100 Days of Summer Reading 2024

Summer is right around the corner and it is time for me to endeavor once again to get into one of my favorite past times: Summer Reading.  My Summer reading season generally goes from Memorial Day (tomorrow) to Labor Day (which is September 2nd this year).  By starting today and ending Labor Day, the season is 100 days long.  

I want to read at least 10 books during this period.  That is an absolute minimum goal.  I think I would actually be disappointed if I only read 10 books this Summer.  That is basically only one  book every week and a half.  I really have my eyes set on twenty, Which is 1 book every five days for a fortnight of weeks.  

Now when I say read, I really mean consume.  I may listen to some, and read some on a device, but the majority will be physical books which I will read from the printed page.  There are some books that I am in the middle of reading, if and when I finish them this Summer I will count them.  There are some reading programs that do not allow this,  but mine is not one of them.  To keep myself honest each year, I don't start reading any books the week prior to Memorial Day.  I've been so busy lately, that I don't think I've read any books for the last two weeks,  

My lack of recent reading could become problematic as I am out of habit.  Over the next few days I hope to remedy that by jumping back into the waters of reading.

Here is a list of 10 books that may be some of the first I finish this Summer.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

This is probably a good time to stipulate that some of the books I plan  to read this Summer, I actually will be re-reading.  Earlier this month, in my A to Z Reflection, I wrote about my plan of reading all the Narnia books again this year, and then doing the 2025 A to Z challenge on the series.  I wouldn't be at all surprised, If I finished all 7 prior to Labor Day

Walking With Sam by Andrew McCarthy

Many of the books I read during this program are books that I own.  I picked this one up last year at a meet the author event.  My wife has already read this story of McCarthy's walking trip with his son on the Camino de Santiago.  I read some of it last year but will be starting anew as I'm not sure where I left off.

Luke: The Gospel of Amazement - Michael Card

Michael Card is one of my favorite singers, but I also enjoy his writings.  This was going to another one that I started over from the beginning. I just page through it and I remember most of the introductory material from reading it earlier this Spring.  I'm going to start again on page 32 which is a chapter about Luke chapter 1.

Eugene Onegin byAlexander Pushkin

Years ago I lived on Pushkin Street in Khabarovsk, Russia,  This Summer I will again be attempting to read Pushkin's verse novel, Eugene Onegin,  I have been very off again Onegin (pun very much intended) with this one.  For the past few months I have been  consistently practicing Russian for the first time in decades.  If I can wade through the English translation, maybe next year I'll attempt it in Russian.

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien 

At the beginning of this year, I wrote a post about my plan to read FOTR (I have never finished it) by September 2nd, which is the 53rd anniversary of his death.  I am about 1/2 way finished and if I only read 1 book this Summer it needs to be this one.  If I'm not done by 4th of July I will start listening to it as well as reading it.

1984 by George Orwell

Speaking of books that I've  never finished.  2024 should be the year I finally finish 1984.  I've had to return a copy to the library twice this year, but I'll order one today from them and should be finishing it very soon.

Concise Theology by J.I. Packer

The 3rd book so far with initialized authors.  I have read this book multiple times over the years.  This year has been a little different as I've been reading one chapter at a time and highlighting that chapter as I read. There are 94 chapters and I have completed 24.  It is very possible I will not get through all 94 by Labor Day.

The Cooperstown Casebook by Jay Jaffe

  In my sports blog, Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog, (which has now been incorporated into this blog), I write a lot about Baseball's Hall of Fame.  Jaffe writes in this book about who he thinks are Hall of Fame worth candidates.  I am looking forward to finishing it soon.  

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

As of yesterday, all my children are officially finished with their secondary education.  Which of course means they are all finished with their primary or elementary education as well.  I, on the other hand, will probably never be finished with  children's literature.  To that end, I'm dusting off a favorite tome from our home school days and planning to enjoy it anew this Summer.  

 Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Now that school is over, I am looking forward to re-reading Allen Levi's fiction debut.  I believe I gave my copy away.  So, I may need to wait until I get a summer job and a summer paycheck before I get to this one.  

Don't be  too surprised if I finish other books before or instead of some of these  these 10.   I will try to post a review of each book as I finish them.  I'm not always successful when it comes to that part of the program, but we shall see.  3 short weeks after Labor Day I will turn 60, so this is my last Summer Reading Challenge of my 50's.  I think that will make it that much more enjoyable.  

Light Bulb Poem

Today was the last day of school and the only thing sadder than saying goodbye to my students for the Summer is saying the same thing to my computer.  Substitute teachers in my district need to borrow a computer each time they teach and return it at the end of the day,  Classroom teachers are able to keep their computers year round as long as they are employed by the district.  As a building sub, I am able to borrow a computer at the beginning of the year and not return it until the last day of the year. So today I had to say goodbye to my dear friend and I am back to borrowing computers from friends and libraries until the 24/25 school year gets under way. 

Before I returned the computer to the media center, I cleaned out any files I may have had put on there during the course of the year.  I came across a poem, I had written but forgotten all about.  I don't remember what my inspiration was. I think it may have stemmed (no pun intended) from one of the science classes I was subbing in.  Or it may have been am ELA assignment or maybe just a prompt form my poetry group.  In any case it was in a Microsoft document in a borrowed computer and is now a submission to Poetry Friday which is being hosted this week by Michelle Kogan.

 Growth Mindset

or

Standing on Our Failures

In cartoons,  when an unsolvable problem is about to need a new adjective, a light bulb goes on over the thinker’s head.   

 

When Thomas Alva Edison 

Or T. Alva Ed 

Was inventing the light bulb 

What went on over his head?

Idea after idea after idea 

More than 10,00 all told 

Which he did not view as failures 

But as steps to the goal. 

With each setback I think 

I would have felt like a jerk 

But Tom discovered 

ways that his bulb wouldn’t work 

Inspiration is a light 

Perspiration is when we fight 

To perfect our ideas 

Until we GET THEM RIGHT. 

Now when I have a bright idea. 

And the light bulb shines 

I stand on other's failures 

And a whole lot of mine.

To get back to Poetry Friday click here.

How to Make Learning as Addictive as Social Media | Luis Von Ahn | TED

Henry Cate of Why Homeschool Why Homeschool shared this great Ted Talk by the co-founder of Duo Lingo. His original post is here.

 

How Non Cubers Think You Solve A Rubik’s Cube

Wordless Wednesday: I Went to get a Snack From my Refrigerator and This Happened

For more Wordless Wednesday, click here to stop by at Comedy-Plus.

 

Dave Out Loud Comedy Set @roldaver

The White Sox are still very bad. But at this present moment they are not the worst.

 My beloved White Sox are really bad this year.  24 games into the season they had won 3 games and lost 24 for a paltry winning percentage of .125.  They have improved somewhat in the past two weeks.  Since the they snapped their season high 7 game losing streak and have had 2 3 game winning streaks  and 1 2 game winning streak for an 8-7 record.  This has more than doubled their winning pct. to a still very meager .282.  This is bad enough still for dead last in the American league 3.5 games behind the Astros and the Angels.  However, over in the senior circuit, (just one of many colorful monikers for the National League) both the Rockies and the Marlins have so far under performed the underperforming Southsiders.  

The Rockies own the worst winning percentage in the majors at .243 and while the Marlins are slightly better percentage wise at .250 they are still a 1/2 game behind Colorado in the standings by virtue of having played 3 more games than the Rockies at this point,

As it stands at 11:00 p.m. central time on May 10th, The White Sox are 1.5 games ahead of the Marlins and 1 game ahead of Colorado.  This is a tight margin, and but by the end of play Sunday, the White Sox could again hold the worst record in all of baseball.

One thing the Sox have not been able to do this year about a quarter way through the season is win a game when on a 1 game losing streak.  The Sox are 0-6 when on a 1 game losing streak, 1-5 after losing 2 in a row, 0-5 when on a 3 game slide, and just 2-3 the game after losing 4 in a row.  If the Sox even want to battle for mediocre they need to eschew losing streaks of more than 3 games.  So far the Sox have lost 4 or more in a row on 5 different occasions. 

I am not very hopeful that the White Sox can turn things around this year.  But for a team that started the season 2-13, an 8-7 run like the one they are on now is definitely a step in the right direction.

Poetry Alive 2024

In late December 2022, my daughter told me about  a poetry group that  met the first Monday of the month.  She and I went in January both enjoyed it so we have been attending ever since.  The group meets both in person ad remotely.  Emma and I have only attended in person so far.

The structure of the group is that the poets share any poems they are working on the the moderator leads us through the theme of the week and then gives us a prompt to work on.  After the group is finished composing, they share the work they just completed.  n

In 2023 several poets shared one poem about Elgin, the city I live in, o Valentines Day. Our group was asked to participate in that.  In April of last year we all participated in a event called Poetry Alive where we all read several of our poems at a  public meeting.  My daughter chose not to participate last year i the event but went with the rest of our family to see me read.

Many of the poems I have submitted for Poetry Friday have bee written during or shared at our monthly poetry meetings .  For today's Poetry Friday I would like to present the You Tube video of the 2024 Poetry Alive presentation.  This year Emma participated as well.  We are the 2nd and 3rd poets.  There were 4 rounds of recitations.  Poetry Alive 2024 took place on the night of my 26th wedding anniversary, so in honor of the occasion, I adapted a song I wrote for her into a poem and recited it in the third round.Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise. 

A to Z 2024 Holiday Reflection

 This is my 2nd of two reflections for the A to Z 2024 challenge,  This will include some thoughts feelings and concerns in no particular order from my foray into all things Holidays.  If you would like to see my first reflection which focused on the playlist I amassed from my songs of the day during the challenge click here. 

My Theme for the 2023 A to Z challenge was Holidays.  The idea behind it started to germinate  when I worked at Chase in their Business Fraud department.  Each day we my manager would start a chat for all of us working on that day.  Each day she would title the chat with a different holiday that was taking place that day.  She would choose the Holiday from a list she would find on the internet for that day.  I don't remember exactly which one she queued them from, but it was similar to what you would find on National Day Calendar.

Instead of making an alphabetized list of such holidays, I wanted to actually choose holidays occurring on the day the letter was posting. From the start this proved to be problematic.  National Autism Awareness Day is April 2nd and autism starts with an A. but April 2nd we featured the 2nd letter of the Alphabet, which is a B.  Some worked out just fine, like April 4th was the first day of the United Kingdom's Discover National Parks Fortnight.  May need just a little tweaking.  Wednesday, April 3rd which is National Film Score Day matched with the letter C, by being described as Cinematic Compositions. 

When I get a idea for a theme , I often add to it a few wrinkles.  One wrinkle I added was immediately confusing. I decided to not only write about actual made-up holidays, but to also make up 5 of my own.  I chose 5 because there are that many vowels in my native tongue.  I say immediately confusing because A, the first letter of the alphabet is a vowel, so I made up a holiday, Adult Children Appreciation Day, on the first day of the challenge. It wasn't until the next day that I started chronicling actual holidays like Children's Picture Book Day which I introduced as B is for Books for Children.  

Even though I explained the entire concept each day with the same exact disclaimer:

 For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. 

I still think that doing something different with the vowels was confusing and I don't think I'll attempt that again.  I did, however like making up holidays.  For Adult Children Appreciation Day I wrote each of my 3 children aged 18 to 24, a letter appreciating, encouraging, and advising them. I plan to do the same the next time Adult Children Appreciation Day Rolls around which will be on April 21st , 2025 (As you know, Adult Children Appreciation Day is always the Monday after Easter). Besides Adult Children Appreciation Day, I also created 4 other Holidays

E was for Wedding Planner Black Friday

I was for Indicted Illinois Governors Day

O was for One More Time and You get a Parade Day

U was for Undecided, Undeclared & Uncertain Day

Speaking of Undecided, Undeclared & Uncertain Day,  I tried to mix up my presentations here and there this challenge.  This blog used to be 4 different blogs, 2 general interest blogs, 1 vlog, and 1 sports blog.  During the challenge I tried to bring in features from some of these blogs to my daily posts.  The U post was presented in vlog fashion as a You Tube video of me presenting the day in question.  On my M day I posted about National Micro-volunteering Day, but I did so in Frequently Asked Question Format which  is a format I have used multiple times before in my blogs. I even had two holidays regarding sports for S and T.  

I  completed the challenge this year.  What I try to do is predate my entry so it drops at the time that reflects that day's date.  For example my A post dropped at 4:01 A.M. on April 1st.  Some days I had to manually post later that day.  On one occasion I posted minutes before midnight.  I was never late and I was never early each post dropped on the correct day.  

I didn't drop in on every blog but I did visit quite a few,  I received 90 comments on my blog in April and I feel like I may have left that may comments myself.  Next year I'll try to keep track. I discovered 3 new blogs during the challenge that I have been following, they are Hot Dogs and Marmalade, The Versesmith,  and Backsies is What There is not. I am giving them all a try out on one of my blogrolls along with the The Curry Apple Orchard, which was my favorite blog to follow during the challenge.  Now that the challenge is over I hope to pore through every reflection and discover some more blogs worth following,

Before I put this reflection to bed, and me with it, I have a couple of final thoughts.

• The end of the school year is fast upon us, and the middle school where I am a building sub, is basing their end of the year countdown with theme days from the holiday of that day.  What a fantastic idea, I wish I had done something like that for the challenge.  Oh wait, I did!
• In my Theme Reveal this year, I mentioned how my theme for 2024 was supposed to be Chronicles of Narnia related.  My plan is to reread all the books this year, as I do most every year but did not do in 2023, and have that be my 2025 A to Z theme.  

The next stop for me is to register for the A to Z Road Trip,  I also am going to make an index page at the top of this blog for the 2024 challenge.  Until then I'll try ti go back to my 6 to 10  times monthly blogging pattern.  For more A to Z Reflections click here.  

Wordless Wednesday: Tourist Selfies Taken At My School

 

Okay This won't be totally Wordless.  Monday was a theme day at our school.  Dress Like Your on Vacation,  So I did  You know what you do when your on Vacation?  You Take selfies!!!

For More Wordless Wednesday Stop By at Comedy Plus. 

Dave Out Loud: Name That Movie

A to Z 2024:Reflections - The Music

I am doing my A to Z Reflections in 2 parts this year.  The traditional reflection with the index and the pontification will follow.  This year I paid homage to John "1 Hand Typing" Holton  by having a "song of the day" for each letter of the alphabet at the end of my post. I would post a You Tube video of the song in question and then daily add that song to my Spotify A to Z playlist.   

I am adding a bonus song of the day for the reflection called appropriately enough, Reflecting on My Reflection by Allen Levi.

The Leap of Dave A to Z Playlist ia now ready with all 26 songs from the challenge.  

I will be back later this week with my traditional reflection.  Foe more reflections click here.