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Plundered from book sutlers in various ports!
Originally uploaded by lunawhimsy

It's Thursday night and we're almost through our first week of school... just one more day in the humid sweatbox of B22!

I hope you're enjoying the first few days of class - thanks for checking the blog and reading this. It's a good habit to get into; although I will not update the blog daily, it's important to check it daily just in case.

If you haven't found an independent reading book yet, see me tomorrow either before or after class and I'll make an effort to find one for you. The weather is supposed to be miserable this weekend, so perhaps you can shelter from the storm at the EBPL or Barnes and Noble.

Speaking of the library, one of my students caught me red handed this evening at the EBPL holding a Jane Austen audiobook. He commented that he was surprised I was listening to a book and not reading it cover to cover like a good English teacher should and I understood where he was coming from.

A lot of people think listening to a book on audio is "cheating" and, well, my verdict it still out on that one. Whereas I understand the difference between reading and listening, I'm not going to say one is more beneficial than the other - they are just different. Listening to audio books during the school year is the only way I can "read" for pleasure at the rate I'm used to. I commute two hours a day and listening to an audio book is the ONLY thing that gets me through those awful minutes - it actually makes me look forward to getting in the car in the morning.

During the summertime, I'll read a book day but that's not possible during the school year because, obviously, I work during the day. In addition to the hours in my work day, I do an hour or two of work in my classroom after school before I go to the library to tutor for several hours a night. By the time I get home, it's almost 8pm and then it's time for dinner and, I'll admit, television (I'm a primetime tv junkie - I never turn it on when I'm home during the day but once 8pm comes, watch out! I need my fix of "The Office", "House", "The Biggest Loser" or "Paranormal State").

I read every night before I fall asleep but it's never more than a page or two because usually, I'm out like a light. I need to read - it's what I do. I like it so much, I made a career out of it. So thank goodness for audio books - they afford me two hours of reading a day. I guess you could say that I'm safely multi-tasking at the wheel. If you've never tried listening to a book on audio, take a chance and give it a try - I promise it's better than listening to a recording of "The Fall of the House of Usher"!