Thursday, September 07, 2006

current reading assignments

Hey all who are dong the reading challenge,
My list was rather long, and there is no way I will get all that reading done in the next three months, so I have broken it down a bit into easier to bite off chunks.
For read-a-louds:
We just started our Autumn read-a-louds today.

Breakfast reads:
We are over half-way through Calendar Quest by Jennifer Johnson Garrity. We just read this morning about Julius and Augustus Caesar, and their contributions to the calendar (with absolutely NO tipovers! Yay!). I am aiming for at least 3 chapters a week in this book, as it was supposed to be done weeks ago as an overview before we started our ancients cycle again.

We will be reading The Victor Journey Through the Bible by V. Gilbert Beers and The Children's Illustrated Old Testament by Victoria Parker, as well as the KJV Bible concurrently. The kids have had no prior Christian/Bible studies in the past, thus the 3-way reading study. It fits in well with our Ancients study and is already bringing back to me my 10 years of Bible History from my school days!

Lunch read:
Tomorrow, I will start reading to the from The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way by Joy Hakim. I read ahead today, and it starts with Creation, so is perfectly in tune with our other readings right now.

I am not sure where to fit inthe rading time for The Thinking Toolbox by Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn, but we need to get this in as well. Maybe on Mondays.

I have decided to read The Epic of Gilgamesh translated by N.K. Sandars not out loud to both, but with just the Boy. This will probably wait till October, as first, we are reading How To Read a Book by Mortimer Adler, concurrently with the study guide, aptly titled How to Read How to Read a Book. I will be doing this during our afternoon study time.
My personal reads:
I will re-open The Journey tonight.

The Girl is finishing Little Women, and then will start Green's Stories of Ancient Egyptt as soon as I go pick it up from the bookstore. As stated above, the Boy will start Adler's How to Read a Book today. In his off time, I believe he is deep in the Amber series by Zelazny.

Mistress LB

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Autumn Reading Challenge



Seasonal Soundings is promoting the Autumn Reading Challenge. I wanted to take part in the Summer Challenge, but didn't get around to posting about it. I did ready many books this summer, but have to admit that they were for the most part, mind candy (some very well-written candy, but candy all the same), and were not the books I intended to read this summer. So my Fall list is a great deal longer than it could have been had I been a little bit more integrity in my reading habits.

Since December, we have been buying lots of books, and there are many on the shelf I haven't read yet. This is probably way more than I can get through this fall, but I will list them all, and just do my best. They will not be in a particular order, at least not yet, this is just how I pulled them off the shelf to list them tonight.

As for the Illiad and Odyssey, I reserve the right to read different translations than are listed here- I have 3 or 4 versions of each title, and am not sure which translation I will end up reading, as the Boy and I will most likely be reading these at the same time.

I am also listing read-a-louds, because I need this list to keep me in integrity. I have a very hard time reading aloud without ending up sleep-reading, and having a tip-over (as my dear friend Mom-Bob calls it when she succumbs.) Last week, I read 4 pages in my sleep before the children woke me up laughing at me, sigh. This read-a loud list will most likely take me all school year to get through!

Read-a-louds:
Theras and His Town by Caroline Dale Snedeker

Caesar’s Gallic War by Olivia Coolidge

The Epic of Gilgamesh translated by N.K. Sandars

The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way by Joy Hakim

The Victor Journey Through the Bible by V. Gilbert Beers

The Children's Illustrated Old Testament by Victoria Parker

The Thinking Toolbox by Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn

The Fallacy Detective by Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn

Calendar Quest by Jennifer Johnson Garrity

Augustus Caesar's World by Genevieve Foster

For my personal studies:
The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems translated by R.B. Parkinson

The Iliad by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Robert Fagels

The Last Days of Socrates by Plato, translated by Tredennick & Tarrant

How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren

“How to Read How to Read a Book” by Maryalice B. Newborn (more of a study guide than book, but still listing it.)

A Rulebook for Arguments by Anthony Weston

The Journey: Our quest for Faith and Meaning by Os Guinness

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

The Fat Flush Plan by Ann Louise Gittleman

I may also add Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, but I don't own it, so count it as a maybe.

Misc./ Fun/Because they are on the shelf begging to be read:
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

Onion Girl by Charles de Lindt

Windershins by Charles de Lindt