As its summer, my reading is rather wide spread. I'm not feeling the need to veg in the evenings after working hard all day, so I'm reading more. Several months ago, I realized I'd stopped reading fiction (except WoT) by in large, and really only read non-fiction. Currently, I have several books/articles/blogs that I'm working on.
Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson
I'm interested in ecology. No, that's wrong. I love and adore all things ecology. This is, I do believe, considered the classical of ecological writings, and the previous Bio I teacher used it to teach ecology, so I decided I would, too. I'm only a few pages into the first chapter; I'm having a hard time getting into it and getting past the current emotional appeal. :::must persevere::: The AP Bio kids are reading it over the summer, so I got a hold of their assignment to help me think through it as I read. A good summary will help me as I prepare to teach from this book.
Wisdom and Eloquence: A Christian paradigm for classical learning, by Robert Littlejohn and Charles T. Evans
This is actually assigned reading from the school for the summer (1 of 2). I'm through 3 chapters at this point, and quite enjoying it. It prompted me to think about "what makes a society civilized?" and "What did Plato really say about educating children?". I paused in reading for a few days while considering the civilized society question, and it took about a week to peruse Plato's writings on education. I'm back to the book itself now. I think they leave the topic of worldview less dealt with than needed, but then I also took a two week intensive class on worldview on summer. My expectations may be too high. I think that "classical" education is a good way to go about educating people, but I want to really ponder the ideas presented. I hope to offer some good reflections at some point.
The Attributes of God, by A.W. Tozer
I'm reading this for a summer Bible study that I've not actually made it to yet. I've enjoyed reading Tozer's writings, to some extent. I've only read 2 chapters, so it is inappropriate to cast judgement yet; the picture I have is very sketchy. When I have a more complete picture, I plan to write a summary of my thoughts (actually, I hope to do this for every book I read).
Article: A special report on the human genome, From The Economist, June 19, 2010
I teach Biology, I love getting to study the living world. Hubby pointed this set of articles out to me this morning, and I've read 1.5 of the 8 or so sections (none are that long). I can see some pretty big jumps of logic, and some major assumptions, but, in the author's defense, these are common in the biological sciences. I've love to deal with these articles in writing to present my thoughts and observations.
There are more things to read this summer, and I'm quite excited about all of it. Unfortunately, I still don't have enough time to do it ALL. I still want to knit (February Lady Sweater looking like a sweater!) and garden (I love getting dirty and sweaty out there), and I can be quite lazy. The key will be remembering that the key to "self-discipline is remembering what you really want". Got that from flylady.net a year or so ago; its been a time saver at several points when I'm feeling lazy and lethargic. I suspect that there just isn't enough time to do all I want to do, and I must make choices -- no, I'm quite sure that I must make choices -- I just don't want to.
:::sigh::: Oh, well. Deal with life as it happens, and don't try to deal with tomorrow till it gets here.
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