You are witnessing the birth of a blog. I have often thought of creating my own website, however after giving it much thought, I think this will be a better place to start to see if I have the discipline to maintain the content and high interest that any blog or web page requires.
I am a school librarian by trade and read many books, however I never create notes to remember their themes and merits. The books become intertwined in my head and I remember that I liked the book or didn't like it and that's about it. I hope through this blog to accomplish several things:
One get some comments and discussion going about different books so that I am forced to keep some notes on each book and also remember them better. Also being a middle school librarian I am somewhat of a frustrated research librarian. I can't ever seem to get past the civil war and "Animal Farm". I hope to research some reader questions and answer them or at least have some ideas where to find answers for people who read this blog. I enjoy research and am confident some interesting questions will arise from our book discussions. Another reason for this blog is just to save people time and money. I just purchased Dava Sobel's "Galileo's Daughter", because I thought based on the cover, that it would be like Sarah Durant's "Birth of Venus", which I really enjoyed. Well I was wrong, it is written like a thesis, and although very informative and well written, not what I was expecting. Hopefully, through this blog, interesting titles will be exchanged plus enough information to see if the book is a good match for the reader.
Well now that all the background has been laid out, let's start with a few books that have crossed my path this summer. I read Stephen Clark's "A Year in the Merde" and really enjoyed it. This was before my notion of starting a blog so I do not have any notes to work from however I found a great summary of this book on Wikipedia that will peak your interest. I remember it as funny and a good summer read.
Currently I am rereading Suze Orman's, "The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom". I recently heard a criticism of Suze on a talk show that she does not practice what she preaches, however who cares. Her discussion of topics is precise and easy to read. The talk show said that all of Orman's assets are currently tied up in very conservative investments. First off, I'm not sure how they know where all her assets are tied up, and secondly, she may have started off less conservatively in her investments and as money accumulated moved it into safer investments, who wouldn't. This book is easy to read and motivates you to do more about your personal finance. Having recently battled my way out of some credit card debt, I cannot describe the exuberance of the moment that the debt was gone. I suppose after the discipline I imposed on myself and my family to creep out of debt, maintaing a blog will be sheer joy. If Suze Orman is not your type of read, Jean Chatzky is also a good writer on family finance.
This post is getting a bit too long, so I will just mention that I am also reading (not cover to cover) "Yoga with weights for Dummies". I have a real love/hate relationship with yoga. I cannot do any of the poses and will be a beginner my entire life, but the destressing that I feel in my body after a yoga session is incredible. I will start here next post, with one or two simple stretches that will say it all.
Well that wasn't so bad. I guess just getting past the first post is half the battle. Looking forward to experimenting with pictures and interjecting a little humor. Much too serious today.
