It's End-of-the-week-count time:
CHAPTERS - 117
PAGES - 1,956
For the year so far:
CHAPTERS - 4,373
PAGES - 56,236
My seven month blogiversary happened while I was on vacation. And since I can't let a month go by without being melodramatic and acting like I've been blogging for centuries, I decided to just save my "Reflecting on the last arduous four weeks" post for today. I feel like I've finally reached a point where reading a book every day is starting to feel totally natural - in fact, it's starting to feel so natural that I think it's going to feel really strange, and almost kind of wrong, to not be reading a book every day once the year is up. Although I am toying with the idea of continuing with the blog after the year is up and just switching to reading 4-5 books a week.
It does, however, feel really unnatural to be reading this much and not be getting any Book It-Pizza Hut certificates. Do you remember Book It dear readers? For those of you who don't, Book It is a reading contest that happens in first and second grade, where you earn Pizza Hut certificates for reading a certain number of books - and all of the classes compete to see who can read the most books in a six month period of time. Tendy Chang and I were locked in a fierce battle over who was going to emerge the winner (I won!) - and some days, when I wake up and don't feel like reading, I kind of want to regain my motivation by calling up Tendy and say, "I bet you can't read as many pages as I can today." Of course Tendy is probably busy working at NASA right now, and I don't feel like having a conversation that would end with, "What have I been up to? Well I have this blog. . . and it's really interesting. . . and hey, quit laughing at me, blogging is impressive too. . . it's almost as good as working at NASA. . . stop judging me." But, then what am I saying? Tendy is probably too polite to make fun of someone's blog. He always had really good manners, which is why I secretly had a crush on him - because manners are hot . . . even if the person with good manners is trying to take away my "Best Reader in the First Grade" title.
Today's book, "At the staid Marcia Blaine School for Girls, in Edinburgh, Scotland, teacher extraordinaire Miss Jean Brodie is unmistakably, and outspokenly, in her prime. She is passionate in the application of her unorthodox teaching methods, in her attraction to the married art master, Teddy Lloyd, in her affair with the bachelor music master, Gordon Lowther, and—most important—in her dedication to "her girls," the students she selects to be her crème de la crème."
I really struggled with today's book - not because of the subject matter (although I was a little bit disappointed with how little the girls school resembled The Facts of Life), but because of the allergy factor. I woke up this morning thinking How could I possibly still be having allergic reactions to salad dressing I ate a few days ago? I got to about page fifty when I realized that I was actually having an allergic reaction to today's book. But since I'd already posted the book for the day on my twitter page, I decided to just go with it and keep reading. Also, I was in denial because I refused to believe that God could be cruel enough to make me allergic to a book. Oh well, I guess even God needs a good laugh now and then. Despite my best efforts, I was unable to air the book out, so I spent the whole day trying to read the book while holding it two feet away from me at all times. That didn't work either.
But, for some crazy reason, I kept reading anyway. So now I'm thinking that it might be time to change the name of the blog from "A Book A Day" to "A Book A Day Even If It Puts Me In The Hospital." Well that's actually a tiny bit of an exaggeration, it would be more like "A Book A Day Even If I Have To Get All Doped Up On Allergy Meds To Read It" - but I feel like that title lacks the punch that the other one has. Plus it would take people much too long to have to type in my web address. I've toyed with the idea of several different blog titles over the last few months. Every time my Dad tries to encourage me to cheat and only read half the book or watch the movie and pretend like I read the book, I end up saying, "But then I would have to change the name of the blog to 'A Book A Day . . . As Long As It's Convenient,' and that's not a very catchy title." And when I'm feeling whiny I contemplate changing the title to "But I Just Read A Book Yesterday," but that title doesn't work either because it fails to convey how whiny my voice sounds when I'm saying that.
Overall, I would say that book was good but not great. But part of the problem could have been how distracted I was by my allergy attacks - so take my lack of a recommendation for what it's worth dear readers. And if anyone would like to challenge me to a read-off tomorrow I would be more than happy to compete and leave you in my dust. Ha Ha. Okay sorry, even the thought of a competition brings out my obnoxious, competitive side.
