Monthly Archives: October 2006
Scary things
I’m not very into scary things. This is going to be a lame Halloween post. I realize I’ve got a strange relationship to Halloween, now that I think about why the holiday doesn’t interest me much — I celebrated Halloween … Continue reading
The Time Traveller’s Wife
I’m about half way through The Time Traveler’s Wife and it was exactly what I’ve been needing: something absorbing and long but that reads quickly so that I don’t feel I’m getting bogged down or that I’ll be reading it … Continue reading
George Sand’s Indiana
I liked this book very much; unfortunately, I wasn’t in the mood to focus closely as I read it or to take notes or even gather my thoughts much about it as I read, so I won’t have a long … Continue reading
My teaching demonstration, Part III
My teaching workshop is now over, and while I learned a lot, I’m happy to be finished. It was hard to spend all day in a workshop when I had lots of work to do at home. And doing teaching … Continue reading
Further adventures in cycling
Yesterday I had one of those rides where everything goes wrong. Almost everything. I set out on my ride around 11:00, planning to ride for an hour, shower quickly, gulp down lunch, and make it to my mid-afternoon class. But … Continue reading
Filed under Cycling
Can you guess the book?
I’m stealing this from Dr. Crazy who got it from Anastasia. I’m all about memes these days. They are great when I’m feeling tired and uninspired. 1. Grab the nearest book. 2. Open the book to page 123. 3. Find … Continue reading
Musings on writing
Courtney has this great post on running and writing where she compares the two and concludes that they are more alike than she thought. She says, “Like writing the novel, running is all about showing up, going further than you … Continue reading
Filed under Writing
5 things you don’t know about me
I’m stealing this meme from Litlove and Charlotte because it looks like a lot of fun. The “you” from “five things you don’t know about me” obviously doesn’t include the Hobgoblin; to come up with five things he doesn’t know … Continue reading
The Bible
I was reading recently about Victoria’s Bible-reading project and found myself intrigued. She’ll be reading one or two books of the Bible every month until she’s finished, doing it partly for intellectual reasons and partly for personal ones. As you … Continue reading
Book notes
I now have seven points over at Book Mooch. That means seven free books, if I choose to mooch them. But, like Danielle, I’m trying not to mooch too many more books than I mail out, so I’ll let those … Continue reading
Lists, lists, lists!
A while back people were writing quite a lot on that book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and thanks to Bookslut’s recent mention, people seem to be doing it again. So I clicked over to the list … Continue reading
My teaching demonstration, Part II
Two teaching demonstrations down and one more to go next week. I’ll be glad when this workshop is over, much as I am learning from it and enjoying it. I normally spend Friday madly grading, and I hate having to … Continue reading
Narrative
For some reason, I have a block against writing narrative. I was reminded of this when Litlove wrote in a comment on her blog something about being able to write anecdotes and reminiscences but not “proper storytelling.” I won’t speak … Continue reading
Mid-semester reading and riding
I started an experiment last spring with reading multiple books at once, and I have come to love it, but I’ve been needing to revise that practice lately. It turns out that when I’m stressed and busy — as I … Continue reading
Colette
I have finished reading Judith Thurman’s biography of Colette, Secrets of the Flesh, and I’m looking forward to reading some of Colette’s fiction (at some point in the future — I’m not entirely sure when). I probably should have read … Continue reading
Filed under Books
So much for book reviews
As I’ve written about before, I read book reviews less often than I used to, but I do still enjoy a quick skim through the New York Times Book Review on Sunday mornings. Yesterday made me wonder why. The main … Continue reading
Clothing: a cycling post
Yesterday I rode for two hours, and I had to wear both knee warmers and arm warmers for the first time. This is a sign of cold days to come, and of all the layering I’ll have to do in … Continue reading
Filed under Cycling
My teaching demonstration
So you know how I wrote last week about my teaching workshop and the 10 minute mini-lesson I’d have to do? I had to do the lesson yesterday, and I ended up doing the lesson I mentioned in my last … Continue reading
Friday reading notes (warning: a bit whiny)
I’ve been in what feels like a long reading slump where I can’t seem to get in a rhythm with my reading. I feel like everything takes too long to read and I get bored with it about half way … Continue reading
Introductions and prefaces
This is a follow-up to Danielle’s post on Introductions and Prefaces, on whether to read them or not. I began George Sand’s novel Indiana last night and went through an experience similar to Danielle’s; I had to decide whether to … Continue reading
