For the past month, David has been reading aloud to me before we fall asleep. We really enjoyed reading the most recent Harry Potter book aloud together in July; so much so that we decided to take turns sharing our favorites books aloud together. Our one ground rule: we would read only those books that just one of us has already read.
Three weeks later, we just finished “The Eye of the World” by Robert Jordan, the first novel in the Wheel of Time series, a series that David has loved since he first encountered it in 1992. It took me several chapters to really get into the novel, but once we were halfway through it I was hooked! (Even so much that I had trouble falling asleep on occasion because I feared for the safety of its characters!) I loved guessing about what was going to happen next, arm wrestling David for information along the way, and his constant reassurance that, yes, they will all survive. He enjoyed sharing one of his favorite books and seeing me experience it for the first time.
The original plan for after finishing the book was that rather than jump to the next book in the series (which we have on CD and plan to listen to on long car trips), we would switch to one of my favorite novels that David hasn’t read: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Together we have enjoyed the five hour BBC version and it’s high time that David experience the authentic Jane Austen.
Of course, once we got to the end of “The Eye of the World,” I had no interest in reading my favorite novel by my favorite author and instead wanted to read book two: “The Great Hunt.”
Learn more about Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time.
Learn more about Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice.
I recently discovered 
We finally picked up the rest of the black and white prints from the wedding. We have so many fantastic photos! I’ve been slowly ordering prints of all of the digital photos so that we can have one album with all of the photos from the Big Day.
In order to gather material for his masters thesis, Eric and his wife Mary took a plunge into Mennonite country living in order to experience life unplugged. For eighteen months they lived without electricity and at a low technological level, discovering what a simpler life would be like. The book closes with a retrospective look at their choices after this eighteen month experience, during which time they chose to not own a television or computer, rarely rely on using their car for transportation and instead choose to walk or ride their bikes, and often barter goods with neighbors rather than purchase them outright.