Yes, I have been writing word count: 32,188
As well as actually writing I have been thinking about writing. Why does a person like to write, want to write? Does it tug some different part of our brain? Mostly I write here because I want to, although I never forget there is some audience out there this blog is not private, my writing here is not what I put in my personal journal. and of course my bad fiction that is nanowrimo is different yet again and I am writing it to stretch, for change, for fun.
And then that led me to the companion question why read? For story, for validation, for information sharing....as many different reasons as people perhaps. Which led me to wonder, why do you people who read this blog read it?
No pressure, no need to leave a comment or anything but if you wanted to shoot me an email [through my profile] and tell me I would be sincerely interested in hearing why.
in gratitude for the weekend, my love, the weekend and the mild weather
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
India approved
Well the word has come down from 'on high' and the trips to India have been approved. This means it's about 99% definite I will be going. DW is thrilled.
I am just blown away. I feel so excited and nervy and every possible feeling all at once. I don't really like heat much and India of course is hot. We will be there during the monsoon season, what on earth will that be like. I will probably be there working for a month and then staying for a couple of weeks on vacation. That means stuff I am not currently paying online...I better get that all set up.
There is the whole water issue. Most travelers get around this by drinking bottled water but I do not want to add to the garbage problem in India [which I hear is huge]. So then I need to either buy a purifier or filter bottle. No idea which way to go yet.
Also I will be there for a long time and I read a lot. I do not want to schlep or buy books. So I am looking at e-book readers. Right now I am thinking Sony. I don't like the kindle2's keyboard and their vaunted wireless connection only works in the US.
Then what to do during our travel time? India is huge and there is so much to see and no way to see it all. I have never thought about India before now, I never thought I would go there so I don't know how to choose from all the wonderful options. Right now I am thinking Mysore and Hampi but I am sure it will keep evolving.
Then there are the medical issues. There are many vaccinations that are recommended for India which ones do I think are needed, which ones do I need. What is the likelihood of needing malaria pills?
You can see that the list has just started and will probably go on and on. I feel quite lucky though to be able to do this. It's just mind blowing to me. What a year 2009 is shaping up to be.
I am just blown away. I feel so excited and nervy and every possible feeling all at once. I don't really like heat much and India of course is hot. We will be there during the monsoon season, what on earth will that be like. I will probably be there working for a month and then staying for a couple of weeks on vacation. That means stuff I am not currently paying online...I better get that all set up.
There is the whole water issue. Most travelers get around this by drinking bottled water but I do not want to add to the garbage problem in India [which I hear is huge]. So then I need to either buy a purifier or filter bottle. No idea which way to go yet.
Also I will be there for a long time and I read a lot. I do not want to schlep or buy books. So I am looking at e-book readers. Right now I am thinking Sony. I don't like the kindle2's keyboard and their vaunted wireless connection only works in the US.
Then what to do during our travel time? India is huge and there is so much to see and no way to see it all. I have never thought about India before now, I never thought I would go there so I don't know how to choose from all the wonderful options. Right now I am thinking Mysore and Hampi but I am sure it will keep evolving.
Then there are the medical issues. There are many vaccinations that are recommended for India which ones do I think are needed, which ones do I need. What is the likelihood of needing malaria pills?
You can see that the list has just started and will probably go on and on. I feel quite lucky though to be able to do this. It's just mind blowing to me. What a year 2009 is shaping up to be.
reading list
Reading has been such a big part of my life. I don't remember ever learning how to read it seems that it was always there. [now figuring out what 'x' meant in an algebra equation I remember] I feel sad thinking that reading literature for fun, may be vanishing. Oh well. I have to wonder where on earth this list came from, I skimmed the report but didn't find the list source, this seems to me to be such an odd collection of books. I am amazed I have read less than half of the entries, and I am what most would consider a voracious and fast reader.
Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, a 2004 report by the National Endowment for the Arts, found that not only is literary reading in America declining rapidly among all groups, but that the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young. The concerned citizen in search of good news about American literary culture would study the pages of this report in vain. They say the average American has only read 6 of the following:
Key: Bold the books you have already read; Italicize the books you intend to read;
(Notes in parentheses next to note-worthy titles); if I had to read it for school I underlined it
and just for fun I colored it purple if I have reread it 10x or more
1) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2) The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
3) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4) Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
5) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6) The Bible
7) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8) Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
9) His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
10) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
11) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
12) Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
13) Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
14) Complete Works of Shakespeare [all of them? are they kidding]
15) Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
16) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
17) Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
18 ) Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
19) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
20) Middlemarch by George Eliot
21) Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
22) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
23) Bleak House by Charles Dickens
24) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
25) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
26) Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
27) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 ) Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
29) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
30) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
31) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
32) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
33) Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
34) Emma by Jane Austen
35) Persuasion by Jane Austen
36) The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis
37) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
38 ) Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
39) Memories of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
40) Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
41) Animal Farm by George Orwell
42) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
43) One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44) A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving
45) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
46) Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
47) Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
48 ) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
49) Lord of the Flies by William Golding
50) Atonement by Ian McEwan
51) Life of Pi by Yann Martel
52) Dune by Frank Herbert
53) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (may be the funniest book in the world)
54) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
55) A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
56) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57) A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
58 ) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
59) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
60) Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
62) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
63) The Secret History by Donna Tartt
64) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
65) Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
66) On The Road by Jack Kerouac
67) Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
68 ) Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
69) Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
70) Moby Dick by Herman Melville
71) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
72) Dracula by Bram Stoker
73) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
74) Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson
75) Ulysses by James Joyce
76) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77) Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
78 ) Germinal by Emile Zola
79) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
80) Possession by AS Byatt (when I realized there was a lesbian suicide in it I refused to finish it)
81) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
82) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
83) The Color Purple by Alice Walker
84) The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
85) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
86) A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
87) Charlotte's Web by EB White
88 ) The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom
89) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90) The Faraway Tree Collection by Enid Blyton
91) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
92) The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93) The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
94) Watership Down by Richard Adams
95) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
96) A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
97) The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 ) Hamlet by William Shakespeare
99) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
100) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
So what if anything does this all mean? I have no idea. I reread a lot of children's classics over and over. I still love to read children's literature. How exciting to think of the new kiddies in the family to which to read.
Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, a 2004 report by the National Endowment for the Arts, found that not only is literary reading in America declining rapidly among all groups, but that the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young. The concerned citizen in search of good news about American literary culture would study the pages of this report in vain. They say the average American has only read 6 of the following:
Key: Bold the books you have already read; Italicize the books you intend to read;
(Notes in parentheses next to note-worthy titles); if I had to read it for school I underlined it
and just for fun I colored it purple if I have reread it 10x or more
1) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2) The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
3) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4) Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
5) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6) The Bible
7) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8) Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
9) His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
10) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
11) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
12) Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
13) Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
14) Complete Works of Shakespeare [all of them? are they kidding]
15) Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
16) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
17) Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
18 ) Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
19) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
20) Middlemarch by George Eliot
21) Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
22) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
23) Bleak House by Charles Dickens
24) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
25) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
26) Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
27) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 ) Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
29) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
30) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
31) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
32) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
33) Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
34) Emma by Jane Austen
35) Persuasion by Jane Austen
36) The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis
37) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
38 ) Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
39) Memories of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
40) Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
41) Animal Farm by George Orwell
42) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
43) One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44) A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving
45) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
46) Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
47) Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
48 ) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
49) Lord of the Flies by William Golding
50) Atonement by Ian McEwan
51) Life of Pi by Yann Martel
52) Dune by Frank Herbert
53) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (may be the funniest book in the world)
54) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
55) A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
56) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57) A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
58 ) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
59) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
60) Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
62) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
63) The Secret History by Donna Tartt
64) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
65) Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
66) On The Road by Jack Kerouac
67) Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
68 ) Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
69) Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
70) Moby Dick by Herman Melville
71) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
72) Dracula by Bram Stoker
73) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
74) Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson
75) Ulysses by James Joyce
76) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77) Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
78 ) Germinal by Emile Zola
79) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
80) Possession by AS Byatt (when I realized there was a lesbian suicide in it I refused to finish it)
81) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
82) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
83) The Color Purple by Alice Walker
84) The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
85) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
86) A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
87) Charlotte's Web by EB White
88 ) The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom
89) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90) The Faraway Tree Collection by Enid Blyton
91) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
92) The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93) The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
94) Watership Down by Richard Adams
95) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
96) A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
97) The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 ) Hamlet by William Shakespeare
99) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
100) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
So what if anything does this all mean? I have no idea. I reread a lot of children's classics over and over. I still love to read children's literature. How exciting to think of the new kiddies in the family to which to read.
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