A Very Original Title I Can't Think Of

I was about to start decorating, for lack of a better word, my portfolio when I realized I hadn't posted on my blog. I really don't know what to post, but anyway...

I was out sick this Thursday, Friday and was still sick on Saturday, so I had plenty of time to read. I mostly read historical fiction, which was a little surprising. I finished Cate of the Lost Colony, which was a romance that took place in the Roanoke settlement of 1585 that was never seen again, and I loved it. Politics, romance, history - all it needed was fantasy and it would be one of my ideal books. The author, Lisa Klein, also wrote Ophelia, which was her take on Hamlet, and that's how I picked that book up. I started Bulfinch's Mythology, which was referenced in another book I liked, and it's slow going. I finished the second chapter, though. Essentially, Bulfinch's Mythology is Bulfinch's retellings of Greek, Roman, Celtic, and Egyptian myths, and then some of King Arthur, Robin Hood, and Charlemagne (French king).

I can't believe that it's almost the last week of PATH. Crazy.

Poetry Everywhere

I listened to and watched poems being read on Poetry Everywhere. I thought the site was

I listened/watched Emily Dickinson's poem "I started Early - Took my Dog", which was read by Blair Brown and animated by Maria Vasilkovsky. It was really imaginative, the way I understood it, and described swimming in the sea and being swallowed up by it. I enjoyed the poem, and the animations that went with it. Here it is: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/

I also listened to a clip of Robert Frost himself reading his poem "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening", which I've read before on my own, but Robert Frost read his poem so well. He sounded kind of like a narrator from an old album, but his voice was calm, sort of. It's hard to describe, but he read the poem well. Found: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/frost.html

As well, I listened to Naomi Shihab Nye's poem "One Boy Told Me", which I listened to in PATH 1 and wanted to hear again. It was read by the author. I still love the line about a car being served in a cup. Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/nye.html

I think Robert Frost's poem was best, simply because I liked his slow way of reading and his voice. I thought it fit his poem. I also think that the simple animations added to Emily Dickinson's poem, but it would take attention away from the poem itself if the animation was more complex.

Finished Tamora Pierce! 27 books in 52 days (March 12 to May 2). Almost two books each day. Currently reading Howl's Moving Castle, The Sight, and Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation.

April

My reading experience with Poetry Month... I had a lot of fun. My poetry notebook on poets.org isn't completed, but I don't think it ever will be (I'll keep adding and adding and adding as I find things). No favorite poems, but I've decided I really like Edna St. Vincent Millay's poems. They're direct, but I can read into them. I'd compare it to Robert Frost. I definitely will keep reading poetry. I have three (I think) collections of poetry in my to be read stack, which is uh, four feet high.

I'll keep reading and writing poetry, but I'm going to be writing sonnets as little as possible.

50 pages away from finishing my Tamora Pierce marathon.

This Week's Poetry - and other things...

No, Clara, if I get a candy reward in English I'm not sharing it with the class. I doubt each of us would get more than a mouthful.

Poetry I liked from poem a day: Anne Waldman's Matriot Acts Act I (it intrigued me enough to read three times); Donald Hall's The Things (I enjoyed how the author drew attention to little things that I've thought of as clutter, but they hold meaning to him); Evie Shockley's excerpt from the Farewell Letters; and Carl Phillip's Civilization (I liked the last stanza best).

I've been rereading Romeo and Juliet in English, so Shakespeare's blank verse wakes me up during first hour.

Also, I'm two books away from finishing my Tamora Pierce marathon, and I'm rereading Quidditch through the Ages.

Poetry

Someone commented last week that many of the poems through poem a day are disturbing/gross/weird. I agree, but I like about half of them. Some I even like enough to go into my notebook on poets.org (found here http://www.poets.org/notebookdetail.php/prmNotebookID/381071 (hopefully)). What does this say about my poetry tastes? Interesting question to ponder... I already know that I will read long and/or depressing books. I guess the same applies for poetry.

Favorites so far from poem a day: My love is as a fever, longing still and Self portrait as Thousandfurs.

I reread Sick by Shel Silverstein to add it to my collection, and it made me laugh the however many time 'round. Go check it out if you haven't read it.

I only have three more books to go on my Tamora Pierce marathon, and my English teacher is offering a candy reward for the person who reads the most pages in my English class...

Last thing: My stepdad found a book of Robert Frost poetry that I'm going to start soon, and I've decided that he is my second favorite poet, first being Edgar Allen Poe. The Bronte sisters are good, too. Funny - I just noticed, in listing my fav poets, that all of them were depressed at some point in their life. Hmm.

Spring Break Reading

I have been reading mostly Tamora Pierce and Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (audio book in the car). Hoot is good - I've read it before, but it's a different experience out loud. It seems more real, but it goes so slow. I could have finished it already, but reading in the car gives me major headaches.

I haven't decided which poem to memorize yet.

Tamora Pierce marathon is going extremely well - I have 6 and three quarters books to go, out of 27. I'm currently reading Bloodhound, which is about, essentially, a police force around 1200 AD trying to find a set of counterfeiters. Not my favorite Beka Cooper book, but there are some amazing scenes...

The poem a days I've been reading haven't been sticking out in my mind. There was an interesting one to do with a grasshopper.

Trends and Tamora Pierce... with an Interlude from Octavian Nothing

I've been reading three things this week: Tamora Pierce, books regarding the history of vampire fiction, and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing.

Octavian Nothing is for book club. It is very good, but a little strange. Morbid, sort of. Haven't gotten very far in it, but I'd recommend it for those who aren't easily grossed out.

Vampire books are disturbing. There is a percentage of the book I'm currently looking at - Our Vampires, Ourselves - that feels like it's persuading me to believe in vampires. I don't believe in vampires outside the imagination. Thanks, but no thanks.

Tamora Pierce marathon still going strong. 15 down, 12 to go.