I love to read. Books have been a staple in my life since early childhood.
I also love reading about books. I’m usually familiar with popular and award-winning fiction titles.
The problem is that those two are out of balance. I’m adding to my To Read list at a much faster rate than I’m checking off books. Last year I only read nine books. The year before that was a paltry six. (Not counting some audiobooks I re-listened to.) Embarrassing! I’m desperately hoping I forgot to catalog some reads, but alas I don’t think so.
The internet is a huge reason I’ve been such a horrid reader. There’s lots of good things about it, but it can be such a massive time suck. I’m not really a new year’s resolution kind of person, however — this year I want to make reading a habit in my life and more of a priority.
I’ve rearranged my To Read list and am excited to pick up the books near the top of my list. I haven’t ordered this list completely, but these are the books I’d like to read this year (in addition to our book club picks):
- The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
- Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
- In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
- American Gods by Neil Gaiman
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
- Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
- Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
- The Magicians by Lev Grossman
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett
- Watership Down by Richard Adams
- Blackout by Connie Willis
- Dog on It by Spencer Quinn
- Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
- The Spirit of Food by various
- Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
If you’re counting, that’s 25 books. Roughly two books a month. And an ambitious step up from my last few years. But I’m excited to read every book on this list, and excited to make reading a habit again. Here goes!
It’s been almost 3 weeks since my last blog post. Has everyone else’s December been as crazy as mine? In the time that’s lapsed I’ve travelled to my home state of Illinois twice, attended the wedding of a good college friend, gone to a couple Christmas parties, had two family Christmases in two different states, and kissed in the new year.
Also, I’m pretty sure I just broke a Blogging 101 rule: don’t apologize for blogging absences. Explaining isn’t the same as apologizing though, right? However, I will apologize for my lack of commenting on your blogs, dear reciprocal readers. I’m looking forward to getting back into a more normal cycle of writing and reading.
While I have plans to post soon about many of those December happenings as well as more house projects, movie and book reviews, Wordless Wednesdays, and Five-Sense Fridays, today I have a special treat for you.
Poetry. Written by yours truly. At age 12.
Don’t you feel lucky? Wait, don’t answer that.
In cleaning out the bookshelves recently, I stumbled across an old gem: The Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans, 1996 Edition, Volume CXXXIV. You didn’t know I was a published poet, did you? Honestly, I’d forgotten too.
Without further ado, the poetry of 12-year-old Sarah:
In the Dark and Gloomy House
In the dark and gloomy house
All alone at night.
A very dark and gloomy
Figure did I see?
A monster maybe?
Or a ghost?
I’ll jump in bed and then
Pull up the covers quick as I can.
Or is that a good idea?
Will it wake the monsters up
That sleep underneath my bed?
“Quick!” I think, “Close the closet doors!”
Just as I step on the floor I know my
Grave mistake.
I feel an icy hand pulling on my ankle.
“Help!” I cry.
And help came sooner than I thought.
For suddenly I found myself sitting up in bed!
I looked out the window,
The sun was shining bright.
“Ah, it was just a dream,” I sighed.
But then as I looked closer
Very, very barely did I miss it.
A rustling of leaves. A thump.
I saw the monsters slip out my window.
Not too shabby for 12, huh? That’s what I’d like to think anyway. All in all, I think it’s probably a good thing I gave up poetry while I was still ahead.
Many things come together to distinctly make Christmas feel like… well, like Christmas. One of those things for me (and so many others) is music. It just isn’t Christmas until I’ve listened to hours of my favorite Christmas songs.
I’m one of those staunch one-holiday-at-a-time-please people. No Christmas music until after Thanksgiving! I used to even wait until December 1st so as not to steal any of Thanksgiving’s thunder, but I’m over that now. We have a limited time to enjoy Christmas music each year, and there’s so much of it to enjoy!
I love the more generic Christmas favorites such as
- “Linus and Lucy” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio (from A Charlie Brown Christmas)
- “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)” by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra
- “Deck the Halls” by Mannheim Steamroller
- “The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole
- “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” by Frank Sinatra
- “You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch” by Thurl Ravenscroft
- “Carol of the Bells” by the American Boychoir
Then there are the more traditional Christmas carols that shout the true meaning of Christmas:
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
- Joy to the World
- O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
- Angels We Have Heard On High
- O Holy Night
- Silent Night
- What Child Is This
- O Come All Ye Faithful
- O Little Town of Bethlehem
- The First Noel
And I can’t forget The Nutcracker! And so many others…
My junior high and high school youth group used to go caroling every year to a couple local nursing homes and other older folks/shut-ins from our church. I can still see the joy on their faces as we would sing their favorite requests. (They must not have heard me in the back!)
What tops your list of favorite Christmas music?
Being born and raised in Illinois, I heard lots about Abraham Lincoln starting from an early age. He is by far Illinois’ favorite son. After all, the state slogan is “Land of Lincoln” and his face is on the license plates. It seems that most every town in the state has something named after the presidential giant. My hometown has a Lincoln Street and Lincoln Grade School. We even saw a Lincoln statue in London this summer (which I had to take a picture of, of course).
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Jeff and I drove down to Springfield with my parents to tour the new-ish Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and other Lincoln sites around town. I couldn’t remember visiting these sites as a kid anymore, though I do still remember visiting New Salem.
Our first stop was Lincoln’s Tomb in small Oak Ridge Cemetery on the edge of Springfield. It was a bitterly cold, windy day so we didn’t dwell as long outside as we might otherwise have done. Oh, and there was a golf cart parked right in front of the monument so I did my best to get pictures around it.
If you’re really into Lincoln and/or history stuff, I found a site online that lets you virtually walk through the tomb: http://www.springfield-vr.com/lintomb1-h.html.
After the tomb, we discovered our lunch spot wasn’t open for another half hour so we toured the old state capitol building while we waited.
Source: Wikipedia
That’s not my picture — as if you couldn’t already tell that by the green grass and leaves on the trees.
This building served as the state capitol building from 1840-1876. Both President Lincoln and President Obama announced their candidacy here, in 1858 and 2007, respectively. Both Lincoln and Stephen Douglas worked and served in this building.
After lunch at the Garden of Eatin’ (haha – I get puns), it was on to our afternoon at the museum.
The Lincoln Museum chronicles not only Lincoln’s life, but also the Civil War. It was particularly interesting to go through it after just having read The Killer Angels (about the Battle of Gettysburg) in our book club.
We were fortunate to be there on a day they were performing a special show in one of the theatres: One Destiny by Richard Hellesen. From the promotional material:
ONE DESTINY was commissioned and originally performed at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The play takes place in April 1865 on the stage of Ford’s Theatre, a few days after the assassination of President Lincoln. Harry Hawk – one of the most famous comedic actors of his day – and Harry Ford – a manager of Ford’s Theatre – meet and revisit the events of that night, April 14, 1865.
The show that night was the popular comedy, Our American Cousin, and Hawk was onstage when John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln. Ford and Hawk portray several characters in this moving and theatrical performance.
The show was excellent as was the rest of the museum. Springfield, Illinois isn’t exactly on the way to most places, but if you ever get a chance to stop by, the visit will be well worth your time.
Pictures weren’t allowed most places, but I got a couple shots of the rotunda:
Including a sort of creepy picture of Lincoln’s family with John Wilkes Booth staring at them from a distance:
Be sure to take a closer look (i.e. click on the pictures for larger ones) at the Christmas tree in the first two pictures directly above. That’s right… it’s a Lincoln snowman topping the tree! I told you Illinoisans are crazy about old Abe.
After an unintentional break, Five-Senses Friday is back. I’m looking forward to so much about the Christmas season, not the least of which includes taking in all the glorious sensory details inherent in the final month of the year.
Today I am:
feeling: warm, soapy water slowly turning my fingers into prunes; the satisfaction of a clean house; anticipation of a weekend full with friends
tasting: the first juicy orange of the season
smelling: the fresh scent of said citrus lingering in the air
seeing: clumps of overnight snow slowly melting into invisibility from the afternoon sun
hearing: The Nutcracker Suite! ‘Tis the season…
A week ago we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family. Now it’s already December and the Christmas season is upon us! But I’m getting a little ahead of myself…
To make things easier, we alternate between our two families for Thanksgiving every year. This year we made the 5-hour drive from Ohio to Illinois to be with my family. My parents and two siblings (and their families) all live in the same small town where I grew up so it’s always fun to go “home.”
(One of these trips I’ll have to go around town with my camera so I can show off the cute little place that is my hometown — preferably on a day that I won’t get frostbitten fingers for not wearing gloves.)
My brother’s house is the official family gathering spot since they have the space to fit all 12 of us and, more importantly, don’t have cats that bring on Jeff’s allergies (like at my parents’). My mom’s birthday is always near Thanksgiving, but this year they fell on the exact same day. After the delicious turkey dinner, we had cake along with pumpkin pie and watched Mom open presents.
My family isn’t huge into pictures, but Mom obliged me with a few shots:
Mom with her birthday cake -- and my sister and half of my brother
Showing off her new sweater and stone duck family
On Friday, one of Mom’s best friends, Lynnette (whom I’ve written about before) treated us to lunch to celebrate Mom’s birthday. It was fun to also see her daughter and my childhood friend, Kate (down from Chicago), who is just a year older than me.
Jeff and I joined my parents for the “Yule Like Peoria” holiday walkabout in downtown Peoria on Friday night after dinner at the fabulous One World Cafe. It’s a pretty cool event: they open up several of the commercial buildings downtown to host various exhibits and entertainment including lots of live music. I think the Richwoods High School Madrigal Singers were my favorite. They did a fabulous rendition of “Carol of the Bells” that gave me the shivers!
- Ice sculptures and lighted trees at the Courthouse Plaza
Gingerbread houses on display in the Civic Center:
- My favorite by far
- A covered bridge! How cool is that?
- Marquette explored around Peoria and there is a grand old hotel named after him there
However, our first stop was to see the Civil War dancers:
The couple in the red dress and gray coat are friends of my parents
- Mom practicing for the audience participation dance with Larry
- A Civil War reenactor dog! (Sorry for the blurry picture.)
On Saturday we spent the day in Springfield touring Lincoln sites, but I’ll cover that day in a future post. We left for home on Sunday morning with unfortunately no time for church if we were to get back in time to pick up the doggies. All in all it was a very nice visit.
