I have always been a reader. Always. As is mini-me… When I read the words on pages, a movie plays in my mind. I can see and hear and absorb the setting and characters from the words on the page and imagine the worlds that they reside in.
Giant on the other hand… not so much.
He’s a doer. He’d much rather be out doing the heavy lifting or tinkering than sit still with some old book.
Regardless of our preferences, sometimes in life, we have to read… so we’ve instituted family reading time. A time limit didn’t really work to be honest. I could see the Giant watching the clock as the seconds ticked by… *sigh*
So, we’re trying something new. We’re going to focus on quantity of reading instead of a time limit. Breaking down the books he’ll need to read for school and reading a set number of pages each day… and then discussing them. This whole parenting thing? Yeah… totally trial and error… emphasis on the “error” part.
Since I too will be reading more, I cobbled together a reading challenge for 2015 that I’m going to try to stick with. It’s only 24 books… that’s 2 a month… And sometimes when I look at that I think “Self, you can read WAYYYY more than that….”
and then only a moment later, I think “Self… there’s no way you will get through that many books…” So I’m convinced that, for me, it’s a perfect number.
But before we get to that, I’m going to share some of my favorite quotes from books I read in 2014. Because I read a bit more last year than I had in the past thanks to some inspiration from a friend.
Ya’ll already know that I read (and loved) the Harry Potter Books… Mini me is working through them now in fact. There were so many quotes I loved in that series that It’s hard to narrow it down… but this one stuck with me :
And of course this one…
I didn’t JUST read potter of course… I also read the Hunger Games Trilogy
And The Fault in our Stars…
And Ender’s Game
And Speaker for the dead…
I think Speaker for the Dead might have been my favorite which is why I’m terribly saddened that I seem to have misplaced my copy…. I’ll have to head out to Half Price and pick up another one next time I’m out…
Now then… the challenge… is anyone interested? Anyone want to join me?
Some of these, I already have identified books to fill the slots… Some of the books on my “To Read” list could land in multiple categories… but more than not, I have a lot of blanks to fill in. So… Help me out – any recommendations of books that I should look at?
On my list so far, Well, for the Love of Art! written by a dear friend whose wit and humor have always kept me laughing so I’m looking forward to reading this one from her. For my “More than 500 Pages” category, I’m going to tackle Stephen King’s 11/22/63 and at 866 Pages, I think that fits the bill quite nicely.
There were many MANY books that were made into movies that I want to read but for this challenge, I’m selecting The Book Thief and sticking with a theme here, my Nonfiction selection is going to be Rena’s Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz.
So like I said, I have a few already selected for this but… Any suggestions you can offer? After all, I’m gonna need a book recommended by a friend 🙂
Want to join in? Check out the prompts for the rest of the month and link up whenever one inspires you!
I devoured the Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice & Fire series (although book 4 slowed me down).
I SOOOOO Tried to read that series… I got stuck on book one… I love the series… I just couldn’t read it.
Short stories: Dear Husband by Joyce Carol Oates
Genre you’ve never read- have you read a lot of travel? This would also sort of work for memoir: Dear Exile by Hilary Liftin & Kate Montgomery. I love that book and have read it a couple times.
One word, eh? How about Lamb by Christopher Moore. Hilarious.
I have no specific goal other than to just READ. Read lots, read at lunch, read before bed instead of being on my phone. So far, so good.
Thanks for the recommendations!!! I’ll be sure to check them out and keep you posted!
Seriously you quoted from 3 of the same books I had picked to quote from, I am going to attempt the reading challenge you brought forth… Shrimp loves to read IF it interests him… Chuckie would prefer to watch the movie and Jakers loves listening to your read with his reading problems but he is in love with the Potter Books….
You can still quote from the books i picked 🙂 they are quote worthy!