Now that I've outed myself as a bibliophile, I think it's appropriate that this TT is going to be about books. This week, it'll be non-fiction because that is the bulk of my reading these days. Next week, I'll tackle fiction. For this particular topic, I wish it were Thursday Thirty or Thursday Three-Hundred instead of Thirteen!I'm putting this list into sub-categories for greater clarity. And I wonder where ds#1 gets his penchant for classification from.
A) Books I have read and highly recommend:
1. Getting Things Done by David Allen. Inspiring! I've put some of his ideas into practice already. I have read lots of books on organizing, and this is, by far, the best one.
2. Craft Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco; in a similar vein, many books by Barbara Brabec are really good too.
3. The Real Science Behind the X-Files by Anne Simon. How can one make a great show even more enjoyable? Find out about the science that drives the episodes.
4. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. My only complaint about this book is that it doesn't have enough equations in it. The expression "a picture is worth a thousand words" applies to equations too.
5. The Primal Teen by Barbara Strauch. I am so not letting my boys drive until they are in their 20s!
6. Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax. This was the book that helped me convince dh to homeschool the kids. They are a fascinating family.
7. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Our family listened to this as a book on CD (ds#1 subsequently read it when he was 10), and was very moved by it. For our homeschool literary co-op couple of years ago, I recommended we read the kids' version, Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food, and the kids liked it so much, they still quote from it.
B) Books I have not read, but that come highly recommended to me, so I have put them on my list (loooong list) of to-reads:
8) The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene. I saw part of the PBS show on this topic, and it was fascinating.
9) Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. I actually have started reading a couple of chapters of this during a Native American History homeschool class my kids took, and I plan to do a history unit with the boys based on this book.
10) The Portable Atheist by Christopher Hitchens. I hear this man is articulate and witty. This would round out our study of world religions...or non-religion as this may be.
C) Books I'm currently reading:
11) The Small Business Bible by Steven D. Strauss. Lots of info - I think my brain is on overload...
12) The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. Mr. Pollan is an excellent and thought-provoking writer. I am planning on reading In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto at some point too.
13) The Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs. I need a constant reminder on how to simplify my life, and this is it.
Join the Thursday Thirteen fun! Visit other Thursday Thirteeners at:
http://thursdaythirteen.com/2008/06/12/thursday-thirteen-149th-edition/ and let the TTers know you're participating by leaving the link to your Thirteen in your comment.
"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)
