February Bookends

February was unusual in that it saw me burn through quite a few books, most notably a couple of long-standing slow readers, The Essential Equation, a handbook on school reform, along with Rich Dad, Poor Dad. My own father recommended to all of us kids that we read it, and I know that their were some pretty particular (and blunt) financial lessons that he was hoping for us to get from it (ie. don't use your money to buy stuff, use your money to buy income generating resources - then use the income generated by these resources to buy your stuff). Personally, it all made me think more about the relationship between working, income, and time (free time, family time, personal time, etc.). Hopefully I'll be able to flesh these ideas out for a post sometime soon.

I also read Ho Che Anderson's graphic novel King, a biography of Martin Luther King. It was pretty intense and film noirish. It's a special edition that includes a brief diary/journal kept by Anderson during the decade+ time it took him to write all three issues. I found the journal as interesting as the book itself.

Andre Agassi's autobiography Open was another good read and full of surprises. Granted, one would expect Agassi to downplay a lot of his enfant terrible behaviour, but it's quite shocking at how mentally fragile he was at times and the iportant roles that key relationships played. It's always tempting to want to draw out parallels or inspiration from an autobiography and I'll admit that I was hoping there was a lesson for me somewhere in Open since I had heard that Agassi spent the first half of his career hating tennis but then found a way to make peace it with it. I still feel that I'm struggling with that in my own profession.

I also read a short book about using rubrics as an assessment tool called Knowing What Counts: Setting and Using Criteria that was about as interesting as you would expect.

I am currently reading I Slept With Joey Ramone by his brother, Mickey Leigh, with help from Legs McNeil.

Currently Reading

J. Lloyd Trump - A School For Everyone (1977)

Mickey Leigh (with Legs McNeil), I Slept With Joey Ramone: A Family Memoir, (2009)

Books Read

Andre Agassi, Open, 2009

Ho Che Anderson, King: A Comics Biography, The Special Edition, (1993-2002,2009)
David Townsend, Pamela Adams - The Essential Question: A Handbook For School Improvement (2009)

Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter - Rich Dad, Poor Dad, (1997)

Kathleen Gregory, Caren Cameron, Anne Davies, Knowing What Counts: Setting and Using Criteria, 1997

Books Acquired

Andre Agassi, Open, 2009

Louis de Bernieres, A Partisan's Daughter, 2009

Ben Moor, More Trees To Climb, 2009

Craig Yoe, The Great Anti-War Cartoons, 2009