Reading Challenge 2017

This year I'm sticking with 40 books.. I have about 10 books I'll be reading this semester so that's 1/4 right there!

Christmas Latkes!

Christmas Day we bundled up (not enough if you ask me!) and headed up to Saul's for Christmas Latkes! Yes, you heard that right.. So what else do you do when two holidays collide?? (sorry I couldn't help it!)




the Soufganiyot was ready to go.. but the Latkes were high in demand and hot & fresh, so we had to wait..


Live Band! Lovely music.. people danced (trust me, people were dancing!)


hot & delicious..

Cats of Berkeley 8

Cats of Berkeley 7

Reading Challenge 2016 Pt. 4

A few more books read since the Summer..

With school in session, there's not a lot of free time to read, but I've managed to pick up a few 'slender' titles that seem interesting (to me) and we'll see how many of these I get finished!

Reading The Artist and the Mathematician (among others!) re-ignited my curiosity about India, its history and rich culture. The Badass Librarians of Timbuktu is a 'hold book' from Berkeley Public.. I put a hold request on the book as soon as I heard it was coming out.. it's an exciting story of preservation I'm looking forward to finishing!

I hope to finish Shah of Shahs first.. It attracted me as relevant to the experience of people I have met in my life growing up as a kid in the 70s..


Da! I found when looking for a Russian grammar book I enjoyed from the SF Public Library. I got into a Russian 1 class at Cal (concurrent enrollment) but I'm not doing that great. If I end up dropping, (which is likely) I'll keep working on the Russian just the same..

I love learning about words, word origins and how language works.. not enough to change my major.. but enough to try and learn Russian on my own and then to go through the red tape to get in this class that I'm sucking in. Yes, everyone is right. I should have stuck with Spanish! Fine.

Heyday's Sidewalking ..I've been wanting to read but BPL hasn't had it.. SF Public finally did, so woot! 132 pages.. I can do that!

I guess we'll see where I get in the next few weeks. I have my school textbooks I'm reading but those are required, of course.. and will only add 2 more titles to my list by October & December, respectively. The challenge for me has been finding the time, the titles that interest me that also aren't too time consuming.. Small volumes that can be read in-between and on BART.. or books with short chapters that can be finished before exhaustion sets in. I don't get many naps these days..
😏


current reads..

Cats of Berkeley 6

OZMO

mural on Olive and Polk Streets

Seen on my walk Saturday.. headed into the city to return my library books and get a new stack. I have about 3 weeks to read before the Fall Semester starts back up.. But I took a long walk including a side trip to Polk & Pine looking for an old friend.. my first friend I made in San Francisco back in 1997 when I failed to make the move out here.

I don't know what happened to them, but suffice to say wherever they are, I have never forgotten them.. Their kindness has always stayed with me.

Berkeley Walk (going condo)

Gate on College Avenue..

My "favorite" house on College is going Condo.. It's been this way for a while but today I actually got around to taking pix:

proposal..




2710 College Ave.

Cats of Berkeley 5

so this sweet Morris Cat I've run into a few times.. very friendly, but thankfully never follows me beyond its corner..

Sunny Day on Bancroft

Walking down Bancroft toward Shattuck... I love being able to see so far down the road that you can take the Bay into your scenery..


For someone who's usual view is of the hills, this was a lovely reminder.

Reading Challenge 2016 Pt. 3

The Spring semester has had me behind in my reading challenge, and when I *did* manage to read anything, it seems it was mostly school related. I have 2 weeks before Summer classes start.. so we'll see how much I get read before then.. I am (as always) amid at least 10 books, (many of them being library books I've had to return after renewing as much as I could.)


a few of the books I'm hoping to actually finish sometime this Summer..

I just started reading Orlando Figes' Just Send Me Word (which I thought sounded interesting while reading Revolutionary Russia for some side-reading in my World History class..) I checked it out Sunday during Bay Area Book Fest so I've not gotten into it yet. Some of the source material are some 1500 letters that were written (& left uncensored) while imprisoned in Stalinist gulag. Sounds romantic,yes?

Belarus (Mathew Wilson) is another book I'm having to return to the library after renewing three times.. I'm about 65% through it and up to the 'modern era' but I'll have to wait to check it out again on another visit. So far it's been interesting from a linguistic and geographic point of view, and helped me understand a couple things about 'self identification' (but also brought up a few questions.. ah well.)

Not pictured, The Philosophy of Mathematics (David Bostock.) I'm about halfway through, but have been sharing it with unknown entities as I've had to return it a couple times due to it being 'on hold' for someone else,(when it's not on hold for me!)

Country in the City (Richard Walker) and The Heyday of Malcolm Margolin (which I started twice already) I am having to re-start from the beginning.. Basically I start a book, something happens, I have a different book (for school or otherwise,) getting priority and then I come back to previous book a week later, (if I'm lucky.) Otherwise things get re-shelved, and library books get priority because I have to return them, or I have a paper to write, something.

I spent 20+ hours weekly working on Statistics and feel lucky to pass it (which is a total bummer because I was actually enjoying most of it.. but enjoying it and 'getting it' in a timely manner are different things.).. Therefore reading, unless class related, got pushed aside for much of the semester.

I guess we'll see where I'm at after Summer Session.. Mainly due to my short-comings in Maths, I'll be taking a couple classes this Summer for the first time. I'd like to have my History AA-T at the end of Spring 2017 semester. It can happen!