All the way through 2018 I kept planning to write blog posts summarising my reading. At the end of January I thought “I haven’t got the time now… I’ll do it quarterly!” At the end of March I decided that two summaries a year would be the way to go and I’d write it in the summer. By August I… well, you can see where I’m going with this. It just didn’t happen.
One thing I have done over the last two years though is keep a lot of everything I’ve read in the notes app of my phone (see list below). As part of my personal reflections of my reading (both for my own interest and to support my role as an educator) I’ve found it really useful to be able to look back on my reading, spot patterns and common themes and recognise how I want my reading to develop further.
This year, I’m still keeping my list but I do plan to extend this into a reflective blog post. My intention was to write one of these posts each month but I haven’t managed this; I started writing this in January and we’re now nearly in March. Oh well… better late than never.
What I’ve Read so far this year
My Sister, The Serial Killer- Oyinkan Braithwaite (adult fiction)
All The Lonely People- David Owen (YA fiction)
My Little Pony: Legends of Magic, Vol. 1- Jeremy Whitley and Brenda Hickey (all ages comic)
Giant Days, Vol. 3- John Allison, Max Sarin and Whitney Cogar (YA comic)
Proud- edited by Juno Dawson (YA anthology)
The Stranger in the Woods- Michael Finkel (journalistic non-fiction)
The Multi-Hyphen Method- Emma Gannon (business non-fiction)
Big Happy Mushy Lump- Sarah Andersen (comic strips)
Kick The Moon- Muhammad Khan (YA fiction)
Mini Rabbit Not Lost- John Bond (picture book)
February
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Volume 11- Thomas F Zahler,
Ted Andersen, Tony Fleecs (all ages comic)
Amazing- Steve Antony (picture book)
To Drink and To Eat: Volume 1: Tastes and Tales from a French Kitchen- Guillaume Long (graphic non-fiction/gastronomy based comic strips)
Charlie Changes into a Chicken- Sam Copeland (MG fiction)
My Brother’s Huband: Vol 1- Gengoroh Tagame (manga)
The Perfect Sofa- Fifi Kuo (picture book)
Reflections on my reading so far this year
Mood-based reading
I’m rubbish at keeping to a planned TBR list. I’m very much a mood-influenced reader. You can always tell when I’ve been tired, ill or low because I read My Little Pony comics. I’m not sure if it’s the message of friendship, the comic in-jokes and fourth wall breaking or the bright colours but they always do the job.
Only one picture book in January
Well, I’ve read loads of picture books with my little girl (and several of them many many times- “again!! Again!”) but only one of them has been new to me: Mini Rabbit Not Lost by John Bond. This is such a hilarious book with absolutely loads of scope for use in the classroom due to the way the narrative is mainly told through pictures and the hidden visual jokes! I do intend to try and read more ‘new to me’ picture books this year though.
Reading diversely
I’m aiming to read more diversely this year. I want to be able to read about experiences I haven’t personally been through and also to be able to make more diverse recommendations in my work with schools. I was lucky enough to receive an e-galley of Proud, an anthology of short stories, poems and illustrations by LGBT+ authors and artists. This is an absolutely stunning collection that should be in all secondary schools and public libraries. A must for all teenagers regardless of their sexuality or gender.
Reading harder?
For the third year running I’m attempting the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge (see my progress here). By the end of January in 2018 (I only began it in March 2017) I started well and was ahead of my aim of 2 RH books a month (before later losing interest and drifting away from the list): this year (as of Feb 23rd), I’m also ahead- I’ve read 5 books from Read Harder categories.
So, has this encouraged me out of my comfort zone? Am I, indeed, reading Harder?
Well, I’d probably have got around to reading the Sarah Andersen at some point anyway. I have a tendency to read comic strips when I’m tired and I was interested in the fact that this book also included longer sections relating to her experiences with anxiety, something I suffer with myself.
The one book that really has been outside of my comfort zone was My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame. I’ve never really had much success with reading manga before now. In my past attempts I’ve got mixed up with reading right to left and couldn’t really follow all of the action/violence. My Brother’s Husband was definitely a better fit for me and has made me rethink my previous expectations of what manga is.
I’m enjoying the challenge so far and, therefore, do plan to continue next month. It’s also made me think about the pros and cons of this sort of challenge in the classroom and I think that I’m probably going to write a post about this at some point.
It’s been really interesting reflecting on my reading in this way. I’ve also started to notice some recurring themes in my reading but I’m going to wait until the end of March to talk about these further. What have you been reading and what patterns have you noticed?
Mrs H: Books and Comics 