September in books

Would you believe I only read two books this whole month? And they were both finished in the last five days! Between Marc coming home, classes starting up, and not getting a chance to head out to the library, I just didn't do much reading in September. Many thanks to Anna, who provided a small pile of books from her stash that I'm slowly going through. As always, to see books from previous months, just click on the "books" tag.

( 57. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson )

( 58. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells )

And that's it! Amazing, no? Don't worry, though. I've got 5 books waiting to be read for next month, and Marc will be out of town for a few weeks, so I'll be reading them to occupy myself. See you in October!

A whole new world

As I've mentioned a few times before, I'm considering going back to school in accounting. It may (or may not) come as a surprise that, really, I don't know very much about accounting. In fact, it's probably safe to say that few people know less about accounting than I do. I know it has to do with numbers, and making them get together and do nifty little dances, and then having them settle down again and take a nap on some paper where other people can look at them and chatter amongst themselves, but that's about it.

Figuring, therefore, that it might be a good idea to have some sense of what I'm getting myself into, I picked up a book at the library yesterday called How to Read a Financial Report by John A Tracy. It's surprisingly clear and well-written, which was a surprise. Beyond that, though, I'm having a slow go of it.

I feel like I'm starting from first priciples all over again. (Which is fair, because I am.) It's like the first time I studied Latin and needed to learn that the endings of words actually meant something. It's like the first time I took a French class and had to realize that nouns had genders (who knew?). It's like the first time I took a history class, and not only had no idea that the French Revolution took place in 1789, but didn't even know why this would be significant. Looking back on it now, it seems incomprehensible to me that there was I time when I didn't know these things; they're that ingrained in my brain. But there was a time that I didn't know them, and (to borrow a phrase) didn't know that I didn't know.

That's where I'm at in accounting. Reading through this book is teaching me not only the very basic, dip-your-toe-in-the-water terms and priciples of accounting, but it's also revealing to me how much I don't know. Which, not to put too fine a point on it, is "a whole heckuva lot."