What we read...

So, recently I posted lots of photos about my bookshelf and the piles of books slung throughout the house. In the comments, Miri pointed out that our tastes don't overlap too much and that got me thinking about the books in the pictures.

After a quick perusal I realized that the books you can really see the titles of in my pics aren't really my tastes either. I know that sounds strange, so let me explain... lots of the books piled on the table are books I bought for research. Some are on the same topic as various WIPs and I wanted to see how other authors approached the same subject. Other books are just really popular books that I wanted to read to understand their popularity. Still others are in the genres that I'm interested in (most specifically I've been reading a lot of YA - you can see the bottom of An Abundance of Katherines on the floor by my bed).

Then there's the Terry Brooks book that I purchased because I was having problems writing a group of people and so The Boy suggested that I read books that deal with multiple interacting characters (kind of the standard fantasy group of people go on a voyage type). I was in the middle of reading Foul Matter and the recent Romance Writers Report which is why they're also on the floor by my bed (Foul Matter was recomended by Kristin Nelson on her blog). Oh, and the Neil Gaimon Sandman series in the suitcase - that belongs to The Boy but I think it might be on my TBR pile now :) Peeps is on The Boy's bedside table cause I think he'll like it since he was really into parasitology in college.

Once upon a time I was pretty much a strict romance reader. At the bookstore, I'd head straight to that section without passing go. I knew what I liked: which authors, which sub-genre, eventually which publishers. There were times I wanted to stray to another genre, but I didn't know how to sift through all of the books to find one I'd like. Now, reading for me is such a mixed bag. These days I tend to head towards the YA section if I go to a bookstore, then I hunt for books recently published by writers I know. Rarely do I find myself in the romance section anymore (to be fair, rarely do I even find myself in a bookstore either these days - I'm an Amazon Prime girl now).

Recently I seem to be in a reading funk. I don't know what I'm in the mood for and nothing in the various stacks in my house speak to me. I just want another Uglies trilogy that makes me really think. I want another Vanish that keeps me up at night. Another The Rest Falls Away that I can't put down or another Hattie Big Sky that was totally unexpected but wonderful. Some books that I know I want are still not published, some won't even be published for too long to wait. What I really want is something like Life as We Knew It or World War Z.

What I really need to do is sit down and finish writing the book that I really want to read. I need to remember that that's why I started writing this book in the first place.