It's been a while...

Since I'm supposed to be catching up on grading, as midterms are due by 7am on Monday, of course I decided to blog =).  As with most things I begin and want to do, I find myself falling short - keeping up with this blog is only one example of that.  But, I do have to admit, and this is and isn't an excuse, that it's been quite chaotic and extremely busy lately, making it very hard to keep up with my blogging.  I think I need to put it in my Google calendar so that I can remember to blog.  Google calendars has been such a lifesaver, why not use it to make me more organized in these types of activities as well?

I have started reading Great Expectations... I'm finding it rather dull.  I'm reading it on my Kindle, which I love, but I'm not sure if reading on that is different for me, or if it is just the book I don't care for.  I have to hurry and get done with that book so I can try another to see if I just have to train myself to read differently on the Kindle.  I'm finding that I am not getting the normal visualization I get when I read books that I get with the Kindle.  Probably just the book - or the fact that I am reading it so sporadically that I'm having trouble keeping up with the story - I'm just not invested in it.  It seems like work - maybe this is what my students feel like when I force them to read something... hmmmm, this could be a great lesson for me...

OK... time to get back to grading Gatsby essays... they aren't that pretty, but they aren't that ugly either.

Books I should have read in high school but didn't challenge

My students think that, because I am an English teacher, I have read every book ever written.  Boy, are they wrong!  Don't get me wrong, I love to read... but sometimes I feel like I don't read often enough because I am constantly reading for my job =).  When I saw Dana Huff's challenge about reading books I never had the opportunity to read in high school (or college) I thought that it was just what I should be doing, because I do need to read more classics.  My AP and Pre-AP students have to read an independent book each quarter, and the lists I give them to choose from have books on them that I have never read.  I need to definitely do more reading and those lists are a good place to start.

I think I'm going to go for the Graduate Student level... but maybe over summer I'll be able to make it up to the Literature Professor level... I just got a Kindle for Christmas and want to put it to use so my husband doesn't feel like he spent all the money for nothing on me =).  The nice thing about the Kindle is that many classics I want to read are available for free through the Kindle.

My first 6 books to read for the year to make it to Graduate Student level:

1. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (I have been told I need to read Dickens... for some reason I feel like it would be torture, but several students tell me I will love it!)
2. As I Lay Dying, William Faulker
3. Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison (I adore and admire Toni Morrison.  I believe I actually own all of her novels, but have not had (or made) the time to sit down and read them.  I have heard a lot about this book and am looking forward to getting started on reading it.)
4. Emma, Jane Austen
5. The Stranger, Albert Camus
6. Catch-22, Joseph Heller

 If I have the time to attempt 6 more books to make it to Literature Professor level I'll read:

1. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
2. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut (When I have students read this book as one of their independent book selections they come back very confused... I need to read it so I can help them to better comprehend the book and its purpose)
3. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
4. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather (Willa Cather is, next to Toni Morrison and John Steinbeck, by favorite author.  Again, I do own I believe all of Cather's books but have never read this one... yet.  Looking forward to it!)
5. The Call of the Wild, Jack London
6. Main Street, Sinclair Lewis

I want to get started reading now!  But, I do have a stack of papers to grade staring me in the face... those probably take priority.  But I will be sure to make time for myself each week to read so I can start checking some of these off of my list!