NOTICE: (Updated March 5, 2010)

Beginning December 19, 2009, Books 'N Border Collies will be posting but only intermittently while I pursue personal goals. I plan to share some reading I'm doing, but there will be no reviews. I will, however, be sharing my exploration of vegetarian cooking and the cookbooks and websites I use to educate myself. I hope you enjoy it!

Lezlie



Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Go Wolves!



And the 2009-10 NBA Season has begun! For my new readers, this is when I start spouting about my Minnesota Timberwolves and how much I adore them. I'll try to keep it to a minimum as the season rolls on, but I won't be able to stop myself on occasion. Tonight is the season opener for us, and I'm thrilled!! GO WOLVES!

Now that I got that out of my system, Peter and I are almost finished with The Teaching Company DVD course "The Art of Reading." I cannot recommend this course highly enough for anyone yearning to get more out of his or her reading. The instructor, Dr. Timothy Spurgin, is great. In twenty-four half-hour lectures he gives tons of usable, understandable advice for "unpacking" and analyzing even the most complicated literature, and he makes every book and story he discusses sound irresistible. After last night's lecture on War & Peace, even Peter, who is an avid reader but not much interested in classic literature, was thinking he should give Tolstoy a try! I felt all kinds of brilliant when the translation the instructor recommended was the very one I had chosen and read a couple years ago. :-)

We only have one lecture left in which all the "tools" we have been given will be summed up, and I'm sad to be finished. I'm going to have to purchase another course Dr. Spurgin teaches. But the knowledge I have taken away from "The Art of Reading" has readied me for the next stage in my reading life. I'm ready to go back to Proust and Faulkner (much to the dismay of A Readers' Respite) and all the other books and authors that intimidate me. I'm ready to stock up on note-taking materials and spend my winter making wonderful literary discoveries!

And going to basketball games, of course. ;-)



10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know nothing about any teams apart from that one from Space Jam*

So why does the Timberwolves sound familiar to me? Was I a former Timberwolf in a past life?





*might be a joke

Lezlie said...

Damed Conjuror ~ I'm I totally off track thinking Space Jam was an animated movie? I have a vague recollection. . .

My Timberwolves got a lot of media attention a couple of years ago when we traded Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics, but other than that they don't get much attention at all. Maybe it sounds familiar only because the name is really cool. :-)

Lezlie

JoAnn said...

Hey... it's Jonny! He's bulked up since leaving SU last spring. Can't wait to see how he does with your wolves!

I'm going to order The Art of Reading. I did one of Dr. Spurgin's other courses and thought it was great!

Jenny said...

Oh no.... hubby and I are BIG Orlando Magic fans!! (This is since BEFORE last year's playoffs... just had to clarify, hehe)

Booklogged said...

I have a course from The Teaching Company about the English Royalty. I can't get Candleman interested in them, tho and since he's retired I can't find the time to finish watching them.

Lezlie said...

JoAnn ~ You'd have been proud of Jonny last night!! He was awesome and led our Wolves to the win. Thanks for letting us have him! :-)

Was the course you did The English Novel? I'll be ordering that one next!

Jenny ~ If I wasn't a die-hard Wolves fan, Orlando would maybe be my adopted team. I really like Dwight Howard, and I was soooo hoping he'd take down Kobe and The Lakers last year! I know my boys won't be making the Finals anytime soon, so I'd be happy to see the Magic have another shot at the title!

Booklogged ~ That's a bummer, because those courses are fabulous! I haven't seen the English Royalty one. I may have to investigate!

Lezlie

JoAnn said...

I watched the game highlights this morning...so glad Jonny had a good night! Hope we can fill the void here.

Yes, I did the English Novel and thought it was very good. Placed an order for The Art of Reading yesterday.

Lezlie said...

JoAnn ~ It took the guys a while to get it going, but once they did it got LOUD in the Target Center. Jonny has a lot of fans here! He'll be happy to know you're still checking on him. If I get a chance to meet him, I'll pass on the info! :-)

You'll love The Art of Reading!

Lezlie

Anonymous said...

Space Jam was live-action/animation staring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny.

Timberwolves does sound cool. It reminds me of Teen Wolf as well, which makes it doubly cool.

Lezlie said...

Damned Conjuror ~ Yeah! That's what I was thinking of! I'm not as completely out of the loop as I thought. Whew! And any movie with Michael J. Fox is worth it. :-)

Lezlie