Book Love

Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved books.  I loved Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Pippi Longstalking, and the Boxcar Children.  I read the Little House on the Prairie series when I was in the first grade and had a book with me every where I went throughout most of my childhood.  

My lifelong dream is to own a small bookstore by the ocean.  A backup dream to that would be working at a bookstore which I was lucky enough to do for 12 years at Annie Bloom's Books.  Working at Annie Bloom's changed my life because I was exposed to a whole new variety of books, authors, and people who loved books.  I met some amazing people while I worked there, some of whom have become lifelong friends.

Randy thinks I have too many books, but I totally disagree.

Since I left Annie Bloom's in 2008, I have had to work harder to know what to read.   I use Indiebound a lot, follow some authors on social media who recommend books, and follow sources like NY Review of Books on Twitter.  Luckily, I have a lot of friends who read who also give me recommendations.  I'm constantly adding books to my library hold list and bookmarking book pages on the computer.  I know I miss a lot of really good books, but I hit a lot of good ones too.

Trey has hit some huge reading milestones in the last month or so.  He has started putting sounds together to read words and knows a handful of sight words.  He is more interested in longer books with more complex content.  This summer could be really really fun when it comes to reading at the Clark house.

The quality of this video isn't great when I uploaded it to the computer which is frustrating, but you'll get the point.  My favorite part is at the end when you can tell that he is really sounding words out.

Over Memorial Day weekend, Trey and I drove to my dad's.  I thought I would give audiobooks a shot, but I wasn't sure if Trey would be able to stay focused on the story without any pictures to anchor him.  I'd stop the cd every chapter or so (at the beginning) to check for comprehension, and he seemed to be doing okay albeit not that interested in the story.  After awhile, I asked him if he wanted to stop the book and do something else, but he said he wanted to keep listening.  On the way home we were listening to the second half of the book, and at one point I looked at him in the rearview mirror.  He looked upset or sick (a few of us had been fighting a stomach bug so I was actually nervous he was going to puke), and I asked him if he was okay.  He said yes and I said, "You look like you're going to cry," and he responded, "I'm just sad about Ralph."  Love.  Him.  So. Much.

I have been dreaming about the day when Trey would read chapter books with me.  I have been trying off and on for the last year or so, but he has clearly told me he is not ready.  "Mom, I only want books with pictures and they HAVE to be in color."  More recently, he somehow got into Flat Stanley, and he is now on number nine of the Flat Stanley Worldwide Adventures.  He loves to get an extra chapter each night, and it makes me so happy.  We just started the Magic Treehouse Series, and he loves those too.  I can't wait!!!!!

Trey and I have also discovered Oliver Jeffers, and we love his books.  I could put pictures of every single one of his books on here because Trey loves them all, but if you haven't seen them, check them out.  They might rival Mo Willems as some of our favorite picture books.

I have also been reading some young adult books, and I forgot how much I like them.  The writing is great, they read fast, and they keep me in touch with some juvenile fiction.  Brown Girl Dreaming is written in prose form and is actually nonfiction, but it is a great read about a young girl growing up and living with race and prejudice.

El Deafo is a graphic novel about a girl who has to wear hearing aids due to an illness and subsequent hearing loss.  It touched a special spot about a young girl feeling different and having to live with that every day.

I was in a really good streak of books, but lately have been in a bit of a lull.  I've read a few weird ones (After Birth and the First Bad Man) and started one that I could not get into (Joshua Ferris's newest).   I did enjoy Life Animated by Ron Suskind about his son with autism, and I just finished what could be my dream book.  I found it on this blog and read it in just a few days.  Traveling through Europe with my mom or my child and writing about it?  Perfect.

I'll be doing a lot of reading this summer - textbooks, books to Trey, and books for pleasure.  Reading brings me a lot of joy, and I can't wait to jump into summer reading.  Any suggestions, friends?