Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Abandoned Book Index

Assessing Young Language Learners by Penny McKay ,
Children Learning English by Jayne Moon ,
Giết Con Chim Nhại bởi Harper Lee (HUỲNH KIM OANH & PHẠM VIÊM PHƯƠNG dịch) ,
Teaching Speaking: A Holistic Approach by Christine C. M. Goh, and Anne Burns ,
The Complete Stories of Oz by L. Frank Baum,
Tiếng Việt 123: Vietnamese for Beginner ,
Vietnamese Stories for Language Learners by Tri C. Tran and Tram Le,
Wheelock's Latin by Frederic M. Wheelock,


From 2014
And my reading list graveyard for this year.  Here are the books I gave up on this year:
*Read Real Japanese Edited by Janet Ashby and Colloquial Cambodian by David Smyth.  (Part of me knew I should be keeping my language work up, as a language teacher after all.  But in the end these books got crowded out by other books for professional development.)
*The Age of Capital: 1848-1875 by Eric Hobsbawm.  (Despite the fact that I find Eric Hobsbawm to be a difficult read, these are considered classics in the field of history, and directly cover the area of history I'm most interested in.  So I tried to pick up the second book in his series, but got bogged down.  May someday try again in the future.)
* The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams. (After getting to know Henry Adams in A World on Fire, I decided to try reading his memoirs.  It was readable, but difficult, and when I found myself getting distracted by other books, this was one of the first extra books on my reading list to get discarded.  I may pick it up again someday.)
* Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Malory.  (After reading The Once and Future King, I went through a brief spell where I was really eager to tackle the original Thomas Malory.  But like Henry Adams, this was difficult and I gave up on it soon after getting distracted by other books.)
* The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart.  (Whisky, thanks for the recommendation.  I regret to say I've given up on it for the moment.  At the time I picked this up, I was juggling too many other books, and this book had too many characters and sub plots going on in it.  I decided to temporarily shelve it until I can find time when I can more fully devote my attention to it.)
* A History of Cambodia by David Chandler (While reading A Very Short History of the World, I was reminded once again of how little of world history I actually knew outside of Europe and America.  Since I was living in Cambodia, why not start with a history of Cambodia, I thought.  But then this book got crowded out in favor of other books on Cambodia I picked up.)
*Common Sense, The Rights of Man, and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine (Having decided that Thomas Paine was a historical figure I admired, I decided I wanted to get more in-depth with his writings.  But didn't quite stick with the book--at least not this year.  I might read it again at some future stage.)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. (Another book from my childhood that I've read an abridged version of, but someday mean to go back and read the whole thing.  But this year I've given up on it.  I'll have to come back to it another time.)

From 2016
Empire by Niall Ferguson
A co-worker recommended this book to me, and even lent me his copy, so I decided to give it a try.  I of course knew Niall Ferguson's reputation as a right wing polemicist, but I thought it was good to read books by authors I disagreed with every once and a while as sort of an intellectual exercise, and besides I was interested in the subject matter.
My co-worker also disagreed with Niall Ferguson's politics, but he said the book was interesting enough that it had fascinated him despite it's political tone.
I, however, was not so grabbed by Niall Ferguson's prose. I got a few pages into it, found I wasn't really captured by it, and that I had too many half-read books on my plate already, so I just gave it up.

Playlist HERE

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