Sunday, May 28, 2006

what are you reading this summer?

Last week was "Pulp Fiction" week at Slate. In addition to the fabulous recasting of canonical works with pulp fiction covers, the week's coverage also included a list of writers' picks for "beach reads." I love lists and I especially love lists about books (and I love how often Proust gets mentioned in lists about books, lingering in the background as the thing that should be read, but never will be--nor should it, in my opinion). In this list, I particularly love George Saunders' entry about Moby Dick's memoir. The list has me contemplating what I will read this summer. I have shelves full of books that I haven't yet read (thanks to the library's used book sales), so I'm not sure where to begin. In the immediate rotation:

*Skeletons on the Zahara (Dean King), a real-life adventure tale recommended by my dad

*Geek Love (Katherine Dunn), recommended by Will

*The Dark is Rising Series (Susan Cooper) because I just bought them at the library sale and I loved this stuff when I was a kid.

After that, I'm not sure what I'll read. But the important thing here is what are you reading (or planning to read) this summer?

Thursday, May 25, 2006

finally, summer

Sorry for the blog absence--I've been trying to wrap up the semester (responding to complaints about B's! for god's sake and explaining to a plagiarist why she failed my class) and playing (a backpacking trip to Coyote Gulch and a trip to the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival--which included mountain biking and some competitive eating). Oh, and I have been watching the disappointly dull final episodes of American Idol. So, now I think I've created enough distance from the academic year to start thinking about summer and what I'll actually do with my time. Of course at the end of the summer, I will feel that I didn't do enough, that I wasted my time, but I will feel rested and that's all that really matters.

And I am definitely off to a good start with resting and wasting my time--yesterday I didn't get out of bed until 11! I think my first task of the summer is to generate some ambition. Maybe the blog will give me some motivation to think interesting thoughts so I don't bore you all with a summer of sleeping in and trips to the farmer's market (which is all I really want to do). My other summer intentions include reading a book a week, writing (actually writing, not pretending to write), changing curriculum for the fall, making books, hiking, watching season five of Six Feet Under. I feel that I need more ambitions, but who am I kidding?

Monday, May 08, 2006

grades are finished!

well, almost. I still have to post them, but they are all calculated and the comments have been sent off. the final grading process was soul-sucking (three egregious acts of plagiarism and two minor ones). But it's done. Of course, I will be holding my breath for a bit, waiting for the complaints to roll in.

Wednesday I am off to Coyote Gulch for four days of desert healing. Here's to a summer with no teaching.