Books & Other Things

As I said, I've been reading quite a bit more lately than I was able to do this spring. It's been nice to have that time to myself. I've read lots of Terry Pratchett; in fact, the library doesn't have any more of his books- I've read them all! I'll need to use the interlibrary loan system from now on. I don't have many left to read, so I hope he continues to write...

I've also been reading a biography of C.S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs. It's called The Narnian. I think I may have started it before, because it seems awfully familiar. But I don't think I finished it. I was reading Joseph Pearce's bio. of Lewis, but it turned ridiculous. When I left off, Pearce was talking about Lewis' feelings of sadness that he could not be reconciled to the Catholic Church, or reveal his true feelings for it. A little odd, if you ask me. Pearce isn't usually this denominationally dogmatic. Perhaps it's just that this is the first non-Catholic biography of his I've read. I've borrowed his biographies of Solzhenitsyn and Wilde, and I'm beginning to wonder if they'll be any good.

I'm in the middle of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm; it's very entertaining. I like Rebecca, she's a good character. Paige got the book from the library for me to read to the kids, but we're already reading The Railway Children and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Unfortunately, the kids have already seen the movie. It ruins the story a bit.

We've also been looking at some art recently. I got a book of Gustave Dore's engravings through the interlibrary loan system (quite handy, isn't it?). The kids really like his illustrations of the Bible. Caleb's favourite is David, standing on Goliath's body, and holding his head up in the air. In the background, you can see the Philistines on one side (running away, of course), and the Israelites on the other, cheering. I can see why he likes it so much. Some of the flood pictures have incited interesting questions. I haven't shown them the ones with all of the nudes (at Paige's request), but the one they have seen shows some small children and animals clinging to a rock. Caleb and Colin were very concerned, and Caleb said that the children didn't get to choose whether or not they would obey God. I had to remind him that we are born with evil hearts. We've gone over that quite a bit; I've had to, considering their t.v. diet. It's very Disney, and it makes things difficult.

I'll be staying the next two nights over at "school". Paige's mother is having surgery, and Paige is staying with her in the hospital, so I'm staying with the kiddies (Mr. Dad will be out of town). We're going to a pumpkin patch on Wednesday for hay rides and such. It should be fun, but also very tiring. I'll be back home Thursday, but then I'm taking the ACT on Saturday.

I really, really hate algebra. And I really, really hope I don't fail.