My Growing Reading List

I read an average of ten books a month, and yet my reading list keeps getting longer rather than shorter. In fact, it seems to multiply faster than rabbits do.

The problem is simple: I’m addicted to reading. One year Roland got me a sweatshirt that says, “Lead me not into temptation . . . especially bookstores.” When I see a book that sounds interesting, I have to get it, or to at least put it on the list for later. But if it’s available for Kindle at a decent price, I will probably buy it right away so that I have it handy when I’ve read the books ahead of it on the list.

So where do those titles come from? I’ll start with the books in the stack at the top of this post. Nellie vs. Elizabeth: Two Daredevil Journalists Breakneck Race Around the World  is a children’s book based on Nellie Bly’s 1889 race around the world to see if she could match the trip in Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days. (She did.) I came across the book when I was looking through the entries for a SCBWI award that I, as a member, will be voting on in several weeks. Looking through lists of children’s award-winners is one way I discover books to add to my list.

The Vanderbeekers to the Rescue is the second in a series of children’s books about a present-day family (the series is similar to The Penderwicks or, for those of you who are old enough to remember them, The Five Little Peppers). I bought this one from a school book fair because I wanted to support my daughter’s school, and I had read the first one in the series and enjoyed it.

Letters to My Love is by one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Cadell. As a writer, she is not Charles Dickens or Emily Bronte, but her books entertain me when I want a break from heavier reading. This book is on my list because every time I go on the internet to buy another Cadell novel, I find several that sound interesting. So I pick one for my immediate enjoyment and add one or two others to my reading list.

Then there are the books mentioned by friends with similar reading tastes. I read Christy by Catherine Marshall many years ago, but when a friend mentioned it the other day, I knew I’d like to read it again.

Two other ways I find reading material are worth mentioning. I get a daily email from BookBub that highlights Kindle books on sale for $2.99 or less. I do find some of my books that way, but, unfortunately for me, I already have most of the good ones.

I’m also a member of Amazon’s First Reads, which lets me pick a free book each month from new releases by its affiliated publisher. Unfortunately, the selection isn’t the best. Sometimes I do get a good book, but at other times I can’t find anything that interests me or, worse, I start reading one and put it down when I realize it isn’t right for me.

All of this is to illustrate that there are many ways to find good books to read, and there is no shame in having a book list that multiplies faster than rabbits do.

Because we can never have too much to read.