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