Wednesday, January 16, 2013

GRE

I finally took the GRE. Something for which I have been "studying" for 3 years. But really studying for the last 2 months.

I found a masters program I really want to get into and it requires the GRE so I finally took the plunge.

It was the worst 4 hours of my life, or it felt like it.

Since Christmas break I feel like I have neglected almost everything and now grades are due on Monday so the rest of the week will be spent grading.

I did a little better than I expected, a few points more, so I am happy with it. Now on with the rest of the application.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Favorite Books of 2012


I tried to narrow my lit down to 10, but I could only get it to 12. These are just in the order that I read them. I don't know if I can say I had one favorite this year, but these are all books I would recommend to anyone. There's two from my favorite author, Jasper Fforde. Two from my new favorite discovery this year, John Connolly. But all of these books were "I need to go to sleep after one last chapter" type of books. 

I've Got Your Number, Sophie Kinsella
The Gates, John Connolly
The Devil in the White City,Eric Larson
The Woman Who Died a Lot, Jasper Fforde
The Last Dragonslayer,Jasper Fforde

The last ones on the list, were after I stopped blogging for 6 months, so no link to them. Possibly later. 

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

2012 Books Read

Yea, it really has been almost 6 months. Life has been busy. I started my third year of teaching and picked up some new hobbies and didn't think any of it was post worthy. I can't promise I'll post more this year.

But this year I read 54 books, for a total of 18,300 pages. Goodreads keeps track of how many pages I read.

Here is all of them before I delete my list on the side and start 2013 books read.

This year I read 3 nonfiction books and 1 classic. Two types of books that are so difficult for me to read.

This next year, I made my goal based on pages and not books. This way I might be more willing to read longer books and not worry about making it into my count. The goal is 20,000 pages.

I don't know how long I will be able to keep up reading 40+ books a year. One day, I'll probably have to cut back, but I'll get as much out of it as I can.

I'll list my favorites from the year a different day.

The Thirteen HallowsScott and Freedman

Crossed, Ally Condie
Gathering Blue, Lois Lowry
Prized, Caragh M. O'Brien
Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
Damned Lies and Statistics, Joel Best
The Revisionists, Thomas Mullen
The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Genesis, Bernard Beckett
Dawn of the Dreadfuls,Steve Hockensmith
The Case of the Missing Books, Ian Sansom
Veracity, Laura Bynum
When She Woke, Hillary Jordan
Overbite, Meg Cabot
The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly
A Long, Long, Sleep, Anna Sheehan
The Leftovers, Tom Perrotta
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
Build A Man, Talli Roland
The Last Town on Earth, Thomas Mullen
Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
A Million Suns, Beth Revis
Wtiches of East End, Melissa de la Cruz
The Rook, Daniel O'Malley
MWF Seeking BFF by Rachel Bertsche
Epitaph Road, David Patneaude
The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers, Thomas Mullen
Pandemonium, Lauren Oliver
How to Get a Literary Agent in Two Murders or Less, Ellie Burmeister
I've Got Your Number, Sophie Kinsella
Death of a Dreamer, M.C. Beaton
The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett
The Postmortal, Drew Magary
The Hangman's Daughter, Oliver Potzsch
11/22/63, Stephen King
Twenties Girl, Sophie Kinsella
The Gates, John Connolly
The Infernals, John Connolly
12.21: A Novel, Dustin Thomason
The Devil in the White City,Eric Larson
The Woman Who Died a Lot, Jasper Fforde
Size 12 and Ready to Rock,Meg Cabot
The Woman in Black, Susan Hill
Getting Rid of Bradley,Jennifer Crusie
The Scorch Trials, James Dashner
The Death Cure, James Dashner
The Last Dragonslayer,Jasper Fforde
666 Park Avenue, Gabriella Pierce