Comments on: Re-discovering Books

By: Claire Thompson

Claire Thompson — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:00:35 +0000

@Errin, Thanks for the recommendations! I do have 2 little boys so perhaps ‘Boy Smarts’ should be next on my list. I hope you get some time to read your shelf full of books… without getting sick

By: Errin

Errin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 04:11:34 +0000

I completely agree, there is nothing better than a good book and the time to read it! Thanks for the reminder about Daniel Pink’s book, I’d heard of it, but had forgotten (this time I wrote it down!).

My recommendations would be:

Boy Smarts by Barry MacDonald (especially if you have little boys at home!)

The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

An Imaginative Approach to Teaching – by Kieran Egan (SFU prof)

For fiction, I highly recommend The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Fabulous book!

Kind of an odd combination, but those are the few that I’ve read in the last year. I have a shelf full of others waiting…if only I could catch a cold…

By: Claire Thompson

Claire Thompson — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:51:00 +0000

@Ken, so you’re a science guy, techie, musician and poet?! Thanks for the poem!

By: Ken Allan

Ken Allan — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Kia ora Claire!

If ever in the history of humankind, there is a day of reckoning, and all the assets, products and things of aesthetic usefulness are assessed and catalogued, the book will be near the top of the list – easily in the top ten.

It is at least as worthy as the wheel. In my time, I have written several verse on this cherished atrefact.

And there still standing on the shelf, that old
And now more treasured roll of hallowed rhyme,
A second-hand edition bought and sold
And bought again perhaps a final time,
For in that aged encasement I’ve been lost
And found a tranquil solitude in verse,
And many times more recompensed the cost
When poetry would all my being immerse;
The sunburst-sepia cedar-fragrant sheaves
Have kept their freshness, and that poignancy
I first found joy in reading never leaves,
But stirs in me the same expectancy
When first I glanced into the book and yearned
To sense that prized awareness I’ve since learned.

By: Claire Thompson

Claire Thompson — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:02:24 +0000

@Cindy, thanks for the recommendations! I have read a couple of Barbara Kingsolver’s books, ‘Poisonwood Bible’ being one of my favourites.

@Charlie, thanks for the link to your slideshare presentation. It was from you that I heard about ‘The Drunkard’s Walk’ and I’m looking forward to getting my hand on a copy.

By: Charlie A. Roy

Charlie A. Roy — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:28:27 +0000

I’ve read both of the books you are looking for. They are exceptional. I posted a slideshare summary of the drunkard’s walk. It is very good. http://www.slideshare.net/caroy/drunkards-walk-presentation is the link. You have to listen to me explain it. Which if you can tolerate can give you an idea of the book. All the best.

By: blogjunkie

blogjunkie — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:08:55 +0000

Recommendations? To a librarian, are you kidding! This blog isn’t long enough to list them all!
How about:

1. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson (ISBN: 1-4129-2767-6)

2. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
by Barbara Kingsolver. (ISBN: 978-1-55468-188-4
It’s a book about a family that leaves Tucson, Arizona for the rural reaches of southern Appalacia and decide, for one year, to only buy food raised in their own neighbourhood or live without it. Great story!

My book list? I have to ignore it until May. It will positively kill me, I have book withdrawal just thinking about it.

Happy reading,
Cindy