Beverly Cleary Author Study

From December 2019 to April 2020, I did an informal author study of Judy Blume. I say informal because I didn't take notes or share posts about it here. I read her books, most being re-reads I remembered from childhood because I was taking her MasterClass and wanted to be reading her stories as I listened to her lessons. 

I had previously done a stricter Roald Dahl author study, which is still incomplete. I re-read many of his books, which I again remembered from childhood. But I also read his short stories for adults and then watched the television adaptations made for a series called Tales of the Unexpected. The author study kind of morphed into comparing written stories to the show versions, but it was still a lot of fun. I want to come back to Dahl and finish reading all of his works, since I've never read his books for adults, and still have a lot of short stories to read.

But I wanted to boost Beverly Cleary to the top of my list. After celebrating her birthday last April, soon after finishing my Judy Blume study, I decided that Cleary would be next. I wanted to get all of her books before she died and they became expensive or hard to find (I know, that's so morbid, but it was on my mind). I started collecting copies of the books I didn't own - thankfully my mom had kept most of my paperbacks, so I only had to track down titles I honestly had no idea she'd written, like Leave It to Beaver books.

After acquiring them all, I was ready to begin. But then... the news. I spent more time doom scrolling than I did reading. It was bad, and I knew Beverly Cleary's light-hearted books would be a good rescue from that, but also I didn't want to taint the books by associating them with that period of time.

But now, with a change in leadership and tentatively allowing myself to feel hope, it seems like a wonderful time to dive into Beverly Cleary's books. This project is partially just because I love Cleary and want to read her books, but my reviews might analyze her writing style or stories. I'm kind of just having fun with it and letting it guide me where it wants to go.

2020 Reading Challenges

I have to admit that I like to do Reading Challenges... just because. I'm the type of person who writes every little thing down on a To Do list just so I can mark it off. So even though reading is something I do every day (um, mostly...), I like being able to tick some boxes with my yearly reading habits.

The Goodreads challenge is one I've been doing the longest. Even before I had a Goodreads account, I had a Notepad document with all the titles I'd read each year. I actually used to also write down the page numbers of each book and do that math too, just because I liked seeing the numbers representing how much I'd read.

Now I don't care so much about page numbers, but I do still like setting a goal for myself and then reaching it. Or exceeding it. I've been participating since 2012, and only didn't reach my goal once, in 2013. It's nice to have a long streak going, and it feels pretty good to log in to Goodreads and see the challenge progress on the sidebar.

I read 134 out of 125 books. I'm going to keep my goal the same for 2021 just because I feel like it's attainable with a bit of work, but not so far out I blaze through books just to reach the goal.

This was my first full year of Book of the Month membership, so of course, I got swept up in their challenge as well! It's more limited since it focuses on BOTM choices, but it was fun to try and review all the books I got, as well as read one from each genre.

This year, my son read 285 out of 225 books. I'm changing his goal for next year because, though I'll still read to him, and we'll still read picture books, I want to start reading chapter books with him. Those will take more time to read, so while we'll still be reading together every night, we won't be checking books off as quickly. I also hope that most of the pictures read will actually be by him, but that happened a few times this year and I made notes in the reviews. 

Speaking of reviews, I'm hoping to get more of his input on the books starting in 2021. I usually just write about his reactions to the story and illustrations, but I think I'm going to explain Goodreads to him and get him more involved in the reviews. He's had a Goodreads account since he was a baby because I thought it'd be cool to keep track of every book he's ever read, but now I think it's time he's more active in the process.