I usually wait until mid to late January before posting my reading plans or goals. Mainly because I'm very optimistic about my superhuman capabilities during the start of a new year but much of that enthusiasm fades over the next couple of weeks. I tend to believe I can read more than ever but reality is usually closer to how much I averaged in previous years. So, to allow myself the opportunity to dream big and then plan well, I take the ambitious goals for a road test during the first couple of weeks of the year. If they still look achievable, great! If not, I will part ways with those that are a stretch. The numbers I have an arbitrary number set in Goodreads for this year but it's not a number I will quote as I tend to change it often and it is intended to factor in the many picture books I read with my kids. But that said, there are three numbers I would like to improve this year (last year's stats in parentheses) - total number of pages read (approx. 11k), average n
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When I opened the book for the first time, a few days later, it turned out to a very different kind of graphic book from what I had grown accustomed to. This one doesn't have the panels that populate most comic books. Mostly, it has a lot of free uncluttered and very clean drawing. It was almost like calligraphy but in pictures. In addition to being a very beautiful book, there was some prose straddling the pictures. Tina's Mouth is basically Tina's diary. One of her professors gives her class several projects to do - Tina's was to write a diary to discover more about herself. Her diary was a search for answers to questions such as "Who am I?", "What am I?" and many other such questions of an existential nature. Pretty deep for a high school student. In fact, Tina does appear to be a very philosophical person, whether as a result of writing this diary or by nature, I don't know, though she says that she never cared for such questions until she started writing the diary.
Tina's life has been going pretty good, what with an inseparable best friend and no worries. But then a little over a year ago, things start to change. After her parents split, her best friend began to get interested in boys and sexy clothes. She abandoned Tina, saying she was too childish. Tina's more-than-friendly-interest in a boy was also turning out to be an opportunity for her, though by the end of the year, she learns a great deal about boys as well.

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