Reading Plans

As usual, I have far too many. But here they are, in several categories:

Book Club: I'm a member over here, at Bookfest 2006. Which is Bookfest 2007, now, of course, but it would be awfully cumbersome to change the title every year. I didn't dare try last year, when they had four books a month, but two a month seems more doable. The first one I've read from the list this year was highly enjoyable, and not something I would have found on my own. So I'm looking forward to the rest of the year.

Great Books: I'm trying to tackle some of the Great Books on a more-or-less chronological basis. I still have the Iliad to finish, though. (It's suffering from the usual slighting that goes to books I actually own, as opposed to those I have to return to the library.) I'm not sure whether I'll go on to read the Odyssey (which is bound to be more fun) or skip it and go on to some of the others I want to read this year: Plutarch's Lives, Athanasius' On the Incarnation, and possibly City of God by Augustine and Beowulf later on.

Preview Books: I'm working out a curriculum plan for future years, and previewing books as I go. Basically we want to do a four-year cycle: Ancients, Dark and Middle Ages, American History, and Modern World History. I started at the beginning of the cycle when D1 turned two so that we would be ready to start it over when she turned six. I've been reading books and previewing them, trying to find ones that meet my criteria and that are available through our local library. It's been a lot of fun; I wasn't sure I'd stick with it, but I've found it too enjoyable to give up. (Reviews on the books I do find are over at the other blog.) I'm working up a rough plan and book list now and will make a more detailed plan closer to the actual time. I just pulled in a pile of books on ancient Greece, then we'll do Rome through late spring and summer, and the Dark Ages in the fall.

And then, of course, there are the random books that I come across and can't resist. I try to do one on science now and again; I've read a lot on physics and on brain development and function in recent years, and I'd like to branch out, but I'm not sure into what. Chemistry is something I know very little about, but I've read about molecular bonds at the atomic level, and I'd like to learn about what that looks like on the next level up.