A reading update

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I've been pretty quiet lately so I thought I'd just post a little update on what's been going on in the Howling Frogiverse.  I've been reading--but mostly really long books that are taking a while, so posts are few.

I took the kids on a trip this week to San Francisco to visit the Exploratorium at its new location on Pier 15, and I tell you what, it is fantastic.  We had a great time, and I was happy because we could take the BART train into the city and walk to the museum; the old location was a pain to get to and you had to drive, and I really hate driving in San Francisco.  I like to take BART and the kids think it's part of the adventure, so we all won there. 

At Pier 15, with the Bay Bridge.


All the traveling made it impossible to read any of the giant books I have going on, though. When I go on a trip, I always have to take a minimum of 3 paper books and a tablet stuffed with ebooks, even if it's just overnight, but the books invariably stay nearly untouched while I snaffle books from whoever I'm staying with.  My brain pretty much shut down this time and hasn't quite switched back on yet, with the result that I have read nothing but cozy British mysteries for nearly a week.

I'll jump back into serious reading this weekend, though, as we start a bunch of June events.  I have already started reading Pamela for o's 18th Century English Literature Event, and so far I'm into it.  Pamela, in it's florid 18th century way, is addressing a real and serious social problem, and though I'm pretty sure I'm going to hate Richardson's fairy-tale solution, I'm interested to see what happens.

I've checked two Beat-esque books out of the library for Adam's Beats of Summer event, I have Streetcar Named Desire for the Spin, and even one or two books that I just feel like reading.  I've been reading In the First Circle--slowly--for a little while now; I guess I'm about a third of the way through.

And I even have a book or two for the Summer Language Freak Challenge, but I'm completely intimidated by them.  For Russian, I can choose between an e-book version of an Alisa story, or a picture book about a crocodile.  Both are about the same level and meant for 6-year-olds, but very scary for me!  And I found a board book of Struwwelpeter in German, which is also too hard, but I might give it a try.  (Hey, does it count as a Narrative Poem??  Ooh, double challenge points!)

Comments

  1. Monika @ Lovely BookshelfJune 1, 2013 at 4:38 PM

    Hooray for the Summer Language Challenge!! Russian fascinates me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ShelleyJune 1, 2013 at 5:57 PM

    I love San Francisco! We went there a couple of years ago and I think we must have gone to the old location of the Exploratorium. I have to bring multiple books on a trip as well, even though I don't always have time to read. You never know if you'll have time and what kind of mood you'll be in, right?

    ReplyDelete
  3. EvaJune 1, 2013 at 8:15 PM

    Sounds like fun! I've yet to try Richardson; I've gotten along well w most of the 18th century authors I've read but for some reason I'm still skeptical of him.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JeanJune 1, 2013 at 9:11 PM

    Shelley, that's right! And the Exploratorium only just opened a few months ago at the new location, so yep you went to the old one.

    Eva, Richardson is SO wordy and overblown and 18th-century. It's no wonder Fielding made fun of him. But he is good anyway, even through all the fainting. In college, my roommate and I were both assigned to read Clarissa and it was weird how we both got completely immersed in it. It took about a week to snap out of it afterwards.

    Me too, Monika. I so wish I could really read it.

    ReplyDelete

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