part one is year 2/3 which is just the asimov, but i've finally finished filling in the remaining gaps. there are still items left to hunt for in goodwill bins, but it's not a priority. asimov is dead. so this is done.
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i can't do this all at once. so, rather, the way i'm going to do this is to start with school novels.
like everybody else, i read some boring books in school and some good books in school. i remember the good books, and largely enjoyed reading them. you didn't have to pull my teeth to get me to read something, i'd do that with minimal prodding. the good books were classic texts that i want to have copies of and, at times, have had copies of on my shelf, but sold, or lost, or had damaged, or had stolen. the boring texts were almost universally "canadian content", although they never made me read any atwood until university, and i actually enjoyed it.
i took english every year from grades 1 to 13 and was initially admitted to university as a math-physics student. i mostly took science, math and computer engineering courses in my first stint at university and then went back to study law as well. i did take reading courses for breadth and there are a number of courses in history, classics, english literature, gender studies, and other topics that i was enrolled in that it's going to take me a little bit of time to collect all of the information regarding but that i want to collect texts for. the list of novels, however, as mentioned previously, is going to be less than the list of reference texts, and the direction is going to be on (1) children's literature, because literature is more appropriate as a source of entertainment for children than adults and (2) complex, thick texts when the topic does shift to mature texts, but only sporadically, and restricted to a top 1% of authors, intellectually. i have no time at all for pop culture young adult novellas designed to waste an afternoon with specious nonsense, which is 90% of the market. you'd might as well just watch a stupid film. i have always had something better to do than that.
i'm going to update this page as i build the notes for it.
very early childhoood texts i will skip or only mention in passing:
- lots of dr seuss
- mister/mrs /miss books
- the curious george books
- beatrix potter series. i had all of these. i found one when i moved into this basement.
- shell silverstein- we may have done some in the 4th grade, but i'm glossing over it. i liked the sidewalk ends as a young kid but it's mostly empty children's comedy. a gift from nana that got handed down to a younger sister.
- the hockey sweater - my dad liked this
- the mare's egg - my dad's book
2nd-9th grade independent reading for j's journal (both real and inserted, not necessarily in this order,) that i will collect as i go through the journal phase and not before:
a) the summer before grade 3:
1. isaac asimov [done] [2/3, but not really. should have been 7/8/9]. first author in comprehensive journal review series. all full length novels already bought. remaining short stories anthologies (legacy txts early asimov, winds of change, buy jupiter and an updated 9 volume almost complete harper collins anthology) recently purchased. robot visions and robot dreams not anthologized and skipped. look for at goodwill or in bargain bins, as online prices are too high. not very interested in the robert silverberg texts, lucky starr, norby or in honey i shrunk the kids. grab if you see cheap. otherwise, meh. acknowledge you may be surprised but doubt it. i remember reading foundation's edge in grade 5 on a suggestion by my teacher (not for credit) and then nightfall at university. i don't recall any asimov in middle or high school, and i'd already read through it all by then, mostly in grades 5 and 6. asimov would fit best in the whoddunnit theme for grade 7 but i'm isolating it to a grade 2/3 project and assigning it as first in the list. that's a little early, but it gets it out of the way. this is a very close to comprehensive asimov science fiction collection, at this point, and will form a somewhat opaque barrier to get through the start of the journal series.
that tops the asimov science fiction collection off as:
- 9 updated and expanded and recently republished short stories collections: the complete robot, the martian way, living space, the bicentennial man, mother earth, nightfall, ring around the sun, gold and magic
- 4 much shorter historical short stories collections from before 1980 (early asimov (combined), winds of change, buy jupiter, the martian way). there are a small number of stories that got dropped and are only in the old anthologies.
- 7 foundation novels: prelude to foundation, forward the foundation, foundation, foundation and empire, second foundation, foundation's edge, foundation and earth
- four robot novels: the caves of steel, the naked sun, robots of dawn, robots and empire
- three galactic empire novels: currents of space, the stars like dust, pebble in the sky
- three other novels: the gods themselves, the end of eternity, nemesis
and that's it.
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note: i can find documents called circular 14 at archive.org that have approved texts for each year, 1989-1996.
it changed in 1997, but i was in the last year of the old model. i did not shift to the new curriculum. at all.
it wasn't as helpful in finding novels as i hoped but it helped me remember that grade 7/8/9 is still grade school and you're still doing spelling, comprehension and grammar assignments in english class. only a percentage of english class in those years is spent reading lit. that's the real reason nobody remembers what they read....that, and the fact that what they *did* read was probably less advanced than they want to remember it was, because there were still kids in their class that could barely read at all. like, after thinking about it for a long time, i'm now certain that we spent months reading charlotte's web in grade 7. that's at 12-13 years old. i remember it very clearly, now. it's maybe deceptively abstract as a hidden allegory, but it's not animal farm. it's intended for a much younger audience and legitimately more appropriate for a younger audience, and it was certainly below me, but the fact is that it was actually absolutely appropriate for roughly half the class, which was reading at half their age level, not twice it, like i was. they didn't split you up into advanced and special students until grade 10, in those days. no wonder i don't remember much from middle school english, and no wonder you don't, either; if you were a smart kid, the school system just slowed you down.
note: be careful buying books on amazon. lame people just print books out to 8x11 computer paper, staple it together and call it a book. it's not even properly bound. this nonsense is going to get banned. for now, you have to check or you'll get ripped off.
update: i'm shifting much of this to bookoutlet.ca or to chapters to avoid this issue. i'll cross-reference. shop, even.
i might get an ereader soon. it won't be a kindle. but it won't be my primary reading source, it will be for bus rides and supplementary. i like physical books. i'm building a shelf - it's the point, to have it on your wall and say "these are my books, this is my library".
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books i remember reading in school (not comprehensive), starting in grade three
before 3rd grade (theme: asimov):
- i'm assigning asimov to the summer before the 3rd grade, and bleeding into the 3rd grade before it's done.
- this is a little too early, but that's ok.
- already had the 7 foundation novels, the four robot novels, the complete robot, the three galactic empire novels, the old martian way, and the gods themselves, the end of eternity and nemesis
- added the early asimov (used), buy jupiter (used), the winds of change (used) and the recently published 8 volume complete short stories collection, which is close to comprehensive. amazon.
adds for 2/3 are:
- the complete robot (already had, harpercollins)
- the caves of steel, the naked sun, the robots of dawn (already had, bantam spectra), robots and empire (already had, harpercollins)
- currents of space, the stars like dust, pebble in the sky (already had, tor/orb)
- prelude to foundation, forward the foundation, foundation, foundation and empire, second foundation, foundation's edge, foundation and earth (already had, bantam spectra)
- the martian way (already had, panther)
- the gods themselves (already had, orion)
- the end of eternity (already had, voyager)
- nemesis (already had, bantam spectra)
+
- the early asimov (found used, doubleday)
- buy jupiter (found used, harpercollins)
- winds of change (found uesd, panther)
- the martian way (complete stories vol 1) (found new, harpercollins)
- living space (complete stories vol 2) (found new, harpercollins)
- the bicentennial man (complete stories vol 3) (found new, harpercollins)
- mother earth (complete stories vol 4) (found new, harpercollins)
- nightfall (complete stories vol 5) (found new, harpercollins)
- ring around the sun (complete stories vol 6) (found new, harpercollins)
- gold (complete stories vol 7) (found new, harpercollins)
- magic (complete stories vol 8) (found new, harpercollins)
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$115 (6 volume short story box set) + 50 (two extra volumes) + 50 (three historical subvolumes) =
$215