Wednesday, July 29, 2009

books: check 'em out!

Anyone remember this old commercial circa 1991?  The ad slotted between Saturday morning cartoons featured the California Raisins dancing and rapping about utilizing your neighborhood library.

Well it's been on my brain lately as I've become completely addicted to reading this summer.  I kid you not, since my school semester ended I have read 24 books and am 1/3 through my 25th. 

I have to say that this is mostly due to my finding GoodReads online-I think Dahlene told me about this?-a way to share the books you've read, rate them, review them, and follow up on what friends suggest and are reading.  I've read books I'd never considered reading before, books I loved and hated, found new series, and read some classics.

Just this summer I've read several of the Lemony Snicket books, the latest from JK Rowling, Glenn Beck's "The Christmas Sweater", "I Elizabeth", "To Kill a Mockingbird", a series about a girl who speaks with ghosts, an autobiography about a woman who's family was held hostage in a Moroccan prison for 20 years, the first two "Great and the Terrible" books, "Confessions of a Shopaholic", "The Love Dare" and more. 

One neat thing about the site is that there are many different collections listed so you can find books to put in your To-Read list all sorts of different ways.  There's are sections only full of Newbery winners, best books of the 20th century, books that should be made into movies, books that were better than the movies, favorite chick-lit, historical fiction, best for book clubs, and so on.

I have to say that I have dubbed the Summer of 2009 the Summer when I fell in love with books again (and not only angsty teenage vampire romance books-though those are fab too!) and I encourage you to try the site and see if it at least puts some books on your to-read list.  Share with me your favorites!

5 comments:

Wiggy said...

The only one you've mentioned there that I can add to my list is To Kill a Mockingbird. I studied that for English Literature over here in the UK. The only books, other than the 2 Dan Brown ones to hit the big screen, I tend to read are accounts from soldiers in the Afghan War or Iraq war!

Anonymous said...

It is absolutely amazing to me that someone kept and UPLOADED a California Raisins rap from 1991 about checking out library books when NASA can't even keep the original moon landing videos without taping over them!!!!! And, by the way me too!!! This summer HAS been the reading summer. I am so boring now. I've read lots of books. If you want to get into a fantasy series that is very long, check out The Wheel of Time series. I'm on book 12 of 15. The 13th one comes out November and they are LONG books.

B

AZ HS Spotlight said...

This has been the summer of not reading *sigh* I've never been like this, but feeling the way I do, it's been superhard to get through a book. So, the only one's I've really read have been kid books. I read the Percy Jackson series and Princess Academy.

My brother has the whole rap memorized and sometimes will just sing it to me on my voicemail. We have to get our brothers together!

wittygal said...

I think that officially makes you a book worm. I have not yet reached that title but I hope to someday.

Lorie said...

How fun! I wish some of it would rub off on me!