A.K. > Recent Status Updates

Re-reading this one. I love Bryson's writing.

Re-reading this one. Bryson can get awful preachy sometimes, but he's such an engaging and funny writer, full of wonder for whatever his topic, that I'll endure the sermons.

Toward the beginning of the novel, Bill often expresses longing for the time when his journey through that harsh, bleak world would finally be at an end. London's prose does an excellent job making the reader sympathize with that sentiment.

Now reading the chapter about the astronauts move to Houston, Texas on a hot July day in 1962. Wolfe paints a vividly savage picture of Texans and of Houston--my hometown. It's been awhile since I've laughed this hard.

Enjoying it very much so far. There are plenty of humorous moments (such as young Bach being jumped by a student bassoonist miffed after Bach compared his playing to the bleating of a goat). There are also moments of beauty, as when Gaines describes Bach's first major work, a funeral cantata (Actus tragidus). The author suggested putting down the book to give it a listen---advice I was glad to have taken.

I started out really enjoying the book, but it's slowing down. Too many talking head scenes. Hoping it'll pick back up.

Good story and writing. However, I get the idea that the material only made a 100 page book and the author needed more padding. Every other page he recounts a historical anecdote loosely connected w/ the main story and fills them with excessive technical data. Makes reading bog way down. I've considered abandoning ship and going to Wikipedia to find out what happens...guess I'll press on a bit further before bailing.

“Space, let me repeat, is enormous. The average distance between stars out there is 20 million million miles....Of course, it is possible that alien beings travel billions of miles to amuse themselves by planting crop circles in Wiltshire or frightening the daylights out of some poor guy in a pickup truck on a lonely road in Arizona (they must have teenagers, after all), but it does seem unlikely.” lol.

Good stuff. So far this is the practical, hands-on advice about classroom management I was hoping for.