Saturday, March 3, 2018

Books Read in January/February

This was an interesting two months in regards to the books I have read.  Without realizing it, I embarked on reading a million words in two months.  Believe it or not, I accomplished this goal.  This goal was tracked through the software program we use at school called Accelerated Reader.  I assigned myself to a class and began to take AR quizzes for each book I read.  I have typically scored a 90 or 100% on the quizzes with one coming in at a low 60% (not sure what happened but it did).

As I read, I wanted to read more.  I began to challenge other students with their reading and taking AR quizzes.  This lit a fire under many of the other students and I have begun to see our word count, as a school, go up because of this effort.

Typically, I would read a book and then write a quick entry about the book (i.e. a brief summary and my two cents).  However, I read so many books over the last two months that I would have reduced my reading if I were to write.  After all, I was trying to reach the 1,000,000 word goal.  Now that  I have reached it, I plan to slow down a bit and begin to write about the books I read.  However, for the record, I would like to record the books I have read over the last two months.  They are broken up by the month they were read in.

January Books:
Road Trip by Gary Paulsen
Left Behind
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
The Case of the Dirty Bird by Gary Paulsen
Dunc's Doll by Gary Paulsen
Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen
Culpepper's Cannon by Gary Paulsen
Dolphins at Daybreak by Mary Pope Osborn
Dunc Gets Tweaked by Gary Paulsen
Dunc's Halloween by Gary Paulsen
The End by Mark Hitchcock

February Books:
Tribulation Force (Left Behind series)
Gary Paulsen:  Author and Wilderness Adventurer
Full of Hot Air by Gary Paulsen
Dogteam by Gary Paulsen
Gary Paulsen
This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen
The River by Gary Paulsen
The One and Only Ivan (Newberry Award Winner - 2013)
Dunc and Amos Meet the Slasher by Gary Paulsen
Fishbone's Song by Gary Paulsen
The Schernoff Discoveries by Gary Paulsen
Molly McGinty Has a Really Good Day by Gary Paulsen
Caught By the Sea:  My Life on Boats by Gary Paulsen
Mudshark by Gary Paulsen
Brian's Return by Gary Paulsen
Brian's Hunt by Gary Paulsen
The Cookcamp by Gary Paulsen
Alida's Song by Gary Paulsen
The Quilt by Gary Paulsen
Nicolea (Left Behind series)
The C.B. Radio Caper by Gary Paulsen
Masters of Disaster by Gary Paulsen
The Girl Wwho Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill (Newberry Award Winner - 2017)
Dunc Breaks the Record by Gary Paulsen
Dunc and the Flaming Ghost by Gary Paulsen
Amos Gets Famous by Gary Paulsen
Dunc and Amos Hit the Big Top by Gary Paulsen

Now that I have written down all the titles of the books I have read, I suddenly realized that there were quite a few book!  Good job Dr. Gerstner!  One of my many goals is to purchase every book as well as read every book written by Gary Paulsen.  I really to like him as a writer.  Another reading goal that I have is to read every Newberry Award Winning book.  So far I have read close to half of them.  I started on this journey years ago but stopped when I was going through my divorce.  Now that that is behind me, I now can move forward and pursue this particular reading goal.  Another goal that I have is to read all of the Magic Tree House books of which I am very close to finishing.  In addition, Mary Pope Osborne has some non-fiction books that go with her Magic Tree House series and I hope to either read all of these or at least those that interest me.

The books that I will read for the months of March and April will be a mixture of books and authors.  I hope to read a few of the non-fiction books by Mary Pope Osborne, finish the Left Behind series, read some Gary Paulsen books, and a few non-fiction books.

Here's to the journey.