The Next Best Book Club discussion

Hi, my name is Beth and I am new to goodreads and this discussion group. I am a high school English teacher looking for a suggestions beyond the classics and what fifteen year olds are reading. I love to read but have little time. Even though it is the summer and I am off, I have three little ones that keep me occupied. So it takes me a little longer to get through a book.

I love fiction and drama. The only genres I stay away from are scifi and romance (including chic lit). I am a Harry Potter superfan, again I teach fifteen year olds. I would love to start reading more nonfiction, especially historical nonfiction.

PS I love how many people in this group dislike Lord of the Flies. The hardest part of my job is getting the enthusiasm to teach that novel every year.

Hey Beth! I am really glad you decided to join the group!

Im shocked you dont like Lord of the Flies... perhaps if, before you taught the kids, you asked how many were Lost Fans... and then explain to them that its closely linked to the show .. they might find it more interesting? I hated being forced to read books in school, cause I felt no real connection to any of them. But I am slowly rebuying them all to give them a fresh new start... LOTF and Catcher in the Rye were the only two I actually liked reading in school!

One thing I want to point out about this site, you will NEVER be short of recommendations for something new to read! I have found so many great novels just from reading what people are writing about them in here.

Prepare to become addicted to goodreads.. you are about to become very intimate with your to-read folder, and to-buy folder!!!

The kids have all made that connection and they actually make posters for the room based on the show and the book. I have tried so hard to understand that series but am "lost". I joined a Lost viewing group at work, but am just so confused. I missed a season and will never catch up. It does make it easier to teach it to the students whe they can make connections to the show and the characters.

I have the first three seasons on dvd, you could borrow them and squeeze em in while the kids are napping... Hell, we could have a rewatch night.. you, me, Mckenna....haahaa Leave the kids with the hubbies/fiances and have a girls Lost Session.

(btw, everyone, Beth is my sister-in-law)
:)

Welcome, Beth! I'm always happy to meet other Harry Potter fans (or fanatics, depends on the point of view I guess). I've only been in the group a couple weeks and I've already added a bunch to my to-read list, so be prepared. :)

welcome, Beth!! i also love harry potter,And theres going to be no shortage of ideas flying your way! i promise!ever read any Harlan Coben hes pretty intense

welcome Beth, prepare to become addicted!

Hi! I am new to the group! I love classics, science fiction, non-fiction & children's books. I am currently reading too many books I need to avoid the library until I finish the books I currently have to finish.

welcome to the group !!! were all book junkies here no need to be shy!!lol

Emilee... Welcome! Always so nice to hear from a newbie who is as addicted to reading as the rest of us!

You wont be wanting for new recommendations here, and your trips to the library will begin to become more and more frequent, i can assure you!

Hi Emilee. I keep saying I'm going to avoid going into the bookstore, but my problem is I have no willpower! This group does not help my willpower! lol

Hi all, I'm new on here too. I am a total book addict and read most things genres - I tend to go through phases and then overdose on a genre and move onto something else. Althoguh I do read most things, I am not a massive fan of sci-fi type books (inc The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings etc - sorry guys, I know there are alot of loyal fans out there). I can go through a chick-lit, light, fluffy phase one month and then autobiographies and then thrillers etc.

I can't wait to see lots of recommendations and am preparing myself for spending lots more money (my favourite thing to do is walk into a bookshop for an uninterupted hour or so just wandering and admiring, and of course buying - total bliss!). My husband despairs of my book habit but to keep him quiet while I have my couple of hours with a book on an evening (after our meal and chat and catch up) he is banished to the spare room to kill people on the playstation (LOL).

lol Boof, sounds like bliss! Welcome to the group!

Boof, sounds like me and my hubby. I buy books, he buys dvds and ps games.... so we each have our addictions :)

Welcome to the group. YOu will find that most of us suffer from the same book-gorging as you. We will OD on a certain type of novel like it is going out of style, and some us try to play catch up with each others bookshelves....
Logan.. my eye is on you!!!

It's funny but I sit here day in and day out and books just keep trickling back into my consciousness. I had completely forgotten that someone had written book adaptations of the Doom video game until I saw them on someone else's bookshelf. Then all of a sudden a memory of me as a ten year old on summer vacation reading them while sitting on the floor of a bookstore came rushing back.

Lori, my bookshelf is definitely reachable. What weirds me out are the people on here with several thousand books listed. Have they really read all of those? Are they all on their to-read shelves? That's just such a high number, I can't believe that someone has read that much.

Logan, there is this fellow that asked me to add him to the friends list and he had like 2130 books on his list, all with either 4 or 5 stars on them. I asked him about it and he said "well I have read some of them and have heard of the others via friends ... but what I really like is the outdoors, is healthier and I live about two hours from Suwanee"

Yeah!

I wonder how they manage it myself. I can manage about a book a week.At that rate it would take me 20 years to read 1000 books.I believe I'm about average considering I have a life to live outside of books at least some of the time.How does a person manage thousands?Speed reading?Is it possible to get everything you can from a book by speed reading?I can't conceive of it anyway.

Welcome to all the newcomers.You may not be reading in the thousands but I feel sure that you'll be increasing your wishlists and feeding your perfectly appropriate addictions.No excess is out of bounds here.We will undoubtedly spur you on and cheer about it.

Emilee,this is not the place to be with goals of cutting back... :)

Hi! I'm Suzanne and joined GoodReads a few months or is alot of months ago? LOL. I just started joining groups the other day. I'm also on Cafemom & on book clubs there too. My TBR pile keeps GROWING & GROWING.

Hi Suzanne,you've come to the right place then.

Hey Suzanne. thanks for joining. Your TBR pile will not get any smaller while you are hanging out with us, let me tell you !!!!

:) nice to have you here.

I have around 2000 books and, no, I have not read ALL of them, but I have read most of them. I didn't really start collecting books, though, until I read Booked to Die by John Dunning. I just googled it and it was published in 1992, so a good chunk of those books weren't purchased until after that. It helped to work in a book shop for about a year. I received a wonderful discount there and they would also let me take books home to read if I could keep them in good condition and then return them to their shelf when I was through. If I liked the book well enough, though, I would just buy it.

Now I know for a fact that I have read THOUSANDS of books and I'm sure my mom can attest to that if she takes the time to read this comment. For as long as I can remember, I have either checked out books from the school library or the public library. I would go at the very least once a week and I would frequently take home a dozen books at a time. I was into sci-fi, romances and some biographies (shhhh, I secretly love Abraham Lincoln and will read anything about him) and most of them are not any more than 150 - 200 pages so they were a quick read. I could read two books a day back in the day. Needless to say, my mother was frequently telling me to turn off the light and go to bed, or to get my nose out of a book and do my chores.

So, yes, I am one of those weird people. I hope I don't frighten anyone too much. It's just that I've been blessed to read books for over 40 years now and plan to read for many many more. I hope y'all can say one day that you've been blessed to read thousands of books too. :)

Well, Bluedaizy, If I logged every book that ive EVER read, i am sure I would in the upper hundreds if not a thousand as well. COunting all the books ive bought or borrowed to read to the kids, books ive taken from the school library every week for all of my 12 years of school, but I just cant recall every single title out there.

The ones Ive listed here on goodreads are ones that I own on my booshelf, or that I have recently read with the kids, or that just popped into my head from time to time....

I wish I had kept all my childhood books, but when I first moved out, I wasnt a big ratpacker.. the less to move the better, was my old philosophy!! Now all those memories are gone. shame shame.

Hello, everybody! I am new to this group. I am an elementary teacher. I love reading! I love a variety of genres. I'm always looking for personal suggestions and suggestions for books in my classroom. I'm going to be a third grade teacher this year. I'm happy to be a part of this group

Hi Meghann, welcome to your new addiction. So new, you dont even know you are addicted yet! Just you wait... you'll be hopping to check on us every hour before you know it, getting the cold sweats when you cant get near a computer throughout the day.... adding new novels to your TBR folder like a drug fiend....

Its a wonderful place to be... We will be more than happy to load you up with great new authors to check out and books to read!

isnt that the truth!!! lori when is the next time theres gonna be a group read and discussion?

Bluedaizy,I suppose that if I were to seriously take into consideration all the books I've read there would be a significant amount but never have I been able to read two novels in a day.So my hats off to you for managing it and I don't believe it makes you wierd,it makes you amazing (and me a little envious of your reading prowess) :)

Hi Lori, I'm already addicted and I just joined yesterday. I'm excited about this group. I look forward to many suggestions from all.

HEY BETH! I teach English too :)
7th grade here!

So what kind of books do read Meghann I mostly read anything with a cover and thats written in english!LOL

I read some chick lit, YA lit, mysteries, nonfiction, and series. I'm pretty much open to read any book though.

james patterson,harlen coben?

i've read james patterson, but not harlen coben.

i think he writes very thrilling very intense books only read a couple so far but very fast paced andgreat plt twwists!

Any suggestions on books i ont do chick lit but anything else is fair game,

Mole. we do a group read each month. In about a week I will post a thread asking for nominations, then a week later post a thread for votes. If you are interested in either of the books we are currently reading, its not too late to start them....

Though the discussions for this month's read are/can be still going on in the Book Discussions folder. This month we read The Bell Jar and The Witch of Portabello, though we are in no way limited to only discussing those, as the never-ending Blindness discussion proves.

Hey Mole-Here's some books I love that I recommend. In Cold Blood, I Love You, Beth Cooper, On The Road, I Know This Much is True, A Density of Souls, and Snow Garden. That's all I can think of right now. If you read any of them, let me know what you think.

A Density of Souls & Snow Garden...Anne Rice's son, Christopher, right? I think I have them both and I know I started Snow Garden but I couldn't have gotten very far in before I stopped reading. Does it get to the point??

It does get to the point. I also had a very hard time starting it, but it got to a point where I couldn't put it down. It's a little far fetched, but I really enjoyed it. He is Anne Rice's son.

I just had the opportunity to buy A Density of Souls at the trift store but put it back on the shelf,thinking that Anne Rice's son or not,he's pretty young and I didn't think I'd be able to sustain my interest.Was that a misconception?

Hmmm...I don't know. The main character is like 18 or something, but I really enjoyed it. Some of my friends really enjoy his books, and some don't. I really do though. I didn't answer your question at all, but it's hard for me to answer. Sorry! I wasn't really any help. I say get. I loved it.