Johanna's Clearing her Shelves!

In addition to being a graduate student in Library and Information Science, I am vice president of the fund raising board for my local public library. One of the fund raisers we do is a biannual books sale. People donate books all year, so I spend A LOT of time in the book sale room organizing and shelving these books. The unfortunate (or fortunate) result is that I am constantly bringing books home (yes, I pay for them...) I have shelves upon shelves of books at home, most of which I have not even read. Since I no longer have shelf room and refuse to have stacks of books all over my living room, I need to start getting rid of books. Whenever I read something off of my shelf, I take it over to the book sale and donate it.

The only problem is that there are so many books to be checked out at the library, and downloaded onto my Kindle...

Here's what I have read off of my shelf so far this year:
1. Persuasion by Jane Austen
2. Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol
3. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum & Eric Shanower
4. A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
5. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
6. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burrows
7. Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater
8. Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner
9. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
10. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
11. Unfinished Business by Nora Roberts
12. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
13. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
14. The Declaration by Gemma Malley
15. Olympus Heights by Kevin Munroe
16. The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
17. The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman
18. The Giver by Lois Lowry
19. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
20. Awakening by Cate Tiernan

My goal is to read 20 books off my shelves this year...

21. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
22. Midnighters: The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld
23. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
24. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
25. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

You're very welcome, Johanna. Do you plan on getting a ticker to keep track of your reading?

I'm pretty new to Library Thing, so I'm not really sure where to get a ticker, or how to post it... if you could give me some suggestions, I'd love to get one!
It would also be useful in my 75 Books Challenge thread...
http://www.librarything.com/topic/147361

just go to http://www.tickerfactory.com/

Look for the subject called: Crafts and Hobbies -->> track your books

You can give your goal for this year (20) and add how many books you have read (3)
Then you can choose your ruler and the slider and when that is done you copie the HTML code to your own Thread (edit the first post) and to the ticker thread: http://www.librarything.nl/topic/148710

You can simply update your ticker by clicking on it and adjusting the total of books you have been reading. (just add 1 or 2 or whatever) The ticker wil be updated where ever it is posted.

If you need anymore help, just yell.

Thank you!!

welcome Johanna. Nice ticker!

Yeah, you managed your ticker! Nice.

Thanks! I'm all about cats... so it seemed fitting! Now I just have to get reading so that I can start moving it along... I've got a whole stack of books at home to read, but the new ones keep distracting me!

That's the case with almost everybody in this group. And that's why we are so happy with our Fellow ROOTers.

It's funny how cats and books go together. Welcome Johanna.

4. A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
I cannot state enough how much I LOVED this book!!! It sat on my shelves for a couple years, and I kept wanting to read it (because I want to watch the show but can't until I've read the book...) Once I finally picked it up, I couldn't put it down; and now I have to go read every other book in the series!

Very understandable and recognizable, Johanna.

5. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
The first in Pratchett's well-known Discworld series, this is a very strange book. It's an e-book I've had lurking on my kindle for awhile. The random, jumpy style took me awhile to get used to, and I frequently felt like I had no idea what was going on in the story. Once I started to get a handle on Pratchett's writing style though, I started to really enjoy it and I will probably read more in the series.

And there is lots more! Enjoy.

Thanks! I'll probably buy the second book sometime this weekend!

6. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burrows
Written in 1912, this is a seriously cheesy science fiction novel! I was enjoying it at first, and embracing all the cheesiness... but was really struggling to get through it by the end. I think the only thing that got me through to the end was knowing I could count it as a ROOT challenge book! I ended up skimming through a lot of it...

you're a stronger woman than I Gunga Din. I'm embracing Pear Rule. :)

hnaha thanks! I've been reading that book for months, and I finally decided that I just need to finish it already! Time to move on to something more enjoyable!

7. Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater
I read The Scorpio Races last year, and liked it so I bought this as a Kindle daily deal. It was only ok... not horrible enough that I put it down, but I can't really sat that I loved it. The ending felt kind of rushed, and there were a lot of supporting characters that she could have fleshed out a little more...

8. Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner
This may be cheating a little bit, since it's not actually my book... but it's been sitting at my house for ages and this was probably the only way I was going to get through it. I was having dinner at my fiance's parents' house and talking books with his mom. When I mentioned something about how it's important for girls to read about strong female characters, she gave me this to read thinking I would love it... Well, I just can't really relate to a fifty-something senator's wife, so it was pretty tough to get through. I am now a good future daughter-in-law and will probably lie when she asks if I liked it.

Cheating is allowed when dealing with Mothers-in-law (being one myself, I can say that with a smile)

One day, Johanna, you'll relate...

To be honest, she's really awesome... I don't think I could have picked a better future MIL (despite the fact that his family is VERY Italian!); we just don't share the same taste in books! Maybe in a few years when Tony and I have started a family I'll have a different perspective...

On a different note, I am just a few pages away from finishing my 9th tome!

9. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
I've had this series on my Kindle for a long long time, and just finally got around to reading the first one while I had a week off from work. Definitely a fun vacation read (even if your vacation is just sitting at home doing nothing, rather than going away) and I will probably finish the series over the summer!

I am extremely sleep-deprived after a long night dealing with a tense situation involving my fiance, his best friend, their drunken emotionally disturbed roommate, a loaded gun and a lot of state troopers. No one was hurt, thank god, but it was a long night. While waiting for news from my fiance, I managed to finish a couple books I had been working on, and not really enjoying, for awhile. Too freaked out to really pay attention to what I was reading, but needing a distraction anyways... Long story short, the roommate was arrested, fiance and bestie finally for to go to sleep after a long night and morning of making statements and investigating, and I got to go to work...

10. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
Population getting too high? Too many dirty street urchins running through your city? Overrun with criminals? Swift has an answer for that-- just eat the babies! Totally logical plan of action... A very humorous read; I can't even imagine the kind of reaction it received when published in 1729!

11. Unfinished Business by Nora Roberts
I usually like Nora Roberts' stories when I'm in the mood for somthing light and romantic, but this one just didn't really catch my interest. I've probably been working on it since late 2012, but could only ever manage a few pages at a time. Maybe it was becasue of the story itself, maybe it was simply that I'm not feeling the romances right now...

Wow Johanna, that must be extremly stressful! Glad to hear that it all ended well, but you and your fiance must be exhausted!

And perhaps not a good idea to finish books in that mood! I could not do that!

Yeah, I don't exactly remember anything I read that night... I just needed something to pass the time while I sat at home and waited. I feel really bad for the guys because they gave this guy a chance knowing he had some issues. My fiance works with his mom and she asked if he could move in with Tony and Charlie. They lived together for about 7 months and everything was great until one night he had too much to drink and just lost it. Being the good guy that he is, Tony is more worried about him than angry, but he still to kick him out. They can't live with someone who can just turn on them at any time...

It took me a good 2 days to calm down after everything that happened, so no new books for me...

That's completely understandable. I hope you find peace in your head to read again.

May has been a Harry Potter month... after talking HP with a 7th grade student, I was forced to revisit the series. I have all but the second book (made the mistake of breaking up with a guy while he had some of my books... whoops!) but haven't read them since the last book came out. I read the first in a day, had to immediately get the 2nd from the library, and was through the 3rd in less than a week.

12. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
13. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

I'm glad you are reading again! And HP is great.

14. The Declaration by Gemma Malley
This was the first book I bought for my Kindle, Christmas of 2011... I am glad I finally got around to reading it! I can't say it was the best book I've ever read, but I always enjoy the dystopian type strories and I did get sucked into the world.

15. Olympus Heights by Kevin Munroe

Nothing like 2 weeks at a cottage on Cuba Lake with no internet or cell service for getting a little reading done! It was wonderful!!! Even though we chose not to travel too far from home for "vacation", and I still had to work a few days a week, it has been such a relaxing way to end the summer.

16. The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
17. The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

We've still got a few more days before everyone has to return to reality, so lets see how much more reading I can accomplish!

That looks lovely! Enjoy your last days at this beautifull lake.

18. The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Giver is one of the first books I remember reading and getting excited about as a child. It is fun to go back and revisit those longtime favorites every once in a while!

19. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
20. Awakening by Cate Tiernan

I did it!!!!

Congratulations! :)

Yes, well done!

Congratulations on reaching your goal!

Yes! Good job!.

Well done!!!

21. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

I bought this book a couple years ago, started it, got distracted and never went back. Now that I have actually read it, I don't know how I managed to ever put it down in the first place!!!

23. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
24. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
25. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

This has been one of my favorite series ever since the first book came out. One of the perks of being raised by a librarian is that I was always just a little ahead on the book trends. After going to see the Catching Fire movie (which I was very happy with!) I felt the need to go back and reread all the books. They were as good as I remembered.