Back in Action

Hello everyone, or more accurately, that one person who accidentally clicked a link and now you're stuck here!

Well, my previous attempts to blog here crashed and burned.  We had the most insane 2012.  I'm glad it's over.  Plus I forgot my login details...

So, we begin afresh in the new year as is the tradition!


I'm going to be keeping it super simple, because my online time needs to be managed as it is.  Mainly, I'll be using this blog as a link to the read 52 books in 52 weeks, I sincerely doubt I'll be able to read a book a week, but I'm going to have a go.


The first one I'm going to tackle is Classics in the Classroom by Michael Clay Thompson (MCT), published by Royal Fireworks Press.  Winter Rose & I will be going through the level 1 MCT Elementary Language arts program as part of our language arts this year, and the title of Classics in the Classroom intrigued me.  In my schooling days we studied little in the way of classics.  I am very excited by this series!

I'm going to read this book first because it has an index of books in the back, so hopefully it will give me a general path to reading more classics as we continue through the 52 books.  I hope it will also inspire me to continue to work through some of the more difficult classics!  I will intersperse other books though the year, sometimes I need an easy book to depressurize my brain.

I began reading classics (I concede that calling all of these *classics* is debatable!) last year, with the simple goal of becoming a more well-read, educated adult.  Last year I read for the first time:

Atlas Shrugged and The Fountain Head - both by Ayn Rand
The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
Anna Karenina & My Confession - Tolstoy
The Awakening - Chopin
Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
The Foundation Trilogy - Asimov
Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis
Candide - Voltaire

I enjoyed all of these to different degrees.  A very quick review - I loved Rand's books, even though her philosophy is very polarizing I thought she had some excellent things to say and a thrilling story to say it (I even read every word of the 50+ page speech in Atlas).  Grapes of Wrath was amazing, I still get depressed remembering it.  So poignant, so raw.  The Awakening was also very depressing, I wanted to stop reading this book, I kept wondering why I enjoyed it but I really did.  I think it gave me a glimpse into a part of myself I don't like.  I was pleasantly surprised by my first experiences with Austen & Bronte, I now see why they are much loved classics.  Anna Karenina was my nemesis for a while, it took me ages to get through it, but in the end I grew to love the characters and especially resonated with Levin's story.  Asimov's story was fun, very interesting, exciting!  Age of Innocence, I remember this book fondly - I loved the ending.  The Screwtape letters was one of those books that had me nodding with every page, very insightful.  Candide was a lot of fun.

I also have a list of 'began - but still working on':
The Gulag Archipelago - Solzhenitsyn
Dr Zhivago - Pasternak
The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoyevski     (those Russians!  I enjoy them but such a hard slog!)
The Aeneid - Virgil... I may still be working on this one on my deathbed...

So, here's to a better, book-y-er, 2013!