Po(sey) Sessions

I got a good start on my reading for the year this month. I have set a goal to read 104 books this year. I am already a little behind schedule, but I am feeling okay about my progress.  The holidays are not a motivated time for me. And while this year wasn't too bad, I did not get as much reading done when I was traveling as I had hoped. I have been focusing a little bit on books about creativity. I have started drawing and painting more. I find this work really fulfilling. I also got the idea about creating a calendar/to do list system that is specifically customized for the lives of creative people. It is just an idea I have right, but the books I have been reading on creativity have helped me with some of the ideas I am having. It is exciting to be reconnecting with my creative life. Now that school has started again, I am worried that may go to they wayside. I finished SIX books: 1. Children of Eden 2. The Dot 3. Year of the Cow 4. Steal Like an Artist 5. Howl...

June was another lackluster reading month for me. I finished two books and started many more. I fluctuate in out of reading slumps, even in the middle of books lately. Very little holds my interests. It always feels almost like I will never read again, but it has happened often enough that I know better. Here are the two books I finished in June: 22. Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson 23. Year of the Dog by Grace Lin Year of the Dog was one of the best books I have read in a while. I loved the way that it talked about food even though it was a particularly brief book. Chasing Lincoln's Killer was a straightforward book on a subject matter that doesn't particularly interest me. As I have been working on my Gullah research, I have decided to pursue more information about the Civil War era, especially for slaves. In part, I have been curious when Gullah developed out of other slave culture and what are the defining factors of the culture? I think the language ...

I realize the irony in the matter, I own a bookstore but I rarely read books in paper. I love my paper books, but there are times they just don't fit into my life. As I get older the words get smaller and the pages get dimer and finding a comfortable position that doesn't cause me to fall asleep is a challenge. Some days I have accepted it. I am old. Scaleable font and backlit screens help me read in any position and not just when the lighting is right. To me, reading is reading. I want everyone to be doing more of it. Recently that especially includes myself. I find myself with the time to read, but not the desire to invest in the storylines I am currently presented with. I think it is both common and interesting that as one gets older there is less room for books that aren't exactly what we are looking for. I used to never give up on a book I was reading, and I am still not eager to admit that I will never pick up a book again. But I am working on guilt free reading a...

My 11 year old daughter hates to read. This is a great pity and sadness to me. I know she is reluctant about reading and struggles with it some. I also feel a slight rebellion or defiance in her. She enjoys saying she doesn't like to read because I own a bookstore. She cherishes that irony. On one hand I appreciate her understanding of irony. On the other hand I always think that if I present her with the RIGHT book that I can change her into a reader! Recently she listened to the audiobook for The Inventor's Secret. It grabbed her RIGHT AWAY. Like I said, she is reluctant to read. I can get her to listen to audiobooks occasionally, but she usually tells me she is bored. I want her to read with her eyes, but I also like that she can enjoy stories outside of the struggles she might feel with reading. I know those struggles well. I am not now, nor have I ever been a particularly good reader. It is interesting how something that you aren't good at can become the thing you ar...

One of the reason I miss updating my blog is that I enjoy going back and seeing what I was reading and if I liked it. Some of the books I have blogged about I still haven't finished. Some I never will. Lately I have been working on really interesting mix of reading, especially driven by my personal research in dystopian literature and communal living. Today I finished Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and it was basically amazing. It lost me in the last little bit, the moments just before the end. I am a little bummed out about this, but I think I will get over it soon and just go on loving the book. Hoping to try more books by this author soon. I "read" Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock via audiobook, and I just loved the narrator for it. I found out he is also the narrator for the audio of Perks of Being a Wallflower. Perks is one of those books I have been reading in a REALLY long time, this will be a good excuse to get back to it. I am extremely good at starting books. Prob...

Dystopia has been defined and redefined as every generation discovers and rediscovers the power it can have as a fiction, as an informative device, as a life changing event. There are many simple way to understand dystopia, but none of them help to understand the scope of dystopia. I pick up and put down dystopian research throughout my life.  When I was 16 I read 1984 and Thomas More's Utopia and these two books changed my life. They sparked in me interest and excitement. I have been chasing that desire ever since. I have also left and returned to blogging over the years. I have been stricken by the pressure to produce, but also by life getting in the way of things. The way that life gets in the way is essential to many dystopian narrative, especially the real life ones we see more and more often on the news. We used to fear Big Brother, and now we know he is there, yet somehow fall under the illusion that we are safe because we are too busy to deal with it. Dystopi...

This is my old reading list that I was working on last summer. I updated it by marking the books I have finished. I am sort of disappointed in myself to not keeping up with all the challenges I was looking forward to. But I started up reading again and finished many books, some on this list and some new ones. Now I have to make sure I finish all of these up. Though some I may be saving for another time. Reading in 2007 Out of the Silent Planet ( p. 44 146/160) 92% FINISHED! Alice's Adventures Underground ( p.68 p.76/90) 85% FINISHED! On My Honor (p. 90/90) FINISHED! ( Banned Books Challenge ) Crispin:The Cross of Lead (p. 262/262) FINISHED! ( Newbery Challenge ) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (p. 87/246) 35% FISHISHED! Slaughter-House Five (p. 4/215) 2% FINISHED! Scraps of the Untainted Sky (p.15/284) 5% Herland (p. 37/146) 25% Love in the Time of Cholera (p. 22/348) 6% Robinson Crusoe -reading electronically at chapter 9 ( By The Decade ) Beyond the Words ...