No Harry here

I didn't spend my weekend reading the new Harry Potter or one of the other Harry Potters. I spent last night (all night, literally) doing grad school work, which seems like all I do these days. I am going to Corpus Christi for three days, and I'm taking my computer with me so I can do grad school work at night. I have a major project due next weekend and a quiz to take by midnight on Thursday.

I have done some reading lately, but I haven't had time to post anything about the books. I mentioned in an earlier post that I read The Inheritance of Loss for the book club that I am in now. I have things to say about the book, but I don't have time right now.

I also finished The Book Thief, which I had begun during the spring semester silent reading time in my classes. This book is categorized a young adult fiction, but I loved this book. It was sad, funny, horrific--World War II in a poor neighborhood of a Munich suburb. I cried more than once finishing this book. I hope to write more about it later.

The last few days of this week, I was able to squeeze in enough reading time to finished reading We, which I had read during silent reading time in my classes during the fall. At some point, I interupted my reading and never went back to it. It's a Russian dystopia that predates both Brave New World and 1984, which have been required reading for several years in my English classes. Maybe I'll find time to write about this book soon.

Now, I need to do some reading for one of my grad school class, but I think I will go to bed now and get up early and read before I leave for Corpus. I'll read myself to sleep with Twisted, which I am enjoying so far--a quick read even for this slow reader. Later.

Book club reading feels like work

I have written more than once that I am a slow reader, and I knew that my slowness coupled with my grad school workload might be a problem when I agreed to join a book club. Well, the club meets tomorrow, and I still have over 100 pages to read, and I am the host--I chose this book. I wouldn't be as worried if it weren't for the fact that I am going to the Astros game tomorrow, so I really have to finish tonight.

I really don't enjoy trying to zoom through books, especially books like The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. I would like to have the time to wallow in such wonderful use of language as Desai's and ponder her insights into humanity, but I really haven't been able to do that with this book. Next time I get to choose, I might pick something less literary.

If I didn't have so much reading to do, I would post something longer tonight. I would post about how much I enjoyed 1408, and I would post about the clever lyrics in Panic! at the Disco's songs. Oh yeah, I would also post about the great time I had at the True Colors concert, especially how great Cyndi Lauper was.

Alas, though, I have to read now. Maybe I'll find time to write later.

Moving Out

These trash cans (there are two more trash cans that I failed to put in the photo) and boxes hold fifteen years of my work life. Actually, I would have had a lot more teaching past to dispose of had I not had a different classroom for each of the last two years. Thursday, I resigned from my teaching position and cleaned out my room. I will be a librarian in the fall at a different school in a different district. Being a librarian instead of a teacher will be a big change, and I know that I will miss some of aspects of being a teacher. I will NOT miss the grading papers part of teaching. :-)

Despite my unhappiness for the past three school years, I will miss working at my old school. So many of those people are like family to me, and I can't imagine not seeing them every day and not knowing what is going on in their lives. Of course, I will keep in touch with some of them, but it won't be quite the same.

I'm really looking forward to my new career, but I am not having a very fun summer, taking classes to prepare for my new career. I barely have any time for fun stuff, like movies, reading, or traveling. I have been to a concert, and I plan to blog about that soon. (I can't do it now because I have an assignment to get started on--it's due two days from now and it's a big one.) Today, though, I did go to the Astros game and watched them shut out the Rockies, first shut out of what has been a very long and disappointing season and it's not quite half over yet. Maybe the second half will be better, like it has been for the past few seasons.

I better get started on my assignment now. Later.