Aurora Dimitre's Books and Rambling

 

 IT IS TIME! It's the last Tuesday/Thursday of March, which means it is TIME to update my top ten, least favorite 5 books of the year... so far. So first up, top ten.  10. Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun 1 by Izumi Tsubaki - 5 Stars 9. A Special Place by Peter Straub - 5 Stars 8. The Dark Half by Stephen King - 5 Stars 7. Charming Young Man by Eliot Schrefer - 5 Stars 6. Black Iris by Leah Raeder - 5 Stars 5. Under the Dome by Stephen King - 5 Stars 4. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson - 5 Stars 3. The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly - 5 Stars 2. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead - 5 Stars 1. Needful Things by Stephen King - 5 stars Aaand bottom five.  5. Memories by Francine Pascal - 1.5 stars 4. 27 Hours by Tristina Wright - 1.5 Stars 3. The Red Labyrinth by Meredith Tate - 1 star 2. Art is the Lie by Courtney Cooke Hopp - 1 Star 1. Call of the Cherokee by F. Gardner - 1 star

 

 After March 31st, the next time I get to buy books is in June. While this is good news for the state of the book wall and also my wallet, it's going to be a struggle. I remember the end of February, when I KNEW I could buy books in March, when I KNEW it was only a couple days away... That shit's going to be even WORSE end of May, I can tell. And like, hopefully I actually stick to it. I've done so many book buying bans over the years and honest, my man, shrinking the book wall is like losing weight. I realize the answer is just "stop buying books" like I realize the answer is "stop eating so much candy", but when it comes to actually doing it... But! Hopefully April and May can be big reading months. April I do write a new first draft--my spreadsheet tells me it's "whatever aughts boys book comes next", which means it could be either:  Asking for It -- the Brittney book Sick Sick Sick -- Alan Crockett (he was a kid Matt met in U ntil I fal...

 

 

 

 I've started reading multiple books at a time again. I mean, I've BEEN reading multiple books at a time, just because, like, school, and also "kindle" books, and also books that I started back when I was teaching high school and then somehow found their way back into the book wall, somehow, that I haven't finished. But I've started doing it consciously . Like, every day, before I do my first little task, I grab a new book off of my TBR cart and add it to the stack. I can only add one a day. Right now I'm reading five. I'll probably finish one before the end of the night. My hope, see, is that this will help me finish more books. As of right now there is no conclusive data one way or the other. So, like. We'll see.

 

 

 Currently, I've got a stack on my desk of four: - Seven Faceless Saints by MK Lobb. I'm the farthest in this one and I'm pretty sure it'll be the next one I finish, but unfortunately, I'm not really feeling it. It's very meh.  - The Alchemy of Moonlight by David Ferraro. I'm about twenty pages in--it's interesting! Kinda fun! I'm intrigued so far.  - Kindred by John Gideon. Haven't technically started it yet.  - Black Chalk by Christopher J Yates. Haven't started this one yet either.  Hopefully I can get a good chunk of all of them read this weekend. I'm fucking behind .

 

 So the books are starting to roll in. The books that I've been buying this month, since it's a book month, and they are. so many goddam books.

 

 

 I know it's March, and we haven't even hit summer vacation yet, so, SURE, I COULD be a little DRAMATIC, but I do feel like I'm not going to hit my reading goal this year. Which is fine! I guess! I mean, I have read 75 books so far this year, which is, logically speaking, A Lot.  I've read a lot of books this year. Just not enough. I'm almost 20 books behind on my goal. This time last year I'd already passed 100 books for the year, and here I am, sitting at 75. I have read some LARGE FUCKING BOOKS this year, to be fair. I re-read Under the Dome! I read a BRandon Sanderson! It's only March and I have read 75 books and it's not good enough .  But it hasn't even hit summer vacation yet. And summer vacation will bring me time to do shit like read seven books a day, if I want. That's the beauty of being a teacher. I do get summer vacation.  We keep having issues at recess, and so each of us 3-4-5 teachers has assigned ourselves one of the Troublemaker...

 

 January and February were beautiful. We had a cold snap in January, for like a week and a half, but we didn't get much precipitation and it was warm, for the most part, and now we're staring down a possibility of a virtual day tomorrow. Monday was already two hours late.  Last Tuesday was our first virtual learning day of the year. I will say, it's different doing virtual for elementary. In high school, virtual days mostly consisted of me sitting and reading on Google Classroom while children did writing assignments and asked me if they could leave. Elementary? Throw some IXL up there and then like, talk to them on Google Classroom for an hour and a half before forcing them to leave the call.  I wouldn't hate a virtual day tomorrow. I'm tired.

 

 pick it up now! inspired by lord of the flies and exquisite corpse! these kids be eating each other!