Oh I know - the English teacher in me both does and does not want to finish Don Quixote. I tell students all the time it's okay to DNF books but have the hardest time doing so myself. I want to finish everything I start.... it's a learned skill, to me at least, to DNF a book lol Have you read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson? It is also pretty intense theme/content wise - a girl enters her freshman year after attending a welcome back to school party that goes awry for her. She eventually works up the courage to tell her once best friend what a guy did to her but no one believes the m

Read another fifty pages of Don Quixote today (I do reading Friday's with students and model the behavior)..... you guys, I don't know if I can finish this book. It's not necessarily the prose - I'm used to flowery prose in classic literature - but man, I can NOT get into this book! It feels like the same thing keeps happening over and over and like the story is going nowhere. I know some adore Don Quixote but I'm struggling. I think I may need to shelve it again for a while and try when I'm not as overwhelmed about work related stressors. Instead, I shall concentrate on my reread of Fahrenhei

I think my safe books to read are the ones I teach because I spend so much time reading, discussing, analyzing, and finding new details in them with each new group of students. So The Great Gatsby, The Crucible, Fahrenheit 451, Hamlet, etc. are all stories that I really enjoy digging back into each school year. And each year I discover new things I didn't see before - crazy just how many details can go into writing!!

My goal this year is to hit 36 books - not including those I reread for teaching - so 36 brand new never been experienced by my brain before books! Overall Progress: 4/36 1. The Return: A Titan Novel by Jennifer L. Armentrout - completed Jan 2021 2. The Power: A Titan Novel by Jennifer L. Armentrout - completed Jan 2021 3. The Struggle: A Titan Novel by Jennifer L. Armentrout - completed Jan 2021 4. The Prophecy: A Titan Novel by Jennifer L. Armentrout - completed Jan 2021 5. Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes - in progress

You mentioned Bradbury in the other thread and Fahrenheit 451 is the first book I'm teaching this semester! Well, that alongside The Odyssey! Love the idea for getting outside of the reading 'comfort' zone too! For classics, for me, I need to choose a classic I've not read/taught before. Started Don Quixote not too long ago and have been struggling to get into it but I shall persevere!

Sure you didn't get lost on the way there? lol *waves back at @Cairos* Sorry I've been relatively MIA. Nothing super life shattering or amazing happening here other than surviving face to face teaching. Well okay, life shattering kinda happened but more for the hubs than me since his dad passed away on Dec. 15th so that's been... rough. And my brother-in-law has been staying with us every since he arrived on December 17th. So, I've been hiding in books and cooking to make sure the boys eat something other than fast food. My 3yo is hilarious with gift opening. He unravel

*peeks over the book she's reading* Ummm...... noise? I'm reading here folks! Just let me read in peace! Mkay!!! Oh MG brew.... *grabs one and returns to her comfy large chair to return to reading*

We shall see when it happens - both my dad and brother highly recommend Stormlight Archives so I wouldn't be surprise if I get some of those books as gifts next week lol But I still have a bout 15 books to read that I got for my bday last month! The hardest part about a TBR list is deciding what to read next - so many good books, so little time!

@PiedPiper I still haven't started the Stormlight Archives - it's def on my TBR list but that waiting game.... I already made the mistake of reading one series that isn't finished yet this year and the next book comes out in April of 2021 and THAT feels like too long of a wait for me lol

Haha yes - bringing them to the dark side is great!! And.... book 29 done as of last night lol Gonna dive back into the world of classics and read Don Quixote next me thinks and hopefully hit a nice well rounded 30 books in a year!!

Thanks! The best part are days when I tell them it's time to put the books away if we have other content to get to and I hear "But Mrs., I'd rather keep reading. Can we?" And ya know what, nine times out of ten I say yes! My goal was 12 books... just finished book 28 last night! I think the last I posted on here I had *just* started Maas's Throne of Glass series. It's 7 books and I am going to start book 7 today!

I'm headed to my parents for the afternoon on Thursday but not going to the extended family dinner at my great grandparents... Though I am visiting my great grandma today with just my mom and siblings (great grandma is in her 90s and fam is worried she won't make it to Christmas 😢 ). All in all, pretty chill week planned. I'm just glad I'm FINALLY on break! FINALLY a day off from teaching!!! Bc teaching has been crazy with half my students quarantined and the other in the classroom. Just an overall mess. I could go on a long rant about it but already have several times

Yup - it worked out in the end and I couldn't imagine life without my little man now 🙂 So much fun to read books you pick out on your own - that's for sure!!

Between teaching and grad school I was easily reading that much in a week's time - and I had a baby in the midst of grad school (didn't plan for that to happen, but it did...) I keep thinking I'm done with school and then randomly look up PhD plans. Maybe some day? I'm just happy I finally got back into reading what I WANT to read rather than what I HAVE to read!

Thanks @blank and @PiedPiper - I actually finished grad school way back in May of 2019 (that feels SO long ago now) but was burnt out on reading and writing after those few intense years!