March 20, 2012 – June 20, 2012
Hosted at Callapidder Days
If you didn’t know that today was the first day of spring, you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking out my window. It’s nice and cold outside, perfect winter weather. So it seems a little funny to be making a list of books I want to read for spring. I missed last year’s Spring Reading Thing, a seasonal “challenge”, and I refuse to miss it again this year.
I decided to dedicate this year’s SRT to my many stacks of unread books. This idea came to me yesterday after “finding” an under-bed shoe storage filled with books. I think that’s one of the great things about Spring Reading Thing is that participants are encouraged to make goals. It’s not just the amount of books to read but anything else you can think of.
One of my goals is to read at least fifteen of my own books within the next three months. It doesn’t have to be the fifteen books on this list but it needs to be fifteen. I’ve own The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot since its publication in 2009. I even pre-ordered it and still haven’t read it. If I don’t read it by the end of this challenge, I’m going to give it away to my local public library. Which leads me to my second goal:
- Give away at least ten books by June 20th. If I don’t miss the 30+ books under my bed, I won’t miss the ten that I plan on giving away. I’m thinking of this as my own bookish spring cleaning.

Last but not least is to have at least one read-along with my daughter. She’s ten and hasn’t read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett yet. It’s been a reading tradition of mine to read it every spring. I already bought her the book and movie version. Now it’s time to read it to her. Maybe I’ll give her a package of seeds to go with it. I think she’ll like that. If the read-along is a success, we can add Natalie Babbit’s Tuck Everlasting in June. It’s one of my favorite summer reads.
My pool of books:
- Head Off and Split by Nikki Finney (poetry)
- Land to Light On by Dionne Brand (poetry)
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (non-fiction)
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (non-fiction)
- Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson (middle grade)
- The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
- A Mercy by Toni Morrison
- Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech (poetry)
The Humming Room by Ellen Potter (middle grade)- Sula by Toni Morrison
Alcestis by Katharine Beutner- What Looks Like Crazy on An Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage
- No Regrets Parenting by Harley A. Rotbart (non-fiction)
- The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman
- Among Others by Jo Walton (young adult)
- The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier
- Wonder by R.J. Pollacio (middle grade)
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (young adult)
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (middle grade)
- Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith (middle grade)
- The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon (middle grade)
- Cousins by Virginia Hamilton (middle grade)
- An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor (non-fiction)
So that’s what I’m planning this spring. Have you started thinking about your spring reading? Are you joining Spring Reading Thing this year?