Reading Profile

I ended 2023 with reading 89 books, which is less than the previous years but I am still proud of myself. In August of 2023, I went back to school full-time and in October, I started working full-time too. I ambitiously set my goal for 100 books in 2024, so we'll see how that goes. 

My reading year was a bit unusual from what it would normally be because I was a Collection Services Assistant from May through September-ish. For this role, I had to read young adult books and determine whether they were compliant with our collection development policy, but it has since changed and things are going back to the way they were. It was quite a task and mentally exhausting because most of the books I read violated the policy in one way or another. Because of this role, I read more young adult novels than I normally would in a year and it ended up being my top genre. My other top genres were contemporary, fantasy, middle-grade, and graphic novels according to StoryGraph. I knew I would be reading way more than usual, so I started posting more reviews to my Instagram page. I wish I had read Joyce Sarick's piece from Booklist about The Rule of Three because I feel like that would have made writing short reviews much easier. Using the rule of three to determine whether or not a book is a good fit for a patron is an easy way to remember more about what we are reading. Saricks states "One of the greatest challenges readers' advisors face is how to remember enough about a  book to share it with readers days, months, and even years after we've read it. Appeal helps us do that...try using the rule of three as a way to focus your thoughts about a book" (2009, p.25). If I had been able to do that when I was doing a lot of reader advisory work in youth services, I feel like I could have helped pick better books for patrons. I love her suggestion of creating special tags on whatever database we use to keep track of our reading - that is something I plan to implement. 

When I'm looking for an adult read, I'll usually pick up a thriller or a quick romance. I may not read a lot of adult books, but I am on BookTok so that is my secret to keeping up with what is being published and read (hello Fourth Wing!). After working in youth services for two years, I have mostly been reading children's books. This class will be a good challenge for me to read adult books and become more familiar with genres now that I am working in public services. I previously worked in youth services for about two years. 

Feel free to add me on Goodreads or StoryGraph - I use both. If you'd like to keep up with me on Instagram and see more reviews, you can follow me @bookishmalpal 😁

My Top 6 Books I Read In 2023 

• Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder (young adult)
• The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza by Mac Barnett (middle-grade graphic novel)
• Finally Seen by Kelly Yang (middle-grade)

• The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera (middle-grade)
• Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley (young adult)
• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (new adult)

Favorite Series 

• The First Cat in Space (middle-grade graphic novel)
• Catstronauts (middle-grade graphic novel)
• The Empyrean (new adult)
• Witches of Brooklyn (middle-grade graphic novel)

Favorite Authors 

• Ali Hazelwood (adult author - she typically writes STEM romance but she has a paranormal romance coming out 2/6/24)
• Tessa Bailey (adult author - I specifically LOVE her TikToks! She's hilarious!)
• Kelly Yang (children's author - I love her Instagram page and she's lovely!)
• Mac Barnett (children's author)
• Drew Brockington (children's author)