Staying on course to start the year

The Sunday Salon, What I'm Reading

So last weekend after rethinking my first book of the year, this past week I pretty much have been doing what I planned to be doing with my reading.

I’ve been reading a chapter a day from Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations each day this week so far in the mornings before I go to work and plan to continue that through to next Saturday, with 12 chapters altogether. Then in the evenings after work, with the exception of last night, I’ve been reading Becoming by Michelle Obama, which will be my first book read this year when I am finished. I had planned to finish by last night, but I now am thinking it will be by the end of the weekend.

I still am looking ahead to my own Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend Readathon next weekend as I have next Monday off from work. However, instead of starting a reread of Taylor Branch’s Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 that I read more than 20 years ago, I am going to start reading Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65. Then once I finish that, I can go on to the final part of the trilogy, At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68 in hopes of of finishing the series by the end of the year.

I also picked up at the library two books of collected speeches of King that I want to dip into over next weekend.

Lest you think it’s all too serious, on Thursday night, Kim and I watched Stranger Than Fiction, a not-so-typical Will Ferrell movie about an IRS tax agent who discovers he is a character in a book that is being written. I can’t believe that we took so long to get to it.

Last night, we also watched Wild Rose about a fictional Scottish singer wanting to go to Nashville that also was very good. But the one I recommend for you all in keeping with the literary theme of The Sunday Salon, of which this post is a part, is Stranger Than Fiction.

Published by Bryan G. Robinson

Blogger formerly known as Unfinished Person. Still an unfinished person...

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21 thoughts on “Staying on course to start the year”

  3. Ooooh, I loved Stranger than Fiction and now I want to watch it, again. I don’t think anyone at all would want to write about my life. I’m more boring than Harold, apart from the travel. We have been some interesting places.

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  4. I’m impressed with your organized approach to reading this month! I finished an audiobook at the beginning of the week, then switched between reading and listening to a very long Trollope novel. It’s really good, but it feels like I’m not making much progress. Our next movie will be Rocketman… borrowed it from the library. Have a good week!

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    1. I’m pretty much staying on target, but am st struggling a bit with the midsection of Becoming. I’m hoping still to finish it today or maybe now tomorrow. Soon anyway…no spoilers, but we enjoyed Rocketman even though it wasn’t what we were expecting, more of a musical than expected.

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  5. Sounds like a good start to the year. I think anything we can do to help ground ourselves and be positive, whether that means reading a meditations chapter a day or doing a gratitude journal, is a good thing.

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  7. School started back up for me this past Monday, so I’ve hardly been able to read for myself. 🙁 I finished my first book of the year last night, though (PKD’s The Penultimate Truth), and it was really good.

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      1. Both classes this time should be interesting, but so far it’s all textbook reading. I’m taking Psychological Problems of Modern Youth and Psychology of Sexual Behavior.

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  9. Stranger Than Fiction. Who would I want to be the author of my book? Certainly not Stephen King. Or Herman Melville. I hope not Joan Didion. Or Jane Austen. A big no to John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway. Jerry Seinfeld might be a good choice but would he give me a sense of purpose? Maybe a poet would work. William Carlos Williams. Or Basho. What would my life be like if Ray Bradbury were my author? I’m not sure.

    Who would you want?

    Your reading plans are moving along swimmingly well. What are you thinking about Meditations? Does the book feel current? I’ve heard nothing but good about Becoming. Think we could talk M. Obama into running for a leadership role in our country?

    I’m looking forward to reading The President Sang Amazing Grace. It’s at the library for me right now. It’s a picture book that I somehow missed reading last year.

    I hope you have a lovely week.

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    1. I’ll have to think about what author would write my life and get back to you. I know I wouldn’t want it to be Haruki Murakami. Too weird. Meditations is very relevant to today. It’s timeless. 🙂 I’ll get back to you about Michelle being in politics after I finished the book. I’ll know more about her headspace then.

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