Books Completed:
:: Emma (Jane Austen) – audio book with quick searches in the written book for particular quotes. Listening to a great book gets me over the motivational hump of ironing and cleaning the fridge.
:: Beowulf (Seamus Heaney, trans.) – I read and listened at the same time. This epic Anglo-Saxon poem stiffens the sinews, makes you want to benchpress, lift weights; it will accompany us on future car trips.
:: Robin Hood (Howard Pyle) – a book for youth that’s fun to read as an adult.
:: Oxford Book of Ages (chosen by Anthony & Sally Sampson) – a library find, quotes from which filled at least ten pages in my journal. Funny at places, poignant at others, it records what people wrote at a particular age. From newborn to 100 there are quotes for every age.
:: Ernest Rutherford, Architect of the Atom (Peter Kelman) – a science history book which I sold, but quickly read before I shipped it off. Science is my Scylla. Science is my Charybdis.
:: Ecclesiastical History of the English Speaking Peoples (Bede) – I’m glad that I read it but it took an effort towards the end. Unfamiliar names, Egberts, Ethelfreds and Eadbalds, made me thankful for the Johns and Gregorys and Theodores. This is a book which I will open and browse as I periodically clean and organize my bookshelves. I wish I had the time right now, on the heels of Bede, to read The Life of St. Columba and Winston Churchill’s The Birth of Britain in his series The History of the English Speaking People. Oh the synthesis! I’m almost convincing myself!
Stalled for Lack of Time:
:: On the Incarnation (Athanasius)
:: Miniatures and Morals (Peter Leithart)
Reading Aloud to My Husband:
A Living Pencil 
Just curious–how do you all like Life Is So Good? I finished it earlier in Jan. Also, do you “schedule” your reading time? I want to finish more books in a given time period but it doesn’t usually happen!!! A good problem to have…so many books so little time!
So far really well, Dana. I really enjoy memoirs and this gives a personal glimpse into a life I have no knowledge of. I like his voice: I can hear Dawson talking as I read the book.As a baseline I try to read 50 pages a day. Often when Collin is doing schoolwork I’ll sit at the table with him and do paperwork or read. He’s always ahead of me these days. When we share a book, we have different colored flags to mark our spot. Sometimes we compete and the flag in first changes. But most of the time I’m straining to read up to where he has so we can discuss it.
Dana, I’m having trouble commenting on your blog. I heartily concur with your post about TVs blaring in retail stores. Wretched, loathesome, disturbing nonsense. That’s what I think. Any results back from your tests?