Tag Archives: Bookish Chatter

Chatter about books, reading and anything related to either one.

Putting on My Thinking Hat

One of the benefits to working for a university is that we get to take classes at a greatly reduced rate. Not only can we take classes, but we can take them while “on the clock” so to speak.

I couldn’t take any classes last semester because of furloughs and our schedules being all funky, but this semester I got the go-ahead. Usually I take something artsy like Photography but this time I signed-up for a contemporary literature class.

This is what we’ll be studying:

 

Atonement Book Cover

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Middlesex Book Cover

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

More Stories We Tell Book Cover

More Stories We Tell: The Best Contemporary Short Stories by Women by Wendy Martin

Proof Cover

Proof: A Play by David Auburn

I’ve read Atonement before (and liked it plenty too).  The others are new to me. I can’t tell you how excited I am about reading these. I like that the professor included a play in the mix and the short story collection, written by women is a real perk. I don’t read enough short fiction.

So on August 23rd, I’ll be carrying a brand new notebook, a couple of very sharp #2 pencils and hitting the books. I’m taking it for credit/no credit so there shouldn’t be any pressure, just pure reading fun. Hopefully I’ll have some good discussions to share with you here.

The Sunday Salon: 48 Hour Read-a-Thon Wrap-up

48 Hour Read-a-Thon Button

Over the course of 48 hours of reading, I really didn’t accomplish all that much. Granted, I didn’t read for the entire 48 hours but there were “chunks” where I tried to catch-up on my reading. I wasn’t successful though. I did manage to finish Orwell’s Coming Up for Air, but that’s pretty much it. The back-to-school paperwork kept calling me, as did the pile of unpaid bills. Let’s face it. I got distracted by life.

It was fun though and just putting it down in writing means that I know what my goal is for the week. Thank you Wallace for putting this together.

Sunday Salon Button

Today has been a “do nothing” kind of day. I felt blah when I woke up so I hung around the house doing a whole lot of nothing. The kids got the best of me though and dragged me to see Despicable Me in 3D. Why does everything have to be in 3D these days? 3D is not fun for those that wear glasses. Glasses on top of glasses just isn’t attractive, but the movie was good enough for me to forget how I looked.

Oh, and then I got sidetracked at my new favorite store, Ulta. I’ve been on a quest to find my new, signature scent. I want something that is going to be around so I tested all sorts of fragrances and then ended up with something that I used to wear in college (go figure). The newer scents just don’t smell good on me or they fade.

I had a huge Facebook discussion about it. In case you’re interested, I went back to Obsession which used to be very strong for me but now it isn’t at all (The Boy, The Girl and the Hub agreed). Perhaps the formula has changed? Anyway…that’s it for now unless Calvin Klein discontinues it tomorrow which would be my luck.

Hope you had a lovely Sunday. Now I’m off to watch Shark Week!