* Also, I didn't mention this in the video, but when I was doing the Certificate of Advanced Methodology, I referenced this book a couple times, promising to read it (here and here)
I never actually was reading Aesop's Fables as a book. I was using the public domain versions on the Internet, and attempting to go through the collection in order by using the numbering of the Perry Index.
So it feels a little strange to say I'm "Abandoning" this book, since I was never seriously reading this book. But I made a started post for it in September, 2018, and it has been on my "Currently Reading" list (on the left sidebar) ever since then.
In my previous post on The Brothers Grimm, I wrote about how I had started The Brothers Grimm as an ESL Listening Storytime project, and then lost my enthusiasm for it for a variety of reasons. The same is true for Aesop's Fables. In the case of The Brothers Grimm, however, I still wanted to finish reading the book even after I stopped making the videos. But in the case of Aesop's Fables, there was no book to finish. I was just going off of copies on the Internet. So now that I'm removing The Brothers Grimm from my list of "Currently Reading" books, I should probably take down Aesop's Fables at the same time.
The videos I did finish are all indexed HERE. (and HERE).
The numbers are from the Perry Index. My intent was to start at the beginning and go through them in order, but I jumped the order for story 210 and story 721 because I used those stories for one of my lessons on the Delta.
I started this book on March 13, 2019, but truthfully never got more than a couple pages into it. I re-started it a few more times in the following months, but never managed to get into it for one reason or another.
I did use it as a useful reference for Delta Module 3, but never read it cover to cover. And now that Delta Module 3 is over, plus now that I'm no longer primarily teaching Young Learners, there's no reason to come back to this book. And that's that.
Abandoned: Children Learning English by Jayne Moon
I started this book on February 06, 2019. The reason I was reading this book was because I was doing Delta Module 3, and my specialism was Young Learners. Now, one of the things they tell you about Delta Module 3 is that you're not supposed to read books cover to cover. There's no time and there's too much ground to cover. (You need to cite 5-6 different sources for each section.) You're only supposed to skim the book to find the exact information you need. But, since I've always done things the hard way, I had the idea that while I did the usual skimming and scanning, I would also read through books on the side. (In theory, I try to always be reading one book related to professional development. So I thought I just move my professional development reading over to the Delta Module 3.) I did get one Delta Module 3 Young Learners book read cover to cover--Teaching Young Language Learners by Annamaria Pinter. Immediately after finishing that book, I started on Children Learning English by Jayne Moon. But I never finished Children Learning English.
It was a busy year and I got distracted by other things. I began to realize I knew nothing about assessing young learners (also part of the Delta Module 3), so on March 13, I shifted gears to Assessing Young Language Learners by Penny McKay. At that time, I hadn't finished Children Learning English, but I thought maybe I could read both of them at the same time--finish up Jayne Moon while still reading Penny McKay. It was overly optimistic. I was working two jobs, and writing the Delta Module 3, and dealing with a baby in the apartment. And then in June I got transferred over to the Teacher Training Department, and on the advice of my new colleague, started re-reading Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener. Like I said, it was a busy year.
But that being said, I did also waste some time that year. I spent a lot of time on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. If I had been a little bit more disciplined, I totally could have finished this book. I mention that because I almost finished this book. I got about 70 pages into, and then stopped reading it, and then a couple months later picked it up again, and decided to start from the beginning again, and got pretty close to finishing it. I don't remember exactly what page I stopped on, but it was around 130. And the book is only 181 pages long. I was in sight of the end when I stopped reading.
I mention that with regret, because I like being able to finish a book, review it on this blog, and count it as one of my "books read". And I fully realize no one cares about that but me, but I care about it. I tend to measure a fair amount of my success in life by how many books I tick off each year. (I haven't been doing well lately.)
But at this point, it's too late to just pick up where I left off and finish the book. Too much time has gone by, and it's so faded in my memory that I can no longer talk about it intelligently. I'd have to start all over again from the beginning if I wanted to give it a proper review.
And on top of that, I've changed jobs this year, so I'm no longer working primarily with Young Learners anymore. So, for the moment at least, this book is not even linked to my professional development. So there's absolutely no reason to read it now.
Like I said, because this book has faded in my memory, I can't really talk about this book intelligently now. I can just make some general comments. There are a lot of little comics and illustration on this book that make it look visually appealing and attractive when you flip through it, but I found the text of the book (the actual main content) to be on the dry side. Several times I found my attention wandering when I was supposed to be reading it, and had to re-read the same page several times. (Another reason I didn't make better progress than I did.)
I was a bit surprised how none of this book appeared to be based on research. There are a lot of good ideas in here, to be sure, but it appears to be just ideas that the author picked up over her years of teaching. There was nothing linked to research or data, which meant it was not particularly useful for me on my Delta Module 3. Which surprise me because this book does pop up on Delta Module 3 reading lists for the Young Learners specialism. (Before writing this post, I went over to my Delta Module 3 paper to see how often I had cited this book, and when doing the Ctrl+F function, I was surprised to realize I never cited it once.)
But the book is still useful for getting practical ideas from if you are teaching young learners.
Abandoned: Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics by Jack C. Richards and Richard Schmidt (Third Edition)
(Note: My wife is taking the baby to visit her cousin's family for a couple days, and I actually have some free time to myself for once. Naturally, I plan on using that free time to catch up on my blogging. I've got several books on my "Currently Reading" list (located on the left hand side of this blog) that I've actually abandoned long ago, but just haven't gotten around to admitting that I've abandoned . I'm hoping to use the next few days to catch up on my abandoned posts. If all goes according to schedule, there should be a few more of these posts over the next couple days.)
So no point re-hashing all of that again. Follow the links above, or see the video below. (I get into the whole story in the video.) The only things to add are: 1) Even after my interests shifted to other projects, I tried to keep this book going on Quizlet somewhat. I dropped down to 5 words a day instead of 100 words a day. I stopped studying it for a couple months, but then tried to pick it up again a few months later. But I tried to keep it going. 2) Eventually, though, I stopped completely. I don't remember the last time I practiced this book on Quizlet, but I think it was about a year ago at this point. 3) At this point, I have no plans to start again. I no longer see the value of practicing this book on Quizlet, and am going to use my time for other projects.
In fact, in retrospect, it's a bit hard to justify all the time and energy I spent practicing this book on Quizlet. The bulk of that time was years ago (August 2015 to December 2016). But back in the day, I did spend a lot of time practicing and practicing this book on Quizlet. It's a classic example of how I will often study hard, but not study smart. But at the time, it gave me a sense of accomplishment. It made me feel like I was working toward a goal of being a professional.
Abandoned: Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener (I've actually read this book once before and reviewed it here. But I am abandoning my re-reading of it.)
Started (re-reading): June 10, 2019 Back in June, 2019, I was brought in to the Teacher Training Department at my school to train new teachers in a CELTA equivalent course. (It wasn't a certified CELTA course, but I was working with certified CELTA tutors and using the CELTA methodology). Since I was new to teacher training, I was trying to do my best to catch up to the other tutors. On the bookshelves of the Teacher Training department was The CELTA Course Trainer's Manual by Scott Thornbury (A). I asked if I could borrow the book and read it at home. "You could," said the more experienced tutor. "But if you really want to study the methodology we use, you'd be much better of just reading Learning Teaching.
For the next few weeks, I spent a lot of time re-reading Learning Teaching, even though my progress through the pages was slow. (Scrivener writes in an easy to read style, and yet it takes me forever to work through his book. This is something I remember that from the first time I read it. Probably because the book is so packed full of ideas, it takes a while to digest). But I did make it through most of the book re-reading it. (I got up to chapter 15--324 pages out of 380--not counting the appendices.) But then in August, deadlines started looming for Delta Module 3, and I felt like I needed to drop this book and get working on my Delta Module 3 reading. At the time, I fully intended to come back and finish my re-reading of this book. But I never did. Now, over a year later, it's time to admit to myself that I've abandoned this book, and take it down from my "Currently Reading" section on the sidebar of this blog.
I will eventually do a video review of it, however. Once I work my way around to it on my scripted book review project. And maybe at that time I'll try to synthesize some of the stuff I remember from my re-reading into the scripted review.
This book is a massive doorstopper: 1486 pages, containing all of the 14 Oz novels by L. Frank Baum.
I actually made good progress on this book for the first few months I was reading it: I got through the first 5 books; The Wonderful World of Oz, The Marvellous Land of Oz, (This one was actually a re-read, because I had read it as a child.) Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz,
and The Road to Oz.
I then got stalled out on book 6, The Emerald City of Oz. Which I attribute to the fact that these books were fun at first, but after a while got to feel pretty repetitive, and I started to lose interest.
I am, however, not abandoning it completely. I'm just planning on reading and reviewing each book individually, rather than trying to read the whole thing at once and keep it all in memory for some massive review.
This will involve going back and re-reading the first 5 books. (In the case of The Marvellous Land of Oz, this will mean re-re-reading.)
I might try to clear out some of the other deadwood in my Currently Reading list before I come back to this one, but I'll announce each book as a new Starting entry when I get back to this.
Abandoned: Vietnamese Stories for Language Learners by Tri C. Tran and Tram Le
And while I'm clearing out my "Currently Reading" list, it's time to admit I'm not going to get around to this book anytime soon.
It was too advanced for me to begin with. (I'm still at a beginner's level.) I bought it from the bookstore as an impulse buy, because I'm attracted to the idea of using fairy tales for language learning. (Something I've been trying to incorporate in my own materials.) But I wasn't ready to plunge into this book just yet.
The book came accompanied by an audio CD, which for several months I would play in our apartment every morning, in the hopes that some of it might sink in. But none of it did.
(We were at a park once, and we saw murals depicting a Vietnamese folk story. My wife asked me if I recognized the story. I said I did not. She said, "It's the same story you listen to every morning in our apartment.")
But, eventually, I stopped playing the CD as well. (It's so boring to listen to the same thing over and over again, especially when you don't understand it. I'm trying to use my listening time more for informative podcasts these days.)
So, time to admit that this book as well is now abandoned.
Abandoned: Wheelock's Latin by Frederic M. Wheelock
It's also time to admit that I've abandoned Wheelock's Latin. Like the previous book, this is one I've actually abandoned long ago, but am just getting around to acknowledging now. And it's for the same reason as the previous book I'd abandoned. I had envisioned studying this book on quizlet, and once the hand cramps came back, it was time to back off of quizlet.
Abandoned: Giết Con Chim Nhại bởi Harper Lee (HUỲNH KIM OANH & PHẠM VIÊM PHƯƠNG dịch)
I seldom make a conscious decision to abandon a book. Rather, I realize that I haven't read a particular book for several months, and then consciously acknowledge that I long ago abandoned it.
So it was for this book. I haven't been studying it for I don't know how many months. And then I realized one day that my copy is no longer even on my bookshelf. (My wife thinks she may have loaned it out to one of her friends, but it's been so long she can't even remember.) And I've decided that rather than going through the trouble of tracking down another copy, I'm just going to admit to myself that I've abandoned this book.
From2014
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.)
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.
