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chugging right along

posted 9 May 05 & filed under books, school

i’ve been working on catching up on school work – particularly reading for my excellent young adult literature class – and i’m happy to say, prematurely of course!, that i’m almost there, phew. i’ve been reading (and writing) like a madwoman, but at least the books (for the most part) have been really good YA, a genre i like very much, and books that i had heard a lot about but had never read.

the ones in bold have been read by me, almost all this past weekend, and i’m tackling two more tonight and tomorrow, plus i got a few audiobooks out (very exciting and attempt #2 at audiobooks, we’ll see if it works). now don’t gasp in horror – i don’t have to read all the books listed below just most of them, and believe me i appreciate the difference. which of those books have you read? any favorites, or any that didn’t make my teacher’s list?

so far, my favorite read has been ender’s game, though that’s a long-time favorite of mine, so that’s not fair. one fat summer was great, hilarious, and unexpected. hatchet started out so dang slow but by the end i was really into it. the pigman was just o.k., and after the first death gave me scary vague dreams. weetzie bat i expected to be really annoyed with, but i wasn’t, not that much at least. the sweet valley high book (#20 crash landing! – will enid walk again? and can george find the courage to break up with her even though she saved his life?!?!) was bad, so bad!, but i scarily remembered all of it, saved away in some pre-teen area of my brain.

i’m most looking forward to reading forever (the hot sex!), speak (amazing future!), and eva (‘oh my god i am a machiinnneeee!’). i don’t know much about the books in the last three reading log sections – all the ya i know is embarassingly almost all white and from the 80s or earlier, so i’m also very much looking forward to reading those books, though thanks goodness, they aren’t late but are assigned for a few weeks from now. yeehaw.

predicted time of official caught-up status: wednesday night.

still to do: one midterm wednesday morning (on library management – yech. as interesting as it sounds.)done! and one email exchange about a final paper selection (which will be fun and not too bad, i just gotta get off my ass and write it already!) done! lovely.

~ required reading:

~ reading log 1 (due two weeks ago, so bad so bad) done!:

~ reading log 2 (due last week) done!:

~ reading log 3 (due next week):

~ reading log 4:

~ reading log 5:

Comments

ooh, good luck with catching up! im so glad im done with school for now! more time for knitting for me! thanks for commenting on my blog! your blog is great!

~ erika (May 10, 07:13 AM#)

I (heart) YA. The well-written stuff is often really great adult reading – I’m always surprised at the number of adult classics that wind up in the YA section because they’re no sex/no violence, but definitely not written for children. And, Ender’s Game is one of my favorite books as well. I really need to pick that one back up again. :)

~ Sandy J (May 10, 07:36 AM#)

Re: reading log 5

Do you already own a copy of Maus by Spiegelman or were you planning to check it out? The reason I ask is because I have an extra copy and you can have it if you’d like. Let me know and I’ll bring it tomorrow.

On another note…still untangling this darn Lavold (it’s the pretty green yarn, too :\ ).

~ Lalitha (May 10, 07:57 AM#)

I loved my young adult fiction class in library school. probably my favorite class :). Maus was awesome…I didn’t read that for my YA class, though.

~ Moni (May 10, 10:02 AM#)

Sounds like big fun, and a lot of work! ;)

I just re-read Catcher in the Rye a few months ago, and it’s still brilliant.

~ Miri (May 10, 10:34 AM#)

Dang, that’s a lot of reading—I’d love it, too. I’m surprised that I’ve only read books from the top required list. Hmmmm… I’ll ask my niece about these. Thanks for sharing the list!

~ sara (May 10, 05:01 PM#)

Wow! I’m in awe over the fact that the required reading list IS required reading. When I was in school we weren’t encouraged to read those books, with the exception of the Catcher in the Rye. All the others I read on my own. Good to see they’re making the list now!

~ Becky (May 11, 03:42 AM#)

I’ve read many of the books on your list, some when I was in school, some as my girls have grown up. I remember particularly the period when one of my now-teen-age-daughters was into to the RL Stine books – egads! I really, really hated those – but always let them read what they wanted, so long as I’d read it too so I’d know what topics we might want to discuss…

~ Jenanne (May 11, 03:55 AM#)

i can relate to catching up…i just submitted my final for a class. I feel so great!

Thank you for the postcard! ...peace

~ queen t (May 12, 03:11 AM#)

Aah, I remember reading Ender’s Game for the first time and just being amazed by it. Orson Scott Card is a great writer who really things about developing his characters. There is a whole series of books around Ender (I eventually bought them all) but my favorite still remains Ender’s Game.

~ MJ (May 19, 12:11 PM#)