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. He enjoys reading from his Kindle while I shop for real books in the store. 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, I eventually had to end this lending library service, so I gave away or sold 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 keep track of my books on Bento, which I can use on my laptop and iPhone. This has saved me buying more than one copy many times!

I'm usually reading three or four books at a time, as well as magazines. When I'm tired or 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.

What I'm Reading Now . . .

NonFiction

I love to read how-to books. Check out a list of writing books that I'm reading. I also like to read history, science, biographies, technology books and a variety of other nonfiction subjects.

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.

I'm also a big fan of Victorian novels and mysteries such as books by Jane Austen and Anne Perry. Historical fiction is another genre I enjoy. One of my favorites is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.