Reading, Always Reading.

As anyone who has lost a parent is aware, there isn't a day that goes by that you don't think of the parent that is gone. At least I assume that is the case. You might not have been close to the parent who is now gone but you are still going to think about them. I was very close to my dad, you might have guessed that. There isn't a day that goes by when I don't go through this particular thought process....

Oh man, this is a cool book or website or article or piece of information! I need to tell Dad about.....nope, not going to be able to do that.

I am a voracious reader with what can only be described as a wide ranging interest in things. Currently I am reading The Work of the Dead. HHBL gets worried occasionally when he sees that I am reading something like The Poisoner's Handbook. I don't understand why....although I could now kill him with dry ice if the need ever arose. Don't worry honey! You have NOTHING to fear.......

There has never been a time in my life when I can remember not having a book near to hand.  Even as a young child I would rather have had a book than a doll. On vacation I would rather have stayed in the car than get out and see the sights. In fact, I think the parental units very occasionally indulged that...but only very occasionally.

I KNOW! What is wrong with me. Yes, please, I would rather have that Nancy Drew book than anything in the world. No, I don't need another doll, I need that copy of Greek Mythology by Edith Hamilton. Cape Cod, Schmape Cod, I have to finish this chapter. If I had spare change I went and bought a book. If we visited people's homes I was looking for something to read, perusing other people's book shelves to get a sense of the reading life of the home. Heck, I STILL do this on occasion. People without books should be looked at with greater scrutiny is my thinking.

A crisis was, and is, if there isn't anything to read in the bathroom! Horror!! I have been known to resort to reading the backs of the cans of spray air freshener.

Sorry, I have to be real here. When there is nothing in the bathroom that hasn't already been read multiple times, you resort to what you can reach under the sink. That's life.

I come by my love of reading both because my parents encouraged it and because I believe that there is some kind of genetic marker that makes some people voracious readers. My grandparents on both sides were readers. There were a lot of books hanging around at their houses. We often went to Grandma and Grandpa Pringle's house for Sunday dinner and I would spend every moment going through, AGAIN, the National Geographic book on Tutankhamun. It was my favorite book and I was so sad when it went somewhere else other than in my hands when the Grandparental units cleaned out their home. But never fear, after searching and searching I found a copy at Half Price Books. I might have scared several patrons when I saw the book on a bottom shelf, stood in tense anticipation for a moment, slid it off of the shelf, opened it up and then leaped around in joy saying, "It IS the book. It IS the book!"

No one can ever claim I don't take my reading material seriously.

I feel that I am rambling here. There was a topic, I know there was. Reading!

SO, last year I read 68 books. I am too lazy to link all of these so you are just going to have to cut and past into Amazon.

The Romanov Sister by Helen Rappaport

Leningrad: siege and Symphony by Brian Moynahan

A Sword of Storms by George R.R. Martin

Break On Through by Christie Ridgway

An Unschooling Manifesto by Marla Taviano

Life From Scratch by Melissa Ford

War Photography by Thomas Barfield

Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves

As Always, Julia by Joan Reardon

Coupon Crazy by Mary Potter Kenyon

A Killing Wind by Dan Kurzman

Cove Days by John Jagger

The Last Run by Todd Lewan

Emergency Sex: True Stories From a War Zone by Kenneth Cain

Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter Edmonds

17 Carnations by Andrew Morton

The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum

Dead Wake by Erik Larson

A Feast of Crows by George R.R. Martin

The Conversation: A Revolutionary Plan for End of Life by Angelo Volandes

Longing by Mary Balogh

Beneath the Surface by John Hargrove

The House on Garibaldi Street by Isser Harel

The Arrangement by Mary Balogh

The Escape by Mary Balogh

Only Enchanting by Mary Balogh

The Martian by Andy Weir

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

Something About You by Julie James

A Lot Like Love by Julie James

About That Night by Julie James

Palm Trees on the Hudson by Elliot Tiber

Only a Promise by Mary Balogh

The Wright Brothers by Davide McCullough

Love Irresistibly by Julie James

It Happened One Wedding by Julie James

Touch Me by Christie Ridgway

Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman

In a Far Country by John Talifierro

Rurally Screwed by Jessie Knadler

Suddenly One Summer by Julie James

The Map Thief by Michael Blanding

My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor

The Finest Hours by Michael Tougias

Mess by Barry Yourgrau

Many A Summer by Scott Hardiman

Ture Love by Jude Deveraux

Brown Eyed Girl by Lisa Kleypas

For All Time by Jude Deveraux

Ever After by Jude Deveraux

Perfect Touch by Elizabeth Lowell

The Bourbon Kings by J.R.Ward

Children of Monsters by Jay Nordlinger

Trace of Fever by Lori Foster

Being Mortal by Atul Gwande

Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs

Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs

The Undertaker's Daughter by Kate Mayfield

The Storm by Marla Taviano

Cold Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas

The Queen of New Beginnings by Erica James

The Shift by Theresa Brown

The Pacific by Hugh Ambrose

The Lost Girls by John Glatt

Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy by Kate Clifford Larson

The Bridegroom Wore Plaid by Grace Burrowes 

Once Upon a Tartan by Grace Burrowes

As usual, a mixture of fiction and non-fiction with a share of romance thrown in. You never know what I might read. And because I am such a nerd, I have an Excel spreadsheet that lists all the books that I have read: Last name, First name, Title, Classification, Content, Finised date, # of pages, where I obtained it and the year it was published.

I am NOT strange! I am just thorough in my wanting to keep track of things.

Plus I might keep a list of the audiobooks I listen to, the movies I watch and the books I would like to read. There is nothing, absolutely NOTHING wrong with that.

PFFFFFFFT!

This year I am shooting for 85 books. We will see if I make it.