As we've moved paint cans and yard sale items into more organized piles, I've been able to get to my books that I planned to finish reading this summer. They are all great books, and I've been waiting so long to finish them, but I am only a little more than a week away from starting my graduate class and have not made much progress on the two novels I need to read before that starts.
I once told a friend of mine that one of the reasons that I wanted to teach was so that I would have more time and inspiration to continue my creative writing. It is times like this when I don't even get to read what I want that I truly understand why she softly laughed that day. She also teaches, so she knows how much our job can dictate what we read and write.
The first book I'm not reading, even though I am three quarters of the way through is Said and Done by Roger McGough. McGough has been one of my favorite poets since I discovered modern poetry in high school. The same irreverent humor so often prominent in his poems is also in this autobiography. It's a book that makes me laugh and my favorite pick for those insomniatic nights when I'm reading at 3:00 a.m.
The next book is also an autobiography by a poet: Good-Bye to All That by Robert Graves. Many people assume that I know about the lifestyles of the English upper class, but this book describes a life as foreign to me as to my American students. What I know about the customs of nobility I have gleaned from shows like Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey and from books. It is interesting to read about vacation trips to German castles and friendships with people whose names I vaguely remember from my high school history classes, but it in no way reflects the life of the working class population in England. I have reached the part of the autobiography describing Graves' early years in the military. I don't know if this book is going to give me any new insights into his war poems. I can't help but feel that I should be reading a biography about Wilfred Owen instead of this book as Owen is my favorite World War One poet, but I just resisted the urge to order a copy after looking at the other books sitting on the side table waiting for me!
The third book is a autobiography that I started last summer before last year's lesson planning supplanted reading for fun. I enjoyed Angela's Ashes so much that I knew I would like Frank McCourt's Teacher Man. I do so enjoy his style of writing, and I also enjoy books written by successful teachers. I never made it beyond his first year of teaching -- that book may need to go to the top of the stack.
The last book is Stephen King's On Writing. I've read excerpts from this book and found them enjoyable and useful, both for me and for my students. I quote the little I've read when I teach with such frequency that I know I need to read the whole book. I bought it when I bought Teacher Man, but have yet to crack the cover.
Still, I am enjoying Anil's Ghost and The Remains of the Day. Which one I read depends on whether I pick up a printed book or am waiting somewhere with my Kindle. Even though I like these two books, I have to quiet the little voice that says that it's summer break and I should be able to read whatever I want instead of reading for work. I also have to remind that voice that I will be teaching some books that I really like next year and both two of those books are ones that I've read during a summer break!
No comments:
Post a Comment