Abstinence classes that tell girls they’re dirty and used unless they “save it”; a culture that doesn’t believe women who are raped; porn-based beauty standards for our genitals; a moral compass for young women that’s based solely on sexuality. . . . There’s no doubt that we have a difficult fight ahead of us, but I know we’re up for it. So begins the final chapter of Jessica Valenti’s The Purity Myth. A world without all of those things sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? From my perspective, it sounds like a world that all would enjoy and want, not just those that wear the labels of “liberal,” “progressive,” or “feminist.” And yet, of course, there is much in Valenti’s book that would be hotly disputed by those who self-label as conservative, or perhaps even moderate. The core of her message is that, in American society, we have reduced female moral agency to be equivalent to an individual female’s sexual “status.” Is she straight, white, middle class? A virgin until marriage? Check the “good” box. Is she queer, a woman of color, of a lower socioeconomic status? Not a virgin? Check the “bad” box. It’s a passive morality, Valenti argues, one that is predicated not on what a woman does but rather what she does not do. The book brings together many strands to support her argument, and does it well. I found familiar authors and titles gracing her pages: Robert Jensen and his book Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity; Ariel Levy and her book Female Chauvinist Pigs; Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl; Michael Kimmel’s Guyland; Cristina Page’s How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America; Natalie Angier and her wonderful Woman: An Intimate Geography; Meenakshi Gigt Durham’s The Lolita Effect. What Valenti does, and skillfully, is to weave all these important pieces into a coherent whole, and tie the issues together. Inherently, she argues, padded training bras, purity balls, raunch culture, and more, all add up towards one goal: reversing the gains of the feminist movement. Putting women back in “their place,” and reverting towards the so-called traditional gender roles. If you know me in real life, you can imagine the look on my face at the idea of traditional gender roles. I’ve been doing my best to turn gender roles and expectations on their heads since I was a kid, and while I do make choices that seem ‘traditional,’ it’s just that: these are my choices, not my only options. I’m not stuck nor limited. If you don’t know me in real life, you may be surprised by my diatribe against traditional gender roles. After all, I’m a mother who stays at home and homeschools her children. From the outside, or even from this blog, you don’t get much more traditional-seeming than that. For goodness’ sake, I even drive a minivan. As I said above though, these are the choices that I have made, not a role in which I am trapped. I don’t feel that all women should make the same choices as each other, but rather that each woman should have agency to make her own choices for her own life. And, ultimately, that’s what the book emphasizes: that women are not property, that we don’t need to be covered (akin to a breeding mare or cow), that we have moral agency. Virginity has no universal or medical definition; reducing women to the state of their virginity seems ludicrous and sad–at best.
Box Days! Some of this is for the remainder of this year, some is for May Term, and some is for 2011-2012.  English Workshop Second Course (grammar workbook)  Figuratively Speaking and Sentence Composing for Elementary School; the latter is really too easy for EG, but then, I wanted something light for the end of the school year.  Ellen McHenry curriculum: Mapping the World with Art and Excavating English. I started printing out the former and EG caught sight of it. "Oooh. This looks like fun!" I think so, too.  Art of Problem Solving. EG is going to review/refresh her algebra I & II knowledge for the next few weeks to couple of months, while also doing their Introduction to Counting & Probability course.  Lots of goodies! First Time Analogies for FB for May Term, and Primarily Logic for FB for 2011-2012. The Young Investor for EG (maybe May Term, maybe 2011-2012). Primary Grade Challenge Math for FB for 2011-2012 and beyond.  Geography! A May Term project/subject for FB  Vocabulary Workshop Purple. This is for FB, and we'll start it at some point in 2011-2012, though probably not at the beginning of the year. I ordered it at the same time as EG's Vocabulary Workshop A & B, but only this one arrived in today's shipment. Weird! Last week, I won a facebook contest that Timberdoodle was having for Presidents' Day, and those goodies arrived as well:  A graphic novel-style biography of President Obama, a graphic novel-style book about Lincoln's assassination, a Sterling Point book about George Washington, a 3D puzzle/model of the White House, and Brainbox Presidents. Yay! I got one more very awesome thing, but since I purchased it prematurely (a long story), it has to wait a few weeks to be introduced. It's really difficult to wait!
Around this time last year, we thought that we'd be ready to sell the house soon. We took care of various needs, and the next items on the priority list were the remaining tasks to make the house ready to sell. Then the Spousal Unit's freelance work stopped for awhile. We've been paying for a storage shed for about seven months longer than we planned, already. Now it's restarted again, and while again, we have some other obligations, we're going to be working on those obligations and the remaining house items simultaneously. We need to put up about six feet of fence, have some basic landscaping done, have one of the air conditioning units serviced, and have a section of drywall replaced (and possibly the insulation behind it). We'd like to have the house professionally cleaned just before listing it, but that's not absolutely essential. It's not a long list. In the intervening seven months, though, we've gotten used to the idea that we're moving "someday soon" versus "really soon." The result is that I've got to go back and declutter some of the same rooms a second time. The other result that we've kept living. We've done school this year. We've bought books and curriculum and science kits and toys. And in order to stage the house, I know what has to happen. I have to pack even more books. I miss my books. I've already packed so many. I hate that some of the kids' books aren't easily accessible for browsing. I don't want to pack any more books. But I have to. The only conclusion to which I can come is that I should wait until at least one item off the above list is done (the fence is probably first), and then pack as much as possible, all at once. Like ripping off a band-aid. And hope and pray that the house sells quickly, so we can move... ... so we can have our books back.
I wish I could remember where I saw The House of Intellect recommended. I thought perhaps it was on the WTM boards, but a search has not yielded a result when I enclose “House of Intellect” in the necessary quotation marks. So, then, maybe it was on a blog that I follow. If it was one of you reading this, I must say – thank you. I needed to read this book. It was written in 1959, and yet so much of what Barzun has to say is still topical. In fact, there were times I felt it was eerily prescient. I appreciated many things about this book, and I felt it gave me much with which to grapple. I want to pick it up and reread it. For those of you who read the recent threads about traditional grammar and structural grammar on the WTM boards, there are a few pages where he takes up the cause of traditional grammar for students in face of linguistic objections. He mentions several times the importance of what he terms the “traditional” curriculum – Latin, of course, and logic, as well as mathematics, memorization, and ancient Greek. I don’t feel quite adequate of giving the book a proper review, so instead I’ll include a few of the quotes I noted for myself. “To effect these changes is not a superhuman task if the firmness and rigor that are being preached to the schools exist also in our individual souls. The discipline of hard work in reading, writing, and counting must be matched at home by attention to speech, manners, and thought.” (p253) “Meanwhile, the simple but difficult arts of paying attention, copying accurately, following an argument, detecting an ambiguity or a false inference, testing guesses by summoning up contrary instances, organizing one’s time and one’s thoughts for study – all these arts, which cannot be taught in the air but only through the difficulties of a defined subject, which cannot be taught in one course or one year, but must be acquired gradually, in dozens of connections. . . ” (p113-114) "This is the corruption of the pedagogic advice of Montaigne and Rousseau. 'Teach the very young with aid of real things,' they said (like Aristotle earlier), 'let children learn by doing.' They thought of the curriculum and Latin declensions and figures of logic, and wanted a little open-air life and bodily activity to relieve it." (p106) And, finally, perhaps my favorite quote, especially in light of the post I wrote last week. “All private and public affairs, moreover, must have unremittingly applied to them to criterion of work. The business of learning must above all others be represented in its true guise as difficult, as demanding effort.” (p254) The House of Intellect, Jacques Barzun. Still alive today, I would love to sit down and discuss the world with this author.
I had an entire shelf of a small bookcase devoted to books I owned but had not yet read. Some of them were from paperbackswap. A few were loaners. The rest were books that looked really good, but had gotten pushed to the bottom of the pile over time, as newer, shinier titles took the coveted "next to be read" spot. Two weeks ago, I mercilessly went through the entire shelf. I kept one fiction book, and consigned the rest to the box. I culled the remaining books, as well, and the culled books in their box have been sent to the storage building, to await their eventual freedom when I live in a new abode. Naturally, of course, I immediately began the cycle anew, and soon found myself with additional books to the now smaller pile on my bedside table. Someday, I'll catch up. Until that day, I'll bemoan the lack of time I possess to read. Currently in the to be read pile, I have... 01. The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods, A. G. Sertillanges. 02. 365 Manners Kids Should Know, Sheryl Eberly.03. The Calculus Diaries, Jennifer Ouellette. (There's an interview with the author from Science Friday available online here.) 04. A Disturbance of Fate, Mitchell Freedman, the lone fiction book I spared. 05. Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends, Sarah, Stephen, and Grace Mally.06. The Digital Pandemic, Mack Hicks.07. Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Daniel G. Amen, M.D.08. Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, Kate Bornstein & S. Bear Bergman.09. The Mabinogion, translated by Sioned Davies. 10. Deadly Decisions, Kathy Reichs, also fiction, but spared by being in another room at the time of culling. 11. Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction, Barry C. Lynn.and finally, I'm in the middle of 12. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell.This sounds reasonable, given I read quickly, read at least 30 minutes a day (and often much more), and in theory won't be buying any books for at least another ten days or so (I refuse to commit beyond that point. Some women buy shoes, some women buy purses; I buy books.). In practice, though, I'm sure that some new, shiny book will once again leap to the top of the pile... ETA, 10/16/10: Hooray! I've managed to finish four of the books listed above. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming... ETA, 10/27/10: I finished two more, and started a third, but then I went and added four more books. Oops. ETA, 12/09/10: I finished two more, am not sure where number one nor number seven are(!), read all but one of the four I added in October, added four more in November, and read two of those. And now I feel like reading nothing that I already own. Hmph.
My EG and FB are spending the weekend at my parents' house, leaving the Spousal Unit and PC as my only company. While I should have been doing a few administrative tasks, I spent a good portion of the afternoon reading.  It is, as you can tell from the subtitle, couched as an approach to competitive college admissions. In reality, though, I would call it a manifesto, describing a particular approach to life. The book never once mentions homeschooling or how homeschooled high schoolers are admitted to college. Despite this, I think it describes a way to tackle the high school years that is uniquely suited to homeschoolers. To oversimplify greatly, high schoolers should study smart, have time to explore their interests once their academic obligations are met, and then pursue one or two of those options into a large project or series of projects in an innovative manner. The difference from other books that celebrate interest exploration and rabbit trails is that it does not denigrate the academic learning, which for most of his readers takes place in a private or public school's building(s). Rather, he suggests ways to streamline the time spent on homework and studying, so that academic obligations can be met and the student can have that free time to run down the rabbit trails. It was exactly this desire for my children that led me to neoclassical homeschooling. I wanted them to experience a high level of challenge and achievement, yet be able to take time to read for fun, to volunteer, or do other interesting things. I want this for them at all points in their education, of course, not just at the high school level, but students in their mid to late teens are more likely to have found their interest(s), not to mention are capable of a higher level of effort and commitment. This book carries an additional bonus for the homeschooled student. As I've discussed in the past, most of the material about competitive college admissions (or competitive scholarship awarding) discusses the importance of activities that inherently based in the structure of institutional schooling. It would be very difficult for a homeschool to replicate the activities list of a student at, for example, my alma mater. The time involved in getting to each activity alone would preclude a deep level of involvement! How To Be a High School Superstar, though, largely rejects the value of many, if not most, school-based activities. Editorship of the school paper or yearbook, student body president, Key Club - these are all, frankly, dismissed. While not the main focus on the book (the author has two additional books, one specifically about doing well in college, and one about being a straight-A student), he also shares various study techniques. I note this because I have read a number of "study strategies" over the years. I have always thought that the skills and strategies seemed somehow contrived, and I could not understand how or why they would work. These skills in this book make sense to me. In the end, an excellent argument could be made for reviewing this book, requiring your rising eighth or ninth grader to read it, and keeping its precepts in mind when planning out a homeschooler's high school years.
Each month, as part of my 101 in 1001 list, I make the effort to re-read a book I own that I have already read. I originally added this requirement because it was too easy for me to keep books "just in case" I needed to refer to them, or wanted to re-read them, and then never do so. This effort to be conscious of the books I already own has been helpful over the years (I originally did it for 12 months during my first 101 in 1001 list). This month, I have been re-reading Hold On to Your Kids (Neufeld & Mate). It's oft-recommended, and I've enjoyed it each time I read it. It's a sign of a good book, I feel, when the reader can glean something new from the book each time it's read. Hold On to Your Kids passes that test, for me. I should also add that while the authors state that homeschooling is not the answer for everyone, and have an attitude of "there's no help for sending your children to school for hours a day, you just have to do it in today's world," it's also a fantastic endorsement of some of the less tangible benefits of homeschooling. Read between the lines. :) One chapter discusses how to avoid peer attachment, and two sections of that chapter particularly stood out to me upon re-reading. • "Peers are not the answer to 'eccentricity.'" • "Peers are no substitutes for siblings." With regard to the first point, the authors discuss the obsessions in American society with "being 'normal' and fitting in," and how "individuality and eccentricity are out of favor." They go on to discuss the value of adult attachment for children to unfold into their own unique selves, and how peers are quick to discourage individuality. When Rachel on Glee is described as "looking like a homeschooler," I think homeschooling parents and their children should see an inherent compliment. Rachel's self-assured enough to dress as she pleases. The "strangeness" that is attributed to homeschoolers may in fact, according to Gabor and Mate, be an outgrowth of properly functioning adult attachments! That's something to celebrate. The portion about peers being no substitute for siblings stood out for many reasons. I am an only child. The sibling-substitutes recommended by the authors are cousins; my only cousin is ten years old. On a personal level, I find it intriguing. I never felt the lack of siblings, per se, and I would say I was less peer-oriented than many of my cohort. I will also admit that I find it gratifying when my children "herd" together, lost in their sibling relationships. I didn't feel that sibling relationships presented the same issues as peer attachment, and it's encouraging to read the authors' explication of how sibling attachments are far more healthy and less likely to become primary attachments that supercede the parental/adult attachments. This is one of those books that's helpful for me to re-read every two years or so. It's a helpful reminder of why we do what we do around these parts.
You know there's something a little different about a book whose subjects on the back are listed as "Communication/Science/Film." Don't Be Such A Scientist could easily be viewed as a companion book to Unscientific America, since they describe different facets of the same problem. That problem is, namely, the vast disconnect between "science" and the "general public," especially on key issues such as evolution and global warming. Randy Olson offers four prescriptive statements of what not to do: don't be so cerebral; don't be so literal minded; don't be such a poor storyteller; and don't be so unlikeable. He intersperses his suggestions with amusing anecdotes from his times as a Ph.D.-turned-film-student. It's amusing, makes good points, and is a quick read. While he states that his audience is scientists, students, and the interested general public, I feel like the target audience is high school students and undergraduates. In fact, I think it is a perfect book to hand to a high school student who is interested in science - trying to get things right from the beginning, essentially, rather than trying to close the barn door after the horse has already escaped. And as a book for high school students or undergraduates, it hits all the right notes. The final chapter is titled "Be the Voice of Science!" I must admit that I expected some sort of Plan, or at least some Suggestions. Instead, he mostly discusses that there is no template, and that each scientist must develop his or her own voice. Well - of course that's true. Some general discussion would have been helpful, though, along the lines of "here are some important things to know or note," or "here are a few ideas about skills that may be good to develop." I'm coming at this both as someone with scientific training (though no actual desire to work as a scientist), as well as the homeschooling parent of at least one child who will probably end up in a scientific field. (EG decided earlier this week she'd like to go to Cal Tech. Because "that kind of stuff is easy." Right-o.) What can I be doing to facilitate a well-rounded scientist? I've told the Spousal Unit several times that I think being a well-rounded student takes more time when your area of specialty is math and science than the humanities or the arts. Not because math or science are inherently more time-consuming, but the level of knowledge which one needs of the humanities and the arts in order to be well-educated is so much higher than the amount of math or science necessary to be well-educated. A well-educated writer can take just three years of high school mathematics. A well-educated mathematician needs four years of literature study in high school, a good grasp on history, and an appreciation of aesthetics, in addition to whatever higher-level mathematics s/he is studying. What I find myself wanting now is a discussion between a number of intelligent people about what things they personally would suggest. I think there would be some overlap, which would certainly indicate promising ideas, but I also think the atmosphere of discussion would yield new, maybe slightly off-the-wall ideas.
In January or February of each year, I try to re-read a few homeschooling books. I like the reminder of why we're doing this, and reading about different approaches and solutions can be helpful. Sometimes I find an answer that wouldn't have been the answer for us the last time I read the books. I do try to consistently re-read both The Well-Trained Mind and The Latin-Centered Curriculum, even if other books vary. Yesterday, I read The Latin-Centered Curriculum once more. Poor approach - it's our runner-up. The bridesmaid, never the bride. If you told me that I could not follow the framework of The Well-Trained Mind any longer, then we would probably go with an LCC approach... but only then. This reading brought me to no different conclusion. Reading Campbell's reasons for studying Latin does help to remind me why we study Latin (important, since we're setting our courses for next year), but it never does convince me to give Latin primacy in our homeschool. It does make me want to include ancient Greek, but not at the expense of studying a modern foreign language. In our very math and writing centric homeschool, other language arts and science fall into the slots as of secondary importance, leaving most else to be tertiary or even quaternary. I simply won't give Latin (or Greek) a place beside math or writing, and I have yet to be convinced that writing can be enhanced through Latin study versus direct instruction. The Latin-Centered Curriculum can be a good reminder not to clutter up our schedule with too many subjects, and I think it's an important message especially for kindergarten and first grade. For EG, though, I am not sure that paring back wouldn't do her a disservice. It's about 12:45 right now, and she's completed penmanship, spelling, Classical Writing, memory work, poetry study, Latin, algebra, math drill, literature reading, and logic work; she's currently reading about science and will likely finish before 1 pm. She's also had about an hour, total, to play with her siblings, time to practice piano, and time for both breakfast and lunch. She's not overworked or overchallenged; this amount of work actually seems to be just about right for her. Yes, if we pared back, she would spend more time on Latin, but not a huge amount more. In short - what we are doing is working for us, and working well. Sometimes reading about a slightly different way reminds me, though, just how well it is working.
We are homeschoolers that don't regularly utilize the library. We are readers, bibliophiles, and none of us have been inside our county library in at least a year. This was not always the case. As a child, I love the opportunities to go to the "big library" downtown and roam its shelves. I loved using the card catalog (remember those?) and browsing the stacks, full of hope that at last, I might've remembered how to find things using the Dewey Decimal System. In school, I cheered when we were finally deemed old enough to go to the school's library in the mornings unattended, to return books and find new ones. When I went to college, I quickly established myself as a patron of my new county library, and struck up a friendship with two of the librarians there. Today, however, it is a different story. I love the library in theory. In practice, however, I don't. Our county system is long on popular titles and subjects, but short on specific titles and the type of books I prefer to read. Our county system also has so many branches that the chance of the book I want being at a branch near me is slim. Our county is big! Yes, I can request books and they'll transport them to my local branch, but it adds yet another level to the process. Between those things, and the late fees we acquired because I found the book depository difficult to use and our branch difficult to turn into and out of, I found trying to use the library was simply frustrating me. Other issues surfaced. I would go through resources ( The Story of the World Activity Guides, R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey booklists), painstakingly entering each title, writing a careful L (in pencil, naturally) next to those I could find on the internet-based catalog. (How times had changed, in the blink of an eye.) Then, when it was time to study a particular chapter, I could easily request the available books. As I said, our library can be short on specific titles, but due to the number of books listed in things like the Activity Guides, there could be a large number of books available for a chapter. Then we'd have two, three, four, or more supplemental books about a given chapter. It didn't matter, somehow, if I had deemed the topic important and worth further study. The books were there and available, and we should, therefore, read them all. Better yet, let's not move forward in our book until we have read all of the available supplemental books - even if we are second or third in the hold line for one or more of the listed books. I think you can see where this is going. The right books weren't always available, but there could also be plenty of the not-wrong books. Remember, I said we were bibliophiles. Reading more books couldn't be wrong, could it? At some point on this merry-go-round of internet searches, Ikea bags of library books, and massive fines, I read The Latin-Centered Curriculum. For various reasons, we have not adopted a LCC-style classical curriculum, sticking with a WTM-inspired neo-classical approach, but part of Andrew Campbell's writing stuck with me. Not many, but much. I wasn't reading to cut our reading list to the sparse levels he advocated, but reading LCC (repeatedly) did help me to at last loosen the reins. We didn't have to read every book on a topic, or even any book on a topic. We could pick and choose the best. With that, the final piece fell into place, and we began to quit using the library. How did I do it? Many people can't imagine homeschooling without the library, its friendly librarians, the weekly storytimes and activities. For starters, the librarians in our branch weren't particularly friendly, and most of them were not librarians, but library clerks. Further, our multi-branch system was and is fond of near-constant shuffling of staff. The clerk here this week will likely be gone in four to eight months. Additionally, my oldest daughter grew old enough that even the storytime activities geared to "school-age" children were below her interest level. But what about the books, I hear you asking. To begin with, I had the advantage of years of preparation for homeschooling. Any visit to McKay's (a local used bookstore near my parents' house, and the best used bookstore I've ever seen) was not complete without my scanning the children's section for titles I recognized. For many years, before the advent of Amazon Prime, I would bring my total over the magic $25 for Super Saver Shipping by adding a Roger Lancelyn Green book or something similar. Before I even made the decision to cut the cord between the library and me, I was well on my way to a decent collection at home. I started being more serious about my visits to the used bookstore, though, and branched out beyond the familiar McKay's Books. In the midst of a large decluttering, I started using paperbackswap. The books going out had belonged to me and occasionally my husband; the books arriving were all for homeschooling. I added even more books to the kids' wishlists for birthdays and holidays. My comparison shopping of amazon versus chain bookstores with educator discounts reached new mathematical heights. Once a week, after my oldest two children are safely ensconced at Master's Academy, I visit either Barnes & Noble or Borders and buy one book (biography, history, literature, or occasionally science) that we'll use in the upcoming year of school. I don't miss $7 a week from the grocery money, and neither does my waistline, but I would not be able to spend nearly $400 a single time, once a year, on top of the other curriculum purchases that must be made. To paraphrase Les Miserables, science kits are expensive, monsieur. Yes, it is not a trifling amount of money. I do have three kids that will use these books, and SmrtMama's Captain Science has benefited from my rudimentary collection, too, so at least four kids will use these titles! I see that as a sound investment, in many ways. Beyond that, though, my kids can read a book about knights or chemistry at any given time. My daughter can revisit her favorite part of history (ancient Egypt) at her leisure, and if I want my children to see me re-reading a childhood favorite, I know that The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, and The Westing Game are all nearby. As a adult, I'm so grateful for the books my parents bought me. My copies of the stories of Anne of Green Gables are the ones through which my children will meet Anne, just as my daughter met Laura Ingalls in my mother's copies of her books. Still, I don't want to be down on the library. It serves an important function. I do want to return to using it, judiciously. I don't want it to be the source for our main, required books. I want to use it in the way that I did as a child - as a supplement to the books read in school, and to the books already owned. I would never have discovered so many favorite books without the library, and I recognize that. Still, when it comes to the ones that really stuck with me, I don't want to go and get them from the library once more. No, I want to own a copy, to curl up on my couch as an adult and pore over them once more. That's why I'll continue to buy most of my children's books, and why I'm so excited that I had the foresight seven or eight years ago to write down the title, author, and ISBN of one of my favorite library books from childhood. Christmas Crafts and I are going to be reunited at last - for good.
Often I think that time could be measured in books bought and read. There's a rush of pleasure that accompanies the purchase of a book, which may the reason I find amazon so enticing - there's the rush of the order as well as one with its arrival. And while there is a simple contentment in rereading familiar words in an old friend, there's a great excitement when you uncover words for the first time. Bibliophilia could easily be my religion. There's a limit to the time in which I have to practice it, though, and consequently, at times my pursuit of the flush of purchase allows me to get ahead of myself. It's easy to purchase multiple books in a matter of minutes. Even as quickly as I read, though, it's not quite so easy to devour a new book, especially with some nonfiction titles. Consequently, at the beginning of 2009, I had some forty-five books that I had owned for at least seven months, yet had not read. In some cases, it was a mere seven months. In other cases, it was a year or two. In at least one case, it's been six or seven years. There's always something new on the horizon, so it becomes all too easy to push some books back to the bottom of my priority list. Happily, though, I've whittled this list into something a bit more manageable. I decided to discard twelve books. Most of them have already found new homes through paperbackswap. I've read thirteen more. That only leaves twenty books. My goal is relatively simple. At the end of calendar year 2009, the only book in my home that I haven't read at least once should have a bookmark in it. Alternatively, I should have no book in my home that I haven't read. The most enjoyable book that I've read, so far, would probably be 1491. It's engaging and thorough, without being too simplistic. Embarrassingly for this former biology major, the book I'm currently reading is The Origin of Species. Embarrassing solely because I feel I should have read it long before this - and, indeed, it's the book that has been in my house, unread, longer than any other. I'm most looking forward to finally making time for A Disturbance of Fate, though there are several others that, obviously, look quite interesting. This, of course, assumes that we don't all die of swine flu before the summer's end.
|
|
