Another birthday, another book! And a look at our home's "stacks"

Number one child had her second "almost 18" celebration tonight (her real birthday is tomorrow), and of course, there was a book among her gifts.  I've been holding on to it for two months already, can't wait to hear her reviews for How I Stole Johnny Depp's Alien Girlfriend.  She is a huge Johnny Depp fan, and a reader like her mother, so I'm hoping this book is a "good fit". 

Books are pretty customary gifts in our family.  Santa brings a new holiday book every Christmas, occasionally Seamus the Leprechaun does the same on St. Patty's Day, and there's usually a book among the birthday gifts--or a gift card to a nearby book store.  I am thankful both of my children are happy to spend hours looking at and shopping for books.  We've got "print-rich environment" covered in spades in this house!

When my husband had these shelves built, he
 thought it would take years to fill them. 
Yeah, right!

Coffee table in living room



Daughter's Nancy Drew collection;
she prefers the pre-1980 editions



My bedside reading

 




Floor next to bed



As you can probably guess, I'm a "scanner reader".  I tend to start a lot of books, and sometimes manage to finish a few in the process.  I'm also likely to skim a book and even read the end if it seems to be going slowly, to see if it's worth reading all the way through.  That famous "Rights of a Reader" poster validates my reading style!

Does your family receive books as gifts?  What kind of reading styles do your readers exhibit?

Books to blogging

So it seems my love of reading, and desire to support others' reading habits and need for information, has led to my pursuit of a master's degree in Library Science.  Exposure to librarians' blogs through class requirements and classmates' attempts at blogging are gentle hints to join them in the twenty-first century.  I am a digital immigrant, so please spare harsh criticism!

I am an avid reader.  I read e-mails, tweets, school memos, syllabi, teachers' manuals, student records, blogs, magazines, catalogs, Facebook updates, textbooks, and journal articles.  However, in the interest of full disclosure on the topic, I have not indulged in reading books as often as I would like, due to time constraints and an unusual need for at least six hours of sleep each night.  That will have to change, of course, with my enrollment in Dr. Lesesne's Young Adult Literature course at SHSU this semester, and I'm proud to say I've actually completed reading a whopping two books from the required thirty-five for the semester.  It will be quite a feat to bring my fluency up to speed to complete the list before December, especially since (again in the interest of disclosure) YA lit is not always my first choice of material.  I'm counting on this semester to change my mind (insert smiley here)!

I'm uncertain of where this blog is headed, but be assured that I plan on "keeping it clean" and focusing on the topic, in the hopes that one day, in the very near future, I will be adding a link to this very blog from my own school library webpage.  And a Twitter feed, and a scrolling update on popular books, and annotated bibliographies....