Summer Reading Program 2013

This summer, I participated in my local library's Adult Summer Reading Program. It was lots of fun and right up my alley. I first discovered the library's summer reading program when I was seventeen - I did the teen one that year and it had an alphabet/express yourself at the library theme to it. I did almost all twenty-six items on it, neatly colored in each little picture of the book rather than just simply checking it off, and earned the two prizes plus the bonus third prize. I still wear my library shirt {it's actually one of my favorites}, and use the traveling mug and tote bag. The second year, when I was eighteen, I again did the teen one, having looked forward to it all year. Due to budget cuts and all that, the prizes weren't too hot but I still had a lot of fun. Still can't remember the theme though. *smiles* Last summer {2012}, I could've done the adult program, but instead I went to Rhode Island, got married and spent an enchanted summer there. *happy sigh*

Which brings us to this summer {2013}. The theme was Reading is Delicious and the posters they put up of cheerful fruits and vegetables are so colorful and lovely! The local kids made vegetable characters one day at the library which was so fun to watch! I was lured over to their section of the library via the smell of oddly yummy peanut butter. I don't much care for peanut butter right now, especially since I had way too much of it growing up.

Anyway, my husband got me the reading log for the adult program when he went one day by himself to pick up my holds for me and the head librarian recommended I do the program. She's a lovely nice lady. In it are twelve spaces to write in twelve titles of books, two each for each category. The categories are as follows:

Appetizers:  Children's Picture book, Poetry, Biography or Memoir, Classic.

Salads: "How-To" book, Book 1st Published in your birth decade, Thriller, or Science Fiction.

Soups: Humor, Any Fiction, Newberry Award Winner, or a book that takes place in a place you have never been.

Sandwiches: A book that has been made into a movie, a Teen, a Mystery, or a Coffee Table Book {oversize}.

Entrees: Historical Fiction, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Paranormal Romance, or a New York Times Bestseller.

Desserts: Your Choice, Any nonfiction item, a Book written by or about someone you admire, or a Book that you have been meaning to read.

I got about half of each quickly filled in and then had to work at the rest, but in order to keep you from getting confused, I'll just list the books I read in the order of their categories. For Appetizers {which actually took me a bit to fill in}, I read Selected Poetry by Emily Dickenson {filling the Poetry option}, and knocked two birds with one stone by reading *ahem* finishing reading The Princess Bride by William Goldman which I filed under Classic.


For Salads, which was the first and last to get filled in {respectively} and which caused a little bit of creative thinking to take place before an obvious solution dawned on me, I read The Christian Mama's Guide to Baby's First Year by Erin MacPherson for How-To {remind me to write up the review on it for ya}, and The Snake, The Crocodile and The Dog by Elizabeth Peters fit the genre of Thriller nicely, since it was quite thrilling. It also knocked that particular title off my personal to-read list for this year.

Then came Soups, which was fairly easy. I put down What to Expect When Your Wife is Expanding by Thomas Hill for Humor {my husband, for whom it was bought, still hasn't read it yet}, and Splitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh for Fiction - it was a review read and I still haven't done up the review yet. I'm so behind. *headdesk*

Sandwiches, a personal favorite food item, was both fun and rather disappointing in the books I read for it. Rapunzel Let Down by Regina Doman {Teen} has been on my to-read list for awhile now and it was quite an enjoyable read {review pending}, while Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James {Msytery} was just terribly written and sadly disappointing.

Entrees was very fun and easy to fill in. I read The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters for Historical Fiction {and then was a bit down when I figured out I could only use Historical Fiction once, but I recovered quickly}, and Going Postal by Terry Pratchett for New York Times Bestseller - it was a very interesting humorous story to read. I quite enjoyed it, though since I'd seen the movie, it was rather long and tedious.

And then Desserts was a breeze to get through. I put down A Most Peculiar Circumstance by Jen Turano for My Choice almost immediately {review pending}, and then my favorite book of all the twelve I read and which completed my work for the program was Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie {Meaning to Read}. It was a grand book, so well written and enticing. Plus, after a break from Christie, it was a wonderful renewal of the friendship I've found within her books and the familiar world she created within the pages.

I brought in my little reading log to the librarian on Aug 6th {a Tuesday, I love going to the library on Tuesdays}. While there, I picked up a load of books that had come in for me, visited with the head librarian, and got to enter my name twice {since I completed all twelve title spaces} in the drawing for the grand prize. Once I saw the prize, I wanted to win it so much. I had a chance though; two chances to be exact, but it wasn't my year to win. Ah well. Better luck next time, eh? *winks*