Bookworms Rejoice!

During the school year it's tough for me to carve out time to read as much as I'd like.  With graduate classes and band practices and, you know, teaching all day, by the time I'm home with a few minutes to myself it's usually spent one of three ways:

a. Showering
b. Eating
c. Sleeping

I've been better about getting a few pages in just before bed in recent years, but for me, summertime is the best time to read.  I can stay up into the wee hours of the morning with a good book, or wake up late and start off my day with a chapter or two.  My newest thing has been reading my Kindle for the 30 minutes I spend on my stationary bike.  Nothing like exercising your body and your mind at the same time!

According to my goodreads account, I got through 10 books this summer.  Not shabby!  The majority of them I read on my Kindle, which I love.  Thing is, I feel like I could've read more if it didn't take me so darn long to choose new books after I finish one.  I'm notorious for finishing a book, then combing through the "People who bought this item also bought..." section on Amazon for days.  I do the same with the recommendations that GoodReads offers.

I stumbled upon this awesome site, What Should I Read Next?  And for some reason, I swear, the recommendations this site makes are so.much.better. than the other places I've looked!

I feel that when Amazon shows me what other "people who bought this item also bought," there's an agenda there- the books they recommend are always on the higher end price-wise, and, the Amazon reviewers always give away major plot points!  Boo! 

The recommendations from GoodReads are usually pretty good, only I find the GoodReads reviewers to be a way tougher crowd to please than the Amazon ones, and I'm so quickly turned off by some reviews that it takes me even more time to find something I'm interested in trying.

On What Should I Read Next?, you type in the title/author of a book you enjoyed, and they spit out a HUGE list of books they think you'd like.  When you click on the "More/Buy" button, it takes you to that book's Amazon page.  I just have to be sure I only read the synopsis, and not the reviews. 

The last book I read was Wonder by R.J. Palacio- the assigned summer reading for all of our students this year.  It's actually considered a "children's" book and was in that section of my town's library, but it's 300 pages of the most beautiful story about self acceptance, acts of kindness, and treating others as you would want to be treated.  It's such a quick read, too!  I picked it up on Friday and I finished it last night!\

Next on my list is:  Warrior Princess: My Quest to Become the First Female Maasai Warrior, by Mindy Budgor.

What was the last good book you read?  Have any suggestions?