Hat tip to Kevin Stilley of Righteous Judgment for taking the time to sift through nearly 300 responses to the book meme. I found it fascinating what other people read and think are good books. One of my mentions, Jane Eyre, showed up on the 10+ list. Quite a few others on the multiple mention lists could have just as easily been on my list as well.

One thing I found interesting was that Kevin remarked about how much fiction showed up throughout people's responses. Considering the ratio of fiction to non-fiction in bookstores, I find nothing at all odd about it. Generally speaking, when I researched a subject for an academic paper in grad school, I hit the University library, and the Library of Congress. If Bucknell, Penn State, or Drew didn't have it, the librarian could get it for me on inter-university loan.

Those sort of reference materials and theses are simply not available from even Strand Books in NYC. For professional papers, I'd bolster my own research by citing other research papers available from trade associations such as the ARF (Advertising Research Foundation), or trade journals such as the Journal of Advertising Research.

I taught fifth grade CCD when I was in high school, but only because the church was short of adult volunteers. One girl's mother was shocked to discover that a HS kid was teaching her daughter and asked the nuns if she could co-teach with me. Fine with me, but she quit after three weeks once she realized I had no trouble handling the class and covering the lessons. That was the last I saw of her.

I teacher-aided fourth grade in English and math when I was in HS at The American School in London before returning stateside, so teaching wasn't new to me. Teaching religion, however, was. Still, it's pretty tough to mess up when the teacher's edition of the text material comes complete with marginalia in red text saying what to emphasize.

It doesn't surprise me at all that these kids would go home and grab a Nancy Drew or Alfred Hitchcock mystery. I loved the Alfred Hitchcock mysteries when I was in grade school. I still love mysteries, but P.D. James is a little more my speed these days.

With that, I bid you adieu, and wish everyone a reasonably chaos-free work week.