SQJ Taipei

You might have noticed… over in the sidebar I’ve got a section called “BOOKS” and in it you’ll see some books that I’ve finished… am currently reading… and have lined up to read. This post has 2 parts… the first is for everyone… the second is probably only interesting if you want to know more about how and why I display those books on the site.

Part 1:

I love to read again. I was a very early reader and by the time I was in first grade I was checking out the thickest books in the elementary school library. I still remember (30 years later) about getting picked on on the buss ride home one day when I was reading a big book (probably over 300 pages) about ants. Some of the older kids started to make fun of me for trying to read such a big book… but I actually could read it and anything else in the library… but my protests were in vain. I was labeled a liar and a faker because no one at my age could have been reading that book. As things go… that was a minor event and it isn’t like I lived with that all through my school years. But, I’m sure that it played a role in my rebellion against reading for several years later in life.

I’m sure that my situation isn’t really all that unique but I’ll share it anyway. I got burned out on reading. It was some time in later elementary school and I’m not sure if I had read all the books in the library or what… but I just got tired of it. Everyone knew I was a good reader and I didn’t like the attention. I know that by the time I was in junior high that I was only reading enough to get by in my classes.

Excepting magazines, I never read for pleasure or for personal enrichment again until I was in college and Angie started reading The Chronicles of Narnia during finals week one semester. In the great tradition of procrastinators everywhere, I picked up volume 1 and spent every waking and non-studying moment reading through all 7 books during finals. My love for reading was being reawakened. We now have a fairly large library of books and from time to time we try to thin out our collection, but I remember specific things from almost every book that keeps it on the shelf. When and if we ever move from Taiwan, I don’t care if I bring back anything but those books.

For a while, I really only read things related to my work… which is fine and makes sense. But I’m trying to make an effort to read things in new areas and even some things that seem pretty frivolous. This does tend to make me happier and helps keep stress from creeping in. YMMV.

Part 2:

I blog with Wordpress and it is a wonderful tool. I know my theme is old and worn out… but I’ll change it someday to something exciting. Fortunately, with Wordpress that won’t be hard to do. If you are thinking about taking the leap into the blogosphere, check out Wordpress, you won’t be sorry.

This isn’t about Wordpress… but another thing I like about it is the great add-ons to the system. I use several and I may share them with you later… but for now… its about the books.

I found this plugin at ROBLOG… the direct link to the plugin is here.

I’ve always wanted to keep better track of what I’ve read and am reading and want to read and this makes it pretty simple for me to do that and it might even be useful to some of you readers.

You can click on any of the books to get some more details about each title and you will find an Amazon.com link on the details page in case you would like to buy the book or get some more info about it. I’ll try to put a review for the books I’ve read, but I’ve only done one so far. I’ll try to write them from now on and go back and do the old ones when I have time. I can also associate each book with a blog post as I have done on a couple or three of the entries. I’ll give the books a rating, but I’m pretty easy to please. Even if I read a book that I don’t agree with, I’m likely to give high marks because there will be some value in the book. Almost everything will be rated 7 or 8 or 9 I would guess as I’ll save the 10 for only a perfect book and I’m sure I’ll find good stuff in almost anything I read. Plus… I’m usually reading stuff that has been referred to me or that I otherwise know that I’ll be inclined to enjoy. I’ll try to be more discerning in my ratings.

*Image is “Couple Reading Under Tree” from Warren Dennis Gallery