50ish Things About Me as a Reader

Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs. Darcy linked to this older post from another site and it was interesting to read about the reading lives of other people. It fascinates me how there is diversity among us bookworms.  I recently heard someone say that about all they want to read is biography and I thought "Eww."  I'm all for biographies and memoirs---but only if they are about someone I'm interested in or value.  

Did I pre-order Barack Obama's latest memoir? Yes, yes I did.

Would I ever purchase a biography about Kim Kardashian? 

 

We all have unique reading preferences and styles.  If you have a bookish list about yourself, please share in the comments. I'd love to read it!

1. When I was ten, I read the book "Not Without My Daughter" and getting through four hundred pages of an adult book felt like the biggest accomplishment of my life.
2. I volunteered at our local library thirty hours a week the summer I turned twelve or thirteen.
3. I have never read Catcher in the Rye.
4. Did not finish: Jane Eyre. 
5. The only books I have ever pre-ordered were Barack Obama's and Jeff Kinney's.  That mix probably says something about me on a psychological level. If you figure it out, lemme know.
   
   
   
   
   
6. I'm a teacher and HATE when other teachers or parents try to make a child choose a book "at their level." 
7. If I weren't a teacher and had to pick a second career, it would be something like librarian or bookstore owner.
8. People who fold book pages down make me cringe. But by all means, you do you.
9. I'm a purist about folds -see above- but have dropped crumbs onto my pages plenty of times. Yes, you can read without snacking, but why would you want to?
10. Baby-Sitters Club books were my JAM. Quite certain I read them all.  

    

    Look! A photo of my entire childhood!

    
    
11. Apparently many bookish people hate book covers that have the movie tie-in.  They aren't my fave but it doesn't bother me.
12. I used to hate e-reading and only wanted paper books. Covid changed that and I downloaded the Libby app so I could get digital books from my library. I love that as long as I have my phone-I have a book with me.  Now I read probably three fourths of my books on my phone and the other fourth as a physical book.
13. My husband gave me a subscription to Book of the Month as a gift last Mother's Day and it has been the best gift in the world.
14. I've only been able to finish one Stephen King book. He's a great writer, but I'm easily distracted and apparently unable to sustain attention long enough for his books.
15. James Patterson makes me question things like: How many hours are in a day? How many hours are in James Patterson's day? How does he write so many books? Is he using a ghostwriter? A billion ghostwriters?  How much of he and Bill Clinton's book did each of them write (because I quite enjoyed it)?  

    

    Nothing to do with James Patterson but this
    tweet is s.a.v.a.g.e.

    
    
16. Some schools are turning their libraries into "STEAM Rooms" and I wail and cry about it.  Can we not have both a library and a STEAM room?
17. Starting last April, mid-pandemic-shut-down, I started keeping a list of each book I read.  It's just in a cheap little notebook but this is fun and helpful to go back through the months and see what I've accomplished with reading. Also helps me find authors that I love.
18. Fantasy is the hardest genre for me to read.  Evidently my brain prefers realistic settings and characters and when things start flying or casting spells it's hard to keep up.
19. Thus, I've only ever read the first Harry Potter book. 
20. That classic children's book "Love you Forever" is stupid and I hate it.  So is The Runaway Bunny.  

    

    Bunny Mom is a stalker. Hard pass for me.

    
    
    
21. In the Not-Stupid category: Sesame Street "Monster at the end of this book". Other people have copied the idea since, but Sesame Street is the OG.
22. If you teleported me to the library I went to as a child, I could still walk you back to where the Berenstain Bear books were kept.
23. As a kid, our school library had the cards you had to sign your name and date in.  
24. I'm real bad about racking up library fines.  
25. I go through reading spurts. Many times I read every day but sometimes there's a week where I don't read for pleasure at all.  
    
    
    
26. I currently have eight books on hold on my Libby app.
27. I generally like movies based on books.  Maybe not as much as the book, but I enjoy seeing someone else take the same book and create their own vision from it.
28. The latest I've stayed up to finish reading a book was two a.m.
29. Our biggest bookshelf broke---because it was cheap---so until we replace it with something sturdier, I have piles of books just sitting around randomly.  Ahem. MORE piles than would normally be sitting around.
30. I threw one of my kids a bookworm birthday party and it was adorable.

    

    Look how little he was! *sniff, sniff*

    
    
31. "The Bad Seed" and "The Good Egg" are the BEST children's picture books and I will fight you on it.
32. D.E.A.R, Drop Everything And Read, was my favorite part of the school day. 
33. Greg Boyd's "Is God to Blame" and Brian Zahnd's "Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God" changed my theology and my life.  
34. Bookstore cats are cool but can we get a trend of bookstore Golden Retrievers going?  
35. In middle school I read all of the Janette Oke books I could get my hands on. She writes Christian western romance.  When you go to a fundie school you take what you can get, ok?

    

    Oh those fundie years. 
    Comic from the awesome Naked Pastor who has
    tons more to make you laugh!

    
    
36. In high school we read The Scarlet Letter. I didn't understand ALL of the symbolism until the teacher pointed it out.  Was I dense or does no one understand it on their own in high school?  Dense probably.
37. I hate what Amazon is doing to independent bookstores so much that we are not going to renew our Prime membership.
38. I've never been to a book signing.
39. I get annoyed when people talk to me when I'm reading.  I. am. clearly. busy.
    
40. I use any scrap of paper nearby as a bookmark.

    

    You say "receipt", I say "bookmark."

    
    
41. I have read all of Chevy Stevens books.
42. Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey remain on my "have never read this" list.
43. I loved the Divergent series along with Hunger Games. And their movies.
44. Amazon functions as my "TBR" pile. I add books to the wishlist and then buy them from an indie bookstore or request them from the library.
45. Audio books don't hold my attention.  I've only been successful with one or two. I think if my brain isn't looking AT the words on the page, it starts to wander and before I know it, the chapter is over and I've got no clue what happened.
    
    
    
    
46. I discovered the Shopaholic series by accident...browsing the library for a Karen Kingsbury book years ago and saw Kinsella.  
47. Even though I'm a sensitive person, books rarely make me cry.  Except that children's book about a sled dog who dies during the race. 
48. I have a running list of independent bookstores to visit once Covid settles down.  Michigan, Kansas, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Tennessee, Hawaii...I'm coming for you!
    
    

Okay, that's close enough to 50!  Anything from the list that is true for you too?

The 3 Books I Couldn't Stop Reading This Summer

I've read a lot this summer but 3 books really stand out as the best summer reads. These were the 3 that I devoured within 48 hours each.  These are the books that I just couldn't put down! 

**Amazon links are affiliate links. Full disclosure here.

1. The Silent Patient

The Silent Patient has topped many best-seller lists and been the topic of book bloggers.  Indeed, The Silent Patient did not disappoint!  I was lucky enough to get it from my local library via the Libby app.  

I can't always read on my phone, preferring a physical book most times, but sometimes a book is SO good that I don't mind it being digital and can devour it nonetheless.

The Silent Patient had a few twists that knocked my socks of!  If you're looking for a suspense that will keep you guessing--this is the book for you!

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2. Evvie Drake Starts Over

I read Evvie Drake Starts Over earlier in the summer and it's just so lovely and refreshing!  A charming story of a widowed woman and a washed out baseball star.  It's the rom-com of books. 

If you're needing a book to take your mind off the heaviness of the world, this will do it.  

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3. The Garden of Small Beginnings

My first time to read Abbi Waxman, I read this one while I waited for Other People's Houses to arrive in the mail. Like with The Silent Patient, I was able to get The Garden of Small Beginnings as a library loan on the Libby app. Yay for free!

Abbi Waxman has a delightful way of wording things and working humor into her novel.  Like Evvie Drake Starts Over, this book is a lighter take on the world that will give you an enjoyable break from whatever has you consumed at the moment.  

Some authors I reread and some I don't go back to but after having read The Garden of Small Beginnings, I know Abbi Waxman is an author I will follow and read everything she puts out!

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Did you do much reading over the summer?  What's the best book you've read lately?

1 New Habit Guaranteed to Help You Read More

I have always loved to read but yet there are so many books and not enough time!  Not to mention that the Covid19 pandemic means we're all spending more time at home. Yet there doesn't seem to be enough time?  Know what I mean?

Feeling a pull to both increase my reading time and to also practice some self-care, I decided that I should read more. 

And yet it is hard to concentrate, to immerse myself into a book. I sit down.  The phone beeps.  I read one paragraph.  My mind wanders.  The Covid19 pandemic has definitely made it harder for me to focus.  You too? 

But there's one habit that you can start to help you read more books.  

At night when you are done with the kids' bedtime routine, try to sit down and immediately read for 30 minutes.  

That's the habit. Commit yourself to 30mins a night. You can set a timer, I do! You may not hit 7 nights a week. That's okay. Aim for 4-5.  It's doable. 

30 minutes. RIGHT after the kids are in bed.  The house is peaceful but you aren't seconds away from dreamland so your brain should be in a good place.

Now here's the other part of this 1 tip. We'll call it part 1b.  

If your brain is finding it hard to focus on reading right now, you have to plow through the first five minutes.  

That's what it takes for me, for my brain to shift and realize "Oh okay we aren't thinking about dying and face masks now. We are doing something else."  

Does this reading habit work?  Yes!  I've started keeping a book journal (more on that another time) and discovered that in exactly the last 4 weeks, I've completely read 6 books and am partway through another!  

Sure, some days I've read more than 30 minutes, but that half hour at night is enough to start me and more importantly to keep me fueled and WANTING to read at other times too.

tl; dr? Read for 30 mins as soon as your kids crash at night. Plow through the first 5 mins while your mind wanders. Boom. Progress through your "To Be Read" pile!

7 things we don't mind spending money on

When it comes to money, my husband and I are not big spenders.  When we first got married we were extremely frugal. Now that we are both working we still are pretty frugal compared to some of the rest of our generation.

But. We loosen the purse straps and spend some money on several things.  If we experience job loss, of course these will be the first things that get cut from the budget.  However, while we are able to, these are things that we don't mind spending money on!

[8 years ago I did a post on this topic. It's fun to look back at what has changed and what hasn't!]

1. Streaming Services.  

We used to pay for satellite dish but found that we could save a little money by cutting that out and going to Netflix and Hulu.  For awhile I was able to leverage Microsoft Rewards and get Hulu for free but the system changed. I still use Microsoft Rewards but now save up for gift cards to use for Christmas and we just pay Hulu out of pocket.

2. Books.

Yep, 8 years later and this is still on the list! The Coronavirus (Covid-19) quarantine had us staying home more than ever and with time on our hands to get in some good reading time.  With the social distancing directives we have stopped a lot of other spending (I miss going to movies!) so we use that to justify ordering books with wild abandon.  

Related: Quaran-Reading: 6 Books to Read While Quarantined

3. Cherry Coke

I swear if you show this post to my doctor, I will track you down and glare at you.  Soda is definitely not doctor-approved.  We're all allowed one vice to spend money on though, right?  I don't drink or smoke so I don't feel bad buying some cans of Cherry Coke each week.  Cherry Pepsi is not the same. Don't @ me.

4. Heating & Cooling Our Home

In the last year we had extra insulation sprayed into the attic and bought a new heating/cooling system for the house.  We saved up the money until we were able to pay in full and that way we were able to upgrade without feeling bad for spending money.  Our old unit was too small and old to keep up with the temperatures outside. 

Here in the midwest we can see summers with a heat index over 100 and winters with wind chills -30.  We were constantly freezing or sweating in our home.  With the new insulation and heat/cool unit we are so much more comfortable AND energy efficient. Our monthly bills have gone DOWN.

5. Teacher Stuff

You may have heard that teachers spend a lot of their own money on their classrooms. You have heard correctly.  I try to focus on things that will benefit my students versus things that are just "cute."  For example, I give every student a brand new book of their own to keep at  Winter Break and at the end of the school year.  Since we are both working we can afford to do so and it's an expense that is worth it!

6. Graduate School

I am paying my way through a Master's degree program right now.  We pay each semester in full (no student loans!) and feel incredibly lucky to be able to do so.  It is indeed a chunk of money to spend but it is an investment in the future and in my earning potential so again, it's an expense that we feel is worth it. 

Pro-tip: Run the money through your 529 account. Adults can use those too!  It gives us a nice tax break at the end of the year on the money we were going to spend on my graduate program anyway!

7. Extra Life Insurance

Yeah, this is not nearly as exciting as Netflix, soda, and books. Still, extra life insurance (term life insurance) is worth the added cost.The goal is that if something were to happen to either of us, the remaining spouse would have enough money to provide for themselves and the children without added stress.  If, God forbid, we both die, we have a will and have left directives.  Again, the expense of an attorney and the expense of extra life insurance is well worth knowing that everything is taken care of for our children should something awful happen.

Quaran-READING

While we are in this quarantine lockdown and schools are closed for the year due to the coronavirus, we definitely have more time to read.  I've bought a variety of books and have been reading a lot lately.  I'm going to share a few here: my favorites, currently in progress, and one book I had to quit.

1. Evvie Drake Starts Over

First, Evvie Drake Starts Over. This was the most delightful of the books I have read so far.  Evvie's husband died in a car crash not long before the book starts.  Her friend's famous baseball player pal needs a place to stay and Evvie has an extra room.  This book was the perfect lighthearted escape from heavy news in our current world. 

Bonus: I just discovered the author did an interview on NPR.  

  

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2. Becoming

Second on the list: Becoming. I've had this book sitting on my shelf but was so busy that I never got past the second chapter.  Now in quarantine with a little more time to read, I'm making my way through the rest of the book.  It's worth the hype.  Michelle Obama, whether you voted for her husband or not, is a solid writer and weaves a great look into her life thus far. 


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3. The Stand

Oh, Steven King. An airborne virus that kills people and is highly contagious?  Yes, that's the type of book we should all be reading right now.  I bought this gargantuan book with high hopes.  King is a household name for a reason, he's a master storyteller.  But.  You knew there was a 'but' coming, right?  

This would be a chonk of a book for me to get through under normal circumstances.  Given the Coronavirus pandemic right now, I find my mind a little to tired to read something this dense.  I never know what day of the week it is, my dreams are weird, and I went into a panic when it took a month to be able to buy a can of black beans. Oh and our toilet paper supply is low. I ordered towels to cut up just in case because SWEET MOTHER OF HECK.  So a 1,400 pg book is too much to take on right now.  I'm putting "The Stand" on a shelf to come back to at a less-stressful time


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*Links are affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Full disclosure here. 

4. Lending a Paw

Am I the only one who just discovered that "cozy mystery" is a genre?  Well "Lending a Paw" is definitely cozy.  I'm halfway through this one right now and it's a lovely, feel-good distraction from the pandemic world.  Laurie Cass creates a murder mystery that relies on the librarian/bookmobile driver to solve.  Minnie, the librarian has a cat named Eddie that goes along for the adventure. As a dog person, I'd have rather had a bookmobile with a dog but I can settle for a cat. :)  

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5. Ghosts

Technically this is a juvenile fiction graphic novel by popular kids' author Raina Telgemeier.  Students are always reading her books and I bought and read Guts a couple months ago. It was fantastic!  When the Libby app (free app that lets you check out digital materials from your library) had Ghosts up for grab, I quickly checked it out and read it in one afternoon.  

The story does deal with heavier topics such as death (obviously. The title gives that away) and the cystic fibrosis (the main character is a child with CF).  Even so, it was a quick read with a cute story that affirms family connections.

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6. Other People's Houses

Last but not least: Abbi Waxman's Other People's Houses.  I am actually waiting on this one to arrive in the mail!  I've seen this book talked about several different places (I think magazines and probably Modern Mrs. Darcy because she's the ultimate book blogger).

I previously read Waxman's The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and loved it.  Generally if I like one book from an author, I will like others. It centers on a carpool mom, a neighborhood, and an affair.  Reader reviews describe it as "funny" which is always my cup of tea!

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Have you been reading more during the quarantine?  If you have any great suggestions (we've established that it has to be under a THOUSAND pages for me to handle), please leave a comment!  


P.S. You may enjoy my bookish Pinterest board: 

"Whatever You Grow Up to Be"-review

Whatever You Grow Up To BeKaren Kingsbury, Valeria Docampo

Big thanks to Zondervan and BookLook for sending me a free copy of this adorable book!  I've long enjoyed reading Karen Kingsbury's novels for adults, so I was eager to see what she had for children.  "Whatever You Grow Up to Be" is a mother-son story of the mother's love for her son from birth through adulthood, no matter what he grows up to be.  

Here is the summary from Zondervan:

Whatever You Grow Up to Be, by New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury, brings the mother-son relationship into new light, as a young boy discovers the unlimited possibilities God has for his life, while never forgetting the special bond he shares with his mother.

My thoughts:

• I love how the book comes full circle in the end with the little boy growing up and becoming a father, and the mom becoming a grandma!
• The illustrations are precious.  Very well done, engaging while not being over-stimulating for little readers.
• Fantastic gift idea for a Grandma-to-be!   
• Karen Kingsbury presents the image of a loving mother-son relationship. As the mom of boys, I've noticed that many events, particularly Mother's Day events, tend to focus on mother/daughter and the Father's Day things are for father/son pairs.  It's nice to see something celebrate a mother's relationship and affection for her growing son.
• Text is rhyming on each page, this is a pretty short read-a-loud.  My 3 year old enjoyed listening to it multiple times.

"Whatever You Grow Up to Be" is available in hardback format pre-order through Zondervan.  List price is $15.99.  I was given the book for review purposes, but I do not make any money off your potential purchase, so you know I'm not trying to sway you one way or the other! :)

Final thought-Can I just say KUDOS to Zondervan for having a paypal checkout option on their site?!  I noticed that and love it.  That makes it a lot easier for people who don't use credit cards to be able to shop.  Thank you!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Post shared at: I Can Teach My Child

Llama Llama Red Pajama

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Llama Llama Mad At Mama is one of the cutest, funniest books for kids that I have ever read. Have you had a chance to read it? Llama goes to the grocery store with Mama and does not have a good time! Little kids can really relate to it. (And so can every mom who has ever had a cranky child ruin her trip to Shop-A-Rama).

On October 6th, 2 million people have pledged to read Llama Llama Red Pajama! Wanna join us? You can read the book online if you don't have it already!

Its a national campaign that mobilizes adults and children to close the early education achievement gap by setting a reading world record.

This annual campaign allows Americans to demand that all children receive the quality early education they deserve. On October 6, 2011, more than 2 million voices will call for an end to America’s early education achievement gap by reading Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney – setting a world record in the process!

Get involved at www.readfortherecord.org to help Jumpstart close the early education achievement gap:

1. Pledge to Read: Submit your official pledge and help us reach more than 2.1 MILLION children.
2. Spread the Word: Use our simple tools to educate your friends and family about America’s early education achievement gap and invite them to read.

For more information visit www.readfortherecord.org

It is all free, just READ this Thursday. Read to your kid, your neighbor, your classroom, your neighborhood kids, your grandkids...someone!

Spreading the word at these linky parties:
Anti-procrastination Tuesday