Another Reading Challenge: Non-fiction challenge

I love reading non-fiction.  So I came across the non-fiction challenge from The Broke and the Bookish and decided to give it a try.  I'm going to try for at least 7-9 books, but this might be difficult for me since all of the books have to be from different categories (culture, art, food, travel, history, etc.). I tend to just read food and travel memoirs so I'm really going to have to branch out for this one.  But I am up to the challenge!

It runs from now until December 31st.

Out With a Bang Read-a-thon wrap-up

I finished two more books today, making my read-a-thon total 5 books in three days. Not too bad. I'm still bummed I didn't make it to 100 books for 2010. I missed the 100 mark by 5 books. Oh well. There's always next year.

The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn

I finished listening to the audiobook this afternoon and it was one of the most enjoyable food memoirs I've ever read.



Dante's Divine Comedy: A Graphic Adaptation by Seymour Chwast

Since I never actually read the original Divine Comedy, I can't comment on how this graphic adaptation relates to the original, but it was certainly a good way to simplify the story for anyone who's reading the original and having a hard time with it. Anyone who's a visual learner would be aided by such a book.

Out with a Bang: Book Title Sentence

As part of the Out with a Bang Read-a-thon, Reading Teen had an awesome mini-challenge: create a sentence using only book titles from the books in your house. I thought I came up with a pretty darn clever sentence if I do say so myself:

Being polite to Hitler, Nigella bites Dracula in love.

Out with a Bang Read-a-thon progress

I'm participating in the Out with a Bang Read-a-thon hosted by The Bookish Type and Book-Savvy. I've been reading and listening to books like crazy the past couple of days. This is what I have finished so far:

Perfect by Natasha Friend

Incredibly emotional and haunting book about a girl battling bulimia as a way to "deal" with her father's death. Isabelle's story will stick with me for a long time.





All the Broken Pieces by Ann E. Burg

Beautiful novel in verse, told in first person from the perspective of a Vietnamese boy adopted by an American family after the war.





Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

Very strange book. I can't even categorize it. I want to read more of Shaun Tan just to try to figure out what makes him tick because I haven't quite put my finger on it yet. Is there major symbolism in all of these strange stories and characters or does he just like confusing his readers?



Attempted and abandoned:

The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson

What could have been a funny, self-deprecating romp around the country correcting typos became a self-congratulatory, hyperbolic disaster of a narrative. Dude, I know you're an editor and everything but you come off as an arrogant buffoon who hugs his thesaurus a little too closely.

I really think this could have been a funny book if the prose weren't so darn pompous. I mean, this sentence on p. 8 shows you the ridiculousness of his erudite self-importance:

"In the h...moreWhat could have been a funny, self-deprecating romp around the country correcting typos became a self-congratulatory, hyperbolic disaster of a narrative. Mr. Deck, I know you're an editor and everything but you come off as an arrogant buffoon who hugs his thesaurus a little too closely.

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011

I am SO close to 100 books for 2010 but I think I'm going to end up just shy of my goal. So it's time to be thinking ahead to 2011. I will be participating in Book Chick City's 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011. Here's hoping 2011 will get me to 100 books!

Out With a Bang Read-a-thon

I'm participating in the Out with a Bang Read-a-thon hosted by The Bookish Type and Book-Savvy. Even though I'm bummed I didn't make it to 100 books this year, I'm still going to try to get as many books finished as I can for these last three days of 2010.

These are the books I am going to try to finish in the next three days:

Perfect by Natasha Friend


The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson


The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn

Another 2011 Challenge

Teresa's Reading Corner is hosing an audiobook challenge for 2011, and since I love audiobooks, I had to sign up! I am committing to the "audiobook obsessed" level which is 20 audiobooks. This shouldn't be a problem for me since my daily commute is an hour each way.

Thankfully Reading Weekend Wrap-up

So I didn't get as much reading done this weekend as I had hoped, but I did finish at least one other book, which I'm not sure I'm going to review. The book I finished was The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy and I am totally confused about my reaction to it. On the one hand, my literature teacher-self enjoyed all the symbolism and saw right away that this was an allegory. On the other hand, it was a little too sorority for my liking - but that's my own prejudice entering the reading experience.

At times I thought the story was too simplistic, and at others it felt too contrived and complicated. These contradictions, however, keep the story interesting and certainly kept me turning the pages.

I'm interested and intrigued enough to read the next installment.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

During Thanksgiving, most of us stop and give thanks for the blessings in our lives, but I'm someone who likes to do that on a daily basis rather than just once a year. I feel like prayers of petition are not worth God's time if we never stop to give Him thanks and praise for the good in our lives.

I am thankful for my wonderful husband, the roof over my head, a job that I love... the list goes on and on...

But participating in this weekend of reading and walking into at crowded library at 5:00 on a Sunday evening helped me to think of even smaller, more specific things I'm grateful for:

• I'm thankful that I live in a community with an abundant, active library.
• I'm thankful for my worn out library card from said library.
• I'm thankful that I work in a school where my principal lets me teach reading and writing the way I want to teach it and not the way some standardized test wants me to teach it.
• I'm thankful for my zeal for learning and only hope that I'm imparting it on my students.
• I'm thankful that I was born in a country and into a family that values education - even if we don't always get it right.
• I'm thankful that I can sit here on my couch with my computer on my lap and write about my opinions without having to worry about anyone beating down my door and throwing me in jail.
• I'm thankful for books and the authors who write them. We'd be a race of neanderthals without them.
  

So, besides the obvious, (food, shelter, family...) what are you thankful for?

Thankfully Reading Weekend

I despise Black Friday. I refuse to go out and dodge crowds and have to deal with a homicidal stampede of people just to save $100 on a big screen TV. The holiday season has become all about how much you must go into debt so your family can acquire more stuff. We are trying to fill some sort of void with possessions rather than looking internally to see what our lives are lacking.

I boycott Black Friday every year. And this year I'm going even that much further to drive a stake into the heart of consumerism by spending today in my PJ's doing nothing but reading.

Jenn's Bookshelves is hosting a Thankfully Reading Weekend, and I for one fully support this reading challenge since it's encouraging sitting at home rather than feeding into the dystopia that is Black Friday.

So this is what I have planned for my weekend:

Just finished:

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King


Currently reading:

The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy


Currently listening:

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson


On deck:

Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel
Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer