This edition of “What we’re reading” could more accurately be called “What we’re finished reading and what our options might be for The Next Thing,” but that’s rather clumsy as a post title.
Since I shared about our biography addiction, we’ve finished several books as a family.
- The Neil Armstrong biography in the Sterling Biographies series
- Life of Fred: Edgewood
- Life of Fred: Farming
- Let’s Find Out about the Moon (a 1965 hardcover written BEFORE we landed there, which made for a neat compare/contrast conversation)
I also finished two books I was reading on my own – Buzz Aldrin’s autobiography, “Magnificent Desolation,” and the autobiography of hacker Kevin Mitnick, “Ghost in the Wires.”
As a side note, while Life of Fred is described as a Christian series, we are a secular homeschooling family and haven’t had any problems using the fairly few spiritual references we’ve found as talking points about what different people believe, which we like to do anyway.
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We tend to do this fairly often – finish a bunch of things at once. The thing is, unless we’re midway through a series, it often takes a little while before we start something new!
So what’s next?
My tried-and-true trick to help us find something interesting usually goes like this:
- Attend used-book sale. Buy stuff.
- Bring home finds from used book sale. Pile them in stacks around various rooms. Wince when you knock them over while vacuuming.
- Look at all available family bookshelves. Wince again when stuff starts falling off as you browse.
- Try to motivate family members to part with no-longer-loved books (or at least store them away) using phrases like, “Hey! Do you guys want to go play Sort the Books?”
- Eventually get family members to take pity on you. Sort books using a multi-hour process that is as much family reading time as anything.
- End up with new book possibilities on everyone’s bedside shelves!
Just did that over the weekend, to great results. We parted ways with many books, packed away a few boxes of Ashar’s still-loved-but-not-currently-being-read collection, and now have some solid leads on possible next books (in addition to Life of Fred: Goldfish, which we started two nights ago!)
What’s your family reading?
Love the books you listed and giggled at the “Tried and True” tricks. Me too friend, me too. I would have never believed that I could have so many bookcases and still have books on the floor in piles. Ahhhh homeschooling. 🙂
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s a decorating style as well as an educational style! 😉
I am at the same point you are. When we were expecting power outages I went through out current stacks to see what would be interesting to read by headlamp! I read Confessions of a Closet Catholic about an 11 year old Jewish girl who finds her self worth and her faith. I enjoyed it but it only took a few hours…….now I am at my sister’s house looting her shelves……
Jessica, that’s too funny – brings new meaning to post-hurricane looting, huh? 😉
Sounds like fun to find what’s next to read in your house 🙂 We have LOADS of books EVERYWHERE too. I always say that we could go for months and months (at least) with no need for the library to find new materials. The problem is that I work in a library, so there is constant temptation to bring new books home. Sigh…such problems… 😉
SAME HERE! We buy/sell used books as a side job, work at a newspaper, and my mother-in-law works at a library! Books… they just happen!
I’ve been reading/browsing a book about Incans that I picked up at the Dover Library book sale recently at the West Manchester Mall. Also read a fascinating excerpt from “Marvel Comics: The Untold Story,” which is interesting because I’m really not a comic books guy at all. But the history is pretty cool. The excerpt can be found here: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8433000/an-excerpt-sean-howe-marvel-comics-untold-story
The coolest thing about what Chris is reading is that Sarah’s just getting interested in Machu Picchu, which of course was an Incan locale!