Me as a Reader

Franki, Kevin, and Linda all recently blogged about things that define them as readers. Aren't they great lists? They inspired me to create my own.

1. The first book I remember reading on my own was Bears in the Night.
2. I think that book fueled my love of horror novels!
3. I read aloud a book in my first grade class. It was a Tweety and Sylvester book and I remember my teacher marveling over my Tweety voice: "I tawt I taw a putty-tat. I did! I did taw a putty-tat!"
4. I read The Hobbit in 4th grade.
5. I also read A Wrinkle in Time in 4th grade and Madeleine L'Engle became my favorite author.
6. In 7th grade we had to write 7 book reports per marking period. I was in heaven!
7. I was an Anne McCaffrey fanatic in 7th grade.
8. I cannot remember a single book that I had to read in high school.
9. I have never read Shakespeare and I have no desire to do so now.
10. I used to read to my daughters every night. I still read to them, but not as often. (They are 13 and 10 now.)
11. When I read to Genevieve as part of her bedtime ritual, I was the one who fell asleep!
12. G and I cried together when we read about Matthew Cuthbert death.
13. I have read almost everything by Stephen King. But not the Dark Tower books.
14. The Stand is my all time favorite book. It is another book I read in 4th grade!
15. Every year for Christmas I got one boxed set of books. It was my favorite gift to open.
16. When I think one genre is my favorite, I remember all the great books of another genre!
17. I wish I were a published author.
18. I love to read aloud in classrooms.
19. Today I read "Are We There Yet?" a short story from the book Just Annoying. The kids LOVED it!!
20. I remember racing Mike Bachman (not sure what grade it was) to see who could finish the SRA kit first.
21. I loved those SRA kits as a kid.
22. I hate those SRA kits as a teacher!
23. On long car trips, I read aloud to the family. I think my husband likes it more than the girls.
24. I partner-read Red Dog with a 5th grade boy. After it made me cry, he was determined to find another book for us to read together that would make me cry.
25. I don't think I have read a single Patricia Polacco book that did not make me cry.
26. I saw Patricia at last year's Michigan Reading Association conference...and she had THE keeping quilt with her!
27. My personal picture book library has over 800 books.
28. I love meeting authors.
29. I love getting my books autographed.
30. I love sharing autographed books with kids, who then see them as treasure like I do!
31. I was beyond geeked when I book I bought in a whole box of picture books was autographed by Patricia Polacco.
32. I think it is so uber-cool that I can follow and TALK TO some of my favorite authors on Twitter!!! (I'm @mom2preteens if you'd like to follow me!)
33. I fell in love with the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature in high school.
34. In college I used the Reader's Guide like a treasure hunt to learn about things I didn't even know I wanted to know about.
35. I find it harder to read longer nonfiction text since I've been online.
36. I love science fiction--especially Heinlein and Asimov. But also Orson Scott Card and Ray Bradbury.
37. Two of my favorite books, The Doomsday Book and Outlander, are an incredible mesh of science fiction and historical fiction.
38. Goth Girl Rising was the first book that ever made me want to write to the author. And I did. Here. (And he read it, because I follow him on twitter! :D)
39. I am addicted to Scholastic book orders and I often will not let myself go into a book store if I know I can't buy anything.
40. I get disappointed when books I've really loved get made into movies. The biggest disappointment was probably The Tale of Despereaux.

I think I will stop at 40. Maybe I will come back and add more at another time. If you decide to blog about yourself as a reader, link back to me!!