More Books

A bit over a week ago, I wrote a post on a list of books I intend to read.  That intention has not changed, merely grown.  :)

Yesterday, I went to the library.  I know - prep the doom music.  :P  Sometimes, I have dismal days at the library, because I can't find anything that looks worth reading.  Yesterday was not one of those days.  Here is part two of my book list that I will hopefully finish before my allotted six week loan is up.  :P

• Utopian Man by Lisa Lang
• North and South by John Jakes
• Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northup
• Sunset Ridge by Nicole Alexander

So that is my extended list - don't be surprised if it happens again.  ;)   I also plan to read the How to Train Your Dragon books because we are struggling to find good books for James (9) that interest him.  They look pretty good, so I'm going to pre-read them, and if they are alright, we will get them for his birthday.  I have read the back of the covers and am actually really looking forward to reading them as they look like a funny, light read.

I hope you are having a splendid weekend.  We have a few jobs to do over the next few days.  Dad and a couple of the others will be painting the lounge room, which we are rather excited about.  Mum, Ally and I (and whoever else isn't painting :P) will be sorting out the games/activity cupboard.  Because the cupboard sits in a nooky little niche (descriptive, ain't I???)  and is adjacent to us girl's bed room, we are hoping to be able to convert the cupboard into a built-in/walk-in wardrobe.  But it has to be sorted and cleaned first, which will be a job and a half in itself.  

Have a fantastic, blessed weekend, and if you live in Australia, have a wonderful blessed long weekend!  :D

New Strategy and a Whole List of Books I Plan to Read. :D

My blog has been pretty slow lately, hasn't it?  How have you all been?  My family has had a bout of change-of-season colds.  My glands always blowup like balloons whenever I get a touch of anything, and this round has left me pretty tired and listless.  (Not that it drives me to bed any earlier.  LOL!)  I shall just have to keep at my apple cider vinegar and  Sambucol.  :D

Anyway, the subject of this post is books.  I have a terrible habit of not being able to decide what to do and not being able to motivate myself to do anything about it.  (I owe it all to being phlegmatic!  :P)  Recently I was thinking about all those wonderful books out there that I have been planning to read for years, some of them, and that are screaming at me to read them.  I have recently devised a system for myself that allows me to get things done in a school context and I hope it will help me here as well.  I have never worked well on a schedule.  Which is a pity since the curriculum my family uses is set up so that you read so many chapters of this book on this day and however so many pages of this book on that day, so on and so on.  It never really worked for me - I would always fall behind because I would get overwhelmed by the schedule (it was pretty heavy going anyway) and I would procrastinate (I bet none of you can imagine me a procrastinator - what a thought!  ;P )  Anyhow, my new way of doing things is that I have the topics I need to get through in a day - advanced math, biology, chemistry, worldview studies, history, and literature - and I spend half an hour of solid work on each subject.  Voila!  It works!  Not only has the quality of my work increased, so has the quantity.  As Mum says, if I have half and hour to do something, I can do it in that time.  But if I have all day to do something, it will take me all day.

I have decided to apply the same principle to my reading habits.  Since officially finishing school, my reading has significantly decreased and I am sorry to have let it slip.  I plan to spend 1-2 half-hour sessions each day devoted to what I want to read and being me, I will probably keep going after the buzzer goes because I am enjoying myself and can't be bothered doing anything else.  :)  Here is my current list of want-to-reads.  The ones marked with an asterisks indicate what I am in the middle of, or what I have already read, but am dying to read again.  :)

• Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
• *Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
• *One, Two, Buckle my Shoe by Agatha Christie (I suppose this represents all my Agatha Christie books - I bought 25 of them last year and have only read three or four so far.)
• *Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy  (I didn't mark this one, even though I started it, because I read through the first paragraph, and I don't think that counts.  ;)  )
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini
• *The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• * Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
• Boy by Roald Dahl (I have read some f this before, but I don't remember heaps and didn't get far with it.)
• Through Gates of Splendour by Elisabeth Elliot
• Angles in the Camp by Jan Markell
• Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard
• Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
• Hidden Art by Edith Schaeffer
• *Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan
• *Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Deibler Rose  (One of the most increadible war stories and brobably one of the best biographies I have ever read - I HIGHLY recommend it.)
• The Boxcar Children  by Gertrude Chandler Warner.  (And yes, I am absolutely NOT serious about that one.  *shudders*  :P)

Do you reckon that's enough to start me off???  ;)  We will be going on a three week holiday in July, so I will hopefully get heaps of reading done then (around birthdays and weddings, of course  :P)  When I finish this list, I'll select another bunch and make another list!  The race is on!  :D