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.)

Halfway through

I am now officially halfway through all the Newbery winners.

That sounds really good, but it includes the (admittedly few) I'd read before beginning the project--though I think I might reread them anyway, even the ones I know well. I already reread The Westing Game for sort of a break, and it was even better than I remembered. It is, possibly, the best Newbery there is.

I've discovered some books I hadn't read before that I love, and I've suffered through a couple that I really didn't like. Most of them are pretty good.

But I do wish they weren't so heavy on historical fiction. Out of the 43 I've read, I think 19 are historical fiction. That doesn't include the ones that are less fiction and more history, or the ones that I'm not sure about--are they historical fiction, or were they contemporary? Some of the ones I read awhile ago, I can't remember. Strawberry Girl? Thimble Summer? I'm not sure. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, but I feel sort of... weighted down.

Summer Project

My summer reading project is going to be reading every Newbery winner (that I haven't already read). (jeez, I'm such a child. This is only a couple of steps better than trying to spend the summer reading every book in the library, starting with A.)

That sounds great, in theory, and I originally intended to leave this entry with the final sentence "Even LINCOLN: A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY and SMOKY, THE COWHORSE." But I just looked over the list of Newbery winners and... man, are there ever a lot of books there that I have no interest in reading. With few exceptions, I think I've already read just about every Newbery book I'm interested in. So many of them are about BOYS, and ANIMALS.

But this will be good for me; and I really, really liked IT'S LIKE THIS, CAT, a Newbery winner I'd always avoided in the past.

It also means I will finally read CADDIE WOODLAWN, which I will probably enjoy.