I just finished reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I read it once before in college, but didn’t like it that much. I’m still not crazy about it, but I found it more amusing this time. I suspect that my expectations were too high the first time, since everyone I knew seemed to love it.

I’ve also read three chapters in Harry Potter à L’école des Sorciers. It’s going relatively well. There’s a lot of new vocabulary, and I’m having some trouble with the passé simple. I suspect it would be much harder if I wasn’t familiar with the English version. Still, I’m enjoying it.

My reading list is full of fiction and nonfiction right now, which I’m glad about. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of fluff reading handy. By fluff reading, I mean something that I won’t have to concentrate to hard on. This doesn’t mean it’s worthless, but it’s not something I consider something I should study. I’d also like to start reading poetry again. I haven’t in a long while. Poetry seems so much harder to read than prose, though, that I tend to balk at it.

How do you read poetry? Slowly, or quickly? Do you read a poem more than once before going on to the next? How long does it take you to finish a volume of poetry? Is it completely pathetic that I feel the need to ask?

On Saturday, the weather was a balmy 71˚ Fahrenheit (22˚ Celsius). On a philosophical and environmental note, it was rather frightening, but on a personal one it was quite pleasant. I was able to indulge in one of my favorite activities: napping. Saturday was perfect for napping. It was sunny, so just enough sunlight filtered into my bedroom to provide a soft ambient whiteness. The temperature, too, was perfect for napping.

After the nap, there was still enough time to take a walk in the park. There’s a nice footpath there that was dry for the most part, so I got in about two rounds. Unfortunately, I learned that I am really, really out of shape. Clearly, more walking is called for.

Also unfortunate is my ability to speak French. On Saturday I was able to talk via Skype with a very nice Belgian gentleman who I met through My Language Exchange. I can’t vouch for everyone on the site, but my experience has been positive, and it’s really nice to be able to practice with a native speaker. Now if only I could actually remember all those verb conjugations and vocabulary words while I’m trying to have a conversation.

Like many people, I took the week between Christmas and New Years off, but it feels like my vacation started on the 19th, the day after my German 101 final. Since then, I’ve been reviewing my French grammar and vocabulary.

For the grammar, I’ve been using Tex’s French Grammar, which I really like. The site is maintained by the University of Texas at Austin and the grammar review is quite comprehensive. The grammar points are illustrated by dialogues featuring animal characters. The star of the site is Tex, an armadillo raised by French nuns. The dialogues and examples have audio, and the website will check your answers to the exercises.

I found a lot of vocabulary through Tex’s French Grammar, but I also found quite a bit in Harry Potter à L’école des Sorciers. I’ve been looking up the words at WordReference.com. It also works with Italian and Spanish.

To learn all these new words, I’m using ProVoc, which is a really neat piece of software for Macs. ProVoc is available for free, and can be downloaded here. One of the neat features is that you can import in a tab-delimited file, so if you’re at a computer without the program, just type the new words into a text file, then import or copy and paste them into ProVoc later. The program comes with four types of quizzes, and I’ve also used the program to create some grammar drills. I’ve got one file for German and several for assorted French drills.

Besides all the French, I’m reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and working on a few writing projects that I’m keeping under wraps for now.

What’s that? Vacations are for relaxing? I am relaxing!