updated book/reading list

Due to how well he reads, which is truly unbelievable, I often don't like to discuss Big Brother's reading. He is quite a kid for his age, and he's quite a reader as well. I feel as though other people will assume I'm bragging and perhaps being untruthful. At 7.5 years old, he has read more books, on his own, than many people twice his age, which isn't saying a lot considering most 14-15 year olds.

We watched most of an old movie version of Robin Hood on tv recently, though I don't remember which of the old movie channels showed it. We had read Howard Pyle's Robin Hood, possibly our last prebedtime reading before Inkheart. Seeing the movie pushed Big Brother to pull the book back off of the shelf and reread it. That took him too few days.

His next book was The Hobbit. Each chapter in Inkheart opens with a short passage from a different book. Meggie, the hero of Inkheart, while preparing for a drive packs a book about an ill made knight and another book about hairy footed people on a quest. Big Brother knew pretty quickly what that reference too. We've read Tolkien's most famous works as bedtime reading as well as having seen the movies, so he is certainly familiar with the works.

After zooming through The Hobbit, he is now well into The Fellowship of the Ring. I am personally without a book at the moment, and seeing Tolkien lying out on the table, I'm being drawn to them, and I may just have to reread them myself.

After having read Shelby Foote's first book about the Civil War, as well as Rifles for Watie, by Harold Keith, I remember again why I don't send my kids to gschool. I went to a decent school, yet between these two books, I've learned more about the Civil War than I ever did in school. On top of that, if Big Brother couldn't drop everything once in a while just to read, I think he might go a little crazy. He has that freedom though, so we hopefully won't ever learn.

Rifles for Watie is a really interesting read on top of being a fun story. The author researched the material quite a bit, and reading the books makes that obvious. The book provides a view into the life of many different types of people, many different views of the Civil War. Additionaly, the place that some Native Americans had in the war is mentioned to a fair extent. As a homeschooler, it's a really good book to begin study or to help round out discussion of war and/or the Civil War. We don't really see a lot of the horror of the actual fighting, though the author doesn't shy away from it so much as he seems to have a bigger story to tell. It's worth reading if a bit rose tinted.

That's the current list as it now stands. Most likely, tomorrow is library day. That needs to happen both because we have stuff do and because I need some new books unless I fall into the Tolkien trap. I'm not worried either way. I love Tolkien and will reread the books soon enough, whether it's now or later.

Dixie Chicks

Remember when they had that song that pissed everyone off? They were embarrassed to be from the same state as ol' Bush. And then "country" music radio went extra crazy on them, wanted them banned from the radio, excommunicated from the church, drawn and quartered, lynched and kicked the hell out of America.

So much vitriol for such a simplistic approach to anger over the war. I'm personally embarrassed by our nation letting him become president the first time, and I'm past dismayed at the second term. I just may decide politics can go straight to the bad place. But am I embarrassed to be American? Not just yet, but I'm getting there.

My problem with the Dixie Chicks has never been their stand or how they choose to display their convictions. I don't generally care what a second rate "country" band has to say about anything. I care as little what anyone cares who is paid to entertain has to say about politics.

My problem with the Dixie Chicks is the one of them that's always in the middle. She hasn't got a damn neck! Why with all their money, now that they're rich "country" stars, can't they buy that poor girl a neck? Come on Dixie Chicks, and buy that middle girl a neck already! Please?!

Note: "Country" music, as mentioned above, is meant to suggest the top 40 style music with a twang that currently passes for country music. There are real and good country bands making good, country music. Sadly, they don't fit on the playlists of the "country" stations.

stupid word of the day

honorificabilitudinity

Yes, it's a real word if wordsmith.org is to be believed. This is the load of poo that they lit on fire at the door of my bloglines this morning. I had to actually click on the little speaker link just so I could hear the nice lady pronounce it. The pronunciation guide provided is certainly no help. In fact, the pronunciation only serves to make the word sound even more made up.

Assuming that such a ridiculous word is real, it means honorableness.

I'm going out on a limb here and saying that both "honorificabilitudinity" and "honorableness" are in fact both made up words, that both could easily be erased and forgotten and finally that we just use the old version "honor" in place of the former two.