Life of Bry

The Beginning

It started when my mom taught me to read at just three years old, then it became an addiction. My mom would raid yard sales and Goodwills to buy as many cheap books as she could that she thought I would enjoy. I had stacks upon stacks that I would tear through, especially during the summer months.

And that passion grew with me as I got older.

In middle school, I was on a reading team. Yeah, that’s right, a reading team. It was a competition where a group of about 8 to 10 kids split up reading a list of around 50 books over the course of half the school year. Then, these bands of nerds would gather once in the fall and again in the spring, sit in a circle on the floor and answer questions about the books they read.

I loved it. It exposed me to new books I’d never pick up on my own (looking at you Little House on the Prairie), and I made some great friends along the way. It also combined two of my favorite things — reading and competition. Believe it or not, there was always drama when it came down to the awards.

While I don’t read nearly as much now that I’m an adult with many busy adult things to do, I still adore a good book —  and that got me thinking, would these bargain bin buys and library treasures still hold up to my 22-year-old standards?

Throughout this series, Book 👏🏼 Review 👏🏼, I’ll be rereading the books from my childhood that are both my favorite and least favorite.

Each book will be separated into two posts — a live-blog and a final analysis. Each day that I’m able to read the book, I will give my quick thoughts on what I read for the day and highlight my favorite quotes and passages. Once I finish reading, I’ll post a final review where I take the time to analyze the book and determine whether or not it holds up — or if my opinion has changed over the years.

Will To Kill a Mockingbird capture my heart the same way it did when I read it for the first, and only, time when I was 16? Is Fahrenheit 451 still overhyped? How is A Series of Unfortunate Events a children’s series? Does The Phantom Tollbooth make sense yet, and is Twilight really that bad?

I guess we’ll find out.