Sunday, June 6, 2010

Challenge Wrap up

I didn't read as long or as many books this year as I did last year.  There were several differences.
The first is the timing.  Last years challenge started my last day of school.  It was my first reading challenge ever.  I had chosen 10 books and read them all.  I was preparing for eye surgery the day after the challenge ended and knew I would not be able to read for at least a week.  Reading last year was very important as I'd had five surgeries to fix my sight.  I came so close to losing it.

This year the challenge started with me still having a week of school left.  We had a new principal and a lot of changes this year and I'll be teaching something different next year and moving everything across campus to a new room.  That meant packing up over 1200 books and all my other teaching materials.  I've been wiped out, stressed out and was looking forward to this challenge as a form of relaxation.  Although I didn't read as long or as many hours and I started out with a stomach bug I am very pleased with what I accomplished.  I originally wanted to read 7 books minimum.  That is how many I had received in exchange for a review.  I read six of them.

I read:
1. Leaving Gees Bend - Irene Latham review
2. Keeper - Kathi Appelt review
3. Ice Cold - Tess Gerritsen review
4. The Case of the Great Granny review
5. The Souls of the Fire Dragon - John Wrieden review
6. Unseen - Nancy Bush review

I read and blogged a total of 24 1/2 hours and read a total of 1,576 pages.  I have time to relax for an hour and get ready for work tomorrow.  After I get the next four days under my belt I start my summer break  complete with a possible conference in Atlanta the following week.  My students were polled and the results tallied and averaged and I have been challenged by them to read 66 books this summer.  Many of them have friended me on Facebook and will follow my progress.  One other thing that was so different this year was the type of books I read.  Only two of these books were middle grade or young adult books.  I really enjoyed all but one of the adult books I read.  I have found some new authors to follow.  Thanks again Mother Reader for hosting this challenge

4 comments:

  1. You're welcome! Thanks for playing!

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  2. Congrats on sticking it out! It's amazing to me that you managed to write full reviews during the challenge as well!

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  3. Another person who read Keeper. Must find it.

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  4. Good for you!

    (and I'm so happy for you that the eye surgeries went well...)

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