Booklust

Nothing like a catchy title to keep people coming back for more blog!

Last night we finished reading The Jungle Book as a family. Each night we take 15 minutes or so, gather up, and take turns reading out loud. I try to pick classics that appeal to all ages. We've read The Prince and the Pauper, Little Men, Sweetgrass, Heidi and now The Jungle Book.  One night during Heidi, when the reader stopped to pass the book to the next person, Silas, whom we'd thought was oblivious, snapped his head up from the blocks with which he was playing and asked, "What happens next?" with an urgent tone in his voice.  More is getting through than we realized.  Of late he transforms into Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (the heroic mongoose from The Jungle Book) in the twinkling of an eye and tries to engage us to be his ill-fated cobras.

I recently got word that my book club in Mankato read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. That inspired us to watch the lecture on youtube.  I miss the wise and witty women from my book club. I read very little here, mostly just plugging away at a really dense, scholarly book of Czech history.  It's the kind where I sometimes read a paragraph several times and still don't completely understand the author's point--I'm not sure why I'm torturing myself-- maybe because it's good for me, like brussel sprouts. 

Caleb also reads a lot less now that he is in public school - ironic, huh? Between fencing, violin, and World of Warcraft, it leaves him little time. My sister sent him the Sword of Shannara trilogy weighing in at 1,191 pages.  I'm hoping he at least finishes it before we leave, so we have enough weight allowance for Czech goodies instead.

Lucy has taken over as the big reader in the family, going through books like crazy. She has 22 books on the shelf above her bed and she's read them all at least once, some of them several times, since we've been here. Inspired by her love of the Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson film, she just read Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, which we discovered in English at the local library.

Silas "reads" at naptime and bedtime mostly and really gobbles up the Frog and Toad readers and his Ladybug magazines.

Peter has become a reader again, too, and loves it.  He's read several fantasy and sci-fi books, particularly enjoying his re-reading of The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers.  He finds that his writing flows better when he's currently engaged in a book.

For those who have sent book-laden packages, we so appreciate it! And the USPS appreciates the injection of cash into their coffers.  We think we are set now; the library does have some books in English and spring is coming wherein the reading will taper off.

Reading in Czech is still not easy for me (the rest of the family doesn't even try). When I try to read Czech, I spend as much time with my nose in the dictionary as in the book.  They have a lot of differences between formal written Czech and conversational, so it's often necessary to learn two versions of the same words. Plus, when people take a moment to think about what they want to say, like most writers do (disregarding those writing facebook comments), they tend to use less common words in order to be more precise.

On Tuesday, Peter finished the first draft of his book. He's feeling a sense of accomplishment. Now comes the hard part of wordsmithing and editing, though. It's a race against the weather, because I'm sure that when the snow melts his bike will call out to him from the dark corner of the cellar and Peter will gladly respond.

Kristine