Reading Update, or Why Am I Not Reading What I Say I'm Reading?

The sidebar over there has been informing you for weeks now that I'm reading Night, Clash of Kings, and Igniting a Passion for Reading.   In the meantime, I've completed half a dozen other books.  What gives? I imagine you asking.  (My imagination is highly optimistic.  This occasionally sets me up for disappointment in the classroom and on holidays.)

I borrowed Night from a friend last summer.  It sat on my shelf for a solid year.  I took it along to the skate park one day--I get lots of reading done at the skate park and the pool, although this time of year I'm more likely to join them in the pool--and started it.  It's really good.  And really serious.  So I keep picking up other things to read instead of going back to it.  I'm currently getting sort of worn out with YA fantasy, so maybe it's time to buckle down and finish Night.  I know it won't take long once I get started--it's pretty slim, even though it's emotionally demanding.

The professional book also wouldn't take that long.  There are MANY professional books I could be reading, and I always enjoy it when I do.  But fiction is so much more compelling.  Sigh.

I am truly reading A Clash of Kings.  Those books are so freaking long!  I'm past the halfway point, which means I only have about five million more pages to read.  Most of it is great fun, but the battle strategy chapters are pretty rough going.  I have no idea where anyone's army is right now, because I don't care.  How are the people doing, George, and who's going to die next?  The sole spoiler I'm glad I've picked up on from living in a world where GoT is on TV is that the Imp survives for a good long time.  He may die yet, but I don't have to worry about it for another few books.

I'm also plugging away at The Raven Boys right now.  I was so smitten with The Scorpio Races that when a friend gave me a generous gift card to Powell's for my birthday, I bought the entire Raven Boys series.  This may have been a mistake.  I don't hate it, but my word, it moves slowly.  Also, there seem to be too many characters.  I can only hope that Noah, Helen, and a bunch of Blue's aunts develop more personality and more reason for existing as the books continue.  Does the pace pick up?  Will I start to care about the quest at some point?  Tell me.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this photo my late father took.  It has nothing to do with the post, but everything to do with summer.