2006 Book List

I was surprised to find I finished so many books last year considering all my other distractions.


Growing Up in Davie County: Reflections from One Hundred Years Ago - Jamie W. Moore, Editor
A lovely Christmas gift from my friend back in December 2005 about his grandfather's life.

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
I read this book when I was in high school and decided it was time to get back to the classics. I think I enjoyed it much more the second time around.

Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
Another re-read. I last read this book about ten years ago or so. I studied C. S. Lewis as part of a continuing Christian education class last year. It's amazing how my views have changed in the last decade.


Naked Fruit - Elisa Morgan
I didn't get much out of this book, but it was better than most self-help books that have been recommended to me.



The Book of Virtues - William J. Bennett
Actually I started this book after Aden was born. I picked it up every now and again - reading and slowly digesting the short stories, essays, poems and excerpts. It counts as a book read in 2006 since that’s when I actually finished it. I'm looking forward to starting The Moral Compass.

An Incomplete Education - Judy Jones and William Wilson
I’d been eyeing this book a while, so checked it out from the library. I had to renew it twice in order to finish. I was expecting something much different. The information it contained was pretty obscure and the authors assumed I knew much more than I did prior to opening the cover. I found myself running to my dictionary and going to www.wikipedia.org a lot trying to fill in the blanks. I thought I was a reasonably educated person until I read this book. If you want to feel like a complete idiot, go ahead a give this one a try.

"Waiting for Godot" - Samuel Beckett
I've always wanted to see this play, but never had the opportunity. If you like Beckett, I recommend "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" by Tom Stoppard.

Wicked - Gregory Maguire
The book was a birthday present from my sister and a good follow-up to seeing the traveling Broadway production back in May. Not the book I was expecting, but still I still couldn’t put it down.

Wicked the Grimmerie: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Hit Broadway Musical - David Cote
This book was a birthday present from Scott. After seeing the Broadway show, it was much more interesting to see the behind the scenes on how the musical was made.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum
I have a large collection of classic children's books. The Oz series are among my favorites. I simply had to re-read this book from my childhood.

Wise Thoughts for Every Day - Leo Tolstoy
Much better than any Page-A-Day calender. I had this book with me when I went to see my doctor recently. He asked several questions about it and examined the book for several minutes before saying he would have to go find a copy for himself. I recommend trying several Tolstoy's short stories before trying to tackle War and Peace. My favorite is "The Long Exile".

These are books I started in 2006 and have no intention of finishing:

Don Quixote of La Mancha - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
I've seen "The Man of La Mancha" performed on stage and knew the general story of Don Quixote. Usually I enjoy reading the classics, but I found this one too tedious. I didn't get half way through Part I before I decided I really didn't care anymore about the poor delusional knight or his side-kick.

The Great Divorce - C. S. Lewis
After taking the short class on C.S. Lewis, I decided to read another one of his books. Although I liked the Narnia series, this work of fiction really didn't suit my tastes, so I put it down.

Starling Joy: Seven Magical Stories of Christmas - James Calvin Schaap
A light book with several Christmas stories in it. I picked it up to read during the holidays and found myself disappointed by the author's storytelling. I was expecting something more on par with O'Henry's short story, "The Gift of the Magi".

Adventures in Learning

Earlier in the month, we took the kids to EdVenture. There was a traveling castle exhibit we wanted to see. I was hoping it would be more like the castle set up at the Charleston Children's Museum since the kids enjoyed visiting it last year. The traveling exhibit was on a much smaller scale, but very entertaining. Danielle played with the royal puppets, harvested vegetables from the garden, gathered eggs from the chickens, pretended to cook in a giant cauldron in the royal kitchen, and shod horses in the blacksmith's shop. Afterwards, she enjoyed shopping at the grocery store scaled to her size.

While Danielle and I were milling around, Aden and his dad were investigating the giant kid exhibit. It's set up so you can crawl inside and see how the human body works. Aden investigated the brain, mouth, eyes, heart, spine, stomach, intestines, and slid down part of the colon. They wound up coming out ... yep, you guessed it. There was a big PHFFFT sound as you exited. Both kids enjoyed the music room, firetruck, and water display outside.