Saturday, August 16, 2008

Newbery Burnout

I'm pretty well burned out on Newbery books. I knew this might happen, but I hoped it wouldn't happen soon, because theoretically I'd be reading a whole lot of different genres and styles.

This is not altogether true, as I think I've posted before. But it's somewhat true, and I think that's staved off burnout for quite a while.

Part of the problem is that it's been ages since I read a Newbery that I really liked; I think I haven't rated anything four stars on Goodreads since, like, twelve books ago. Even most of the three-star books are just books I... couldn't really find anything wrong with.

I've read 53. 33 to go.

I've read... 35 since beginning this thing, which, look, I'm more than halfway through the books I actually have to read now.

To break things up a little, I've been rereading the California Diaries, an awesome Babysitters Club spinoff. Except I'm about to read the one where Sunny's mother died of cancer. I was supposed to read that to the CITs that year when we were all reading the California Diaries; I'd read the first two Sunny books to them; but I couldn't wait for them and read this book ahead, and then told them I wouldn't be able to read it because just reading it to myself made me cry too hard, so there was no way I'd be able to read it to impressionable 17-year-olds. (I gave it to them and they took turns reading it to each other, until it developed that some of THEM couldn't read it without crying, so the sturdiest girl took over the reading.)