Book Fifty

About Me:

I have been reading books for as long as I can remember, so the study of words and writing has always been a part of my life. In college I studied English Education at Auburn University, and I even spent a term studying British literature at Oxford. After graduating from Auburn in 2013, I spent two years teaching seventh grade ELA in Smiths Station, Alabama. In 2015 I moved back to my hometown for graduate school, and I started teaching 9th grade English while I worked on my master’s degree. In December of 2017 I graduated with a Master of Arts in Professional Writing, so now my spare time is spent working on my first novel. I love a good story more than anything–in books, TV shows, movies, in my classroom, and in my own writing. I hope you’ll join in and share your stories here!

About the 50 Book Goal: 

I am an avid reader, but during college I realized that my schedule had gotten so crazy that I was hardly reading any books for pleasure. I decided to set myself a goal of reading fifty books a year. I know there are other bloggers who read hundreds of books in a single year, but that isn’t attainable for me (or for most people!). Fifty seems to be the magic number. I can usually get in a good mix of old books, new books, and lots of different genres. There are some books that you’ll see on my list every single year. I count audiobooks, YAL, and poetry as long as I read the entire book.

About the Blog:

In July of 2015, I decided to start chronicling my journey from book one to book fifty–hence the name Book Fifty! We’ll ignore the fact that I didn’t actually start this blog until book twenty-seven that year. I started the blog with the main goal of keeping myself engaged in my reading, but I hope you’ll be encouraged to set your own reading goal! I would love to hear what you think of the books I review, and I’d love to hear about your own reading goals.

Caveat Lector:

I’m so honored that you’ve chosen to stop by and read my blog. Let me just say, however, that not every book I review is appropriate for every age or every audience. We live in a fallen world, which, sadly, means that our literature is a product of that fallen world. I do believe we can find value in most of the books and stories we read, but it’s ultimately up to the reader to set his or her own boundaries. For this reason, you won’t find language or content warnings on many of my reviews, even if the books I’m reviewing contain those elements. I only read a book if I think there’s something to learn from it, but that doesn’t mean that every book I read will be a good fit for you!

Keep Reading!