My Reading Habits . . .

My favorite hobby is to reading and collecting books. I enjoy searching used book stores looking for books I've never read or better copies of my favorite books, especially ones with unique bindings and covers. I read classics, mysteries, biographies, children's books, history, science, Bible study resources, and many others topics as well.

My husband and I have traveled over a good part of the U.S. shopping at used books stores for books. He is not a reader, but he loves to let me shop while he works on his computer. Often, I would come home with a trunkful!

At one time, I had a library of over 6,000 books in my home! Many of these were children's books on history, science, math, and literature. I opened my library up to local home school moms and organized it by subject area (no Dewey Decimal system here!) and allowed them to check out books for their home schools. I had student helpers who helped me to maintain the system. What fun that was! However, over time, I had to end this library so I gave away and sold off most of the books. (I recently had to pier one end of my house - I wonder if the books had anything to do with it!)

I currently have about 2,000 books and growing. Sigh! What can I say? I'm a bookaholic! Once in a while, I sell one or two, but it's so hard!

I am usually reading three or four books at a time, as well as magazines in all the bathrooms! When I'm tired and just want to be entertained, I pick up a mystery or light fiction. When I want to immerce myself in a story, I pick up a classic or a fiction book that requires more “thinking.” When I write, I usually have several reference books out as well as piles of nonfiction books related to my topic. I love to read about new topics and expand my knowledge on old ones.

Here are some books I am currently reading and some of my all time favorites. If you have a favorite book you'd like to recommend, I'd enjoy hearing from you!

What I'm Reading Now . . .

NonFiction

Telling True Stories by Mark Kramer and Wendy Call. I'm taking News Writing and Reporting and Advertising in college this semester so I thought I'd do some reading in the subject area. This one is a collection of advice from over 50 of the most prominent journalists and nonfiction authors in this country.

The Art of Writing Advertising by Denis Higgins. This is a collection of interviews with some of the “giants” of the advertising world.

The Canon of Scripture by F. F. Bruce. One of the things I didn't teach my own kids was how to defend their faith. Where did the Bible come from? Why do we believe it to be true? My daughter came home from college telling me that her professor said that the Epic of Gilgamesh was older than the flood story; therefore, the Bible actually copied from Gilgamesh story. The sad thing was - I didn't know how to answer her until I did some research online. I decide from this incident that my Bible education was lacking, so this is part 1 to help me learn more about Bible history.

Some of My Favorite Books . . .

The Fisherman's Lady by George MacDonald. I love most of the George MacDonald books. My favorites are The Shepherd's Castle, The Marquis Secret, and The Baronet's Song. All of these are set in Scotland and contains some scottish dialect, making them a little bit difficult to read. (The revised versions by Michael Phillips are much easier to read and contain the exact same story line.) But they are well worth the effort! Each one contains a mystery, some romance, and wonderful characters!

If you enjoy MacDonald, you'll love Michael Phillips. He is the author who revised MacDonald's books and then proceeded to write many books of his own. He learned his craft well! I highly recommend the Stonewycke Trilogy and the Secret of the Rose series. There are many others, but these are my favorites.