sort of fell through. I couldn't help myself--I couldn't quit watching Rich play with his new iPhone. ;)  Anyway, I ended up only reading 26 pages in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. (This is the book Rich picked for me for this round of our family book club...and I'm absolutely, positively loving it! Yes, I know, I'm like one of three people who hasn't already read it. Better late than never, right?)

*****
And in the dangerous world of blog-reading, this has been added to my wish list:

*Junk Beautiful by Sue Whitney and Ki Nassauer (thanks to Carl's review)

health, and science, and history...oh my

Is it terrible to admit how much I sometimes resent how much reading I have to do for homeschooling? Terrible or not, I do. And you know, it's usually not even the subject matter that bothers me--it's more that "I must read it" feeling.

Anyway, I read 24 pages in Encyclopedia of the Human Body by Richard Walker. It's one of those big DK books. I don't even have it on one of my reading lists at the side there because I've never had any intention of reading the entire thing. It's more of a "read the relevent sections" sort of thing. Up today--the digestive system, nutrition, and metabolism. Woohoo. Okay, Debi--shape up here! You're making it sound like you hate this book. And really I don't hate it at all. It's extremely informative and it has great photos and illustrations and diagrams. I'm just so ready to be done with school, so ready to read something JUST FOR FUN, that it sort of puts a damper on talk of pyloric sphincters and pancreatic enzymes and energy balance.

Next, I read an essay in The Biodiversity Crisis: Losing What Counts. I've been working my way through this book for the past couple months. And I've really been enjoying it. You know, in that way you "enjoy" something that breaks your heart. Truthfully, I've found some essays more interesting than others, but that's to be expected. And I'm sure others would list them differently in order of "interest level" than I did. Again to be expected. But there's not one that doesn't have something important to say. The one I read today, "Thompson's Ice Corps" by Mark Bowen...not one of my favorites, but short at only five pages. But in that cool manner of coincidences that I love, it turned out to be an extremely relevant one--it's about the evidence of global climate change being gathered through ice cores. And global climate change is precisely the topic that Annie and I have ourselves immersed in for environmental science right now so we've been doing other reading and watching of videos that have talked about ice cores as well. So why didn't I enjoy this article more? Well, it has to do with my aversion to chemistry. ;)  Lots of talk of oxygen isotopes that glazed my eyes over--I found myself having to read a couple of really long paragraphs over several times as my attention wandered.

Finally, I read the first 29 pages of chapter 7, "An Uneasy Peace: 1946-1952," from The Century. I'm actually reading this for school, too, but I don't have those feelings of resentment when it comes to this book. It's just so darn good! I really do enjoy reading this book so much. As we go through the years of U.S. history, through nonfiction texts and through literature from and about the times and through documentaries and dramatic movies and even through a few audio sources (like listening to a few of FDR's Fireside Chats), I think we get a pretty broad perspective of the events of this nation. And we usually finish up each little chunk of time by reading the corresponding chapter in this book. Yes, it covers information we've already covered from all these other sources, but it brings something special to the overall picture as well. One of the most wonderful things about this book is the personal accounts. Not of the "big players" in history, but of the everyday people who lived through it, written in their own words. Such a wonderful broad variety of people, with a wonderful broad variety of experiences. I got tears in my eyes a few times during these 29 pages.

"I think that my return home was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life." This was from the story of seaman who had been captured and spent three years in a Japanese labor camp. Of course, he was glad that the war had ended and that he'd been freed. But he was given no help afterward, nothing to help him make sense of what he'd been through or how to deal with the outside world again. He was simply shipped home, given a cursory physical exam, a new uniform, his back pay, and sent him on his way.

And there was the story of the man who fought for this country in Europe, won two purple hearts, and then came home to a nation that told him he couldn't sit in the front of a bus or downstairs at a movie theater. Not only enough to make you cry, but enough to make you sick to your stomach as well. But he went on to tell how he helped form a black veterans' organization, and talked about some of things they were able to do to help these abandoned veterans.

So yes, they're stories of ordinary people living their lives. But are any of us "ordinary"? I think that's what I love most about this book--without even trying, it shows that we all have stories worth telling.

I had hoped to get some Harry Potter read last night when I went to bed, but instead I just stuck with The Century. Overall, I guess I didn't get in an overwhelming amount of pages for a day. Oh well. And I'm sure it's evident that my favorite reading of the day was definitely The Century.

*****
And in the dangerous world of blog-reading, this has been added to my wish list:

*Animythical Tales by Sarah Totton (thanks to Chris's review)