I catch up on blogs, and Henry's shared love of reading

I see that I now have 5 followers - thrilled! Feel free to post comments whenever you'd like :) I promise to respond. This month, I've maintained this blog for 1 year. *proud of self* *lights birthday candle* When I started, I sincerely hoped that I'd keep up regular posts and turn this into an enjoyable creative outlet. It has become that and more. As part of the St. Blogs Parish community, I also wanted to make this a spiritual blog that explored Catholic topics and challeneged me to deepen my faith. I'm very happy with how this evolution has taken place, and I look forward to many more years of faithful blogging :)

As for my own blog reading, I recently discovered the wonders of Google Reader. How on earth did I not know about this sooner? Certainly, I'd heard of rss feed aggregators, but I never contemplated them any deeper than an emerging technology that other people use. How vastly, vastly I tell you! it has transformed my blog reading habits. All of these blogs that I'd bookmarked in a "Catholic Blogs" folder but would rarely read because it took too much time to navigate to all of them and check for new posts.

Well. I popped them all into Google Reader and voila!! My blog reading has been transformed. You can make folders in Google Reader too, so I have "Personal Blogs," "Catholic News," "Other Religious," "Books," etc. and I couldn't possibly be happier. Downright simpering, I tell you. And then, then! I went into my "My Blog List" area here on Blogger to update it, and Blogger asked me if I wanted it to import all the blogs from my Google Reader. Why, yes, YES I DO!! I am one happy Catholic Librarian.

Speaking of libraries, the other day I stopped off on my way home from work at the branch of our public library system closest to campus (love that place) to pick up a biography. I'm a sucker for biographies, as you know. While there, I grabbed a few books for Henry, since my adorable little guy is as big a book lover as his librarian mommy. I brought home a stack of about 5 children's titles, and after his usual at the door hug to mommy, he grabbed the books out of my arms and squealed. A child after my own heart.

What I ended up grabbing were 1 Curious George title (decent), 2 Franklin titles (excellent), and 2 Dora titles (not so hot). If anyone wants to defend Dora, feel free to comment. But even though I think she's cute and all, I'm always left unsatisfied with the actual stories in her books. Total commercialistic ploys, really. The kids love Dora, so the parents will buy books featuring Dora. And the stories just leave a lot to be desired. I don't know, they're kind of choppy and boring. I do like Map; both of my guys love maps, so he goes over well :) And Swiper. He always provides some much needed tension. But otherwise...blah. Franklin on the other hand, love that turtle. Hank really isn't interested in watching Franklin on tv, which is fine with me. But the books are adorable. And they have...well, they have a plot. Pretty important in a book, even a children's book. I'm being pretty hard on Dora here, sorry Dora. I do love the Franklin books, and so does Hank. They're his clear favorites from all of the books I checked out for him. There are plenty more at the public library, so we're already plotting his next big haul. Right now, each night we're reading about Franklin's fear of thunderstorms, and his first day of school. I love reading with my little guy; one of the great joys of my life.