We here at SBRHS have officially begun the 2015-2016 school year, and I have to say: I AM KINDA FREAKING OUT HERE! But in a totally good, not at all unhealthy way, so no worries. I'm not sure if it's all the extra coffee or all the excitement in the air (it's definitely all the coffee) but I am jazzed. So many new faces, so many familiar faces, and we are all going to come together to get our learn on!
One way we are going to be sharing and discussing our reading is through blogging. I am not sure what exactly that is going to look like yet (we have a lot of ideas) but trust that Mrs. Kozak and myself will help get everyone there! With that being said, I do know that one topic we would like to share about has to do with who you are as a reader and what books have influenced you. The prompt goes something like this: (Disclaimer: there is a good chance the prompt could be changed/reworded before being assigned to students) ¨I want to know who you've been as a reader and how your previous reading life has shaped you into the reader you are today. I want to know your favorite and least favorite books and authors, the books that changed you, the ones that made you think differently about the world. Be honest about the ups and downs of your reading life thus far. We've all read books that we thought were drudgery and that we wouldn't have read had they not been assigned to us. Talk about those too!¨
I am a reader. I love to hunker down and devour a good book. If I'm being totally honest though, I am not a consistent reader. I will go through periods where I read constantly and eat up two books a week, but then there are other times where I get stuck in a book I don't love and it takes me a month to finish it. I also don't always read books, in the summer I make more of a shift to magazines, blogs, news articles, and tabloid gossip rags (don't judge me, you know you love/hate the Kardashians too!)
As a child, I vividly remember my dad getting me Children's Illustrated Classics like Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables, Treasure Island, etc. every time we would go to this old book store in the basement of an old mill in the city. My father is a huge part of why I love to read. His apartment as a kid had a whole wall that was filled with crime novels, biographies, how to books, and everything inbetween. It is still a dream that I might find a place in my house to create a whole wall of books. But I digress... We read all of the Little House on the Prairie books as well, which is a fond memory to look back on. I was just really learning how to read, and my dad would always let me read out loud to him as much as I wanted. He helped me, he guided me, and he gave me that spark to keep reading and learning and growing.
Other than my father, there is one man that sticks out in my mind for impacting my voracity for reading: his name is Harry Potter. In high school I kind of fell off the wagon as far as reading for enjoyment went. I think that is pretty easy to do, as you are inundated with so many texts that you are required to read, it leaves little room for reading for fun (pile on top of that extracurricular activities and you're lucky if you remember to do your homework regularly.) But oh how things changed when I finally jumped on the bandwagon and started reading the best book series ever written (that is not just my opinion, that's a cold hard fact.) I didn't start the series until J.K. was already 4 books deep, but that actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I was able to lock myself in my bedroom and tear through those pages, running on zero sleep and one hundred coffees. It was back in my childhood bedroom that I fell in love with books in a series. J.K. Rowling, if you're out there, thank you. I feel like you are some crazy aunt I never get to see but whom I love oh so dearly. Sometimes I get so emotionally invested in a character or entire novel that I feel a very real sense of loss when I finish it (Doby? Not over it.) I guess I mean that I just always want more. I want to know what else. Series are great for the attached reader such as myself: I have three, four, five, or more times more pages to get to know and love these amazing characters.
To this day I still love to read books in a series; I have added to that a love of reading every book one writer has published. When I find an author whose voice or tone speaks to me or impacts me in some way, I know I am going to like possibly everything they have ever written. So, in a way I come to love those authors as much as I love the characters in their novels or stories. One exception to that would be The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I LOVED the characters in this story. However I almost didn't get the chance to fall in love with them because Barb-I'm not going to be very nice here-I hate the way you write. I had to put forth a pretty significant amount of resolve and perseverance to get through that book. I learned a valuable lesson there: you can love books or writers in different ways, and each experience with a book or an author is going to be unique. You truly get to be a part of their world; laugh with them, cry/scream/yell with them, silently walking beside them on their journey. And now I'm emotional.
I'm just going to leave this here and bid you adieu for today...
One way we are going to be sharing and discussing our reading is through blogging. I am not sure what exactly that is going to look like yet (we have a lot of ideas) but trust that Mrs. Kozak and myself will help get everyone there! With that being said, I do know that one topic we would like to share about has to do with who you are as a reader and what books have influenced you. The prompt goes something like this: (Disclaimer: there is a good chance the prompt could be changed/reworded before being assigned to students) ¨I want to know who you've been as a reader and how your previous reading life has shaped you into the reader you are today. I want to know your favorite and least favorite books and authors, the books that changed you, the ones that made you think differently about the world. Be honest about the ups and downs of your reading life thus far. We've all read books that we thought were drudgery and that we wouldn't have read had they not been assigned to us. Talk about those too!¨
I am a reader. I love to hunker down and devour a good book. If I'm being totally honest though, I am not a consistent reader. I will go through periods where I read constantly and eat up two books a week, but then there are other times where I get stuck in a book I don't love and it takes me a month to finish it. I also don't always read books, in the summer I make more of a shift to magazines, blogs, news articles, and tabloid gossip rags (don't judge me, you know you love/hate the Kardashians too!)
As a child, I vividly remember my dad getting me Children's Illustrated Classics like Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables, Treasure Island, etc. every time we would go to this old book store in the basement of an old mill in the city. My father is a huge part of why I love to read. His apartment as a kid had a whole wall that was filled with crime novels, biographies, how to books, and everything inbetween. It is still a dream that I might find a place in my house to create a whole wall of books. But I digress... We read all of the Little House on the Prairie books as well, which is a fond memory to look back on. I was just really learning how to read, and my dad would always let me read out loud to him as much as I wanted. He helped me, he guided me, and he gave me that spark to keep reading and learning and growing.
Other than my father, there is one man that sticks out in my mind for impacting my voracity for reading: his name is Harry Potter. In high school I kind of fell off the wagon as far as reading for enjoyment went. I think that is pretty easy to do, as you are inundated with so many texts that you are required to read, it leaves little room for reading for fun (pile on top of that extracurricular activities and you're lucky if you remember to do your homework regularly.) But oh how things changed when I finally jumped on the bandwagon and started reading the best book series ever written (that is not just my opinion, that's a cold hard fact.) I didn't start the series until J.K. was already 4 books deep, but that actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I was able to lock myself in my bedroom and tear through those pages, running on zero sleep and one hundred coffees. It was back in my childhood bedroom that I fell in love with books in a series. J.K. Rowling, if you're out there, thank you. I feel like you are some crazy aunt I never get to see but whom I love oh so dearly. Sometimes I get so emotionally invested in a character or entire novel that I feel a very real sense of loss when I finish it (Doby? Not over it.) I guess I mean that I just always want more. I want to know what else. Series are great for the attached reader such as myself: I have three, four, five, or more times more pages to get to know and love these amazing characters.
To this day I still love to read books in a series; I have added to that a love of reading every book one writer has published. When I find an author whose voice or tone speaks to me or impacts me in some way, I know I am going to like possibly everything they have ever written. So, in a way I come to love those authors as much as I love the characters in their novels or stories. One exception to that would be The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I LOVED the characters in this story. However I almost didn't get the chance to fall in love with them because Barb-I'm not going to be very nice here-I hate the way you write. I had to put forth a pretty significant amount of resolve and perseverance to get through that book. I learned a valuable lesson there: you can love books or writers in different ways, and each experience with a book or an author is going to be unique. You truly get to be a part of their world; laugh with them, cry/scream/yell with them, silently walking beside them on their journey. And now I'm emotional.
I'm just going to leave this here and bid you adieu for today...