Here's to a Shame-Free 2014!
. . . or at least, you know, low-shame. Let's be realistic here.
Happy New Year! I'm all excited and energized about writerly things, and also about readery things. In particular, I am excited about the 2014 reading challenge I came up with. I've made a list of fifteen Books I'm Kind of Ashamed I Haven't Read Already. And this year, I'm going to read them! Then I will NEVER AGAIN have to admit that I'm a Teen Services librarian who has read nothing by John Green. Or that, even though I suspect I'll love it, I've never quite gotten around to Ender's Game. Or look, my school never assigned The Giver, okay? I tried to keep it to books that I think I'll actually enjoy. Different titles make the list for different reasons: it's a classic, teens at my library devour it, I've heard a million times that it's great, it's something I'm obviously going to love and it's absurd that I haven't read it already.
It's a pretty doable challenge, I think, and I'm psyched about it. My coworker Nori (of the book review blog Nori's Closet) liked the idea, too, and ended up making her own list of embarrassing unreads to be finally read in 2014.
Want to see my list? (You know that's a trick question on this blog, because you will always see the list.) Here, in alphabetical order but not necessarily reading order, are fifteen books that will soon no longer shame me with their unreadness!
Probability of crying while reading some of these books: high.
Probability of going, "Why didn't I read this years ago?": high.
Probability of being glad I read these books: skywriter high.
Anyone else want in? Or just want to share a book or two that you're kind of embarrassed not to have read yet?
Happy New Year! I'm all excited and energized about writerly things, and also about readery things. In particular, I am excited about the 2014 reading challenge I came up with. I've made a list of fifteen Books I'm Kind of Ashamed I Haven't Read Already. And this year, I'm going to read them! Then I will NEVER AGAIN have to admit that I'm a Teen Services librarian who has read nothing by John Green. Or that, even though I suspect I'll love it, I've never quite gotten around to Ender's Game. Or look, my school never assigned The Giver, okay? I tried to keep it to books that I think I'll actually enjoy. Different titles make the list for different reasons: it's a classic, teens at my library devour it, I've heard a million times that it's great, it's something I'm obviously going to love and it's absurd that I haven't read it already.
It's a pretty doable challenge, I think, and I'm psyched about it. My coworker Nori (of the book review blog Nori's Closet) liked the idea, too, and ended up making her own list of embarrassing unreads to be finally read in 2014.
Want to see my list? (You know that's a trick question on this blog, because you will always see the list.) Here, in alphabetical order but not necessarily reading order, are fifteen books that will soon no longer shame me with their unreadness!
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
- Delirium by Lauren Oliver
- The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (This was the first one to go. I just finished it! And might have sprained a tear duct. WHY, JOHN GREEN, WHY?)
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
- The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
- Matched by Ally Condie
- The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
- The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
- Sabriel by Garth Nix (I loved his Keys to the Kingdom series)
- Wild Magic (or any other title by Tamora Pierce YOU GUYS I AM A FANTASY FAN AND YA LIT FAN WHO HAS NEVER READ TAMORA PIERCE WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME)
- When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Probability of crying while reading some of these books: high.
Probability of going, "Why didn't I read this years ago?": high.
Probability of being glad I read these books: skywriter high.
Anyone else want in? Or just want to share a book or two that you're kind of embarrassed not to have read yet?