Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Vacation Plans...

Next week final exams begin. Students scurry about studying their logarithms, gerunds, Shakespeare, taxation without representation and everything else they hope will ensure academic success.

As a teacher I'm not exempt from the process. On the way home from school after the last final exam is taken, I'll scurry down Romeo Plank and roll up to the Taj mahal of of literary repositories, Clinton Macomb Library - main branch. Once there I'll load up the Civic-sled with some reads that look promising. Most of which I'll never even crack the binding, but it's the beginning of vacation so optimism runs amok. I'm open for any literary suggestions so let me know if you think you have a good page-turner. I love getting up in the morning to a quiet house and the soft gurgle of Mr. Coffee brewing me up a batch of java goodness. I plug the tree lights in and settle in for a good read. No hurry. No scurry. No Romeo Plank black ice. No arctic classroom. No spit-wads propelled from adolescent miscreants.
Just tree lights, java and a good read.

Perhaps the only activity that competes with a warm, morning read is a brisk, quiet morning ride. No heart rate monitor. No cadence. No drafting. No internal fear of being lapped. No "Hold your line!" No accessories.
Just dark streets illuminated by a helmet lamp and the soft crunching sounds of hard-packed snow or crushed salt.



8 comments:

Kevin said...

Tops on my list, which I will purchase if Santa does not send it my way, is The Four Hour Workweek. You may not be able to get away with only working 4 hours a week in your chosen profession, but I think am going to give it a go.

I just finished In the Hot Zone by Kevin Sites and would highly recommend it for anyone wanting a more balanced and complete look at our world than we see on the nightly news.

Anonymous said...

What's your poison--guilty pleasure or "improving" literature? I will take the fact that you actually liked "The Great Gatsby" into consideration before making any recommendations!

Anonymous said...

On the fiction side, I would go with Byatt's "The Matisse Stories" or Stoppard's "Arcadia." I read them this semester, and I really liked them. Arcadia is funny...

On the nonfiction side, I would recommend "The Return of the Prodigal Son," by Henri Nouwen. Good read.

Merry Christmas!

JBrandt said...

The Great Gatsby. Now there's a read that has it all: the perils of greed, class warfare, historical significance, searching for identity, opportunities for growth, reflective regret, eternal optimism no matter how futile (I understand the oxymoronic flavor of that last one but true is true)true love, and the author's ability to use words to craft a mirror that society can look into and see its narcissistic self.

Literature is more antidote than poison.

"More matter, less art" -Gertrude in Shak's classic Hamlet

aarongoe said...

Literary Suggestions. You've ushered me to many a good book, so I'll offer the same to you:

1) The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

2) If Democrats had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans, Ann Coulter

3) Who's Your Caddy, Rick Reilly

Anonymous said...

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer. A 9 year old boy living in NYC lost his father during 9/11. After discovering a key in his father's bedroom, he goes on a journey through the city to find out what it opens and why his father had it.
This was the most original novel I have ever read. It's really funny too. The city of Marquette, MI chose it for the town to read this year, which is why I read it.

As for nonfiction, "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. It's kind of hard to describe what it's about. It covers alot of information not usually covered by economists. Everything from teachers who cheat with test scores and the earning and working conditions of crack dealers,to the socioeconomic patterns of naming children. Both are great

Andrew Fluegge said...

Mr. Brandt, I have the perfect idea, perhaps you will see this comment. In keeping with some sort of blog quota, I have decided that if I can't come up with my own topics to blog, which believe that I will, I will simply complete the AP Language blog assignment for no credit. See how much I love school, and blogging!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Brandt

The control of your langauge and diction is above excellent. "Taj mahal of of literary repositories." How do you think of this stuff?????