So Many Books...

I'm in one of those mental places where there are so many books that I want to read right now that I'm having a hard time settling on what to read next.

Two bookrings* arrived on the same day. I did finish one of the bookring books, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (which I liked, it was sweet and kind of had a slight Jane Austen-y feel to it, though a bit more modern) and I should be reading the other one, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, but it didn't grab me in the first few pages, so I put it down.**

I brought home Autobiography of an Execution by David Dow, which caught my eye at work. but I looked at it and decided that I did not want to read it now. I do want to read it, it looks interesting and well-written, AND...it's musings of a death row lawyer. Which I'm thinking should be read when the timing is right.

Brunonia Barry's new book, The Map of True Places, sits on the table beckoning, as does Anna Quindlen's new one, Every Last One. PLUS, somebody just offered to send me the second in the Maisie Dobbs series, Birds of a Feather***, AND we will be receiving Making Rounds with Oscar by David Dosa which will need to be reviewed for librarything. AAAUUUgghhh!

One of my co-workers recommended A. Lee Martinez as an author similar to Christopher Moore (one of my faves), and Martinez has a new one out (so does Christopher Moore, for that matter), called Divine Misfortune. I brought Divine Misfortune home last night and started that.

Far too many books. As my girl Therapist said, there is not enough time to read all the books I want to before I die. There just isn't. It used to feel as though there was enough time, when I was younger and it seemed as though dying or even getting old were incomprehensibly far away. As I creep ever older, and there are more and more books being published, I feel overwhelmed by how many books there are and how little time I really have (not that my death is impending, as far as I know, I just ain't getting any younger.) And I don't want to waste the time I have reading something not enjoyable.


*bookrings from bookcrossing.com - someone offers a book and if people want to read it, they sign up and one person reads it and sends it on to the next. wonderful system.

**The thing about bookrings is that it takes time for the books to arrive inn my mailbox. I signed up for these rings months ago, as both of those books have been on my radar as ones I wanted to read. It's just that when they show up in my mailbox may not be when I'm exactly feeling like reading them. But they are here now. And I have to pass them along. And I should read them first.

***Another wonderful bookcrossing activity, RABCK, Random Acts of BookCrossing Kindness, a bookcrosser will see a book on someone's wishlist and send it to them, either out of the blue or contacting them first. dee-lightful!