Top Books of 2016… and Dexter’s picks, too!

You: “We get it, Jamie. You really like books and reading. You are weirdly dedicated to the library and are super happy that Dexter loves books, too, and you talk about it all the damn time. WE GET IT.”

Me: “BUT HAVE YOU SEEN A WHOLE BUNCH OF PHOTOS OF DEXTER READING BOOKS, ALL GATHERED IN ONE ADORABLE COLLAGE HERE ON THE INTERNET?”

You: “[sigh] No. Fine. Show us.”

Me: “If you insist!”

You: “Don’t push it.”

Dexter reading photos are at the end, but first, my top books of 2016.

Another relatively light reading year for me, but there are some treasures. Maybe next year I’ll get to read more. I hear you get LESS busy with two children, right? RIGHT?

Seriously, though, reading is a big part of my life and one of my 2017 resolutions is to put some effort into it. It’s always come easy because I’ve always had lots of time for books, so if I read a few duds, who cares? There were 3-4 good books for every bad one. Now that that has been untrue for two years in a row, I’m putting some effort into research to make sure my precious reading time is of higher quality. Man, this is some privileged person problems, here. Also note that the links below are affiliate, so if you click and buy a book, I’ll get a few pennies (literally) to put toward my hosting.

Here are previous lists, and here are the 2016 picks:

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Dexter is president of the Teletubbies fan club

I could count on one hand, the number of episodes of Teletubbies Dexter has seen, and of those limited viewings, he saw most of them when we were stuck in the hotel, nearly four months ago. But he remembers them. He points out Teletubbies in stores and magazines. The theme song gets stuck in my head and I catch myself singing it daily, so that probably helps reinforce the power of the Teletubbies.

The other day, we were in the library. I was browsing books in an adult section – honestly, I was keeping Dex away from the children’s part because I was trying to be relatively quick. Didn’t want to take him out of his stroller, then deal with putting him back in. 

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Top Books of the Year(s, Archived)

Last week, I did something I haven’t done in a long time. I visited a library in person, and slowly browsed the shelves, choosing books to read simply because they looked interesting.

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The library system in Orange County has things on lock. I could order books from any branch and have them delivered to my house, for free. The only time I had to go near an actual library was to return them and I’d drop then in a machine outside. Don’t get me wrong – I love libraries, and love visiting. But I was a mom and a wife working full time and playing a sport and there’s only so much time in the day, so I was a slave to my Goodreads To Read list and the Orange County library website. And it was a great system, one of the non-person things I knew I’d miss the most about Orlando.

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