Weekly Wrap-up for January 30, 2011: Library Book Sales, New Acquisitions, and Reading.

This last week was finals week as the kids finished their first semester and took their final exams. I get all new kids next Tuesday and I am excited to start fresh and implement some of my own ideas into the classroom. Right away I will be teaching The Glass Castle to my seniors and instructing them on how to write their own mini-memoirs. My sophomore American Literature students will be diving into Of Mice and Men, a book I am not a fan of. I will have a big challenge in front of me to make sure that I can teach it in a way that I end up loving it as well!

My two U.S. History classes will start learning about WWII, so that should be a fun few weeks. I have a lot of interactive activities planned, including a few webquests. Hopefully it all turns out well!

Besides being stressed out about grading essays, I also had some fun moments this week. My library was having their used book sale, so I made sure to set aside time on the first day to head over there. It was packed, as usual, but there were a lot of great things! I managed to walk away with a quite a few new additions to my shelves. I'm apologizing in advance for picture quality. I was fighting the kitties who wanted to attack and eat my new books as well as explaining to the husband where all these came from. :)



This first stack from top to bottom contains the following:

Echoes from the Macabre by Daphne Du Maurier: Since I adored Rebecca, I had to snatch up this collection of short stories as soon as I saw it.

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse: I have this one on my list and just haven't gotten my hands on it. It has a glorious cover and was in great condition, so it was a good find!

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian: A fellow teacher had this with her at lunch and the premise sounded interesting, so I grabbed it for a future read.

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck: This is one I have heard great things about. I'm a little annoyed with the amount of tape all over the book, but hey, it was $1!

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera: I have another title by the same author on my shelf (The Unbearable Lightness of Being), so this gets to join it (it was an impulse buy)

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt: I was certain I didn't have this and since the book looked brand new, I bought it. Then I came home and realized I already owned it...anyone want it? I'll ship it to you if you live in the U.S.!

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope: This was another book that looked brand new and since its a classic, it needed a home on my classics bookshelf.

Howards End by E.M. Forster: I read A Room with a View as my 3rd book off my list and loved it, so hopefully this one is as good!



This second stack from top to bottom contains the following:

Three Comedies by W. Somerset Maugham: Since reading The Painted Veil and loving it, I decided to start collecting other pieces by Maugham. This has three of his plays.

The Social Contract by Rousseau: A philosophical piece I once read in college for a history class. I lost my copy and have been looking for one ever since. I really enjoyed it, so I hope to read this again (eventually).

Evangeline by Longfellow: This is another piece I read in college and really enjoyed. This was a cute little edition, so I had to have it.

The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch: Yet another book that just called to me. I seem to recall reading a review of it recently, so I picked it up and shoved it in the bag.

Four Major Plays by Henrik Ibsen: This was a pretty Oxford Edition (which I do love) and contains a couple of the plays on my list, including A Doll's House, which is being read for A Year of Feminist Classics in March.

So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba: I have seen reviews for this pop up everywhere, so when I saw it, I grabbed it and clutched it close (I also scared a little old lady in the process). I may have squealed as I grabbed it. Apparently it is hard to find??

Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy: This is actually a title I cut off my original list. Now that I have a copy, I want to read it....but we'll see.

The Prince by Machiavelli: Yet another book off my list, and a pretty Oxford classic!



This third and final stack contains the following from top to bottom:

The Best American Short Stories 2005, 2002, and 1998: I am going to try and make a point of reading more short fiction, so when I saw these I picked them up. Flipping through them, I can tell that only a few stories will appeal to me, so I am glad I didn't buy these at a regular book store.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: I have been intrigued by this one since seeing it in the bookstore years ago, so I was happy to find a nice copy.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides: A long-time goal is to read all the Pulitzer Prize winning novels, so this is a step towards that goal.

The Reader by Bernard Schlink: I grabbed this thinking I didn't already own it. But I do. So if you say the word and live in the U.S., I'll mail it to you. :)

The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud: This was another impulse buy.


Quite the loot, huh? I actually restrained myself this time, mainly because we are running out of room. :) But I saw people walking out with bags of books, so I was quite tame.

The first time I went a year ago, I didn't check the books for writing on the inside before I bought them and regretted that when I got home and looked at the more closely. Now I always check to see the inside condition as well. Do you have requirements for buying used books?

Even with finals and grading, I still had a decent week reading. I read A Raisin in the Sun for my pseudo buddy review with Amanda, a large chunk of Oliver Twist in preparation for the upcoming readalong, and more of War and Peace for the post going up tomorrow morning (although, at the time of writing this, I am behind and don't know if I can finish volume 2 in time for the post tomorrow!).

This week I need to make a lot of progress reading War and Peace, as well as reading the first three chapters of Ulysses for that readalong. Yeah, I'm a little nuts.

I also want to start something fun to alleviate all that heavy reading...any ideas?

Lastly, I want to point you in the direction of three excellent posts (that all went up on Friday) that I think you all need to read. I know that all three of them got me thinking about my reading process and how I view reading:

1. Jillian from A Room of One's Own: Are we crazy to be reading so fast?
2. Jaime from The Broke and The Bookish: To read or not to reread?
3. Darlyn from Your Move, Dickens: "That the world may know he loved me once..."
   

Hope you have a great reading week!