I Refuse To Admit I Have a Problem

This week marks the start of a new school year, and that makes a huge different in time available and scheduling options. It also means I have stopped opening a new book each day, and I hope eventually to have a currently reading bag that does not make me a hernia risk.

I feel a bit panicked when I look at my pile of library books, book club picks, recently purchased items, and the bookcases full of unread orphans, but slow and steady wins the race, right? As long as I live forever, at any rate.

Again I'm racing ahead of library due dates to focus some of my reading, although eventually I'll also get to those books I really want to read that don't have library bar codes on them. Or maybe I should buy myself new books and shelve them for rereading, and then get them from the library to force myself to read them soon. That's an idea...

I'm off to sign up to see what everyone else is reading lately at bookjourney's and Teach Mentor Texts lists. Every book I finished this week was either a kid's book or about kid's reading, so the latter is very appropriate for me.

• Reading in the Wild, Donalyn Miller. A book about encouraging people (especially children) to read for pleasure.
• The Gateway (to Foo), Obert Skye. The books says the title is just The Gateway, but everything on the internet insists I add "to Foo." My elementary book club recommended this, and I liked it, but felt it was a bit reactive -- the only character with initiative was the Big Bad.
• Breakfast on Mars and 37 Other Delectable Essays, ed. Brad Wolfe & Rebecca Stern. Cybils pick. I had a lot of fun with these, but there is no way my boys will read anything with the word "essays" on the cover.
• Gregor the Overlander, Suzanne Collins. Another book club rec. I thought of it as a warmup for reading Mockingjay, which my son isn't sure I'm ready for due to child injury.
• Serafina's Promise, Ann E. Burg. Cybils pick. The poetry style annoyed me -- for me, only rarely did the pages appear to be poems rather than prose with a lot of extra line breaks. I liked reading about the event but never really connected with Serafina.

What am I currently reading? In good news, I finished as many books as I started last week. I'm still reading a couple of dozen books, though, which is a bit excessive even for me. Most (not quite all) of my currently reading list is now on  GOODREADS.

• Into the Forest, Jean Hegland, p.60. Civilization has crumbled, but the sisters have each other.
• Ultra, David Carroll. p.67. I like the framing story -- the run, the interview, the memories.
• Anna of Byzantium, Tracy Barett. p.23. This is the story of a strong woman failing in her dubious goal -- I can tell I will have to read it slowly.
• Boxers & Saints, Gene Luen Yang. Boxers p. 83. Interesting Cybils book so far.
• Growing Up Brave, Donna Pincus. p. 51. How to not have an anxious child.
• Magic City: Recent Spells, Paula Guran, ed. The library called it home! I have re-requested it. p.201
• He, She, and It. Marge Piercy. Lots of androids -- philosophy of, sex lives of, favorite hobbies of (killing things)!. p. 263.
• Always, Abigail, Nancy J. Cavanaugh. No change. p. 51
• About That Night, Norah McClintock.  No change. p. 53.
• Affliction, Laurell K. Hamilton. No change. p.53.
• Rogue, Michael Z. Williamson.  No change. p. 154.
• Protector, C.J. Cherryh.  No change. p. 67
• Wildflower, Alecia Whitaker. No change. p. 51 16%
• Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt. No change.
• The 14 Fibs of Gregory K, Greg Pincus. p.128. Gregory's lies hurt his friend when she desperately needs his support. Time for guilt.
• The Fault in Our Stars, John Green. No change. p.64
• Divergent, Veronica Roth. No change.  p.61
• 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 trapped myself somewhere with only my NOOK and got to read some more. Delicious.
• Cathedral of the Wild, Boyd Varty. No change. p.107
• Tinker, Wen Spencer.  No change. p.310
• The Golden Leopard, Lynn Kerstan. No change. p. 234.
• Inkheart, Cornelia Funke. No change. p. 260
• The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan. No change. p.256

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

• The Jury, Stephen Adler.  No change.  p. 36.
• Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vacca. Top down versus bottom-up reading theories. p.31.
• Nerds, Michael Buckley. Life is hard for villains. Also, there is a secret department in the school. p.54.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Tiny sections means this one goes very slowly. Stress over a possible move. p.260.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. No change. p. 755.

What's up next?  Clearly I need to lower my total pile of currently-reading books, but I'm feeling sad and lonely about missing my new book each day. I think I need another week of every-other-day to continue the decompresion:

Monday: War Brothers (Cybils)
Tuesday: (skip)
Wednesday: Whedonistas! (from my TBR list)
Thursday:  (skip)
Friday: The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Steadfast (for fun)
Saturday:  (skip)
Sunday: A Matter For Men (from my shelves)

NOOK books: He, She, and It is moving very slowly, but I should finish it and move on to The Fourteenth Goldfish. I will now start sneaking digital books into the skip days.

2014 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils: 55/77. I want to finish two a week until I'm back on track.
2. Where Am I Reading? 31/51. Things are looking grim. No change. I did pick up a new country! (Haiti)
3. Alphabetically Inclined: 19/26. No change. Still need an E, I, J,  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 16/5:  I made it to Post-Apocalyptic survivor! I want to get deep into here though, because I'm not confident on some of my entries.
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.