Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Well, it happened. Each day in April, whether you subscribe and had an email waiting each morning or you found it through WordPress, Twitter, or Instagram, there was something from me. I talked about specific books and other people’s books. A 24-hour readathon. And my love of books centered around the kitchen… more than once.

And it was fun. A lot of work, but fun. Simply put, the ideas were plentiful because I’ve always had lists and ideas, plus I’m reading and learning each day to share new information too. What I’ve learned that most people already know too:

1. Write it the day before and schedule it to post the next day
2. Write about what inspires you because every experience is an opportunity to share with others
3. Shorter is better
4. I want connection with others which is why I usually ask a question at the end of a post and I get very excited when someone comments
5. I might do this again!

So as I sign-off from sending out a daily post and settle back in to “when the mood strikes me”, know that today, Thursday, April 30th, I’ll do a little dance and toast with a little cocktail in celebration to my readers and to anyone who has achieved a small victory both big and small as I have.

Cheers!

Post-readathon reminded me of all of the places I read, in particular because during a readathon in the dawn hours, I usually will take a bath and it’s only a rare occasion when I won’t have a book in the bathtub.

In 2015, I wrote a post for our newspaper’s books blog about where people read that I thought would be fun to revisit. Where are the places that you read, the obvious and the awkward? When it’s awkward, what are the props and tools that you must have on hand to make it work? Have books been ruined this way? (I’m dedicating that one to my sister in-law who borrowed a book of mine only to replace it with a new copy because she fell asleep reading it in the tub and dropped it).

I have my typical places and the average reader places too. Do you run and listen to an audiobook? Do you enjoy scrubbing the tub because you can listen to a book? Please share!

One of the pictures from this past weekend’s readathon where were were sharing a photo challenge for reading during quarantine. 

Unless I was serving on a committee, I reviewed and continue to review every book I read on Goodreads. Generally there’s a bit of summary woven into my reactions to the book. These are often connections to other books or subjects, emotional reactions to decisions made by the characters, or how the story was told from formatting to illustrations. While it’s not completely formal I’ve gotten incrementally better about what I pay attention to and it can be primarily attributed to my reviewing for professional library journals.

If you’re an educator and/or librarian with an interest in literature for any age range, consider reviewing for a magazine. While there is a general formula for how to create a review that benefits the readers of the reviews, there is flexibility in the review specifically for the book itself and an ounce reserved for the personality of the reviewer, but not too much. I think that’s why many turn to blogging and vlogging because it allows for the personality of the reviewer for sure when you’re managing your own reading and the reviews. Questions about whether you should review a book you don’t like is often a topic of discussion just like booktalking a book you haven’t read.

Within the last few months I’ve shared my suggestion to a few avid readers who happen to be English teacher colleagues. I sell it with the aforementioned elements of being a stronger critic but there’s also an added bonus of getting advanced copies of books to keep a pulse on forthcoming titles and buzz for purchasing the hottest books.

I urge anyone with some flexibility in their reading habits (but it’s okay to have a niche too!) to consider reviewing for a magazine. Usually it begins with submitting a few reviews for review from the review editors before advancing to the next step. The joy is then in giving back to fellow educators and librarians your valued opinion on what to purchase, read, and share.

Here are five thoughts for Friday:

1. As school librarians, I’m excited that each year we get to celebrate a school librarian of the year. Congratulations to Cicely Lewis!
2. I don’t read in bed- I compartmentalize my furniture and house and beds are for sleeping. I read on the couch or a chair where I have a place to set my tea. I always need tea when I’m reading, how can you not?
3. I fear running out of print books before quarantine is lifted. I likely won’t, but it’s a fear nonetheless.
4. Applause to those that stick with a book even when they don’t like it, but I’ve adopted the policy that as soon as I can verbalize why I don’t like a book and it hasn’t turned itself around by the time I’ve picked it up and put it down several times, I quit it but not before I skip to the last chapter and read it to see if I really missed something.
5. While my daily blogging for April has been an additional task to do each day, I’m finding it quite invigorating. Is there anything that I should cover that I haven’t so far?

The majority of Monday was rainy and windy after a beautiful Easter Sunday. By mid afternoon there were thunderstorms ready to roll in too. So I made a pot of tea, grabbed a stack from by TBR pile, and cuddled up for some reading time underneath a blanket.

Isn’t that what rainy days are for?

I’m listening to more audiobooks as I get older. It’s not because I’ve suddenly become an auditory learner, for sure that’s not the case. If I really want to learn something, I won’t choose to listen to it. But I am finding more time to engage with audiobooks doing household tasks and if it’s really good, even in the car where I typically prefer music.

It started when I did my first twenty-four hour readathon where my goal was to read as much as I could in that time frame which would include listening to an audiobook. Then I found that I was downloading an extra book here or there outside of readathons.

For those that are audiobook fans, I ask

• Why do you listen to audiobooks?
• What are you typically doing when listening to an audiobook?
• Are there genres that you always listen to while others you prefer not to?
• Are you “plugged in”, Bluetooth, on speaker?
• What are your favorites?

In your work life, who gets you? Like, really gets you? Is it a colleague with the same job title or someone who works in a different building with a different job title? Is it your administrator?

Motivation to do well in work often comes down to who you work for and who you work with, in addition to what you believe about your work. Just like when we talk about building relationships with our students because it’s not about the content it’s about the connection, we can apply this to our colleagues. I wrote a post about my co-librarian last year. She’s the person I spend more time with than anyone. We share the same vision and mission and continually re-calibrate our teaching and learning to improve. She gets me personally and professionally which makes my job a lot easier to do each day.

So if you have someone who gets you, take a minute to thank them. If you don’t have someone who gets you, find someone because it enriches the work you do.