Reading for Me

This may be a very short update. Why? Because there’s nothing to share. Since my last post on this site, I haven’t cracked a book. I’ve not read a single sentence for pleasure. Nothing, Nada.

It wasn’t intentional. It just happened. Last Sunday, I found myself on the road headed to El Paso with a colleague and friend for a few days of intense recruitment. There’s was absolutely no time to read during the day as we zipped from one school to another. When we had a break, we were normally checking in on students at home and checking our email. By the time we got to the hotel each night, we were ready to collapse and simply enjoy some downtime. Besides, there was WAY TOO MUCH LAUGHING for any reading to go on. I tried to read a short chapter as we were preparing to return home, but I simply could not focus my thoughts for a single moment.

I wish I could say that things will change in the new week, but I seriously doubt it. On Tuesday, I’ll head to San Antonio with the same friend and colleague to man the recruiting booth at TMEA again this year. (I’m so glad Anthony and I get along so well and don’t have to worry about spending so much time with him!) The hall is always noisy and there’s lots to talk about as we are visited by students, alumni, colleagues, friends, and recruits. There’s just not going to be much time to do any reading…and I’m perfectly okay with that.

I may try to do a little reading over the weekend, or I might decide for the less intellectual option and watch some mindless television. Either way, I know that my books will be there waiting for me when I get the opportunity to return to them. Besides, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

Until next time…..enjoy the view from your own reading chair this week.

Nausea returned to my world on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I didn’t get much accomplished at all! That included my reading life. I want to read, I just don’t feel as though I have enough time to dive into a book other than my Bible at the moment.

Here’s the low-down on the tiny bit of reading I did get done this week:

Clash of Crowns (George Martin) – 381/728 — 17 pages this week.

Frederic Chopin (Alan Walker) – 381-671 – 0 pages this week.

Year of Yes (Shonda Rhimes) – 35/240 – 35 pages this week.

Yep…..that’s a grand total of a whopping 52 pages of personal reading this week. Ugh! I’m headed to El Paso for a few days in the upcoming week with a colleague for work. I’m hoping that I can get back into a normal reading routine while I’m there….but we will just have to see how that goes. In the meantime, I hope that you are enjoying a little quite time — however small it may be — in your own reading chair. Happy reading!

This week, my reading focus changed significantly. I needed a break from serious biography and the war-torn fantasy world of the Starks and dragons. The announcement that my local library was finally a member of an ebook consortium served as the perfect means for feeding my reading shift. While I carried around the biography and saw Clash of Kings sitting next to my reading chair, this week I returned to visit the Baxter family I grew to love a couple of years ago and read Karen Kingsbury’s In This Moment.

In This Moment features Luke Baxter as our hero, a lawyer specializing in religious freedom cases. When the principal of Hamilton High begins a voluntary after-school Bible study group, positive results are noticeable immediately. Attendance and test scores improve. Gang violence and other crime rates plummet to an all-time low. Hamilton High is no longer a hopeless void that is sitting on the verge of being shut down. More importantly, students’ lives are being changed as they come to know more about Jesus and begin a personal faith journey with their new-found Savior.

To celebrate the club’s first anniversary, the principal decides it is time to share the facts about the after school program with the parents of his students. Reaction is mixed, but it appears as though things will be fine for the school and its principal. All of that changes in a moment when a single father of one of the school’s students is furious over his daughter’s involvement. He blames Christianity for the failure of his marriage and his wife’s unfaithfulness, so he makes it his personal mission to destroy the faith — starting with the local after-school Bible study.

In This Moment is an excellent examination of religious freedom in the United States, the societal opinions about modern Christianity, and the courage required to stand firmly for your beliefs when faced with challenges that could result in the loss of your career, security, and everything you hold dear. In This Moment was a little more than just a great story for me. I found myself thinking about what I would do in a similar situation. Would I be willing to risk everything for the cause of Christ? This is a story that I won’t soon forget.

In the coming week, I plan to get back to Clash of Kings and Alan Walker’s Chopin biography (although I did manage to start reading Shonda Rhimes’ memoir Year of Yes and am fascinated with I’m seeing there). But this week, I took a detour and am very glad that I did!

For those who are following the statistics, here was the View From My Reading Chair for the week ending on January 26, 2019:

• In This Moment (Karen Kingsbury) 254/254 – FINISHED! 192 pages this week

The semester finally got under way this week. There has been a lot to do and I haven’t really felt as though I had lots of time to read. I do need to mention, however, that I am reading a LOT of Scripture at the moment. I decided to tackle the Horner reading system this year — 10 chapters each day. I’ve been at it for nearly a month and have completed the 10 chapters on most days….and really enjoying the process. That reading is not reflected here because I do not consider my daily reading of Scripture as “pleasure reading.”

Another change this week was the announcement that my local library finally joined the e-book consortium, so I can easily access digital books — and for me, those are always fluff reads — so I’ve added a third book to my routine late this week. Karen Kingsbury’s In These Moments has grabbed my heart from the outset, so I’ve devoted a little more reading time there in the past few days than I have my other books.

Enough explanations…..here’s the statistics from this week.

Clash of Kings (George R.R. Martin) 364/728 = 65 pages this week.

Fryderyk Chopin (Alan Walker) 381/671 = 40 pages this week.

In These Moments (Karen Kingsbury) 62/254 = 62 pages this week.

That brings my reading total for the week to 167 pages.

Life has been incredibly busy this week. I traveled back to west Texas and had meetings and office work at the end of the week to prepare for the beginning of the Spring semester. Needless to say, I did not get a lot of reading done, so I can’t tell you much about my progress except where I am in the books. Hopefully next week will see me spending more time in my reading chair!

Clash of Kings (George R.R. Martin) – 299/728 pages (47 pages this week).

Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times (Alan Walker) – 341/671 pages (62 pages this week).

Total pages read this week: 109 pages (down 17 pages from last week).

Happy New Year! I hope that 2019 has gotten off to a good start for you and that you are enjoying some great reads to start the year off right. Here’s how things are progressing here.

Clash of Kings (George R.R. Martin) – The story has finally started to grab my imagination and I’ve found myself drawn into the pages. Even though this is a relatively quick read, I’ve not made as much progress as I would have liked because I’m absolutely ENTHRALLED by the Chopin biography. Current status: 252/728 pages (98 pages read this week.)

Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times (Alan Walker) – I cannot get enough of this book right now. I have always loved Chopin’s music and been interested in the Polish composer who found refuge in Paris, but this is the first time I am reading a thorough biography of the composer and his works. I find myself pausing at every turn to reflect and digest as much as I can. This leads to a slower reading pace, but I am thrilled with the experience and don’t want it to end any time soon.

Let me give you a sample of what I’m enjoying so much about Walker’s text. As an introduction to Chopin’s significant impact on piano repertoire, Walker provides the following commentary. I think you will see right away why I am really having a lot of fun with this well-written, insightful, and witty biography.

When Chopin arrived in the French capital, it was full of composer-pianists, each one vying with the others for a place of supremacy at the keyboard. ….. It did not take Chopin long to assess the situation in which he found himself, and he delivered an opinion from which he never wavered: “I really don’t know whether any place contains more pianists than Paris, or whether you can find anywhere more asses and virtuosos. Is there a difference?” (Alan Walker, Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times, 239-40.)

Yep….that’s the kind of commentary I need to keep my attention while helping me to connect and identify with the composer. Current status: 279/671 pages (126 pages read this week.)

For those of you who enjoy stats (I certainly do!), that’s 224 pages read this week and over 850 pages still to read in these massive tomes. I hope I can pick up the pace once I’m back in west Texas and my normal routine. If all goes as planned, I’ll begin my journey back to reality on Monday. Tune in next Friday to see how things turn out in my reading adventure.

Have a great week and enjoy your own reading view!

Kennith