And I Repeat - Too Many Books, Too Little Time

A friend's email was discussing some of her recent reading, including a couple cozy mysteries. So I looked at my list of the last couple months - and found only a few good true mysteries. I've been busy reading general fiction and romance. How could I let that happen? Oh, well, I have an audiobook mystery in the car - The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz. Actually, this is more humor than mystery and a lot of fun. It has a similar feel to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. I'll be sorry when it's done, but I see there's been a sequel written.

I also have Dana Stanebow's A Cold Day for Murder, the first in her series set in Alaska, to take with me to Arizona for a vacation weekend and Jeff Shelby's Killer Swell out from the library. So I guess I'll catch up my mystery reading.

Mt. Bookpile

One of my links over on the right is to The Reader's Place, a smaller website where a group of us chat about whatever we want that is book related. That is where I learned about Mt. Bookpile. I discovered it was the perfect name for all those unread books sitting in two or three boxes, a couple bags, and at least 3 bookshelves.

Mt. Bookpile tends to grow more than shrink. I'm always borrowing books from the local library as well so am not reading exclusively from my own stash. I have a policy of reading one library book, then a Mt. Bookpile book, switching between the two. But Mt. Bookpile doesn't shrink.

I receive books for review - so those have to go to the top of Mt. Bookpile. Otherwise, publishers wouldn't send them any more. I buy new books - today it was Todd and Anne McCaffrey's newest Pern novel, Dragon Harper. He was at the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore in San Diego, so he signed it and his other books that I own as well. That's another book for Mt. Bookpile (sorry, though, Mr. McCaffrey, it won't go directly to the top).

I'm forever popping into the library used bookstore - newer paperbacks for 50 cents and hardbacks for $3 are hard to resist. My daughter works for a library in the Los Angeles county library system, and I'll get books from her Friends of the Library book table. Then, when my (or her) library has a big book sale, I can be counted on to walk away with a huge pile.

But I do get things off - in the last few weeks I've read new reviews for Hot, Once Smitten Twice Shy, An Incomplete Revenge, and Christmas Around the World. But I've also taken Rosie Dunne, Red, Eat Cake, A Savage Place, White Lies, Divine Evil, and Beautiful Lies off Mt. Bookpile. Despite Christmas, I may have actually made Mt. Bookpile shrink a bit.

But next week I'll be going to the big flea market and rock show that gathers in Quartzsite, Arizona, in January and February every year. I'm sure I'll be shopping for books there, as well as kitchen gadgets. Something tells me those empty book case spots will get filled quickly.

How Do You Choose What to Read Next?

I was close to the end of The Path of Minor Planets by Andrew Sean Greer tonight when our electricity went out. So I turned off the lights that had been on and lit candles. Unfortunately, the candlelight doesn't illuminate the recliner area well, so both my roommate and I moved to the dining room table to finish our books.

Thank goodness for gas stoves. I had planned on heating up the left over bibimbap I had brought home from lunch yesterday in the microwave (our Friday lunches are often an adventure). Instead, I heated up some soup and added crackers and some Hershey kisses (don't we love balanced meals?). Then I finished the book.

The power was still out and it was too early to go to bed, so I took a candle in to examine Mt. Bookpile. I still have some of the mysteries from the Women of Mystery raffle this summer. I pulled out three different ones before I chose Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger. What was my criteria for choosing? It had to have a larger font to be easy to read in candlelight. That's not normally the reason I choose what I'm going to read next.

How do you choose what book you will next read?