books i have read.

Reading is probably my greatest passion. my mom also loves to read and up until her retirement she was a children's librarian, so books were always around. i got my first library card when i was barely old enough to print my name, as evidenced above. (yes this means i still carry it around, to this very day. never mind that i don't live in that state anymore, or that the bar code is so worn out it doesn't even scan.) i remember going to the bookstore when i was younger and my mom giving me a pad of paper and pencil, and telling me to write down the names of the books i liked so we can get them at the library later. obviously, the librarian wasn't going to BUY books! to this day, buying books is not a habit of mine. i usually only buy a book after i have read it once or twice, and love it enough to know that i want to have it at my disposal to read whenever i want. Usually comfort books i can find at the thrift store.

*tangent- regarding buying vs. borrowing books, Richard Foster speaks to the idea of owning vs. appreciating in his book Freedom of Simplicity. for someone who has spent my life in American consumer culture, it was a breath of fresh air to hear someone say you don't need to own something in order to appreciate it. (Ironically, his book is one i did purchase.)

all that to say, books have always been a huge part of my life. i rarely went anywhere without one, and one of my mom's more successful punishment tactics was to confiscate them. my best friend and i were cut from the same cloth, so "playing together" often meant lounging in the same room, quietly reading Archie comics or Babysitters Club books. i think my mom was a little worried about a potential lack of socialization, but hey, we were happy. and look at how normal we are now!

for a while, i've thought about keeping a list of all the books i've read. i go through them quickly and sometimes forget the titles. but i never started, because what about all the books i've read in the last 20+ years? surely i can't remember them all. recently i decided to see just how many i could come up with. i looked at my bookshelves at home, checked college texts, high school required reading, list of fines on my online library account, anywhere there was a record of what i have read. and while it's obviously not comprehensive and totally out of order, it's a pretty good start. i elected to omit some of the embarrassing titles (anything by Mary Higgins Clark and John Eldridge, for example). it's right here and over there on the side bar, under Miscellany. i'll continue to update it with new titles at the top of the list, including the last two i read, A Visit from the Goon Squad and Happy Accidents.

i'm always looking for new titles, so if you have suggestions, do let me know. (i'm most excited for State of Wonder and The Marriage Plot, but i'm #512 and 523 on their library waiting lists, so it'll be a while yet. i guess there is a downside after all...)