A Goal Accomplished

First of all, as a math teacher, I can not in good conscience *not* point out the fact that it is National Pi Day today! I learned about this here. I may have to celebrate National Pi day tomorrow with my math class. Thanks to Crissy for the info!!

Last night I accomplished a goal that I have had for quite some time. I finished all the fiction recommendations in The Well Educated Mind. Susan Wise Bauer recommends that each book is read three times to really dig into the book. Let me just tell you now that I will NEVER read Moby Dick again (Lord willing) but there are others that I can definitely see revisiting at some point in the future! However, one time through for now was enough to give me the flavor. It was very interesting to follow the flow of the novel chronologically and see the themes changing. I am a bit less preferential to modern novels, I realized. Later 20th century novels seem to have more disturbing language and themes than earlier 20th century novels. My sensibilities seem to prefer the more old fashioned. Well written? You bet! But, I would rather think about the beautiful, pure, and praise worthy.

Now what, you ask? I'm starting the Autobiography section. I approach this with a little fear and trepidation. I am a fiction kinda gal and this will be a stretch to push myself in this way. The first selection is Augustine's The Confessions followed by The Book of Margery Kempe. The books in this list should keep me challenged for years to come.

Here are the rest of the books in the list.
Essays by Michel De Montaigne
The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Teresa of Avila
Meditations by Rene Descates
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan
The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration by Mary Rowlandson
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
Up From Slavery by Booker T Washington
Ecco Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche
Mein Kamph by Adolf Hitler
An Aubiography: The Story of y Experiments with Truth by Mohandas Gandhi
The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein
The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton
Surprised by Joy C. S. Lewis
The Autobiography of Malcom X
Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton
The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Born Again by Charles Colson
Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez
The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway
All Rivers Run to the Sea by Elie Wiesel

So, I'll see you in about 10 years!! Do you think this list will keep me busy? I highly recommend The Well Educated Mind because it give a great frame of reference on how to read all different genres of books. And when I'm done with these, I get to move on to History, Drama and Poetry.