Friday 5 February 2016

February in Books

This is the first year that I have set myself reading lists and I'm still reeling a bit. The first book on one of the lists is now completed and I'm a fair way through the first on the other. Reading is feeling a bit more pressurised than usual. Has anyone else ever felt like this with reading lists?


Anyway, the current reads are

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke Volume 2 by J.C. Ryle. These are brilliant. I've just started volume 2. Just a short paragraph as a taster:

If we do pray, let it be a settled rule with us never to leave off the habit of praying, and never to shorten our prayers. A man's state before God may always be measured by his prayers. Whenever we begin to feel careless about our private prayers, we may depend upon it there is something very wrong in the condition of our souls. There are breakers ahead. We are in imminent danger of a shipwreck.

D'Aubinge's The Triumph of Truth: a Life of Martin Luther. This is slow progress perhaps because I read another book about Luther recently.   When Lightning Struck was fictionalised and aimed at older children so, to be honest, I enjoyed it more although The Triumph of Truth isn't unreadable, just long.

Another long book is Bleak House. My on-line book club is reading this book. I've read Bleak House before and enjoyed the twists of Jarndyce vs Jarndyce, after all, I'm married to a lawyer. This was already on my Kindle and I'm reading it again. 

Last, I think, although I'm sorely tempted to pick up a short book that can be finished in a day or two, is How to teach your children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig. For a non-English literature specialist this is a helpful book explaining how best to teach children a few lines of Shakespeare; some of the background to some of the plays and some information about poetry. I'm not an enormous Shakespeare enthusiast but this is helpful background to use in deciding which plays to study and to learn about their contribution to the language. 

Our read alouds are Jungle Doctor to the Rescue by Paul White which we are reading for the book club; Joan of Arc by Diane Stanley to fit with history and Bronze and Sonflower by Cao Wenxuan. This latter book is set in China during the Cultural Revolution.

Please do let me know about the books that you are enjoying. 

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6 comments:

  1. That's one reason I don't do reading lists. I don't need any extra stress....

    The Ludwig Shakespeare book did not meet with my kids' approval. They just want to watch the plays...and that is probably what it's about at this stage. Now my adult kids watch Shakespeare for fun, and now they are old enough to start to understand him with their hearts as well as their minds.

    This year my reading goal is to list every book I read on GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/4244265

    I was planning to read no more than 52 books, but it looks as though that won't work.

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    1. I think that I am beginning to agree with you about reading lists. I don't think that I have felt stressed about reading before. I will see how it goes. Interesting, I have found Ludwig helpful but I don't think my younger two would manage the plays straight off. Will look you up on Goods reads as I joined in January.

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    2. I think that I am beginning to agree with you about reading lists. I don't think that I have felt stressed about reading before. I will see how it goes. Interesting, I have found Ludwig helpful but I don't think my younger two would manage the plays straight off. Will look you up on Goods reads as I joined in January.

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  2. I have books set aside to read for this year, but not many, so it's not much pressure. I haven't ever joined a reading list with others. I like the sound of the Shakespeare book, as although I did some of his plays at school and university, that is quite different to reading them with my own children :-)

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  3. In place of a list I start out with a mindset to try and read 52 books during the year - pre-reading novels/lit for the children counts, as do family read-alouds and audio books :)
    A set list would me feel *really* pressured; however, I do pop some books in my optional bookbasket to read thru if I feel like it.
    I enjoyed Bleak House too, and only recently went through it for the first time.
    One book I'm currently enjoying reading, and you may too? ,is The Tartan Pimpernel ~ Donald Caskie (Scots Kirk minister based in Paris during the end of the WWII.)
    Happy reading!!

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    1. The Scarlet Pimpernel sounds interesting. I will look it up.
      Last year, I read more than I thought that I would so thought that a book list might encourage me to read more. I'm not sure that it is having that effect!

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