Friday, September 19, 2008

Bedtime Reading

I just wrote a note in the front of our Lord of the Rings book: "Finished September 17, 2008." Which completes the started it entry made on October 28, 2007 and blogged about at the time.

We read together most nights, but it took longer this time, partly because my voice was out of commission for almost a month back in April and partly because we just went slower. But once again, it almost stunning what you can accomplish in small increments. When I wrote about it last year, I titled the post 1036 — as in that's how many pages were remaining after the first night of reading. And here we are all done, just by doing a little bit on a regular basis.

We figure that was our fourth or fifth time through LOTR, but we've also read many other books over the years: several if not all of the Dune books, James Herriot's series, Philip Gulley's books, Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, and who knows what else.

Last night we began Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. It's non-fiction obviously and sounds dry, but I've read it myself and quite enjoyed it. To me, it's both a readable and eminently sensible book about the scriptures. I read part of the introduction to Cuppa last night, and she thoroughly enjoyed it, but we'll see how it goes when we get into the actual text.

Does anyone else have any candidates to nominate for good bedtime reading aloud? Nice comfy stories are preferred because one doesn't want to get hooked on a whodunit and the like when one just reads in brief snatches before lights out.

6 comments:

Lorna said...

I've just finished Frances Itani's book "Remembering the Bones". Itani is an Ottawa writer and this book was wonderful and thought-provoking. I don't know if it's a good recommendation for bedtime reading though. I have friends who read the "Sunwing" series by Kenneth Oppel as their bedtime work and loved it. There's a lot of good fantasy writing for adolescents these days. Have you read Sharon Shinn? If not, try her Angel series, of which "Angelica" is, I think, the first.

PBS said...

I've only done light reading--of light and fluffy books lately. But am jotting down some title from you hard-core "bookies"!

Ruth said...

What a nice idea. I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow though. Best for me to read aloud in the daytime. I will have to look up your current book.

Woman in a Window said...

I've read all sorts of boring and uneventful books which would be great to put you to sleep. Unfortuantely, they were so bad I've forgotten the titles!

Mara said...

I have just finished 'The Eyre Affair' by Welsh writer Jasper Fforde for the 4th time. The first one in the series would be the easiest to read out loud, the Next four are a bit more difficult, but fantastic reading nonetheless.

Mara said...

I know I left a comment already, but seeing as you spend so much time with your off-offspring, I thought I would recommend another book as well. It's written by Lucy Daniel Raby and it's called: Nickolai of the North. Twenty-five chapters, one for each day leading up to Christmas and of course the 25th for Christmas Day. All about how Santa came to be! Your off-offspring needs to be a little bit older though. Happy reading