Rearranging and Hoarding

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:

• The Return of Zita the Spacegirl, Ben Hatke. I've been a fan since the first one, and I was glad to see that the dark second installment is replaced with the action-packed final reel. I think these would be better read closer together because I had forgotten some of the people there for the big reunion scenes.
• World After, Susan Ee. Another sequel (boy, these Cybils sure add to my reading list, with the finalists every year and then the new authors added to my must-read list). 
• Bad Machinery Vol II: The Case of the Good Boy, John Allison. I wasn't sure if the Cybils nomination was for the first or second book, so I compromised by getting both. Fun reads.
• Games of Command, Linnea Sinclair. This was the alt-alt book for Vaginal Fantasy this month, and since it looked like a long wait to get the real books I tried it out. I liked the world building, but the romance didn't really work for me.
• Moonday, Adam Rex. Nicely surreal picture book about a family dealing with the moon parking itself in their backyard. My favorite page was the yawn that bounces around the block before returning to our narrator.

What am I currently reading?  Well, as I started another seven books last week and finished four, this list gets longer and longer. That's exactly what I said last week, by the way, so there's a definite delightfully insane trend. Almost half of my currently reading list is now on  GOODREADS.

• The Education of Madeline, Beth Williamson. The main characters seem to be lacking in common sense. p. 208.
• About That Night, Norah McClintock. This looks like a murder mystery, and I have high hopes from the author of the Dooley books. p. 53.
• Affliction, Laurell K. Hamilton. The first few chapters have a little bit of plot and a lot of very heavy handed exposition and review. Probably necessary, but it makes the dialogue hilariously unlikely. p.53.
• Clean Sweep, Ilona Andrews. Prologues and introductions always make for a slow start. p.1.
• Rogue, Michael Z. Williamson. Military SF. p. 154.
• The Missing, Shiloh Walker. Old book from my TBR list. p. 63.
• Protector, C.J. Cherryh. The first three chapters reminded me of where we are in the story. No change. p. 67
• Wildflower, Alecia Whitaker. Teenage girl becomes a singing sensation. No change. 16%
• The Invasion (Animorphs), Katherine Applegate. Right after I started this my kid stole it to review for the Sword and Laser Kids podcast. p.154
• 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
• 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. Wow, history is sure mean, even when it's a fantasy history. p. 414.
• 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. Still reading on my NOOK, but I have no idea how to track progress.
• Cathedral of the Wild, Boyd Varty. No change. p.107
• Tinker, Wen Spencer. Just got it back. Child is now reading the sequel. No change. p.310
• The Golden Leopard, Lynn Kerstan. The poor guy is really learning the lesson of the Boy Who Cried Wolf and how a reputation is more precious than gold. p. 153.
• 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. No change. p. 3.
• Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vacca. Two views on introducing reading -- phonic based and immersion. p.14.
• Nerds, Michael Buckley. Our hero has gotten braces and lost his friends and his life. No change. p.34.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Tiny sections means this one goes very slowly. A funeral and some reminiscing. No change. p.236.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Yay -- they will leave the prison. Very dull insightful commentary on the silliness of legal proceedings. No change. p. 737.

What's up next? I plan that on Thursdays, but mostly more library books. This will be so for several more weeks at least.

2014 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils: 52/77. No change. I haven't finished anything!  
2. Where Am I Reading? 30/51. Currently reading a Colorado, an Indiana, and I think an 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. Q, V, X, Y, and Z.
4. What's In a Name?: 7/7. Still have to review everything. Ha!
5. Book Bingo: Fifteen boxes into square 2.
6. Gentle Spectrum Challenge: Got all the colors. Need a punny book.
7. Small Fry Safari: 7/8. No change. Still need something precious.
8. PoC Speculative Fiction 13/5:  World After counts, and I decided to count Bad Machinery together as one, since it's an ensemble cast with a PoC member.
9. Big Books: 1. Never finishing things makes this hard.
10. Best of the Best 2012: 52/25.  I am stalled.
11. Reading My Library: Library temporarily closed, so on hiatus.