Daily Archives: October 3, 2008

I called my mom the other day to tell her I saw the final Baxter book at the library. Amazon told me it wouldn’t be released until the end of October, so I was shocked and knew she would be excited. She burst my bubble by telling me she had already purchased and read it and, oh! was I going to love it. Unfortunately, as I stood in my bedroom next to these piles of books (representative of many, many more piles throughout my house), I told her I can’t buy any more books. Yup. I’m placing myself on a book-buying freeze. Hopefully this time I’ll still to it.

I know you can’t see all the titles in this picture (some of which I’ve already finished reading, some of which I’ve not yet opened). You can read reviews of some over at my Bookshelf, but for now I’ll just fill you in a bit of what’s helping me maintain an adult vocabulary. My reading habits break out into basic categories.

• PARENTING BOOKS: I mentioned one earlier this week, but there are several. I usually grab a chapter at a time from a handful of books until I finish them or find a more urgent need to address. Right now I’m focusing on the balance aspect of parenting: how to keep everything in perspective and parent with purpose, how to make my days with these kids extremely intentional rather that just a season of survival. This includes Chasing God and the Kids, Too! and The Mission of Motherhood.
• WRITING BOOKS: My favorite right now is On Writing Well by William Zinsser. It’s fantastic. Of course, I’ve also got a couple writers market guides and, if I ever find time to read it, I’ll grab that copy of Time to Write.
• BIBLE STUDY: Last spring I led a study of Esther; this year I’m leading our moms group through Ruth. Some of the resources pictured are fictionalized accounts of these Biblical characters like The Road Home, Ebony Moon and Unshaken. Others are nonfiction studies like books by Sandra Glahn and Chuck Swindoll. And then there are the books I’m reading just for my personal growth, like No Other Gods and Splash the Living Water. Oh, there’s just so much to read and not enough time to read it all!!
• NOVELS: When I’m overwhelmed by all I want to learn, I shut down with a novel. It’s so cozy. My favorite genre is historical fiction, but lately I’ll dive into anything with quality writing and interesting characters. Recently (like within the past six months) I’ve started to enjoy literary novels. Water for Elephants was my first. It was amazing! Right now I’m reading The White Mary. It’s definitely got my attention.