habitually probing generalist

[Minor edit: 24 November 2011 to add links to Helen's posts at her blog.] Over two months ago, I dreamed up a reading challenge, My Two-Thirds Book Challenge, after finishing another over the previous year. The new one began on October 1st. So far, four people have joined me: 3 friends, E, Helen, and Jen, [...]

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Registration time is soon upon us at BCU. This time it will be for J-Term (January 3-20) and Spring semester. I am open to any feedback you might have but here is what I am considering for both. Descriptions, where provided, are from my discussion with the profs—trying to take notes while also being courteous [...]

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A year ago a friend of mine suggested a new kind of ‘book club.’ See my post here for the background. Many of us joined her, and her write-ups of, and links to, everyone’s reading can be found at her blog here. My reviews and my initial post can all be found here. Here’s my [...]

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The mill on the Floss George Eliot; Oxford University Press 2008 WorldCat•LibraryThing•Google Books•BookFinder Due to my Victorian Lit class and sitting in on Modern Poetry this term my 12 Books 12 Months Challenge reading slipped a little. But then I remembered that The Mill on the Floss which I read for Victorian is on my [...]

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After consultation with the professors and a few others (primarily the wife), I have decided which classes I will be taking or sitting in on at Briar Cliff this coming Spring and Summer terms. Spring Spring Term (March 5 – May 17) I will be taking one course for a grade, Victorian Lit, and sitting [...]

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Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: short stories, prose, and diary excerpts Sylvia Plath; HarperPerennial 2008 WorldCat•LibraryThing•Google Books•BookFinder Short review: A few decent stories and essays, but really only for the Plath aficionado or completist. I became interested in this book of stories, essays and excerpts from Plath’s notebooks, due to the several references [...]

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A Night Without Armor : Poems Jewel; Harper Paperbacks 1999 WorldCat•LibraryThing•Google Books•BookFinder This was a reread.  I am not sure when I first read it but I discovered that I bought it 10 years ago this month.  I do know that it has been several years.  It is also possible that this was the first [...]

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This list of books that I finished this year is based on the date I started reading each book. Though they were generally finished in something close to this order, some books took much longer than others. I finished a total of 102 books in 2010. Five of these were re-reads. I read 85 print [...]

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  I enjoyed this slim volume of essays based on seven lectures Borges gave in Buenos Aires between June and August 1977. There is a short introduction by Alistair Reid which provides some context and historical information on the lectures. Then the seven essays, in this order: The Divine Comedy, Nightmares, The Thousand and One [...]

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This term I am taking a class called “Madwomen Poets” in which we are reading and discussing Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. It is technically a freshman-level class although I do not think there are any freshmen in it.  There are 9 students so it is about the perfect size.  The professor is Dr. Jeanne [...]

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