read as many books as possible, starting with all the books I own but haven't read

Knowledge is power.

This was given to me last week by a friend of mine. It’s a good quick read. I liked the irreverence of the heroine; the book reminded me most of The Ordinary Princess by M. M. Kaye, except for older kids and up through adults. They are both anti-fairy tales, in that they openly disassociate themselves from the traditional fairy tale conventions. It has a quasi-fairy tale ending, in that the enchantments are broken at the end and you could believe everyone lives happily ever after but it doesn’t end with a wedding. The author does cleverly leave room open for a sequel, though. All in all, I highly recommend it.

Patrice Kindl. Goose Chase. 2001. Puffin Books, New York.

I received this book from my dad several years ago. It’s taken me a long time to finish it. I started reading it when Anastasia was born, which was two years ago, but it got set aside when things got crazy. I picked it up again 6 weeks ago. It is a very good book, but it is slow going because it is so long.

The point that the author makes in the book is that the Americas were a bustling populous place before Columbus arrived. This leads to a little bit of bias in the author’s focus on the “superstar” cultures like the Aztec, Maya, and Inka. He doesn’t talk about the Pueblo tribes or the Pacific Northwest or the people in the Southeast US, which is disappointing, but I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere.

My only annoyance with the book is his tactic of playing a sort of bait-and-switch game. He spends time talking about the history of a culture, using old and out-dated models, and just as I roll my eyes and say “but that’s not what current research says,” he suddenly switches and says “But that’s how we used to see things; this is how we see things now.” He could have freed up some space in the book by cutting to the most recent research first.

Charles C. Mann. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. 2005. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

I bought this book for myself over ten years ago, but this is the first time I’d sat down and read it. The book is a collection of excerpts from journals and reminiscences of children who traveled to California during the 1840s-1860s. The strength of the book is that it provides a lot of original sources, and has a good bibliography if you want to go deeper. It talks about the most famous children (the Donner party) as well as regular children whose trips were less eventful.

The problem with the book, that I actually found kind of annoying, is that I felt that the book was sort of a “paint splatter approach.” The anecdotes were loosely grouped by topic and time period, but the organization stopped there; the author seemingly strung all her notes together with little text to tie any of it together. I wanted to shout at the author, “So what?” There is a summary/synthetic chapter at the end, which talks about qualities that gave pioneer children “resilience.” This armchair critic thinks that it would have done better to serve as an introduction at the beginning, so I had some sort of road map of the author’s argument.

I would recommend the book for anyone looking for a general introduction to the pioneer era, or people studying “Resilience theory.”

Emmy E. Werner. Pioneer Children on the Journey West. 1995. Westview Press, Boulder.

i do have a couple i havent exactly read…
sadface

Or start with the ones you own which will help you build a base. I have the worst grammer (<- thats a joke) and I tend to skip words, so I started with short stories and trashy girl books. I am now working my way onto the Great Book list. Hurray!!!

Maybe I’ll have to have my eyes re-operated in order to be able to read well again. Since I had my lasik surgery a few years ago (which didn’t go well), I fall asleep every time I start reading… and I’ve bought so many books since then, what a pitty…

Just finished this one. It was bought on a complete whim in a bookstore in Auckland. It’s odd but the shop hadn’t changed since I was about 5. Amazing really. It still feels like a real bookstore. Kind of mysterious. Anyway I came out with this gem. Just right for reading on planes, airport lounges and in the very last of the summer sun on my patio. This was a very funny read.

Now I’m reading a prayer for Owen Meany. So far so good.

I’m re-reading David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” for chuckles. I’ve also re-organized my book shelf so it’s a little more appealing!

I bought this book and I know I shouldn’t have since I have way too many but I am sooooo glad I did. This was an amazing read. I have always liked Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue and this just made me love him even more. Very complelling read along with a fast read (even though it is over 200 pages)