Book Four/Week Four

I finished my fourth book of the year today, Bookmarked to Die by Jo Dereske, with two extra days left in the fourth week - yah me! It was a fun read. I'm glad the author picked up the series again after a hiatus. I went to her website to see why she finished the series a few years ago and/or why she decided to start it up again, but found no explanation. I did discover she writes another series though - A Ruby Crane Mystery series, which I might look out for when I'm at the used book store, and she writes children's books.

So far I've read three books from my Books To Read This Year list, and one random selection. I don't have a clue what I'll read next. Last year I went through a stage where each time I finished a book I got all anxious and frozen in indecision as to what to read next. I know, sounds silly doesn't it. It probably didn't have much to do with reading. It probably was just free floating anxiety being channeled into making book selecting decisions into a BIG DEAL.

It could have been in teensy part though because I now have such a huge backlog of books I really care about reading. A long time ago, when I first got back into serious fiction reading (I mean, reading a lot of fiction, regularly, reading seriously. I don't mean reading only serious novels. I happen to read quite a bit of humorous fiction as well) I never had more then a book or two waiting to be my next read. (have you noticed how annoying it is in print that read and read, present and past tense, are spelled the same and not obviously one or the other until you've moved past it in a sentence!?) Then I started to take note of what other folks were reading. I joined an online book group and got dozens, nay, hundreds of new suggestions. And now, through much diligent book store visiting, treasure hunting in used book stores, online bookstores, and the liberal use of a credit card, I've managed to build a substantial library of books waiting for their turn to be cracked open. So it's not just a matter of "should I read this book or that book?" anymore. It's more like having a stack of resumes on my desk a foot thick and having to choose only one person when all the applicants have already been narrowed down to all meet the requirements for the job.

Before I can even pick the book, first I have to narrow down the genre. Do I want another murder mystery? Something spooky and supernatural? Maybe a classic or an "Oprah" type book? Urban fantasy? A long remembered children's book? At least I'm excited about choosing instead of being all a-tizzy about it. I'll let you know what I decide.