Sam Worden

I'm an English teacher with a simple philosophy: if you read lots of great book (or even pretty good books) you won't need me. So many of my students say they haven't read a book since middle school. I understand that completely. When I was in high school I barely ever really read anything the teacher assigned. But, I did read on my own. While I... more »

I'm an English teacher with a simple philosophy: if you read lots of great book (or even pretty good books) you won't need me. So many of my students say they haven't read a book since middle school. I understand that completely. When I was in high school I barely ever really read anything the teacher assigned. But, I did read on my own. While I was busy not quite meeting the minimum requirements set by my probably frustrated teachers, I was quietly reading books like Lord of the Rings, Dune, and Watership Down over and over again. I didn't read a lot of different books because I didn't trust the recommendations of others, particularly teachers, who were always trying to shove some kind of "literature" down my throat. My focus on this Shelfari page is to collect all of the books that I have read and enjoyed, with a particular emphasis on the ones that I loved, or would have loved in high school.

The stars I give a book will only refer to how much I enjoyed the book. I'm going to try to ignore its "literary" value. As a result, there may be some trashy books that have a higher rating than some classics. You can find literary reviews of classics with a quick Google search. I'm just trying to point out books that I couldn't put down.

If I can start to get some teenage followers, I hope to create a believable collection of awesome books. Kids who read lots of awesome books will become awesome readers. It's as simple as that. « less