The Reading Chair

Between Newt’s bout with a stomach bug, a puppy that just has to put. everything. in. her. mouth and [still] living in a construction zone, I’ve not had as much time as I like to spend with a good book. I realized how much I had been missing it today. Newt was absorbed in a book for school so I grabbed my book and pulled up a comfy chair. After reading just a page or two, I literally felt my body begin to relax. A quiet home and a soft chair in a patch of winter sun; it didn’t even matter that the book was not a favorite, I was in heaven.

What I’ve Been Reading
Children of the Mind (Ender, Book 4)
I finally finished this terrible book. Why, oh why did I feel the need to put myself through the torture? Because I had read all the other books in the series and I just felt the need to know how it would end. Even after I stopped caring how it would end. The need to know was just too strong. The need to read every single word was pretty weak though; I’m not ashamed to admit that I skimmed my way through to The End.

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
This is the fourth and last time I will check this book out from the library. The first time, I picked it up on the advice of a friend. I didn’t get it. Most of the recipes seemed really weird. The second time I got it because I wanted to try making mayonnaise and I remembered that it had condiment recipes. I ended up reading more than just that section, nodding my head a little as I went, though there was still a lot that was strange to me. (And I never did get around to making the mayo.) The last time I checked it out specifically because I heard that it could help me learn what to do with all the leftover whey I had from yogurt making. As I tasted my first batch homemade lacto-fermented sauerkraut, I really began to appreciate this book. Now, I’m reading over the chapter on stocks and using the information to make some excellent bone broths.
This book has changed for me, or more to point, I have changed the way that I both eat and think about food and this book is an illustration of my transformation. I won’t check it out again. I just ordered it and am looking forward to reading it many more times.

What I’ve Been Reading to Newt
The Taming of the Shrew
Does that seem like an odd choice for a first introduction to real Shakespeare? It does to me, a bit. However, I wanted to go with a story she was familiar with and thanks to Jim Weiss’s most excellent storytelling on the CD Shakespeare for Children, Newt was not only familiar with the story, she already loved it.
Sidenote: By the way, if you are not familiar with Jim Weiss and you enjoy good storytelling, you must remedy that right now. His CDs have done much to inspire a love of the classics in my daughter.
We started reading an unabridged, untampered with version of The Taming of the Shrew this week. It is going even better than I had hoped. The whole play within a play aspect was new to Newt and she is loving it. She’s a bit of a prankster herself so she really appreciates the joke being played on poor Sly. I’m happy that her first exposure to a Shakespeare original is so positive.

What Newt Has Been Reading

Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods
The Gregor the Overlander Series is one of Newt’s absolute favorites. She has checked them out from the library about as often as I have checked out Nourishing Traditions. She now owns three of the five books and has extracted a promise from Walt and I that we will make a trip up to Powell’s [insert choir of angels] this weekend so she can buy the rest.
Funny little fact about the way Newt is reading the series this time around: she has turned them into “school-books”, assigning herself copywork and memorization. I love it!

And now for a new segment in The Reading Chair: What Pepper Has Been Reading Eating
courtesy of my book loving puppy
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
The First Christmas According to Luke
Bark, George
And Babymouse #9: Monster Mash which was a LIBRARY book!

Have you devoured any good books lately?

I am using Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase anything from my links I get a small commission (and thanks to Pepper, I may need to turn it right over the library).

1 Comment

  1. Hey! I’m reading “The Taming of the Shrew” too! I pick one to read each year, this is the third one. I started with “Much Ado About Nothing” after watching the movie; I’d recommend watching the movie with Elizabeth Taylor when you’re done.
    We have a couple of “puppy” books too 🙁

    Reply

Let's chat, shall we?

Contact Twitter Facebook Tumblr Pinterest Instagram Goodreads RSS Feed