Reading Stats 2009

Last night I was at a party and got to chatting with some people. One of who asked me what I was reading. First of all, I hate that question unless it is from someone who knows my reading habits or is asking for book ideas for their child. And sure enough, this person kind of sneers and says, oh yeah, you read books for the kids you teach. Hello! I read, why does it matter what I read? Some of the books I read are as deep, if not more deep, than some adult books you can find. And, a lot of them are longer. It pissed me off good. So, I brought up my reading stats for 2009. Here we go:

I read 12 "adult" books. Right there is more than a lot of people read. 12 adult books, one a month, sounds about right.

I read 32 "young adult" books. I am counting every 32 of those since they are pretty much equal to adults. You disagree? Read The Hunger Games or The Knife of Never Letting Go and then get back to me, okay?

Then I read 54 books that I classify as "upper elementary and middle school books" (there is overlap, several of these would be classified as both young adult and middle school but I counted those as ue/ms). Okay, I acknowledge that these books are not for everyone (I don't accept that because I think most everyone would enjoy a good number of them if they took the time to read them). But, yes, it is my job to read them so I do. And I love it. But, for the sake of this argument I will count every two "ue/ms" book I read as 1 "adult" book (although several of these are as long or longer than plenty of adult books). So, by that mathematical equation that would count as 27 books.

For anyone keeping track, that is 71 books, more than one a week.

Lastly, I read 12 books I classify as lower elementary/mid-elementary books. Again there is some overlap with ue/ms books, for example, Diary of a Wimpy Kid is more for older elementary readers but I know plenty of third graders who read it. Again, I will count those as 2 for 1, which makes 6, or even 3 for 1, which is 4. Either way, I know I read way more books than the stay at home mom who sneered at my reading choices.