Allende or else.

I am a student of Spanish, but only in the sense that I am taking a course while working full-time. I have many other parts of my life demanding my time, including a 10 month old baby and a very dear husband, so time to read for pleasure is limited.  My usual stack of bedside reading is noticeably similar to the stack present 10 months ago, with one new addition; I bought a copy of Isabel Allende’s book, La Ciudad de las Bestias, a book for juveniles, at Powell’s bookstore in May. I am on page 21.

I have learned over the years with my study of French that it is not advisable (or fun) to look up every other word in a text.  Authentic material is important for language learning, but if I am looking up too many words, perhaps I should kick it down a notch to very young juvenile literature and build my vocabulary and knowledge of verb conjugations before charging into full-length novels. It is slow going mostly because I have so little free time to read anything in any language, but also I attribute my snail’s pace to my desire to stretch beyond my current proficiency level. At my current rate, I will finish this book just before my baby starts kindergarten.

This is my first blog post, and as I type these parting thoughts, I look at the time (12:30 a.m.) and lament that I could have been reviewing the subjunctive and conditional tenses this evening rather than starting this blog. Or sleeping.