Jinjer 31: Books, Books, and More Books

[Bad Wolf]

Loved Arthur Ransome, Narnia, Enid Blyton, etc. Re reading the five books makes me cringe now. So stereotyped. Class system at its worst. Oh well, I didn't notice that as a kid.

We didn't have many books in my classroom, just a few tattered boring ones in a cupboard. I read them all pretty quickly, so having nothing else to do, my friend and I used to see how much trouble we could get into to drive the teacher crazy. We were about 8. All she would have had to do was find me a couple of good books, and I would have been an angel.

[louisa05]

I second watching the initials. I have a deceased cousin whose initials were B.A.D. and another cousin has a child whose initials are A.P.E. 

Neither set of parents realized it until after they were born and birth certificates were filed. 

[Palimpsest]

14 minutes ago, sawasdee said:

Did you ever come across "Sixth Form at St. Dominic's"?

In haste.

Yes.

I have definitely heard of Malcolm Saville.   I liked them a lot but couldn't get hold of enough of them.  Lovely Shropshire setting.  I read some of the Jillie and Nettleford series.  I think only one Lone Pine and I don't remember the name.

I should be walking dogs and making dinner.  I'll be back.

 

[Jinder Roles]

I like books, and I consider myself a reader but not in the traditional way. I started with nursery books, then Enid Blyton books, then moved on to fact-books and novels.  

I spent a lot of time reading fan ficition in my early teen years. As well as other popular YA novels. I also spent a considerable amount of time reading articles, histories, geography, plays, forums, reviews etc. 

Mind you, I never had much free time in school (still don't) as teachers had us reading a lot of different things for class. It usually included extensive research and analytical skills for coursework projects. It's the same in college. I constantly have to read dense academic writing, plays, articles etc. every day. I don't get a break. In the summer, after a few weeks of not seeing words on pages, I like to read fiction. 

So while I think I read a fair amount, I don't read many novels. Certainly not many of the classics. Never read Austen, Bronte, Twain, Yates etc. I tried but am so bored and feel no connection or familiarity with any of the characters. Not sure if it's because I'm not a reader or because of cultural difference ( I don't relate to 19th cent European dramas and I hate the language).

It often makes me feel less smart than my more classically-read peers. Although, honestly I usually feel that way because people at college are very impressive and I am a mess who can barely keep up. 

Sorry for the useless ranting, I've spent most of last right reading  sonnets, Twelfth Night and scholarly chapters on homoeroticism, sodomy and the renaissance period. 

[PennySycamore]

@AprilQuilt,  the name Bert always makes me think of Bert Large from Doc Martin.  Or Bert from Sesame Street.  

@SapphireSlytherin, angles in a triangle are lettered so that you are able to describe them and talk about/work with individual angles in the triangle.  Say you have a triangle ABC.  Angle ABC is a right angle and  measures 90 degrees, angles BAC and ACB are 45 degree angles.  The middle letters denote the vertices of the angle.  

This doesn't really answer what you were asking, but gives you more info about triangles that you probably ever wanted to know:  Triangle

The letter stuff I remember from high school geometry.

[CorruptionInc.]

Books are a wonderful gift. I own too many (is that really a thing?) My nieces and nephews love to read and that makes me happy.

My family are all bookworms. No books in a house scares me to no end and whatever books the Duggar children were allowed to read probably weren't much.

While I doubt Jinger will ever read 1984, I do hope she gets to read many books that aren't just Christian related. 

[LuckyShot]

I used to get in trouble at school for reading after I'd finished my work. We were only supposed to "free read" during our half hour U.S.S.R. (uninterrupted sustained silent reading) period. So I'd entertain myself by talking to my classmates, which also got me in trouble. At the start of the school year I would be occupied with extra credit work, but I'd blow through that pretty quickly and then spend the rest of the school year getting in trouble because I was bored. I don't know why they couldn't just let me read.

We didn't have money for books growing up so our collection was pretty small, but we went to the library a couple times a week and loaded up on reading material. I love the public library. I still don't buy many books because I can get almost anything I want through our inter-library loan system. Doesn't hurt that my Mom is now the librarian at our local library so she gets all the new releases first and lets me know if there's anything interesting. The library is one of the charities I donate to often, it really is a great resource, especially in small communities like mine.

[Jenn The Heathen]

My kids have an insane book collection.  We're fortunate enough that if they ask for a book, I don't hesitate to buy it.  When they were younger, I utilized the library often because leveled readers and picture books can be read through a bunch in a short period of time.  Now that they're getting older and my youngest will often read what my oldest finished a year or two ago, buying makes more sense.  As far as series go, we have all the Harry Potter books, all the magic treehouse, all the wimpy kids, Percy Jackson, spiderwick, I could go on and on. They have so many.  Current my older son is really into the 39 Clues Series and my younger son discovered the "Who was/is/were" series of nonfiction books.

It makes me sad to hear of kids who don't like reading because it's so easy to read to a child as a baby or toddler and instill that passion.  And, yeah, books can be expensive, but like so many people have mentioned, the library is free.  Not to mention you can often find used books at garage sales or thrift shops for cheap. 

[MarbleRainbow]

19 hours ago, WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo? said:

Is Bear short for anything, or is that the name on his/her birth certificate? Either way, that's pretty cute!

Nope, just Bear. Pretty sure his middle name is Ellery. 

[closetcagebaby]

BOOKS! Yay thread drift. 

The Wuthering Heights discussion makes me want to read Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea again. I had an amazing English teacher that had us read them back to back in class. So many great discussions. My dude and I are still huge readers, especially since I spend about two hours a day on bus and train

[InTheNameofRufus]

Wow, @Jenn The Heathen, those bookshelves are really full! Now I feel a little better about mine (but I won't add a picture as they are very messy and unorganized!) My boys love many of the same books: Harry Potter, Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants, and the Middle School books are favorites. 

I grew up with a book always in my hands, much to the consternation of my parents. I have learned to clean the house and do laundry one handed if I am in the middle of a really good book. I will read anything, I'm not too picky. But I have to say the classics are not my favorites. I'd rather read Janet Evanovich or James Patterson. My oldest boy seems to be following in my footsteps. He always seems to be reading something!

I hope Jinger keeps reading. I don't know how much reading she had to do to pass the SOTDRT, so anything she reads is better than nothing. Eventually, I hope something she reads will spark an interest in a topic she can explore more. Reading opens up new worlds in my mind. I can only hope it does the same for her.

[nickelodeon]

4 hours ago, Rachel333 said:

@Palimpsest You inspired me to check in on Lady B. Apparently she's doing movie reviews now.

I am obsessed with her, though I haven't checked her blog since she started doing that kickstarter for her historical fiction (a self-published e-book.) Does self-publishing a digital book usually cost $5,000? I wasn't sure what to make of that.

[brusselsgriffon]

I'm a little late, but I just saw Jinjer's birthday video to Michelle. Jing's sounds different to me somehow....less of the "aaannddd sooo" Duggary semantics and that type of thing and like she's actually articulating. It makes me so happy. 

Then i watched the video of Johannah and she genuinely looked like she was being held for ransom (Like, does anyone even watch this videos before they post them?! She looked so completely miserable!!). Jinjer should hold off on having kids and just adopt Jenny and Hannie

[singsingsing]

1 minute ago, brusselsgriffon said:

I'm a little late, but I just saw Jinjer's birthday video to Michelle. Jing's sounds different to me somehow....less of the "aaannddd sooo" Duggary semantics and that type of thing and like she's actually articulating. It makes me so happy. 

The people you're surrounded with can really have a huge affect on how you speak. I'm not surprised at all, what with her living so far from home. Jeremy (thank God) does not speak that sickly sweet, I'm-so-silly-and-cute, incoherent Duggarese.

[motelmum]

2 hours ago, CorruptionInc. said:

Books are a wonderful gift. I own too many (is that really a thing?)

Nope, that is not a thing. Mind you, you can have too few shelves on which to put your books. 

 

[FleeJanaFree]

It's not difficult at all for me to believe this. I got a 34/36 on the English portion of the ACT test. I did not study at all. I just inhale books!

Regarding books and Duggars, I noticed a bookcase in pictures of the girls room makeover. I was shocked to see several books displayed. I could not zoom in to read the titles though.

[PennySycamore]

My daughters all have story time with their kids before bed every night.  I think I need to get them all a pretend campfire from Land of Nod for their rooms so the kids  can gather round the campfire for the bedtime books.

S'more the Merrier Plush Campfire Set

[MarbleRainbow]

One YA author I rarely hear mentioned, but whose books I absolutely loved as a teen (and would still enjoy reading again), is Tamora Pierce. She was writing strong female protagonists loooong before Hunger Games was even a glimmer. Her books came out before YA books were the juggernaut they are today. I really hope her publisher republishes them with fresh covers - I think teen girls would just devour them. Interesting, multi-dimensional female protagonists in pretty much every book, and they are each a unique character, not just a rehash of the same thing over and over. Fantasy, magic, intrigue, a huge world that has a lot of stories in it.

When I worked at Half Price Books, I was the employee that customers were referred to who were looking for good books suggestions for kids and teens. It made me so happy the one time a mom was going to buy the Twilight series and asked what I thought of them. We weren't allowed to disparage any customer's selections, so I said something neutral about how it was a popular series. She looked me dead in the eyes and asked again and was like, "I actually want to know if these are good or if there's a better series to buy my daughter." Oh, I was thrilled to write a long list for her of all the better series out there! Tamora Pierce was high on that list. 

[curlykate]

@Jenn The Heathen my children's bookshelf looks like that too, except they're still younger, so it's jam packed with children's picture books. 

My oldest is seven and has been struggling with reading, despite having a love of books. It has broken my heart to see him so eager to read but then so frustrated that he can't. We've been working really hard, and I'm happy to say that he's not too far behind now. 

My youngest is 2.5, and loves being read to. I'm hoping that love will continue. I read to both of my kids each night before bed. Many nights bedtime gets stretched a tiny bit so we can squeeze in "just one more book". 

As for myself, I love to read. Unfortunately at the moment with two children, a full time job, and a hubby that works out of town during the week, I just don't get as much time to read. I'm making an effort to niche out some time to read more. 

[potato]

I started reading at the age of 3 or so and I remained a fairly voracious reader up until I reached my undergrad when most of my will to read for fun was sucked out of me.  Maybe I'll finally have time to again when I finish grad school and don't have homework to keep me from it 

[mango_fandango]

The only Enid Blyton I've read are Malory Towers and St Clare's, both quite similar. When I first read them I loved the whole idea of boarding school. I re read them fairly recently and I have a new perspective on it. In MT, Darrell and her friends are not very friendly to anyone who's different to them. They seem suspicious of anyone who doesn't like sport, for example. And oh my God, the stereotypes are ridiculous. There's a French girl in St Clare's and she's depicted as very girly, hating all forms of sport (especially swimming), preferring to sew/embroider etc, and it's implied that all French girls are like this. The French teachers are incompetent and the girls constantly play tricks on them. American girls are all obsessed with film stars and make up. Fat girls are lazy and stupid. And of course in both series the main characters are basically flawless and become Head Girls etc - they may have a few problems in the first book but after that they are pretty much perfect. 

The stories are all very samey as well; nasty girls either getting their comeuppance or are expelled, a vain/selfish girl who has no real friends and who are very snobby befriending people for only superficial reasons e.g. their (perceived) wealth, geniuses who are completely scatty and disorganised except when practicing their talents, etc. 

[Rachel333]

Have you guys read the Thursday Next books? Those are really fun books for book lovers.

[countingon]

3 hours ago, potato said:

I started reading at the age of 3 or so and I remained a fairly voracious reader up until I reached my undergrad when most of my will to read for fun was sucked out of me.  Maybe I'll finally have time to again when I finish grad school and don't have homework to keep me from it 

I feel you.  Once I started university, never read anything outside of course readings.  I was obligated to read, but thoroughly enjoyed doing so.  Post-university, I keep buying books, starting them, but never having the time to finish them.   I'm taking a random uni course just to have an excuse to read now and to learn.

[MadameOvary]

3 hours ago, potato said:

I started reading at the age of 3 or so and I remained a fairly voracious reader up until I reached my undergrad when most of my will to read for fun was sucked out of me.  Maybe I'll finally have time to again when I finish grad school and don't have homework to keep me from it 

This happens. I went on to study literature at university and got a lot of satisfaction out of it on an intellectual level, but somehow lost the thrill of losing myself in a story. I think it is because someone else was telling me what to read and so the process wasn't organic. Whereas when I'm free to choose what to read, I always choose the next book based on the mood the previous one has left me. 

In my case, the way back to reading for pleasure was none other than Harry Potter. Yes, I was 28 and saved by J.K. Rowling. I call that magic. 

[KnittingOwl]

8 hours ago, LuckyShot said:

I used to get in trouble at school for reading after I'd finished my work. We were only supposed to "free read" during our half hour U.S.S.R. (uninterrupted sustained silent reading) period. So I'd entertain myself by talking to my classmates, which also got me in trouble. At the start of the school year I would be occupied with extra credit work, but I'd blow through that pretty quickly and then spend the rest of the school year getting in trouble because I was bored. I don't know why they couldn't just let me read.

ME TOO!  I constantly got in trouble in 4th and 5th grade because I would read once I finished my work.  It still makes no sense to me.  I'm not sure what I should have done instead.

After finishing my PhD and postdocs, I really hated reading.  I'm still working on reading for fun again.  Not quite there, but I've read more books this year than I have in the past 4 combined.