Trying to track my reading habits

I've been using a variety of methods to track my reading habits: this blog, Amazon wish lists (really more helpful for the "to-read" list), Pinterest boards (also more helpful for the "to-read" list), my "currently-reading" classroom sign, and Goodreads. I've been having trouble with Goodreads on my iPhone pretty much since the school year started and just today I finally read the error message and signed out and signed back in. And now it's working.

So, an updated list, cobbled together from the various sources:

1. The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
2. Wildwood by Colin Meloy
3. In the Woods by Tana French
4. Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka
5. Dovey Coe by Frances O'Roark Dowell
6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
7. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
8. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

9. Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

10. The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

11. Sick Puppy by Carl Hiassen

12. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

13. That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

14. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James (okay, shut up!)

15. This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

16. The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

17. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
18. All We Ever Wanted was Everything by Janelle Brown

19. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

20. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

21. Igniting a Passion for Reading by Steven L. Layne

22. Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter

23. Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

24. The Mailbox by Audrey Shafer

25. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

26. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

27. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Currently reading: Murder in the Marais: An Aimee Leduc Investigation by Cara Black and Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation by Ray Bradbury (graphic novel)

To-read list (books currently in my possession from the library and from my most recent Scholastic book order):

1. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

2. The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perotta

3. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

4. 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

5. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

6. I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

7. Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu

8. Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender

I may be on track to read 40 books this year (the books listed above equal 37). It helps that I've decided to count the YA books that I read (and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference, like with Miss Peregrine) and that I have a student teacher right now, which allows me more time to read (and write! Check out 750words.com). My determination method has continued to evolve. I'm still pretty set on maintaining high standards for the books I personally read, but the book Igniting a Passion for Reading (see #20, above) has convinced me that it is important to read YA novels - nay, consume them - for the sake of the kids I teach. I've got lots of ideas for helping kids pick out "just-right" books and I'm excited to teach, and part of the plan is to read and recommend lots of books that my 8th graders may like. So, I've got this peculiar mix of award-winning adult novels and guilty-pleasure (for lack of a better term - I've expounded about how I detest that phrase before) YA books, plus my own pet genre, mysteries, represented in my list.

Onward! Two months left of 2012!

Requiem for Borders

I did not intend to make one last trek to Borders, though I've been following the news the last several weeks and was saddened but not surprised that many of its stores would be closing. What need have I for Borders? I am always up to my ears in reading for grad school; I have a million books at home I haven't read yet; I have a local, independent bookstore that I love; I have Amazon for deals; I have a Kindle. Why visit Borders yet again, even for 10-40% off every item in the store? Borders is redundant.

As I drove to Target tonight for a two-year-old's birthday gift, though, I passed the Borders sign and wondered. Bargain-priced gifts, not just another Mattel toy from a big box store, danced in my head. I turned in at the next entrance and selected a Melissa and Doug wooden dress-up doll for 20% off.

That should have been it. I could have cruised to the checkout and left. But instead, as I too-carefully selected a 40%-off birthday card, I was entranced by any number of lovely, tempting items. A box the shape of the Eiffel tower. Bookends that look like globes and suspension bridges. Elaborate, felt-and-sequin bedecked cards that retail for $10 apiece. A hardcover copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance with a fetching green dust jacket. Chocolates. Board games. Word games. A "Hop on Pop" floor puzzle.

It's no coincidence that very few of these items are books. That was the error in my logic. Borders isn't my favorite brick-and-mortar chain bookstore over Barnes and Noble for no reason. If it were completely redundant, I would have no reason to prefer it or have an opinion at all. But it's the tremendous amount of slightly nerdy, overpriced crap that draws me in. I have no need for anything I listed above, or anything else in the store, quite honestly. But I very nearly went right back in after I'd paid (for the Melissa and Doug doll, three cards, and a tube of Burt's Bees hand lotion) because on the way out the door, I was momentarily shanghaied. There's something heady about the idea that only $19.99 stands between you and The Complete Yoga Kit, or between you and copy of The Complete History of the World with a cover 18 inches high.

I think it's the completeness of the crap that beckons me. As my professor said tonight at grad class, "Everything contains its opposite." If I am drawn to The Complete Whatever, it's because it suggests to me that I am incomplete. I am not a yoga master. I do not know everything about the history of the world. That these things, and more, become possible as you wander every overpopulated nook and cranny of a Borders store, I think, is the draw. Books are beside the point.