changes

Read this again, this time aloud with my son. So great.

Past Log Updates: Reading Log: Moonbound

Resources

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Moonbound

Extremely depressing. Debilitating levels of chronic cringe. Possibly the most self-aware book ever. Life-affirming empathy machine. Absolutely hilarious. 5 out of 5, would read again. BOTY?

Past Log Updates

DATE : 2024-12-02 (later)

This was perfect for reading in my car parked at the far end of the rec center parking lot like some total creep by the light of the empty pickleball courts while I waited for my daughter’s volleyball practice to finish.

DATE : 2024-12-02

I started reading Rejection last night and had weird dreams about it and woke up this morning feeling really fucked up and depressed like the people in the book. It really got into me I guess, it is easy to internalize feeling like a “loser” - absolutely going read the rest of it; so awful I can’t look away.

Resources

“The Rejection Plot” by Tony Tulathimutte | The Paris Review

Author Tony Tulathimutte on adapting to distraction and uncertainty | The Creative Independent

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Rejection

Past Log Updates

DATE :

Resources

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Modern Poetry

Tearjerker.

This was presented to me as a “novel in verse” but it feels like it barely qualifies. It is definitely lyrical and spare writing, and has some line breaks here and there, but I really wonder about the whole “novel in verse” distinction the more I read of them. If this is a novel in verse (as prose poems) then probably almost every Kate DiCamillo book could be called a novel in verse, or perhaps a “novel in prose poems”, and a lot of other pared down, well written books…Need to explore this idea more.

Past Log Updates

DATE :

Resources

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Telephone of the Tree

I’m trying to actually do this “Homegrown National Park” thing in my yard, so I have a lot of notes, but I’m not ready to share them. (Today I’m just trying to get my 2024 reading log filled out and updated.)

Past Log Updates

DATE :

Resources

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Nature's Best Hope (Young Readers' Edition)

.

Very generous in its number of pages and prompts (40+), language concepts shared, writing techniques and tricks, and activities. These would of course be good teacher or librarian-led activities, but I feel like the book is written in a way that a kid could totally pick it up and try these things on their own if they are interested. It gives plenty of information and examples, and doesn’t get too technical about how the poems need to be. In fact, there is a refreshing refrain throughout of “do it however you want, this is for fun.”

There are a lot of typos and missing words in the text.

None of the prompts address rhythm or meter other than syllabic count for haiku, etc.

Feels weird that it gets to the 41st prompt and just ends. There is no conclusion, glossary, “Further Reading and Resources,” boring small print note for teachers, or anything like that. Not even “Visit my website,” “Follow us on Instagram,” “share your poems with the hashtag,” etc. I guess the intended audience is legally too young for all of that, so they are being responsible.

This one is on that poetry longlist so I need to rate it there. 4 or 5, I’m not sure. I will know better once I’ve read more of the books, maybe…

Past Log Updates

DATE :

Resources

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Poetry Prompts

.

Meh. The idea is cool. Some of the illustrations were cool, some of the ten-word tales were cool. Would be good for a classroom writing activity. This reminds of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick but doesn’t quite add up to that. When they are this brief and this few, every single one needs to be phenomenal. Or maybe I want it weirder. Or maybe I’m just jealous.

Past Log Updates

DATE :

Resources

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Ten-Word Tiny Tales

.

“Narrative, you say, is just one way of navigating time.

And those perceptions culled
by the restraints of narrative
become available to other trajectories.

Meanwhile, the future blows toward us without handholds.
It is a gaping. An already. A maw.

What happens when the mind is no longer a place of duration?

If you want to resuscitate your destiny, you joked
early in our relationship, start with the present…”

Past Log Updates

DATE :

Resources

Standalone post link: Reading Log: Mojave Ghost

Finished reading The Magician’s Nephew with Will tonight.

Not sure if I ever noted down that we started reading this. After we finished Moonbound it was Thanksgiving break and normal bedtime routines were abandoned for many days. When we got back to bedtime reading I had no great, burning suggestions, so he picked this because it felt comfortable and nostalgic but it had been awhile since we’d read it so it was a change.

We were maybe just going to read all the Narnia books from this omnibus edition but we might instead try first some new middle grade books I have borrowed on Sora, either Impossible Creatures or Lola.

Past Log Updates

DATE :

Resources

Standalone post link: Reading Log: The Magician's Nephew

I went on a really random new year’s day afternoon-evening drive out to the middle of nowhere to maybe take pictures or just whatever and got caught in a snowstorm and I listened to this album twice in a row on my drive.

I’ve been listening to a lot of My Bloody Valentine and shoegaze and dream pop and English 80s-90s indie and not-so-indie generally, as you’ll see if you click elsewhere on my recent listening log on this site.

Past Log Updates

DATE :

Resources

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Loveless