For MY Reading Pleasure

A few weeks ago I started a campaign in my home to reclaim my love of reading. Aside from a few parenting books, it had been since Harry Potter 7 that I read an entire book that wasn’t geared toward toddlers or preschoolers. I love to read but I’d fallen out of sync with my reading rhythm. I mentioned before that I tend to read in spurts, but that I wanted to become a daily reader. I put a book in the bathroom and stole a few extra minutes to read each time I’m in there. So far I’ve read two books and I’m on my third (and fourth)!

The first book I read was The Elder Gods by David Eddings. I’d read another of his series and really enjoyed it. Again, I was thoroughly captivated by the world he creates in this series. It’s the story of a land ruled by gods who must work together to fight off the evil god. The “good” gods leave their lands and travel outside their boundaries to hire soldiers to help fight. I really enjoyed the interactions between the leaders of the different groups of soldiers. They were witty and clever, two traits I adore, and they were able to set aside differences to work together to reach the ultimate goal. I’m excited to read the other two books.

We were in Colorado when I finished The Elder Gods and didn’t have the next one with me so I ran out and bought Book 1 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief. I became interested in reading this book after I saw the movie. (Yes! It can work that way) I was very surprised to find that they are so very different. Even more different than Harry Potter books and movies are from each other. As I was watching the movie I kept thinking: “The book version will probably be so much cooler with all the added insight and story line that usually doesn’t make it into the movie.” I was partially right. There was a whole story line completely unaddressed in the movie. I’m very surprised that the movie didn’t mention this part of the story at all. It’s like leaving Voldemort out of the Harry Potter books. If you’ve read the book and seen the movie, do you agree with that assessment?

The other side of this is that I didn’t like the book nearly as much as I thought I would. First, it’s written in first person (so “I” is a twelve year old boy) and that was hard for me to get into. Second the writing didn’t capture me as much as I thought it would. It wasn’t quite as cool as I anticipated after seeing the book. In the end, I liked the story line of the book and plan on reading more of the series. I’m hoping as Percy matures in the books the writing will mature with him.

Now I’m reading Motherhood Is Easy…As Long As You Have Nothing Else To Do For The Next 50 Years. I mentioned this book on Saturday. I’ll save comments on it for when I finish it and write my full review including a giveaway

The (fourth) one I’m reading is Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child. I started this parenting book several months ago, made it through about half of it where I ran into some quizzes about my thoughts on negative emotions and put the book aside for a quiet moment to take those quizzes. Now I’m getting back to it for a couple of reasons. I really liked what I read and tried to implement it with my little ones, so I’d like to finish the book and have the full picture of how it’s supposed to look. The other reason is that it’s been a while and I’m getting fuzzy on some of the principles and I am seeing situations where I could apply his principles, but I just can’t quite remember them so I’m frustrated by how things play out. I’m looking forward to reviewing and finishing this book.

How have you been able to carve out time for your passions or hobbies?