Back to my Roots:

So, here's a thought.

While it may not seem like it, I have been in a bit of a reading rut. The obsessive nature I once had to read all the time is gone. Reading recently has become a slight chore and I am frustrated with my inability to find a good book from my list to sink my teeth into.

I think a large part of it is the fact I haven't been feeling well the last few weeks. Yesterday was my day off and I spent the day alternating between trips to the bathroom and sleeping in bed. I haven't accomplished anything worth anything recently and I am a bit frustrated with the halt in my progress recently. I mean, at the rate I am going, it is going to take me five or six years as opposed to the three I had planned for to complete this project.

So what is the solution?

I am beginning to see reading and writing here as a chore. I have been slogging through Bleak House without much enthusiasm. I felt this need to read it to say that I did. Yes, its on my list, like many other books I have put aside when they didn't grab my attention. But reading that book was like a chore my mom assigned me to do and it made me incredibly unhappy.

And again, a small part of this problem is the fact that I feel incredibly stressed out. Between the saga of my toe, various other ailments, moving, and work at the park coming to a close on November 7th (my park job is technically only a seasonal job. I work full time from the end of March through the middle of November. Normally they keep a few of us on over the winter, but because of budget cuts they aren't this year). All of that is stressing me out and I find that the free time I do have...well...I don't want to read something heavy.

I've decided that I am taking a short break, and reading a few things that are going to bring me back to my roots. It will ease the transition when we move and hopefully get me over the rough patch I have had recently in terms of devoting myself to what I am reading.

I kind of owe Jillian for influencing me to take this break. She is reading the Little House series right now, and I decided I want to re-read them as well. I am also going to read a few other favorites from my childhood in hopes it'll remind me why I love to read. I could spend forever on re-reading books from my past, so I am going to limit myself to this list. :) I hope you will all enjoy my little excursion back into my childhood with me.

• The Little House series: This includes Little House in the Big Woods, Farmer Boy, Little House on the Prairie, On the Banks of Plum Creek, By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, The First Four Years all by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
• The Giver, Gathering Blue, and Messenger by Lois Lowry
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson
• Island of the Blue Dolphins and Thunder Rolling in the Mountains by Scott O'Dell
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle
• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
• The BFG, The Witches, and Matilda by Roald Dahl
  

Anyway, those are the childhood titles that I desperately want to read right now. I'm going to cut myself off at the end of November no matter how many I get through. I hope you'll all forgive me for taking a break from my list. I think I have just lost sight of who I want to be in terms of this blog and my project. I think I need to remind myself why I started this in the first place.

I'm going to begin reading from this as soon as I finish Madame Bovary. You'll still see backlogged posts from the other books I have finished recently. I will only be writing one post per each title from this list. I hope you enjoy this little side project!