Category: Updates

Updates

Lunchbreak Interlude IX

Geoff W

This past weekend my sister and I flew down to North Carolina to surprise our mom for her birthday. And it was hilarious – my mom saw me screamed and then cried, and then realized my sister was there too, screamed and cried again. It was a good surprise and a good trip down. It was an incredibly fast trip, but it was relaxing to get out of the city for a day and see family, even if the travel was a bit stressful.

One of the advantages of going home, aside from seeing family, was that I got to raid my book boxes I have stored at my mom’s house. Unfortunately, I could not find my copy of Wuthering Heights, but that’s okay because I bought a beautiful compilation version of it, Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey a few months ago. However, I did find a stack of books to bring back and was sorely tempted to bring my entire box of Harry Potter books back! (But I restrained myself to 11—and one awesome pamphlet.)

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Updates

August Recap 2012

Geoff W

Even though I only read seven books this month, I had a relatively productive month. I finished my re-read of Harry Potter with Books Five, Six and Seven, and I’m glad I did. It was a much needed reprieve from work and life and the stress of the challenges I chose to do this year! (And I know you’re all dying to know – I’m making awesome progress in Lego Harry Potter 😀 I’ve already completed Years 1-4 and am about 50% of the way through 5-7. If you’ve ever played one of the Lego franchise games you know that’s not as simple as it sounds.) In addition I read an AWESOME NetGalley from Algonquin Books due out in October, The Art Forger, and ticked a few more books off my challenges!

In other cool book news, I hope everyone has seen this article in The Atlantic Wire about what type of book reader you are. I’m definitely somewhere between quite a few of them! (The Hate Reader, The Chronological Reader and the Bookophile, among others.)

Challenge Progress
The major change came when I decided to push James Joyce’s Ulysses off until next year. I tacked it on to my Tea and Books Reading Challenge at the last-minute, but realized that I already had another 700+ page book on my Back to the Classics Challenge, Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, so I’m going with it instead.

  • Mount TBR Reading Challenge
    • Monthly Progress: 3 books
    • Overall Progress – 21/25 (84%)
  • Back to the Classics Challenge
    • Monthly Progress: 0 books
    • Overall Progress – 5/9 (56%)
  • Tea and Books Reading Challenge
    • Monthly Progress: 0 books
    • Overall Progress – 7/8 (89%)
  • The Classics Club
    • Monthly Progress: 2 books
    • Overall Progress – 11/100 (11%)
Updates

July 2012 Recap

Geoff W

This will be a very short post as I did NOTHING for my challenges last month and it was GREAT!  I did however read two ARCs (The Absolutist and The Secret Lives of Codebreakers), three library books (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy and The Man Who Knew Too Much) and re-read the first four Harry Potter novels.  Nine books isn’t bad for a month, especially as I relaxed and enjoyed them and didn’t have to worry about posting (even though I did) or about meeting numbers for a challenge.  July was also the two-year anniversary of The Oddness of Moving Things and I did a general recap of the past year.

Challenge Progress
Just to keep this post somewhat standard, I’ve kept this section in.  Nothing has changed from last month so I remain at 20/31 (65%).  I plan on reading Great Expectations as my next book once I finish the Harry Potter series.

  • Mount TBR Reading Challenge
    • May Progress: 0 books
    • Overall Progress – 18/25 (72%)
  • Back to the Classics Challenge
    • May Progress: 0 books
    • Overall Progress – 5/9 (56%)
  • Tea and Books Reading Challenge
    • May Progress: 0 books
    • Overall Progress – 7/8 (89%)
  • The Classics Club
    • May Progress: 0 books
    • Overall Progress – 9/100 (9%)
Updates

Lunchbreak Interlude VIII

Geoff W

It’s July.  It’s hot and humid and I don’t want to be in an office right now.  I don’t really want to be outside in the heat either, so the real question is how do I escape?  And we ALL know the answer to that…READING! 😀  (And as no post is complete without at least one picture – look at the great quote.  I’m not sure where I found it, but it’s one of the two backgrounds on my phone at the moment.)

I’ve decided to take the month of July off on my reading challenges.  It’s a bit late in the month to inform everyone, but as I’ve not read any and don’t plan on reading any I thought I should make it official.  I’ve enjoyed reading the random books I have read and just picking up whatever I want.  I’m comfortable doing this as I’m over 50% on all of my challenges and still have 6 months to go.

Click here to continue reading, and to find out the origin of ‘Keep Calm and Carry On.’

Updates

Lunchbreak Interlude VII

Geoff W

Recently on Facebook, I’ve seen this going around:

You are posting on a social network created by an Atheist (Mark Zuckerberg), using an OS created by a Buddhist (Steve Jobs) or an Agnostic (Bill Gates) or maybe an athiest (Linus Torvalds), that is executed through hardware based on the work of an Atheist homosexual (Alan Turing) that works thanks to the electric networks developed by a free thinker (Thomas Edison).

I’m not going to preach or say anything about people’s views or religions (those without preach/proselytize just as much as those with), but I thought it was interesting to think about.  In addition I thought it was pertinent as the next two books I plan to read  Alan Turing, whose 100th birthday is this year.  I plan on reading The Man Who Knew Too Much by David Leavitt, a library book, and The Secret Lives of Codebreakers by by Sinclair McKay, a Net Galley.

I don’t know much about Turing other than he was prosecuted for being gay and took his own life at some point after being chemically castrated.  There are still petitions to the UK Government for an official pardon and apology, but little has come from them.  However, Alan Turing’s legacy in math, codebreaking, computing and artificial-intelligence lives on.  Google recently based on the Turing Machine:

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