The Book Blawg

I have some exciting news. My son, Chris, who is 10, will be writing short reviews of some of his summer reading. Right now he is reading through the Redwall series by Brian Jacques and the Dragon Keepers Chronicles by Donita K. Paul, although I am letting him choose his writing topics. I also plan to format the posts only but not edit his writing, as much as it irks me to publish something with grammatical errors :).

Note: I wrote the following by hand over a year ago. List month seemed like a good time to post it.

I have a stack of eighteen books waiting to be read, all but two from the library. This does not include the three novels (one a 700-pager) on my night stand, nor the four books on Feng Shui and home design on the coffee table. I cannot possibly read even a portion of these in the six weeks (max) I am able to keep them checked out, so here I go to cull some out:

50+: Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America, by Bill Novelli. Interesting, but not relevant to me right now.

Johnny U: The Life and Times of John Unitas, by Tom Callahan. Why did I put this book on hold?

Buffettology: The Previously Unexplained Techniques That Have Made Warren Buffett The World's Most Famous Investor, by Mary Buffett.

You've GOT to Read This Book!: 55 People Tell the Story of the Book That Changed Their Life, by Jack Canfield & Gay Hendricks. No I don't!

The Great Physician's Rx for Health and Wellness, by Jordan Rubin. I would like to give this one a thorough reading, since I liked The Maker's Diet so much.

What Do You Do All Day?: A Novel, by Amy Scheibe. Mommy novel.

Faith and Politics: How the "Moral Values" Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together, by Senator John Danforth. My Mommy Brain is tired of politics.

Profiles in Courageous Manhood, by Edwin Louis Cole. I own this one, so it goes back on the shelf until some night when I am bored.

The ten books left can fit in one pile on the side table. Mission accomplished.

See my NaBloPoMo- related announcement on The Mommy Blawg.

Yesterday was The Book Blawg's second anniversary. Two years old, and growing up.

Introductory post.
First Birthday.

Angela at Breastfeeding 123 has issued a challenge to Breastfeeding and Mothering bloggers to participate with her in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). The idea is that you commit to write one blog post per day, for the entire month of November. Why do this? Cause, uh, you started a blog to make yourself write more often?

Anyhow, I'm in! If you haven't noticed, I am currently posting maybe every week or two. It's not that there's a lack of important things going which need to be blogged about, either. On the contrary; sometimes I feel overwhelmed by bad news and the amount of cruddy stuff still going on in the world.

I'm qualifying my participation by saying that since I have three blogs, I only plan to post to one of the three each day. Wish me luck!

One year ago today, at 11:06 p.m., I created this blog. Just hours later, I woke up in labor which ultimately resulted in the birth of my son Andrew. As my tagline says, three boys :: three blogs. So this blog birthday is special to me for that reason.

Goals for this blog: for one thing, update it more often. Once I finish a book, I am eager to start the next one. Takes a little self-discipline to write a review or at least note it on the blog first. I also plan to be more choosy about what I read in 2007. Quality, not quantity.

Over the next several days, I will finish listing all the books I read in 2006 that I haven't posted yet. Then I will post some sort of year-end tally.

Happy Birthday, Book Blawg! Happy Birthday, Andrew!

I read 80 books in 2006. At least.

These are books I read in 2006. I'm not going to write a review or summary of each. If you want to know what I thought, email me or drop me a comment and I'll let you know what I though.

Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.

Belles on Their Toes, by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.

Organizing Plain and Simple: A Ready Reference Guide with Hundreds of Solutions to Your Everyday Clutter Challenges by Donna Smallin.

The One-Minute Organizer Plain & Simple, by Donna Smallin.

School Proof: How to Help Your Family Beat the System and Learn to Love Learning, the Easy, Natural Way, by Mary Pride.

Shopaholic Ties the Knot , by Sophie Kinsella.

Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui, by Karen Kingston.

Feng Shui: How to Achieve the Most Harmonious Arrangement of Your Home and Office , by Angel Thompson.

The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live, by Sarah Susanka.

The One Minute Manager, by Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson.

The One Minute Mother, by Spencer Johnson.

Everything Bad is Good for You, by Steven Johnson.

The Happiest Toddler on the Block: The New Way to Stop the Daily Battle of Wills and Raise a Secure and Well-Behaved One- to Four-Year-Old , by Harvey Karp and Paula Spencer.

Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression, by Brooke Shields.

The Redemption of Sarah Cain, by Beverly Lewis.

The Brethren, by Beverly Lewis.

Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel--Why Everything You Know is Wrong, by John Stossel.

Saving Dinner for the Holidays: Menus, Recipes, Shopping Lists, and Timelines for Spectacular, Stress-free Holidays and Family Celebrations, by Leanne Ely.

The A.D.D. Book: New Understandings, New Approaches to Parenting Your Child , by William Sears and Lynda Thompson.

I've switched over to the beta version of Blogger. The good news: tags are enabled. Bad news: it will take some time before I get everything tagged and the blog reformatted. Sorry if it's a mess in the meantime.

I'm about to have a baby. So what better time to give birth to a new blog? Three kids, three blogs, right?

I read. A lot. I am one of those people who doesn't mind waiting in doctors' offices as long as there are good magazines. If stuck in the bathroom for any length of time without reading material, I will grab a shampoo bottle and read the side of it. When visting the home of a friend or relative, if there are magazines on the coffee table, I feel an overwhelming desire to pick them up and read them, and actually have to remind myself that it is probably rude to do so in most circumstances. At least until after dinner or until someone turns the game on.

Sometimes I think about blogging about what I'm reading, but I'm not sure where to put it. I read a lot of books about childbirth and parenting, so those could go in The Baby Blawg. I also read a lot of general interest non-fiction, politics, history, etc. That could go on The Mommy Blawg, but it's not really related to the law, and I would like to keep the subject matter of that blog pretty focused. So a couple weeks ago, I had the idea of starting a new blog, just to keep up with what I'm reading. The idea is, sometimes I will do an actual book review, sometimes just an interesting quote or two, and sometimes just a listing of what I've finished reading. If you've read The Mommy Blawg for a while, you know that I used to journal what we checked out of the library each week. Sort of a continuation of that.

I don't really expect this blog to have much of an audience. I'm not going to promote it. It's mostly just for me. Feel free to comment or discuss, though! Also, due to the impending arrival of the aforementioned blessing, there probably won't be much going on here for a while. But I wanted to get the blog set up while I had a spare minute or two.