178 books later

Once again this year I set the goal of reading a book a day, and I was successful in doing so. When I tell students this, their jaws drop. They can't believe I read one book a day. I always tell them that the number of pages vary widely, from short 48 pages book to monsters of literature at 600 plus pages. Over the course of the year, I have read an average of 194 pages a day (see chart below). I also tell the kids that I "read" many books in my car or when I am out and about. I'd say about half of the books I read this year were audiobooks.

Month	Total Page numbers	Average
September 2016	5179	225.17
October 2016	3515	185.00
November 2016	3265	192.06
December 2016	3470	231.33
January 2017	4230	211.50
February 2017	3452	203.06
March 2017	4031	223.94
April 2017	3115	135.43
May 2017	4848	210.78
June 2017	2757	119.87
Total	37862	193.82

My 500th post took place on October 24, 2016, with The Right to Privacy. I didn't see this milestone creep up or I would have picked a more interesting book for this post. I also reached 600, this time with Great Expectations on April 10, 2017. I have now read about 5% of the school collection. When students ask if I will ever read all of the books in the library, I have to tell them that this will never happen. I read 178 books, but I purchased 223 books this year, so I am already behind.

Many books deserve to be addressed again. Fat Angie stuck with me not because it has so many themes and it packs a punch in a short amount of time, but because of the sheer misery that Angie experiences in high school. Vika and Nikolai's struggles as enchanters involved in a fight to the death for the title of Imperial Enchanter for the Russian crown in The Crown's Game. This book revealed a startling historical environment in the Russia of 1825 yet featured enough magic to make it fantasy. Historical fantasy, anyone? And like most of the books I've read about Russia, the ending is not necessarily "and they lived happily ever after." It was a good first novel by Evelyn Skye, and I'm looking forward to reading the Crown's Fate next year.

Aftermath by Clara Kensie was one of the most thought provoking book, with several major plot twists and a giant reveal at the end that will leave you breathless. It sparked many conversations between myself and the students who read it. If you haven't heard about this book, you absolutely need to take a look. Another great book was Wink, Poppy and Midnight by April Tucholke. It featured a plot twist I didn't see coming, and though all of the characters are unsympathetic, watching this train wreck is a guilty pleasure you won't want to miss.

I somehow ended up reading several Holocaust related novels this year: The Book Thief, T4, The Girl in the Blue Coat, and What World is Left. I'm not sure how it happened, but books based on these themes are very popular at my school, especially in the middle school grades.

It's always bittersweet to complete a series. You've lived for so long with these characters and the world in which they dwell. You know their friends, their families, and what they like. You know their enemies, and you know the trials they have gone through. Whether the series was two books, a trilogy, four books, or more, with the last pages comes the realization that you will never spend time reading new adventures. This year I said goodbye to many old friends.

Flynn, Tarvar, Sophia, Gideon, Jubilee, and Lilac met on Corinth and managed to end LaRoux Industries' bid to open Rifts in hyperspace in This Fractured Light. I had to review the first two of these books for VOYA, and I didn't warm up to them much. I'm not a fan of the different viewpoint narrations, and the switch of characters between the two books meant no real continuity between them. However, though the third and final book introduces yet again two new characters, it goes a great job of tying all the loose ends together and seamlessly integrates all of the characters into the overarching plot. 

Gwyneth and Gideon's strained time-traveling love in the Ruby Red series also ended too quickly. This was a series that first came out a few years ago, but at the time I had not managed to read it. I made up for it this year when I read all three over the course of about two months. As a rule, time-travel stories are hard to pull off because there are so many intricate timing details that must be respected, but Kerstin Gier did a fantastic job in this series, and I was sad to see Gwyneth's antics and adventures end.

Blue, Gansey, Ronan, Adam and Noah concluded their adventures in the fourth and final book of the Raven Cycle, The Raven King. They finally find the mortal remains of Glendower, only to realize there will be no final wish, and that Gansey will in fact die that year. But Cabeswater has one more trick up its sleeve to provide a satisfying conclusion. The characters grew so much over the series. Ronan, who grew from a jerk to a lovable jerk, discovered his attraction to Adam and acted on it. Adam emancipated himself from his useless parents. Gansey fell in love. Blue, who couldn't wait to get out of Henrietta finds out that there may be more to life at home than she thought. Noah, who was a ghost, finally finds peace. Stiefvater once again wrote a masterpiece (think The Wolves of Mercy Falls series), and I can't wait to see will come out of her computer next.

On the nonfiction front, The Omnivore's Dilemma may not have changed most of my eating habits, but it did make me more conscious of what I eat. How the Toilet Changed History is a real eye opener about a topic most of us would rather not think about and provides excellent information on, well, the history of a place most of us end up spending a significant part of our lives on. The maritime disasters and the daring rescues in Their Finest Hour was fascinating and gives you an idea of how hard and dangerous working at sea can be.

The Serial Killers series was a hit at school this year. Consisting of five books dealing with different aspects of serial killers (Medical Serial Killers, Cannibal Serial Killers, Female Serial Killers, Historical Serial Killers and Modern-Day Serial Killers), this series has been extremely popular with students at all levels. Plus the stories are gruesome yet real, which appeals to an important part of the student population. Lost in the Pacific, 1942 was another great survival story to be recommended to fans of Hatchet and to reluctant readers. Speaking of survival, I re-read Krakauer's Into the Wild. After about a decade, the book had aged very well and retains all of its power and Chris' motivations continue to appeal to me.

Another cool new thing I did this year was offer the blog platform as a review place for students in English classes. Patrick was my first guest reviewer on March 31st with Stuck in Neutral, and Charles then published his review of Steelheart on April 5th.

So, that's my year of reading. Want to see all the books? Here's a link to the chart I compiled: https://docs.google.com/a/sau45.org/spreadsheets/d/1I5-guqEB97leKx5WpdwI_hP3Kbxux2kF-mpNjhdbQ9w/edit?usp=sharing. Here's to a great year of reading, and another one next year!