Book Club Friday

Happy Friday!

I have to agree with Lisa, this has been the longest short week ever, but not for reasons you would think...

My semester does not start until the 28th, so I planned on substitute teaching everyday in January, but I did not get a single job this week. Not one between Wednesday and Friday. I hate that feeling of having nothing to do and not making any money! I think after this first week back, things will go back to normal (I even have a multiple day job lined up for later this month), but this week was kind of rough for my anxiety levels. I am already concerned about not working this semester due to student teaching, so making as much money as possible in January is crucial!

In my unexpected extra time off, I have found myself working on rebuilding my resume to reflect a qualified educator, instead of someone successful in the corporate world (so intimidating!) and also watching endless episodes of Parenthood on Netflix. You guys, I am HOOKED. That show is phenomenal and I adore it! In addition to resume building and Parenthood watching, I have begun applying to the local districts and working on their enormous application process. Whew! I spent several hours on just one district yesterday!

Well, anyway, for Book Club Friday this week I am following Emily and Kelly's lead and succumbing to peer pressure with this book meme all about the books I read in 2012! I made reading an important stress reliever for me in 2012 and I was sure to include reading in my daily life no matter what (even if it was just for a few minutes) and it really paid off for me!

Amber's Stats:

How many books read in 2012? Seventy-one

How many fiction and non fiction? 9 non-fiction, 62 fiction. Most of the non-fiction was tradebooks for grad school, but I fully enjoyed most of them! My favorite being Multicultural Manners, for sure. I fully recommend flipping through that book to learn more about how other cultures communicate, and what is considered rude or appropriate.

Male/Female author ratio? 20 male, 51 female. I do tend to read more female authors and I am sure that is just because I am female myself, but this year I thoroughly enjoyed the John Green, James Patterson and one Stephen King book I read!

Favorite book of 2012? I will have to go with The Fault in our Stars by John Green. I have recommended it the most and this book spurred a love for John Green's writing. I also really enjoyed Sarah Jio and read everything she had available, and Loving Frank was a huge standout for me that I continually recommend to others.

Least favorite? I will have to go with Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov. We read this for my local book club and I just did not enjoy it.

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why? Nope, I have done a much better job at finishing books that I start and finding something about them that I like.

Longest and shortest book titles?  11/22/63 was the longest at 849 pages and the Diary of Darcy J. Rhone was the shortest at 68 pages. 

How many books from the library? I am going to agree with Kelly and say I got about half of these from the library. I belong to all of the local libraries in our area and have completely worked their hold system so I can get new books right away (or close to right away). It's pretty ridiculous, but whatever!

How many books read did I purchase? I purchased quite a few, but most of them were used and I followed a book budget of $25-$30 per month and did pretty well with that. I like to pick up books for my classroom from Half Price Books, so completely holding off from buying books would be hard for me. 

How many were gifts? None of the books I read were gifts, but I did receive some good books for Christmas! My boyfriend got me the first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and his parents got me the second two. I hope I can get to them soon, because I won't watch any of the movies until I've read the books!

How many were given to me for reviews? Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver. I am now ANXIOUSLY awaiting the final book in the trilogy. 

How many books read on kindle? Zero, but I have a Nook. I think I read probably 3-4 on my Nook. I did not use it very much this year, although right now I am on a Nook reading spree. The last few books I have read and the one I am reading now is on my e-reader.

Any re-reads? I re-read Forever and Speak for an adolescent lit class. I also re-read The Hunger Games in anticipation of the movie coming out.

Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading? Hmm... I am going to add "and other places" to this questions because I went to a lot of made up places! The settings in The Hobbit and Ella Enchanted in particular. I read a lot of books for my ESL (English as a Second Language) endorsement so I spent a lot "time" in Central America and Asia. I went to Poland, the South Pacific islands, India, Mars (twice!), and Germany.

Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation? Probably Loving Frank. If Lisa hadn't urged me to read it before heading to Chicago last January, I probably would have never read it. Now I think about that book all the time and know that I will re-read it in the future!

There you have it! I have set a goal for myself to read 75 books in 2013, but I think this will be difficult because I will not have any required reading this year. I would say about 25% of the books read in 2012 were required reading for me. In 2013 I want to focus on some younger reading and read books that I know my students will be reading, so I am hoping I can breeze through many of those early on and in the summer. We'll see! I am not going to put too much pressure on myself because I hope this is the year I begin teaching full time.

What books were your favorite in 2012?