PRABE - REFLECTION

Hmmmm, I am glad that I was able to do as much reading outside of class that I did. It's nowhere near as much as it's going to be in a week and a half when I don't have homework to do every night after working a full day and then taking care of my family for a few hours. For my graduation/Christmas/birthday present I will be getting a Kindle Fire and can think of nothing that I am going to want to do more than fill it up with all of my To-Read list on goodreads.com. Then I will have it at all times; while cooking supper, while running on the treadmill, waiting in the doctor's office or just sitting on my couch. I can't wait. I have kept all of my textbooks and am interested in going back and really reading some of them in reference to my future classroom. To be honest, my in class reading was surface at best, to just get the needed information. I am really interested to have the time and perspective to dig deeper in to some of the topics and techniques, develop them and make them my own. Those are my intentions for future reading.

Week 10_PRABE #8

I'm not sure where this week went, but I did not have one spare minute to read. Thankfully, we are driving down to Tulsa today and I plan to spend a great chunk of that time reading. But, we will not be back until late late late Sunday night/early early Monday morning, so I won't be able to write about what I read until after the deadline for this assignment. So, here's what I plan to take with me to read: Acid House by Irvine Welsh. I watched Trainspotting again last night after not watching it for at least a couple of years. It inspired me to dig out all of my old Irvine Welsh books. I love his writing style even though his stories make me feel unsettled. I chose Acid House because it's a collection of short stories, so it will be easier for me to start and stop reading over the weekend. I can't decide which of the stories I like the best, but I haven't read it for many years, so maybe reading it from this new perspective will show one to be more appealing to me than another. All of the stories are gritty and have lots of descriptions of working class England and Scotland. I find that to be one of the most interesting parts of his work; seeing the differences and similarities between my life here in the US and the one depicted in the book. Granted, the stories tend to center around violent, depraved, drugged characters, so there isn't a lot of comparison. But, there is human nature and interpersonal experiences that feel universal despite the depravity of many of the situations he depicts.

I can't give exact dates and times read, but between the 3.5 hour drive today and the same tomorrow, I will easily exceed the 90 minutes.

Week 9_PRABE #7

I have to confess that I was out of town this week at my grandmother's house and forgot my backpack by the door at home. So, I did not have the books that I had planned to read in my down time with me. My grandmother's house is out in the middle of nowhere and the only books around are Jackie Collins novels. Forgive me for not being desperate enough to crack one of those; I just couldn't do it. There were a plethora of magazines, though, so I dug in to a few of those. Some were home decorating magazines and I admit that I only looked at the pictures. There were some People magazines and I did read some of those articles. One was about the Toddlers to Tiaras kids. There was one mom that dressed her 3-year-old daughter in a costume modeled after Julia Roberts's prostitute costume from Pretty Woman. Classy and so appropriate, right? I also found out what designer I would wear if I became a celebrity and had to do so: Marchesa. They are just gorgeous. I didn't just read trashy crap magazines, though. My grandparents have years and years of National Geographic magazines in their home. I worked my way through a few of those. The one I really enjoyed was from 1986 and was about the Santa Fe Trail. My grandparents live on the trail and have wagon wheel ruts on their land to this day from the days of the great migration. Many of the things that the article covered were straight out of the Oregon Trail computer game that I played as a kid. Others detailed poignant personal struggles and travels and motivations of the travelers. There were amazing photographs and I thought about these people on my drive home as I looked at the landscape around me and wondered how it looked back then to the myriad of people that made that trip over a hundred years before me.

11/23/11 - 40 min
11/24/11 - 30 min
11/25/11 - 45 min

Week 8_PRABE#6

I did not have a book to read this week, but I did see an article about a book that I'd like to read. It's called Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan. He writes a lot of articles for GQ and the initial article is here: http://www.gq.com/entertainment/books/201111/john-jeremiah-sullivan-pulphead-interview-daniel-riley?printable=true. It talks about his writing style and why his seemingly pop-based articles end up touching a cord with readers and being about more than their superficial topics. That article had links to four of his long articles that are included in the book. I read each of them on my lunch breaks at work this week. The first was about a Christian music festival and his own reactions to what he thought would be just a stock coverage piece. Another was about Axl Rose, who declined to be interviewed, so the author had to find another angle for the story. One was about The Real World cast members after the fact and he was adorable in his unapologetic fanboy adoration for them. The last one was about Bunny Wailer and his attempt at interviewing him and understanding his life. All of these articles were engaging and fascinating to read and helped me pass my lunch hours this week.


11/14/11 - 30 min
11/14/11 - 30 min
11/15/11 - 30 min
11/16/11 - 30 min

Week 7_PRABE#5

We spent twenty hours in the car this weekend traveling to and from a funeral, so I had a lot of time to read. Unfortunately, my children were absolutely rotten during this trip and none of them napped, so I spend less time reading than I had hoped and more time playing referee between them. *sigh* Anyway, I grabbed my husband's iPad to see what books he had downloaded on it. One was Punk Rock Dad: No Rules, Just Real Life by Jim Lindberg. We listen to a lot of punk music and his band is one that I have seen multiple times in concert. We met him this past May at a festival in Vegas, so I thought I would give the book a read. At first there were a lot of anecdotes and stories and I found the book enjoyable. It discussed meeting his wife, life on the road and becoming a parent. But then, it morphed in to a parenting/relationship book trying to give advice. I had to finally stop reading because he did not give any information or tips beyond common sense and the typical advice given in parenting/relationship books. It felt like he didn't have enough to say, so he started giving advice and it felt wrong and dull. I had heard others that started reading but then lost interest and now I know why. He's a punker and needs to write about his punk experiences from a family perspective instead of doling out platitudes and silly words of "wisdom".

11/10/11 - 55 min
11/11/11 - 60 min
11/13/11 - 30 min

Week 5 - PRABE #4

So, we finished Mockingjay. It was, as a series and overall, very enjoyable. The author was great at leaving each chapter on a cliffhanger or major revelation that didn't feel forced. But, it did about kill me and my daughter because each time we tried to stop reading, we felt like we needed to read for just one more chapter. The last book was full of death and destruction, which at times felt a little much for me to be reading out loud to my daughter. But, she's 11 and this was about a war. War is not pretty and she knows that, so the book would not have worked if the battles had been sugar coated. The resolution of everything felt a little rushed. I have felt that way in the last couple of books that I have read. I don't know if it's me or if these last few books have just not had strong conclusions. I am, though, somewhat of a sucker for a happy ending, so I appreciated the epilogue greatly. There were enough twists and turns, events and relationships for me to visit this series again, so that marks it as a winner in my book.

10/23/11 - 50 min
10/24/11 - 35 min
10/25/11 - 23 min

Week 4_PRABE#3

We are still reading Mockingjay. Today we hit on one of the points that has been an issue for me for some time; the fact that she has used these two boys when the situation suited her. The author is still trying to justify this and make it seem like a legitimate love triangle rather than a wishy washy girl that is so co-dependent that she can't not have one or the other of these boys constantly there supporting her. At the same time, she tries to write her as a loner who doesn't need anybody and pushes people away to "protect" them. I don't know, I hate this part of it because the personal relationships are what really make a story and some of them have seemed really genuine and this aspect of the main characters' relationship just sucks. But, I want to find out what happens. Another thing that's weird in this book is that nothing will happen for a long time or there will be weeks or hours (that spreads multiple pages) of prep for something, then other big events take place within a paragraph. The pacing feels awkward sometimes. I know my reviews make it seem like this book/series are not great, but I am enjoying reading them and my daughter is really liking them. I guess we'll see how it ends before I make my final decision. Stay tuned for next week...

10/16/11 - 30 min
10/17/11 - 30 min
10/18/11 - 45 min