My Little Bookworm

My son won't turn 3 until April, so he is still pretty little. Logically my brain knows this, but man, looking at pictures of when he was really little are getting me all nostalgic already. I've hardly shared any photos of him here on the blog, but realized looking through my phone recently that I have some bookish ones I really love. So I'm indulging myself in a little walk down memory lane (and a bunch of recent shots) mini-bookworm style :) 

Quite pleased with himself for pulling out my bookmark!

The beginnings of actual interest in looking at the pictures.

This shelf should be empty, right? I'm working on it, Ma.

Dump!

2nd Christmas card photo.

And now I must investigate Daddy's shelves.

I'm chillin' with some of your books Ma, OK?

Wheels on the Bus + Pete the Cat are a winning combination.

That book's bigger than you kid!

Right before he got REALLY mad he couldn't sit on that book stack and read the bottom one at the same time.

Books and buddies on summer vacation.

He was absorbed in that book for an unheard of amount of time at the used bookstore. Needless to say, we bought it.

A rare shot of me reading to him!

Daddy's turn!

At the library.

Book break before the Halloween parade at the library.

A book to fall asleep by, just like Mom.

Yup, this has been a pretty regular occurrence lately.

And again.

Or sometimes he's just NOT napping and tearing the shelves apart instead. I know we have a lot of books, but it never seems like THAT many books until they are all on the floor.

Reading Pooh to Pooh.

I love this expression!

Award & Book Lists for my Reading Log

Last week, I shared my new reading log and the printable pages I'm using to track my reading in 2018. I really enjoy sitting down with paper and pen to do this, so I'm quite happy with how it's working out so far. I still log some basics on my Goodreads account, but there's a lot more I can keep track of this way without spending extra time on my phone or computer -- so that's a win for me.

I already covered my book budget, book clubs, reading challenges, and tracking categories (book type, source, format, recommendations, etc.) in that last post, so today I just want to focus on my final two sections. I've made one section for awards lists and another for recommendation and "best of" lists that have caught my eye. I had a ton of links cluttering up my browser's bookmark folders -- and let's be honest, I hardly ever looked at them! So I did a big clean out, deleted a whole bunch, and just printed the ones I'm most interested in. 

Each person will have their own taste in book lists and awards, but below are a few of the ones I put in my binder if you want to check any of them out. Whatever type of list you like, I highly recommend printing them out if you are able. I think it's much more likely we will read more from these lists if we can actually see them, refer to them, and mark them up than to have them hidden away in a digital folder -- or maybe that's just me :)

Recommendation Lists:

Gretchin Rubin's 81 Favorite Children’s & Young-Adult Books (PDF available)

Scholastic Parent & Child 100 Greatest Books for Kids (PDF available)

Read-Aloud Revival's Booklists
(free registration to access PDF lists of lots of great categories!)

NPR's Top 100 Teen Books 

NPR's 100 Must-Reads For Kids 9-14

Brightly's Best 50 for 11- and 12-Year-Olds

Brightly's Best 50 for 9- and 10-Year-Olds
Brightly's Best 50 for 7- and 8-Year-Olds
Brightly's Best 50 for 5- and 6-Year-Olds

NCTE Notable Poetry Book and Verse Novels Lists

Award Lists:
Note: Most award links are to Wikipedia since they're the most streamlined for printing purposes

E.B. White Read Aloud Award + 2017 winners

National Book Award for Young People's Literature

Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction
(full-length novels by female authors, written in English, & published in the UK)

Jane Addams Children's Book Award
(children's books advance the causes of peace and social equality)

The 2018 winners for the following ALA awards will be announced soon, so I'm holding off on printing them for now!

Michael L. Printz Award
(YA book of literary merit)

Odyssey Award
(children's & YA audiobooks)

Alex Award
(adult books with appeal to YA audience)

Coretta Scott King Award
(outstanding African American authors & illustrators; books about the African-American experience)

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Do you have any favorite awards or recommendations lists? Please share in the comments! I just might need to add a few more pages :)

A Poem for Every Night of the Year

I can hardly believe it, but I actually finished this doorstop of a poetry collection I started last January!

I was really terrible about keeping up with it daily and often would play catch-up a few weeks at a time. At least once, I had more than a month of poems backlogged! And while I'm glad I did finish the whole thing and I enjoyed a majority of the poems, it definitely was not the ideal reading experience the way I did it. By not sticking to one poem each day, I often found myself reading too hurriedly, impatient to catch-up to the current date. I'm sure I would have understood some of the poems much better if I took the time for multiple readings -- and while I did sometimes re-read, other times I just moved on. I was more likely to re-read poems that really resonated with me, but others that didn't strike me right away or that I had trouble following I didn't always give a second chance to sink in.

The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction and (parts of) Slow Reading in a Hurried Age have inspired me to slow down and savor my reading more. For someone who is a fairly slow reader of novels, it's ironic that I have a tendency to speed through poetry and other shorter works -- the very pieces that generally benefit from more time, attention, and contemplation. But lucky for me, I can try again in 2018 with this lovely new companion collection :)

I know life happens and the likelihood of never falling behind is slim, but I'm going to make sure this volume stays on my nightstand this year. I had gotten into the unfortunate habit of catching up, getting a few days ahead, and then sticking the volume back on the shelf -- where I promptly forgot about it until I was behind again! So in 2018, I'm going to make a sincere effort at a establishing a daily(-ish) poetry habit. I'm not going to beat myself up if I miss a few days, but hopefully I won't get a month behind this time around!

P.S. I wasn't planning on reading through the "Every Night" collection again in 2018, but picked it back up around January 3rd -- I shall have to see if I stick with both or revert to just the new collection -- either way is OK by me :)

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Have you ever tried to keep up with any kind of specified daily reading? Do you have any tips or tricks? I'd love to know!