About a month ago, our book of the month was Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis. This book started a bit of a debate amongst our members as it was quite possibly one of the most boring books I have had to read since I graduated high school! Granted, my review of Babbitt is not valid because I never got past chapter two: Babbitt has breakfast with his family. A question was posted on our group Facebook: if you don't like the book that mOnth, do you give it up or do you suck it up and finish it. I think you can guess what option I chose.

And here is why: at that time I had about 60 research papers to grade. Research papers written by 12 year olds. I had 70 graphic organizers and 70 quizzes. My stack of grading that weekend was literally over six inches tall. That was a month ago and those assignments have been graded, returned, and forgotten about. One month later and I have about 60 project reports, 35 quizzes, and maybe 15 projects that have been collecting dust, just waiting for me tO grade them and hang them on a giant refrigerator somewhere. The solution seems simple: quit assigning so much work, make them watch movies and do word searches. If only good teaching were that easy!

So my point is, with all the words I have to read in a given day, I reserve the right to be picky. I don't get to choose not to read for work or school, which means I get to choose what I read for fun. If a book is not interesting to me, I have no problem putting it down and never picking it up again. Life is just too short to read boring books!