One of my blog friends posted a summer reading challenge. She listed 15 categories, asking participants to read at least seven of them. I'm not entering the official challenge, as I seriously doubt I'll read 7 books over the summer with the garden and baby chicks on the way, but I do think it would be a neat challenge to read these before the year is out. I went ahead and listed more than seven of the categories, just in case (haha!).
1. Professional development (can be loosely interpreted): Creating Web Pages for Dummies
I bought this book several years ago so the info may already be obsolete. It's not exactly thin, either, and has exercises included. But still, even if it takes several months to work through it, I think this might be well worth delving into...finally.
2. History: Scalia Dissents Bobby picked this book up at a book sale a few years ago and I've had it on the dresser since he read it thinking I would get to it soon. Since Justice Scalia died this year AND it's his disagreements with the majority on the Supreme Court, I think it will be an interesting, although quite tedious, read. Again, not the type of book I'd read in one or two settings but would take many months to go through.
3. Placed in a country you're not familiar with OR about a country you're not familiar with: Arabia Nights. I know. This one is kind of cheating. BUT I've never read it, it's already on my dresser, AND it IS folk tales from the Middle East. This one I expect to take a little while because of it's thickness, but should read it faster because it's fiction.
4. A YA Book...this one is still blank, though several people have suggested Divergent to me in the past.
5. A book recommended by a friend: Devil in the White City. A friend of mine had just posted this on Facebook two days before this challenge was posted. I may just have to borrow it.
6. A graphic novel...still blank.
7. A book you've been meaning to read: The Ghost Warriors. Another one that's on my shelf and talks about the Israeli soldiers who infiltrated parts of Palestine in the early 2000s during the riots in Israel.
8. A book published more than 100 years ago: Frankenstein. It's a classic this English major has yet to read. Never appealed to me, but figured now's a good time to pull something off my shelf and toss or re-shelf after I read it.
9. A book recommended by a teenager...still blank.
10. A biography - Thieves of Baghdad. Another one on my dresser from a book sell. Accounts from our Marines who tried to track thieves who were stealing and selling the country's antiques on the black market.
11. A play - A Midsummer Night's Dream. Yes, I took the Shakespeare course in college, but this was one of the many plays I read cliff notes for or tried to take enough notes during class that I didn't actually read the play. Yeah. I cheated myself in so many ways those days.
12. A memoir: Decision Points. George W. Bush's book. Another one on my dresser.
13. A book by someone you might not spiritually agree with. Apocrypha. Yeah. I'm stretching the boundaries on this one. Maybe. But I've never read it, have always heard about it, and we were actually given a copy of it many, many years ago.
14. A book that won an award. Wicked. Everyone I know who has seen the musical raves about it. I've seen the book it's based on (which I think actually has a different title) but have never purchased it or read it. YES. This is actually a book that I don't already have or do not know anyone who owns. If I choose this book as one to actually read, I'll either have to find it at the library or break the book moratorium we are under and buy it. GASP!!! Let's hope the library has it.
15. A book you read years ago and have meant to reread. Will Cather. I read it in middle school and other than thinking it was very boring remember absolutely nothing about it..well my high school teacher mentioned it quite a bit in some of his lectures. So perhaps it might be one of those books that actually means something now that I have a little maturity on me. That, or either the Great Gatsby. I read that in high school and hated it. A UAB professor told our class he quit requiring it because my generation didn't get it and sympathized with the wrong characters. Maybe now that I'm older it might make more sense. Maybe.
And that's my crazy list. I may not get them all read. But even if I only finish five of them, that will be five books that weren't high on my priority list that will not longer sit on the shelf/dresser collecting dust.
1. Professional development (can be loosely interpreted): Creating Web Pages for Dummies
I bought this book several years ago so the info may already be obsolete. It's not exactly thin, either, and has exercises included. But still, even if it takes several months to work through it, I think this might be well worth delving into...finally.
2. History: Scalia Dissents Bobby picked this book up at a book sale a few years ago and I've had it on the dresser since he read it thinking I would get to it soon. Since Justice Scalia died this year AND it's his disagreements with the majority on the Supreme Court, I think it will be an interesting, although quite tedious, read. Again, not the type of book I'd read in one or two settings but would take many months to go through.
3. Placed in a country you're not familiar with OR about a country you're not familiar with: Arabia Nights. I know. This one is kind of cheating. BUT I've never read it, it's already on my dresser, AND it IS folk tales from the Middle East. This one I expect to take a little while because of it's thickness, but should read it faster because it's fiction.
4. A YA Book...this one is still blank, though several people have suggested Divergent to me in the past.
5. A book recommended by a friend: Devil in the White City. A friend of mine had just posted this on Facebook two days before this challenge was posted. I may just have to borrow it.
6. A graphic novel...still blank.
7. A book you've been meaning to read: The Ghost Warriors. Another one that's on my shelf and talks about the Israeli soldiers who infiltrated parts of Palestine in the early 2000s during the riots in Israel.
8. A book published more than 100 years ago: Frankenstein. It's a classic this English major has yet to read. Never appealed to me, but figured now's a good time to pull something off my shelf and toss or re-shelf after I read it.
9. A book recommended by a teenager...still blank.
10. A biography - Thieves of Baghdad. Another one on my dresser from a book sell. Accounts from our Marines who tried to track thieves who were stealing and selling the country's antiques on the black market.
11. A play - A Midsummer Night's Dream. Yes, I took the Shakespeare course in college, but this was one of the many plays I read cliff notes for or tried to take enough notes during class that I didn't actually read the play. Yeah. I cheated myself in so many ways those days.
12. A memoir: Decision Points. George W. Bush's book. Another one on my dresser.
13. A book by someone you might not spiritually agree with. Apocrypha. Yeah. I'm stretching the boundaries on this one. Maybe. But I've never read it, have always heard about it, and we were actually given a copy of it many, many years ago.
14. A book that won an award. Wicked. Everyone I know who has seen the musical raves about it. I've seen the book it's based on (which I think actually has a different title) but have never purchased it or read it. YES. This is actually a book that I don't already have or do not know anyone who owns. If I choose this book as one to actually read, I'll either have to find it at the library or break the book moratorium we are under and buy it. GASP!!! Let's hope the library has it.
15. A book you read years ago and have meant to reread. Will Cather. I read it in middle school and other than thinking it was very boring remember absolutely nothing about it..well my high school teacher mentioned it quite a bit in some of his lectures. So perhaps it might be one of those books that actually means something now that I have a little maturity on me. That, or either the Great Gatsby. I read that in high school and hated it. A UAB professor told our class he quit requiring it because my generation didn't get it and sympathized with the wrong characters. Maybe now that I'm older it might make more sense. Maybe.
And that's my crazy list. I may not get them all read. But even if I only finish five of them, that will be five books that weren't high on my priority list that will not longer sit on the shelf/dresser collecting dust.
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