Tag: literature
What have you read this year?
How many adults, especially teachers and parents, discuss their own reading or passion for literature with children? How much reading for professional or personal pleasure do adults actually do? How central is reading to their busy days? Every year, especially as I witness the growth and development of my own daughters’ ‘imaginary lives’, reading seems […]
How to live
‘Montaigne liked to present himself as an ordinary man, distinguished from others only by his habit of writing things down’. I am halfway through Montaigne’s essays and recommend them as great reflections to keep on your bedside table. If you are interested in the seismic shifts we have experienced in our hyperconnected age – the rise of the […]
Reading…
I can still see the poster on my own childhood primary school classroom wall: Kids who read succeeed The Conservative politician and current British Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, has recently said that, ‘children should read 50 books a year’. Who could possibly disagree? In my (not so) humble (on this issue) opinion […]
Twitter Literati for English Teachers
Australian English teachers have not flocked to twitter in the way I envisaged back in early 2008. I have been guilty of spamming email distribution lists, evangelising at conferences and publishing traditional print based articles in professional journals, all with very limited success in convincing my colleagues, in any great numbers, to tweet. There are some notable exceptions, tweeple I admire greatly, […]
My Spines
@LiteraryMinded asked about ‘our spines’ today and I have obliged below. However, it is my Kindle that has the most titles, especially chapter samples to read.
Whatever Happened to the Book is Happening Now!
At great risk of appearing unneccesarily sycophantic, I need to say that Mark Pesce‘s post, Whatever Happened to the Book, is clever, unusually clever, even for Mark. Everything that currently intellectually interests (read obsesses me) about literature and our hyperconnected age is explored. Please read it closely and tell your friends, especially if they are teachers still learning. […]
Anthill: A Novel
“The cycles of other species can be destroyed, and the biosphere corrupted. But for each careless step we take, our species will ultimately pay an unwelcome price – always” I have just finished Anthill, set mostly in Alabama and occasionally underground, by two times Pultizer Prize winner and first time novelist, aged 81, E.O. Wilson. Pre-ordered ages ago, it arrived […]
What has Miss 9 read in 2012?
After posting about my reading in 2012 I asked my eldest daughter, who is in 3rd class and 9 years of age, what she read this year. She did not look up from her book and turned a page. She clearly had no interest in telling me and I did get a “there’s 100s, I can’t […]