February 2012 Read of the Month Update

I am still working on my February 2012 Read of the Month. As of this morning I have completed 300 pages out of 474 of Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken. I love the book, but I do not think I will be able to finish by the end of the month. February has just been a busy month at home and work. Believe me my slow pace is not because I am not enjoying the book.

This tale of Louis Zamperini's survival after being shot down during World War II has been amazing. I have read some complaints about the long, drawn out introduction (pre-plane crash chapters). I would agree if it were not for my own track and field background. Most of the early chapters present background information of Zamperini (including his Olympic track and field career). I enjoyed most of the early chapters because of my track and field background. I will agree that the build-up to the crash adds quite a bit of length to the book. I hope to have a complete review put together by next weekend.

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Your Own Personal Library Catalog

So, how many of you have remember using an old style, card catalog? You know, you want to find a book in your local library, so you pull out the long drawers flipping through cards. Well those days are long gone of course (thankfully) and nearly all libraries use an electronic catalog system to keep track of their collections. Many of the school districts in Wayne County are using a system developed by Follett . It is a great system for school age children and prepares them for many of the advanced catalogs available in public and university libraries. Catalog software is quite expensive and really impractical for home libraries. Some book lovers may create their own spreadsheet or database to keep track of their books, however there is a great (free) tool online to not only catalog your books, but also meet and communicate with other book lovers online. The site librarything.com is a wonderful site that lets you catalog your own home library. Think of it as a "Facebook

A Little R & R

I decided to take a little R & R before things get crazy with back to school. I wanted to spend some time with my family for these final weeks of summer, so I decided a break from writing was in order. A trip to Kalahari and fun times with friends and family made August fly by. So, what does school year 2014 bring for me? Quite a bit, as always: Back to teaching two courses at Wayne County Community College. Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings I head to Northline Road to teach college level English. I really love this second job! Tuesday, I start my 17th year at O.A. Carlson High School. While public education continues to face challenges, there is no other job for me at this time. I love my co-workers and students. Gibraltar is a great place to work. I will be running my kids all over as usual. Gymnastics, religious education, flag football (which I coach as well), and others events "to be determined." I would not have it any other way. I love watch

What are Some of Your Favorite Books

I love this question. Of course, I do not think I could ever answer a question like "what is your favorite book?" I need to be able to list at least a few titles. I was speaking with another parent during my son's gymnastic class this past Monday. We were both reading the same book and we spent much of the time talking about the book we were reading and other books we enjoy. It was really a great conversation for a book geek like myself. It was also nice because the individual I was speaking with was a classmate of mine from back in the day at good old Carlson High School. The question came up as to what were some of my favorite books, and I had to step back and think for a minute. My taste in books varies all over the place (much like my taste in music, but that is another story). For the purpose of this entry I throw out five of my favorites (in no particular order) and why I enjoy them. Of course, a list of favorites could be much longer as I could write fore

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