Inspired by Franki Sibberson: 100 things about me as a reader

Last week I invited my students to create a colorful page "My reading life." We talked about all the things they could include, all the ways they could design their page - frames, colors, bullets, sizes, symbols, drawings. In my vision the result was Pinterst-worthy. In reality these pages were nothing like that. I think "blah"is the word in English to use. I realized it was my fault entirely because we hadn't spent enough time looking into our reading lives and histories.
After reading Franki's post Still Learning to Read: 100 Things About Me as a Reader Revisited 
I thought of making my own list. 100 seemed a lot. At the same time it seemed simple - list what comes to your mind. Fascinating how the ideas start flowing once you sit down and get started. I was tempted to stop at 42 and then again at 67, I didn't and the ideas kept coming.
Bringing the list to school I was afraid I might startle my kids with the number. I thought I'd read just some of it to them. They insisted on reading the whole. I said I would understand that their lists would be shorter because they haven't lived four decades, none of them have lived even ten years, so their histories are shorter. I was right. Some of them were able to come up with 10 things. I was wrong. Some came up with 20 ideas and one girl wrote 47 ideas. Their lists were not copies of mine. Each had elements that were true to just them.  10 or 100 - the point is not in the number. The reflection matters. Knowing oneself as a reader supports thinking about how we can improve our reading lives. I wish to stretch to new genres and try my hand at writing reviews. 

Here is my list:

100 things about me as a reader           

1.     I love reading (and walking, dancing and taking photos)

2.     I sometimes think I read too much

3.     But then I look at how much others read and I feel I don’t read enough

4.     My summer list/goal consisted of two things – to sleep and read

5.     A student once thought that I had read all the books in our Literature Circle cupboards (I haven’t)

6.     I’d rather read than eat

7.     I got reading glasses two years ago

8.     I like taking a train because then I can read

9.     It is harder to read in a car but I still do it (not when I am driving)

10. I read on plane rides

11. I sometimes read on the beach, but not so much

12. I love days off, when I can make a cup of tea, snuggle on a sofa and read for a long uninterrupted period of a time

13. I read before going to sleep

14. I read mostly in English

15. I try to keep reading in my mother tongue too (Estonian)

16. I sometimes worry that I read so much because it is easier than going out and spending time with people

17. I am so glad that I love reading – I am never bored

18. I was surprised to find out that not everybody likes to read

19. My mom taught me reading with a whole-word method

20. I don’t remember how I learned to read

21. My favorite author for a long time in childhood was Astrid Lindgren

22. I am lucky that I work at the International School – it has introduced me to so many wonderful children books

23. I now like Roald Dahl and Kate DiCamillo

24. Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart is one of my all time favorite children book

25. I love reading out loud to my students

26. I think sometimes children books have more interesting language, themes, characters and ideas than some adult books

27. When I was young, I sometimes visited my aunts. I didn’t have much to do there, so I read

28. I once stayed up until 4:00 am reading.

29. I know two authors personally

30. I know some authors through online community

31. I prefer fiction to non-fiction

32. I struggle with reading poetry and plays

33. I like going to poetry performances

34. The recent biography I liked was about Tove Jansson

35. Jenny Lawson’s Furiously Happy made me laugh out loud and I read parts of it out loud to my family and friends

36. Andrus Kivirähk is an Estonian author who makes me laugh

37. I read several books at the same time

38. War books are painful to read

39. Reading about tough topics reminds me that I shouldn’t complain about meaningless issues

40. Khaleid Hossein’s books are painful and I had to keep time in between reading his books.

41. I reread children books

42. I return to and reread parts of favorite PD books

43. I borrowed a PD book from the school library and found some of my post-its between the pages

44. I usually don’t reread fiction

45. I record what I have read on Goodreads

46. In 2015 I read 70 books, and it didn’t include rereads of children books

47. I have read 65 books this year so far (August, 28)

48. My Goodreads TBR pile has 40 books (I have more books marked TBR on paper and file and I-Pad and Pinterst)

49. I like that Goodreads has reviews, I read both the five and the one star reviews to make up my mind

50. I don’t write reviews – I wish to learn how to do it well

51. I like to see what other people read and get ideas from there

52. My daughter recommends books to me

53. My mom recommends books to me

54. My friends recommend books to me

55. My former students recommend books to me

56. I recommend books to all of them

57. I lend my books to others

58. I sometimes recommend books in a bookstore and in a library

59. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to work in a bookstore or a library

60. My cousin works in a bookstore, she gives me discounts

61. “What are you reading?’ is one of my favorite questions

62. My husband and I seldom read the same books

63. When we children we both read Agatha Christie’s books

64. My husband and I both read Carlos Ruis Zafon’s and Dan Brown’s books

65. When Harry Potter came out, our family took turns reading the fresh edition

66. I sometimes try newspaper recommendations

67. Goodreads and Amazon recommend based on what I have read, I wish they had “You haven’t tried this, yet” section

68. I read both paper and Kindle books

69. I have never read audio-books

70. I like Kindle because I can get books easily (One click) and don’t have to wait until they are published in Estonia

71. Books on Kindle are cheaper than books in the store

72. Kindle is like carrying a library in your bag

73. I prefer paper books when I read in bed

74. Paper books are easier to browse when you are looking for something

75. I like the smell and touch of fresh books

76. I don’t like to shop for groceries or clothes but I love buying books

77. I once went to a bookstore before going to a festive event and had only a tiny purse with me, I still bought some books and asked the bookstore to hold them until the next day

78. I make only temporary virtual credit cards to limit the number of books I buy

79. I borrow books from the library

80. I recommend what books our school librarian could order

81. Our school librarian has allowed me to open the boxes with new books

82. Opening new boxes of books is so exciting

83. I have most of the books from my childhood

84. I have bookshelves in the living room and one bookshelf in my bedroom

85. I sometimes buy books because of the illustrations

86. I once bought 76 used books for my classroom

87. I have many cookbooks

88. I don’t like reading challenges.

89. I joined a reading challenge FB group but have followed the list loosely and posted seldom

90. I have got many new books for my TBR from that FB group

91. I signed up for two virtual book clubs, read the books but never participated in the chats

92. I love that Stenhouse Publishing allows previewing entire books online. 

93. I once won a book from Stenhouse (Assessment in Perspective)

94. It makes me worried that I spent Saturday evening reading one of the PD books Stenhouse had provided for preview

95. I have some books on my shelves that I haven’t read

96. Sometimes I remember how a book made me feel but I don’t remember the characters and the plot straight away

97. I just finished Amy Tan’s Kitchen God’s Wife – I liked it

98. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of books, good books, written and published, and not having enough time to read everything I want

99. I have very many bookmarks but sometimes I use receipts or post its instead of going and getting a nice bookmark from my collection

100.                I was called a nerd recently and I felt proud to be called that