Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Backlog of books

Bookstores are like chocolate--they call to me. They all have that lovely papery scent, and those tall shelves covered in volumes seem to absorb the noises around me, which makes things quite peaceful. Libraries used to have the same appeal, but I have to give the books back to libraries when I'm done, which means that I don't get to fill shelves with those peace-making volumes at home. I can't leave a bookstore without buying a book, and much like chocolate, it's hard to limit myself to one.

I seem to read a variety of things, but I do fall into ruts. I'm in the middle of the Harry Potter, Robert Jordan, and George R. R. Martin series. I've made a pretty throrough sampling of Isabel Allende's work--mostly in Spanish, though the english versions seem to capture her style pretty closely. I enjoyed The Other Boelyn Girl and The Queen's Fool last fall, and now have the Wideacre trio on my shelf waiting for me, thanks to my sister-in-law. I also had picked up The Clan of the Cave Bear and The Valley of Horses, and have finally cracked those. I read those two books in high school, but with the new one out, I am going to attempt the entire series. I say "attempt" since at my current reading rate, Charlotte will probably be borrowing them before I'm finished. I do miss the days of finishing 2-3 books a month (the kind that are either 2-3+ inches thick, or written in another language...).

Of course, the books that I seem to read most often lately are brightly colored and printed on cardboard. Between Dr. Seuss and Sandra Boynton, it's a wonder I don't speak in rhymes. I can recite the entire text of "Moo, Baa, La La La", "But Not the Hippopotamus", and "The Birthday Monsters" from memory now--a handy skill when your toddler turns the pages too quickly. Charlotte seems to enojy books as much as I do, so maybe I should be buying stock in Amazon.com...

No comments: