LadySky's 50 Books a Year List

[LadySky]

Reading 50 books in one years times is a simple task for me. I am quite comfortable with reading up to 25 and 30 books a month during the hot months of summer and flu seasons. I have decided to actually keep a list however, a way to organize those that I have completed and those that I am yet to dive into. Below is my current list and of course it will change and grow as my life does on a daily basis. More than anything I am making this Blog to keep myself organized!

COUNT BEGAN:  July 1, 2009

READ

1. Burning Wild by Christine Feehan

2. Oceans of Fire by Christine Feehan

3. Wolf Tales by Kate Douglas

4. Vampire Acadamy by Richelle Mead

5. Tied Up & Tied Down by Loralei James

6. Dangerous Tides by Christine Feehan

7. Safe Harbor by Christine Feehan

8. Turbulent Sea by Christine Feehan

9. Dark Slayer by Christine Feehan

10. Hidden Currents by Christine Feehan

11. Bangels's Heart by Lora Leigh

12. A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole

13. Second Chances by Sharon Sala

14. Son of the Morning by Linda Howard

15. Lair of the Lion by Christine Feehan

16. Tucker's Claim by Sarah MacCarty

17. Promises Reveal by Sarah MacCarty

18. Deep in the Heart by Sharon Sala

19. No Rest For The Wicked by Kresley Cole

20. Secrets by Brenda Joyce

21. Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night by Kresley Cole

22. Lover Eternal by J.R. Ward

23. Dark Lover by J.R. Ward

24. The Darkest Pleasure by Gena Showalter

25. Rules of Desire by Leah Brooke

26. Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward

[LadySky]

This morning I finished Hidden Currents by Christine Feehan.
It was beautiful, funny, frightening, disgusting, and moving.
Everything I look for in a book.
Tears fell and I laughed aloud then had to get up and move around due to my own fear growing.
I love books.

Which brings me to my reason for posting today.

I am a Substitute teacher and this past week I worked in the library of an Elementry school for 4th and fifth graders. Three days I watched children come and go, read to them and helped them to take reading tests on the computers. By the end of the week my heart literally hurt.

When I was in fourth and 5th grade I was an above average reader so I realize that my expectations concerning children's reading abilities are somewhat high. But being in 4th or 5th grade and still only checking out PICTURE BOOKS? I was shocked at the low level of ability with children today! My favorite book when I was 9 years old was called Megan's Island. It was a Bluebonnet book and I must have read it 50 times from 4th grade to 6th grade. The book was highly simple and not at all difficult for me to read. Not one child that I worked with over the 3 day period was at that reading level...

Picture books at 11 years old? What has happened to our children? What has happened to the imagination of youth that without pictures they cannot understand a story? I tried several times to interest various ones in books that were somewhat more difficult than they normally chose. Over and over I was ask, "Where are the pictures?". If this had occurred with 1 child, even 5 children, I would not have been surprised. What shocked me was up to 25 children gave me this response!

Is it just me or has the school system greatly lowered its standards over the last 10 years? I see things I never would have believed would happen in my town. When I was growing up here our school system was off the charts and proud, very very proud. Children read and read in this town and by the time I was 12 I had read books such as Gone With the Wind, Castle in the Attic, Charleston, North and South, Love and War, Green City in the Sun, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and so many more I could never list them. I also adored series such as The Boxcar Children, The Babysitter's Club, Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley Twins, & The Hardy Boys. I was not alone, my friends were the same way! I may have read faster but we all still had the love of reading that today's kids have never experienced. Today they want to finish a book within fifteen minutes so that they can take a test right away. No longer is reading about the pure enjoyment of loosing yourself in another world. Now all it is about is getting to the computer and taking another test on as many books as possible with as little effort as possible.

Why are teachers no longer reading The Hobbit to their classes over a period of months? Why only read little books with pictures? Why are we not encouraging children to delve into another world and spend days, weeks, months getting to learn characters and settings? My heart hurts...

[Raven41174]

How about the nursery rhymes of the brothers Grimm

[Oniya]

I read The Hobbit to my daughter recently.  She is in third grade.  Only then did I break out the Rankin Bass cartoon version for her to watch.  The problem isn't necessarily the schools, though - parents aren't reading to their kids, because they're either too busy working, or haven't learned themselves (yes, one of my neighbors has told me that he has difficulty reading his daughter's homework).  Libraries aren't getting the support they need either.  I think I have a better selection of books than our local library, in fact.

[LadySky]

I suppose this is true, parents are where the love of reading must begin. I have to say however, my father left school before 5th grade and could barely wright. My mother was an excellent reader but did not enjoy reading as a whole. My love of books and all that goes with that came from my education. When I started school I hated to read, I was to impatient and wanted to be outside playing. If not for the beautiful school that I went to with its dedicated teachers and wonderful libraries I would never have become the reader I became. I am heartbroken at the changes I see in my school system and many of the teachers that once taught me are sad to see the changes that have occurred in the last decade as well.

[Ryven]

I may not be the pinnacle for literacy, but when I was the age of these kids you're talking about (11 or so), I was reading War of the Worlds, The Count of Monte Cristo, Treasure Island, and others.  I don't read books much now because I've noticed that I read slow compared to others, but I do enjoy reading when I do it.  I can't imagine a child of that age asking for picture books.  My nephew is their age and he's reading the Harry Potter series and other books of similar difficulty.

I just genuinely wonder what is causing this lack of literacy skills much as you do.

[jouzinka]

I agree with that the love of reading must come from parents, preferably by example (ie reading sessions and afterwards discussion of the chapters read). I'm not sure the group reading at school was that helpful... at the time we did it we were still struggling way too much with reading the words accurately, rather than perceive their meaning and see the picture they painted.

On another note kids are fed with movies and anime and whatnot since very early age these days; watching them they have all the story effortlessly - they don't have to think, they don't have to guess, they don't have to use imagination. When not used all these things tend to stunt very quickly.

Not reading is (in my eyes) certainly the cause of the plague called bad spelling (not talking typos here). Reading certain words over and over carves them in your mind in a way that kicks you when you write the word wrong. Even if you don't know what exactly is wrong with the word, you know something is and go check. Which leads me to another cause of this and that's the oh-so-modern blogs. Seriously. I know the purpose of a blog, but frankly some bloggers (especially Czech ones, not those on E) make me think they should be licensed or at least pass some grammar test... And so their mistakes are read by their readers and when repeatedly read carved in minds of the readers, it creates a cascading effect...

Sad. :-(

[LadySky]

I have to say I think the issue of being to lazy to take the time to read is truly the big issue. As mentioned by others children today are so used to getting everything in seconds, movies, music, games, internet, etc. that actually diving into a novel and taking the time to immerse oneself is foreign to them. I think that is such a tragedy.

I am a terrible speller and always have been. I think it is frightening the dive that spelling has taken recently. It is appalling how it is now being accepted by supposed "professional" writers.

[Krysia]

I totally agree that our kids now a days lack the fundamentals we had as children. My nephew-in-law who is 5 years old doesn't even recognize letters and numbers, and I remember reading at that age. Then again his parents still speak baby talk to him, which annoys me to no end. It's no wonder he still slurs his words, grunts and groans to talk to us.

When I was growing up we had something in our middle school called "Books across America", this was a program where if you read a certain amount of pages, you got your little car to move across a map of the States. When you reached the west coast you got a prize, and if you made it back to the east coast you were given a free trip to an amusement park. I read so many books I made it back to the east coast 3 times in one year. Not that I got 3 trips to the amusement park, but it was something I was proud of. My favorite book was Mrs. Brisby and the Rats of NIHM. I must of read that book 3 times in that year. Though it only counted once on the map.

After I got out of high school, my ADD started to show it's ugly face. Now I don't have the patience to sit down and read any more. I have books, a stack of them I want to read. I want to finish the Fellowship of the ring series, the Harry Potters, and the Chronicles of Narnia series. All books they didn't have in the library at school. Well obviously Harry Potter wasn't out when I was young.

My ADD is so bad that my husband has been reading the first Harry Potter to me. I feel bad when I see him sit for hours reading and wonder why I can't do that anymore. I wish there was some way that I could read more. I know I'm terrible at grammar and spelling. I know it would help me to read and see how stuff is structured.

Maybe I should start reading books with short stories in it to help get back into reading. Anyone have suggestions on good books with short stories in it?

[HairyHeretic]

There's nothing wrong with books with pictures. When my neices have another year or two under their belts I aim to introduce them to Calvin and Hobbes :)

[LadySky]

I don't believe anyone would ever say there was something wrong with books that contain pictures. I have many that I love and adore. What is sad and simply a tragedy is when picture books are the ONLY thing a child reads. An 11 year old child who cannot read Treasure Island? Picture books are beautiful and lovely, a child that can only read a picture book when in 4th grade is not lovely.

[Cythieus]

I think that there's a lot wrong with children today and you just hit the tip of the ice berg. Children are over sexualized, too concerned with being famous and copying those they see on tv. This would be okay if they had positive role models but too many kids want to be like Paris Hilton or someone like this. The thing with books and kids is it's not just kids. I write alot, I tried to get this girl who was twenty to read it and she told me that she doesn't read and that she's never actually read a book in her life, even in school. She is able to read if she's on here posting but I mean never read a book in her life.

About six years ago there was a kid in my senior AP English. He got onto the teacher, saying that we didn't need to read all this "damn trash" because none of it would help us in life. And he told the teacher no one wanted to learn about the books we read and that we should just learn to pass these tests like the SAT. Our teacher, who had a Doctorate in English asked for a show of hands, most of the class agreed with the student and our teacher stopped doing literature and just taught the tests. He was really mad after that.

[Jude]

People love to blame video games or the internet for anti-intellectualism, but I grew up on both, and I don't think I'm a particularly stupid person.  I don't read either, never have, my sister on the other hand did read, a ton.  And I think it's fair to say I'm a lot more intelligent than her (scored higher on SATs and ACTs, higher GPA, finished a harder college degree).

There are words in video games which you have to learn, they help expand vocabularies, and contain stories just as books do.  Granted it's a much more passive experience because you don't have to use your imagination in the process, and I didn't only play games and hang out on the net.  But I don't think that either of those factors are necessarily a negative thing; just as reading isn't a positive thing innately.

Reading fiction without challenging vocabulary might improve your speed at which you read, but unless you aim for something with words you don't know and you learn in the process, you're not gaining knowledge.  Reading Wikipedia is probably one of the best things a person can do to expand their knowledge of the world around them, definitely better than reading fiction.

[jouzinka]

Intellect or intelligence is not something you can get. You're either born with it or not. In that light your comparison to your sister is very unfair. IMHO.

[Jude]

The point I was trying to make was that reading fiction doesn't have much to do with someone's intellectual development.  I've always been profoundly disinterested in it, and I turned out fine, as opposed to someone who grew up in the same environment as me, did it, and didn't quite reach the same mental heights.  I think it's a fair example, but one thing you're right about is that one anecdote doesn't prove anything.

However, I do know, that to this day most people don't know what "befuddle" means, and ever since playing Final Fantasy IV on SNES at like, age 10 or something I've been familiar with that word.

[Cythieus]

But the average gamer doesn't play games like that, and these games no talk, which means people probably would graze over a word they didn't know.

The difference is that children now are taught that they don't need knowledge, just a way to make money. People only learn to the point that they're required to get to the next thing and pass tests. It's not about gather knowledge anymore.

[Oniya]

But the average gamer doesn't play games like that, and these games no talk, which means people probably would graze over a word they didn't know.

The difference is that children now are taught that they don't need knowledge, just a way to make money. People only learn to the point that they're required to get to the next thing and pass tests. It's not about gather knowledge anymore.

I truly believe this is the fault of 'No Child Left Behind,' which seems to be where the focus on standardized tests came in.  When I was in high school (I actually washed out of AP classes due to overloading on them.) we still had assigned books to read.  I remember being very upset at 'Alas, Babylon' in 9th grade, and being allowed to select 'Stranger in a Strange Land' in 11th.  I remember a class full of 9th graders reacting (pretty much along gender lines) to 'Catcher in the Rye' (the girls gasped and the boys snickered).

And yes, old-school RPGs were part of my daughter's early reading ;)

[Krysia]

However, I do know, that to this day most people don't know what "befuddle" means, and ever since playing Final Fantasy IV on SNES at like, age 10 or something I've been familiar with that word.

Not all of our children are playing RPG's though. I know I didn't get into them until Secret of Mana came out. At the time when Final Fantasy came out on the NES I didn't understand the concept of an RPG. I didn't get it at all. Not that I didn't read what was going on, it just in your word "befuddled" me.

Several children I know are seeing their parents playing violent games such as Resident Evil or Halo. Or even fighting games such as Tekken and Street Fighter. In my eyes they're easier games and the kids don't have to think as much about what they need to do. I love RPG's for the fact they make you think about what to do next.

I know my nephews got into RPG's through me. My nephew Logan at like 7 was playing such games as Final Fantasy Tactics. He loved that game, but his brother who is a year younger couldn't read at 6. He had trouble with it up until his pre-teens. When Nate hit 19 last year he took his GED and scored the highest in the city, where as his older brother passed high school by the skin of his teeth.

Now I'm not saying video games are bad things. I for one absolutely love the Nintendo DS for it's educational line. I have games to help me with math or even learning new languages. The Chinese coach game I have actually went right a long with the books I have for the class I took. Brain games are wonderful.

Reading is classic though, you can't curl up with a video game system and use your imagination. You picture being there with the people in the book. Video games, T.V., and the net some what take that away from you. This is also why I love role playing. I get to use my imagination when reading my partner or my post.

Even learning the system based games the books can have good reads in them. I can sit there and imagine how the combat system works in real life. It helps me to understand it better. Or even stuff you wouldn't do in combat. (Using D&D 3.5 for this.) Like how someone would climb a rope, how fast they would or how slow they would depending on their armor, height, weight, and skill modifiers.

[LadySky]

This blog has absolutely NOTHING to do with RPG's, video games, or the internet. It was written by me to simply allow me to express my sorrow over the loss of classic reading enjoyment by children. My local school system has changed and in my opinion it changed in a bad way. I miss the love children, NOT ALL, had for books, FICTION AND NON_FICTION.

Intelligence and intellect is NOT what I was writing about. Love for the written word is all I cared to discuss.

[HairyHeretic]

If you can find stories that the child wants to read, then you're half way there. When I was 8 or so, my uncle gave me The Hobbit and The Sword of Shanara, and that was me off and running. I've been a voracious reader of sci fi and fantasy ever since.

Contrast that with the stuff I had to read for my English Literature class, where I had to literally force myself to keep turning the pages.

[Oniya]

*apologizes for the hijack*  The last two nights when I read 'Seven Spells to Sunday', and tonight when I was reading 'Dragonsong' to said third-grader, I was warmed to hear an indignant 'Awww, you're at the best part!' when we had to stop.  (School in the morning ;))

[LadySky]

I began reading a new book a couple days ago and must comment on it's excellence. I know that reading romance novels is considered not really reading by many but I love them, adore them, and this new one is WONDERFUL.

I am currently running a game based on the series by Lora Leigh called The Breeds. I began Bengal's Heart this week and WOW. Only a few chapters in and I have cried twice! I NEVER cry over anything or anyone so for me a book is truly moving and well written if it moves me to tears.

I love the RP that is running here on E, everyone is writing so well! Being able to immerse myself in a series that I love by becoming part of the story is wildly exciting!

[LadySky]

Just finished reading Bangel's Heart by Lora Leigh this morning.....AAAAHHHHHHHHH

It was so good, I love her manner of writing and her imagination, she has created a whole new world much like Christine Feehan has with her Dark Series. I cannot wait to get Coyote's Mate as soon as possible!

Until then I am beginning, A Border Lord's Bride by Beatrice Small...

[LadySky]

After reading the first 5 chapters of A Border Lord's Bride I could not force myself to continue.....*sigh*

Moved on to Son of the Morning by Linda Howard yesterday and will likely finish by tomorrow....very good story!

[LadySky]

I totally abandoned this blog since I am posting my list on shelfari.com

Here is the link to my list there: http://www.shelfari.com/groups/39349/discussions/150899/LadySkys-50-Books-A-Year-List

Happy reading all! I am almost sure to make my goal of 50 in a year! woohoooo

27. Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward

28. Lover Enshrined by J.R. Ward

29. Lover Avenged by J.R. Ward

30. Street Game by Christine Feehan

31. Ecstasy by Jacquelyn Frank

32. Rapture by Jacquelyn Frank

33. Pleasure by Jacquelyn Frank

34. Covet by J.R. Ward

35. Dark Needs At Night's Edge by Kresly Cole