My Year in Books: 2017

In 2017 I read 127 books, broken down into 34,396 pages. My Goodreads goal was 104, or 2 a week. I exceeded that by reading one book every Saturday in the late fall, as a way to decompress after a stressful work week! I can't give a reason for my months with especially low numbers, except I feel like I fell into a lot of reading funks this year, where nothing sounded good, or I couldn't get into something I had to read, or I was just wasting time playing on my phone instead (yeah, it happens).

My monthly breakdowns:
January - 11
February - 14
March - 11
April - 8
May - 15
June - 6
July - 9
August - 7
September - 9
October - 6
November - 13
December - 18

My broad genre breakdowns:
Young Adult - 54
Middle Grade/Elementary - 28
Nonfiction (adult and children) - 19
Adult Fiction - 26

Picture books not included, since I keep track of those on my son's Goodreads page.

I read 20 books for review. This includes books I was sent to review for the blog, as well as books I review for the Memphis Public Library's Teen Bookletters. I started reviewing for this newsletter in May. You can sign up for these reviews (and others) here.

I only re-read 4 books this year. I feel like that is really great for me, even though I haven't kept stats like this in previous books. I used to want to re-read my favorites so often, I limited myself to reading them only once every year. I guess I have been cutting down on that, to the point that I only re-read a few, and at least 2 of those were because I was reading the next book in a series and needed to re-read the first to get back in the series groove.

I didn't do so well with my Reading Challenge. I hardly even attempted any of the classics, but read 6 of the diverse reads. I actually read a lot of diverse books this year though, like The Hate U Give and Dear Martin, among others. So the challenge to read more diverse books was a success, and I plan to keep this up in 2018. As far as actually accepting any other challenge, though - I'm going to pass. Even as a bookworm, I have balked against required reading and either trudged through, or gone to Cliffs Notes (I admit it!). So as an adult, giving myself required reading beyond books I am required to review is just... not something I'm going to do this year. I can challenge my reading in other ways. I'm going to stick with one broad goal of 115 books as a Goodreads challenge.

How was your 2017 in books? Do you have goals for 2018's reading life?

Reading Harry Potter... for the first time!

It's true, I'm an adult bookworm who is just now reading the Harry Potter series.

To be fair, I tried to read the first book when it initially came out; I made it a couple of chapter in and had to put it down. I've never been into fantastical books or movies, so wizards and magic didn't interest me much. Plus, I was a teenager who had tons of homework and limited reading time, so I'd rather read what I loved. (I'll also admit that I had a pretty narrow reading scope at that point.) I saw the first two movies because a friend wanted to see them, but I didn't get into them, and can't remember too much about them now.

Then the hype hit. To be fair, the book was probably already wildly popular when I attempted it the first time, but no one can deny that Harry Potter fever took over as the books were released. I have this weird thing with hype, where I get annoyed when I hear about something too much and want to shun it as much as possible. Even with things I love! I just feel oversaturated by it and want to ignore it. So that, of course, is what happened with All Things Harry Potter.

Fast forward to now, when I am grown up and finishing my master's degree and doing an internship with the public library system. I am setting up my internship hours with the children's department manager when I am told that something Harry Potter related is coming out on July 31st, and that is also Harry Potter's birthday. It is also the last day of Memphis' summer reading program, meaning the library will have a huge party celebrating all of these things.

Well, if I'm going my internship in the children's department, and helping out with this party, I better know what's going on! I don't want a day of kids running up to me, asking Harry Potter questions or spouting off Harry Potter trivia while I smile and nod dumbly.

I am going to read Harry Potter!

I started towards the end of May, a little nervous that I was going to be "forced" to read seven books that didn't interest me at all. Booknerd friends on social media warn me that the first book isn't very good, but they all get better as the series progresses. Ok, here we go.

I remember the first chapter, and the second. Ok, this is the point where I stopped reading before, but this time... I'm into it! I LIKE HARRY POTTER! I feel pretty accomplished at this point, because I like a book that hardcore Harry Potter fans admit isn't too great. (It's not as fantastical as I thought it would be; the "real" world is pretty well-represented. My problem with fantasy is that you're usually just thrown into this world that is crazy-different from ours, and are expected to believe it exists and has always been this way... Sometimes creatures are too far-fetched, and names are so ridiculous you can't believe anyone, in a fantasy world or not, would burden their offspring in such a manner. But Harry Potter seems real enough, because the worlds are explained thoroughly, but not in such a descriptive way that you get bogged down in the details, trying to figure out if something is really possible. But I digress.)

I finish the book. I start the second. I finish the second. Yup - I like Harry Potter! This summer will be a breeze. I will finally get references people around me make. No one will look at me in shock when I say I've never read the series, because I will have read the series! 

Then I start book three. It's longer than the first two, but it's still pretty much the same - Harry is famous! Everyone loves Harry! But a lot of people also hate Harry! They want to kill him. He might be in trouble. He should be cautious and not leave the school building. But that's not Harry's style!

I get that some authors find formulas that work. I get that most books have the same setup and story arc. It's a predictable, not-horrible format for a juvenile adventure book: boy is living life; boy gets warning that something is changing and might be life-threatening; boy encounters enemy; boy vanquishes enemy; everyone is satisfied, but enemy is still out there because it's not just one, it's an army.

Like I said, I get it, and it's fine. But after reading the same basic story twice, I'm a little burnt out. So I'm hardly reading right now, because I'm just not into the story anymore. After such a high, I'm a little worried - can I finish the series before the end of July?

The Book Whisperer: “Required” Reading Project

I have a stack of nonfiction books about reading and storytelling and children’s minds and children’s behaviors. I’m not sure how long I’ve been collecting them…some are at least two years old, because I bought them thinking they would prepare me for being a first time mom. I like to think I’ve done pretty good so far, but I feel lame having a stack of unread books that I really wanted, so this year I’m reading them, one a month. I started with The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, which was a great way to kick off my self-imposed “required” reading project.


I loved this book so much. I’ve always been an avid reader, but read only a few required books throughout my school career. I never really knew why, but Miller’s book addresses this problem, which is more common than you might think.

She has a refreshing approach to teaching reading and language arts: she lets her sixth graders pick their own books from her classroom library, and gives them time to read during class. I know I would have loved this, so it’s definitely an approach I’m going to adopt (the best I can, being a librarian vs. a teacher). Miller also recommends books to each student personally, after they fill out an interest form and she gets to know them. She even talks about bad books in her classroom, as in books she started but couldn’t get in to. This way students know they don’t have to love, or even finish, every book they try. It also has the perk of challenging some students to read a book the teacher couldn’t!

The book has more details about how she makes this work and still meet certain criteria for required lesson plans. Her theory is to ditch the whole-class novel because you’re “teaching readers, not books”. She suggests alternate plans to entice students who may not be readers - you can read aloud to the whole class, read aloud while they read along, etc. Miller did a great job of balancing the fantasy of making such a program work with the reality of how kids react to it, so while it’s an inspiring book, it doesn’t seem glossed over. It’s an easy, engaging read - not dense like some instruction books might be.