meeting the challenge

I am a creature of habit. I like what I like and I don't usually veer from that course of travel.
This includes the books I read. If you ask anyone that knows me they will tell you that Fantasy is my first love and Romance is my second. That is just what I like and I don't willingly choose anything else to read.

At least that was until the Lone Star Reading Challenge. This is a challenge I created for the Junior High Library I work in. Why a reading challenge? Well I know students can be a lot like me in that they like to read what they like to read. That said stepping away from Manga can be a problem for students or some only want to read non-fiction, many don't like to read at all. So when I found a list of book chosen specifically for Junior High Level readers that were guaranteed to all be good I jumped on it. How did I make this enticing for Junior High students? Well add food and the opportunity to get out of class and you score a winning combination. So the Lone Star Reading list is a list of 20 Junior High rated novels that are all very good books. I offered the opportunity to attend the Lone Star Reading Party to any student that reads 5 books from this list during the school year. The party was a Pizza party with prizes and games for the attendees. Extra incentive, as if we need any right, students received one ticket for every book they read off the list. These tickets entered them into drawings for books signed by authors that I pick up each year at our TLA conference each year.

 I was new to being a librarian the year I decided to create this challenge. I of course read every fantasy and romance book on the list but was left with one book to read. While monitoring halls one day during testing a student asked if she could give me a book. She hadn't really liked it and needed to return it but couldn't leave the room. I of course took the book and began to read as I walked the halls. Unbreakable by Kami Garcia was not really my type of book. Being a paranormal fiction it doesn't really suit me! I prefer happy not scary but my opinion seriously changed that day. I finished the first two chapters by the end of my time walking hallways and I was hooked.

I really feel sorry for my family when a book sucks me in because I don't do much else. I am a voracious reader when a story catches me. I just can't put the book down. It enters every aspect of my thinking and life and honestly I want to do little else but read. That said I finished the story in two days and was pleasantly surprised to see the sequel coming out a few months later.
The second book Unmarked was as good as the first. Literally having me on the edge of my seat saying run, run!

Although I am still waiting for the final chapter in this series it was worth the ride and taught me a lesson. Like I said I judge books by their cover, which is a very bad habit. I have worked to change that focusing on books whose covers might not be as appealing to me but this book taught me not to judge a book by it's genre. I have learned over the year to read across genres and the Lone Star Reading Challenge has helped me to do this.

Thanks for joining me and Keep reading,
Roma

Don't judge a book by it's cover

When I first see a book that I want to read I am usually enticed by the cover. I know they say don't judge a book by it's cover but I always do. However the times when I have not followed this rule have brought me the greatest joy.

When I first saw the cover of the book The Giver it was a very old book, housed in our library book room. I had not heard much about the book yet and it was a group read for our Junior High so I decided to jump in. I was instantly immersed in a world of perfection which I knew could not last. The portrayal of surroundings in the story were so vivid and descriptive that I could picture the scenes.  As I continued through the story I was drawn to the main character and how he wanted to share the beauty he saw around him with others who could not see. This made me think about how I try to share my positive view of the world with others and how some have a hard time seeing past their limited perspective on life.

In the end I wanted more. I was not happy with the ending and needed to know what happened! It was an unfinished story for me with what I knew would be twists and turns left to discover. Thank goodness Son was release in 2012 to end my desperate search for completion of an unfinished story.

Thanks for joining me and keep reading,
Roma

The Road Begins

The path to reading began many years ago for me as a child. Many of these books were read because 
I had to read them and then the passion hit. It began with the Flowers in the Attic series and my love
of reading was born. I have read many books over the years and each takes me to a different place, down a different road of sorts. Here lies the birth of my blog The Reading Book Road. Each and every story we read takes us down a different road, to a different world, and changes what we see if only for the period of time that we are reading. Please join me on each of my roads and enjoy the journey. Hopefully you will find a few paths you would like to try out and I can inspire you to get lost in a good book.

Thanks for joining me and keep reading,
Roma