All About The Beginnings -- Forget the Endings

I have to say I'm really enjoying this idea of starting a new book every day -- no pressure to ever finish anything. It's very freeing. Of course it means that I haven't touched many of the books I'm currently reading, but I can tell you where I am in the stories!

It's just as well that I'm ending this when school starts on the 2nd. Then I should probably have a finish two before starting one policy to save me from having to buy a currently-reading bookcase.

Anyway, since I'm a heavy library user, due dates tend to focus my attention a bit. I keep an eye on books that the library will call home so they stay on the top of the book bag; sadly books I buy tend to float to the bottom even if they are the ones I really hunger for.

 I'm off to sign up to see what everyone else is reading lately at bookjourney's and Teach Mentor Texts lists:

• Cryoburn, Lois McMaster Bujold (reread) This is the Miles-deals-with death part of the Vorkosigan saga; obviously it had a lot more meaning to me just now.
• Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, Tony Cliff (YA graphic novel). A fun Cybils ride.  My 10th grader was offended that I was reading it as I apparently had not offered it to him loudly enough when I brought it home.
• Midnight Crossroad, Charlaine Harris. This was a lot of fun. I believe Harris wrote it for me especially, so I enjoy crossovers between her various series so much.
• Indigo Springs, A.M. Dellamonica. I found the unpleasantness of the main characters a bit distancing -- loving someone is not an excuse for helping them destroy the world.
• Tall, Jez Alborough. I read this fun picture book in the library with my nephew -- he was scandalized that I was wandering in the children's section by myself when I am clearly not a child. So I made him help me read the book to get me out faster. I liked the expressions and how much got said with so few words.

What am I currently reading?  Well, as I started another seven books last week and finished four, this list gets longer and longer. To hide the scope of my insanity, I've decided to move my currently reading list from SHELFARI to GOODREADS because the latter has much better searching tools as well as cutting down the places I record my reading. Currently goodreads only knows when I finish I book I've been planning to read, which is probably only about half of my current list.

• Protector, C.J. Cherryh. The first three chapters reminded me of where we are in the story. p. 67
• Wildflower, Alecia Whitaker. Teenage girl becomes a singing sensation. 16%
• World After, Susan Ee. The flashbacks with the telepathic sword help remind me of the previous book but at the cost of really slowly down the plot. 25%
• The Invasion (Animorphs), Katherine Applegate. Right after I started this my kid stole to review for the Sword and Laser Kids podcast. 
• Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt. I'm still on the first page, so this hardly counts.
• The 14 Fibs of Gregory K, Greg Pincus. Yes, this will be a very painful read for me, as the kid makes obvious mistakes and panics about failing. p.55
• Games of Command, Linnea Sinclair. NOOK. Hey, they did have sex! I like the cyborg couple better than the telepaths. p.300
• Reading in the Wild, Donalyn Miller. A book about encouraging people to read independently. Re-inspiring me to try to start a book club at our local junior high. No change. p.1
• Breakfast on Mars, ed. Rebecca Stern. A Cybils finalist. This is a book of ESSAYS! I love it, and I bet I cannot get my boys to try it. I thought it was a cooking book. No change.  p.1
• The Fault in Our Stars, John Green. Not really in the mood for a death book. No change. p.64
• Serafina's Promise, Ann E. Berg. No change.  p.99
• Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo, Obert Skye. I believe we have assembled to imporatnat characters, and it is time to head for Foo.  No change. p.102
• Divergent, Veronica Roth. No change.  p.61
• Love, Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli. No change. p.52
• Gregor the Overlander, Suzanne Collins. No change. p.69
• The Lions of al-Rassan, Guy Gabriel Kay. No change. p.113
• Yonder Comes the Other End of Time, Suzette Elgin. No change. p.113
• Shards of Time, Lynn Flewelling. No change. p.35
• The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison. I really miss the hardback I had that mysteriously vanished. 
• Cathedral of the Wild, Boyd Varty. No change. p.107
• Tinker, Wen Spencer. My kid stole this -- hooray! I still want it back. No change. p.310
• The Golden Leopard, Lynn Kerstan. No change. p.136
• Inkheart, Cornelia Funke. No change. p. 260
• The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan. p.256

Reading intermittently, and deliberately slowly. These never change much:

• The Jury, Stephen Adler. The book will show why juries are important but how we are doing them wrong. p. 3
• Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vacca. Two views on introducing reading -- phonic based and immersion. p.13
• Nerds, Michael Buckley. Our hero has gotten braces and lost his friends and his life. p.34
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Tiny sections means this one goes very slowly. A funeral and some reminiscing. No change. p.226
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Yay -- they will leave the prison. Very dull insightful commentary on the silliness of legal proceedings.  p. 737

What's up next? I plan that on Thursdays, but mostly more library books.

2014 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils: 52/77. I'm started three more, and still have three on deck. 
2. Where Am I Reading? 30/51. Go Texas! Hooray for Charlaine Harris!  Also, the John Green book is in Indiana, and the Riordan should end up in Alaska. 
3. Alphabetically Inclined: 18/26. OK, clearly I'm going to have to explicitly draw from my shelves.  I need an E, I, and J.
4. What's In a Name?: 7/7. Still have to review everything.
5. Book Bingo: Eleven boxes into square 2.
6. Gentle Spectrum Challenge: Who would have thought I read so few cheesy titles? Unless Love, Stargirl counts, since Stargirl is written as a rhebus.
7. Small Fry Safari: 7/8. No change. Still need something precious.
8. PoC Speculative Fiction 11/5:  I'm counting Delilah Dirk.
9. Big Books: 1. 
10. Best of the Best 2012: 52/25.  I am stalled.
11. Reading My Library: Library temporarily closed, so on hiatus.