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weekly geek
Day Five: Weekly Geek
From Great Expectations by Charles Dickens:
“That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.”
Day Four: Weekly Geek
From The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald:
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s not matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…..And one fine morning—— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Weekly Geek: Day Three
From The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini:
Was there happiness at the end, they wanted to know. If someone were to ask me today whether the story…. ends with happiness, I wouldn’t know what to say. Does anybody’s? After all, life is not a Hindi movie. Zendagi migzara, Afghans like to say: Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end, kamyah, nah-kam, crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis.
Weekly Geek: Day Two and Sunday Salon
From The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo:
“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
I have been on a Megan McCafferty kick this week. I flew through Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings and Charmed Thirds and now have Fourth Comings left to read. This series was/is a lot of fun and as the books progress, so does the depth of the protagonist. So far, Charmed Thirds is my favorite.
The Bookgiveaway Carnival ends this evening. I am so happy that I decided to participate in this. My stats have increased greatly this week as a result and I am finally feeling like I am part of this book blogging community.
I updated my blog and made things much more spiffier, thanks to Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin? Her help is greatly appreciated.
I added quite a few books to my TBR list: Fourth Comings by Megan McCafferty, The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman, Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, and still have Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls to read.
I also need to finish Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for the Try Something New Challenge and I also joined the Women’s History Challenge.
Phew….. I am a little overwhelmed by all the books to read this month, but am loving it.
Oh yes, and I added a new rating system to my reviews. This will take effect with my next review.
Weekly Geek: A Quote a Day
One of my favorite Weekly Geeks last year was: A Quote a Day. This will have you pulling books off your shelves and Googling for your favorites. It also means a post a day for the next week – or as many as you can do. Quoth Dewey:
You may want to come up with a theme, such as favorite passages from books, author quotes, political quotes, quotes about books or reading, humorous quotes, whatever. Or you may not want a theme at all; maybe you just want to gather up seven assorted quotes that appeal to you. You may want to start each of your posts of the week with a quote, or you may want to give quotes posts of their own in addition to your regular posts. It’s all up to you!
From The Little Prince by Antoine de Satint-Exupery:
“Here is my secret. It’s quite simple: One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”
Weekly Geek: What’s In a Name?
For this week’s edition of Weekly Geeks, we’re going to take a closer look at character names. What are some of your favorite character names?
Go to Google or a baby name site like this one or this one, and look up a favorite character’s name. What does their name mean? Do you think the meaning fits the character? Why or why not?
I chose Pecola Breedlove from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. This novel has one of the most beautiful and saddest endings I have ever read. Pecola’s name is ironic, the kind of love being bred in her family is destructive and tragic:
He, at any rate, was the one who loved her enough to touch her, envelop her, give something of himself to her. But his touch was fatal, and the something he gave her filled the matrix of her agony with death.
All she longs for is love, but in the end:
Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe. There is no gift for the beloved. The lover along possesses his gift of love. The loved one is shorn, neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover’s inward eye.
Weekly Geek: Judging a Book by Its Cover
Judge a Book By Its Cover!
This week it’s all about judging books by their covers! Pick a book–any book, really–and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)…Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best ‘captures’ what the book is about?
My favorite book is Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. The first time I read this book was in a college class called The Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance. I read this copy, which shows Janie’s sexual awakening under the pear tree:
I teach the novel with my AP Seniors and they read this version:
I also found this version, which depicts the flood scene:
And of course, the Dover edition:
And then there’s the movie poster:
However, my all-time favorite cover is:
I like this one mostly because it does not imprint some sort of image of Janie in my mind. It lets me create my own version of Janie. I also like the simplicity of the red and white.
Weekly Geek
What are you passionate about besides reading and blogging? For example, are you crafty (knitting, woodworking, scrapbooking, model building)? Do you cook? Into gaming (computer or board)? Sports (player or spectator)? Photography? Maybe you like geocaching, rock climbing? Or love attending events like renaissance fairs, concerts? Music? Dancing? You get the idea.
Teaching is my passion. Discussing a book, or any topic really, with students and watching them come to their own understanding of themselves, life and the world around them is why I do what I do. I honestly can’t imagine myself doing anything else. I love being in the classroom and working with kids. A good class, a class which challenges both my students and myself, is what I strive for each and every day. There is no better feeling than when a student comes in and either asks me for another book recommendation, or even better, gives me a book to read. When a student connects to a book we are reading, I feel as though I have done something worth doing.
State of Denmark 