Book Drops: What I Read in 2010

I was inspired by my friend, CP, to list out what I read this past year. I did it last year too but didn't lay it out as a list. Here's that post. I have to check a couple of different spaces I think because I started using Get Glue this year and I might have stuff on Good Reads which I don't really use. But let's see how I did because I know in the summer I got a bit lazy.

1. From Fear To Facebook - Matt Levinson
2. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
3. National Geographic's Rare
   
4. Ghostopolis - TenNapel
5. Zombie Chasers Book 1 - John Kloepfer
6. reread - Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
7. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
8. reread - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
9. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkahan
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
12. Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
13. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
14. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
15. The Lost Hero - Rick Riordan
16. Fever Crumb - Philip Reeve
17. Here Lies Arthur - Philip Reeve
18. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
19. The Girl who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson
20. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
21. Robot Dreams - Sara Varon
22. The Wave: In Pursuit of Monster Waves - Susan Casey
23. Mouse Guard Vol. 1 - David Petersen
24. Lola: a ghost story - J. Torres
25. Creature Tech - Doug Tennapel
26. Pencil Fight Number Three
27. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Eric Shanower
28. The Marvelous Land of Oz - Eric Shanower
29. Bayou - Jeremy Love
30. Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing
    
31. Sense and Sensibilities - comic version
32. The Complete Alice In Wonderland - Dynamite comics
33. A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn
34. Last Call - Daniel Okrent
35. The Tiger: A true story of vengeance and survival - John Vaillant
36. The Warriors: Power of three - the fourth apprentice - Erin Hunter
37. Everwild - Neal Shusterman
38. Asterios Polyp - David Mazzucchelli
39. Julius Caesar - Ellen Galford
40. The Forbidden School House - Suzanne Jurmaine
41. Extreme Scientists - Donna M. Jackson
42. Going Bovine - Libba Bray
43. To The Heart of the Storm - Will Eisner
44. Life in the Boreal Forest - Brenda Guiberson
45. Pedro and Me - Judd Winick
46. How Robots Work - Tony Hyland
47. The Ancient Persians - Virginia Schomp
48. Hush, Hush - Becca Fitzpatrick
49. Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld
50. Hatter M. Vol. 1 - Frank Beddor
51. Hatter M. Vol. 2 - Frank Beddor
52. Muckrackers - Ann Bausum
53. Isadora Duncan: a graphic novel biography - Sabrina Jones
54. The Raucous Royals - Carlyn Beccia
55. One Hundred Demons - Lynda Barry
56. Doomed Queens - Kris Waldherr
57. Britten and Brulightly - Hannah Berry
58. Getting Graphic - Michele Gorman
59. Escape: The story of the Great Houdini - Sid Fleischman
60. Peter and Max - Bill Willingham
61. Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger
62. Who was First? - Russell Freedman
63. The Runaways : dead end kids - Joss Whedon
64. The Story Behind Toilets - Elizabeth Raum
    
65. Aya - Marguerite Abouet
66. My First Book of Tagalog Words - Liana Romulo
67. Food For Thought - Ken Robbins

67 books!!! That's pretty good for the year. So much reading. It was nice going through my old blog posts to see what I read. I totally forgot about the history of toilets book! Lots of graphic novels, a good mix of nonfiction and pretty much a crazy variety. I also included the audio books on this list because why separate them out? Happy reading in 2011!!!

Reverb 10 #5 : Letting Go

"When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."
- Alexander Graham Bell

Reflecting on what I have let go of this year, I am remembering that the whole process of letting go and slow and steady. I like to believe that once I do the rituals, say the tossing and deleting of old photographs or burning old letters, that I have some how purged myself of all those emotions and the hurt, but you know, that's not true at all. Those things are still there and sometimes they come creeping back up at the most inopportune moments. I have to remember that "letting go" doesn't happen in one moment, it happens in many moments and sometimes over many years, and that is ok.

In my career, I have learned that I have to let go of this "image" that I think an educator should be. I can be myself. This year, I have been so much more comfortable in my own skin. I know, my classes are kind of a jumble of energy but for the most part, my kids are great and participate, learn and have fun. I think, I sort of had this idea that a teacher/educator had to be strict, serious, and almost scary, like in the book Miss Nelson is Missing! by Harry Allard. But I'm not like that at all. I share. I laugh. I joke. I'm probably too nice. But that's my personality and it's ok. I can be this way. There is room for it and it makes my class fun for me and my students.

I'm a Folllower! The joys of Library Thing

This year, Dave (Big Building, Lots of Books blog), introduced me to LibraryThing. He has created a lot of cool collections relevant to our curriculum and has even put a really cool widget on our LibGuides page. So, I finally tried to add a collection, which is pictured above.

We are starting to get requests for Summer Reading Recommendations and I thought, "Why not put it on LibGuides?" It has actually made it so much easier. You can scan or search for a book and simply add it to a collection. I don't know why I didn't do this earlier especially since Elisabeth, at Archipelago has written about this before. However, she has it on her LibGuides page.

This summer that will have to be one of my projects..using LibGuides to host a summer reading list but right now..I'm pretty happy with having an easily accessible list on LibraryThing.

Also, apparently, this is the last full week of school. I think my body knows because I can barely make it out of bed in the morning...

AISL 2010 Nashville Day 1

Well, I don't have a card reader to post pictures so I will have to do that later. This is the first day of AISL and it was mainly to get to Nashville and register. I did that and met a couple of people, I even met CD McLean and company in the elevator.

I got here at about 5pm and then spent the evening hanging out with my friend, Jan001, who I first met on Vox and then followed on Twitter and now have met live and in person! YAY! She's pretty flipping cool! She even picked me up from the airport and showed me the sites - the Parthenon and just around town. Then we headed over to the Loveless Cafe. If you are ever going to Nashville and want some excellent amazing mouth-watering Southern cooking - YOU NEED to come here! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

The Loveless Cafe's Biscuit Lady, Carol Fay, passed away recently but she was all over the television making those amazing biscuits I just ate. She's got a secret recipe and I guess, she probably passed it on to the next person over at the Loveless Cafe...You can watch some of her spots here. She was even on Conan :)

Anyway, I know, that's not any "library" stuff at all but it does give you a glimpse as to the cool things that can happen when you "meet" someone on the internet...

Thanks Jan!!!!

CAIS Conference Recap: Session 1

Yesterday was the CAIS (California Association of Independent Schools) held it's 2010 Southern Regional Meeting at Campbell Hall in Studio City. This is the first year I attended the CAIS conference and I hope I get to go again next year! It was so informative and there were so many workshops, it was really difficult to choose which speakers to see. If you work at an independent school. I highly recommend going to this event. Hopefully, you're at a school where they shut down the conference so you can all attend!!!

Session 1 - I attended Maureen Frank's presentation on "Audiobooks in the Library." She's 1 of my counterparts at the other campus and I mentioned Maureen came over last week to talk about the iPods in the library program.

Even though I had a preview of her presentation, I am so glad I went because it was so interesting discussing how audiobooks are a vital part of any school library collection. Also, I had the opportunity to see my friend, Michelle, and meet new librarians and teachers. It is important to take into account the different learning styles of our students - kinesthetic, auditory, visual, etc. - you have to be able to provide services for all these different kinds of learners.

The image that Maureen started the presentation with was of a student listening to an audiobook with this book opened on his lap following along. I believe, he's the student who has received 2 A's on his last 2 assignments!!!

I cannot wait to start this program here at the middle school. Also, if you don't know where to start or are just interested in learning more about this program, just email me - vinyljunkie[at]gmail[dot]com or DM me on twitter and we can exchange email addresses.

Happy New Year!!! 2010!!!

Thanks to Damienimages for the above photo!

Happy New Year to you and yours! I hope everyone has an amazing 2010 filled with goodness and happiness!!!

SXSW 2010 - Panel Picking Time!!!

It's that time of year again where we get to vote on the different panels at SXSW. I went to SXSW, geez, a couple of years ago now and it was the best experience ever. I went to the Interactive, Film and part of the Music Conferences. I hope, this coming year I can make it to Interactive. Though certain people do not understand why SXSW is relevant to librarians, I am hoping they will approve it this year.

Lots of librarians seem to be attending now that David Lee King promoted it on his blog in 2007. When I went, NO librarians were there, ok maybe a handful, but not to the level I'm reading about now.

This year, Cecily (@skekali on twitter) proposed "Can I Reserve This Book With My iPhone" and you can read about here and vote to include it! about how libraries can use or build web services to stay relevant in this age. It sound so good! Vote! Vote! Vote! David Lee King proposed a panel as well "Designing Your Customer's Digital Experience" which you can vote for here.

You have to register but it's worth it!!

Hopefully I will see you there too!