Rooftop Reading
Sigh. Back to work for real tomorrow.
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I'm teaching 11 classes this semester. This sounds like a heavy load, but it's a well-crafted schedule. Only one day (Monday) can be properly called a "Hell Day" with five 2-hour classes beginning at: 7:20, 9:00, 11:00, 3:45 and 8:45. (Check out that downtime, though. Any bookworm worth his or her salt can see that it's perfect for squeezing in a few chapters here and there.)
After Hell Day, the rest of the days also begin early, but are finished by 1 pm, by which time I'm usually fully awake. You know what that means! Lots of time to read! Outdoors! September, October and November are the nicest months in Korea with warm temperatures and a slight cool breeze and a sky so clear and blue and beautiful that it's almost absurd. During this time, I like to read either on the roof of my apartment building or my office building where it's unlikely any students will look for me.
If it ever stops raining, that is! The first 4 days I was back, the humidity was 100%. Too hot to live. Like breathing in thick pea soup instead of air. On the 5th day, last Wednesday, it began to rain, and it hasn't stopped since. The river looks dangerously high. WTH? When I left for the United States, it was rainy season! What's this? Back by popular demand? On the upside, the humidity has disappeared. On the downside, the gray sky has beckoned me to take nap after nap after nap this weekend. I hope I'm only on the roof in the next few days because I'm escaping to read, not because I'm escaping a flood.
Usually I don't plan out what I'm going to read during the month, but I've entered some new challenges (after faltering on some of my earlier ones) and joined a book group, so September is pretty well set up for me. Here's what I hope to accomplish:
1. Finish Summer Of '49. [Easy. I'm only 2 chapters from finishing what is probably the best book I'll read all year. David Halberstam writes so clearly and beautifully about a subject near and dear to my heart, but he is so convincing and entertaining that even non-baseball fans would be entertained. Please, if you've read Halberstam's books, don't hesitate recommend another for me.]
2. Finish Andersonville. [This is left over from either my Chunkster Challenge or my TBR Challenge, I can't remember which, and I'm too lazy to go and look. It's true that I've been sidetracked for months, but don't get me wrong -- I like the book. To say that I enjoy it sounds a little strange, given the grim subject material. I'm impressed with the amount of research MacKinlay Kantor did for the novel. Andersonville's not a quick, easy read by design, but I'm nearly to the halfway point, and I'm going to finish.]
3. Read Robinson Crusoe. [This is for the "Unread Authors" Challenge. I've been planning to read this book for more than 3 years now. Plus, when I finish, My Tough And Cool Inner Bookworm can feel all smartypants and smug about reading yet another classic for 2007!]
4. Read You Remind Me Of Me by Dan Chaon. [This is for the September 16 meeting of BOOKLEAVES, my wonderful book group.]
5. Read (or at least start!) Letty Fox: Her Luck.
[Imani started an Outmoded Authors Challenge (which runs from September until February) and one of the many authors on her carefully compiled list is Christina Stead. She also has W. Somerset Maugham on the list, so this would be a good opportunity to check out my copy of Of Human Bondage. I wish I'd known about this challenge earlier; it would've been a great chance to bring up Don Robertson's name and novels yet again.]
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6. Finish Terrorist by John Updike. [No reason, except that I adore Updike's novels, and I'm on page 70 of this one. I got a little sidetracked, with the trip and all.]
That's probably enough ambitious thinking and planning for one month. Onward and (hopefully) upward.
