June's reading

Somewhat slowed down this month because I had to read textbooks rather than books I'd rather read. Non-textbooks read in June:

• Journeys through Oz, L. Frank Baum. This is actually a compilation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz that I found for $2.50 in a used book store. I can't believe I'd never read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz before. Once I got to the point where I choked on my soda at the Scarecrow's discussion with Dorothy of why anyone would want to live in Kansas (" 'Of course I cannot understand it,' he said. 'If your heads were stuffed with straw, like mine, you would probably all live in the beautiful places, and then Kansas would have no people at all. It is fortunate for Kansas that you have brains.'"), I realized that I'd been missing out by having only seen the movie and not read the book -- not that this means I'm necessarily chomping at the bit to try one more time to slog through The Lord of the Rings.


• Awakening to the Sacred: Creating a Personal Spiritual Life, Lama Surya Das. I really do find his writing to be engaging, and it's given me a lot to chew on. This is the other book purchased for a class but never read until now; again, I'm glad I got around to picking this one up and reading it.


• A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge. You know, I actually think I liked this better than A Fire Upon the Deep (even with my non-zero amount of arachnophobia ;)); it certainly felt to me most of the time like it moved faster.


• Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House, Cheryl Mendelson. I confess that I'm skipping back and forth through this book and using it more as a reference, I'm not reading straight through. I wouldn't have paid full price ($35) for this, but I found it overstocked at a B&N for $9.99 and had heard good reviews of it elsewhere. I've already picked up some helpful hints and have more than gotten my $10 out of it.