First Post!

I posted this last week on my tumblr, but I thought it would be nice to post on my new blog as kind of a mission statement, or why I'm doing this.

Do you ever just have that aha moment when you realize the answer that you have been circling around for years, thinking that it was wrong or just not the way to do things, really is the right thing?
I have always loved to read.  And I’ve always kind of felt like a dork telling people that was one of my favorite things I to do, because it just sounded so boring.

But, I had a minor aha moment earlier this year when reading a book for my master’s class.  And yes, my masters will be in Reading Education, and after that, I plan on getting endorsed in Library Science.  But I digress.  I was reading a book* about inspiring children to love read and to read for pleasure and not just for a test,  I realized with everything going on in my life (work, family, life in general) I was losing that wonder and joy that reading brought to my life.  And I didn’t like it.

Reading was my escape.  It was my way of traveling to places I knew I’d never see.  It was my way of learning about the world, about history, about life.  And I was losing it.

So, I did what the book suggested.  I asked my students what books were cool and for suggestions.  I asked friends the same.  I got on twitter (@amandafurman if ya wanna follow) and started gathering recommendations.  I started keeping a notebook of books to read.  Then, I got tech saavy and joined a website that would do that for me (http://www.goodreads.com/) And then, I started sitting and reading.  And enjoying it.

I’m carrying a book with me wherever I go (waterpark included).  Yesterday, I was to meet a friend for dinner, but had some errands to run beforehand.  I actually plotted how long my errands “should take” and if that left me enough time to read before we were to meet.

You might be thinking, “Great.  You like to read.  I wasted about 5 minutes of my life reading about how you love to read.  Super.  Now what are you going to do about it?”

My next step is to start reviewing books.  Yes—-to read books for a living.  I never thought you could actually do that.  I had hoped as a child, but I never thought you could do it for real.  I have some feelers out to book publishers (suggestions welcome) and I’ve applied to be on some book selection committees, so hopefully, it will all work out.

As part of that, I will be posting reviews of books that I’ve read on here and on my goodreads.com page.  And as always, I’m open to suggestions (about what books to read and on how to improve my reviews, and even how to go about being a book reviewer).



*The book that I was reading was The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.