Lately, I seem to always have a bunch of books that I want to read just as soon as I finish the ones I am currently reading.  As an increasing number of those happen to be eBooks – whether a .pdf on my laptop or a book sitting in iBooks or one of the other reader apps on my iPod touch – I no longer have a toppling stack on the nightstand next to my bed.  The “to-be-read” pile has become a collection of files, a queue. 

While this list does represent a rough approximation of what I would like to read, what I actually read next is largely determined by whatever my mood is when I go to start a new book…

13 Books Waiting in My TBR Queue

1. Matilda by Roald Dahl
2. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
3. The iPad Pocket Guide by Jeff Carlson
4. International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature ed. by Peter Hunt
5. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
6. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
7. Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
8. Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman
9. Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov
10. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
11. Brain Droppings by George Carlin
12. The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs
13. The Navigator by Clive Cussler and Paul Kempricos

This was one of those weeks where I didn’t accomplish everything I’d planned to finish (not for lack of trying), one of those weeks that just whizzed by without a moment’s rest.  We did have a nice interruption to academics on Wednesday with the school’s Science Fair (the last such interlude until Sports Day on 9 September).

I suppose another reason for the quickness of the week  could be the fact that I have my second (and final) Assembly Duty for the term this coming week.  That’s when a designated foreign teacher give the entire assembled student body a bit of a motivational speech during the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Morning Assembly.  I truly hate doing these in Upper Primary; it was easier when I was assigned to the Lower Primary assemblies as I could just show a photo slideshow or lead the kids in a few rounds of “Simon Says.”  In Upper Primary, we usually choose a Word of the Day and explain to the students why it that particular word is important.  At any rate, I didn’t have much time during the week to plan my assemblies.

The Science Fair on Wednesday was a nice break from the routine (for photos and commentary, please see my post on Baan Jochim Phuket).   I enjoyed checking out the displays and games but it was just too hot to spend much time downstairs.  I remembered my mom’s death anniversary in my own way on Thursday.  The weekend has just flown by as well – I spent most of Saturday working on various computer-based projects and today I’ve worked on school-related tasks most of the day (after getting an early start on my laundry and household chores).  I didn’t have much time at all for reading (or writing as it turns out).  In fact, I’d made some time to write an It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? article but realized I had the exact same in-progress stack as last week!

This coming week will be hectic, I’m sure.  In addition to my Morning Assembly duty, we are finishing Charlotte’s Web in my P4 classes (leaving a lot of discussion to cover so we can spend the next two weeks trying to watch as much of the movie as we can fit into two 40-minute periods), I am giving the P3 students new Oxford Reading Tree books, there’s a fire drill on Tuesday (I’m a designated Fire Marshall for the fourth floor), as well as the usual everyday routine.  Oh, and I need to remember to use up my restaurant voucher I received as Teacher of the Month before Friday and also to pick up my Sports Day team shirt.  Whew!  I’m tired and it hasn’t even started yet.

I hope everybody has a good week…

It’s been a couple of months since I’ve made an It’s Monday post so I thought it might be a good idea, especially since I have several books currently “in progress.”  As detailed in yesterday’s Sunday Salon, I didn’t do a lot of physical book reading this past week as I was wading through an ever-increasing number of online article downloads.  I don’t have internet access at home so I tend to save pages and download blog articles while at work during the week for catching-up on the weekends.

Thus, I’m only on page 66 of Phil Karber’s The Indochina Chronicles:  Travels in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (2005) – that doesn’t count the sixteen unnumbered pages in the Prologue and Introduction.  I am enjoying the additional insight it’s providing on this region of the southeast (I recently fell in love with Laos while on a mid-April journey that included an extended stay in Luang Prabang and brief excursions to Vang Vien and Vientiane but have yet to make it to either Vietnam or Cambodia).  This book is also giving me ideas on how I can write up my own travelogues in the future – Karber makes very scant mention of incidents that I would waste pages writing about (editing for brevity not being one of my strengths). 

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It’s just after nine o’clock on an overcast Sunday morning.  I just finished hanging the week’s laundry on the clothesline just outside the front window and I’m praying that the rain holds off long enough for my shirts and pants and undergarments to dry a bit so I can hang them inside without puddles forming on the tile floor. In addition to the constant buzz of the motorbikes and other traffic whizzing by on the street, I can hear the repetitive drum beat of a Buddhist merit-making ceremony coming from behind the big Honda dealership.  I believe that this weekend may be some sort of auspicious period on the Buddhist calendar as there have been large caravans of deluxe air-con buses traveling north every morning and south every evening for the past couple of days (accompanied by a phalanx of tourism police car sirens  stopping the traffic at the intersections.  Ah, the sounds of Thailand!

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This week, I’m listing:

13 Favorite Fictional Characters

1. Pip (from Great Expectations)
2. Tom Sawyer
3. Bernie Rhodenbarr (from Lawrence Block’s Burglar mysteries)
4. Scout Finch (from To Kill A Mockingbird)
5. Hannibal Lector
6. Leaphorn and Chee (from Tony Hillerman’s Navajo mysteries)
7. Dirk Pitt (from Clive Cussler’s thrillers)
8. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
9. James Bond
10. Bilbo Baggins
11. Keller (from Lawrence Block’s Hit Man series)
12. Dr. Siri Paiboun (from Colin Cotterill’s Lao mysteries)
13. Tom Joad

At the end of a long holiday weekend, I actually feel like I accomplished something rather than having wasted it away.  I read quite a bit during the first couple of days and did some schoolwork during the second half.  I even watched a movie.  All that remains is for the rain to hold off long enough for my laundry to dry out on the balcony.

Thursday was my first day off, although not a full one as I was assigned to attend that evenings ceremony in which the teachers of Phuket honored HRH the Queen on her birthday.  I spent much of the day reading – returning to The Cloudspotter’s Guide for the first time since January as well as coming close to finishing A Nail Through The Heart (which I did the following evening).  I showered in the late afternoon and walked up to school in order to catch the minivan that would take me the Suphan Hin parade ground.  I had planned to retrieve my dress shoes from my classroom but they had locked the gates preventing access to the upper floors.  My flip-flops would have to do.  The van finally appeared about thirty minutes late; I was the only farang passenger, the remainder being Filipino and Thai teachers.  As I was walking across the vast (and crowded) concrete surface, the first person I saw from our school happened to be the director, Khun Nong.  He didn’t seem to notice my bright red footwear clashing with my green school uniform so I breathed a sigh of relief. 

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I’ve been learning a lot about the advantages of reading to one’s child starting as early as possible.  So many parents seem to think that children will learn to read once they begin school and, even then, rely on their child’s teachers handle that aspect of their development.  I often ask my own students if their parents ever read to them and I asked the same question of their parents at recent meetings.  Many of the Thai kids and parents in particular were amazed that such an activity should even take place; invariably it’s the kids who don’t already have a read-at-home tradition who are doing poorly in their classes at school.

The process of learning to read actually begins at birth.  According to the Room to Grow blog,

In the first few months of life, an infant’s brain organizes itself based on the child’s language experiences. If a child is not exposed to quality language, these connections become harder and harder to make as the child grows older. The TYPE of language that children hear is also important. If adults are talking amongst each other or merely giving the infant brief and irrelevant language exchanges, then language development is unlikely to flourish.

I’ve been reading to my daughter, Anda, almost since the day she was born (she will celebrate her first birthday one month from today).  Not only is it a great bonding experience between the two of us but she truly seems to enjoy the “idea” of books.  Her face – almost always either smiling or at least ready to smile in an instant – seems to light up even further if I have a book in my hand.  She is particularly fond of the colorful Dr. Seuss books which I’ve managed to borrow from a fellow teacher at my school (I haven’t yet found any of my own in the local Thai bookshops).

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This week’s first find comes around via a search for Quentin Blake illustrations.  Quentin was the chief illustrator for Roald Dahl’s books and I’m starting to prepare materials for teaching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory next term.  That’s how I stumbled across a really cool poster titled, “Rights of the Reader.”  Looking for a larger version of this on I came across the book of the same name written by Daniel Pennac.  Here’s the description from the Walker Books website:

Humane, humorous and deeply felt, this is a unique book about reading.

The Rights of the Reader, which has sold over a million copies in France, grew from celebrated French writer Daniel Pennac’s experiences of teaching in "challenging" schools. Central to the book is his belief that readers have rights: to read what, how, where and when they want, and – if they choose – the right NOT to read. This fresh new translation combines the talents of award-winning translator Sarah Adams and renowned artist Quentin Blake, who illustrates and introduces the work.

It took me a little while, but I finally found a link to download a larger version of the “Rights of the Reader” poster, as a PDF here.

An Amazon.com recommendation, Spot the Plot: A Riddle Book of Book Riddles – published a year ago by San Francisco’s Chronicle Books – features “thirteen witty and wacky poems pose riddles that challenge readers to ‘Name That Book.’ With a glass slipper here and a spiderweb there, Lynn Munsinger’s adorable illustrations lead young readers to the solutions. From Goodnight Moon to Madeline, children and parents alike will delight in recognizing their most cherished stories.”  It sounds like the perfect item to help liven up book reports for my P3 students.

I have to admit that I’m drawn towards many books initially because of their covers – I am forever opening new tabs while reading book blogs so I can find out more about the covers pictured. The Eyeball Collector is one such book, although the hardcover art at this Amazon link is quite different.  The extract here (courtesy of Macmillan Publishing) proves that my reaction to the art was justified and the book is now firmly on my want list.

We are actually on holiday this Friday (and Thursday, too!) due to HRH the Queen’s birthday, so I am writing this week’s Friday Finds on Wednesday (and scheduling it for later publication).  I hope everyone has a great rest of the week and uncovers plenty of “finds” of their own.

Last week seemed unusually lengthy but that was because it was the first full teaching week in quite some time. the only interruptions to the regular schedule occurring during the last one or two periods of the day as the students now have “Cheering Practice” in preparation for next month’s Sports Day.  I was ill most of the week with a terrible head-cold but still managed to do my job with little difficulty (other than struggling to remain awake during one of the P3 Reading lessons  on Wednesday as my medication made me very drowsy!).

The most noteworthy event as far as I’m concerned was the announcement Thursday morning that I had been named  “Teacher of the Month” for August.  This is the first time I’ve received any type of honor at my school as I am rather content to do my job as best as I can while remaining under-the-radar.  I don’t mind helping others but tend to avoid recognition for doing so.  So I was quite shocked to learn I’d been awarded this distinction. The announcement was made during the monthly Primary-level General Meeting with the school manager for the first time (usually, they just post your picture in the HR office – I always thought these look like the FBI Most Wanted posters found in American post offices).  I was embarrassed but it felt nice hearing Khun Nong (school manager) and the other teachers say their congratulations.  The reason I received Teacher of the Month was due mainly to my assistance with the Mid-Term Assessments (my final “act” in the process included coming to school last Saturday so that I could sign the generated reports for my co-teacher, Khun Aum).  In addition to the aforementioned “wanted poster” in the HR office (which appeared by Friday morning), I received a 300-baht food voucher for the neighboring restaurant – something that will come in very useful on those days which I can’t bear to discover what’s in the canteen’s “mystery curry.”

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I just discovered that 9th August is World Book Lover’s Day.  According to the Holiday Insights website, this day “encourages you to find a place in the shade to relax with a good book.”  Any day is a good day to honor the joy of reading and I’m constantly trying to instill that joy amongst the kids at my school – and not just the students in my own classes. Next week also happens to be Thailand’s Mothers Day (coinciding with HRH the Queen’s birthday) and so we have yet another four-day holiday weekend!  I believe it is also the annual Thai National Library Week, held every year since 1976.