I haven't read anything spectacular lately, but I did want to share that I hit my Goodreads goal this morning!! I put it at 100 books. This was before I really got into reading books to review. (I've been getting free books in exchange for posting reviews. For the most part, I either get children's books or romances. Some are good, some are terrible.) So summer just started and I've already read 100. I'm thinking that I might get to 250 by the end of the year. We'll have to wait and see!
Holy cow!! I am only 1 book ahead of my goal right now of 100. How do you get signed up to review books?? I almost signed up with a company to get paid to review books but at the time I didn't have an e-reader so I wasn't accepted.
Am I the only one who has to read before bedtime or can't fall asleep? I guess it's just habit now but I literally need to at least read 3 or 4 pages before I can fall asleep. Sometimes I read for half an hour. If I try to just get into bed and shut off the light I just lay there not sleepy at all. :unsure:
That's me as well, TeacherNY. Even if it's just for a couple of minutes, it's something I have to do.
Even when I went on vacation I had to make sure I brought enough reading material or I wouldn't get any sleep LOL
I usually read before I sleep. For me it usually winds up with me still reading at 2 am (on a school night) because I just can't put it down. I'm terrible. It will be 1 AM and I will be like "Oh! Just x more pages! I might as well just finish it!"
I do the same thing! I usually don't let myself read before bed because I know I'll stay up half the night.
There are nights when I can't turn my brain off unless I read for a bit. Most nights I can fall asleep without reading. My most regular reading time is while I eat breakfast because no one else is up and moving yet.
I don't have to read to be abe to fall asleep. When I'm sleepy, I'm sleepy & will fall asleep quite quickly.
I've being doing lots of middle of the night reading because I wake up and can't go back to sleep. It has helped eventually go back to sleep.
giraffe326, where do you get free books to review? I'd love to get involved with something like that.
Just got the new Stephanie Plum book from the library!! Can't wait to start it. It usually takes me less than 24 hour to read one of those and then I have to wait for the next one :lol:
"After You" by Julie Buxbaum. Very good so far and I have also been speeding through. Love reading during the summer, one of my favorite pastimes!
Just finished 'Me Before You' by Jojo Moyes :thumb: Currently reading 'The Amateur' by Edward Klein Next up is 'Fierce Conversations' by Susan Scott I'm a bit eclectic in my reading
I've set myself the challenge to read, on average, a book a day this summer. Novels, picture books, non-fiction, lots of YA to get ready for next school year, professional development...I'm so excited about this goal I have set for myself. So far, so good--9 days in, 15 books down (only 3 were picture books!).
I'm kind of scattered in my reading and am trying to make myself focus. I have about four books going on top of the required research reading I need to finish this month. Here's what I am in the middle of: What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Mullen-When I saw this on a book stand at the library I grabbed it without thinking or reading the inside of the jacket. I love Austen, and this book looks more deeply at how she employs different tricks in her writing and why. Now I want to go back and read all her novels. :thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb: The Great Silence by Juliet Nicolson-It's non-fiction book that looks at British society between the end of WWI and "the dawn of the Jazz Age". I'm enjoying it but it is taking me a long time to get through it because I've nearly lost interest (gotten distracted with other sparkly events) a couple times. I'm nearly at the end though and pushing on. Blindness by Jose Saramago-I'm only about 50 pages into this one, but I think it will be really interesting. This is a fictional story of an epidemic of white blindness that hits a city. The writing style took a little getting used to (no quotations marks but lots of dialogue). The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by that Sweedish guy who died. This one is on my Kindle. I've read the first two books in the trilogy and have finally started this one. My goal is to have this done before the school year begins. If it's not I might be ignoring life for a weekend. And then the 100 pages of research I have left. Ugh! It is so dry and laborious I have to force myself to sit down and do my homework. If I can stay focused for more than 15 minutes on this I'm very proud of myself.:help:
I read all of the Girl Who...books. I thought they were really great and it's a shame the author passed away before he could continue he series. I have 3-4 books being read at any given time. I am 3 books ahead of schedule on my Goodreads goal!!
I'm on the 2nd book in the Century Trilogy by Ken Follet. I absolutely love it! I loved Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, and these have been equally wonderful. I learned a great deal about WWI from the first in the series, and even though I'm a history major, the same is proving true about the second book and WWII. He just has such an amazing way of blending history with narrative fiction, and his research is impeccable. I've also read two YA books this summer, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian and Uglies. I didn't care too much for either. I mean, for a quick read, they were fine, but I couldn't see using either in my classroom. I'd give them both a 3 out of 5 stars.
I loved Pillars of the Earth. I will have to read The World Without End next. I have to admit it took me at least a month to read Pillars of the Earth because it was close to 1000 pages so I took a few breaks and read other stuff then went back to it.
TeacherNY, it took me a long time, too. They aren't books to read lightly, that's for sure! The century series has proven the same... lol. But I love books like that! I guess that's why I love the Game of Thrones (Ice and Fire) series so much, too.
If I check it out of the library I will have to finish it in a certain amount of time or be fined LOL I think I have 3 weeks then can renew it for 3 more weeks. That should be enough time. I borrowed Pillars of the Earth from a friend so I didn't have a time limit!
I love history! I will have to look for these books and add them to my never-ending list. I finished The Great Silence last night. That is one book completed this summer. Almost done with What Matters in Jane Austen? and picked up The Night Circus today. I'm part of a new book club that meets for the first time on Friday so hopefully we will decide on a book to read for next month.
I'm planning to. With the movie coming out, I'd like to do the book with my class, and compare with the movie.
I just finished Girl in Translation. It's a very interesting book about a girl and her mother who move from Hong Kong to New York and their life working in a factory.
I just bought First They Killed My Father. Haven't started it yet though. I just finished my annual re-read of Harry Potter and was so tempted to just start it all over again!
A friend of mine decided to start a book club, and we had our first meeting last night. We decided to read What Alice Forgot for our first book. Has anyone read that book? It sounds interesting.
I just finished Gone Girl ... And found out it's been made into an movie with Ben Affleck. It's a really good mystery with a twist.
Has anyone read We Are Liars...OMG talk about a twist at the end. Thought it was very well-written, especially for being YA.