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What I’m Reading (the non-book edition)

I made a big reading goal this year. Fifty books. I’d finish fifty books by the end of 2014.

I was on track for the first months of the year, but then came back-to-back weeks of pushing-to-the-finish-line on several projects and I stopped reading altogether. Reading begets reading in my case, and even three weeks of not reading regularly will derail me firmly out of sync.

Now it’s several months later, and in firmly predictable fashion, I’m aching to return to regular reading. I just finished S-L-O-W-L-Y making my way through The Prisoner of Azkaban, but mostly I’ve been off-track with books.

Books aside, I have been intermittently popping in on my favorite websites, periodicals, and blogs. Here are a few of my current favorites.

Cup of Jo (Blog)

Somehow Joanna Goddard curates the best mix of interesting, intriguing, and useable information. She posts a LOT, but it works.

Modern Mrs. Darcy (Blog)

Anne Bogel talks books, life, and personality quirkiness, a still-light ensemble which evades triviality. Incidentally, she hosts the “What I’m Reading” link up of which this post is a part.

Vanity Fair (Monthly Periodical)

Full of fantastic stories and some of my favorite short-form non-fiction. Cosmo and Glamour it emphatically is not.

Relevant (Blog & Monthly Periodical)

Conversations on faith, culture, and intentional living. It doesn’t hide from the taboo and approaches topics openly and with generosity. Good thought fodder here.

Saveur (Monthly Periodical)

Planted firmly at the intersection of food and culture, Saveur serves up recipes and travel bits as well. Great reading for lovers of food, food writing, and the world.

What’s been your favorite short-form reading of late?

Back from the West Coast

For much of July, B and I travelled all up and down the west coast. What began with purchasing tickets to WDS turned into a 3-week northern-West-Coast tour of great food and even better friends.

Since we had stops like WDS and Renegade and children’s-book-collaboration on the tour, it wasn’t pure vacation, but we’ve found that a bit of work-on-the-go (especially the creative sort) helps us not completely derail when we’re out of our norms. And I don’t know about you, but I’m better when I maintain some space to mentally tinker. And also when I don’t return to an overflowing inbox.

So where’d you go this summer? Share links to your pics if you’ve posted them somewhere; I’d love to see them!

oxenkiddosfolk

Sunset

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The Weekly End (Geekery Edition)

Somehow this Weekly End is full of geekery. Starting with wacky personal experiments and winding through tech, comedy-sci-fi, and fantasy. I’m not sure how it happened, really. But how does anything happen? In the immortal words of employee-of-the-week-Lucas, “Who knows where thoughts come from? They just appear… mmmhmmmm.”

So I’ll take no offense if these selections are slightly not-your-fave. That probably just means you’re cooler than me.

Geekery numero uno: I washed my hair with honey yesterday, if you call that washing. I needed something different than last week’s baking soda results, and I ended up with honey. It’s still too early for a full report.

We also started a whole30 this week, which will likely become a whole20 or whole15 sooner than I’d like. There’s too much going on this month for me to stress over strict food-ing, but I was getting the feel-fats and slog-brains and decided it was time to make an adjustment. I’m four days in and already sooooo happy I decided to go for it. Of course, I’m also in sugar withdrawal. For me that means by 8pm I’m so tired/exhausted I can barely pull the sheets back on the bed. Also? Headaches like whoa.

In other news, we have only 43 days left on Tatooine!

Onward to geeky web-finds!

There were two (very) big Star Wars announcements this week regarding the new cast and the future plot. This New Yorker article has information on both, and a photo I can’t stop looking at.

This Kickstarter for a 3D-printing pen. Must. Have.

A (quite long) “history” of MST3K from Wired. If you’re not sure what MST3K is, don’t click through. For the rest of you, treasures await. I now understand why there are still jokes I don’t get. Also, I love it when disagreeable people are called trolls.

Have you seen this geekery shop? It’s great browsing. And of course I want one of these.

And this, Harry Potter VS Star Wars, an amateur video in the most charming of ways, but with kind of amazing special effects. There’s also a little Middle Earth in there if you listen closely. (If you’re reading this on RSS or email, click through to see the video.)

Have any geeky fun? Send it my way. And have a great weekend!

 

The Weekly End

This week we’ve been chugging along as usual. I wish it were more interesting, honestly, but that’s life at the moment. Working, learning, trying to stay cool (it’s 104 today), and watching the most recent season of 24 before the new season begins May 5th.

I also began reading Notes from a Blue Bike by Tsh Oxenreider of the Art of Simple. I’m in the early pages, but so far it reads as a memoir/travelogue of pursuing simplicity in the midst of varied and unexpected circumstances. (If you’ve been wanting to read it, join me over at the reading group Tsh is hosting this month; it’s just getting started, so you’re not late.)

In other news… 50 days until we leave the Sandbox!!

Here are a few things I liked this week…

Have a lovely weekend,
ab

 

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The Weekly End

This week passed in a flash. I can hardly remember what I was up to besides keeping on keeping on. Do you ever have weeks like that?

In other news, it’s hot here. We’ve already had several 100+ degree days. In better news, we have only 57 days of this nonsense left.

Here are a few posts about living life which resonated with me this week; perhaps you need them, too?

Also, my friend Kacie was in Oxford this month and shared dozens of lovely captioned pictures. If Oxford armchair traveling excites you, begin here and move “newer” through the posts.

Have a lovely weekend,
ab

What I’m Reading

Last month’s reading check-in reminded me that, while I have been reading rather regularly, I hadn’t yet made progress on my sub-goals. Oops. That’s why regular reviews are helpful, I guess.

This month I began remedying this, starting two books that qualify as “nagging books.” Now I just need to make a little progress. No matter. Onward! Here’s what I’ve been reading since last month’s check-in:

The Fault in Our Stars, John Green

I’m late to the party, I know. But I love love loved being swept away by the humanity in these characters. It was easily my favorite contemporary non-series read in a long time. I’d say more, but you should read it, and I don’t want to tell anymore than you’ve already heard.

The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis

This is one of the few primary Lewis books I still hadn’t read. I enjoyed it, but because it took me a bit to get the hang of what was going on, I’ll be re-reading it. Recommended. (But don’t skip the preface.)

Immortal Poets, Christopher Burns

I’ve wanted to read more poetry for a while now, but where to begin? I decided to begin with this well-reviewed anthology and was happily surprised to discover the poets are arranged in historical order with helpful introductions throughout. Just what I was looking for.

Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard

Another one from my nagging list, it was undeniably time to pick this one up again (on the first read I had to stop to let the ideas soak about 90 pages in and never picked it back up). A modern classic, Willard critiques contemporary Christianity and aims to reorient it with an alternate paradigm. Yes. Yes. and YES.

What have you been reading? Share in the comments, or join the link-up!

 

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