Sunday, May 21, 2006
Move a little faster
Naomi and I are going to see DaVinci Code tonight. How was it, Kim? I'm looking forward to it, but I don't think I'm expecting as much from the movie as I was from the book.
Oh! Almost two weeks after the fact (since I can finally say it in public now...), congratulations, Laurel and Ken!!! I certainly won't try to out-do Laurel's telling of her own proposal, so go read about what happened, mmmkay?
Sometimes, I think that Lourenzo is really 2, not 6. Everything--everything--ends up in his mouth. Including the poles on the subway, which is, frankly, quite disgusting for everyone involved.
Still upset about Everwood. A certain fan contingent is clamoring for t-shirts that read "Everwood Died for 7th Heaven's Sins." Sacreligious? Just a tad. Funny, poignant, and kinda true? Uh, yeah. And, PS, check this out. It's pretty amazing.
Very random, scattered thoughts today, no? I saw a stage adaptation of The Three Musketeers last night... it was good, but long. And it wasn't that I was bored with the play, but for some reason, it just felt really, really looooong.
I need to update the book list--I've read quite a few more off it. I've read a lot more than that, too--I mean, I always have to kind of chuckle at people whose goal is to read 15 novels in a year or something like that. That's my reading material for two weeks, sometimes. Even when I was in school, studying and reading textbooks, I was still reading at least 3 novels a week most weeks. Depends on what novels (and how heavy) they are, but still--I think I can beat almost anyone I know in the sheer volume of words that I read.
Which is why I've always found it kind of pointless to keep a list of the books I read in a year. For one thing, it would be way too long. For another, it's no great achievement, so it doesn't matter anyway. Striking classics (or even contemporary acclaimed books) off my list is a much greater goal, because it gives me a reason to cut down on my brain candy, as much fun as it is to read.
Be that as it may, I've got to update that page eventually.
6 Comments:
As one of those people that you laugh at for setting a goal of reading a relatively small amount of books, let me give a bit of explanation.
To you, reading 10 novels in a summer (my goal) seems pitiful, and quite frankly, it probably is.
BUT
For the last 5 years, almost solid, I've been taking humanities and social science courses in university. It's not uncommon for me to be required to read 100 plus pages of articles or in a textbook per class per week. In my children's lit class, we read a book a week, and sometimes 2.
In high school English classes (for the most part), we read some of the stupidist, most drawn out, boring and uninspiring novels ever, often at a very rapid rate as well (like in a week and a half or so).
Sadly, for me, this has meant that reading had become work, a chore, something meant to be done as quickly as possible.
For me, my schoolwork had to take priority over many other interests and hobbies in order to keep a scholarship. Yes, I probably could do my readings for school in an hour a day, but getting 75% of the material wasn't good enough. For me, my marks had to be (at minimum) in the low to mid 80's to afford to be there, and higher for me to acheive my goals post-undergrad (like teacher's college or grad school). Yes, I am serious - in Ontario, it is harder to get into teacher's college than law school.
Since I'm almost out of school (as a student, anyway), I need to retrain myself to see reading as an enjoyable hobby. Quite frankly, on most of my non-school semesters since starting my undergrad, I have had no desire to read more than a novel or two over a four month period, since reading for hours every day for the previous semester burns one out.
It's important to start small when retraining your body/mind on doing something. For instance, setting a goal of working out for 3 hours a day 7 days a week is a recipe for failure for most amateur athletes.
And so for me, that's why I'm setting myself a managable, relatively easy achieveable goal of reading 10 novels this summer. It's enough that I can read them when I feel like it, so that I don't have to feel the pressure of reading a novel in a day because of a deadline. It's small enough that I can be picky about what I read - if I'm not into the book, I don't have to read it right now.
This isn't an excuse for reading brain candy, although many of the books I've read were not hard reads in terms of their reading level. But many of them challenged me to ask (and try and develop an answer) to some very difficult questions or to develop an opinon on an issue. Is that not equally important?
And I do read lots of things other than novels - usually 2 newspapers a day (two of the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and the K-W Record) too or I'll skim through some of the books I need to process and/or shelve at the library.
Although I firmly believe that reading is an important life skill, one thing that I have learned over the years is that loving reading is not a synonym for being a book worm.
Just like we can't judge someone fitness level by their weight, we can't judge someone's love/lack of love for reading by how many books they read.
So give others a break - we all can't be measured on the same scale. What's easy for you is hard for me, and vice versa.
Mrs., A, Jon and Patty Hines say hi and congrats to Esther and Justin.
(Alida, is it ok that I leave messages for your parents on your blog?)
I didn't mean to insult your reading speed, Jen--I understand the slowing down during school... even I slowed down, and the ratio was probably similar. My 3 books a day habit when I was in junior high became 3 books a week in college (some weeks--depended on how much I was procrastinating), but reading never, ever became a chore.
Reading textbooks--yes. Absolutely. I probably skimmed over more than my share of textbooks instead of reading them thoroughly. That was the chore. Reading for fun, though, never became anything less than fun. So, for me, reading 10 books in a summer would be pitiful, and it would probably point to something seriously wrong with me.
I guess it's a matter of ratio. I can't post my entire book list, because it would be too long and boring, and no one really cares. But that's always been my ratio. I suppose an equivalent would be to set a goal of ten RCM grade 10 level pieces to really master, and then post those as I did that. I love it, but I would have to work a lot harder at it than I would have to work to read 10 novels. Even 10 meaty, rich novels that would take me a week to get through.
Although, honestly, when it comes to those books, they usually take me a lot longer, because I usually have at least 3 books going at a time. I've been working on Wicked for about 4 weeks now, but I've probably read 15-20 other books while I've been going on it.
I didn't mean to be offensive--I was just stating that, for me, my challenge has been to read through the "meatier" books, and that for the amount I read, I should probably be further on the list than I am; instead, I've only knocked off maybe 10 books since I posted the list in January.
And yes--by all means, leave messages for my parents here! I always have fun reading your conversations with my mom via my blog.
I know the Da Vinci Code got horrible reviews, and I wonder if that wasn't the fault of the marketing. For it being based off a book fictionalizing an opinion, it did ok. I personally liked it (and not because of Tom), and I will end up buying it, but I guess I can understand a lot of people not liking it. I liked it because I liked the book, and it will help me visualize places, and paintings when next I read it. It's a good accompanying piece I think, but I won't be so naive as to think it was the best movie ever. But by now you have seen it, and we can talk about it. (Sorry I didn't call you back, I've not had the energy really this week)
Oh, I know you weren't trying to insult me, and I didn't interpret it that way. My only point was that a book count is not an accurate predictor of the amount of reading one does, one's love of reading, or the importance that one places on reading.
Interesting conversation! We saw a simulcast discussion on the Da Vinci Code on Sunday PM at church, discussing what it says about Jesus. It was very informative about the truth of the Bible and some of the fiction in the book (including the Priory of Sion, which did not exist until 1930-something and was started by a "crank" to advocate for underprivileged housing). A lot of it was done by Erwin Lutzer, probably based on the book he wrote about it.
Anyway, what was I going to say? Oh, yes--hi to Jon and Patty, via Jen!
Mom
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