"Feed your mind as you feed your body, every day." - Arthur Brisbane

March 7 -- I've finished all three books of The Lord of the Rings -- I even read some of the appendices.  Now I'm trying to decide what to read next.  I guess I should finish Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, but it's so depressing.  I've started that book three times, and while I appreciate the skill at storytelling and McCourt's use of language, I just reach the point where I can't read about the suffering of those children any longer.  I'm also considering some children's books, so I can recommend some to my son for his quest to get 200 points in the Accelerated Reader program this year.  I picked up Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl the other day from a school book order.  Maybe I'll start there.

March 10 -- Actually, thanks to the Intro to Mass Comm class, I started re-reading Stuart Little by E.B. White.  We were talking about the book publishing industry and how the potential subsidiary rights influence publishing decisions.  I started wondering how the spiffy, oh-so-suave mouse in a suit and bowtie I remembered from reading Stuart Little as a kid turned into the wise-cracking, sneaker-wearing, "cool" mouse of the movie.  I can't get my kid to read Stuart Little -- he's seen the movie and thinks that's all there is.  I'm on a quest to find proof to argue with him that he is wrong!

April 14 -- I've stalled.  I finished Stuart Little and moved on to The Return of the Twelves, another book I remember from childhood.  It is a charming little book about some toy soldiers that belonged to the Bronte children.  The soldiers are actually alive and go on a mission to save themselves from greedy people who want to give them to an American professor who will take them away from their home.  However, I am stalled.  Maybe it's because of the time of the semester when I am much busier grading things -- or maybe it's because I am not consumed by this book.  I walked around with the Lord of the Rings books in my hand; I read while cooking, I read while ironing, I read while eating lunch in the cafeteria.  Unfortunately, this book hasn't grabbed me in that same way.