I first read The Phantom Tollbooth in Grade 5 or so, I think. I didn't like it.
I therefore don't know what possessed me to take it back out from the library in order to re-read it. But I did. It sat there for a bit before I got to it.
But WOW. I'm so glad I re-read it. I think I'd put it in the top ten best books I've ever read. I think I'll likely read it many more times, as I feel there is so much more to get out of it. The way Juster writes is just magic. His imagination to create this world is incredible. I couldn't pick out my favorite part, because each and every sentence makes you think and wonder. Everything he wrote just made me gasp and laugh and reflect - it's brilliant start to finish.
Maurice Sendak (author of Where the Wild Things Are) says in the introduction that "The Phantom Tollbooth is concerned with the awakening of the lazy mind." I love this, as I think it's an excellent way to sum up how I feel after reading it.
Oh. And The Pilgrim's Progress by Paul Bunyan is on my to-read list - I have a beautiful old copy of it to read. Maurice Sendak recommended it to me...
Title: The Phantom Tollbooth
Author: Norton Juster
Published: 1961
Pages: 256
Total Books Blogged: 28
Total Pages: 7,853
Wednesday 29 April 2015
Monday 27 April 2015
Completed: What I Eat - Around the World in 80 Diets by Peter Menzel & Faith D'Aluisio
This is one of those books that has inspired me. I think great books either really make you think, really make you take action, or really make you feel. This one falls into the second category - it really made me take action.
This book surveys, as a photographic art project, a day's food for 80 people - men, women, and children - from all over the world. I believe the only Canadian was a teen from an earth-hugging vegetarian family in Quebec. I was impressed to see her eating paneer!
The American 'days' were horribly depressing. Processed meat and foods. Pop (sorry - soda). Candy. Empty carbs. Artifically-pumped-up beverages of all sorts and varieties. A large slab of bologna. The only redeeming person from the whole country was a Hispanic lady who owned a restaurant - her food looked awesome. But it made me realize I want my home to be more reflective of the diversity of colour, flavour, texture, and taste of the world. Though we already eat very well - almost everything from scratch, lots of fruit and veggies - there is so much to explore in terms of cuisine from various cuisines around the world. All of the food from Mexico, China, Vietnam, Iran, Palestine, India - it all looked so incredibly delicious.
So. Yet again I have fallen victim to the library. I started with India, and have three different cookbooks out. I dragged my whole family to Fruiticana market in order to get the proper spices (the ones I didn't already have, like curry leaves), and various dals. This weekend I made potato curry and coconut curried lentils and cilantro carrots and it was all awesome! I'm so glad my kids love Indian food too.
I want to do some southeast Asian cooking too - stir fries, green veggies, and Pho. Looking at other peoples' diets made me want to actively enrich my own, despite being in a good place compared to many of those with whom I share a continent (the guy whose only daily vegetables were half a can of peas, for example).
Read this book. It'll make you realize how much more is out there to explore!!
This book surveys, as a photographic art project, a day's food for 80 people - men, women, and children - from all over the world. I believe the only Canadian was a teen from an earth-hugging vegetarian family in Quebec. I was impressed to see her eating paneer!
The American 'days' were horribly depressing. Processed meat and foods. Pop (sorry - soda). Candy. Empty carbs. Artifically-pumped-up beverages of all sorts and varieties. A large slab of bologna. The only redeeming person from the whole country was a Hispanic lady who owned a restaurant - her food looked awesome. But it made me realize I want my home to be more reflective of the diversity of colour, flavour, texture, and taste of the world. Though we already eat very well - almost everything from scratch, lots of fruit and veggies - there is so much to explore in terms of cuisine from various cuisines around the world. All of the food from Mexico, China, Vietnam, Iran, Palestine, India - it all looked so incredibly delicious.
So. Yet again I have fallen victim to the library. I started with India, and have three different cookbooks out. I dragged my whole family to Fruiticana market in order to get the proper spices (the ones I didn't already have, like curry leaves), and various dals. This weekend I made potato curry and coconut curried lentils and cilantro carrots and it was all awesome! I'm so glad my kids love Indian food too.
I want to do some southeast Asian cooking too - stir fries, green veggies, and Pho. Looking at other peoples' diets made me want to actively enrich my own, despite being in a good place compared to many of those with whom I share a continent (the guy whose only daily vegetables were half a can of peas, for example).
Read this book. It'll make you realize how much more is out there to explore!!
Title: What I Eat - Around the World in 80 Diets
Authors: Peter Menzel & Faith D'Aluisio
Published: 2010
Pages:329
Total Books Blogged: 27
Total Pages: 7597
Monday 20 April 2015
Reading out loud: Bedtime with my kids
As long as I have known my sons, I have read to them before bed. They brush their teeth, they curl up with myself and/or D on our bed, and we read to them.
The past year or so, we have moved on a bit from picture books. G is ten now; J is 7. Both still love a few of our story books, and we read them occasionally. But they now have both the attention span and desire to have longer books read to them. The first of these was Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, and we have since read several others - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches, and Kai: Ninja of Fire (a novel based on the Lego Ninjago series). Currently we are reading How to Steal a Dragon's Sword from the How to Train Your Dragon series.
I originally did not include these in my blog but then I thought - why shouldn't I? Even more than the novels I read by myself, I read each and every word of these out loud, very carefully (and doing all the voices!). They are just as much a part of my repertoire as everything else I read.
So! Here a smidge on each book:
Nicholas St. North: Amazing! What a brilliant young-adult book. The author has done others, and I would love to read them - just haven't made the time yet. This one's inspiration is 'St. Nick', or father Christmas. There is one about the Easter Bunny as well, and several others besides. SUCH a great book. I don't even remember where we got it, but I wish I could let them know how much we loved it!
The Witches and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Roald Dahl is incredible. The boys loved Charlie, and they liked The Witches, though they found the witches a bit scary (as did I! I forgot that some parts were quite graphic...). They got a boxed set of his collected works for Christmas. Also a somber reminder to all of us: His daughter was lost to measles at just 7 years old. Vaccinate!!
Ninjago's Kai: Ninja of Fire: Not the worst thing I've ever read, and thankfully short. The kids enjoyed it...?
Completed:
Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King by William Joyce and Laura Geringer
The Witches by Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Lego Ninjago - Kai: Ninja of Fire by Greg Farshtey
Altogether now:
Pages: 228 + 201 + 180 + 74 = 683
Total Books Blogged: 26
Total Pages: 7,268
The past year or so, we have moved on a bit from picture books. G is ten now; J is 7. Both still love a few of our story books, and we read them occasionally. But they now have both the attention span and desire to have longer books read to them. The first of these was Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, and we have since read several others - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches, and Kai: Ninja of Fire (a novel based on the Lego Ninjago series). Currently we are reading How to Steal a Dragon's Sword from the How to Train Your Dragon series.
I originally did not include these in my blog but then I thought - why shouldn't I? Even more than the novels I read by myself, I read each and every word of these out loud, very carefully (and doing all the voices!). They are just as much a part of my repertoire as everything else I read.
So! Here a smidge on each book:
Nicholas St. North: Amazing! What a brilliant young-adult book. The author has done others, and I would love to read them - just haven't made the time yet. This one's inspiration is 'St. Nick', or father Christmas. There is one about the Easter Bunny as well, and several others besides. SUCH a great book. I don't even remember where we got it, but I wish I could let them know how much we loved it!
The Witches and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Roald Dahl is incredible. The boys loved Charlie, and they liked The Witches, though they found the witches a bit scary (as did I! I forgot that some parts were quite graphic...). They got a boxed set of his collected works for Christmas. Also a somber reminder to all of us: His daughter was lost to measles at just 7 years old. Vaccinate!!
Ninjago's Kai: Ninja of Fire: Not the worst thing I've ever read, and thankfully short. The kids enjoyed it...?
Completed:
Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King by William Joyce and Laura Geringer
The Witches by Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Lego Ninjago - Kai: Ninja of Fire by Greg Farshtey
Altogether now:
Pages: 228 + 201 + 180 + 74 = 683
Total Books Blogged: 26
Total Pages: 7,268
Monday 13 April 2015
Completed: Where I Belong - Small Town to Great Big Sea by Alan Doyle
Oooooh I do love me a good autobiography or memoir. Getting to enjoy someone's life with them is just brilliant, and Doyle sure tells a story. His childhood in rural PEI is a perfect story for a good Canadian read.
Alan Doyle today is the lead singer of Great Big Sea, one of my all-time favorite bands. This made me tremendously nervous to read the book - what if I liked him as much as I liked A. J. Jacobs?
I need not have worried. If anything, I'm even more enamored with the band, knowing where some of the songs came from. That they perceive "Ordinary Day" as a song that changed their lives (p. 282). I've found some new music (Berry Picking Time, and the band Wonderful Grand Band, one of their inspirations). Hearing about how important writing a hockey tune was (my kids love 'Helmethead').
Some wonderful takeaways from Doyle's life:
On why to own a painting: "Because it will make [a] home a happier place." (He met the painter Jean Claude Roy when he came to paint Petty Harbour - it made such an impact on him that he bought that very painting years later and it hangs in his home). (p.29-31)
On what work is, for Sean McCann's father: "Nobody works for you and you don't work for nobody. You only work with people." (p.109)
On how to approach each day: Doyle is talking about his parents when this thought came up, and it's my new motto for every bad day I'll have - take it with you, too:
"Spend exactly all of your time making the most of what you have and exactly none of your time whining about what you don't have." (p.14).
I'll try, Alan. Thank you for your story. Write another one, please?
Title: Where I Belong - Small Town to Great Big Sea
Author: Alan Doyle
Published: 2014
Pages: 308
Total Books Blogged: 22
Total Pages: 6585
Alan Doyle today is the lead singer of Great Big Sea, one of my all-time favorite bands. This made me tremendously nervous to read the book - what if I liked him as much as I liked A. J. Jacobs?
I need not have worried. If anything, I'm even more enamored with the band, knowing where some of the songs came from. That they perceive "Ordinary Day" as a song that changed their lives (p. 282). I've found some new music (Berry Picking Time, and the band Wonderful Grand Band, one of their inspirations). Hearing about how important writing a hockey tune was (my kids love 'Helmethead').
Some wonderful takeaways from Doyle's life:
On why to own a painting: "Because it will make [a] home a happier place." (He met the painter Jean Claude Roy when he came to paint Petty Harbour - it made such an impact on him that he bought that very painting years later and it hangs in his home). (p.29-31)
On what work is, for Sean McCann's father: "Nobody works for you and you don't work for nobody. You only work with people." (p.109)
On how to approach each day: Doyle is talking about his parents when this thought came up, and it's my new motto for every bad day I'll have - take it with you, too:
"Spend exactly all of your time making the most of what you have and exactly none of your time whining about what you don't have." (p.14).
I'll try, Alan. Thank you for your story. Write another one, please?
Title: Where I Belong - Small Town to Great Big Sea
Author: Alan Doyle
Published: 2014
Pages: 308
Total Books Blogged: 22
Total Pages: 6585
Monday 6 April 2015
Completed: Packing for Mars - the Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
I have never read so much about poop in my life!
I have to commend Mary Roach for taking on such an interesting project - the mundane details of a spectacular career. Being an astronaut is one of the careers children dream about - but they certainly don't think of the logistics of going to the bathroom or taking a shower, or eating low-flatulence foods.
I'm not a huge fan of Roach's writing style - I feel sometimes like she is trying too hard to be funny or witty. But the subject matter kept me going. I don't think it's for the delicate who don't wish to discuss intimate details of hygiene! I don't have too much more to reflect on it, other than that I am now sure I would not relish life as an astronaut...
I have to commend Mary Roach for taking on such an interesting project - the mundane details of a spectacular career. Being an astronaut is one of the careers children dream about - but they certainly don't think of the logistics of going to the bathroom or taking a shower, or eating low-flatulence foods.
I'm not a huge fan of Roach's writing style - I feel sometimes like she is trying too hard to be funny or witty. But the subject matter kept me going. I don't think it's for the delicate who don't wish to discuss intimate details of hygiene! I don't have too much more to reflect on it, other than that I am now sure I would not relish life as an astronaut...
Title: Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Published: 2010
Pages: 321
Total Books Blogged: 21
Total Pages: 6277
Completed: Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman
I was checking online as we were heading to the library, on our accounts, to check what needed to head back. I couldn't, for the life of me, find one book. Our library helpfully (or not) calls most of the books in the kids' section "Children's paperback" if they happen to be a paperback in the kids' section. So, I was faced with number 93873834 "Children's paperback". I could not find it. We searched the car, the kids' backpacks, and their rooms. I checked the library shelf three times over. No book.
So, later last night I was working on my stamp collection (yes, I'm a proud dork) at my desk, and suddenly, I noticed Fortunately, the Milk sitting there, waiting to be blogged. I had taken it on a trip to a friend's wedding, and finished it in about half an hour. But I hadn't gotten around to blogging it. I checked the top - 93873834. Yay! Book!
So I will quickly blog this book so that it can go back to the library prior to having fines attached to it.
I will precurse this review by saying that I have never read any of Neil Gaiman's books for adults. I picked up this book to see if G might like it, as his avid love of reading shows no sign of slowing down.
It was just OK. The story was a bit generic and lacked creativity. However, the artwork was incredible, and so for that alone I would recommend picking it up. It is short and sweet - I was very glad to have brought a second book on my trip, as I hadn't realized quite how quick a read it would be (I'll blog the other one soon, as I finished it as well!).
Favorite little bit of the book:
"We can't eat our cereal," said my sister, sadly.
"I don't see why not," said my father. "We've got plenty of cereal. There's Toastios and there's muesli. We have bowls. We have spoons. Spoons are excellent. Sort of like forks, only not as stabby."
There's some excellent Dad humour for ya!
Title: Fortunately, the Milk
Published: 2013
Pages: 110
Total Books Blogged: 20
Total Pages: 5956
So, later last night I was working on my stamp collection (yes, I'm a proud dork) at my desk, and suddenly, I noticed Fortunately, the Milk sitting there, waiting to be blogged. I had taken it on a trip to a friend's wedding, and finished it in about half an hour. But I hadn't gotten around to blogging it. I checked the top - 93873834. Yay! Book!
So I will quickly blog this book so that it can go back to the library prior to having fines attached to it.
I will precurse this review by saying that I have never read any of Neil Gaiman's books for adults. I picked up this book to see if G might like it, as his avid love of reading shows no sign of slowing down.
It was just OK. The story was a bit generic and lacked creativity. However, the artwork was incredible, and so for that alone I would recommend picking it up. It is short and sweet - I was very glad to have brought a second book on my trip, as I hadn't realized quite how quick a read it would be (I'll blog the other one soon, as I finished it as well!).
Favorite little bit of the book:
"We can't eat our cereal," said my sister, sadly.
"I don't see why not," said my father. "We've got plenty of cereal. There's Toastios and there's muesli. We have bowls. We have spoons. Spoons are excellent. Sort of like forks, only not as stabby."
There's some excellent Dad humour for ya!
Title: Fortunately, the Milk
Published: 2013
Pages: 110
Total Books Blogged: 20
Total Pages: 5956
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)