Let's see how far we've come...

I spent most of my free time at work prepping for the grade 9 field trip to Les Collons, Switzerland. The amount of planning and prep work that goes into the trip is pretty massive, although the fact that I've done it before makes things easier.

On Thursday I had to sub for a 6th grade English class which was a really interesting experience:  All of the kids (boys & girls) were really excited about reading (each of them had an actual novel with them) which is something we don't see very much in the high school. It's a shame so many kids lose their enthusiasm for reading sometime around the same time they hit puberty.

I've got three books I'm currently "reading."

I've been reading Summer Knight by Jim Butcher (#4 in the Dresden Files series) as my "before bedtime" read. So far I like the book although it's still not really knocked me out. It's a very intriguing setting and idea though and one which does have a lot of potential as a RPG setting.

I've been listening, via my Audible subscription, to Hidden Empire by Kevin J. Andersen, which I really like. It took a bit of time to get into (probably the first third of the book, which is about 5 hours of listening time) but I really like where the story is going and the mystery of who the alien antagonists are has gotten my attention.

Finally, Niklas and I have been listening to The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman on our way to and from school each day. With both really like it, although I think some of the story has clearly gone over Niklas's head (obviously); that said, he understands the basic story and really likes the characters. The audio book's quality is phenomenal and includes different voice actors for each character, with Pullman himself narrating the book.

I've built up a few entries over the last month that I kept meaning to post but haven't gotten around to it until now. As a result there will be about a half dozen back posts showing up in my journal over the next few days.  Hopefully I'll finally be able to start using my LJ as a daily journal now that things have finally settled back down into a steady rhythm.

With the summer finally here I'm finally getting through some of the backlog of books I've had on my "to read" list for a while.

I'm currently reading through the Dresden File series by Jim Butcher. I've finished up the first two and am moving on to Grave Peril during my upcoming trip to the US. They're pretty good, though not outstanding, but from what I've heard the series gets much better around book #4.

Although I don't have a huge amount of time to read during the school year, I do listen to a lot of audio books - I got hooked on them a few years ago and since they have listened to more than 40 books including the entire Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Currently I'm listening to The Talisman byStephen King & Peter Straub. So far I like what I've heard though it's a bit long-winded at times.