On Rereading

If you know me personally, or if you have been reading my blog for a long time, you might know two things about me:

1. I love to read, and I often read books more than once.
2. I prefer character driven stories over plot driven ones.

This post is going to be a argument about why you should read books more than once. In my opinion, any book worth reading is worth rereading. If it's not interesting or subtle or involved enough to make it worth rereading, it's probably not worth the first time through either. Of course, this post is just talking about fiction. Nonfiction is a whole different topic, and this really doesn't apply to it.

I started really thinking about this a few weeks ago, when I decided to reread all of S.E. Hinton's books after seeing a play version of The Outsiders, which is one of my very favorite books. Then, yesterday, I read The Fault in Our Stars for the second time, after seeing the movie a few weeks ago. All of this helped to really bring into focus my thoughts on this topic. I've also been rewatching old Vlogbrothers videos this week too (I've started at the very beginning. I doubt I'll get all the way through them, but it's fun to try), which has made me realize that my thoughts on this apply to other mediums as well.

Now, I believe that everybody reads for a different reason, and that's okay. Books are for their readers, and every reader needs something different from a book. Some people read to experience new things, some people read to escape their everyday life, some people read to gain a new perspective. I read to connect to characters and people I'll never meet. This brings us to point 2, from above. I prefer books with well fleshed out characters, and stories that are driven by choices the character makes rather than plot twists that come from an outside source.

All of this leads us to the reason that I think books are worth rereading. Any good book will never be exactly the same any two times you read it. I'm going to use The Outsiders as my example, since it's a book I've read four or five times over the last five or six years.

The movie was pretty great too.

The first time I read it, I was really just trying to absorb the story. I was trying to understand the Curtis family dynamics, and who the heck the Socs were, and why it all even mattered. The second time I read it, I was able to pick up on far more nuance that the first time. Now that I had a good grasp on the plot, I was able to really connect with Ponyboy, and try to image what I would have done in those situations. The most recent time I read it, just a few weeks ago, was pretty different. The first few times I read it, I was about 11 or 12. This time, I was 16, and suddenly, the book felt different. While before, I'd always connected most to Ponyboy, this time, I found myself really connecting to Darrel, and thinking about how I would deal with those kinds of situations from his perspective.

I had a similar experience with The Fault in Our Stars. The first time I read it, about two years ago, I really just took in the story. I didn't know what to expect, and I just took it in, and tried to understand it at it's base value. This time, I really found myself connection with Hazel. Now, I don't have a terminal illness, and I've never had to deal with almost any of the things she's had to deal with, but for some reason, I really found myself experiencing the story through her eyes, instead of from the outside.

The google image search for TFiOS is a timewaster. A beautiful, kind of amazing timewaster. Somehow, though, I still just ended up with this screenshot from the movie.

I really think that it is impossible to read a book twice and have the same experience. Our lives and our experiences shape us, and they do it constantly. There have been lots of things in my life that have made me who I am, and that exact person that is "me" is always changing. Every experience you have, every change that happens to your life changes the way you read a book. Some of it I think just comes with age. I think it might be easier for my to connect with Hazel simply because now we're the same age, instead of her being several years older. Maybe it's the simple fact that I can't possibly imagine going through what she has gone through that makes me connect with her. Or maybe it's the little things. There are several scenes in that book, when taken completely on their own, are things I can say I have experienced almost verbatim.

Sometimes, the thing that makes a difference is a reference to a movie or song that you hadn't seen or heard the first time through, but that you get this time. Sometimes, it's just having a different perspective on the story as a whole. For me, there is one thing that I know is a big factor is rereading books. I read a lot of things at a young age. I was an emotionally mature, very strong reader, and the books written for 11 year olds can be pretty boring. So, I was reading Tamora Pierce, S.E. Hinton, Madeleine L'Engle, Lois Lowry, Julie Anne Peters, and even Ellen Hopkins as a preteen.

Almost all of Ellen Hopkin's book. All of these (minus Smoke and maybe Tilt), were out when I was 13.

Those are not authors that you would typically recommend to a kid that age (at least some of them), but I think it was good for me. Those books really did do their part in shaping the way I think, and the person I am by challenging my beliefs, and my ways of thinking. When I was about 12, I read a LOT. I can't remember everything I read, but my life was changing in ways outside of my control, and those books were a bit of a refuge. Books that challenged me, changed me, and helped me decide who I wanted to be.

Now, I should say that a lot of those books and what they really meant went completely over my head at that age (though not quite as much as you might think). Rereading those books now is a completely different experience. The experiences I've had since then make reading an Ellen Hopkins book feel so different. While it's not an exaggeration to say that Ellen Hopkins defined a year of my life practically (the year I was 13, I read all of her books at least twice), they hardly feel like the same books now. The first time I read them, they were what I needed them to be, and when I read them now, they are what I now need them to be, and those things aren't remotely similar.

So, my challenge to you is to read a book you haven't read in a long time. It doesn't have to be a great book, it just should be one that you enjoyed or that meant something to you the first time you read it. Now, how does it feel different to you this time? Sometimes, the changes are subtle, but I think they are always there. Humans change to quickly to ever experience the same book the same way twice.

Writers of the Future {Book Review}

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Before I get to the review, I want to apologize. This post was supposed to come out two weeks ago, but due to illness, I've gotten quite behind on a number of projects (and school!) that I am working on. This is the reason that the contest at the bottom closes so soon.

When I got a copy of the Writer's of the Future book this year, I was a little excited, since I have heard good things about the stories in these collections, and also a little skeptical about the program and contest in general. In this post, I'm going to talk only about the individual stories and their particular merits, as well as the organization and readability of the collection as a whole.

I'm going to be honest: I don't really think I'd want to read this book in public, and a few things that I had read online about the contest did weird me out a little, but on the whole, the individual stories were quite good. I'll let you do your own research about the rest of it. In my review, I'm going to focus on a two of the stories (though there are many more great ones than that), and give more in depth reviews of them. I will also talk about how I thought the book was organized and the quality of the stories as a collection.

My Review
First of all, my review of the collection as a whole. I was impressed by the variety of stories and the quality of them. There are stories ranging all parts of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genres, and it is fun to read. The illustrations were also quite good, though there were times where the illustration almost didn't seem to fit with the story it accompanied. The book itself was very readable, and good quality. Now, I am going to briefly review two of the stories I read. I had a hard time choosing the stories to review, but in the end I chose the two which most stood out to me as I read them, for various reasons.

Another Range of Mountains by Megan E. O'Keefe is the first story I am reviewing. I enjoyed the story and plot, but there were moments where I felt a little overwhelmed by it. There was a lot of plot in those 25 pages, more, maybe, then made sense. I was intrigued by the premise, and I liked the ending, but it felt a little abrupt. I would have liked a little more backstory, and a much slower plot. I actually would love to read this same story in a novella format. I think that with maybe 150 pages to work within, this story would be really great.

The second story I'm reviewing is Giants at the End of the World by Leena Likitalo. I'm going start by saying that I loved this story. The plot was subtle, the writing was absolutely beautiful, and the ending was perfectly set up. This is the kind of story that makes me want to find everything this author has ever written. The short story is, in my reading and writing experience, a difficult medium to master, since you are limited in space, but still trying to tell a full story. The plot in the story was subtle: there wasn't a lot to it at first glance, but it was still substantial. I felt satisfied at the end, but also curious as what might happen next.

Contest!




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Here are links to find Writers of the Future online:
Facebook
Twitter is @WOTFCONTESTNEWS
Pinterest 
Newsletter & event
Trailer

 I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

55 Book Questions

I know I've been pretty negligent of my blogging plans lately, but today I'm back with a fun post, answering 55 book questions. Thanks to the Penslayer for the questions!

1.  Your favourite book as a child?  It's so hard to pick just one. I loved James and the Giant Peach, the Betsy-Tacy books, the All of a Kind Family books, and many more.

2.  What are you reading right now?  A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin, Malgudi Days by R. K. Narayan, Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor, and The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (I haven't really started this one yet).
3.  What books do you have on request at the library?  It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, and The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan.

4.  Bad book habit.  I very often eat and read at the same time. I don't get food on the books, but it's still a bad idea.

5.  What do you currently have checked out from your library? The 5th Wave by Richard Yancy, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, Sever by Lauren DeStefano, United We Spy by Ally Carter, Teen Angst? Naaah, by Ned Vizzini, and Now I'll Tell You Everything by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

6.  Do you have an e-reader?   Yes, but I don't read on it that often.I prefer real books.

7.  Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or do you tend to read several at once?  Well, if you can't tell from all of the above, I tend to read a ridiculously large number of books at a time. It would probably be more efficient to read one at a time, but I never do.

8.  Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?  They haven't too much. I do tend to write reviews in my head now as I read, so if anything, it's changed my thinking habits. :)

9.  What was your least favourite book this year?  That's hard. Maybe Eve and Adam by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant?

10.  What was your FAVOURITE book this year?  Oh gosh, that even harder. I really liked Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and I really liked The Eight by Katherine Neville. I also really enjoyed Homeland by Cory Doctorow. Can I make it a top three?

11.  How often do you read out of your comfort zone? Well, I don't really have a comfort zone, so either all the time, or never.

12.  What is your reading comfort zone? Strictly speaking, it would probably be young adult lit, but I read a lot of stuff that isn't that too.

13.  Can you read in the car? Yes, and I do constantly. Not as much as I used to, but I rarely leave the house without a book.

14.  Where is your favourite place to read? On my bed.

15.  What is your policy on book-lending. I don't lend books a lot, but when I do, it's usually to my friends who all care about books as much as I do. I know that they'll give the book back to me, and that they'll take care of it.

16.  Do you ever dog-ear in books? No.

17.  Do you ever write in the margins of your books?  Sometimes. Not too much.

18.  What about text books? I do write in those.

19.  What is your favourite language to read in?  English, without a doubt. The only other language I could try reading in is Latin, and though I do try that every now and then, it is a painful process.

20.  What makes you love a book?  Good writing and relate-ability.

21.  What would inspire you to recommend a book?  What I know about the person I'm recommending the book to.

22.  What is your favourite genre?  I don't really have a favorite genre. I often enjoy distopian books, but honestly I'm getting a little tired of the formulaic approach they have all been taking lately. Most of my very favorite books are some combo of scifi fantasy, humor, and realistic fiction. Was that confusing enough?

23.  What is a genre you rarely read but wish that you did?  Fantasy. I don't read it all that often, but when I do, I usually enjoy it.

24.  Favourite biography? I read biogrophies rarely enough (read: only for school) that I don't really feel qualified to answer this question.

25.  Have you ever read a self-help book?  Yes, but never for help.

 26.  Favourite cookbook?  Again, not qualified.

27.  What is the most inspirational book you have read this year?  That's really hard for me to answer. Reading The Great Gatsby inspired me to write, and Fangirl provided much more personal inspiration.

28.  Favourite reading snack? Chocolate.

29.  Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience. The Percy Jackson books. I enjoyed them, but I think I would have liked them more if I didn't expect quite so much from them.

30.  How often do you agree with critics about a book?  Reletivly often. Writing style affects my opinion much more than more critics, so if I am less positive about a book, that's usually why,

31.  How do you feel about giving negative reviews? I don't like, read, or write negative reviews. Critical reviews, if well written and constructive, are fine. Negative reviews are not.

32.  If you could read a foreign language, which would you choose?  Latin. I don't know if that counts, since it's the only one I can kind of read, but it's the one I would like to read fluently.

33.  What was the most intimidating book you've ever read? The Illiad by Homer. I got through it though, and now I think I could read anything I put my mind to.

34.  What is the most intimidating book you're too nervous to begin? Don Quiote.

35.  Who is your favourite poet?  I don't read much poetry, but there are several poems by Rudyard Kipling I really like.

36.  On average, how many books do you have checked out of the library at any given time? Seven or eight at least.

37.  How often do you return books to the library unread?  Too often. Probably one or two out of every seven or eight go back unread.

38.  Who are your favourite fictional characters? Lee, from East of Eden, Alanna from Tamora Peirce's Alanna books, Charlie from Flowers for Algernon, Johnny from The Outsiders, Meg from A Wrinkle in Time, Alice from Phyllis Reynold Naylor's Alice books, and Hermione from Harry Potter.

39.  Who is your favourite fictional villain? If by favorite you mean most interesting: Cathy from East of Eden. If by favorite you mean most liked, The  from The Name of This Book Is Secret (and the series following).
40.  What are the books you are most likely to take on vacation?  What ever I'm currently reading.

41.  What is the longest you have gone without reading?A few day, maybe a week.

42.  Name a book that you could not or would not finish. Lord of the Flies. I feel guilty every time I say it, but I never finished it. I will someday. Also The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour. Someday, I WILL read these books.

43.  What distracts you easily when you're reading?  Thoughts of other things I should be doing, like school work, editing, chores, ect. I have a hard time relaxing sometimes.

 44.  What is your favourite film adaptation of a novel?  That's tough. Maybe the Princess Bride? As far as film adaptations go, it kept the same mood, though some of my favorite parts of the book had to be changed or left out. Also maybe the new Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio. I thought that was fantastic.

45.  What is the most disappointing film adaptation?  Well, I tend to avoid them if I've heard anything bad about them, but I was pretty disappointed with most of the Harry Potters. That's mainly because I get too stuck on details, and the movies couldn't be quite the same. The later ones were better, but three and five in particular disappointed me.
46.  What is the most money you have spent in a bookstore at one go?  Hmmm, I'm not sure. Maybe $50?

47.  How often do you skim a book before reading it?  Rarely. Unless it's a school book.

48.  What would cause you to stop reading a book halfway through?  A distict lack of plot and terrible writing. Monument 14 if the most recent book I stopped part way through.

49.  Do you like to keep your books organized?  I like to, but I don't.

50.  Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you're done with them?  Keep them. I have way too many, and I buy more all the time. I don't really have space for them all, leading to piles everywhere, and the lack of organization discussed above.

51.  Are there any books you've been avoiding?  Nothing in particular.

52.  Name a book that made you angry. The only thing that comes to mind is a textbook I have called The Least You Should Know About English. The title and teaching style both suggest that nobody wants to learn English, and the book's purpose is to teach you the very smallest amount possible to allow you to get through high school. 

53.  A book you didn't expect to like, but did?  Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I loved that book when I read it in American Lit last year, but I certainly didn't expect to.

54.  How about a book you expected to like, but didn't? The Red Badge of Courage. I generally like a lot of classic fiction, and I'd heard good things about it. I didn't exactly dislike it, and there were parts I liked, but for the most part it was hard to read and a bit boring.

55.  Favourite guilt-free pleasure reading? The two books I always go back to are Alanna: The First Adventure, and In the Hands of the Goddess, the first two books in Tamora Pierce's Alanna series. I can't tell you how many times I've read those two books. I rarely actually read them any more, but if I'm feeling sad or nostalgic, I'll pull one down and open it and read a few chapters.

Book Review Round Up - 2013

Now that 2013 is almost done (just ten days left in the year), I thought it was time to look over the year in books. Since I've only had this blog since March, there are a few months of books I didn't review, and there are quite a few I never got to this summer and fall. Despite that, I still reviewed a good number of books in 2013. Here are some of my best.

1. Eve and Adam by Micheal Grant and Katherine Applegate. I'm not putting this one in here because it was one of my favorite books, but because I often feel like I post a lot of very positive reviews. This is a good example of a book that I didn't love.

2. Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow. Cory Doctorow is one my very favorite authors, and this book didn't disappoint. It was a favorite of mine this year. I also read another new book of his, Homeland, this year, and loved it, but didn't have a chance to review it.

3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This is one of the first books that I reviewed that I really respected, and appreciated, but didn't exactly like all the way.

4. Divergent by Veronica Roth. With the movie coming out soon, this seems like a good one to feature.

5. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. I loved this book and highly recommend it. It has raised some controversy recently, which I think is a sign of how great it is. If everybody likes a book, it is unlikely that it did anything risky or unusual.

6. Erebos by Ursula Poznaski. This is one of the weirdest books I read this year, but I highly recommend it.

7. The Eight by Katherine Neville. I liked this book a lot. It's pretty different from the kinds of thing I normally read, which makes it perfect for this list.

8. Parnucklians for Chocolate by B. H. James. This book is the reason Erebos isn't the very weirdest book I read this year. This book is WAY weirder, and I love it. If you only read one book on this list, make it this one. Read the review first though, because I could imagine that this book could be somewhat polarizing for some people.

9. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Another fabulous Rainbow Rowell. I liked this one better than Eleanor and Park, which will probably make sense if you read my reviews of the books.

10. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. How could I leave this off my list?

There will be one or two more book reviews coming this next week, and then we're on to 2014.

Banned Books Week 2013

Today is the beginning of Banned Books Week, and I'm celebrating with a round up of posts I've written in the past about Banned Books. This spring, I did this series about banned books, which came in seven parts:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four 
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven

Just a few days ago, I wrote a post about the censorship of a book I particularly like.

Also, check out this fun interactive list of this year's most banned or challenged books. How many have you read? I've read 8 out of the 41 on the list. This list repersents the most banned books of all time. I've read 8 out of 44. Finally, this list is the most challenged books of the 1990's. I've read 28 out of 100 there.

Let me know how many of these commonly banned or challenged books you have read. It makes me so sad to see these lists, because some of my all time favorite books are quite high on many of these lists.

I believe that there will always be people who try to ban or censor books. But remember, knowledge is power. Books are so important. They keep us from becoming like the people of Fahrenheit 451 (a favorite, often challenged, book of mine): empty, and tied up constantly with the most trivial of matters. They did not care about life, because they saw no meaning in it. There was no point that they could see because they knew nothing but the small constraint they had created for themselves. Books give us the power to see beyond our own time and space. They allow us to travel the world, and through time. They help us find meaning.

I don't believe is forcing books on people, and if people do not wish to read these books, they should not read them. I don't, however, think it is at all appropriate for these people to tell me what I can and can not read. That is a decision for me to make.

*This post contains affiliate links.

Life Update! {More Blog Stuff, School, Books, and the Future}

Today, I'm just here to post a quick update on what I've been up to. I'm going to divide this post into sections for easier writing, and hopefully, reading.

Bloggy Stuff!

Let's start out with some semi-serious stuff. First of all, I'm realizing that a few things about how I've been blogging just aren't sustainable. First of all, Homeschool Fridays have been kind of a bust. I often don't get around to posting them, and I always feel like they are not as well written out as I would like. As a result of this, the "Graduating Highschool" part of my blog is going to become more literal. While I still intend to post about homeschooling related stuff the way I have in the past, I have a whole new format coming up that I hope will work a little better.

This all new Homeschool Fridays, which will be kicking off tomorrow, will be weekly school updates. I'm going to go through each subject (as it makes sense to do so),  and talk a little about what I did, what I didn't do, and what I hope to do next week. If you're a homeschooling family (particularly with younger kids), maybe you can get some ideas, and you can see how a particular curriculum or method works in a real life situation. My main goal with this, however, are a little more personal. I hope that this will help keep me accountable, and I want it to be a record of my sophomore year of high school.

If you're not sure how this is going to work, come back tomorrow to find out. My current plan is to try this out for a month, and see how it goes. If it's not working out, maybe I need to find a different way of doing homeschool posts.

Books

I love writing book reviews, and in fact, it's my favorite part of this blog. This fall, I hope to review every book I read. That might not mean a lot of book reviews, however, since I just started A Game of Thrones on Monday. I'm loving it so far, but it's not a short book. And, when I finish it, there are four more that all seem to be that size, or maybe larger. I don't know how long it'll take me to get through them, but be warned, there might not be a lot of review coming up.

To help compensate, I'm going to try to post reviews (or at least thoughts) on books I'm reading for school.

The Future

Maybe this should have come under the Blog Stuff heading, but I think it makes more sense here. I have a few long term plans and thoughts about this blog at the moment. The first of those is that I have a few sponsored book reviews coming up in the next few weeks, which is a lot of fun. I like doing those, because we (the company and I) both win. While I don't get paid, I get a new book or other cool product free to review, and they get some publicity.

I also have some exciting plans for the blog in 2014 that I might be talking more about soon.

Also, here are some posts to look out for soon:

Two sponsored book reviews.
A writing post (it's been WAY too long since I did one of those).
A HF post tomorrow.
A post about blogs I read.
A review of the tv series Angel.
Some NaNo prep posts (I can't believe it's already time to do those!).

Books that Taught Me About Books

Last month, I posted about a book and author that I feel shaped me. Today, I'm going to continue in that vain. In this post, I'm going to do things a little differently, and briefly discuss some books, and how they changed me or my reading habits. Click on any of the cover images to go to that Amazon.com page.

Another book that I think really changed me as a reader is A Wrinkle in Time. That book, which I read for the first time when I was about eight, is a big reason I ever bothered with sci-fi. That's not to say that I would never have gotten into dystopians without having read it, but it made me far more open to a genre I used to think was all aliens and space cowboys. Not that I have anything against those.

The Giver (which I read at 11), marked my official leap in to the realm of dystopian novels. It also taught me that just because I dislike the ending to the book doesn't make the book bad. It was also the first book I remember reading with that kind of an ending. The type of ending that made me realize that I am a pretty pessimistic person.

The Mysterious Benedict Society taught me that the suggested age on the book doesn't have to mean anything. That book is wonderful however old you are.

For some reason, I couldn't find the original cover on Amazon...

Twilight taught me that you can enjoy a not very good book. I will honestly say I enjoyed reading those books. They are quick reads, and they are page turners. When I finished Breaking Dawn, I though back on it, and realized there wasn't a whole lot I liked about the book. I didn't really like the characters, the plot, or the writing. But I still enjoyed reading it, and I don't regret reading it.

My favorite Sarah Dessen book.

Various Sarah Dessen books taught me that, despite my aforementioned pessimistic tendencies, I am a sucker for a good romance, and I will NEVER expect the ending to one of her books. Honestly, I keep reading them in the hopes that one of them will work out.

The Fault in Our Stars taught me that a sad ending can still be a good one. I actually cried a little at that one.

Which reminds me, I can only remember crying a few times while reading a book. Along with TFIOS, the only one I can remember is Little Women, though I'm sure there must be more. I came very close to crying at the end of Darkling Plain (the last Hungry Cities book).

What books taught you things, or changed the way you thought, either as a reader, or in general. Also, what books made you cry?

*This post contains affiliate links.

More Posts Will Come Soon! Plus, Music I'm Listening To...

Lately, it feels like the majority of my posts on here are about how busy I am, and not about books and writing. Here is another update on my very busy summer! :)

I haven't been posting a lot lately, but I have lots of half written blog posts waiting to be finished. I have numerous book reviews coming with in the next month or two, so look for that. I have a partially written post about the teen writing conference I attended last month, and another about the John Mayer concert I attended last week.

I have some other posts coming too. I have a few more to write about the books and authors that made me a reader, and a more serious one prompted by the death of the actor Cory Montieth. I also have one planned about some of the blogs I've been reading, and websites I've been frequenting.

Also, I'm going to restart Homeschool Friday Posts on August 2nd with a 2012-2013 school year review. I'm not sure if I'm going to post weekly or biweekly yet, but we'll find out soon. :)

And, just for fun, here are some of the songs I've thumbed up on Pandora today:


1. Collide by Howie Day

2. How to Save a Life by The Fray

3. Wonderwall by Oasis

4. If You Could Only See by Tonic

5. All For You by Sister Hazel

6. Roll to Me by Del Amitri

The Books that Made Me a Reader

I have read many, many books, but there are only a few that I can really say have made a big impact on me as a person, or as a reader, or even as a writer.

The first author I want to mention is Tamora Pierce. I distinctly remember being eight years old, and picking up Lady Knight from the paperback section of the Bellingham Public Library's children's section. While I didn't love that book (and it's the only book of her's I've never read since), I was interested enough to pick up Alanna: The First Adventure a week later. I was suddenly in love in a way I had never been before, and have rarely been since. Tamora Pierce's books (particularly the Alanna books, but her other ones too) had characters I could identify with. These books, unlike most books written for kids my age, were interesting. They had mystery, and danger. They had romance and death. Suddenly, reading wasn't a boring chore my mom made me do each day. It was suddenly my favorite part of each day.

Before long, I had read every book Tamora Pierce had ever written, so I started over again at the beginning. This was about the point at which I starting getting braver at the library and reading other books, but it was the start of a pattern for me. That was seven years ago now, and I've read hundreds and hundreds of books, but I always go back to Alanna. I've probably read Alanna: The First Adventure, and In The Hands of The Goddess a good twenty times a piece, and the rest her books (excluding Lady Knight, which I have only read that one time) at lease seven or eight times.

Sometimes I wonder where I would be if I had never found that book that Saturday afternoon at the library. Would I still be a big reader? So much good in my life comes from reading. Would any of that exist? Because of my love of reading and the library, I have a great volunteer position in that same children's library, and I have terrific relationships with many of the librarians who work there. My love of reading has also lead to a love of writing, which has lead me to participate in NaNoWriMo twice, and eventually start this blog. Where would I be without Tamora Pierce and the Bellingham Public Library?

Reading Goals

With a little less then half of 2013 left, I have decided to make some goals for the remainder of the year. The first of those is to read every book that I own that I have never read (there are far too many of those). The next is to read all the books that I own that I have not read in many years, or that I have never read my copy of (I have lots of books that I saw at a library sale and bought because I already liked it, and have never read it since). This post is mainly going to be a list of the books I hope to read in those two categories.I'm going to make another tab on the top of the page for this book list, though it will be arranged in the order in which I intend to read them. I'll cross them off the list as I finish them. I'll try to review as many as I have time for.

I'm sure I'll read lots of books not on this list, and I likely won't get to all the ones here, but I'm going to try to read as many as I can.

Check out that page for links to the Amazon.com pages for each book, and to check on my progress. I'll also put the date by each book I finish.

Books I Own But Have Never Read
1. Rosemount by Mary E. Trimble
2. McClellan's Bluff by Mary E. Trimble
3. The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
4. Ruth Fielding At Silver Ranch by Alice B. Emerson
5. Jason's Gold by Will Hobbs
6. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
7. The Earth is My Mother by Bev Doolittle
8. Dorothy Dale: A Girl of Today by Margaret Penrose
9. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
10. Dreamdark: Blackbringer by Laini Taylor
11. Barnes and Noble's Great American Short Stories
12. Tales From the Arabian Nights translated by Sir Richard Francis Burton
13. The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Aruthur Canan Doyle

Books I Own I Want To Reread
1. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
2. Down the Rabit Hole by Peter Abrahams
3. The Arm of the Starfish by Madeline L'Engle
4. The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman
5. Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
6. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
7. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
8. Dewey by Vicki Myron
9. Troubling a Star by Madeline L'Engle
10. Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
11. No Promises in the Wind by Irene Hunt
12. Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
13. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

While making these lists, I also found that I need to make a third list, a list of books that I have not read in a long time, and that I do not own, that I want to read. Many of them are in some way related to books that I own. Some of the books I do own, but I put on this list to keep them with the rest of it's series. This list may grow as time goes on.

Books to Read that I Don't Own
1. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
2. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart
3. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma

Summer, and Some Blog Changes

Summer is coming, and that means that some things are going to change a little around here. First of all, there should be more posts going up, since technically I will have less school to do, and so more time to do other things. Whether or not this will actually translate into more blog posts still remains to be seen.

Our local library has a terrific summer reading program for teens that I enjoy participating in every year. It is an online program where you submit short (3+ sentence) reviews of books and magazines. Each of your reviews is another entry for various prizes, with a grand prize for the person who reads the most books, as well as something for the runner up. Last year, two homeschool friends of mine came in first and second spots, which is totally awesome. Homeschoolers rule! This year, they have both said they are not going for the number one spot again, which should leave some room for me, I hope. I don't have as much time usually as they must have (they both came in at close to 170 books), but with them out of the way, I certainty have a fighting chance. :)

Anyway, that is one thing that might get in the way of me doing a lot of blogging, since I should be busy reading and writing short reviews. I do hope to write a full length review of EVERY book I read this summer for summer reading (which, by the way, goes from June 15 to August 31). What this means is that there will hopefully be a LOT of book reviews up here, but possibly not a whole lot else.

I think that I will be suspending Homeschool Fridays for the summer, and they will be coming back in September, when the new school year begins. I still plan to write about homeschooling, but just not as regularly.

Here is what you can expect this summer: A review of every book I read, published the day I finish the book (or possibly the next day). This means that posting may not be as regular, but there should still be lots of posts. Also, posts might be a little shorter then usual. Each one will also include what number book it is. I will also try to post little "reviews" every few weeks, just to talk about where I am in school, my plans for next year, and what kinds of activates my family has been doing.

There will also be a new page in the top banner going up in a few days, in which I will list every book I read this summer, and link to it's amazon page. This brings me nicely into the next thing I need to talk about, amazon.

I recently became an amazon affiliate, which means that if you click through to amazon from a blog post of mine, and then you buy something within the next 24 hours, I earn 4% of the sale. That number will go up the more sales are made. I don't expect to get rich of this site, and this is more of an experiment then anything. I am curious to see if I have enough readers to actually make any money.

These summer plans are going to go into affect as of today. Even though summer reading does not start for 10 days, and so the books I am currently reading do not count toward my total, I am going to stop all other regular posts and just post book reviews, as soon as I finish the book.

If you have any questions about anything I wrote here, please let me know in the comments!

Homeschool Fridays: Susan Wise Bauer

Before I go into any of our school subjects in any great detail, I feel that I must first describe our general philosophy about school. For the most part, it revolves around a woman named Susan Wise Bauer and her book, The Well Trained Mind. We use the classical approach she suggests. Describing the classical method here would take up at least one whole blog post. So, I will only talk about the most important parts. I highly recommend you read this article Susan Wise Bauer wrote about the classical method. It is long, but thorough.

After you have read that, you will have a much better idea about how we do things. Basically, we follow the four year cycle she suggests. I will describe the different subjects in more detail in the coming weeks, but here is a quick overview.

Since I only went to school for Kindergarten and 1st grade, most of my ideas about school are based off our homeschooling. One of those ideas is the priority that school subjects take. In our house, there has always been a hierarchy of subjects. At the top is History. History is by far the most important subject. Number two is Science. These are the two subjects that we do/did in the evening after Mom got home from work. Every other subject was done during the day.

After those two, English and Latin are the next most important. Math is just below those, and everything else is after that. I think that mentality is one that I would never have picked up if not for The Well Trained Mind.

Really, we have followed Susan Wise Bower's suggestions for pretty much everything. Mom is rather devoted to her, and loves all her books. There is not much more that I can say on this topic. Really, just read that article I linked to up at the top. It will all make sense then.

The Iliad - Homer

This December through January, I read The Iliad for Ancient History. Now, while I have read lots of kid versions of Homer's works (Rosemary Sutcliff's are the best), reading the original was a whole new experience. This was not the first time I had read an exact translation of an ancient text (last fall I read The Epic of Gilgamesh, which is the oldest written story in the world), but this was on a whole new scale.

The version of the Iliad I read, the Robert Fagels edition, is about 500 odd pages, all told. That length would have been no problem to me if it were a modern prose story. But, it's not. It is an ancient war story that is mainly about who killed who is what terrible way, and who each of those men's grandfathers were, and what kind of farm they used to have. Seriously. Also, it is in verse. Not rhyming verse, just... verse.

Yeah, all of that made it a tricky, though not entirely uninteresting read. Because, while I did not enjoy it most of the time, it was a challenge. It was something very new and different for me. As hard as it was, and as much as I complained, when I was done, I felt an immense sense of accomplishment. I really did something.

I also know that this is not the last hard book I will ever be assigned to read. Far from it. Now that I have fought this and beat it, all those other books (the Odyssey next month for instance) will seem just a little less hopeless, and a little more beatable.

I guess this is not so much a book review as a book triumph. I don't see any reason to tell you whether or not you should read it. There is no point with a book like this. I just told you why I read it, and why I don't regret all the hours I spent reading a book I did not really enjoy.