50 Books... Update 3

I'm back from vacation (I'll post on it later) and aside from the fun of camp, I got to do some serious reading in and have an update on the 50 book challenge.

When I started the challenge I had read these books

Old Man and the Sea
My Grandfather's Son
Sharks over China
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Screwtape Letters
Catcher in the Rye

Then, I was able to finish four more by the 25th of July.

The Coldest Winter
Mere Christianity
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Black Arrow (Finished 7/25)

While on vacation I finished the following books

Dragonquest (Dragonriders of Pern book 1)
Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern book 2)
The White Dragon (Dragonriders of Pern book 3)
The Great Gatsby

I'm reading
The Reagan Dairies
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Grapes of Wrath

So I've finished 14 books out of the 50. I should finish The Grapes of Wrath this week I hope...

50 Book Update (with update)

Recently I joined the 50 book challenge at Shelfari and wanted to give everyone an update on my progress. When I made the original post I had read the following books:

Old Man and the Sea
My Grandfather's Son
Sharks over China
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Screwtape Letters
Catcher in the Rye

Since then I've finished these books:

The Coldest Winter
Mere Christianity
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Black Arrow (Finished 7/25)

And I'm reading the following books (yes books, as in more than one)

The Reagan Dairies
The Picture of Dorian Grey

I am going to take these books on vacation next week:

The Grapes of Wrath
The Dragonriders of Pern Trilogy
The Great Gatsby

I may take the Reagan Dairies and The Picture of Dorian Grey as well. The Black Arrow is a library book so I will leave that here. If you have also taken up the challenge let me know how you're doing.

Death of a forum and more

One of my favorite web sites, Substitute Teachers United ceased operations this week. The founder simply ran out of energy and money to keep the site up. It's a pity this happened and I wish the founder well in her future projects, even if she does support Obama! I also finished another book in the 50 book challenge, "The Coldest Winter" and I added the link to my list to the right under the 'educational' section, so that way you can see how close I get to 50 books by the end of the year. I did change the order a bit, because I started reading "The Picture of Dorian Gray" along with "The Reagan Dairies" and "The Count of Monte Cristo".



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Now playing: Rhapsody In Blue - Disney
via FoxyTunes

50 Book Challenge

I'm borrowing this from shelfari, you know that bookshelf thingy on the right side of my blog? Here is the challenge for all of you. I want you to read 50 books in 12 months. I saw it today and decided to join. Here are the books I've read so far.

Old Man and the Sea
My Grandfather's Son
Sharks over China
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Screwtape Letters
Catcher in the Rye

I'm still reading the ones I mentioned below. If you are a shelfari member and want to participate you can do so here. The widget is free and easy to use as well.

CS Lewis and more

While on vacation last week I was able to get some reading done as well as visit, drink a beer or two, etc...

Aside from Old Man and The Sea and Dr. Jeckyll & Mr Hyde, my father in law let me borrow two books from CS Lewis, and no it wasn't any of the Narnia books! (Been there, read them!) Instead he let me borrow Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters. They are both wonderful reads and The Screwtape letters has stayed with me because it was so powerful.

Mere Christianity was a series of radio addresses that Lewis gave during WWII explaining Christianity and why it was the true road to eternal life. It explains much about Christianity in plain (Queens) English stripping away much of the doctrinal divides and other nonsense. I'm about 95% finished with the book and wish I had read it before the Screwtape Letters

The Screwtape letters is a series of letters written from one demon (Screwtape) to his 'nephew' regarding his nephew's attempt at turning a young man over to their side. It gives a chilling look at how the other side operates in their ongoing quest to capture souls for the Devil and there were (way too) many times I saw I had fallen into the trap that Screwtape was discussing with his young charge.

If your only experience with CS Lewis happens to involve Aslan the lion, then I recommend you pick up these two books. They are well worth the effort. Once I finish off Mere Christianity and The Coldest Winter, I'll start The Count of Monte Cristo and maybe The Great Gatsby.

Suggestions?

It was fascinating to see what gets people to respond to blog posts and what makes the crickets chirp. My post on going to the bookstore generated a good response from my readers, and the last one from Lady Wore Black (who has a blog of her own worth reading!) asked for suggestions in regards to new books and authors to explore. So, after I list a couple of my own, I'd really appreciate it if you would add in your own suggestions.

Here are my suggestions to the lady in black

Educating Esme

Flight of the White Horse

Trumpet

Please?

Bookstore

Since there were no subbing jobs today, I took my daughter to the bookstore and then to the library. I had gotten a $25 gift certificate and we had to return some books so it was a two for one bargain so to speak. I like this bookstore because it has a great selection of books from classics to fiction etc...

So here is what I bought with my $25.00

1. The Count of Monte Cristo (I'm embarrassed to admit I have not read it yet)
2. The Grapes of Wrath (have not read it in 20 years)
3. The Great Gatsby (have not read it in 20 years)
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray (I'm embarrassed to admit I have not read it yet)
5. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (I'm embarrassed to admit I have not read it yet)
6. The Old Man and The Sea (I'm embarrassed to admit I have not read it yet)
7. The Dragonriders of Pern (have not read it in 15 years)
   

And I got a book on the Korean War at the library for good measure. I'd list the books my daughter bought and borrowed but your eyes would glaze over and you'd fall asleep in your Cheerios! It does pain me to admit that I had not read so many of those books, especially considering the fact that I'm going to teach English.

It was a well spent morning!



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Now playing: Never Far Behind - Aly & A.J.
via FoxyTunes

A complete 180 By Vegas Art Guy

Well, after yesterday's adventure in subbing, I figured that today's gig was going to be at least a bit smoother. In fact, it was the complete opposite of the behavior school and all the issues contained therein.
Today I got to sub a a local magnet middle school. My assignment was to go to three different rooms and help the kids there with their reading. Many of the kids I got the honor of helping today were reading at least 2 years behind where they should be and some of them were literally reading at the first grade level.

Now a few of them were on the cusp of getting back into a regular English classroom and one of the teachers pointed out a young man who came into 6th grade reading at the first grade level and is now at the 4th grade level. Yes, I know that he's still behind but look at how far this kid came. He basically jumped three grades in reading in one school year. My guess is that at the end of the year he'll be in a regular English class.

Now get this, and keep in mind I got paid to do this. My main job was to have the kids read to me and then I would have them tell me what they just read and what they thought about it. Now is that cool or what? Sure they stumbled over words, and a couple of them couldn't get the words out fast enough. One gal didn't think much of the main character's method's of getting the guy she had the hots for attention, she thought it was sneaky and underhanded. But they were getting it, and they were thrilled to read out loud to someone. I told several students to read about things that interested them and I gave book suggestions to one of the girls who is just about at grade level and gave the teacher some ideas for books to get that my daughter has read in the passed and really liked.

That's a job I could get used to in a hurry. Next week I have jobs 4 days next week and I think I'll get enough work to get me to October 8 when I get my own (sorta) class for the rest of the semester.