SUCCESS!

Two weeks in and still going strong!  I  have never stuck to a New Year's Resolution this long before.  It's great!  I finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone around 4 yesterday.  My students actually got really into my reading progress and checked in every day to see what page I was on.  I really hope I can get extra benefits out of all of this reading and inspire a little more "fun reading" in their life. 

So let's keep going!  I know I listed Harry Potter as my first book of choice, but just to be fair to the "New Year" concept, I did read House on Mango Street Friday evening (Jan 7) because I will start teaching that novel this coming Tuesday.  So the count so far is (Jan 1 - Jan 7) House on Mango Street, and (Jan 8 - Jan 15) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  I just placed my Amazon order for the remaining HP books and the first two books in Ellen Hopkins' Crank series.  Several students in my 2nd period class are reading that right now, so next week I may take an HP break and pick that up.  Anything to start a literature-based conversation would be great!  This week, because Amazon order won't be here until the end of the week, I'm going classic.  I started Wuthering Heights around September of last year, but with my only reading time being the 20 minutes I get here and there during the kids' silent reading, it was too hard to keep up with.  I started reading novels that went with their curriculum, which actually was really rewarding!  (Check out Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli if you want something cute, short, but still super insightful.)  I plan to pick that back up again this week.  It's definitely stepping up the game from HP, but it should be great!

I'm adding a page at the top for book reviews, too!  I will post books I've read as well as my own thoughts.  This way we can all track what I've read when, and it'll serve as a nice token of achievement when I make it through.  You know what the crazy part is?  I don't even miss Netflix one bit!




Oh, and we're FINALLY going to buy a REAL dining table today!!!!!  No more meals on a card table!  Serving steak on a card table to four people, while extremely hilarious, was nearly impossible.  It'll be our first big married purchase, and we're both pumped!  Check back for pictures later this week!