Reading List

New titles are highlighted in red.

Some people get confused about what classics are. Charlotte Mason calls them Living Books. They are literature that brings truth, nobility and beauty into your life. We all have to decide for ourselves which books are our classics because they may be different for each person.

This is my reading list for all you fellow readers. I'm sure I won't be able to keep it updated but I'm going to try because I want to remember all these great books I'm reading.

I have found that I need to get my own education if I'm going to be able to be an example to my children so I try to get in at least two hours of reading a day but it is hard with small children running amok! Some of the books I read need my full concentration so I can't read them if it's noisy and I don't get much out of them if I try to read ten minutes here or there (1400 page Les Miserables anyone?). Hence my goal of getting to bed by nine so I can read for an hour and a half. Some day I will be able to get up earlier to get more reading done.

I have also changed my workouts at the gym to get more reading time. Instead of trying to run for long periods, I run as fast as I can on the treadmill for twelve minutes until I'm sweaty and exhausted and then I peddle on the bike for 30-60 minutes while I read, depending on how good the book is! Of course it's difficult to underline and make notes this way. I don't know about you but my handwriting is very poor when I'm peddling a bike.

For a book to make it on my reading list it has to have been recommended by someone I respect and trust and have the potential to impact my life for good. I don't have time to read anything these days purely for entertainment purposes but there are plenty of educational books that are very entertaining. For example, Uncle Tom's Cabin was very entertaining and also life changing. If you haven't read it then you must start tomorrow. I think it is the best book I have ever read and by best I mean the most captivating, full of wonderful characters to learn from and changed me from the inside out.

I'm Reading Today

I've read Lately

Dumbing Us Down by John Tylor Gatto (July 2008)
Leadership and Self Deception by The Arbinger Institute (July 2008)
The Power of Positive Parenting by Glenn I. Latham (June 2008)
The Martha Rules by Martha Stewart (June 2008)
Made To Stick by Chip Heath (June 2008)
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber (June 2008)
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss (June 2008)
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (June 2008)
The Giver by Lois Lowry (May 2008)
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (May 2008)
Mommy Millionaire by Kim Lavine (May 2008)
Healing the Shame That Binds You by Shawn Bradshaw (May 2008)
7 Habits of Highly Effective People (May 2008)
The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène Du Bois (April 2008)
Austenland by Shannon Hale (April 2008)
Essay on Civil Government by Locke (April 2008)
The Ultimate Gift (April 2008)
The Power of Positive Parenting (April 2008)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway (March 2008)
Hamlet by William Shakespeare (March 2008)
Ability Development from Age Zero by Shinichi Suzuki (March 2008)
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (March 2008)
Essay on Education of Children by Montaigne (March 2008)
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (February 2008)
The Prince byMachiavelli (February 2008)
Animal Farm by George Orwell(February 2008)
The Confessions of St. Augustine, books 1-8 (February 2008)
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom (January 2008)
Rebecca by Dame Daphne Du Maurier (January 2008)

What I Read in 2007 (May-December)
Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter (December 2007)
The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis (December 2007)
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck(December 2007)
Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth (December 2007 to the kids)
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki (December 2007)
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale (December 2007)
Raising Musical Kids by Robert A. Cutietta (December 2007)
Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers by Patrick Kavanaugh (November 2007)
Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour (November 2007)
Carry On Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (October 2007)
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexacre Dumas pere (October 2007)
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (October 2007
A Life Less Cluttered by Christine Rice (September 2007)
Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andereola (September 2007)
Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (September 2007)
Must read! Nurtured by Love by Shinichi Suzuki (August 2007)
The Peace Giver by James L. Ferrell (August 2007)
The greatest Salesman in the world by OG Mandino (July 2007)
Fascinating Womanhood by Helen Andelin (July 2007)
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (July 2007)
Lonesome Gods by Louis L'Amour (July 2007)
Finished!!! Unabridged Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (July 07) Can we have a party to celebrate?
The Greatest Salesman in the World by OG Mandino (July 07)
The Virginian by Owen Wister and Gary Scharnhorst (July 07)
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (June 07)
Must Read! Little Britches by Ralph Moody (March and again in May 07)
Must Read! Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (May 07)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (March 07 for the tenth time)
Albert Schweitzer : An Adventurer for Humanity by Harold Robles (May 07)
A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Van DeMille (April 07)
The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me by Richard Paul Evans (April 07)
A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion by Oliver DeMille, Rachel DeMille and Diann Jeppson (April 07)
Queen of the Castle by Lynn Bowen Walker (April 07)
The Anatomy of Peace by The Arbinger Institute (May 07)
The One Minute Manager and The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson (May 07)

Future Classics List or Things I Want To Study

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul by John, Stasi Eldredge
Christy by Catherine Marshall
Classical Kids
Crunchy Cons by Rod Dreher
Euclides Elements
Gardeners Art Through the Ages
Great Books of the Western World (if anyone has these could you please donate them to my cause?)
Handel's Water Music
John Quincy Adams
Keys of the Kingdom by A. J. Cronin and Joseph Bottum
Launching a Leadership Revolution by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward
Lorenzo's Oil (movie)
Phantom Tollbooth Norton Juster
Positive Personality Profiles by Robert A Rohm
Surrendering to Motherhood by Iris Krasnow
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Future Classics for Kids

Future Crafting Classics for Kids

Pelle's New Suit by Elsa Beskow
Warm As Wool by Scott Russell Sanders
The Goat in the Rug by Charles L. Blood
The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau
The Josefina Story Quilt by Eleanor Coerr
The Keeping Quilt
The Button Box by Margarette S. Reid
The Paper Crane by Molly Bang
Yoko's Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells
Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
The Chalkbox Kid by Clyde Robert Bulla
I Am An Artist by Pat Lowery Collins
Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan
Emma's Rug by Allen Say

TJEd Five Pillar Classic List
(Year I read it.)

Austen, Pride and Prejudice (I read it once a year!)
Bastiat, What is Seen and What is Not Seen*
Johnson & Johnson, The One Minute Teacher
Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (2008)
Dickens, Great Expectations
Frank, Alas Babylon
Gardner, Multiple Intelligences*
Gatto, The 7 Lesson School Teacher* (2006)
Harward, A Market-Based Education
Holt, How Children Learn (2006)
Kavanaugh, Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers (2007)
Lewis, The Abolition of Man (2007)
Noebel, Understanding the Times
Hugo, Les Miserables (2007)
Shakespeare, five plays
Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (May 2007)
Strauss and Howe, The Fourth Turning
Thoreau, Walden
Wister, The Virginian (2007)

(* = articles found in the books Bastiat, Essays on Political Economy & Gatto, Dumbing Us Down)
Classics from my Past
(I'll add to this as I think of them.)

Anything by Jane Austen
Bonds that Make us Free by C. Terry Warner
Chickens in the Headlights (for kids) (06)
Created to be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl (07)
Debt Proof Your Kids by Mary Hunt
How To Talk So Kids Can Learn by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole
The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka
No Contest by Alfie Kohn (05)
The Ultimate Fit or Fat by Covert Bailey
Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn (06)